<>< Josh Rule : : 2008 MCPP Intern

Trying Liberty’s Hannah Mead wrote today’s Current Comment.  Mead looks at the current situation of ethanol growth in Michigan.  She talks about a cellulosic ethanol plant in which GM and the state have put significant money, but which might end up harming the environment while doing little to affect the price of fuel. Also important to note is that because this plant creates cellulosic ethanol, it primarily uses wood as its raw material, not corn or another quickly replenishable crop. I am inclined to agree with Mead that this new plant is probably not what Michigan needs.  with global food supply, global ethanol supply, and global corn supply.  Something does not quite add up, she argues, and concludes that ethanol simply has to go.  It is not the green fuel some claimed it to be – a wonder that would usher in a new era of global prosperity. Go ahead and read the Current Comment to find out why.

(Edit:  I wrote this post quickly and sloppily.  Sorry about that.  Hopefully, the edits reflect a bit more carefully what Mead has actually written about.)

<>< Josh Rule : : 2008 MCPP Intern

Paul Graham, an author and influential programming guru, hints in his essay You Weren’t Meant to Have a Boss! that perhaps markets operating inside an organization would be a better strategy than traditional chain-of-command leadership.  The entire essay is worth the read, but this quote was particularly interesting:

…[S]ince human nature limits the size of group that can work together, the only way I can imagine for larger groups to avoid tree structure would be to have no structure: to have each group actually be independent, and to work together the way components of a market economy do.

Graham goes on to say that perhaps someone should take a deeper look at this idea.  One person who has thoroughly investigated the concept of incorporating markets into companies and other organizations is Charles G. Koch.  His company, Koch Industries, is one of the largest private companies in the United States.  His ideas have been encapsulated into a book called The Science of Success, and are central to the ongoing research of the Market-Based Management Institute.

The idea of operating an organization like a market is a potentially good one, granted that the rules and incentives are properly set up.  Has anyone else done serious work in this area?  What are your thoughts about organizing a company around an internal market?  Leave your ideas in the comments below.

<>< Josh Rule : : 2008 MCPP Intern

Bruce Walker has a terrific Current Comment at the Mackinac Center today, commemorating the life of Alexander Solzhenitsyn.  Solzhenitsyn was one of the greatest dissidents of the 20th century, working for years to write great works of fiction speaking out against the atrocities of the Soviet Regime.  Read Walker’s Current Comment, and then go read one of Solzhenitsyn’s works.

<>< Josh Rule : : 2008 MCPP Intern

Recently, I have had a number of frustrating conversations about liberty and the role of government.  It can be difficult to communicate exactly how something will get done when nobody is being forced to do it.  How will the poor be taken care of when no one is forced to give to welfare?  How will aid make it to foreign nations if the U.S. government does not forcefully take money from its people?  In short, how can a system built on people’s self-interest provide for generosity?

The answers to these questions are difficult but not impossible.  I know that, and I know the answers to these questions.  So, why are the conversations frustrating?  Why don’t they end with glee every time as my friend and I realize, yet again, the beauty of liberty and limited government?  I was not thinking or speaking clearly.  I was just rushing through a torrent of classical liberal ideas, without connecting them, without stating their underlying principles, and without thinking through my words before speaking.  Therein lies the problem.  It becomes impossible to convince people that classical liberalism benefits people when you lay out your ideas sloppily. If I simply assume that my classical liberalism is so brilliantly simple that a half-baked attempt to communicate it will be overwhelmingly successful, I am grossly mistaken.

Yesterday, I was watching a clip online about public speaking, and the something the presenter said in that clip came back to me this morning as I was contemplating how to stop the frustration and help someone gain a new understanding of liberty.  Be Ruthless! Not in your conversations with other people, but in your deliberations with yourself to logically outline the case for liberty, one has to be ruthless.  The logic should be fatally clear, devestatingly easy to follow.  Complex ideas should be broken down into smaller ideas and tied closely with helpful analogies. The answer to a difficult question should begin with basic classical liberal premises, not halfway into the body of the argument.  Confusing or badgering people until they agree with You is no success.  It is the grandest of failures.

So, Be Ruthless!  Strip down your arguments to their most basic outlines and address additional issues as needed.  Then, strip that argument down again, even further, until just the core is present.  Do not cripple the argument, but do not overload it either.  Then, carefully present a tight, well-articulated argument, starting from agreed-upon premises and working, one step at a time, toward the conclusion.  Answer objections.  Do not brush them off as simple-minded.  Classical liberal ideals are powerful, but they are also difficult to understand, initially.  If we forget this fact, and expect people to pick them up without honest intellectual conversations, we are sorely mistaken.

<>< Josh Rule : : 2008 MCPP Intern

Trying Liberty’s own Lauren Ruhland wrote today’s Current Comment.  Originally, the story was published in Michigan Science, a print magazine from the Mackinac Center, but it has now been posted as a Current Comment as well.  The story is about the discovery of a megaladon tooth in the St. Clair River just a few months ago.  The megaladon was a shark that has been extinct for several millenia but was at one time a fierce predator, growing up to 60 feet in length.  Go ahead and read Lauren’s article to hear more about the discovery of the tooth and one of history’s largest predators.

<>< Josh Rule : : 2008 MCPP Intern

Today’s Current Comment was written by Central Michigan University faculty member Dr. Theodore Bolema.  He writes about proposed legislation currently under consideration by the Michigan legislature that would significantly curb the already crippled competition among energy providers in the state of Michigan.  Because of the design of the electrical grid, a natural monarchy does not really exist, although energy companies sometimes claim that there does.  Just like any other industry, though, competition is best for all.  Read Dr. Bolema’s article for more details.

<>< Josh Rule : : 2008 MCPP Intern

Michigan papers today are carrying the news that Gov. Jennifer Granholm has announced a new program to spur the state’s business to growth.  The program takes $300 million from the state’s employee pension fund and is placing it in the hands of a high-caliber group of Michigan businessmen.  For more information, read here, here,  and here.

Now, while it is laudable that Gov. Granholm wants to aid Michigan businesses, perhaps she is going about it the wrong way. In looking at this program, I have two questions to which I simply cannot bring any sense.

1- Why use pension fund money? If I were a state employee banking on a government pension, I would not want the government to be tossing bits and pieces of that pension to a market in which it could be completely lost.  Yes, the government should try to use its money well and investing pension money is probably a good idea.  But loaning out money to startups seems to be an awfully risky move for money that needs to be quickly available for retiring state workers.  Startups are notoriously risky investments, and may not be the best choice here.

2- More importantly, haven’t we tried this type of investment before? what about programs like the Michigan Economic Growth Authority’s tax credit program?  That was supposed to bring large numbers of jobs to Michigan and jumpstart our economy.  What has happened to it?  Simply adding more programs will not solve the problem.  We need to do something fundamentally different.  Simply throwing money around, particularly taxpayer money, is a poor solution.  Instead, some of the officials in Lansing need to take a serious look over the tax program in Michigan and scrap it for something cleaner, simpler, and fairer.

<>< Josh Rule : : 2008 MCPP Intern

Isaac Morehouse and Bruce Walker put together today’s Currrent Comment, a celebration of the ideological ties between blues, jazz, and Milton Friedman’s  economics.  Sound a bit far-fetched?  It actually makes perfect sense.  Jazz and blues are all about personal mastery and personal determination.  They hinge on the freedom of the artist to determine what sort of work he will produce.  Similarly, Friedman’s theories required a great deal of personal mastery and personal determination if one wanted to succeed.  They too required freedom for each individual to choose, wisely or poorly, and to set and pursue their own goals and dreams, so long as they did not interfere with another person’s goals and dreams.  So, to celebrate the 96th anniversary of Milton Friedman’s birth, please go put on some Chicago jazz as you read an essay or book by this Chicago defender of human freedom.

<>< Josh Rule : : 2008 MCPP Intern

Clicking on today’s Current Comment link from the Mackinac Center homepage redirects readers to the new Michigan Education Digest.  This week’s digest contains five stories highlighting some of the more interesting developments in the world of Michigan public and private education.  Perhaps the most interesting, and disheartening, of this week’s stories highlights a recently released report concluding Michigan to have the lowest graduation rate for black males in the entire country.  In fact, Detroit Public School graduates 1 in 5 of its black males and only 17% of its white males.  Clearly, something is broken in the Detroit Public Schools, and widely embracing school choice is one of the only ways this situation will improve.  Go ahead, though, and read the rest of the stories.

<>< Josh Rule : : 2008 MCPP Intern

Today’s Current Comment from the Mackinac Center actually comes from Michigan Education Report.  Vice president of public relations and government affairs for the Michigan Association of Public School Academies Gary Naeyaert writes on the need to remove the special ‘first-class district’status of Detroit Public Schools.  The distinction forcibly eliminates much of the competition by preventing many private and even charter schools from operating within the district.  Check it out.