25 Years Ago in Reason

From the October 2006 issue

October 1981

“ ‘There is no unemployment in Cuba,’ our guide, Teresa, told us proudly. And it was easy to see why. Every hotel has elevator operators, even though most of the elevators are push-button type. To make sure that patrons use them, the stairway doors are kept locked. (Too bad if there should be a fire!)”

—Robert Poole Jr., “Inside Cuba Today”

“Lobbies cluster around Capitol Hill like ants around an ant hill, scurrying, buttonholing, importuning, occasionally giving testimony, always currying favor to preserve or augment their place in the sun if not their share of all those lovely federal spending goodies threatened of late by the budget-cutters’ ax.…The durability of lobbies cannot seriously be questioned in this age of unlimited government. They are certain to outlast both the Reagan administration and the new 97th Congress.”

—William H. Peterson, “It’s a Company Town”