Private Property Rights Made the First Thanksgiving Possible

John Stossel gives thanks (Reason, Nov. 2021).

Even corrupt political operatives recognize the need to align interests

"He was willing to hire them, but he gave them no leeway: payment upon receipt of the ballot request forms. No exceptions. 'These people, if you don’t pay them to do something,' Dowless told us, 'if you pay them an hourly rate, they’ll go sit under a tree'” (Graff and Ochesner, Politico, Nov. 2021)

Are education vouchers anti-racist?

"In pre-pandemic California, only 32% of fourth-graders were at or above proficient for their grade in reading. Only 19% of eighth-grade Hispanics read at grade level, and only 10% of eighth-grade blacks did. Those who find disparate impact everywhere should be screaming from the rooftops that public education is racist" (Kessler, WSJ, Nov. 2021).

The state of public education for many students is deplorable. The problem is especially acute for children of color living in large urban school districts. 

A common saying is, "If it ain't broke, then don't fix it." The correlate is, "If its broken, then fix it." Public education in too many parts of our country is broken.

I support wide-spread availability of education vouchers to give parents the opportunity to send their children to better schools. I live in the Richmond VA metropolitan area, commonly called RVA. I am convinced that many good "private" schools would appear in RVA if parents had vouchers for $10,000 per year. A good private school near me charges less than $7,000.

Vouchers would enable parents to pursue more options for their children, in contrast to the desire of some politicians and commentators.

1. "I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach."
2. “Parents claim they have the right to shape their kids’ school curriculum. They don’t.”

Here are some facts on Richmond City public schools from US News and World Reports.

    Average expenditure per child = $14,000.

Older Posts in Politics is a Shame and a Shame

Follow this link for older posts on Voter Fraud.

The power of rank information

Researchers show that people respond to rankings, even when given quantitative ratings (Chun, J. S., & Larrick, R. P. (2021). The power of rank information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000289). The finding may be relevant for the use or misuse of stack rankings among employees.

Aligning Interests

Click here for earlier posts on Aligning Interests.

The Iron Lady explains it all in her own words.

How I Privatised Britain and Rebooted the "Enterprise Society" is Margaret Thatcher's account of how and why she reduced government control over the economy in Britain (Reason, April 2013). My understanding is that the standard of living increased substantially after her actions. Here are some money quotes.

1. All too often the state is tempted into activities to which it is either ill-suited or which are beyond its capabilities.

   Perhaps the greatest of these temptations is government's desire to concentrate economic power in its own hands. It begins to believe that it knows how to manage business. But let me tell you, it doesn't as we discovered in Britain in the 1970s when nationalisation and prices and incomes policy together deprived management of the ability to manage. 

2. privatisation shrinks the power of the state and free enterprise enlarges the power of the people.

3. to create a genuine market in a state you have to take the state out of the market.

Nurse Salaries Rise as Demand for Their Services Soars During Covid-19 Pandemic

As predicted (WSJ Nov. 2021).

Rent Control Backfires Again in St. Paul

This opinion is not a fan of rent controls (WSJ, Nov. 2021). Here is the money quotes: "One developer has 'already pulled applications for three buildings,' a representative told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Another 'lost a major investor' in 'an apartment building he’s trying to get off the ground.'"

Is College Worth the Cost? That Depends

Here are two money quotes of a a report for the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (WSJ, Nov. 2021).

1. Though students often obsess over where they get in, their majors have the most sway over their future earnings. Programs in engineering, computer science, economics and nursing all yield a high return, often increasing their students’ net lifetime earnings by $500,000 or more (emphasis added).
2. Besides major, another important factor behind negative return for some programs is low completion rates. If a student graduates in four years, the increase in his earnings is usually enough to justify the costs of college across majors and schools. That’s true less often if he takes five or six years to graduate.  

More Small Businesses Than Ever Raising Compensation

James Freeman's piece describes how markets react to and automatically reduce shortages (WSJ, Nov. 2021).  Shortage ⇒ increase in price ⇒ decrease in shortage. 

Do we want to discourage marriage and work?

Casey Mulligan shows that the current version of the current version of the Spending Bill = Build Back Better Bill = Social Spending Bill = Reconciliation Bill imposes substantial taxes on couple who marry and increases the effective marginal tax rate on low-income earners (Mulligan, WSJ, Nov. 2021)
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Experts v. Markets

"Who better to boss us around than the “expert class”? But markets, with billions of price signals, always know better than 537 elected politicians" (Kessler, WSJ,Nov. 2021).