Please reply to:
                                                 110 Primrose St.
                                                 Chevy Chase, MD  20815
                                                 301-951-0922
                                                 April 23, 1990

        To the Editor
        The Washington Post
        1150 15th Street, N.W.
        Washington, D.C. 20071

        Dear Sir or Madam:

             The recent brouhaha in Virginia over Governor Wilder's
        action taking back the low-number license plates that ex-Governor
        Baliles had awarded points toward a big opportunity for everybody
        to win:  Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, and
        the other states could pick up a nice piece of change for their
        universities or other worthy causes using the principle that
        public honor can be sold to people at zero supply cost.  For
        example, Spanish kings made a good business of selling titles.
        Lordships are commonly auctioned in England nowadays; Not long
        ago plain Harold Hobbs of Sussex became Lord of the Manor of
        Plegden Commons, a title dating back to the Middle Ages, by
        bidding $9,000 at a public auction.  And when I was a child, some
        Jewish synagogues sold the torah ceremony roles in an auction on
        the first day of Rosh Hashanah that was marvelous comic relief to
        the serious High Holiday mood.

             The states and the District could auction off the numbered
        license plates.  Number 1 goes to the person who bids the biggest
        donation, number 2 to the next biggest, and so on.  Give the
        governor (or mayor) and other muckamucks plates that say
        "GOVERNOR" (or "GUV"), "MAYOR," "COUNCIL," and so on. The
        outgoing politicians can have "EX-GUV" and the like.

             The auction might be held on television, call-in style.  A
        celebrity from government or sports or entertainment could m.c.
        the show.  And it might be held at the convention center.  Anyone
        who wants to come might have to pledge $25.00 or so even if not a
        winning bidder.  And it might be billed as the millionaires'
        charity bash.

             Something for nothing?  Yes, Virginia, there really is a
        free lunch sometimes.  But whether officialdom and bureaucracy
        can stir themselves to prepare the lunch for us is another
        matter.  How about it, you energetic and imaginative politicians?
        And the first state that pulls this off will probably get the
        credit for pioneering a freebie benefit program that the other
        states in the Union will follow.

                                            Sincerely,

                                            Julian L. Simon



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