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Impact - October 1997
PRi Impact
By: Victoria H. Douglass
10.31.1997
October 1997 PRI Ideas in Action
Policy Update and Monthly Impact Report
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Micro-minis and the Fashion Police
The Contrarian
By: Katherine Post
10.30.1997
My mother is in retail, my grandparents were in retail, and even a great uncle owned a small men's haberdashery in Berkeley that still bears his name. I've got retail in my blood.
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Climate Flim-Flam and Road Rage
Capital Ideas
By: Steven F. Hayward, Ph.D
10.28.1997
Way back in the Dark Ages (the 1970s), the National Highway Traffic Safety Commission (NHTSC), alarmed at the accident rate for motorcycles, set out to invent a "safe" motorcycle. I would say, "Stop me if you've heard this one," but it is not a joke - this really happened. At considerable expense, the NHTSC came up with a radical design, by which the motorcycle would be steered by the rear wheel instead of the front. It was much more stable - at speeds over 30 miles per hour. At speeds under 30 miles an hour, the prototype fell over, crushing the rider's leg. No problem: the Commission just added two training wheels to the machine, thus proving that the safest motorcycle is a car.
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Union Powerplay For L.A. School Construction Contracts
Capital Ideas
By: Lance T. Izumi, J.D.
10.22.1997
Just when you thought that unions were coming to grips with the realities of a competitive marketplace, one hears about the building trade unions trying to slip through a monopolistic deal to secure billions of dollars worth of new school construction contracts in Los Angeles exclusively for unionized workers. And, of course, they are conspiring to do this with the approval of key school district officials.
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Making Marriage More Attractive
The Contrarian
By: Katherine Post
10.15.1997
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that in 1996, approximately 21 million married couples paid an average of $1,400 extra to the IRS because joint filing pushed them into higher tax brackets. This consequence of our massive tax code is known as the "marriage penalty," and there are two Congressmen working for its elimination.
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Nobel Prizes and Noble Confusions
Capital Ideas
By: Steven F. Hayward, Ph.D
10.14.1997
This morning brings the news that this year's Nobel Prize in economics has been awarded to Robert Merton. Hooray! We policy wonks might cheer, for Robert Merton is the inventor of the "doctrine of unintended consequences," perhaps the single most important and useful concept for policy analysis. But wait, this is just the Nobel committee's mischief. The "doctrine of unintended consequences" was promulgated by Robert K. Merton, the Columbia University sociologist, while this Nobel Prize is going to Robert C. Merton of Harvard University. (Most news accounts do not provide the all-important middle initial.) That's okay: Given the
Swedish Academy's track record this year, the Academy probably thought it was giving the award to Thomas Merton (or maybe to Merton Miller again, a 1990 co-winner).
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Opportunity Scholarships Worked in Britain
Capital Ideas
By: Lance T. Izumi, J.D.
10.8.1997
Sixteen years ago, then-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher created the Assisted Places Scheme (AP), Britain's version of opportunity scholarships. Since that time, 75,000 children from low-income families have received financial assistance from the central government in London to cover school fees for private independent schools.
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Juxtaposition
Capital Ideas
By: Steven F. Hayward, Ph.D
10.3.1997
Sometimes the calendar plays funny tricks on us, and this coming Saturday is one of those times. As everyone paying attention knows, on Saturday the Promise Keepers descend on Washington for their “Stand in the Gap” assembly. Much less publicized, except for a small squib in Barron’s, is that there will be a much smaller gathering in Washington Saturday to mark the 40th anniversary of the publication of Ayn Rand’s novel, Atlas Shrugged.
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Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
The Contrarian
By: Katherine Post
10.3.1997
At the end of September, the multi-billion dollar program authorizing federal spending on transportation projects expired after six years. Known inside the Beltway as “ice tea,” the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) is the Mecca of all bills for transportation lobbyists. A few months ago, it seemed things would proceed according to the standard pork process.
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