Social Justice Magazine
Uncontroversially, U.S. domestic oil production has been declining for roughly 40 years now, yet public policy still subsidizes its consumption (see Peak Oil 101), and, as every free-market economist will tell you, a subsidy means we over-consume it.What could solve the growing divergence between our domestic energy supply and energy demand?We could continue what we have been … [Read more...]
The acute problem of the Gulf oil spill makes the cost of corruption-afflicted government front page news. Lax Federal offshore drilling oversight under Bush 43 has cost us dearly. However, our society’s vulnerability to any trouble with this critical resource should also remind us of the chronic problem: peak oil.Oil production follows a bell-shaped curve rising to a peak, then declining. … [Read more...]
After years on the job, my friend’s company laid off his entire department, and the county laid off his wife. I told him our spare bedroom is available if he needs it.Besides the attack on the “crazy spending” government that cost my friend’s wife her county job, a primary cause of such unemployment is the difficulty in getting a business loan. Companies need to make payroll until they … [Read more...]
Appropriately for April Fool's, Republican California Assemblyman Roger Niello's editorial appears in the Sacramento Bee protesting California's public policy response to climate change (AB32). As evidence that AB32 is misguided, he cites the discredited Varshney study and the similiarly biased California Manufacturers and Technology Association (CMTA) oil-industry-funded study of AB32. … [Read more...]
When the nation's most trusted newsman is Comedy Central's Jon Stewart, it's no surprise that sensible debate about public policy is at least hard to find. Lately, however, such policy debates have become positively surreal.The health care bill that just passed is a clone of Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney's Massachusetts plan. Nevertheless, this extremely modest (Republican) … [Read more...]
California State Senator Dave Cox's most recent constituent newsletter dismisses public policy attempts to address climate change ("AB 32 - The Runaway Train of Overregulation") by repeating the usual neocon talking points: Climate change is not really scientifically proven, and the costs to address it are too high even if it is real.But he omits the one parallel problem about which there is … [Read more...]
California Assemblyman Roger Niello (R-Fair Oaks) has been busy this week promoting his neocon talking points. In the Orangevale View he writes "lawmakers can no longer sit idly by and watch employers be regulated to death."Meanwhile, Haiti -- without building code regulations -- suffered 200,000 dead after an earthquake the size of Chile's. Chile has building code regulations, and only 700 … [Read more...]
Bill George, the press secretary for Congressman Tom McClintock protests that in some previous editorials, I've maligned his boss with "utterly preposterous charges." Unfortunately, I've done my homework, and Mr. George's specific answers are either wrong, or misleading.Here are his statements and my answers:Bill George (BG): A rambling post by Adam Eran of the leftist blog LA Progressive … [Read more...]
In his recent hearings, California Assemblyman Roger Niello (R-Fair Oaks) asked what government does "that makes it difficult for you [business] folks to be successful." Predictably, those testifying complained about the egregious burdens California's bureaucracy has imposed on them. One even threatened to move to Wyoming. Said another: "I fear the government, because they will bankrupt … [Read more...]
When we left the movies Friday, a flier promoting Congressman Lundgren's health care town hall meetings appeared on the windshield of every car in the parking lot. In it, author Charles (Chuck) J Dunbar warns "Notoma [sic] Station Resident" that the proposed health care change is "not reform [but] a complete ... takeover of the Best Health Care system in the world." (Chuck rejects conventional … [Read more...]
Supported by a farrago of half truths, innuendo and delusion, Congressman Tom McClintock's recently published speech "California's Morality Play in Three Acts" asserts that California's public policy, once the best, has now gone bad. Facts say otherwise.McClintock says that a generation ago, the state "spent about half what it does today AFTER adjusting for both inflation and population … [Read more...]
The shrill attacks on government spending -- "it's always wasteful! it *never* invests!" -- have already begun. The anti-tax crowd has begun its triumphal victory dance, spinning the defeat of proposition 1A's rather modest extension of taxes as an endorsement of their prejudices. But this is one voter who turned down the convoluted logic of California's recent propositions because they did not … [Read more...]
"Men...think in herds; ...go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses...one by one." -- Charles MackayRepublican Assemblyman Roger Niello's recent editorial "Performance Based Budgeting Deserves a Look," is his bid to appear as a man who has recovered his senses. In it, he reminds us that California's state budget process is imperfect. The remedy he proposes, however, is simply odd. He … [Read more...]
by Adam Eran --The Census Bureau reports that California ranks 10th among states in income, but only 22nd in tax burden. Nevertheless, the Republican mantra has been that higher taxes are so damaging that government should avoid them at all costs -- especially in downturns like the current one.This sentiment is so pervasive that all but one of California's Republican legislators recently … [Read more...]
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