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Business & Economics PUBLICATIONS |
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Impact - October 1999
Submitted on 10.31.1999
October 1999 PRI Ideas in Action
Policy Update and Monthly Impact Report
Airheads
Submitted by K. Lloyd Billingsley on 10.26.1999
During the heyday of Stalinism, George Orwell noted that some ideas were so stupid only an intellectual could believe them, a fitting summation of this century. California now offers its own variation, ideas so stupid only a politician could believe them. But politicians have the power to take stupid ideas and make them into stupid laws. That is especially true when the politician’s party controls the assembly, the senate, and the governor’s office.
Mau-Mauing the GAO
Submitted by Steven F. Hayward, Ph.D on 10.19.1999
One of the great arguments of the urban sprawl controversy concerns the alleged subsidies that low density suburban growth receives. Suburban growth, it is said, does not pay its way. Maybe not, but this claim brings to mind the old saw about wife-beating: if suburban growth doesn’t pay for itself, when did it stop paying for itself? How did all the suburbs of the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s get built if they weren’t paying their way?
Ipso Fatso
Submitted by K. Lloyd Billingsley on 10.5.1999
In the film Dirty Harry, Clint Eastwood is chasing a murderer across Kezar Stadium in San Francisco. But the detective’s rather hefty partner can’t climb the fence, so Eastwood tells him to "take a walk, fatso." That message applies to California’s ruling class, for similar reasons.
Unraveling Welfare Reform in California
Submitted by Naomi Lopez on 10.1.1999
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s most recent statistics, the nationwide welfare recipient caseload dropped by 48 percent, from about 14 million in 1993 to about 7.3 million this year (see Figure 1). Unfortunately, California does not have much to celebrate. Despite some progress in reducing the state’s caseload, California is near the bottom when compared to the rest of the nation.
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