The latest issue of Surface Transportation Innovations, from the folks at the Reason Foundation, has a lot of great information in it. It includes a quote from Dr. Ken Small, excerpted from the Show-Me Institute study he cowrote, “Private Provision of Highways: Economic Issues,” which was released toward the end of last year.
Please check out the study as well as the analysis by Bob Poole at Reason.
My country was mentioned in a satirical segment on “The Daily Show,” as a non-permanent member of the Security Council after the United Nations held an emergency meeting to respond to North Korea’s rocket launch. Very hilarious.
Campaign finance regulation has been a very big deal on both the state and national levels for some time. Advocates for sharp restrictions on the amount that any given person can donate to a political candidate argue that, all too frequently, contributions are used to buy influence and access to lawmakers. Opponents of campaign finance restrictions point out that people have a constitutional right to support and publicize the political candidates they prefer and the political issues that are important to them. As with so many issues, I appreciate the concerns expressed by those who favor regulation — after all, it is a very rare politician who is willing to offer the average constituent the same respect and access afforded to the largest donors — but clamping down on people’s freedoms is a poor way to address this concern.
There is a freedom-respecting solution! Even more than campaign contributions, politicians respect votes. I propose that a group of voters simply pledge to cast their ballots based on how much money the candidates raise — and the lower the amount of contributions, the better. If as few as five percent of registered voters (which in many elections could be a decisive margin) committed to voting for candidates with smaller campaign “war chests,” I’d wager that politicians would quickly respond by de-emphasizing the importance of fundraising.
What do you think?
The Kansas City Pitch, which published one of my favorite articles last year in favor of replacing income taxes with a land tax, has a nice story today about the Show-Me Institute’s chairman of the board, Crosby Kemper, and his work with the Kansas City Public Library.
Here is Dave Catanese’s report from yesterday’s Show-Me Institute forum in Springfield. Thanks to Dave for covering the event, and for all of his “tweets.”
Alex Tabarrok reports on regulations purported to halt meth production (scroll down to the 7:20 a.m. post) and their short-lived effects. Economists found that restricting the sale of decongestants did reduce methamphetamine use for up to four months, after which things returned to normal.
So, the state regulates a legal substance and gets a temporary drop in illegal activity, then has to impose more and more regulations to try to get that effect again. Sounds … addictive.
I don’t often look to the Drudge Report for blogging material, because I doubt Show-Me Daily readers care whether a robot was born with two heads or whatever, but it’s worth it to point out that elections can be really close. Those economists who say voting is irrational are just wrong.
With 100 percent of the vote in, we have the results.
13,614 Total Votes Cast
13,424 people voted on Prop C
4,380 (32.63%) Voted For
9,044 (67.37%) Voted Against
It will be at least another two years till the issue can be revisited by the voters. I sincerely hope that both the opponents and proponents can come together on a compromise. This issue was surrounded with controversy, and hopefully next time (if there is a next time) it won’t be so heated.
See the results here.
First, at least one school district is encouraging parents to give their kids bananas to improve their MAP test scores:
Other schools base their test motivators on scientific research. At Hanna Woods Elementary in the Parkway district, for example, students taking the test will get goody bags from younger students that include No. 2 pencils and mints. Peppermint, according to research from the University of Cincinnati, can help increase concentration.
At Kennerly Elementary in the Lindbergh School District, the parent association encouraged parents to donate bananas, which are rich in mind-boosting potassium.
Does anybody seriously believe that students’ scores are low because they have a potassium deficiency? Bananas won’t have any effect on test scores, but they do provide a distraction from the things that do determine achievement, like quality of curriculum and teaching. It’s not entirely the districts’ fault, though. There are so many constraints on the hiring, firing, and rewarding of teachers that it’s easier to turn to bananas, despite the minuscule marginal returns.
And now for the second banana story: “fair-trade” bananas are available at Wash U. The bananas come with certification that the farmers who grew them were compensated appropriately. This is basically an extension of the locavore idea. All the bananas in a market are going to be priced about the same, because if one brand were much more expensive, it wouldn’t sell. So in order to pay farmers a lot more, you have to cut back on some other cost of bringing the bananas to market — like transportation costs. So, you buy more from farmers who are close by, and less from farmers who are farther away (and who are so in need of money that they offer bananas very cheaply). Transportation is just one example; there are other costs you can cut back on. You can work only with farmers you already know, and avoid spending money on finding new people to exchange with. The point is, there will always be some farmers out there who are farther away or harder to find, who will be hurt by “fair trade.”
