IT'S NOT ABOUT WHO BENEFITS, IT'S ABOUT WHAT DOESN'T WORK.

Daily Economy contributor Max Gulker reviews Matthew Desmond's Poverty, by America.  Professor Desmond's thesis is familiar:

Those of us who are financially secure exploit the poor, driving down their wages while forcing them to overpay for housing and access to cash and credit. We prioritize the subsidization of our wealth over the alleviation of poverty, designing a welfare state that gives the most to those who need the least. And we stockpile opportunity in exclusive communities, creating zones of concentrated riches alongside those of concentrated despair. Some lives are made small so that others may grow.

Put plainly: the upper middle classes are rich because the poor are poor.

Desmond conveys the absurdity of welfare bureaucracies that for paternalistic or political reasons spend more in order to provide less aid. In one story alone, child welfare services, foster care, behavioral health services, public housing, and social security disability income all at various points fail to provide service to a young woman sliding into homelessness. Desmond also correctly emphasizes the lasting damage of bad 20th-century policies such as New Deal-era redlining, and later the war on drugs, both catastrophic for urban, mostly poor and black communities.

Frustratingly, Desmond ignores any specific lessons from the best part of his book. Its purpose is to evoke understandable outrage that such tragedies happen in our liberal and wealthy society. The remainder of Poverty, by America is stuck somewhere between a revolution and Elizabeth Warren’s 2020 campaign platform.

The argumentam ad anecdotum of that first paragraph ought be familiar to anyone who has read and understood Blaming the Victim.  In that second paragraph is a hint at a missed opportunity for policy wonks, particularly of a libertarian stripe.

Desmond’s remedies for the workers he considers exploited are a higher minimum wage and a lot more unionization. Historical and economic arguments that such labor market interventions often harm the poorest workers, when acknowledged at all, are treated as admonishments from the establishment for everyone else to stay in their lane rather than an opportunity for ideas to be debated.

Perhaps the book’s worst moment comes during Desmond’s discussion of the very real housing crisis faced by America’s poor. Earlier, when describing the impact of redlining, Desmond would have done well to also focus on mid-twentieth century policy of “urban renewal,” with bulldozed neighborhoods displaced by high-rise public housing. Such disastrous city planning completed the one-two punch redlining began, leaving poor neighborhoods starved of both financial and social capital, which together form the basis for especially urban economic dynamism.

Massive new investments in public housing are at the top of Desmond’s policy wishlist, and he would rather not dwell on what, in his own words, are the “violent and decrepit” results of very recent memory.

In the first paragraph, again, more business as usual, contesting the policy field between the 35 yard lines.  Couple the second and third paragraphs with the excerpt from the Poverty blurb, and you get a standard-issue deflection from the self-styled progressives, something along the lines of "you denounce the socialist urban policy mote in my eye and neglect that socialist Suburban Experiment beam in your eye."

It's more accurate to describe that Suburban Experiment as rent-seeking run amok, promoted by General Electric and General Electric and made policy by General Eisenhower.  Mr Gulker recognizes part of the argument.

Desmond’s policy proposals almost all double down on collaboration between big government, big business, and big labor–the “system” against which the American left first cut its teeth protesting. Doing so while speaking in the fashionable language of radicalism requires more than a little cognitive dissonance, from which he attempts to distract readers with a man-in-the-mirror pivot.

In Desmond’s framework, we ourselves are “authors of inequality.” This perspective is not without some important insights. Americans, often given to hand-wringing over getting the incentives right for welfare, do no such thing with their own subsidized mortgages and tax breaks. We celebrate the end of legal discrimination without thinking too hard about the undeniable ongoing impacts of our own local zoning laws and neighborhood covenants.

Whether you call the Suburban Experiment rent-seeking run amok, or as socialism for the better off, as Professor Desmond does, in either case the Suburban Experiment has proven to be a fiscal sinkhole, and the better thing to do might be to stop throwing public money at it, and find a way forward for the strapped neighborhoods of the big cities and the inner suburbs that involves neither rent-seeking nor socialism.

ALL FOR THE WANT OF A TRANSDUCER.

In the same way that the lack of a horseshoe nail led to the loss of the kingdom, the lack of a component might have contributed to the notorious East Palestine wreck.

The 164th car of a Norfolk Southern train triggered a critical hot box detector alert before a May wreck in Pennsylvania, but the train continued on its journey for 15.34 miles before derailing because neither the crew nor the railroad’s network operations center received the warning that would have required the train to stop immediately, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report released today.

Signal maintainers working in the area two days before the derailment detached and reattached track-mounted hot box detector components, the NTSB said, but the transducers were attached incorrectly and prompted the detector to report reversed train travel directions.

Data logs don’t show that Norfolk Southern’s advanced train control desk in Atlanta received an alert from the detector, the NTSB said. The advanced train control desk requires an accurate report of train travel direction to interpret hot box detector data. “Under NTSB investigators’ direction, signal maintainers corrected the transducers’ positions. In subsequent tests, NS technicians at the ATC desk in Atlanta confirmed that they had received usable [hot box detector] data,” the preliminary report said.

A concatenation of small errors leads to a train wreck.

“Post-accident examinations did not identify conditions that would have prevented the HBD from transmitting an alarm message,” the NTSB added. “However, NTSB investigators reviewed the inward-facing image recorder and audio data from the head-end locomotive of train 14M and did not find evidence of an audible alarm being broadcast over the locomotive radio.”

Preliminary results of an examination of the locomotive’s radio showed that it was working, but investigators found a loose coaxial connection between the antenna and radio. NS has sent the radio to its shop in Roanoke, Va., for further analysis.

I suspect that the recriminations will continue; I also fear that the old paradigm of outside consultants will lead to no meaningful changes. "[L]ast week the railroad announced both the appointment of an outside consultant to lead an independent review of safety practices and a commitment to partner with labor unions to improve safety."

FRIDAY short TAKES.

Reality will bat last.  "You can't tear down the norm and then be surprised by what comes next."  Once a grim strategy outcome ensues, getting out of it will not be easy.  "What those who enjoy mocking Christianity ought to fear is the day that certain Christians look at the Muslims and realize intimidation, threats, and violence are an effective way to make their faith un-mockable. American society is perfectly okay with threats of violence in response to blasphemous speech, but we only tolerate it for certain faiths. There are good reasons to doubt that double standard is sustainable."

The weekly round-up of pithy elaborations of traditional Cold Spring Shops themes follows.  Many of the following are brief extracts from longer essays, many touching on a variety of points, that will reward careful study.  Do so before slagging on me for cherry-picking lines.  Yes, the theme for today is "reality checks."

REVEALED PREFERENCES.

What Chicagoans voted for.  "The progressive uprising of recent years has given Chicago the largest democratic socialist caucus of any American city."  I should hope that turfing out Rod Blagojevich's sister-in-law might have been an improvement.  "How many black families have had their lives blighted by the common schools, or the welfare state, or the minimum wage, all important elements of Democratic platforms?"  She's out, the article reports.

Deb Mell lost by 13 votes to Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez, a democratic socialist who grew up in Puerto Rico. That was a transitional election for the 33rd Ward, which joined the vanguard of a movement defining politics in 21st Century Chicago as much as the machine defined it in the 20th: the progressive uprising that has given Chicago the largest democratic socialist caucus of any American city, and that put Brandon Johnson in the mayoral runoff, then the mayor’s office. It’s one of the seven most progressive wards in Chicago, all of them located on the near northwest or far north sides. They’re important to understand, because as they are going, so is going Chicago.

And how goes Chicago?  Even More Than the Old Boss: Chicago Has Worst Memorial Day Weekend Violence in Over a Decade.  Hey, Jackass! notes, "The Summer of Joy 2 has arrived! Starting this weekend and for the next 100 days, be prepared to experience more silly decisions than one thought could be humanly possible."

There was another mostly peaceful weekend in Milwaukee as well:  "12 shootings leave 3 dead, 15 hurt."  Politicians like to speak of community, it takes communities that understand traditional norms and traditions, whether you call them "bourgeois" or derived from Scripture.  "One woman said she went to the cemetery for Memorial Day and noticed how many graves were for young people. She said too many lives are lost to violence, and she's not the only one stepping up in her neighborhood."

This weekend's weather forecast is favorable to outdoor activities, preferably not involving wilding or gunplay.

WILL CALIFORNIA FUND REGIONAL RAILROAD ELECTRIFICATION?

I never lack for stories of Technocratic Overreach, do I?

Rob Himoto’s Santa Maria Valley Railroad is the quintessential short line success story. His family bought the struggling 13.72-mile independent short line in 2006. Through hard work, they’ve been able to quadruple annual carloadings, diversify the railroad’s traffic base, and improve its track.

Himoto is understandably proud of the turnaround and the role the railroad plays in taking long-haul freight off the highway in California and beyond. But now the California Air Resources Board has come along with new locomotive emissions regulations that could bankrupt the Santa Maria Valley and threaten the viability of many of the state’s 24 other short lines.

The regulations, approved in April, pack a one-two punch. The first is an excise tax on locomotives that goes into effect in 2024, with the amount based on emissions each locomotive produces. The second prohibits locomotives older than 23 years from operating in California beginning in 2030. CARB’s wacky idea is that the excise tax is a forced savings plan that will help Class I and shortline railroads pay for new clean-burning or zero-emissions locomotives.

But the yearly excise tax will be a knock-out blow for some short lines. In Santa Maria Valley’s case, the bills on its active fleet — a GP7, GP9, and GP35 — will exceed the railroad’s annual revenue. What’s the Santa Maria Valley going to do when the forced spending account plan goes into effect next year? “I don’t know,” Himoto shrugs. “We’re at a loss.”

And there aren’t any other options. Santa Maria Valley rosters a pair of GE 70-tonners that are exempt from the excise tax because they produce less than 1,006 horsepower. Could they take over for the Geeps? “No,” Himoto laughs, shaking his head. “Not with our traffic.” The 70-tonners can’t handle the railroad’s typical 35- to 40-car train.

Oh, there are other options.

We start with two products of Milwaukee's Cold Spring Shops, moving ballast hoppers to upgrade the East Troy Electric Railroad, which has been electrically operated, mostly, under multiple owners, since 1907.  The constraint on heavy electric freight operation is in the substations and the overhead wire.  But Californians might raise a stink about chopping down enough trees to put the catenary poles up.

THE TECHNOCRATS OVERLOOK THE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES.

The people who invented dirigisme implement it badly, again.  "France Just Banned Short-Haul Flights. Why Are So Few Routes Affected?"  It's always the Good Intentions.

To combat climate change, France has officially prohibited short domestic flights for journeys that will take less than 2.5 hours by train.

“This is an essential step and a strong symbol in the policy of reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” says Clement Beaune, France’s transport minister, in a statement, per CNN’s Saskya Vandoorne. “As we fight relentlessly to decarbonize our lifestyles,” he adds, “how can we justify the use of the plane between the big cities which benefit from regular, fast and efficient connections by train?”

Because even a country with some of the world's fastest passenger trains has a Passenger Rail network centered on Paris?

Critics say that the ban’s limitations are significant. So far, only three routes have been discontinued: the routes between Paris-Orly Airport and the cities Nantes, Bordeaux and Lyon. Additionally, the ban only applies to routes that have direct train service running “several times a day” on a schedule that will allow travelers to spend at least eight hours at their destination. It also doesn’t apply to connecting flights.

Symbolism over substance, concludes the article.

THE PROFESSIONAL PROTEST COMMUNITIES MESSED UP THE UNIVERSITIES.

That's the bed the various "studies" departments made.  Now they have to lie in it.  "Ethnic studies finds itself ill protected by disciplinary norms of academic freedom, Timothy Messer-Kruse writes."

The fundamental problem confronting the "studies" departments is that a lot of what passes as critical theory rests either on untestable priors, or is normative per se.  Don't say I didn't warn you.  "The logic bomb detonates. Is anybody surprised that denying coherent beliefs might generate incoherence, or counterrevolution?"

A SPECTACLE REQUIRES AN IMPRESARIO.

It's not required that the impresario also be the president.  "Trump Announces 'Salute to America 250' Proposal Ahead of Iowa Town Hall."

That announcement comes bundled with ambitions of a return to office.

Three years from now, the United States will celebrate the biggest and most important milestone in our country’s history — 250 years of American Independence. What a great country. We have to keep it that way. But that’s why as a nation, we should be preparing for the most spectacular birthday party. We want to make it the best of all time. Here is my plan to give America’s founding in 1776 the incredible anniversary it truly deserves.

My hope is that the amazing people of IOWA will work with my administration to open up the legendary Iowa state fairgrounds to host the Great American State Fair and welcome millions and millions of visitors from around the world to the heartland of America for this special one-time festival.

Yes, a quarter millennium is a long time for a republic to endure, and a short burst of spending to shore up Iowa votes looks like an economy measure compared with the continuation of ethanol subsidies.

It's also an opportunity for Mr Trump, as a private citizen, to do what he does best, namely hype up the spectacle.  His Georgia grievance tours have twice handed control of the Senate to the Democrats and their gerontocracy, and he steps on his own compare-and-contrast with the stagflation, crime, and general fecklessness the gerontocracy, with the aid of the party's communist wing, have saddled us with.

Seriously.  It doesn't require an executive order to get some sort of celebration of American Independence and American Spirit going.  It's Mr Trump's comparative advantage to help organize the entertainment folks, and barnstorm the country as a private citizen ballyhooing the big show.  I'd rather have a sitting president who can concentrate on restoring regular order in budgeting and on Constitutional discipline on the bureaucracy.  Preferably that president should be younger than I am.

THE CONTESTED MEANING OF MEMORIAL DAY.

Strictly speaking, Armed Forces Day is for honoring people who are wearing the uniform, Veterans Day for honoring people who wore the uniform, and Memorial Day for people who did not get the chance to remove the uniform.  I've called attention previously to the way these public holidays get conflated.

Memorial Day began, after the Civil War, as Decoration Day, which was May 30, no matter which day of the week that fell upon, and it became a tradition for people to decorate the graves of their ancestors as well as the Civil War dead.  Memorial Day was codified ... Washington standardization again, as the final Monday of May, and thus the beginning-of-summer long weekend that trips up politician and entertainer alike took its current form.  In November, what we currently understand as Veterans Day (it's an adjective, not a possessive) emerged out of Armistice Day, and it retains its November 11 date honoring the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month when the War to End All Wars ended.  In the British Commonwealth, that day is currently Remembrance Day, there being an encore to that War to End All Wars, and there's more of the tribute to the dead in that nomenclature, thus their Remembrance Day has more of a Memorial Day atmosphere to it.

An observer, though, might, upon observing the same sort of joint task force providing the honor guard, the bugler, the three volleys both in May and in November, perceive a similar purpose to either day, and wonder, why have both?  It's also difficult to distinguish "war dead" from "veteran" in identifying who to memorialize, what with people returning to civilian life after being exposed to nuclear weapon tests, or Agent Orange, or the smoke from those weapons dumps set afire in Iraq and Afghanistan, or the nightmares that recur no matter how pleasant the home life or the day job might be.  Thus more than a little advocacy for veterans' benefits might find its way into the Memorial Day speechifying.

In this century, firefighters and police have found themselves on the front line of the global jihad, as well as possibly becoming involved in the not-so-cold civil war that colors our politics; and the DeKalb municipal observation both involves and recognizes the city's first responders.

In my mind, I'm hearing Sgt. Karlson grousing about that detail being out of step.

BRIGHTLINE'S ROLLING GATED COMMUNITY?

That was my impression of the service from the beginning.  Now comes confirmation from a foodie.  "Brightline: A Florida train tour with cultural and culinary highlights."  Read on.

Our four-day press trip visited Orlando, West Palm Beach and Miami -- all cities that Brightline's trains serve -- and included one-night stays in unique and artsy hotels within a short walk or ride away from the stations.

We dined at innovative and award-winning restaurants on our trip, a couple of which have earned Michelin stars and recognition in the past year, and we also took advantage of neighborhood walking tours and riding the free community shuttles via what I think might be Florida's favorite kind of vehicle: golf carts.

For "innovative and award-winning" read "upscale" and "unconventional."

Since it's only a quick 7- to 10-minute drive from Orlando International Airport, which is where the new Brightline Orlando station is located, Lake Nona Wave Hotel should be on your radar when looking for places to stay near the airport and the train station.

You might think you landed in Wynwood, one of Miami's most popular art neighborhoods, instead of central Florida, given the presentation the Wave Hotel offers upon walking inside -- and that's probably the point.

Whether you're lounging in the art-stacked lobby, sipping drinks in the indoor amphitheater under the LED-lit cherry blossom tree or roaming through the giant sculpture garden outside, the Wave Hotel launches guests elsewhere into their own pop cultural bubble and offers a kind of vacation continuity on your travels while you're waiting to catch your flight or Brightline train.

Our press group didn't stay overnight at the Wave Hotel (unfortunately), but we certainly feasted at the hotel's restaurant, Bacan, a Michelin-recommended restaurant in the Orlando area serving boldly flavored dishes inspired by cuisine of the Americas. And every dish we had was delicious, from the grilled octopus to the smoked pork belly and steak tartare to the creatively crafted desserts.

Look, that's all good, one way to have more people becoming railroad-aware is to have Passenger Rail service that doesn't put one in mind of being resettled by some totalitarian European dictatorship.

Onboard the Brightline train, I suddenly felt like I was in Europe or Japan. The interior layout looked just like the trains there with nice comfortable seats that are assigned, complete with personal foldout tables and set beside large windows so you don't miss a thing. I loved the food and beverage cart service onboard, too.

I wish I had known when I had an hour's layover in West Palm how walkable downtown was. It's also useful for intrepid travellers to know about culinary and aesthetic departures from what a city is most popularly known for.  Oxtail beignets and Michelin stars, forsooth!

The upcoming professional basketball tournament will feature contrasting approaches to Commuter Rail and Regional Rail service.  Brightline and the Miami Heat have a partnership, and fans will be able to get to Heat games either on Brightline or the city's more traditional Commuter Rail operator that terminates at Amtrak's former Seaboard Air Line station.  The opponent will be Denver, where the Commuter Rail service is a hybrid of the limited tram line and traditional interurban service.

IT'S NOT OFTEN I SCOOP PAJAMAS MEDIA.

Who is Vodka Pundit? "GALT’S MOTOR," this morning.

Cold Spring Shops, "NEITHER NIKOLA TESLA NOR JOHN GALT," almost a week ago.

Don't rush out to invest in this technology just yet:  "Don't hope to power your home computer, let alone your space heater, any time soon. "The microscale device was able to produce continuous energy equivalent to several hundred millivolts for a test period of a week, which is much longer than other air generator concepts that had a one-time power output that lasted no more than 48 hours."

There's still the little problem that when the rain isn't falling, there are no pennies from heaven to capture.

GONE.

A few years ago, I made what might be my final visit to Conneaut Lake Park in northwestern Pennsylvania.

The park was home to a wooden roller coaster, the Blue Streak, with an intriguing model board and a lot of air time.

And now, it's gone.

At an amusement park steeped in nostalgia, the 84-year-old Blue Streak — designated a landmark roller coaster by the American Coaster Enthusiasts — was the centerpiece.

A portion of that centerpiece, a wooden roller coaster built at Conneaut Lake Park, laid on the ground as charred ruins Wednesday morning.

The Blue Streak was in the process of being dismantled when it was damaged by fire Tuesday night, a park official said in a Facebook post Tuesday night.

Those over-winter fires have long plagued amusement parks, and yes, that is January 2022 news.  The amusement park has faced an uncertain future, roller coaster or no, for years, and when I last rode it, it was in rough shape and the park chose not to run it in the rain.  It's still another Rust Belt roller coaster loss.  The comments to the video, from an Erie television station, are critical of the park owners. 

There still is an amusement park at Conneaut Lake, although it's wise to check the website to check that the remaining amusement rides (the "classic carousel," they changed to the modern spelling, is still there, and a number of the other attractions are of the portable carnival variety) are operating.

The story also offers a caution to preservationists.  That a hobbyist group such as the American Coaster Enthusiasts honors a roller coaster as historically significant does not imply the honored item, whether a roller coaster or a building is listed with the National Register of Historic Places or as a World Heritage Site.

SO MUCH WISHFUL THINKING.

Run along, Kenny Stancil.  Go ahead and produce a ton of steel without any abstract principles, or fossil fuels.  "'It's time that the steel industry take the growing need and demand for fossil-free steel seriously,' said one advocate."  That's how it works, doesn't it?  Click those ruby slippers together and chant, "there's no fuel in steel, there's no fuel in steel ..."  Such is the life of an "advocate."  There's a lot of things I would love to advocate for, but reality has the final say.

Progressive organizers on Wednesday urged steelmakers to swiftly adopt the clean manufacturing methods needed to achieve a shift from coal-based steel to "green steel."

At the Great Designs in Steel conference held in a Detroit suburb, Public Citizen and Mighty Earth activists used a series of digital ads and mobile billboards to call on industry insiders and automotive executives to accelerate the nascent transition from dirty to clean steel by fully embracing low- to zero-carbon production processes—one of many changes that scientists say are necessary to avert the worst consequences of the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis.

"Steel manufacturing remains one of the most energy-intensive and polluting aspects of making a vehicle, but there are solutions to clean it up," Erika Thi Patterson, supply chain campaigns director at Public Citizen, said in a statement. "As companies and governments work to meet net-zero climate commitments, it's time that the steel industry take the growing need and demand for fossil-free steel seriously and embrace the cleaner technologies that exist today."

"Insiders at this conference," Patterson continued, "need to recognize the inevitability of green transportation and move in that direction quickly and forcefully."

They're gathering in Detroit for vegetarian Coney Island dogs to slag on Cleveland Cliffs for ... relining a blast furnace at their Burns Harbor works, a former Bethlehem plant that was state of the art sixty years ago, and still competitive with imports and the improved products from the not-so-mini electric furnace plants.

HONORING THE PAUPERS.

The most direct drive from DeKalb to the Fox Cities of Wisconsin or Green Bay follows generally the old Northern Illinois Railroad to Belvidere, thence cross country through Clinton Junction to the east side of Janesville, there picking up the ancestral Galena and Chicago Union line by way of Watertown, Clyman Junction, Juneau, and Waupun, where it's either U.S. 151 to Fond du Lac or again generally following an old Milwaukee Road line into Oshkosh.  That routing is country driving through Illinois, one of Wisconsin's Cheddarbahnen from Janesville to just south of Juneau, and the stretch of state highway 26 between 151 at Waupun and Interstate 41 at Oshkosh is a popular truckers bypass as well as home to a notorious speed trap in Rosendale.

The country driving between Juneau and Waupun has a number of things to provoke thought.  My first time trying that routing, I saw what looked like a small military cemetery on the north edge of Juneau.

Although the markers had that institutional sameness, up close they were different, and the grounds were in rough shape compared to what I've seen of military cemeteries.  The old Galena and Chicago right of way is behind the trees east of the road.  Yes, dear reader, what became the Chicago and North Western got to the Fox Cities the long way around first.

MORE TITLES FOR TITLETOWN.

Those "best places to live" surveys come up with all sorts of criteria for finding the best place to live.  Men's Journal discovered that U.S. News don't just rank colleges and universities.

The 2023–2024 list just named a Midwestern city that's home to a leading NFL franchise—yet also boasts a decidedly small town feel—at the very top of its list.

Set in the heart of northeast Wisconsin, Green Bay was chosen as the number one spot for having the "perfect mix of big-city amenities" without feeling like you're living in a big city. With a thriving entertainment and arts scene, revitalized downtown, and two college campuses, the report makes a strong case for Green Bay appealing to both young families and retirees alike.

Other features that makes Green Bay an attractive place to live include a booming craft beer scene and restaurant industry, museums, boutique shopping, and proximity to the Green Bay Packers' stadium, Lambeau Field. The city's waterfront on the Fox River is also a draw, perfect for summer activities and al fresco dining; as well as the wooded Fox River State Trail that runs parallel with the river.

Green Bay was the only Midwestern location to crack the top 10 list, although Madison appears at No. 11. North Carolina, Florida, and Colorado all had a strong showing—with Raleigh, Durham, and Charlotte; Sarasota and Naples; and Boulder and Colorado Springs, respectively.

I suspect Green Bay beating out Madison is going to have some subset of the metrofexual population crying foul; and yet, there are as many criteria for ranking places as there are people seeking to change places.  Tieboutian competition is a good thing.

DEBT CEILING FOLLIES.

Mike "Kids Prefer Cheese" Munger extends the argument that the debt ceiling isn't a credible commitment.

The idea of a “debt ceiling,” implemented in 1917, was to force politicians who wanted to increase spending, or to cut taxes, to take account of the way those two impulses added up. Of course, that seems silly in a way, because the level of spending is decided by legislation, and signed by the President, and the various tax rates are decided by legislation, and signed by the President. If spending is where the Congress and President want it, and taxes are where the Congress and President want it, then the annual deficit must be what they want. And the debt is just the accumulation of deficits over time.

This all worked reasonably well as long as fiscal conservatism was a separate norm that most politicians cared about. But, as I pointed out almost four years ago, there has been a decline in the norm of concern for deficits.

This side of the Big Rock Candy Mountain, though, fiscal conservatism takes a back seat to self interest.

Voters want increased spending, lower taxes, and lower deficits. That’s actually true; they really do want those things. There’s nothing irrational about that, though. I want to lose weight, eat an entire cake, and sit on the couch and watch Netflix. I really do want all those things.

Thomas Sowell famously said that the first rule of economics is scarcity; the first rule of politics is to ignore the first rule of economics. So politicians of both of the state-sponsored parties refuse to cut spending, maneuver to cut taxes for their most powerful supporters, and then complain loudly about deficits.

People often complain about the “irrationality” of politics, but there is nothing irrational about the process that has given rise to our crushing debt burden. Voters really do want lower deficits, provided it does not involve either cutting spending or raising taxes.

There's always an argumentam ad misericordiam for not cutting spending. "House Republicans have leveraged those alarming possibilities to secure painful federal spending cuts and aid program changes that could leave more people hungry, sick, and unable to afford housing." There's always an argument against raising taxes. "But if lawmakers continue to reject commonsense deficit reductions, then the budget deficit — and eventually middle-class taxes — will double once again."

Ultimately, Professor Munger notes, reality comes up to bat.  "Meaning that we can’t cut taxes, and we can’t raise spending, not really."  That sounds counterintuitive, but it's simply the government budget constraint at work.

THEY'LL NEVER LEARN.

Self-styled progressives never cease to amuse.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) on [May 4] introduced legislation to cut the price of prescription drugs under Medicare in half by requiring Medicare to pay no more for prescription drugs than the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). If this legislation were signed into law, Medicare would save an estimated $835 billion over the next decade.

“There is no rational reason, other than greed, for Medicare to pay twice as much for the same exact prescription drugs as the VA,” Sanders said. “The bill we are introducing today would cut the price of prescription drugs in half under Medicare, save taxpayers $835 billion over the next decade and provide real relief to millions of seniors who cannot afford their prescription drugs. If the VA can negotiate with the pharmaceutical companies to substantially reduce the price of prescription drugs (which it has done for the past 30 years), we can and we must require Medicare to receive the same exact prices that the VA pays for prescription drugs. If Republicans are really serious about reducing the deficit they should support this bill.”

Populist froth. Does anybody really believe that federal expenditures on drugs will be reduced on the order of a trillion dollars over the next ten years simply by expanding a monopsony?

IS IT TOO LATE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION TO REDISCOVER ITS PURPOSE?

Matt "Dean Dad" Reed builds a column off a conversation with a reader he met at his older kid's graduation.

I don’t see this blog as primarily political, and I certainly don’t offer electoral endorsements or anything of the kind, but if you read between the lines long enough, you can get a general sense of my perspective. That said, I’m increasingly concerned about the severity of political polarization in the U.S., and the degree to which people seem to retreat to information sources that align with their priors. With mutually exclusive narratives getting reinforced daily, it’s easy for people to talk past each other, or to assume that the “other” side is simply irredeemable and not worth engaging.

As far as I know, community colleges don't require diversity statements the way the personnel committees at the universities with a U. S. News problem do, there's not even a diversity tab at Brookdale's web site the way Northern Illinois rolls.  There's enough epistemic closure in higher education that the sin of reinforcing narratives isn't redeemed in freshman orientation, the general education classes, or the dorm bull sessions.

At the risk of seeming old-fashioned, I like the idea of assuming that it’s worthwhile to engage with people who aren’t starting from the same place. Nobody has a monopoly on wisdom—although my readers are both wise and worldly—and some epistemological humility is in order. It’s out of fashion right now, but all the more important for that.

That doesn’t mean defaulting to the assumption that the truth is always in the middle. It isn’t. (Is the world round or flat? Splitting the difference and calling it cylindrical isn’t helpful.) But it does mean taking the time to spell out the why behind arguments, and assuming that one’s own view of a given issue might be partial at best.

I'm a few years older than Dean Dad, and if he wants to apply for a Curmudgeon Card, I can countersign the application.  Since he's still in the daily grind, I recommend he deliver some curmudgeonly charm to his colleagues writing for that house organ for all wokeness all the time.

The political theorist Wendy Brown, of whom I’m a fan, has a terrific piece in The Chronicle this week encapsulating her latest book. Both the article and the book are worth reading slowly, but for present purposes, I’ll highlight her suggestion that the value of academic inquiry, as opposed to political activism, lies in developing deeper understandings of the contexts in which clusters of ideas hang together. Absent context, positions just become rhetorical battering rams or empty affirmations of belonging. Among other things, that suggests a need to protect the spaces of academic inquiry from being reduced to agents of whichever political party is in power at the time. Politics may be a team sport in certain ways, but inquiry shouldn’t be.

Fine. Send Neal Hutchens and Frank Fernandez the memo.  They start in a good place.

Events in the Sunshine State also reflect an ongoing legal debate over the extent that First Amendment rights apply to public college and university professors in carrying out their teaching, research and service duties.

We contend that the First Amendment should protect professors in public higher education from laws like the Stop WOKE Act, as Florida’s version of anti-CRT legislation is commonly called. Specifically, we argue (in the Journal of College and University Law and Penn State Law Review) that courts should look to the academic freedom policies adopted by public colleges and universities, including those in Florida, in defining the First Amendment rights of faculty in carrying out their professional duties.

I concur. "Congress shall make no Law" applies to state legislatures acting as agents of Congress.  We are where we are, dear reader, because curriculum committees and student affairs types that often don't hold tenure track slots  too often err on the side of academic activism that they call academic inquiry.  Regular readers have heard that rant from me, over and over.

Messrs. Hutchen and Fernandez, however, elide a fundamental point.  "Namely, public higher education institutions should not be able to tout broad commitments to academic freedom in their official policies and mission statements and then, in practice, seek to deny professors academic freedom, including in court proceedings, based on the whims of politicians or other officials."  Shall we expand "other officials" to include deanlets in student affairs or the coordinators of the bias response team?

A state’s Department of Motor Vehicles does not depend on academic freedom protections for the agency to function. But the success of a public college or university is premised on professors serving as independent voices and actors as opposed to institutional mouthpieces. Unlike other state employees, public college and university faculty are hired to function as individual and independent voices in teaching, research and institutional service.

It came to this, dear reader, when the grievance studies types went beyond giving bullpuckey a bad name in their own disciplines, and injected that bullpuckey into student orientation, mathematics and the laboratory sciences, and the colleges of education, who turn out teachers capable of provoking parents while failing to teach children.

Does it come as a surprise that a Glenn Youngkin or Ron DeSantis emerges as a corrective?

THE RAINBOW BRIDGE.

A proper roundhouse is guarded by an 0-2-2-0 Mouser, and in ferroequinology circles, Nevada Northern's adoptive stray, Dirt, became famous, and now rates a Memorial Day weekend service.

May 28 will see a full day of events to honor Dirt, including special tours and excursion trains. There will also be a eulogy at Dirt’s final resting place – a short walk from the East Ely Depot where he will be able to look out over the yard.

“In Dirt’s passing, he has transformed from being our Boss Shop Cat to becoming an ambassador for Heritage Railroading across the country and around the world,” NNRY President Mark Bassett told Fox 11 News in Reno. “We consider Dirt following in the paw prints of Smoky Bear. Smokey was a real bear cub that survived a forest fire. Since 1944 he has been a symbol of forest fire prevention, and we see Dirt, Boss Shop Cat, doing the same thing. Dirt will help us reach new people to explain why the preservation of our steam railroading heritage is so important and he will also be instrumental in helping us teach railroad safety to children.”

The cat apparently figured out enough about the movement of rolling stock to be out of the way when crews moved it.

THE TRAGIC VISION COMES FOR THE SOAP OPERA.

I continue to watch Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D., perhaps to have some fun with the creative geography.  Roosevelt and Racine is Wacker near where Eastland rolled over?  Am I being cruel calling all three hours of Wednesday prime-time a soap opera?  "The real purpose of the One Chicago series, though, appears to be 'How far can the cast get away with fishing off the company pier without triggering a sexual harassment investigation.' I'm likely to gripe more about that once the season wraps up."

We'll get to Chicago Fire in a subsequent post.  "The eternal verities frequently come up in Chicago Fire, and the way the protagonists in the P.D. grapple with their frequently troubled lives (perhaps comfortable people don't go to the Police Academy or Firefighter Academy?) and keep their sanity and get the job done, plus the odd object lesson.  That Northern Illinois's Joe Minoso has one of the more interesting firefighter roles is a plus." That's become the "good guys win a few" interlude between Chicago Med, which I no longer watch, and Chicago P.D., which is sometimes NBC's Act of Contrition, and sometimes a culture-studies lecture.