Political Solutions (In Odd Places)

First, let’s go to Hawaii.  In a state that takes its political philosophy from its surrounding color, Hawaii might be the last place you’d look to find a column by John Hood.  But, thanks to the wonders of “Google Alerts,” we were able to snag this beauty from the Hawaiian Reporter, an online news source for really wiki-wiki Polynesians. The premise? For political debates, it’s best to establish baseline principles before going at loggerheads over a complex problem.  Back in land-locked Wake County, Michael Sanera draws attention to just such a problem.  Remember Wake County’s plan to impose an impact fee on new development to cover the cost of new infrastructure and schools?  Well Sanera pointed out the flaws in such a conclusion by going to the source: a study that failed to look into the total cost and benefits of imposing those fees. The Reason Foundation’s latest publication of Privatization Watch highlights this debate (.pdf). To show you just how applicable John’s thesis is, Roy Cordato identifies another misconception that forms the compass rose of political action. Fears that prices of such commodities as gasoline may be susceptible to “price gouging” led the Governor to sign a law against the practice.  But Roy (John?) says there’s no such thing as price gouging, economically speaking.