There’s an article in the Post-Dispatch today about the "hormone-free" milk labeling dispute. Supporters of the bill that would forbid the (truthful) labels make it clear that it’s not this particular language they object to, but any labels that make their competitors’ milk look better than theirs:
"Somebody could say there’s no battery acid in their milk," said Rick Scheer, a producer from New Haven, Mo. "Their assumptions make my milk look bad."
Does he want a law against saying that, too?
This is atrocious. Just hit the preview clip to watch. I will never cease to be amazed at how people are willing to let their lives be surveilled and followed in the name of safety. And this isn’t even about defending against terrorists — steps which may or may not have been needed after 9/11. This is just to protect against vandalism, for Christ’s sake. Have local officials who move forward with things like this ever even heard of 1984?
Seriously, people, I had no idea that after I testified (or, more accurately, attempted to testify) on Monday about occupational licensing that St. Louis papers would have a bunch of stories related to the issue. This week’s Riverfront Times has a story about the bail bondsman industry, which we have covered before on this blog. You really have to read the entire thing to do the story justice, but here are some classic quotes from it — and, yes, I think bail bonding is one industry where some type of occupational registration can reasonably be required.
How about this description of the Missouri Professional Bail Bondsman Association:
"They pretty much only represent themselves at this point," says Angela Park, a bail bond industry blogger. "I can see why other people might be hesitant to join. It kind of leaves a bad taste in your mouth that Jackson was in the leadership and that he paid a bunch of lobbyists and state reps off and tried to murder his competitor."
Just the type of leadership that deserves to decide who should and should not be able to enter the business.
That, however, hasn’t stopped the MPBBA from continuing to lobby the state legislature with new proposals. In February, Sen. Maida Coleman, a St. Louis Democrat, introduced Senate Bill 1247 that would take oversight of the bail industry away from the Department of Insurance and place it in the hands of a "professional bail bond board."
At least one bondsman sees the licensing system for what is really is:
On her Web site, Park decries the proposals as a "bail bond power grab" by the MPBBA and writes that, "The association would like to pass legislation that will feed revenues to the association and require its continued existence."
But, as I said, you really have to read the whole thing.
Reading Justin’s post about cash incentives for students, I’m wondering: Isn’t the $100 reward kind of low? I’ve seen rewards of that size proposed for younger kids — elementary school students don’t have many opportunities to earn money — which could be reasonable. But a senior in high school could work for 15 hours at a $7-an-hour job and earn that much. In contrast, studying all year long for an AP test adds up to a lot more than 15 hours, besides the few hours needed to take the exam itself.
If anybody at all responds to this incentive, I imagine it will be the few students who are well prepared, but weren’t planning on taking the exam because they don’t need the credits. I doubt this is going to cause a burst of achievement from any students who weren’t already at that level.
The National Math and Science Initiative, a non-profit group sponsored (primarily) by Exxon-Mobil, is offering $100 checks to students at a Connecticut public high school for each Advanced Placement test that they pass this year.
Apparently this is supposed to create an “incentive.” Sarah Brodsky has written about cash incentive programs before, so I refer readers to her post on the matter.
Personally, I thought that the incentive came from the fact that a passing grade on an AP test exempts the student from college coursework (about $412 per credit hour on average at a four-year public university, by my count), but I guess Exxon-Mobil has to find something to do with that $34.5 billion of cash it has on its balance sheet. …
The above title is what Senator Scott told me when I testified Monday in front of his committee about the harm done by occupational licensure in Missouri. Be that as it may, sometimes lost causes are the best ones of all. It’s like a Billy Joel song, but instead of an angry young man in Manhattan, it’s an aspiring economist in Jefferson City.
Whether or not I’m 100 years late (and he is probably right), the issue will always be here, because existing firms will always try to use political muscle to limit their competition from the outside. That is, frankly, what the entire Department of Professional Registration is about: bureaucrats colluding with business groups to form cartels — nothing more.
As an example of how the issue will always be around, I present two articles dealing with it, in different ways, from today’s Post-Dispatch (hat tip to Combest for one of them; I forget which). We have the return of the annual midwifery debate, as discussed in this article. I love how Senator Loudon cuts through the b/s and gets to the point in the debate:
"I’ve come to recognize a turf battle when I see it," Loudon said. "It’s time to call it what it is and decide are you going to protect their turf, or are you going to let the people of Missouri make their choice?"
People should be able to make choices, and if use of a midwife is one of them, then they should be allowed to do so. The other article is about prepaid funerals, which Nick the Intern blogged about the other day. The issue is that sellers of prepaid funerals have apparently not been properly putting the money in trusts, as required. From what I can see, this is a criminal matter — but no doubt the funeral home industry will try to take advantage of it for more regulatory control. If agreements are not being honored, then the companies should be prosecuted. But that should not serve as a jumping-off point for more laws or more control. Prepaid funeral plans are a dumb idea for most people. I like this simple advice from the article:
His recommendation is basic: Consumers should put their money in a savings account or an investment in their own name rather than prepaying for a funeral.
Just because something may be a bad deal (referring to the 20 percent allowed to be kept by the seller in case of cancellations or other changes) should not automatically be a reason for the government to jump in to protect us from ourselves. This is the type of reaction that leads to the ever-expanding role of government in our lives. And I though The Nintern was coming along so well. …
Bill McClellan has another excellent piece on the judicial selection system in Missouri. You may note that the changes proposed by the legislature that he is discussing sound a lot like some of the proposals I made in this op-ed last year. I’m not claiming credit or anything; I’m just sayin’ …
Here you can listen to a clip of Malcolm Gladwell talking to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. He argues that a culture of perseverence — rather than national standards or state mandates — is the cause of Asian countries’ success on math tests.
Today’s Springfield News-Leader has a detailed account of the budget troubles facing Missouri’s third-largest city. The primary cause of the budget problem is very similar to St. Louis’ own (most) recent problem: dramatic increases in the police and firemen’s pension costs. Kansas City has also just recently completed a tense budget debate, though with different causes, so this gives us a nice opportunity to review all three cities together. Springfield now gets to decide if it is going to address its problems in a manner like that of St. Louis, which raised taxes for about the 47th time in the past decade (with voter approval, I grant you, and "47th" is hyperbolic) to deal with its pension shortfall, or like Kansas City, which admirably made tough budget cuts to deal with its problems in a systematic long-term manner.
Springfield is proposing to collect an authorized pension tax that it has had on its books for years but never bothered to collect. University City did essentially the same thing this past year for the very same reason. Anyway, the important thing to me is finding appropriate cuts in government spending. A chart accompanying the article details how Springfield is not making any substantive cuts to its spending. Instead, it is basically just moving money around from one account to the pension accounts. While they are eliminating vacant positions, they are not laying anyone off. I don’t doubt that those vacant positions will be filled just as soon as possible — they have not changed the overall environment, as Mayor Funkhauser is trying to do.
I do like the reduction in outside legal fees, as well as the cut in lobbying expenses for its Washington lobbyist. Springfield needs a lobbyist why, exactly?
Councilwoman Mary Collette questioned the wisdom of cutting in half the city’s funding for a lobbyist in Washington, D.C.
She asked Cumley to find out how much federal money the lobbyist may have helped bring to Springfield.
Carlson indicated it was in the tens of millions.
"If we cut their money in half, does that mean we’ll get half as much back from the federal government?" she asked.
Cumley said he would try to find out.
[ME: Governments hiring lobbyists to get money from other governments is insane and should be illegal. Please don’t take that as an attack on lobbyists — just on government.]
Springfield deserves minor applause for a few things — and the tax hikes are small, truth be told. But really, this is just a shell game that will not change anything in Springfield in the long run. Now, if it wanted some serious change, there is an enormous asset staring Springfield right in it face: City Utilities could be sold off and better run by a private utility. I’m just supposin’…
