My Weekly Reading for September 29, 2024

by JD Tuccille, The reasonSeptember 23, 2024.

Quote:

Building codes reflect a wide range of government interventions, including zoning restrictions, land use laws, energy efficiency codes, safety codes, and more. The purpose of such laws usually begins with public health, then expands to include energy efficiency, home values, and the aesthetic preferences of government officials. Regulations can affect design, and require the sign-off of local agencies, throughout the process—from planning, to construction, to final settlement.

The evidence that regulations play a major role in tightening housing availability is overwhelming, Bryan Caplan, an economics professor at George Mason University, wrote in July. “Before the rise of deregulation in the 1970s, the textbook model worked well: When demand drove prices higher than the cost of production, more construction drove prices down.” Since then, however, red-tape areas have seen prices rise compared to less regulated areas. “Highly regulated urban areas like New York City and the Bay Area have high prices and low construction, while less regulated areas like Houston and Dallas have much lower prices and more construction.”

Also:

Comprehensive regulations include compliance costs, not just in money, but over time. In March, the wealth of the book industry TheRealDeal engineer reports throughout the year wait for an appointment with an official who can resolve the conflict between a New York City agency’s requirement for a ramp that complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the agency’s requirement for trees in the same area.

by Alex Nowrasteh, Cato at LibertySeptember 23, 2024.

Quote:

The data on convictions in Texas for animal cruelty is apparently not the data used by Haitian immigrants who use cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio. However, we do not have criminal conviction data by immigration status or country of origin in Springfield. Data from Texas is suggestive, too it is possible became normal, despite having some problems, as I describe here.

Maybe a few immigrants who are cruel to animals aren’t prosecuted or maybe they don’t befriend our furry friends in other ways that won’t result in a criminal conviction for animal cruelty. Still, the Texas data help answer the questions of whether immigrants are more cruel to animals across the country than native Americans and whether more immigrants will lead to more animal cruelty in the United States. Immigrants in Texas are less likely to be convicted of animal cruelty.

Look at his second graph.

by HE Frech III, Mark Paul, and William S. Comanor, RegulationFall 2024.

There is a worldwide interest in supporting the development of new and improved medicines, and this commonality of interest provides the basis for the public good discussed here. Although the United States and other major countries continue to support more than their equal share of the burden of supporting this public good, that fact does not mean that it is adequately provided. Indeed, there are economic factors that suggest that it is not a given.

In French et al. In 2022, we found that the average starting prices for US generic drugs are less than $40,000 per Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY) gained. But studies of consumer and labor decisions estimate that the US public’s expressed “willingness to pay” for an additional QALY exceeds $200,000. This difference of $160,000 or more per QALY suggests that even the United States, on average, pays less to support global R&D, even during the lifetime of a patent. After patent protection expires, entry by generic drug manufacturers often lowers prices. This makes sense as a Nash equilibrium, as mentioned above. Even the largest country ignores external benefits. Therefore, the United States will be a conservative model of appropriate contribution. If the US contribution is too low, the ROW countries contribution is even lower exacerbating the problem. This conclusion does not preclude the possibility that some brand-name drugs are more expensive in the United States.

by Greg S. Fink, Car and DriverSeptember 21, 2024.

Now California is looking to emulate the EU with a law that would mandate speed warning devices in cars. The bill, SB 961, aims to standardize these systems in the Golden State by requiring nearly all 2030 models equipped with GPS or a forward-facing camera to also have visual and audible warnings when driving above 10 mph. Speed ​​Limit. Provisions within the bill will ensure that drivers can fully disable the systems.

Those who support the technology say it can save lives – consider that by 2022, 18 percent of passenger car drivers, or 8236 people, involved in fatal accidents in the US were speeding, according to NHTSA. Yet even security advocates find it hard to believe that the regulations as written will do much. Graziella Jost, who works as a project director at the European Transport Safety Council and is in charge of a campaign that has helped lead the charge for speed warning technology, finds the EU—and, by extension, the California bill’s minimum requirements—for systems lacking. .

by Matthew Petti, The reasonSeptember 25, 2024.

Quote:

Lebanon is not the only place where Washington’s wars are a self-licking ice cream cone. From Vietnam to Iraq, hawkish politicians have sent Americans to fight in faraway countries, then used the blowback as an excuse to fight even harder. Don’t you think they are the enemy of America? So why are they shooting Americans in their own country?

Also:

Over the next few decades, Vietnamese communists learned that they enjoyed American capitalism more than they thought. Today, Americans are free to come and go in Vietnam as tourists. But first, we had to stop being invaders.

US policy is delaying that outcome in the Middle East as much as possible. As long as they can, politicians will try to keep the cycle of blowback and revenge alive. We will stay in the Middle East to avenge the Americans who died to keep America in the Middle East.

Petti’s last sentence is gold.


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