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Shut Downs Likely to Result in More COVID-19 Deaths than if Nothing Were Done
More people will die as a result of COVID-19 because we closed the schools than would have if we’d kept the schools open or if we’d brought the kids back to school in summer. That is part of the message from Knut M. Wittkowski, who headed the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design at The Rockefeller University in New York, when he was interviewed around April 6. (The Rockefeller University is a private graduate college focusing on biological and medical sciences, providing doctoral and postdoctoral education and with which 36 Nobel laureates have been affiliated.) In effect, the same message was given by experts cited by 1889 Institute in a March 24 statement decrying the plan to turn out public schools for the year. Dr. Wittkowski explains in detail that “herd immunity” is critical, indeed absolutely essential, to end a respiratory disease pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when at least 80 percent of a population has been exposed to the disease and developed antibodies necessary to become immune. When this occurs, an infected, symptomatic individual is unlikely to infect anybody else. Thus, the remaining 20 percent of the population are protected,...
What if Legislators Were Licensed? Well, Just to Make a Point…
1889 Institute, as a general matter, objects to occupational licensing. We have written about it more than any other subject. The scant benefits simply do not outweigh the enormous costs to consumers and entrepreneurs, and the burdens that disproportionately impact the poor. It must be noted that the remainder of this post is a work of satire. This should be obvious to anyone who has read even one of our papers, but each of the proposals below has an analogous provision in Oklahoma licensing laws. To those supportive of government-created cartels, these proposals might sound almost reasonable. A material threat to the public safety and welfare has for too long gone entirely unregulated, unrestrained and unchecked. This menace has the power to corrode not only mere industries, but to corrupt the entire state economy. It’s no overstatement to say that the practitioners of this perilous profession hold the power to destroy democracy as we know it. After all, it’s been said that “No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.” As with lawyers and judges, the freedom of many hinges on the choices legislators make. Like doctors, people will...
Budgeting During the Wuhan Virus Apparently Means Not Having to Make Tough Decisions
At the time of this writing, Governor Stitt remains in a budgetary impasse with the legislature over completing the current fiscal year, which ends in June. By the time this is posted, in all likelihood, he’ll have signed the spending bills that access the rainy day fund and which make no spending cuts for the rest of this fiscal year, despite current revenue issues and the fact that many agencies are closed. One of those bills Governor didn’t immediately sign also cut funding to the Digital Transformation Revolving Fund. This Fund appears to be very important to Governor Stitt as part of his efforts to make Oklahoma’s government top-10 in performance among the states. What’s strange is this is just about the only thing that saw a cut – something that likely involves contracts, and the sort of thing that does usually get defunded in the middle of a fiscal year. A Tulsa World editorial has dismissed the disagreement with “The pandemic crisis isn’t a good time for a state budget fight” as if “pandemic” is all you have to say, and that makes the conclusion self-evident. And apparently, legislative leadership’s thinking is the same, along with a veto-proof majority of legislative...
Cronyism: Feature, Not a Bug, for Used Car Dealer Licensing
Used car dealers in Oklahoma are governed by the Oklahoma Used Motor Vehicle and Parts Commission (UMPV). Like most licensing boards, it is made up of industry insiders. The UMVP's stated mission is to protect consumers from harm, but its structure and history indicate that its primary concern might be protecting licensed dealers from competition. This, of course, is the prime directive of all licensing boards. My recent paper deals with the licensing of used car dealers. The person hit hardest by this is the hobbyist, especially in times of economic turmoil. Imagine someone stuck at home due to coronavirus. We'll call him Frank. He can’t work due to the economic shutdown. Unfortunately, Frank’s lack of work does not mean he no longer has to put food on the table for his family. Fortunately for him, he is able to find a good deal on a used car that needs a little work. Frank has all the tools and garage space necessary to fix up the car and isn't violating any quarantine rules while doing so. He sells the car for a tidy profit, which is enough to sustain his family until he is granted the “privilege” of working again. In a state without cronyism, the above story would end...
COVID-19 Proves Our Schools Are Social Service Centers First, Education Institutions Second
There is no way the 180-day (or 1,080 hours) school year can be completed by the end of previously established school calendars for this year given the fact that spring break has now already been effectively extended an additional two weeks. One option would have been to extend the school year into the summer. Given the level of family togetherness being experienced now, and the fact that incomes are being lost and many would be interested in making up the losses, it’s not unreasonable to expect vacation plans to be radically remade or canceled anyway. Instead, Oklahoma’s State Board of Education precipitously closed the schools and did not call for an extension of end-of-school dates. Thus, the summer option has been foreclosed. The State Board is within its rights. Oklahoma statutes (70 O.S. § 1-109 E) state, “A school district may maintain school for less than a full school year only when conditions beyond the control of school authorities make the maintenance of the term impossible and the State Board of Education has been apprised and has expressed concurrence in writing.” So on March 25th, the State Board of Education effectively suspended school activities in school...
In Response to COVID-19, the Oklahoma Supreme Court Claims Power to “Suspend” Valid Laws
I have referred often to the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s “lawmaking” or to justices acting like “legislators in black robes” as rhetorical devices intended to illustrate a point about judicial activism. I never imagined the Court would go so far as to actually begin legislating. With its latest actions, however, it seems the Court views the exigencies created by our current public health woes as a greenlight to literally change the law in Oklahoma. On Friday of last week, the Oklahoma Supreme Court issued (and the Court of Criminal Appeals signed off on) an “Emergency Joint Order” declaring that “all deadlines and procedures whether prescribed by statute, rule or order in any civil, juvenile or criminal case, shall be suspended through May 15, 2020” due to COVID-19 (emphasis added). The Court made this suspension specifically applicable to statutes of limitation in all civil cases. The Court had, on March 16, issued a similar order suspending deadlines for 30 days. These Emergency Orders were not issued in the context of some pending case before the Court or in response to a litigant petitioning the Court for relief, but simply as a decree from on high, not subject to debate or...
A Cure Withheld
“We have the cure. We know it works. You’ve used it before. But you’re not allowed to use it now.” Imagine if your government - federal, state, or local - said those words to you regarding the corona virus. You would be justifiably outraged. If you could access the cure, you would probably defy the ban on its use. Two weeks ago my wife received an email from my step-daughter’s school. Among the expected notices that in-school instruction would be canceled for a least a few weeks due to corona virus, there was a nasty surprise. “Neither on-site nor virtual [i.e., remote, online and with no person-to-person contact] instruction can occur during the state's window of school closures.” (Emphasis added.) Note that this decision was made by the state Board of Education, not by Epic, the statewide virtual charter school we have chosen. You see, when we moved to Oklahoma, my wife and I chose Epic because they not only seemed like they would do a better job teaching our kid (so far, in my opinion, they flatly trounce both the New Hampshire public school she was in from K-3, and the expensive Montessori she attended for grade 4), but they also offered a blended learning environment....
Smart People in Charge Screwing Up: Panic over COVID-19
Could the economic shutdown cure for coronavirus be worse than the disease? It appears more likely every day. As an undergraduate at Texas A&M, I was required to read an essay by Buckminster Fuller, inventor of the geodesic dome and a bona fide genius. I recall Fuller complaining that we hadn’t built railroad tracks with stainless steel, since it doesn’t rust. In commenting on the piece, I pointed out that stainless steel was costly compared to regular steel and Fuller failed to recognize this. It’s more cost effective to use regular steel tracks, which wear out long before they rust away, than to use stainless, despite the likelihood that stainless would wear longer. We economists point out the reality that there are always costs when choices are made (i.e., scarcity always exists, thus the “dismal science” moniker). Costs might not always be easy to identify, but one thing is absolutely certain, failure to account for the fact that actions and choices always have consequences, possibly very costly ones, always leads to calamity. Fuller’s complaint shows that very smart people can make foolish judgements, and allowed to act on them, they would produce calamity. If...
Breaking the ABA’s Law School Cartel: A Proposal to Make Oklahoma Top-Ten in Innovative Lawyer Education
Would we grant Devon Energy a government-enforced veto over whether its competitors should be issued drilling permits? Would we think it acceptable for the government to require new drug applicants to first obtain approval from Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson before applying for FDA approval? Of course not. Generally speaking, we are not in favor of foxes guarding hen houses, and our laws tend to reflect that instinct. Nevertheless, when it comes to deciding who can and cannot become a lawyer, nearly all states (including Oklahoma) have delegated the design of their hen house security plan to the fox’s self-interested trade association, the American Bar Association (ABA). This is the argument of my policy analysis released today, Breaking the ABA’s Law School Cartel: A Proposal to Make Oklahoma Top-Ten in Innovative Lawyer Education. The ABA, a private trade association for lawyers, has a government-enforced monopoly over legal education as the only approved accreditor of law schools in 47 states. The states wrote this monopoly into their laws after aggressive lobbying by the ABA, which was fairly open about its goal - limiting the number of new lawyers who could enter the...
1889 Institute’s Statement Regarding School Closures
The 1889 Institute, an Oklahoma think tank, has released the following statement regarding Joy Hofmeister’s proposal to keep schools closed for the remainder of the school year. We at the 1889 Institute consider Joy Hofmeister’s proposal to close Oklahoma’s schools for the rest of the school year a gross overreaction to the coronavirus situation. Even in the best of times and circumstances, suddenly shifting every student in the state from traditional classrooms to online distance learning will have negative educational consequences. This in addition to the economic burden on two-earner families forced to completely reorder their lives with schools closed. We believe many of our leaders have overreacted to worst-case scenarios presented by well-intended health experts with no training or sense of proportion in weighing the collateral damage of shutting down our economy versus targeting resources to protect the truly vulnerable. We say reopen the schools and stop the madness. Only truly vulnerable students and staff should stay home. Our position is buttressed by Dr. David L. Katz, a specialist in preventive medicine and public health, president of True Health Initiative and...
Can Government Force You to Close Your Business?
1889 Institute takes no position on whether any or all of these measures are warranted or necessary, or whether their economic fallout would inflict more human suffering than they prevent. We are simply evaluating whether they are legal. With the unprecedented (in the last 100 years at least) reaction surrounding the outbreak of Covid-19, questions that few living legal scholars have considered are suddenly relevant. Can a quarantine be ordered? Can a mass quarantine, lockdown, or “cordon sanitaire” be ordered? Can businesses be ordered to change their behavior? Can businesses be ordered to close? Can state governments order these measures? Can local governments order these measures? My legal brief addresses these issues from a statutory point of view; it is clear that state law gives the governor and mayors broad authority in a state of emergency. They must, of course, do so in a neutral way that they reasonably believe will help prevent the spread of infection. They cannot order quarantine of registered voters from the opposite political party while their own supporters remain free to go about their lives as usual. Nor could they nationalize the auto industry and force...
On Coronavirus and American Exceptionalism
Most of us have no idea whether to fear the coming coronavirus pandemic or to scoff at what seems to be a panic, complete with toilet paper buying sprees. I find myself mostly in the latter camp, due not to some great scientific knowledge, but as a matter of general disposition. But I’m also a father of young children, so a touch of protective instinct kicks in whenever a big outside force that could harm my family rears its head. With much I don’t know, there is something I do know: If forced to weather a pandemic, I’d rather do so in the United States than any other country on earth. Watching news coverage, I cannot help but notice a subtle message underlying the words of far too many in the political commentariat. Many seem to speak about China’s management of the outbreak with envy. Their analysis is that because we are a big, unruly, open society, we cannot hope to make people to do what is necessary to stem the spread. The old “China for a Day” fantasy of Thomas Friedman is apparently alive and well, and has infected (poor pun intended) the coronavirus conversation (actual 2009 quote from Friedman: “One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a...
Protecting Unlicensed Occupations from Government-Sanctioned Cartels
Great care must be taken in repealing occupational licensing laws. No, not care in which licensing regimes are repealed or how quickly we are rid of them. They can all go, post haste (yes, that includes doctors and lawyers). Licensing hurts the economy to the tune of $200 Billion each year. A practitioner in a licensed field can expect to charge an unearned premium of 10-12 percent over his unlicensed peers. And licensing has shown almost no benefits in terms of improving public safety. The small benefits - such as a shorthand indicating which practitioners have received a minimum amount of training - could be better achieved through private certification without the economic harms visited by licensing regimes. No, the care that must be taken is in the unintended consequences of repealing individual licenses. There are times when groups of practitioners will ask the government to regulate them not because they want those sweet monopoly profits (though surely they realize such a fringe benefit) but because they fear that without such a license they will be swept into another licensed profession’s scope of practice. Many licensing boards, especially those covering a profession...
Top-Ten in Low Taxes, But Oklahoma Still Has Much Room for Improvement
In a comparison of states’ total taxes as well as spending in certain broad categories that the 1889 Institute has just published (Oklahoma Government Revenues and Spending in Perspective – Update), some interesting facts arise. Using federal data, we compared states by looking at the percentage of personal income collected in state and local government revenues. We also looked at the percentage of personal income spent in six broad spending categories: higher education, public education, public welfare, hospitals, highways, and corrections. The data shows that in 2017 Oklahoma’s state and local governments: Extract 13.2 percent of Oklahomans’ personal income in taxes and fees, moving Oklahoma into the Top Ten lowest-taxing states, ahead of Texas. Spend 12.38 percent of personal income on the six featured spending areas (which include federal dollars), only a little below the national average of 12.7 percent. While 9th overall (least spent being first), Oklahoma is not that much better than the 25th-ranked state. Spend a higher percentage of our income on higher education than 28 states. Spend a higher percentage of income on public education than seven states, including Arizona,...
Good-Hearted, Wrong-Headed, and Funded by You, The Forgotten Man
“The type and formula of most schemes of philanthropy or humanitarianism is this: A and B put their heads together to decide what C shall be made to do for D. The radical vice of all these schemes, from a sociological point of view, is that C is not allowed a voice in the matter, and his position, character, and interests, as well as the ultimate effects on society through C's interests, are entirely overlooked. I call C the Forgotten Man.” -William Graham Sumner, quoted in The Forgotten Man, by Amity Shlaes. Perhaps the most awkward moment of my career came in the Summer of 2015. During the weekly Monday morning public meeting of the Board of County Commissioners for which I served as the legal advisor, I sat in my usual place at the end of the dais, next to a county commissioner I had butted heads with in the six months I had been on the job. None of that was new. What was new about this particular Monday meeting was that this same commissioner had been indicted the previous week on various public corruption charges, stemming from a years-long investigation that predated my time as the Board’s attorney. The awkwardness was occasioned by the Board having asked me to explain the...
The Sheriff of Nottingham Would Expand Medicaid
Robin Hood is famous for “taking from the rich and giving to the poor,” but the rich from whom he took were the Sheriff of Nottingham and his buddy, the usurper Prince John, and their cronies. The poor who benefited from Robin Hood’s supposed brigandage were common folk subjected to the oppressive yoke of high taxes that the evil Sheriff and corrupt Prince distributed to their rich cronies in order to stay in power. Little is more evil than using government’s monopoly of force to take from those of modest means to create and serve a wealthy privileged class. Robin Hood was a freedom fighter, not a revolutionary. He didn’t grant largesse to the poverty-stricken masses toiling in an exploitive economic system after he robbed rich capitalists. He gave the common people their own hard-earned money first stolen from them by a corrupt government. Health Care: Crony Industry Over one-sixth of the nation’s economy is devoted to health care. Of the top-20 average-salaried occupations in the nation, 15 are in some form of medicine; lawyers rank 23rd. Federal spending alone on Medicaid, Medicare, and Obamacare exchange subsidies amounted to 5.4 percent of GDP in 2017; in 1995 the percentage...
Do-Something Syndrome Won’t Produce Groceries in Oklahoma’s Cities
We have to do something! We hear it all the time. Any time there is a tragedy, or now even a perceived problem, policy makers, news anchors, and everyday citizens demand government take some action that might have prevented it. But all too often the proposed responses do little to actually improve our lives. We become victims of the Do-Something Syndrome. Either the policy doesn’t achieve what it is intended to, there are unintended consequences, or it is actually counterproductive. This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. Government works best when it makes generally applicable rules intended to prevent large, foreseeable harms. Government generally performs far worse in responding to highly specific, immediate circumstances. Inherently, everyone gets a voice in a democracy. This is normally a good thing. But when there is a crisis - real or perceived - the emphasis is often on “doing something.” Too often there is disagreement about the problem, much less the best solution. A “fix” is pushed through because someone (government) has to do something! Case in point: the overreaction by some Oklahoma cities to the supposed food desert crisis. It is indisputable that the rich eat...
Free Speech Blacklists Pose a Threat to Democracy
Many second amendment supporters fear that one day, gun control advocates will use state gun registries as a shopping list to find and steal all the privately-owned guns. These fears seem well-founded, especially in light of recent comments by certain candidates for the presidency. But there is another kind of registry we should be just as concerned about: free speech registries. Does that concept sound familiar? Perhaps not. It’s terrible branding, if you're a proponent of such measures. Much better to stoke public fears with words like “dark money.” But make no mistake, when politicians and special interest groups talk about donor disclosure for nonprofits, this is what they envision – a list of people against whom they can retaliate for speech they dislike – a blacklist. When a nonprofit interferes with your grand political scheme, it’s easier to bully their individual donors than it is the full time employees. Employees don’t have to fear for their employment if they expound unpopular views - they are paid to do so. But people who agree with those views and just want to take part by becoming “members” of an organization are relatively easy to intimidate. Organization...
A Teacher Walkout Leader’s Distorted View of School Choice
The Tulsa World recently published a piece by a leader of the teacher walkout a few years ago predictably opposing Governor Stitt’s proposal to expand the Equal Opportunity Education Scholarship program. There is much to take issue with in the piece, which is full of disinformation, but perhaps the most preposterous claim is the following: You’ve probably also heard of “school choice.” The term is extremely misleading because it implies that parents don’t have a choice, when the reality is every parent already has school choice for their child. Parents can choose to send their child to a public school, private school, religious school or even home school. School choice isn’t about giving parents more options. It’s about using taxpayer dollars to give wealthy families a discount on their choice of school. (emphasis added) Try telling that to the truancy officer. The model of public education in America is that we assign every student to a government school based on the part of town they live in, and if they don’t show up, we threaten their parents with criminal prosecution. Then we sit back and wonder why public schools rarely show improvement no matter how much money we pour into...
Spending Big on Public Education
Well, it’s not quite a record, but it’s close. Last school year (2018-19), per-pupil spending on public education in Oklahoma reached $10,000 (rounded by $4 and adjusted to 2015 dollars), only a little behind the zenith reached ten years earlier. That year (2008-2009), the federal government threw money at banks and states in an effort to reverse the beginning of the Great Recession. Across the nation, public education was at first insulated from the recession’s effects while taxpayers suffered job and home losses. But now, despite a gradual decline in public education funding for several years, Oklahoma’s public education spending has speedily and fully recovered, and then some. For several years, per-pupil spending in Oklahoma public schools fell to levels last seen in the 1990s. But then, two years ago, Oklahoma’s legislators apparently resolved to show they could spend as freely as any before them. Funding had recovered almost to the level seen in 2000 (see the chart). Average Per-Pupil Spending in Oklahoma Public Schools (2015 Dollars) Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, OK Dept of Education, author calculations This year, we fully see the renewal of a...