environment

Crisis-Real or Not

Dave Davis Commentary, Policy, Uncategorized , , , ,

In my last post, I noted that the Democrats offered the same false diagnoses, leading them to propose policies that have failed in the past. Shortly after publishing, I learned of Paul Ehrlich’s passing. The Stanford biologist’s life encapsulates how misinformation underlies progressivism. Worse, these mostly highly educated people are aware of these falsehoods, but they work very hard to avoid the truth.

Paul Ehrlich may not be well known among today’s youth, but they may be contending with his effect. His book, “The Population Bomb,” written with his wife and published in 1968, sold millions of copies. The Author was a fixture on The Late Show.” Exposed to his frightening predictions of mass famine and the collapse of overpopulated societies, people worldwide changed their behavior, and some nations even adopted policies to restrict population growth.

Some found the idea of parenthood selfish and a threat to the planet. Many skipped the adventure of parenthood. As a result, many never became grandparents, and we have fewer cousins. Beyond individual decisions, some nations took stringent measures to curb population growth.

On the surface, his thesis seems plausible. If humans were allowed to breed like rabbits, they would soon outrun the planet’s ability to provide food and resources. The only possible outcome is a massive die-off.

This theory isn’t new. In 1798, Thomas Malthus observed that humans reproduced geometrically, while food resources grew only arithmetically, setting up a trap that could only lead to dire circumstances—his outwardly logical theory occurred during the Age of Reason and the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution.

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First A Solid Foundation

Dave Davis Commentary, Policy, Uncategorized , , ,

The administration makes the case that Elon Musk’s doge group will make the government more responsive to our needs, but just getting rid of people and finding fraud and abuse might do some good; it fails to get to the heart of how to get things done in a timely fashion in America. Even the Doge claims a trillion dollars in savings, which pales beside the returns of actually getting things built or produced.

Even some left-of-center people realize that rather than Americans being able to interact in enterprises in reasonable time frames, it’s likely that any enterprise will ever come to fruition. In their new best-seller, “Abundance,” Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson lament how difficult it is to get anything done in America. An illustration they feature is California’s long-delayed high-speed rail. Having spent billions with no rails laid, the project’s goal was reduced to linking the great cities of Fresno and Merced instead of Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The author’s example misses the mark by omitting that Florida has already linked Miami and the Gold Coast to Orlando with high-speed rail. Last year, the privately owned Brightline carried 2.7 million passengers.

Rather than lamenting America’s inability to build things, it is better to look at how people who faced a similar problem got up and running. As a private for-profit company, no question about who was in charge and responsible. The project leader coordinated everything on a set timeline. Because the route mainly ran on already-in-use Florida East Coast rails, permitting obstacles were minimal.

The relative success of high-speed rail in Florida vs. California’s costly failure should provide some principles for Governments to use to provide the framework for successful ventures.

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