More West Elbert County Sun politics from 8/28/08:

“Thomasson added that what is needed are “a lot of small ideas that are achievable. In bringing jobs to the area, it is going to be five to 10 new ones at a time that are compatible with what we have here, not bringing in a GM-sized industry.”

“Patty Sward…added that her goal is to ensure smart growth[.]”

A patient lying on her death bed does not need an aspirin and a gaggle of government planners sucking up all of the oxygen in the room with empty platitudes.  She needs serious medicine and air to breath.

Elbert County does not need jobs that are compatible with economic stagnation and poverty.  Elbert County needs real industry, real manufacturing, and real capitalized enterprises that produce substantial profits.  Elbert County needs a relaxed regulatory climate to encourage those economic engines with the freedom to start and grow.  “Smart growth” will keep us quaint, rural, struggling to make ends meet, dependent on government handouts, purchasing our goods in Douglas County, and exporting our children to Douglas County for education.

Claire Levy - Urban sprawl drives up the cost of living

Smart Growth: Retarding the Quality of Life

Americans have moved to the suburbs:
The air is cleaner, but road expansion has lagged behind population growth:
A strong anti-suburban movement has developed.
The anti-sprawl movement suggests so-called “smart growth:”

The anti-sprawl diagnosis is flawed:

• Urbanization does not threaten agricultural land:
• Most suburban growth is not from the cities:
• “Walkable” cities are an illusion:
• Open space is expanding more rapidly than urbanization:

Smart growth would intensify the very problems it is supposed to solve.

• Smart growth increases traffic intensity:
• Smart growth increases air pollution intensity:
• Smart growth reduces housing affordability:

From Social Engineering to Freedom:.

• Sufficient road capacity should be provided to accommodate growth:
• People should be allowed to live and work where and how they like:

4th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey: 2008

Once again, the Demographia survey leads inevitably to one clear conclusion: the affordability of housing is overwhelmingly a function of just one thing, the extent to which governments place artificial restrictions on the supply of residential land.

Myth No. 1: Smart Growth is good.

In reality, it’s not. Portland and San Jose, the two top “Smart Growth” cities in the U.S., have more unaffordable housing, higher job losses, higher urban unemployment and greater congestion, with much higher confiscatory tax and fee levels, than before they adopted their “Smart Growth” policies. Yet their leaders proclaim “success” from their policies. Hypocrisy has become the norm - lies and deceitfulness their standard operating procedure for government. Only their union employees and congestion management consultants are profiting - and the bankruptcy attorneys.

90% of Elbert County citizens who work commute to a job outside of Elbert County.

Average commute times in Elbert County are double the state-wide average.

In an economy where fuel is prohibitively expensive, we must bring jobs to Elbert County. The interests of the 10% of Elbert County citizens who do not have to commute should not control the public planning agenda to keep the rest of Elbert County impoverished by commuting time and expense.

“Managed growth compatible with a rural life style” is a tyranny by a small minority.

Sources:

• Elbert County Census Quick Facts ….. source link
• Rural Urban Commuting Area Codes ….. source link
• Rural Urban Commuting Area Code Definitions ….. source link

“Vote for the person who you think is creative enough to solve the dilemmas that have unfolded in Elbert County in the recent past.”

That pretty much rules out everyone Mr. Thomasson. Even if you reduced the problem set to the domain of government originally intended by the Founders, not a man alive could be smart enough to solve that set of problems. In the present, where government has expanded its control into myriads of areas of our lives it cannot possibly understand let alone resolve, the proposition is even more absurd. Any candidate sufficiently delusional to believe in the myth that one person could possess such capacity should be allowed nowhere near a controlling office.

A commissioner should be elected not for what they promise they will do, but for what they promise they won’t do. Here are some examples:

• I promise to not support tax increases.
• I promise to not grow government.
• I promise to not increase regulations on the private sector through planning and zoning.
• I promise to not impede economic growth in the private sector.

We have enough 1) taxation, 2) government, and 3) regulation, and not enough 4) economic activity. What are the odds that there is an inverse correlation between the first three and the last one?  I’d say bet on it.

The prescription for the success of Elbert County is a simple one. Limit government, expand the private sector. It is the philosophy that built this country. It works. People know what is in their own best interest. All they need is the freedom to act on that knowledge. Government does not, and cannot know, what is in each of our own best interests. Life is tough enough without having to carry the dead weight of an oppressive bureaucracy on our backs.

The visions of the left are attractive and alluring, but they’ve never become reality anywhere they have been tried. Moreover, the more power vested in the state in the various social experiments of the past several hundred years, the worse the outcomes have been. This is not an arguable or close call. Mountains of evidence of human misery caused by leftism exist. The death toll runs in the 100’s of millions. There’s just no point in going down that road any further.

Elbert County’s largest employer is Government.

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• It can spend only what it first collects from taxpayers.
• It does not add any net positive value to the county.
• It does not make a profit.
• It controls and regulates who may engage in true profit-making enterprises in the county.
• It controls and regulates who may live where and how in the county.
• Elbert County’s largest employer would not exist without the coercive power of the state to prop it up.
• The direct cost of Elbert County’s largest employer is the tax cost to citizens.
• The indirect cost of Elbert County’s largest employer is an “opportunity cost” - the value of profit (wealth) that would have been added to the county if the people and resources consumed by Elbert County would have been engaged in private enterprise.

Elbert County citizens have been brainwashed into believing that this losing enterprise is their best hope for a better future. Not only is it not, it is physically impossible for it to ever be so.

This month, an IBD/TIPP Poll of 920 adults found that by more than 3-to-1 Americans believe gas prices to be a bigger problem than global warming. A broad-based 64% of respondents favor offshore drilling, and 65% want oil shale development in the Western states.A Rasmussen survey in June found 67% of voters in favor of drilling off the coasts of California, Florida and other states, and 64% believing gas prices would drop as a result. A Zogby poll last month found that 74% want offshore drilling in U.S. waters.This is a potential political gusher, if only Republicans would fully tap into it. Bush has the opportunity to do so before this hot, cash-guzzling summer ends. Like Truman, he can use his constitutional authority to call this negligent Congress back once it embarks on its long August recess to campaign for re-election.In so doing, he can demand that instead of nonsolutions like its failed attempt to release more oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve [SPR], Congress carry out the will of the vast majority of Americans by passing laws that authorize drilling.

Call Congress Back to Vote on Drilling

When you least expect it, the most interesting revelations surface. I was discussing some fundamental differences between my positions and positions of the left with some Democrats yesterday. As usually happens in these situations, they grew increasingly impatient with me as I defended my position from compromise. As we parted, they made a reference to their firmly held belief that the French Revolution was the logical outcome of Laissez Faire capitalism. They all held this conclusion as if it were fact, and they tossed off questions to this assumption as they departed as absurd. (more…)

Candidate Robert Thomasson

advocates “Smart Growth” for Elbert County, an “urban planning and transportation theory that concentrates growth in the center of a city to avoid urban sprawl; and advocates compact, transit-oriented, walkable, bicycle-friendly land use.” It’s difficult to imagine “walkable, bicycle-friendly” corridors that would be practical over the distances in Elbert County.

Candidate Andy Wyer

believes “managed growth is designed to preserve the rural life style and quality of life that we all enjoy in Elbert County.” “Growth management is a set of techniques used by government to ensure that as the population grows that there are services available to meet their demands. These are not necessarily only government services. Other demands such as the protection of natural spaces, sufficient and affordable housing, delivery of utilities, preservation of buildings and places of historical value, and sufficient places for the conduct of business are also considered.

One technique is the imposition of impact fees. Impact fees are imposed to charge the owners of newly developed properties for the “impact” the new development will have on the community. Fees can be used for such things as transportation improvements, new parks, and expansion of schools. Impact fees are not used to maintain existing facilities, but instead are used to create new facilities in proportion to the number of new developments in the area.

Another technique is application of zoning to reduce the cost of service delivery. Zoning can be used to reduce the area affected by urbanization, allowing the same number of people to live and work in a smaller area, allowing services to be delivered more efficiently. For example, grocery stores and pizza delivery businesses can service only a limited area. If more customers are located within their service delivery area, the cost of delivering their services is decreased.

Preventing suburban densities from affecting a large area also has the effect of providing open spaces so that people who wish to live in a rural setting can do so without urbanization threatening their lifestyle.

The application of growth management techniques are often governed by the development of a comprehensive plan. The plan can be used to measure the impact that new growth will have on the community and define the method by which that impact is mitigated.”

Candidate Steve Valdez

would “plan and manage Elbert County’s growth with smart and proven policies.”

Candidate John Shipper

would “plan and manage growth compatible with a rural lifestyle.”

Put Mr. Valdez and Mr. Shipper in the “managed growth” camp with Mr. Wyer.

All this planning chutzpa begs a great big question. What have managed growth and smart growth planning theories accomplished in Elbert County to warrant such devotion? Answer: nothing – not a damn thing.

Elbert County town centers have minimal economic activity. The Elbert County Fair gets smaller each year. Our road network is in poor condition and does not promote efficient transits of the county. Our schools are producing historically low performance measures, enrollments are shrinking, teachers are leaving, and students are fleeing to Douglas County schools. Commercial enterprises have been closing faster than they are opening, and landowners are prevented from engaging in development that could bring economic returns to the county. Economically, Elbert County is hobbled, and at least four commissioner candidates, apparently, like things that way.

We don’t need their focus on the past, their myths about the rural life style and quality of life that need preserving. This quality of life is not worth preserving. It is poor and getting poorer.  Oh, if you happen to work on or live near one of John Malone’s preserved ranches things might appear to look good, but that’s not because of anything produced here.  The hobbies of one wealthy man don’t constitute a local economy.

We can and must build a much better quality of life with better infrastructure, efficient transportation corridors, desirable schools, businesses that produce goods and services for commercial markets, and opportunities for citizens to participate in economic growth. But these candidates, their myopic visions, the controls they would impose on us, and their master plans, will produce nothing. Elbert County needs opportunities of the sort that county government and Malone’s charity cannot produce. We have to do the hard work ourselves to build these things.

Elbert County citizens need to stop lapping up easy answers from planners. Master plan devotees have had over a decade to prove their worth in Elbert County and they failed miserably. New smart-growth and managed-growth master plans are no more than new lipstick on an old pig.  They are not the answer. There are no easy answers.

The top 2 income classes making $100,000 and up, comprise 15.4% of income tax payers, and pay 83.3% of federal income taxes.

Remember this next time the progressives talk about raising taxes on the rich. The rich already pay way more than their fair share, and that’s probably enough progress.

Source: U.S. Congress

Mr. Boisseau of Golden needs to raise his awareness of the “Lights On” all over Asia. In building after building, block after block, mile after mile, and city after city of crowded Asia, the lights are all on at night. Buildings are covered in massive colorful light displays that outline the geometries of buildings, create interesting abstract shapes, and light the night for the sake of art and visual stimulation. Every night of the year the buildings of Asia light up. Are they wasting energy on a colossal scale that dwarfs conservation efforts in the U.S.? Absolutely! Are these societies “precarious,” to use Mr. Boisseau’s adjective? Well, their economies are growing like gangbusters with currencies making mince meat out of the dollar as they produce goods for the world and accumulate wealth. Years ago, a philosophy professor of mine characterized the West’s solution to economic scarcity as a “get more” approach, as opposed to the mentality of those with a zero-sum view of the world which he characterized as a “want less” approach. His point was that the first approach led to better societies and happier people. Today Asia follows what used to be the Western approach, while back home in the West the Boisseaus want us to feel guilty, wasteful, to accept inconvenience, to see our technology as having led us to precarious times, in sum, to “want less” instead of “get more.” This neo-Luddite claptrap never solved a real problem. Moreover, guilt tripping the West into saving a few pennies of energy while the rest of the world lives on an energy bender is absurd. It’s a perpetual guilt trip that can never resolve. How convenient for the Boisseaus of the world. Without doing or creating a thing, they get perpetual moral superiority.

How about we leave the lights on, study longer and harder, and create some real solutions.

Let’s see. The price of oil and fuel went up sharply and Congress subsidized ethanol production. In the higher priced fuel market, a marginally profitable alternative energy source became more economical with a subsidy. Food became more expensive due to increased fuel costs plus increased scarcity. Now, the UN and others blame the U.S. for causing food shortages.

Like hell. Oil producers effectively encouraged the U.S. to become more energy self-sufficient and the U.S. responded by diverting food carbon into energy production. We have a classic example of unintended consequences beginning with the manipulation of energy prices.

Subsidy of alternative energy production is probably a mistake because subsidies hide real economics and distort profitability, however, the despots-R-us UN is delusional in blaming the U.S. for causing hunger.

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“To a greater extent than is recognized, China may have more closely replicated the political ordering of events that unfolded in western Europe: An autocratic regime at first tolerates those economic relationships that are conducive to prosperity, and then uses its powers to preserve the gains in wealth from disruption and organized plunder. As the people grow more prosperous, democracy matures.” p. 337

“[T]he widespread and secure ownership of property is the sine qua non of prosperity.” p. 341

“Democracy is a consequence of prosperity, in other words, not its cause.” p. 334

The Noblest Triumph, Property and Prosperity Through The Ages, by Tom Bethell, 1998, ISBN 0-312-22337-4.

I listen to Peter Boyles on KHOW some mornings and he frequently complains about jobs moving overseas. He objects to this practice, pointing out all sorts of negative consequences to America due to the loss of jobs. He admits that the jobs lost to foreign factories produce goods sold in American markets; that America is the primary source of demand for goods. According to Peter Boyles, lost jobs translate into fewer income earning opportunities so we go into debt to purchase the things we want. Of course we are also free to retrain ourselves, learn new skills for the jobs that remain, create new jobs, find new employment, and avoid debt financing. I expect more of this goes on than Peter Boyles would like to admit.

I part company from him strongly on (more…)

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From Liberating The Supply Side by John Goodman 

Ask yourself this question: If Blue Cross were paying all the drug bills, would Rx.com even exist today? Would Wal-Mart be offering $4-a-month prescriptions? Would Publix be giving away antibiotics for free?

The fact that there is the most price competition in the market for drug therapies and the least for hospital therapies is an illustration of Goodman’s Law, which says that innovation and entrepreneurship are inversely proportional to the degree of third-party payment.