By Isaac Morehouse on
5/30/2007 11:39 AM
 I caught a segment of NPR this morning while driving. It started out something like:
"Albania is experiencing high levels of pollution; and the fall of communism is to blame."
As the story continued it became clear that all of the polluted areas being talked about were public areas. I don't know whether or not the pollution in Albania is better worse or the same now as it was during the communist era, but I do know that when anything is owned by "the public" no one takes very good care of it. This is referred to as "the tragedy of the commons".
NPR reported that the Albanian government is trying to find new solutions to keep the publicly owned land clean and keep people from dumping their trash on it. An Albanian official said that post-communism, people just don't know that democracy means responsibility. Perhaps because they still don't have enough private ownership. I certainly wouldn't want to wash my car if it was owned by "everybody" and only available on a first come, first serve basis.
The partially publicly-funded NPR did not make much of the fact that this was all public property; nor did it give any sort of proof that the pollution has i ...
Read More »
|
By Jack McHugh on
5/26/2007 7:49 PM
These statistics show that Michigan's economy is burning up. A big tax increase now would be throwing gasoline on the fire. Other figures show that the higher taxes will primarily support public sector employees already doing much better than their private sector peers.
Read More »
|
By Isaac Morehouse on
5/26/2007 3:32 PM
Though it's hard to get a good feel for Michael Moore's new movie "SiCKO" from this short trailer, I think the general thrust is that the U.S. health care system is shoddy.
This may be. What I am suspicious of are Moore's ideas (if he offers any) for improvement. I recall a publicity stunt Moore did while filming - he took American citizens to Cuba where they purportedly received excellent and "free" healthcare. It's a wonder you don't hear of Floridians cramming themselves onto leaky rafts and trying to float to a Cuban health care heaven!
While our health care system (if you can call it a system) has many problems, it is still the best in the world. Try getting an MRI in Canada, land of "free" healthcare. Solutions are needed, but we should not glorify the failing socialized systems of other countries. The problem in health care is lack of truly competitive markets, not lack of government regulation.
Will this film be a "smoke in mirrors" display devoid of real arguments or solutions, or will it be a substantive contribution to the discussion on how to improve health care in the U.S.?
|
By Jack McHugh on
5/25/2007 5:42 PM
Long thought to be a "radioactive" issue in Michigan politics, here's evidence that minds are changing in a surprising place.
Read More »
|
By Jack McHugh on
5/25/2007 5:23 PM
Low taxes have transformed Ireland into the "Celtic Tiger." They could do the same for Michigan.
Read More »
|
By Isaac Morehouse on
5/25/2007 3:52 PM
 Yesterday afternoon publicly-funded Wayne State University sent this email out begging for a tax increase:
Wednesday, May 23, 2007 4:30 PM
Subject: Take Action Now: State Budget Crisis
Read More »
|
|
|
By Isaac Morehouse on
5/24/2007 4:15 PM
 Former Enron advisor Paul Krugman opined in the New York Times (subscription required):
"These are anxious days at the lunch table. For all you know, there may be E. coli on your spinach, salmonella in your peanut butter and melamine in your pet’s food and, because it was in the feed, in your chicken sandwich.
Who’s responsible for the new fear of eating? Some blame globalization; some blame food-producing corporations; some blame the Bush administration. But I blame Milton Friedman."
Krugman goes on to say why all of the "blamed" above deserve blame. He believes the solution is more government power and more tax dollars dumped into government food controls and regulations. My favorite part:
"Without question, America’s food safety system has degenerated over the past six years. We don’t know how many times concerns raised by F.D.A. employees were ignored or soft-pedaled by their superiors. What we do know is that since 2001 the F.D.A. has introduced no significant new food safety regulations except those mandated by Congress."
Let me clarify what Krugman just said; there is no evidence of any unreported food concerns at the F.D.A., therefore there must be a lot. Our food is clearly unsafe, because we haven't introduced enough new regulations. I'm not sure how the sheer number of new government regulations of an industry is supposed to indicate how safe it is.
Krugman's underlying assumption is a very common one - that no one but the all-knowing and benevolent federal bureaucracy is capable of making decisions about what is "safe". Well I say thank goodness ...
Read More »
|
By Isaac Morehouse on
5/24/2007 1:13 PM
The Governor of Michigan pulls in $177,000 per year. But ten local school officials make more than that. Listed in MIRS news today:
- Detroit City School District William Coleman — $225,000
- Troy School District Barbara Fowler — $205,377
- Macomb County ISD Michael DeVault — $205,067
- Wayne RESA Marlene Davis — $202,129
- Bloomfield Hills School District Steven Gaynor — $198,753
- Grand Rapids Public Schools Bernard Taylor — $189,987
- Lake Orion Community Schools Christine Lehman — $185,182
- Utica Community Schools Joan Sergent — $182,124
- Rochester Community School District Thomas Moline — $179,545
- Ovid-Else Area Schools Wayne Ketrolje — $178,732
Also according to MIRS, the average salary for the 57 Intermediate School District (ISD) Superintendents in the state is $118,000. ISD's are an entirely different entity from school districts, generally covering a broader geographical area and with the ability to levy their own taxes in addition to school district taxes. If you've never heard of them, don't feel bad, most of us aren't sure what they do.
What are we getting for all this government?
Apparently legislators see the need for some sort of limit. House Bill 4796 passed the House yesterday and would cap school officials' salary at the level of the governor's.
|
By Jack McHugh on
5/23/2007 2:13 PM
The Lansing State Journal is anything but a "right wing" voice, but even they shaking their heads at the blind resistance from the privileged class of school employees to any meaningful fiscal reform. The paper's editor had now compared the union to out-of-touch royalty.
Read More »
|
By Isaac Morehouse on
5/23/2007 12:11 PM
 Yesterday while driving I heard an ad on the radio promoting more state spending on roads. Besides being a bit overreaching ("Is my family really safe with our current roads?") the idea of better managed and maintained roads makes some sense and I thought the ad had a decent point - especially as I rumbled over potholes and hoped not to end up in a major traffic jam like last week.
There are potential improvements that can be made to Michigan's roads just by changing how things are run (and who runs them) without necessarily increasing road spending. Additionally, there are many ways the state could do the same things for less money. (Check out this Mackinac Center study)
The radio ad made the point that better roads are safer - OK. Then it said better roads make it easier for businesses to operate in the state - fine. But it committed a logical and economic error when it claimed, "State spending on road projects will create jobs and boost our economy". That's only half of the story.
State projects may create jobs, but the proper question is, do they create wealth? The state could easily reduce Michigan's unemployment to 0% by mandating that every unemployed citizen shovel dirt on some state project without pay. Employment alone is not a good indicator of economic success; overall wealth is. So now we see that it is possible for state spending to "create jobs", but that creating jobs alone does nothing&nbs ...
Read More »
|
By Ken Braun on
5/19/2007 8:27 PM
State Sen. Basham thinks the poor risk death from spending too much time in bars and restaurants.
Read More »
|
By Ken Braun on
5/19/2007 4:43 PM
Now comes news that the state budget is worse than even the recent dismal expectations, $400 million worse than the last time it was worried over by the state budget prognosticators in January. Total mess is up to $800 million for the current year.
And according to the Free Press:
"The big reasons for the growing deficit is weak tax revenues, especially sales, personal income and business, and increased caseloads for welfare, Medicaid and a growing prison population."
Sales taxes, income taxes, business taxes... um... that's pretty much all of the biggies and thus points to a systemic failure of economic activity in Michigan. All of the main methods of extracting money from the private sector are wildly underperforming the official estimates because the people of Michigan cannot sustain the economic activity necessary to live up to the state's estimates of their taxing capacity.
Each of those major taxes mentioned has been the recent target of the tax-and-spend crowd's suggestions for balancing the budget by raising taxes. But their own experts are now telling them that -- even at the present level -- those taxes are each failing to bring in the money predicted. Raising the rate of taxation will obviously make that problem worse, not better, because Michigan citizens and businesses are not going to start earning more revenue as a result of the state deciding to take more of what they earn. They are going to likely earn less by way of losing their jobs, cutting back their purchases, slowing down their business activity, or just plain packing up and going to live somewhere else.
& ...
Read More »
|
By Isaac Morehouse on
5/19/2007 2:10 PM
State lawmakers say the need revenue...$42 billion is not enough?
Read More »
|
By Isaac Morehouse on
5/18/2007 6:51 PM
No, not the WWF that Hulk Hogan was a part of; those guys had REAL fights...
Read More »
|
By Jack McHugh on
5/18/2007 2:30 AM
When political events in the state Capitol start to resemble a spoof from The Onion, you know the stress is getting to some of the players.
Read More »
|
By Isaac Morehouse on
5/16/2007 3:04 PM
The Association of Realtors is hoping to drown low-cost competitors in a sea of state regulations 
Read More »
|
By Isaac Morehouse on
5/15/2007 5:49 PM
Michigan lawmakers, frantically searching for more of your money, want to "pop" you with another new tax...
Read More »
|
By Paul Kersey on
Tuesday, May 15, 2007 4:59 PM
Gettelfinger barks, but the caravan moves on
Read More »
|
By Ken Braun on
5/13/2007 3:16 PM
What happens when Michigan's college graduates have nowhere left to run?
Read More »
|