Can you imagine if you were an existing business in North Carolina and
the State used your tax dollars to recruit and subsidize your
direct competitor to steal customers from you, forcing you to cease operations in the State? Well, that is exactly what
has happened to Allegiant Air.
Many of you have followed the story of Skybus, a startup low-cost airline that was successfully recruited to expand its service and create a hub at the Piedmont Triad Airport (PTI) last year thanks to millions of dollars in handouts from the State, Guilford County and the PTI Airport Authority.
Well, while the state is pouring money into Skybus, word comes last week that existing discount airliner Allegiant Air, which was already operating out of PTI, will be ending all service from Greensboro on May 31. Government, through its recruitment and subsidies of Skybus, gave it a distinct competitive advantage over an existing business.
So, the state in its infinite wisdom in distorting the market decided that Skybus is the "winner" and any competitor operating under normal market dynamics is the "loser."
But ultimately, the consumer is harmed. Through government intervention consumers now have less competition and less choices of discount airlines to fly. At a time when jet fuel prices are sending airfares through the roof, more competition, not less, is needed.
I feel bad for Allegiant Air, they were already trying to exist in a difficult market, but having government stack the deck against them and in favor of their direct competitor made continuing operation impossible.
It’s time to end all incentives. The choice is clear — tax all businesses the same or not at all.
Apparently, Lt. Governor Bev Perdue doesn’t like the accusation that she’s running from debates with State Treasurer Richard Moore. So now she has agreed to do two more.
Let it be known, however, that the Civitas Institute invited both of the Democrat candidates to debate alongside four other candidates (Graham, McCrory, Orr, Smith) at this year’s Conservative Leadership Conference in Greensboro (April 18th is the debate dinner).
The offer is still open.
We also invited libertarian Michael Munger, who had another obligation that night, apparently. (So now his strategy to whine like a french soccer player has been doubly foiled.)
-Max Borders
Or so says Orange County.
-Max Borders
Remember the Julian Simon/Paul Ehrlich bet? Here’s one by a Wharton prof proposed for Al Gore. Check it out. And gotta love this query for Gore: “When and under what conditions would you be willing to engage in a scientific test of your forecasts?” (HT: Brian Balfour)
BTW, if anyone wants a friendly side action, lemme know. I’m looking at you, progressives.
-Max Borders
According to a reader: "The Local Government Commission will be meeting on April 1, to decide the debt application from Watauga County for $72 million for a new high school. This debt is being sought without a referendum."
-Max Borders
Great piece by a former EPA administrator on why the government shouldn’t be in the water business and businesses should.
-Max Borders
…you get stuff like this. First, the N&O says:
The Bush era has been for businesses of all kinds sort of like a rebirth of the "free love" movement of the 1960s. Anything goes.
But is this true?
The slightest investigation into regulations would reveal that it is a non-partisan phenomenon and the regulatory state expandes with pretty much any administration. If anything, the Bush Administration has been as reg-crazy as any other, so to characterize it as "free love," means they were more interested in evoking the cute analogy than actually looking into the expansion of the federal register.
The less-than-informed commenters at the N&O would also do well to think outside the regulatory box when it comes to achieving regulatory outcomes. The common law, which is more distributed, precise, and less likely to bring about unintended consequences, is preferable than letting college-grad hill staffers craft legs that uninformed pols simply sign off on for political reasons.
In any case, is the Bush Administration anti-regulation? If anything, they – via the OMB- have made cost-benefit analysis and scrutiny of regs a higher priority, but they have not slowed the growth of the regulatory state to any appreciable degree. A shred of investigation would reveal that regulators regulate — D or R. More investigation would reveal that regulations have very high social costs that these articles are pretty flippant about. Facts straight, please.
-Max Borders
I can think of no more fitting irony than this "awareness raising" initiative by Google. Why such smart people at such a great company would get into this kind of goofy greenwashing? Anyway, this sums up the irony:
"As to why we don’t do this permanently – it saves no energy; modern displays use the same amount of power regardless of what they display." This is pretty much analogous to all the (marginal) energy conservation programs like NC Greenpower. In other words, it’s sort of like this: if everyone stopped using Google to educate themselves on how to use fewer Google searches (and it worked) Google would have fewer incentives to invest in new algorithms and technologies for Web searches. ‘But the human mind is an unlimited resource and fossil fuels are not’ Google might reply.
The late great Julian Simon argued they – human ingenuity linked to the use of resources – are one in the same. Resources never run out. I think I’ll leave my computer on all night tonight.
-Max Borders
This is very interesting (you’ve got to check out these maps):
Between April 2000 and March 2008, the overall number of registered voters in North Carolina increased from 4.93 million to 5.66 million, an increase just shy of 15 percent. This net increase is the result of new registration and the purging of no longer valid registrations from the voter rolls.
Net Democratic registration increased by approximately 40,800 voters, an increase of less than 2 percent, and this increase was spread unevenly across the state. The number of registered Democrats decreased in 72 counties. In only two counties – Mecklenburg and Wake, the largest counties – did Democratic registration outpace overall voter registration, with increases of 24.4 and 23 percent respectively.
Net Republican registration increased by approximately 259,300 voters, an increase of 15.5 percent; this increase was also spread unevenly across the state. The number of registered Republicans decreased in 12 counties. Republican registration outpaced overall voter registration in 46 counties, with increases ranging from 15 percent to 105 percent.
Net other registration (Unaffiliated and Libertarian in 2000, only Unaffiliated in 2008) increased by approximately 432,700 voters, an increase of 56.7 percent. The number of Unaffiliated/Other voters increased in all 100 counties, and in fact outpaced overall voter registration in all 100 counties. Net Unaffiliated/Other registration increased at least four times as much as overall voter registration in half the state’s counties.
This says nothing about who will actually turn out to vote. But it does suggest that North Carolina is getting, well, purpler.
-Max Borders