More Democracy a Good Thing, Even for Stadia

I take no position on the issue of a new stadium for the Vikings NFL team, but I am in favor of more democracy, not less.  So hearing that a county-wide vote on paying for the facility "could doom the deal" does not warm my heart.  If you want the people's money, you must let the people decide.

My Correspondence with Mark Steyn

More than a year ago, I fired off an email to columnist Mark Steyn, but neglected to check for a reply, until now.

Here is the exchange at it appears on Steyn's website (mine is the last letter on the page),

"Mark, what do you think, if anything, about 17 of the 23 members of the Algerian World Cup soccer team having been born in France?
Bill Glahn
Edina, Minnesota

MARK SAYS: Two thoughts: First, for decades Europe used the developing world as its nursery, so you can't blame Algerian soccer for using France as its farm team.  Secondly, I think we have a glimpse of the World Cup semi-finals circa 2022: The French-born Algerian team play the English-born Pakistani team while the German-born Turkish team play the Dutch-born Moroccan team.  Or maybe we'll all be playing buzkashi by then."

Complete Streets = Complete Nonsense

Update: North St. Paul Kills Project

On Sunday, the St. Paul Pioneer Press published an article about the efforts of a St. Paul suburb, North St. Paul (home of the giant snowman), to redo one of their fine burg's thoroughfares (15th Avenue) using the "Complete Streets" model.

To give you an idea of how radical a makeover is planned, here is the diagram published in the paper,

Although it may be too tiny to see clearly, notice how much of the existing street width is being seized to make room for sidewalks, two bike paths, and "rainwater gardens".  For $1.9 million and $60 to $70 per foot assessments of the local residents, here is the result:  parking will be prohibited on one side, restricted on the other, and the driving lanes narrowed by 10 feet to slow down traffic.

Needless to say, the local residents didn't ask for this solution, so where did this idea originate?  The "Complete Streets" movement is the thin wedge of "smart growth", trying to save us from the scourge of global warming by getting us to abandon our automobiles.

Here in Minnesota, the Minnesota Complete Street Coalition, who are pushing this agenda, was founded two years ago by, among others, the environmental non-profits Fresh Energy and Transit for Livable Communities.  These groups are funded, in part, by out-of-state foundations, which I have documented as part of my Follow the Money series.

Local residents in North St. Paul are correct in asking " why their street has to be the one to test-drive the initiative".  The good citizens of 15th Avenue are being volunteered as the test subjects for a radical experiment in urban planning.

In North St. Paul, the project is part of the City's "living streets plan" an effort to address "livability and environmental needs."  Smart Growth critic Wendell Cox has written about the livability issue, pointing out,

" 'Livability' is the latest rallying cry for planners who want to draw lines around urban areas and force people out of their cars and into denser housing...a serious alternative to the car – hopefully a far cleaner, more efficient version–does not loom on the horizon.  For all but a privileged few, cars and the quality of life and cars will remain 'joined at the hip'.  This is why research shows a strong correlation between the automobile access in an urban area and economic growth."

The residents of 15th Avenue are correct to resist this intrusion.  We should all hope that they succeed.

Broken Windows in the News

As hurricane season is now underway, this space will be vigilant on the subject of the "broken windows fallacy," the idea that natural disasters are good for the economy.  Sure, a few construction jobs are created, but the loss of capital overwhelms any short-term stimulus effect.  Larry Kudlow sets everyone straight on what one French economist figured out more than 150 years ago.

"Double A" America: Looking a Gift Solar Project in the Mouth, Part 2

My Don Quixote-sque performance at the Edina City Council earlier this month (see part 1) did not go unobserved.  The Edina Sun Current newspaper picked up the story and did a good job paraphrasing my argument against the City's "free" solar power project,

Quoting one enlightened citizen,

"Bill Glahn, a member of the [City's] Energy and Environment Commission's energy working group, however, said he had concerns about the real value of the project.

While there is no cost to the city, the grant - part of a federal program - is footed by all taxpayers, and the rebates provided by Xcel Energy are also likely passed on to customers in utility bills.  He said the $200,000 project would not pay for itself over the life of the equipment.

'It comes out as a net positive for the city.  Unfortunately, there's nobody in this whole process to look at the entire project from society's standpoint,' he said."

You see, in Edina, we don't believe there is a free lunch, but we are convinced there is free dessert.

Tax Increment Follies

Today's Minneapolis Star Tribune brings us the story of Coloplast, a Danish medical products company with operations in Minnesota.  The company built a $39 million building along the Minneapolis riverfront, financed in part by $4 million in aid from the City.  Tied to the aid were goals for hiring additional 500 workers, including more workers from the City's poorer North Side.

Most of the aid ($3 million) consisted of Tax Increment Financing (TIF), a subsidy where the city forgoes property taxes otherwise owed on improvements, for a time, allowing the funds to be used to offset the capital investment.  The idea is that without such a subsidy, the investment would not have occurred.  In addition, the state provided $500,000 in forgivable loans and a regional government entity, the Metropolitan Council, provided additional funds for site cleanup.  The state loans have been repaid, with interest.

Two years down range and employment at the site is lower, not higher than before.  Of course the economy, worldwide, has been down the past few years.  But this exercise points out a number of issues that touch on economic development, tax policy, and rebuilding the middle class.

The Antiplanner, Randal O'Toole, has been critical of the use of TIF funding, and has chronicled efforts to end the practice in California.  As a form of crony capitalism, the use of TIF raises all kinds of concerns.  In that weekend Wall Street Journal piece on the decline of Baltimore which I previously discussed, the most basic complaint about city policy was that,

"If tax breaks for the connected are a good idea, why not give them to everyone?"

As a medical supplies company, this city investment plays into the urban political elite's obsession knowledge workers, developing a highly-educated workforce for the post-industrial economy.  Sound good.  But it turns out that the "corporate" jobs on offer were a poor match with the available workforce.  Despite completing a state-funded job skills training program, the company charitably reports that, "All of the graduates that we hired started out strong, but could not meet our attendance rules."  The newspaper also reports that "[m]uch of [Coloplast's] U.S.-based manufacturing will go to China."

Bard College Professor Walter Russell Mead writes about similar situations in his essay "Beyond the Big City Blues",

"Think of the path to successful middle class living as a ladder; the lower rungs on that ladder are not nice places to be, but if those rungs don’t exist, nobody can climb.  When politicians talk about creating jobs, they always talk about creating “good” jobs.  That is all very well, but unless there are bad jobs and lots of them, people in the inner cities will have a hard time getting on the ladder at all, much less climbing into the middle class."

Coloplast is providing "good" jobs, but as the job training experience revealed, what the local workforce needed was something else.  In Mead's words,

"The first and most important precondition for returning health to poor urban neighborhoods is the creation of large numbers of private sector jobs that relatively unskilled people can do. ...So where will the jobs come from?  Answer: if they come at all they will come from small business and many of these jobs will not be particularly attractive."

The City's heart is in the right place in its efforts to revamp the riverfront and bring good jobs to a blighted area.  However, their approach needs to be turned upside down.  Keeping taxes low for all businesses, not just a favored few, will create an environment where small business, "bad jobs", and opportunities for the relatively unskilled can develop.

Shutting Down 8% of U.S. Electric Generation

That's what the U.S. EPA is up to with its crusade against coal power.  The Wall Street Journal is calling for a moratorium on the EPA's regulatory frenzy.  Strong stuff from the WSJ on the agency's plans to shut down 8 percent of America's generating capacity,

"In practice, this will mean blackouts and rolling brownouts, as well as spiking rates for consumers.  If a foreign power or terrorists wiped out 8% of U.S. capacity, such as through a cyber attack, it would rightly be considered an act of war."

Reaping What You Sow: Urban Politics and Political Cleansing, Part 2

In today's lead editorial in the Minneapolis Star Tribune ("Key Twin Cities leaders are tone deaf") the editors address a second local controversy from the past week, the granting of $40,000 in moving expenses to the head of the St. Paul Public School District, Superintendent Valeria Silva.  Superintendent Silva was promoted to the position from within the organization in 2009, so the moving expenses represent the cost of moving her from the St. Paul suburb of Woodbury, where she resides, to within the city limits.

As with the Minneapolis "bike coordinator" controversy, the editors are as worried with appearance as with substance, writing,

"Silva and the school board members should have realized  it didn't make sense to pay thousands to move Silva 12 miles, even if former superintendents have had similar deals.  That no one did so suggests disturbingly weak leadership in one of the state's biggest districts."

When she was promoted two years ago to become superintendent, the District faced numerous challenges, including a budget deficit, an achievement gap, and low test scores.  So it is understandable that the Star Tribune and others believe that the $40,000 could be better used elsewhere and seem puzzled that local officials would defend the move.

Also last week, Lee McGrath, head of the local chapter of the Institute for Justice, had an opinion piece in the St. Paul Pioneer Press where he discusses what he sees as a lack of innovative thinking in education on the part of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party (DFL, Minnesota's version of Democrats).  He points out that a number of prominent DFL officials in Minneapolis chose to send their children to private schools.

None of this should surprise the close observer.

Forbes columnist Joel Kotkin, in his book The Next Hundred Million:  America in 2050 (pages 56-57), quotes the late urban advocate Jane Jacobs on the role of cities in forming the middle class,

"A metropolitan economy, if it is working well, is constantly transforming many poor people into middle-class people, many illiterates into skilled people, many greenhorns into competent citizens....Cities don't lure the middle class.  They create it."

Key words there:  "working well."  Unfortunately, as I discuss in Part 1, our urban political elite believe that they have developed a business plan that does not depend upon keeping this virtuous cycle going.  From their view, the aspirational poor, the newly skilled, etc. are not reliable enough voters for an agenda centered on fashionable social policy and wealth redistribution.  The elite believe that, should a middle class be needed, it can always be imported by marketing to the Creative Class, who are seen as the key to post-industrial society.  In other words, the Creative Class is the kind of middle class that the urban political elite can live with.

Of course, this approach depends upon some other District creating the Creative Class.  Aspirational middle-class shlubs like me are dependent upon public education to build the human capital needed for the next generation and for admission to the Creative Class, and we have been cleansed out of the core cities.  As McGrath implied, members of the urban political elite have arranged their affairs so as to not be impacted by the results of their own policies, educational and otherwise.  They are in a position to outsource to private providers the production of human capital, which McGrath points out, is an option they deny to their own constituents.

Which brings us back the $40,000 in moving expenses.  By defending this indefensible expense, the political class of St. Paul are signalling that--regardless of overall budget cutting--they simply will not surrender a single perk of public office.  The political class is just another one of the constituent groups of the urban, governing coalition and it too must be mollified.  To back down on the moving expenses issue would send a troubling message to the group they even they are vulnerable to the new austerity.

Public education is perhaps the key area that must be reformed in order to restart Jacobs' engine of middle-class creation.  But first, the urban political elite must decide that local production is in their best interest.

Reaping What You Sow: Urban Politics and Political Cleansing, Part 1

Following up on this news story from last week, the Minneapolis Star Tribune published a lead editorial in this Sunday's paper on the need for better "optics" from city government.  The Star Tribune reported last Wednesday that the City of Minneapolis was going ahead with the hiring of a "bicycle and pedestrian coordinator" at the same time it was laying off ten firefighters.  (Sunday's editorial also discussed a questionable move by St. Paul public schools, which I cover in Part 2 of this series.)

Writes the editorial board, "[Minneapolis Mayor R.T.] Rybak's office at least acknowledged that the timing of the [job] posting was 'unfortunate'."  Notice that the Mayor's office regrets the "timing" rather than the substance of the job posting.  The editorial itself seems less concerned with the policy itself, than with providing the "Tea Party" with "more fodder for spending-cuts-only" approaches.

In fact, the announcement of the hiring of a "bike coordinator" at a salary of up to $84,000--as they say in the computer software industry--was a feature, not a bug.  The proximate cause of the firefighter layoffs was a reduction in "local government aid" (LGA) from the state legislature.  LGA represents funds transferred to some (but not all) Minnesota municipalities from state taxpayers.  As can be found on this website, Minneapolis' 2011 share of LGA, $64 million, is down considerably from the $112 million it received from the state as recently as 2002.

So the posting of the bike coordinator position, with its generous compensation, should be seen as the City's affirmation that it will continue to pursue the policy preferences of a key constituency, wealthy liberals, in the face of the new austerity.  As the original article points out, the bike coordinator position was one of five positions for which the City is hiring, including a Director of Solid Waste and Recycling and a Director of Regulatory Services.  Bicycle policy, recycling, and regulation:  yes, that would pretty much sum up the modern, urban political priorities. 

What is most interesting about this incident is on which side the City backed.  The bike coordinator hiring shows the City's unwavering commitment to the most trendy global warming, "smart growth," and urban planning policies, in spite of the difficult economic conditions, obsessions of the wealthy liberal and urban professional classes.  However, losing ten firefighters does not help solidify relations with the unionized government workforce.  If you think about it, it makes sense:  emergency response times are the concern of a warehouse owner or the general manager of an industrial facility, not the college professor, and who are more thick on the ground in America's No. 1 Bike City?
Minneapolis' political leaders, like those in other large cities, are engaged in a delicate exercise of trying to please the different parts of the governing coalition, at the same time the "business model" is in the process of collapsing.

The political machine in Minneapolis and other large cities has been engaged in a decades-long effort in political cleansing:  it has succeeded in realizing East German playwright Bertolt Brecht's dream of having the government elect a new people.  Some of this effort has been been upfront and transparent, such as adopting "Sanctuary City" policies to attract new residents who will support the efforts of the urban political class and, eventually, provide significant numbers of new voters.  These recent immigrants add to the governing coalition of wealthy liberals, government workers, and the dependent class of low-income residents.

However, as the political class has catered to the desires of their core constituent groups--trendy social and environmental policies for the wealthy liberals, lucrative pay and pensions for government workers, and generous social programs and subsidies for the dependent classes--it has also succeeded in driving out large numbers of those who might form a core of support for the political opposition:  aspirational members of the lower- and middle-classes, entrepreneurs, families with school-age children, in short, the "productive" classes.  It matters little whether the productive classes fled ("middle-class flight") or were pushed out ("political cleansing), the fact is that they decamped for more hospitable economic climes long ago.

It all worked out as long as the county, state, and federal levels stood by to provide the resources needed to pay for the policy choices of the urban political elite.  But Minneapolis' experience with the state's LGA program in recent years shows that the other jurisdictions may no longer be so eager to subsidize this game.  And if the City must rely on local taxpayers to foot the bill, then the City in trouble.  Having to lay off union members in order to hire a bike coordinator shows that the City is in trouble.

Having driven out the productive classes, the urban political elite are in a poor position to lure them back inside the city limits.  On the one hand, adopting the boring policies needed to promote economic growth--sensible business regulation, low taxes, functioning infrastructure, and quality schools--threatens their preferred policy mix of a hip social agenda coupled with wealth redistribution.  On the other hand, actually succeeding in luring back the productive classes would deliver to their political opponents a new core of support.

As they say, "you reap what you sow".

The Big City and the Danger of One-Party Rule

This weekend's Wall Street Journal (subscription required) carries an opinion piece by Johns Hopkins Professor Steve Hanke and J.K. Walters, also of the university.  Messrs. Hanke and Walters chronicle the decline of the City of Baltimore, with a falling population, declining income, increasing crime--the usual urban story.  However, their take on the Baltimore story should be of interest to anyone who cares about large cities and urban issues.

They detail how Baltimore has bet on big, splashy efforts (like the upcoming Grand Prix race) to revitalize the city, while ignoring the boring, yet effective efforts that would attract business owners and young families.

"The [Grand Prix] race exemplifies the city's development strategy:  Subsidize big downtown projects with other people's money..."  The result of this strategy, they report, is that Baltimore has lost tens of thousands of jobs and residents in the past decade, tens of thousands of homes sit vacant, the poverty rate has risen above the national average, and the murder rate stands second only to Detroit's.

The authors see a political strategy underlying this tale of woe:  an effort by the local Democratic machine to ensure long-term dominance by wealth redistribution through property taxes and practicing the art of class warfare.  They report,

"It was brilliant politics, as Democrats now enjoy an eight-to-one voter registration advantage and no Republican has been elected mayor in 48 years.  But Baltimore's high property taxes have repelled investment in physical capital for decades."

This same story has been repeated in large cities across America, as the Democratic party has followed similar strategies of "electing a new people" to achieve a near or absolute monopoly on political power--but at the price of spreading urban decay.  Here in Minnesota, in the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, not a single elected official--from school board member to Mayor to Governor to U.S. Senator--serving these communities belongs to the Republican party.  The local branch of the Democrats, known as the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) party, owns a near monopoly on elected office, interrupted only by the occasional success of a further-left Green Party candidate.

As a result, both local DFLers and ordinary citizens from Minnesota's largest cities seem to have been taken by surprise about how badly they have fared at the hands of the state legislature, which is controlled by Republicans.  It should not have been a surprise, without a single, local Republican official available to plead the urban case.

Urban Democrats are now victims of their own success.  Having achieved total victory, they are now in danger of losing the peace.  Liberal/progressive urban policies have led directly to economic stagnation, population decline, and increasing violent and property crime.  Elected officials in large urban areas now have been reduced to only three options:  continue to preside over decay and decline, seek help from a Republican Congress or non-urban state officials, likely to be Republicans and unlikely to be sympathetic to urban issues, or to seek policy changes to reverse the decline. 

Assuming option 1 (more decay and decline) holds little appeal, urban office-holders could choose to seek a bail-out, in an effort to engineer a reversal in fortune.  Unfortunately, without competition from another major party, more than two generations of urban politicians are unpracticed in the art of appealing to Republicans, conservatives, or aspirational members of the lower and middle classes.  Urban politicians seem genuinely perplexed as to how to communicate with their suburban and rural counterparts.  

Assuming the former two options may be either untenable or undesirable, only the third option, policy changes, remains.   Whether successful or not, a major change in policy direction will have the consequence of directly threatening their power monopoly.   An "old guard" seeking to restore the former liberal/progressive policies may challenge incumbents.   In the longer run, policies that successfully attract entrepreneurs, aspirational lower- and middle-class citizens, young families with children, also create new pools of voters who may choose to vote Republican.

My recommendation to the urban voter is to consider the implications of the political monopoly you have granted to Democrats.  Have large cities been well-served by creating one-party governments?  Or conversely, would some healthy competition on election day produce a broader policy debate that may lead to the revitalization of the urban core?  As I have written before, the city of Detroit is not an aberration of urban policy, it is the inevitable result of the portfolio of urban policies that have been implemented from New York to San Francisco.  Only be creating real competition for elected office in our core cities are we likely to achieve a reversal in our present course of decline.

Non-Profits, Non-Work, and De-Civilization

In his weekly syndicated column Mark Steyn gets to the root causes of the English Riots,

"The problem for the Western world is that it has incentivized nonproductivity on an industrial scale.  For large numbers at the lower end of the spectrum (still quaintly referred to by British reporters as "working class") the ritual of work – of lifetime employment as a normal feature of life – has been all but bred out by multigenerational dependency."

But his next few sentences touches on theme that I have been developing in this space, the non-profit/foundation sector's role in our society's general decline,

"At the upper end of the spectrum, too many of us seem to regard an advanced Western society as the geopolitical version of a lavishly endowed charitable foundation that funds somnolent programming on NPR.  I was talking to a trustiefundie Vermont student the other day who informed me her ambition is to 'work for a non-profit.'

'What kind of ambition is that?' I said, a little bewildered.

But she meant it, and so do most of her friends.  Doesn't care particularly what kind of "non-profit" it is: As long as no profits are involved, she's eager to run up a six-figure college debt for a piece of the non-action.  The entire state of Vermont is becoming a non-profit."

Foundations and non-profits do not generate society's wealth, they dissipate it.  Something has gone wrong when our young people have gotten the idea that non-profitry is more rewarding financially and spiritually.  How stunted are our ambitions.

Update: "Double A" America--Looking a Gift Solar Project in the Mouth, Part 1

Who would turn down “free money”?  Certainly not a city government in these troubled economic times.  So it was earlier this month when the Edina, Minnesota, City Council approved a 25-kW solar electric project to go on the roof of City Hall.  This $200,000 project will be delivered free to the City and will produce modest amounts of electricity that will offset purchases from the local utility valued at $1,300 per year.

Paying for 100 percent of the project are an $80,000 grant from the federal Department of Energy’s stimulus money (by way of the State of Minnesota) and a $120,000 rebate from the local electric utility.  The City will contribute, on net, nothing to the cost of project, but will pocket the $1,300 per year in electricity savings.  So it’s a great deal, right?

Looking at it from the perspective of the local residents, of course it is:  we just reduced the City’s annual operating budget by $1,300 per year for the next two decades.

But what about federal taxpayers?  We contributed $80,000 to the project (not including the interest on the money borrowed to finance the stimulus) and we will see none of that $1,300.

But what about the electric utility’s ratepayers?  We will contribute $120,000 to the project and not only will we not see that $1,300, but we will have to make up the lost margin to the utility on that foregone sale to the City every year.

So then how does “Society” fare from the project?  Collectively, we contribute $200,000 to the effort, in order to produce electricity valued at $1,300 per year.  In my world that represents a 150-year payback.  In reality the project will never pay for itself, because the equipment has a useful life of only a few decades, not centuries.

This vignette, although tiny in the grand scheme of our multi-trillion-dollar national debt, goes a long way to explaining why America is in the shape it is.  At no point did a market or a public official step in to say “no” to this uneconomic investment.

The City just acted in its own best interest.  The federal stimulus was intended for “shovel-ready” projects:  solid infrastructure investments that lacked only the seed capital needed to get started.  As it happened, this project arose solely to take advantage of the “free” money on offer.

The utility?  It is just doing what it was told by the state legislature:  offer a solar rebate to all who are eligible.  The utility was not given the discretion to vet the projects, only to process the requests. 

Just repeat this process over 50 states and thousands of municipalities and there you have a “double AA”-rated nation.

Update:  The latest edition of the Edina Sun Current has the story, and includes a quote from yours truly.

Post-Modern Indulgences, Solar Power Offsets and the 96th Thesis

Ford is offering a new option with the electric Ford Focus:  a $10,000 rooftop solar power system to offset that dirty coal power you use to power their electric car.  This post-modern indulgence should ease the minds of a few potential customers worried about their carbon footprint.  But for $10,000?  File this item under "the 96th thesis".

Worse than a crime, a mistake: bikes over first responders

Rightly so, the Mayor of Minneapolis, R.T. Rybak is being roundly criticized for hiring a "bike coordinator" at the same time the City is laying off 10 firefighters ("Despite fiscal woes, city aims to hire bike coordinator", Star Tribune).  The bike coordinator (at an annual salary of up to $84,000) "will serve as the point person for bicycle and pedestrian issues on transportation projects."

Criticism along the lines of "misplaced priorities" (firefighters union) and  "a 'tempting' target" (city council President) are valid and on point.  However, as the cliche goes, it's worse than a crime, it is a mistake.

Under Mayor Rybak, Minneapolis has sought to position itself as a "cool city", referring not to our northerly climate but to the idea that we can use bicycles to cure global warming and to attract the creative class of worker, said to be the future.

As a result, Minneapolis tends to do well in rankings of "knowledge workers" (No. 2 for midsize cities, after Madison, WI) and the ability to attract young, educated professionals.  The City does poorly in rankings of business climate and the cost of doing business (ranking 13th out of 22 large cities).

Minneapolis has fundamentally misunderstood the problem it faces.  It struggles not with attracting young, educated workers but with attracting employers willing to hire them.  As of June 2011, Minneapolis ranked 51st among cities for unemployment, all the more damning with the top 5 spots being taken by other Midwestern cities:  Bismarck, Lincoln, Fargo, Sioux Falls and Rapid City.  Cities in our region took 8 of the 10 ten spots.  Other cities in Minnesota and the region took 17 of the top 32 spots.

Consider the situation from the point of view of a potential employer.  Bikes over firefighters sends the signal that the City places recreation and "smart growth" fashion as a higher priority over basic protections for life and property.  If you own a company, where would you risk your assets?

In this case, boring is better.  The cities that are succeeding are those that place an emphasis on the basics:  good infrastructure and competitive taxes and cost structures.

Forbes columnist Joel Kotkin writes that to succeed in this economic climate,

"City governments will need to shift their priorities away from ephemera and concentrate on such basics as improving schools, promoting entrepreneurial growth and nurturing sustainable middle class neighborhoods."

A "back to basics" movement may not win national awards, but it will, ultimately, carry the day.

The Boundaries of Science

As the 2012 Presidential election heats up, the question of "science" will be heard more and more.  Yesterday, on Minnesota Public Radio, Kerri Miller hosted an hour on the subject of "science meets politics".  It was more of the usual Republican/Conservative/Tea Party bashing.

A more useful take on the subject is offered by Jim Manzi in National Review Online who explores the "boundaries of science."  Much of what is offered up as "science" is, in fact, no such thing.

Human Capital Bonds, a Pilot Project

I attended this event last night, sponsored by the Citizens League on Human Capital Bonds.  I found out that the Minnesota State Legislature did authorize a $10 million pilot project in the 2011 budget.

More to come....

Joel Kotkin on the "Texas Miracle"; Friedman on Getting the Wrong People to do the Right Thing

From his Forbes column, Joel Kotkin takes a look at what has made Texas such a jobs generating success and what role current Gov. Rick Perry has played.  The answer,

"Most of the credit for Texas’ success lies primarily in the state’s economic culture.  Rice University urban scholar Michael Emerson notes that Texas’ pro-business tilt started well before Perry, and is not restricted to the GOP.  Many of the state’s most prominent Democrats—including the man Perry beat for governor last year, former Houston Mayor  Bill White—have been strong advocates of economic growth and across-the-board energy development."

This reminds me of a quote from Milton Friedman that Mark Steyn reprints in his book After America,

"I do not believe that the solution to our problem is simply to elect the right people.  The important thing is to establish a political climate of opinion which will make it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing.  Unless it is politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing, the right people will not do the right thing either, or it they try, they will shortly be out of office."

Here is a link to the video of Friedman making the same point.

Aspirational Conservatism: Breakdown of the Old Order

George Magnus is an advisor the the financial giant UBS and is credited with predicting the 2008 financial crisis.  In a recent investment note for UBS that is floating around the internet, he writes about the current financial and political situation,

"our political elites and belief systems have been shaken, and consensus has fractured.  It seems that we are having sometimes esoteric tiffs between Keynesians and Austrians about if and how governments should sustain jobs and growth.  But, deep down, we are having a much more significant debate as we are being forced to redefine what we think about the rights and obligations of citizens and the State."

So true.  But it is not clear that everyone understands that this debate is taking place or what the implications will be of the outcome. 

Raw Food vs. the Regulatory State

Grist carries a story about the conflict between the "raw food" movement (a subsidiary of the "local food" movement) and the Obama regulatory state as represented by the Food and Drug Administration.

The regulatory state seems to be winning.  I don't buy raw milk or go in for such food fads, but for the local farmer, more power to her.  Here is an opportunity for some rural economic development quashed by the leviathan in the name of "health and safety."

(Via Planet Gore)

Unicorn Ribs and Green Jobs

Deservedly so, Walter Russell Mead is getting a great deal of attention for his recent essay, "Feeding the Masses on Unicorn Ribs."  An excerpt was reprinted in today's paper version of the Wall Street Journal.

Professor Mead makes the important point that it was ok to promote the idea of "green jobs" (employment tied to the clean energy industry), but not to make it the centerpiece of the Administration's jobs program.  As Mead points out (and his title suggests) the whole exercise was another example of believing impossible things,

"The belief that green jobs would drive a new era of American prosperity was — like the large majority of green policy chat — intellectually incoherent.  The goods that drive renewable energy industries, like so much else in this world, are far cheaper to construct in Asia."

Today, in a follow up post on his blog, Mead makes a larger point about green policies,

"Every time anyone points out the flaws (obvious, fatal) in many green policy prescriptions, greens essentially respond that the sky is falling and that their critics hate science.  Partly a cheap rhetorical trick and partly reflecting the degree to which greens are thinking emotionally rather than politically, the habit doesn’t help the greens."

Mead's post mostly discusses the failed Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) a cap and trade system actually adopted by northeastern and New England states (New Jersey has since dropped out).  This system was the model on which the Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Accord was based.  Thankfully, that effort never went forward.

Aspirational Conservatism: Twisty Bulb Wisdom

Twisty bulb wisdom is a variant of "pretzel logic."  Today's Minneapolis Star Tribune carries a "point/counterpoint" discussion of the Edison light bulb ban.  Writing in favor of the ban is Matthew Auer, a professor at Indiana U.  Opposed to the ban is Amy Ridenour, the head of the National Center for Public Policy Research.

Professor Auer calls the ban "smart domestic policy".  Ms. Ridenour points out the measure is really foreign policy because "[t]he bulb ban creates jobs.  In China, sure where 75 percent of CFLs are made."

But Professor Auer's headline really gives the game away, "This is less about freedom and more about wisdom."

Ah, "Wisdom."  When I was a kid, you knew when a cartoon character got a great idea because an Edison light bulb appeared over her head.  Now wisdom is defined by getting rid of the Edison light bulb. 

In the world inhabited by Prof. Auer, you and I are too stupid to know what kind of light bulb we should screw into a socket.  We rely on the wise men to tell us which ones are good and to keep the bad ones out of reach.  Because wisdom always trumps freedom.

But if I make a mistake, the only ones harmed are myself, and perhaps, my immediate family.  If Prof. Auer guesses wrong, all 300 million of us suffer.  When power is concentrated in the hands of a wise few, freedom shrinks and misery spreads widely.

The lesson here for Aspirational Conservatism is about de-regulating America.  Regardless of the merits of incandescent vs. LED light bulbs, in no world should lighting preferences be the province of the Crown.

Government 2.0

On his blog, Walter Russell Mead links to this New York Times article on efforts to remake government (Government 2.0).

Here in Minnesota, a group of Republican legislators are working on an effort they call Reform "2.0" to remake state government.  For their troubles, all they have received is mockery and snubs.

Those who are concerned with the cost of government should join forces with those who are concerned with the continuation of government services to make this work. 

Global Warming to Induce Aliens to Destroy Humanity

At least according to NASA.  The Guardian reports that NASA scientists are finding other ways to fill the hours now that we no longer send Americans into space.

(Via Drudge)

The Independent Contractor Nation: The American Dream Reborn

Over at New Geography, Joshua Wright looks at the growth of the self-employed/independent contractors as a share of the workforce.  As a "1099" worker myself (named after the ubiquitous IRS form, I see this phenomenon as part of our nation's future.  To borrow from Walter Russell Mead we are evolving from a nation of Jeffersonian Yeoman Farmers, owning their own land, to a suburban nation, owning their own homes, to a "1099 Nation" owning their own businesses.  And it is a good thing.

Managing the Decline in California

At National Review Online, Michael Walsh travels I-5 through Victor Davis Hanson country and sees the once-proud majesty of Jerry Brown's California, as the Governor works at managing the decline.

The English-Speaking Peoples

Back in the day, Churchill wrote a whole book on the subject.  Today, Walter Russell Mead writes on the importance of the English-speaking peoples to today's world and the idea of these nations (UK, US, Canada, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand) as a block.

The Green Jobs Scam

Walter Russell Mead muses on the "green jobs" scam over at his blog.  He notes both the Evergreen Solar bankruptcy and the Seattle weatherization story.  Mead states the obvious but often denied truth,

"Those who tout green jobs as the engine of America’s economic growth miss a fundamental point: there’s no substantive difference between green manufacturing and any other type."

Solution: Eagle-Safe Electricity

A timely report from Fox News on the eagle kills by wind power in California.  My solution, "eagle-safe electricity" is an idea whose time has come.

(Via Planet Gore)

Heirloom Electricity at MN Free Market Institute

The folks at the Minnesota Free Market Institute were kind enough to repost my essay on "Heirloom Electricity" at their blog.

The Late Debate with Jack and Ben

I was lucky enough to be on The Late Debate with Jack and Ben radio show again last night.  We talked about failed energy stimulus programs, the EPA's war on coal power, and the good news about natural gas and "hydraulic fracturing".  Their show is on from 10 pm to midnight, Sunday through Thursday, on 95.9 FM, live streaming (with video) at ustream.tv and on the podcast through itunes.  (Last night's show is up).

Death of the "Michigan Model"?

Noting the President's midwestern bus trip this week, Michael Barone has a column in today's Wall Street Journal discussing the midwestern economy.

I have been to Detroit and it is one possible future for the urban midwest.  Make no mistake, it is not an aberration, but the logical endpoint for the collection of policies we have followed in America for the past 50 years.

Even Joel Kotkin has lost his optimism

A sign of how how far we've fallen, even the normally optimistic Joel Kotkin's mood has turned dark over the London riots.  "The U.K. Riots And The Coming Global Class War" is the headline from his latest Forbes piece.

My takeaway from Joel,

"economic systems, to be credible and socially sustainable, must deliver results to the vast majority of citizens".

Over at his blog, Walter Russell Mead notes the change in Joel's mood.  My takeaway from Mead's takeaway,

"Nobody yet knows the way forward — least of all established intellectuals, who are mostly still in love with the paradigms of the past...The 21st century demands something new, and if history is any guide, life will be scary and hard while we blunder our way toward something new.

The Barbarians Were Inside the Gates (Updated and Bumped)

Update:  in the Wall Street Journal, Theodore Dalrymple picks up the theme with his opinion piece, "The Barbarians Inside Britain's Gates".  Says the good Doctor,

"The rioters in the news last week had a thwarted sense of entitlement that has been assiduously cultivated by an alliance of intellectuals, governments and bureaucrats.  'We're fed up with being broke,' one rioter was reported as having said, as if having enough money to satisfy one's desires were a human right rather than something to be earned."

At Commentary, Peter Wehner writes about the English riots.  Quoting Prime Minister David Cameron,

"There are parts of our society that are not just broken but frankly sick.  When we see children of 12 or 13 looting it’s clear there are things that are badly wrong in our society.  There is a complete lack of responsibility in some parts of our society.  People are allowed to feel the world owes them something and that their actions don’t have consequences.”

Agreed.  But it goes deeper than that.  Consider this quote by Scottish writer and politician John Buchan,​ writing from another age,

“My fear was not barbarism, which is civilisation submerged or not yet born, but de-civilisation, which is civilisation gone rotten.  It was not the return of the Dark Ages that I feared, but the coming of a too garish age, when life would be lived in the glare of neon lamps and the spirit would have no solitude… a civilization bemused by an opulent materialism has been met by a rude challenge.”

(Via InstaPundit)

David Cameron and Britain's 'Moral Collapse'

The Daily Telegraph reports that UK Prime Minister David Cameron will confront the "moral collapse" in British society.  The PM asks,

"Do we have the determination to confront the slow-motion moral collapse that has taken place in parts of our country these past few generations?  Do we have the determination to confront all this and turn it around?"

Nobody Saw It Coming

Ron Brownstein in the National Journal on the on the collapse in Washington's politicians and institutions,

"Both the turmoil in the financial markets and a procession of dismal new poll results point toward the same unmistakable conclusion: All of the leading figures and institutions in Washington are facing a collapse in public confidence probably unmatched since late in Jimmy Carter’s presidency."

Steyn on the London Riots and "After America"

In his weekly syndicated column Mark Steyn gives a preview of his excellent book "After America" in discussing the riots in London.  Steyn closes with this warning,

'Within living memory, the city in flames on our TV screens every night governed a fifth of the Earth's surface and a quarter of its population.  When you're imperialists on that scale, there are bound to be a few mishaps along the way.  But nothing the British Empire did to its subject peoples has been as total and catastrophic as what a post-great Britain did to its own."

Life in Double "A" America: the Bankruptcy of the Elites

From a few days ago, Victor Davis Hanson writes about the intellectual bankruptcy of our establishment elite.  A point I have been making to anyone who will listen, in the midst of our world crisis, we are saddled with an establishment marked by second class intellects and third class temperaments.

To quote Oliver Cromwell (by way of Leo Amery),

"You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately... Depart, I say; and let us have done with you.  In the name of God, go!"

Aspirational Conservatism: Thoughts on Wisconsin

The launching pad for this post is some of the coverage of the recent recall elections in Wisconsin.  This opinion piece on CNN by Alan Borsuk talks about how evenly split the electorate is in our neighbor to the east.  The Wisconsin State Journal has an editorial calling the results "a victory for moderation."

Says Borsuk,

"As a pretty impartial person, my reading of the dominant message is: We live in polarizing, sharply split, inflamed times when it comes to politics.  And that's only getting more intense...The outcomes certainly didn't leave things in a more middle-of-the-road place where compromise is on politicians' minds."

We get a very different view from the Wisconsin State Journal,

"Tuesday's results were far from a backlash, yet not a ringing endorsement, either.  And that means thoughtful senators in the middle of the political divide should have an easier time advocating for consensus legislation on jobs, the economy and education reform."

They can't both be correct about Tuesday's election outcome.  Either the direction will be more intense division or more moderate behavior.  I'm betting on the former.

In this post and others I have argued that there is no middle ground between the sides, because the debate centers on differences of kind and not degree.  In finding the middle ground between 3 and 7 the answer can never be "Q".  The old Yogi Berra quote, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it" doesn't actually work in practice.  You can go west, you can go east, but you can't keep going north, which is what folks are asking for when the calls go up to "compromise" or "do the deal."  As we saw with Minnesota's budget and the federal debt ceiling, the "deal" when done, doesn't work.

As I will explore in later posts, the visions behind each side are mutually exclusive:  you can't follow a bit of both.  One path leads to "managed decline", at best a gentile, shabby chic as we slide from exceptionalism to leading from behind.  The other calls for the painful sacrifice required in renewal and rebirth.  You can't be reborn while you are still declining.  Politics has become so bitter because we have reached the point where split the difference is no longer possible:  it has (or must) become winner take all.

Environmentalism's Nihilistic Impulse, Part 6

The Minneapolis Star Tribune posts this AP story on a "unabomber"-style terror campaign waged by anti-nanotech activists in Mexico.  (I can't believe I just typed that last sentence).  What is this group trying to save?  You guessed it, the "environment." They decry,

"nano-pollution that affects the air, food, water, transport, in short the entire world".

(Via InstaPundit)

Life in Double "A" America: An Empire in Decline

Dan Henninger surveys what life will be like in our empire in decline:  it turns out that it won't be all Jersey Shore and free health care.  There will be a downside, too.

Writes Henninger,

"If growth goes, your status goes.  It's not complicated.  Ask Britain, once glorious but now burning."

Bell, California: A Followup

The LA Times follows up on the pensions of those Bell, California, officials who were ousted over excessive pay.  For the most part, state officials have slashed pensions to a fraction of the original amounts, down to something approaching reasonable.  But they are still getting state pensions!

Life in Double "A" America: A Clockwork Orange

Mark Steyn's favorite image from America's dystopian future is Mad Max motoring down I-95.  But I have said before that my money is on A Clockwork Orange.  I am pleased that Michael Walsh over at National Review Online agrees.  However, neither future holds much appeal.

Event: Human Capital Bonds

On August 23rd, the Citizens League is holding an event on human capital bonds in Minneapolis at 6 p.m.  I've signed up, you should, too!

London Is Burning

Well, not tonight, anyway.  The Wall Street Journal gives its take on the London riots,

"But these are not 18th-century sans-culottes, run out of bread.  They aren't even Greek communists destroying property in order to demand the continuation of their welfare state.  It is hooliganism pure and simple.  If it serves as a wake up call, it should be to the fact that the veneer of civilization can be terrifyingly thin."

Help Wanted: National Turnaround Specialist

Do you have experience in turning around post-industrial, developed economies?
Do you have the ability to build consensus among various stakeholders?

Turnaround Specialist needed to head the world's only remaining superpower.  Previous experience in national renewal a plus.  Public speaking skills helpful, but emphasis will be placed on overall ability to communicate.  The successful candidate will demonstrate an ability to reverse weak financial conditions, improve poor lender relationships, and institute effective management controls.

The United States of America (USA) is accepting applications for the position of President.  The position is accountable to the American people and posterity.  Employer is a 235-year-old, community-owned enterprise, with locations across North America and branch offices throughout the world.

Salary, $400,000 annual.  Plus travel and expense accounts.  Housing provided upon request.  Applications must be received by November 6, 2012.  Start date, January 20, 2013.  Please send applications to the American people.

For addtional information visit http://www.usa.gov/.

Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.

Institutional Failure in Europe

Walter Russell Mead has has an opinion piece in today's Wall Street Journal (subscription only) on Europe's less than effective response to the continents financial crises.  Writes Mead,

"[W]e have reached the end of the age in which serious people could believe international political institutions would replace sovereign governments as the chief actors in international political life."

Environmentalism's Nihilistic Impulse, Part 5

From a land beyond parody comes this entry in the Nihilistic Impulse parade, an interview on AlterNet about the need for a militant environmental movement.  (What?  We don't already have one?)   The book is called Deep Green Resistance as is the movement.  Tara Lohan writes about the book,

"And so how do we save the world (and along with it ourselves)?  Well, naturally we take down industrial civilization, they say.  Yeah, no small feat."

All the usual stuff is in there:  property damage, sabotage, general mayhem, summary execution of environmental criminals.  But I am struck by how much talk there is about violence, and how little about environmental improvement.

(Via Planet Gore)

Life in Double "A" America: Barbarians at the Gate

What is it about August?  In searching for an analogy for America's downgrade from AAA credit to AA+, I'm fixating on the sacking of Rome, August 24, 410.

It was the first time the city had been taken by an enemy in 800 years.  Even though the capital of the western empire had moved years earlier, and the eastern empire had split off and would last as a separate entity for another thousand years, the sacking of 410 was a blow from which the western empire would never fully recover.

The Visigoths attacked and looted the city for three days and then withdrew.  The sacking ended, but what also ended was the idea that Rome was invulnerable.  Other enemies took note, and a second sacking took place in 455 and the western empire ended in 476.

Despite the overheated "blame the messenger" rhetoric of this weekend, Standard & Poor's are not the Visigoths.  But they have delivered the message that America is not invulnerable.  Who will take note of that fact and take action?  Our credit rating and stock market may recover in the near term, but larger changes are needed to avoid the same fate of that civilization from 1,600 years ago.

Life in Double "A" America: Who Pays More in Taxes?

My friends Kim Crockett and John LaPlante have a great opinion piece in today's Minneapolis Star Tribune on who really pays income taxes.  They bust some pernicious myths around how much "the rich" actually pay as a percentage of income in income taxes.

To get out of the hole we are in, straight talk on "who pays what" is essential.  Quoting from their piece,

"In a poll, University of Michigan economist Joel Slemrod found that '51 percent of all respondents think that middle-income families currently pay a higher percentage of income in taxes than high-income families.'  Slemrod says: 'These beliefs run counter to what nearly all tax 'experts' believe to be true.'  As Minnesotans continue to debate budgets and tax policy, it is important to get our facts straight."

Aspirational Conservatism and Earned Success

Michael Barone picks up on the importance of "earned success" in a column on Real Clear Politics.  In answering the question, "why aren't voters moving left?" Mr. Barone cites both Arthur Brooks and Walter Russell Mead in developing the key insight that "But ordinary Americans don't want money as much as they want honor."

Decline and Fall of Los Angeles, Part 2

Last month, I called attention to a piece Joel Kotkin had in the Wall Street Journal on the decline of the once great city of Los Angeles.  Now in the summer issue of City Journal, Joel has a longer version of the piece, entitled "Lost Angeles."

In the City Journal piece, Joel is more specific on the role regulation has played in L.A.'s woes, particularly environmental and labor regulation.  Quoting Joel,

"Meantime, business-strangling regulations proliferate.  Many of these originate with the environmental movement, which [L.A. Mayor] Villaraigosa and other Democrats count on for political support and media validation...'Our ferocious concentration on the environment and other issues has created a huge potential issue of social justice bigger than we might want to deal with,' [Economist John] Husing says. 'We are telling blue-collar workers here that we don’t want you to have a job.' "

Unbelieving Impossible Things

I read this column by Victor Davis Hanson as being hopeful.  Perhaps this latest financial crisis will be the one that forces our political elites to stop believing impossible things, specifically, about the sustainability of the modern welfare state.

Not everyone is ready to believe the new truth, Jacob Weisberg at Slate beleives that the unwashed masses are all too stupid to understand the "big ideas" that the big brain elites are thinking.

Meanwhile, Walter Russell Mead continues to identify the service jobs of the future.

Aspirational Conservatism: Lemonade Freedom Day, August 20th

Yesterday, I posted about the regulatory war on lemonade stands.  But this guy is actually doing something about it.  He has started a site called Lemonade Freedom and declared August 20, 2011 as Lemonade Freedom Day.

The Invisible Hand is Writing on the Wall

Walter Russell Mead goes back to the Book of Daniel for a metaphor that captures life in double "A" America.  Yes, the invisible hand (Adam Smith?) has written on the wall, we have been measured in the balance and found wanting.

Here's how Mead opens his essay,

"The invisible hand has been writing on our wall of late, and the message is scaring the markets. The markets should be scared; there is real trouble afoot, and the world’s political and economic leaders are terrifyingly out of their depth."

"

Ceiling or Abyss?

Published hours before the U.S. was downgraded from triple "A" to double "A", Mark Steyn's weekly syndicated column takes on the national debt ceiling deal.

On the left-leaning cable TV channels this evening, the sport seems to be "shoot the messenger" as they rake Standard and Poor's and the Tea Party over the coals.

But Steyn was hours (if not years) ahead of the news, writing,

"I have also been thinking about America circa 2020.  Indeed, I've written a book on the subject...Oh, don't worry, I'm not one of these "declinists".  I'm way beyond that, and in the express lane to total societal collapse.  The fecklessness of Washington is an existential threat not only to the solvency of the republic but to the entire global order."

Life in double "A" America: That's AA+, thank you very much

It's  a dark day for America.  Standard & Poor's downgraded the United States from AAA to AA+.  How far are we willing to fall?

"Eating May's Grain in April"

I don't often take advice from the Chinese Government, but the Drudge headline "Eating May's Grain in April" caught my eye.  This item from the French press agency AFP, reports on the Chinese Government's opinions on America's debt policy.  I thought this quote summed it up nicely,

"To eat May's grain in April, however, will never be a permanent solution to a problem," the report said.

I have often thought that our whole country, the past decade or so, has been living off the fat of the land.  Borrowing from the future to enjoy in the present, selling the family silver, whatever metaphor you want to employ.  Until we get out spending and debt under control....file this under "decline and fall".

Life in AA America: Virginia Beach Tent City

First it was the tent city in New Jersey, now comes word that the city of Virginia Beach is contemplating an authorized tent city for the homeless.  It may not happen, but its serious consideration is another sign of the times.

(Via Drudge)

Follow the Money: EPA and the American Lung Association

Ron Arnold has a column in yesterday's Washington Examiner looking at the financial ties between the U.S. EPA and the American Lung Association.  The non-profit is airing a TV commercial with an asthmatic baby in a red baby carriage on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.  You can watch the ad here on YouTube.  The implication is that Congress is ignoring "pollution" that is causing more childhood asthma cases.

Ignoring the fact that children spend at least 80 percent of their time indoors.  The EPA doesn't regulate indoor air quality.  The American Lung Association makes it clear on their website that the purpose of their TV campaign is to support the EPA's recent efforts to expand the agency's regulatory reach.

The value that Mr. Arnold's column is to document the money trail flowing from EPA to the Association, more than $28 million.

(Via InstaPundit)

"The Power of Bad Ideas"

What a great headline for this week's Peggy Noonan column in the Wall Street Journal (currently unblocked by any paywall), describing the situation with our current President.  (By the way, happy 50th birthday, Mr. Obama!)

But this passage about Reagan is what struck me,

"They say Republicans can't get over Reagan, but really it's Democrats who aren't over him, and who draw the wrong lessons from his success.  Reagan himself never bragged about his ability to convince the American people...He thought speaking was a big part of leadership, but only part, and in his farewell address he went out of his way to say he never thought of himself as a great communicator.  He thought he simply communicated great things—essentially, the vision of the founders as applied to current circumstances."

Revolt of the Elites

Perhaps our political elites are finally taking Bertolt Brecht's advice to elect a new people.  James Taranto, in his Best of the Web Today column, chronicles the revolt by our elites against the people.

Al Gore--""We need to have an American spring--you know, the Arab spring."

Star of Stage and Screen

My bad for not posting this earlier.   Back in June, I was interviewed by Sue Jeffers for her cable access TV show, "Libertarian Viewpoint".  Links to the YouTube videos:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Environmentalism's Nihilistic Impulse, Part 4

From Grist comes this YouTube video showing the Mayor of Vilnius, Lithuania, in a tank, crushing a Mercedes parked in a bike lane.  Staged or not, it says something about the liberal mind.

Now Mercedes owners aren't a sympathetic group, but progressives are always talking about "proportionality" in the administration of justice, so the automotive "death penalty" seems a big out there for a parking offense.  Wouldn't showing the Mayor slapping a ticket with a hefty fine on the windshield make the same point?  From whence comes this impulse to destroy?

And where did the city get money for the tank?  For the Mercedes?

Cap and Trade Down Under, Part 5

From the Sydney Morning Herald, an estimate for the Australian state of New South Wales indicates that the new national carbon tax will cost the state some 31,000 lost jobs.  And for what gain?

Aspirational Conservatism: Earned Success

One of the cornerstones of Aspirational Conservatism is the concept of earned success.  I credit Arthur Brooks of the American Enterprise Institute for introducing me to the idea that earned success--nothing more than success earned through hard work--is the key to happiness.  Not money, though earned success can bring you that, too.  And capitalism is the only system that produces opportunity for earned success on a mass scale.

Crisis of Legitimacy

Walter Russell Mead continues his good work with this essay on the crisis of legitimacy in liberalism.  Like all of his essays on the breakdown of the "blue social model," this one is a must read.

He takes on one my points about the political establishment and the liberal state,

"The professionals and administrators who make up the progressive state are seen as a hostile power with an agenda of their own that they seek to impose on the nation.  This perception, also, is rooted in truth.  The progressive state has never seen its job as simply to check the excesses of the rich.  It has also sought to correct the vices of the poor and to uplift the masses."

Follow the Money: The Revolving Door

I suppose I could easily file this post under "it's a small world," but, instead, I'm sticking with "the revolving door".

According to its website,

"Midwest Energy News is a project of Fresh Energy, a non-partisan, nonprofit organization that advocates for clean energy policy, and the RE-AMP media center, which provides support to more than 100 nonprofits throughout the region."

The editor of Midwest Energy News (MEN) is Ken Paulman, who works at Fresh Energy, according to his Linkedin profile.  He started as editor of MEN in December 2009, after spending April through November of that year as managing editor for on line news for Minnesota Public Radio (MPR).

As I documented in this post, the Kendeda fund, in 2009, donated substantial sums to both RE-AMP and MPR.

From his Fresh Energy bio, here is Ken Paulman on making the jump from MPR to MEN,

"He joined the Fresh Energy team because he believes that smart energy policies benefit everyone and informing and empowering citizens is key to getting those policies in place."

As a media consumer, I have enjoyed Mr. Paulman's work at both MPR and MEN.  I have to say, though, his bio reads to me more like an advocate than one of those hard-bitten, cigar-chomping, "verify your mother loves you" editors from media lore.  Perhaps others would come to a different conclusion.

Rebuilding from the bottom up: Bell, California

As this follow up editorial from the L.A. Times indicates, rebuilding from the bottom up can be tough work.  The City of Bell, California, suffered through a nightmare scandal when their top officials, elected and appointed, were all tossed out in a famous excessive pay scandal.  Just tossing out the bums is step one, what comes next, the rebuilding, is the even harder part.

Lower Than Angels: The Moral Case for Democratic Capitalism

I just finished reading this short book Wealth and Justice by Peter Wehner and Arthur Brooks.  Clocking in at a short 57 pages, it doesn't need an extra page to make the moral case for democratic capitalism.

Life in AA America, the Tent City of New Jersey

From the Daily Mail, The Tent City of New Jersey.  With the classic Mercedes on site,

it seems a metaphor for our times.  "Recovery Summer", indeed.

Toynbee on Civilizations

"Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder."

--Arnold J. Toynbee (1889-1975), British Historian