Bargain price

Recently, Del. Jon S. Cardin (nephew of Ben Cardin) proposed marriage to his girlfriend in perhaps the most unromantic and foolish way imaginable: he borrowed a friend's boat and arranged to have it raided by police while the Foxtrot helicopter circled overhead to make her think it was a drug raid. The police "found" the ring and Cardin, lamely, proposed.

After the bad press, Cardin agreed to reimburse the city for his foolish prank. How much would you guess that this incident cost the city in personnel time and use of a police boat and helicopter? $5,000? $10,000? $15,000? Well, those numbers are apparently way too high.

The amount that Cardin was asked to reimburse the city was $300. I wonder if the Baltimore City Police do birthday parties? I think I might hire them.

Depends on what you mean by lean

From Explore Howard:

Ulman said he considers the county’s budget already to be lean. The county already has taken some cost-saving measures, he noted, including a four-day furlough plan in late December, a hiring freeze, reduction in take-home car allowances and the closure of the county television studio and print shop.

Here is a link to the operating budget that Ulman considers "lean". It always amazes me that $15 million is burnt up the library system (pg. 73) and $30 million is burnt up by Rec and Parks (pg. 118). And of course, more than half of the budget pays for education, since Allah and the Maryland Constitution forbid that parents should have to pay for any part of their children's education.

Blah

I don’t oppose government spending because it’s immoral, I oppose it because it generally does not work. The majority of public spending does not pay for true public goods like roads, public safety, national defense, etc. The majority of public spending is in the form of hand outs to special interests.

There is an article in Explore Howard today about how the food bank (a private charity) is experiencing 10% decreased food donations, but requests for food are up 25%. This seems like a reasonable problem that government may be able to address, but instead government is looking for cuts in the budget. In fairness, government does have some programs (welfare, etc.) to help the poor, but these programs pale in comparison to other forms of government spending.

Take a look at the plans for the new $30 million library in Ellicott City. It has a water feature, a stone wall built to look like a bridge, a room shaped like an iPod and a healthy dose of liberal nonsense like an organic garden and special parking for hybrid cars. And I am not picking on liberals, of course. Conservatives have their own brand of nonsense that we are all paying for. Is this library really needed? Is it really filling a need that cannot be met by a freed market? Is the $100+ million dollars budgeted to be spent on libraries in Howard County over the next couple of years really the best use of those resources?

There are market failures (externalities, monopolies, etc.) associated with freed markets, but these are the exception and not the rule. Democracy, in contrast, is one giant market failure in itself. Due to rational ignorance of voters, our tax dollars and regulatory system are not used to help the truly destitute or prevent the few problems associated with capitalism. Democracy simply selects for officials who give our tax dollars to concentrated interests. Yay.

Blood money

The Summer of Service Program, a program that paid people in concert tickets to work for the county government, various non-profits, or to donate blood may have provided the American Red Cross with valuable information on how to draw first time blood donors and/or segment potential donors who wish to be compensated vs. those who want to be charitable.

“This unique partnership has helped the American Red Cross get the word out about the critical need for blood donations, particularly during the summer months,” said A. Ray Charles, Howard County representative for The American Red Cross, Greater Chesapeake and Potomac Blood Service Region. “The County Executive’s Summer of Service Program made a big difference to our blood drive this summer, a time when blood donations are historically at their lowest. The offer of a ticket to the Virgin Mobile FreeFest in exchange for a blood donation was certainly a catalyst and attracted an unusually high number of first-time donors. The Red Cross was able to collect approximately 600 units of blood that have the potential of saving 1,800 lives. I want to thank Ken Ulman for his great idea, and also thank everyone who gave so generously.”

Some people are probably less likely to “donate” blood in exchange for money or other goods, because they view the donation as an act of charity and any compensation for the donation cheapens the charitable aspect. This is probably why the Red Cross does not generally pay for blood donations.

Others would be more than happy to receive compensation for their blood contribution. The people who are willing to accept payment are probably the starving student types who are exactly the same people that want to go to the Virgin Fest. Therefore, offering the tickets in exchange for blood contribution is a pretty good way to engage in price discrimination and increase total blood donations. It would be great if the Red Cross could work out a deal with concert promoters to get 500 or so concert tickets every summer to boost blood donations.

Hamsterdam

Pure genius:



This idea is a baby step, but it's a baby step in the right direction. More here.

Lisbon car dealership

I heard a rumor that a car dealership was coming to "downtown" Lisbon. It appears that this rumor may be true, based on the below photograph I took this morning.

I am sure the anti-growth folks will spin this into a sign that the end of the world is near, but I don't see it that way at all. This building appears to be neat and sporting some new siding. In fact, I believe that this is an historical building, so it is nice that it is able to find a new use. I assume the inventory of cars will be parked behind the building which will make them pretty much out of sight.

I hope this is a sign that the economy is beginning the slow march out of the recession.

Magnet shortage

The Howard County library has ran out of Choose Civility bumper magnets, and is soliciting donations to purchase more:

WE'RE OUT OF CHOOSE CIVILITY CAR MAGNETS! The green Choose Civility magnets are so popular that we need your help to purchase more! Please consider donating $1 (or more) to the Choose Civility Car Magnet Fund. Donations may be given to customer service staff at any Howard County Library branch.

Just as a common sense practice, I would not make any cash donations to any library staff member unless I got a receipt. The chance of unrecorded cash getting to where it needs to go is very slim.

Wow wow

The police will begin directing traffic at 10AM this Saturday for the Phish show at Merriweather. I just checked StubHub and lawn seats are currently selling for about $250.

New library

Many people rationalize their desire to use public money for libraries under the ruse that libraries are for the poor and the needy who can't afford to purchase books or computers on their own dime. At least in Howard County, it is quite clear that our libraries are not intended for the poor, they are in fact intended to flaunt the wealth of tax base to please a concentrated interest of people.

Take, for instance, the new Miller Branch Library. The library will cost $30 million to build. $30 million- that is really quite amazing. One of the features of the new library will be a "teen center" that will be designed to look like an iPod. Yes, an iPod. For $30 mil, you could probably purchase every teen in the county multiple iPhones. I don't have a problem with rooms designed to look like iPods, but it seems like a strange way to spend public tax dollars.

Other features include an organic garden, a water feature, and an arched stone wall built to resemble a bridge. Yay for helping the poor!

Wow

Isn't this interesting: Despite unemployment of 11% in Dorchester County, seafood houses must still rely on migrant labor to pick crabs because no locals want to do the work.

The H-2B seasonal worker visas have been a lifeline for the bay's seafood industry, which has suffered from a chronic shortage of local people willing to take jobs picking crabmeat for sale in cans. Dorchester County, home to several of the seafood businesses, has the highest unemployment rate in the state - 11 percent - but picking crabmeat is painstaking, with long hours and low pay, and it's only seasonal. Newcomb said his workers are paid $7.25 an hour, or $2 per half-pound, and that experienced pickers can earn as much as $10 an hour.

Raising wages is not an option, though, officials say, because local crabmeat is already competing with cheaper crabmeat imported from Asia and South America.

Breaking my mind

It's just a little absurd when signs on a commercially zoned liquor store (in this case Pine Orchard in Ellicott City) need to have permits. Here is a reminder that while sign regulations may seem straight-forward, simple and harmless, they too can have unintended consequences. Imagine the unintended consequences to fall out from more complex regulations.

Incendiary statistic of the day

Courtesy of Stan Sersen in the Biz Monthly:

Do a search on the title "Water Crisis." You will be amazed at what you will find. It is estimated that only 2.5% of all of the world's water is usable for irrigation and human use.

That sounds pretty harsh. However, about 97% of the world’s water is in the ocean. Ocean water is obviously not suitable for human use. That is a very good thing. If the water was not salty, it would freeze, and it would not be able to sustain most of the salt water based aquatic life currently living in it.

If you want to save water, you can always pee in the shower.

Mr. Postman

The Post Office is one government monopoly that is on a rapid decline:

The postal service says that third-quarter mail volume is down 7 billion pieces, or 14 percent, compared with a year ago - the largest consecutive third-quarter drop in total volume since 1971. To offset the resulting budget crunch, officials are also considering discontinuing Saturday deliveries and eliminating some classes of stamps. They say that some collection boxes are already being removed from city streets, in part because they contain just 25 or fewer pieces of mail within a given period.

Wonder if we will ever see this mailbox again?

Exxon to reopen

The Exxon at Broken Land and LPP is gearing up to open under new
management. And with any luck, maybe some lower prices, too.

Take from all, give to a few

I found this interesting:

When County Executive Ken Ulman asked 42 county high school students participating in a Leadership Howard County summer program Wednesday morning what percentage of county spending goes to the public schools, Glenelg High student Colin Osborne, 16, raised his hand and said 55 percent.

Ulman was impressed, since that's close to the answer of 60.5 percent. When you add in recreation and library programs plus the community college expenses, most of taxpayers' money goes to support the county's youths, Ulman said. "It goes to you all."

Basically what Ulman is saying is that substantially more than half our tax dollars are being spent on a concentrated interest, namely parents of youth. It what sense is that a good thing? There is a very strong case to be made that education should not be publicly subsidized, and certainly not 100% subsidized.

To their credit, local governments spend money on public goods far more often than federal and state governments. A chunk (about 25%) local government spending goes to pay for roads and public safety, which are true public goods. So at least 25% of our local tax dollars are not wasted on special interests. Ideally roads would be paid for with a gas taxes or tolls, so that people who don't use them don't have to pay for them.

In contrast, the federal government probably spends 5% or less on public goods.

I am still trying to figure out what politicians have to do with leadership. After all, Ulman's statement was made during a leadership program for youth.

Glen Mar bonds approved

The Glen Mar Church bonds have won approval from the County Council. This entire bond program is a complete joke. The only thing this program does is to allow the County Council to hand out federal tax subsidies to certain groups. If the goal of the program is to spur business and investment in the community, a general tax cut should be implemented instead. Simply making money cheaper to borrow for certain groups does nothing but misallocate resources (home mortgage interest deduction comes to mind).

In order to gain the bonds, the church had to certify the money would not go towards religious purposes, but for secular programs such as a day-care center, after-school programs and other youth activities. The church is required to report back once a year to the county’s finance department and the county Economic Development Authority on how it uses its new building, said Dick Story, the authority’s CEO.

Story said the church building would provide construction jobs and a few long-term positions associated with the child care program.

One of the things you should always ask when someone claims that program X will create jobs is: “compared to what”? If the Columbia bank would have taken this $10 million and hid it under the CEO’s pillow rather than lend it out, then yes, the church will create jobs. But if the Columbia bank would instead have found another borrower, or if the church would have expanded without the tax incentive, then the bond program is not creating jobs. Anyone who purports to be an economic expert, like Mr. Story, should know all about this. At its heart, this is the concept of opportunity cost, and the failure to take it into account can lead one to believe absurdities such as breaking a window creates economic growth.

It is unfortunate that the Howard County Economic Development Authority even exists. Special interest groups like that who advocate for hand outs to certain business under the guise of economic development always give me a chuckle, because they stand in the way of economic efficiency. These groups remind me of the immortal words of Adam Smith, someone who Dick Story has probably never read:

"People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty and justice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less to render them necessary."