>http://www.ncpa.org/oped/bartlett/sep2000a.html
Where Bruce Bartlett writes:
>I am not sure if it is his first published article, but the earliest
>piece I was able to find by Ralph Nader was published in the
>ultra-conservative American Mercury magazine in March 1960. (The
>American Mercury was a highly respected magazine in the 1920s and
>1930s, but fell on hard times and was sold to some
>ultra-conservatives in the 1940s, who turned the magazine sharply to
>the right. Until the founding of National Review, it was the most
>prominent conservative publication in America.)
>
>Nader's article is entitled, "Business Is Deserting America," and it
>makes arguments he is still making today about the evils of free
>trade. He argued that America's trade deficit was the result of U.S.
>corporations moving their operations to foreign countries, in
>pursuit of low-wage labor and higher profits. These corporations
>then exported goods formerly manufactured in the U.S. back to the
>U.S. from Europe and Asia, creating a trade deficit. Nader was
>critical of both the corporations for disloyalty and the federal
>government for encouraging foreign investment by these companies.
>
>The second article I discovered by Nader appeared in the October
>1962 issue of The Freeman, published by the Foundation for Economic
>Education, a venerable free market group. This article is called,
>"How the Winstedites Kept Their Integrity." It tells about a battle
>fought by the citizens of Winsted, Connecticut, Nader's home town,
>against a federal public housing project proposed for their town.
>
>Apparently, the town housing authority got some "free" money for
>public housing from the federal government and planned to build 50
>such units in Winsted. Subsequently, a grass roots campaign rose up
>against the project and several referenda were necessary to kill it.
>Nader's sympathies are clearly with the protesters, even though such
>people are routinely called racists today for trying to keep
>minorities out of all-white suburbs such as Winsted.
>
>Surprisingly, Nader makes a convincing free market argument against
>public housing that is as applicable today as it was then. He
>pointed out that the town was not getting something for nothing from
>the federal government, because local taxpayers would have to foot
>the bill for city services provided to the tenants, since no local
>property tax could be assessed on the federal property. Wrote Nader,
>"A vicious circle begins to operate; as private property is
>undermined by public competition, private investment is discouraged
>by the threat of more public housing. As local property taxes
>increase, the prospects diminish for new or expanding industry."
>
>Nader went on to conclude that Big Government was to blame, in words
>that could easily have been spoken by Barry Goldwater or Ronald
>Reagan. "Giant government has outgrown the capacity of the
>institutions designed to restrain its encroachments and
>abuses....Any government intrusion into the economy deters the
>alleged beneficiaries from voicing their views or participating in
>civic life," Nader wrote.
>
>It is easy to dismiss these conservative sentiments. After all,
>Nader's campaign consists mainly of attacks on big corporations and
>he has long advocated expanded government power to protect
>consumers. Nevertheless, there is a conservative strain in Nader's
>thinking that survives to the present day.