It’s Friday!
Quotes of Note
“Think tanks stand outside election cycles and alongside people who see politics as a means to ratify sound policy and don’t see policy rhetoric as a means to get people elected.” – Joseph Lehman, president, Mackinac Center for Public Policy
“When entrepreneurs innovate and respond to society’s needs, they create goods and services, such as our smartphones, single-serve coffee machines, or ride-sharing companies, which make life more convenient. In doing so, they create new jobs and wealth, not just for themselves, but also for others. Increasingly, though, they find that governments at all levels place obstacles in their way.” – Jim Walker
“[W]e ought to deprecate the hazard attending ardent and susceptible minds, from being too strongly, and too early prepossessed in favor of other political systems, before they are capable of appreciating their own.” – George Washington
Energy and environment
The 97 percent: The much-touted claim that 97 percent of researchers agree that humans are to blame for warming is riddled with holes. As climatologist Roy Spencer told Congress, this so-called consensus “probably includes all of the global warming ‘skeptics’ I know of who are actively working in the field. Skeptics generally are skeptical of the view that recent warming is all human-caused, and/or that it is of a sufficient magnitude to warrant immediate action given the cost of energy policies to the poor. They do not claim humans have no impact on climate whatsoever.”
Changing environment: Think climate policy is about the environment? Not according one official from the U.N. climate change panel: “One has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. This has almost nothing to do with environmental policy anymore, with problems such as deforestation or the ozone hole. … The climate summit in Cancun at the end of the month is not a climate conference, but one of the largest economic conferences since the Second World War.”
Economy
Good Profit: Charles Koch’s new book, aptly named “Good Profit,” explains the simple truth that “good profit” is that profit which a business makes from products and services that consumers freely choose to buy. Michael Carnuccio reviews the book here.
Minimum wage: There’s almost universal application to the closing paragraph of an article in September’s Inbound Logistics on the consequences of raising the minimum wage. Joseph O’Reilly writes, “The problem is, policy can’t keep pace with technology.”
Education
Education Savings Accounts: State Sen. Scott Hammond of Nevada was in Georgia Oct. 15 at the Sixth Annual Georgia Legislative Policy Forum to discuss the law he sponsored creating that state’s Education Savings Accounts. The state was sued over the constitutionality of ESAs and the Institute for Justice joined Nevada families defending the law. Source: Reason Foundation
Events
Did you miss our Legislative Forum last week? You can find all of the videos and presentations from the event here.
December 8: Register to attend, “The Case for K-12 Student-Based Budgeting in Georgia,” a summit and luncheon hosted featuring experts from the Reason Foundation and Allovue.10:30-1:30 p.m. at The Gallery, Cobb Galleria Centre. $30. Registration and information here.
October 27: America’s Future Foundation hosts, “The State of Criminal Justice Reform in Georgia” with keynoted speaker Catherine Bernard at the Three Dollar Café, in Sandy Springs. Free (suggested donation of $10). Information on Facebook here.
Friday Flashback
This month in the archives: In October 1995, the Foundation published, “Privatization: Dispelling the Myths.” It noted, “Are there instances where private contractors have taken advantage of taxpayers? Of course, but the great majority of these situations occurred when governments rushed into privatization without establishing the necessary safeguards.’”
Media
Facebook: Find photographs from the 2015 Sixth Annual Legislative Policy Forum on the Foundation’s Facebook pages here and here. Tag yourself and your friends!
Social media: The Foundation is closing in on 2,700 Facebook “likes” and more than 1,500 Twitter followers at twitter.com/gppf. Now you can follow us on Instagram, too!
Visit www.georgiapolicy.org to read our latest commentary, “Municipal Broadband Puts Taxpayers’ Wallets at Risk,” by Kelly McCutchen.
Have a great weekend!
Kelly McCutchen and Benita Dodd
FRIDAY FACTS is made possible by the generosity of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation’s donors. If you enjoy the FRIDAY FACTS, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to help advance our important mission by clicking here. Visit our Web site at www.georgiapolicy.org. Join The Forum at http://forum.georgiapolicy.org. Become a fan of the Foundation on Facebook and follow us at twitter.com/gppf and Instagram.
