In this post, I will consider the Common Council discussion on university housing, and off-campus student housing. It was the most heated portion of the meeting, but some of the quiet, scattered remarks during the conversation were no less telling. On Enforcement. Consider the situation of Atty. Terry Race, who lives near the university. …
Free Markets
City, Development, Economy, Free Markets, University
Student Housing in Whitewater: Our Mistaken and Repetitive Approach
by JOHN ADAMS •
There are two stories from yesterday’s Janesville Gazette that describe the pressures of student housing: Students Spread Out in Whitewater City, School Address Housing Concerns. The stories ably describe arguments that residents of Whitewater have have made against student housing for years with no change in demand. I certainly don’t believe that demand for student…
Free Markets, Libertarians
Joe Biden: Not So Fond of Limited Government
by JOHN ADAMS •
Senator Obama chose another, and less impressive, senator as his running mate. Much sport will be had at the expense of Joe Biden, a gaffe-prone, entrenched incumbent. Look at him seriously, though, and you find something worse: a career politician who has neither time nor understanding for limited government. David Boaz recalls Biden’s theatrics in…
Free Markets
Free Market Parking
by JOHN ADAMS •
Does your town have shortages of parking spaces for customers, residents, and visitors? Many towns have these challenges, and free parking (which isn’t ever free) is no answer compared with free market parking. Over at the blog Pedshed.net, dedicated to “Walkable Urban Design and Sustainable Placemaking,” there’s a post on how Redwood City, California and…
Free Markets
Congressional Earmarks — 17 Billion Dollars Down the Drain
by JOHN ADAMS •
Free Markets
The Only Fair Trade is Free Trade
by JOHN ADAMS •
Over at the Christian Science Monitor, Gene Callahan of the excellent Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) has a article describing how fair trade schemes actually hurt third world residents. Fair trade props up inefficient producers and pulls resources in people and land from their most efficient, productive uses. The article, excerpted from FEE’s own publication,…
Free Markets, School District
Bureaucratic Objections to School Choice: Yes, Prime Minister
by JOHN ADAMS •
Here’s a video clip from the British television series, Yes, Prime Minister. The comedy series is from the 1980s, and offers how civil servants try to manage and guide policy in Britain. In this clip, the British Prime Minister, James Hacker, suggests private school choice, and his status-quo-defending, don’t-make-changes cabinet secretary, Sir Humphrey Appleby, argues…
Economy, Free Markets, Libertarians, Planning
A Libertarian Perspective on Energy Costs
by JOHN ADAMS •
City, Free Markets, Planning
Randal O’Toole on the Inefficiency of Mass Transit
by JOHN ADAMS •
In a post from July 28th, I questioned the idea of a mass transit proposal for the Janesville-Milton-Whitewater area. Over at the Cato Institute, there’s a link to a daily podcast featuring scholars from that think tank. The always interesting Randal O’Toole, author of The Best Laid Plans, speaks on the inefficiency of mass transit.…
Free Markets
Free Market Beats Los Angeles City Council (Of Course!)
by JOHN ADAMS •
The Orange County Register, via the VV Daily Press, offers an editorial explaining how the free market is working faster than the Los Angeles City Council to address environmental worries about plastic grocery bags. Both Los Angeles and the state of California are considering bans on supposedly wasteful plastic bags. (As it turns out, paper…
Free Markets
Go-Go: What Lake Geneva, WI Banned, Kodak Embraced
by JOHN ADAMS •
Yesterday, in a morning post, I mentioned that in 1967 Lake Geneva, Wisconsin’s “city government passed an ordinance banning go-go girls, dancers in bikinis, and swimsuit-clad waitresses from working in establishments that served alcohol.” It was local government deciding for you. Like most people, I would prefer a restaurant where the emphasis was on the…
Free Markets, School District
Public Schools as Old, Expensive Chevy Impalas, Part 2
by JOHN ADAMS •
Yesterday, I posted on the observation of Andrew Coulson at Cato who contends that public schools were like old, expensive Chevy Impalas. Here’s why he makes that analogy: U.S. student achievement at the end of high school has stagnated (reading and math) or declined (science) since nationally-representative NAEP tests were first administered around 1970. Meanwhile,…
Development, Free Markets
Where are all the Marauding Drunks?
by JOHN ADAMS •
Free Markets
America’s Dairyland
by JOHN ADAMS •
Wisconsin touts itself as America’s Dairyland, and our production of milk is impressive. The Green Bay Press Gazette reports that Wisconsin’s milk production has been rising, with over two billion pounds of milk produced in March, from over 1.25 million cows. That’s a lot of milk, and one might imagine that it would bring the…