I’m on the road this week, calling in from Houston, Texas. I won’t try to hide my dislike of Houston – it seems to have taken all our bad ideas and run them out to ridiculous extremes. Strip malls and overpriced prefab houses, everything drenched in lawn chemicals. Freeways and tollways, everyone hurtling toward the millennium, one each to a car.
By the stroke of an inverse relationship, Greenpeace is in Houston, one of the nation’s most manipulated environments, to protest on behalf of the Headwaters Forest in Northern California, one of the nation’s rare pristine environments. The Headwaters Forest is among the few remaining stands of old-growth redwood left in the U.S. It is owned by Maxxam Corporation of Houston, which is headed by corporate raider Charles Hurwitz. Since I’m speaking to you from Houston, a city I dislike, I’m going to continue with the theme of things I don’t like and throw a bunch of numbers at you. I usually refrain from this because I don’t think it’s fair, particularly in the audio format, but in this case, going by the numbers seems to be the best way to tell the story.
In 1985, Charles Hurwitz and Maxxam bought 190,000 acres, including the Headwaters Forest, for 900 million dollars. That comes out to about 5,000 an acre. Of the 900 million Hurwitz paid, 700 million was from junk bonds. To pay off his junk bond debt, Hurwitz tripled the rate of logging in the old-growth forest. Environmental groups, most notably grass-roots groups from Northern California, began fighting Hurwitz immediately and continue fighting to this day. The recently-deceased Judi Bari spent the last years of her life fighting to save the redwoods of Northern California. Because of the efforts of Judi and people like her at the grass roots level, the struggle to save Headwaters gained national attention and the dubious involvement of the federal government. The feds and the state of California have gotten together and offered to buy Headwaters Forest from Charles Hurwitz. Now remember, Hurwitz bought 190,000 acres and paid 900 million dollars, or 5,000 dollars and acre.
The government is proposing to buy 7,300 acres and pay 380 million dollars for them. That comes out to 52,000 dollars an acre. The folks in Northern California say we need at least 60,000 acres to keep the Headwaters ecosystem intact, so the 7,300 acre deal just won’t cut it. Now, if we gave Hurwitz 380 million dollars for 60,000 acres, he gets a profit of 1,300 dollars per acre and 78 million dollars overall. Under the government’s plan, Hurwitz gets 380 million dollars for 7,300 acres, which is a profit of 47,000 dollars per acre and 341 million dollars over all. Of 380 million dollars, 341 million dollars profit.
This deal has the tacit approval of the both the Democratic administration and the Republican Congress. The same people who are throwing poor people off welfare and who cannot provide adequate health care for the citizens of this country are willing to give 341 million dollars in profit – via public funds – to a corporate blackmailer who has already bankrupted a savings and loan and ripped off his own employees’ pension fund.
I understand sometimes you have to deal with the devil. I’m just saying it shouldn’t be a bad deal.
The Numbers Game
I’m on the road this week, calling in from Houston, Texas. I won’t try to hide my dislike of Houston – it seems to have taken all our bad ideas and run them out to ridiculous extremes. Strip malls and overpriced prefab houses, everything drenched in lawn chemicals. Freeways and tollways, everyone hurtling toward the millennium, one each to a car.
By the stroke of an inverse relationship, Greenpeace is in Houston, one of the nation’s most manipulated environments, to protest on behalf of the Headwaters Forest in Northern California, one of the nation’s rare pristine environments. The Headwaters Forest is among the few remaining stands of old-growth redwood left in the U.S. It is owned by Maxxam Corporation of Houston, which is headed by corporate raider Charles Hurwitz. Since I’m speaking to you from Houston, a city I dislike, I’m going to continue with the theme of things I don’t like and throw a bunch of numbers at you. I usually refrain from this because I don’t think it’s fair, particularly in the audio format, but in this case, going by the numbers seems to be the best way to tell the story.
In 1985, Charles Hurwitz and Maxxam bought 190,000 acres, including the Headwaters Forest, for 900 million dollars. That comes out to about 5,000 an acre. Of the 900 million Hurwitz paid, 700 million was from junk bonds. To pay off his junk bond debt, Hurwitz tripled the rate of logging in the old-growth forest. Environmental groups, most notably grass-roots groups from Northern California, began fighting Hurwitz immediately and continue fighting to this day. The recently-deceased Judi Bari spent the last years of her life fighting to save the redwoods of Northern California. Because of the efforts of Judi and people like her at the grass roots level, the struggle to save Headwaters gained national attention and the dubious involvement of the federal government. The feds and the state of California have gotten together and offered to buy Headwaters Forest from Charles Hurwitz. Now remember, Hurwitz bought 190,000 acres and paid 900 million dollars, or 5,000 dollars and acre.
The government is proposing to buy 7,300 acres and pay 380 million dollars for them. That comes out to 52,000 dollars an acre. The folks in Northern California say we need at least 60,000 acres to keep the Headwaters ecosystem intact, so the 7,300 acre deal just won’t cut it. Now, if we gave Hurwitz 380 million dollars for 60,000 acres, he gets a profit of 1,300 dollars per acre and 78 million dollars overall. Under the government’s plan, Hurwitz gets 380 million dollars for 7,300 acres, which is a profit of 47,000 dollars per acre and 341 million dollars over all. Of 380 million dollars, 341 million dollars profit.
This deal has the tacit approval of the both the Democratic administration and the Republican Congress. The same people who are throwing poor people off welfare and who cannot provide adequate health care for the citizens of this country are willing to give 341 million dollars in profit – via public funds – to a corporate blackmailer who has already bankrupted a savings and loan and ripped off his own employees’ pension fund.
I understand sometimes you have to deal with the devil. I’m just saying it shouldn’t be a bad deal.