If you drive, chances are you have damaged a car. Maybe, through no fault of your own, a fender was damaged or, as happened to me, a violent hailstorm dimpled your car like a large golf ball. What’s next? You make an insurance claim, cash the settlement check, and make a decision to fix or […]
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Here’s a great and beneficial irony: exploiting poverty helps the poor. Many argue that increasing globalization enables wealthy countries to consume the world’s resources while exploiting poor countries’ cheap labor and trashing their environments. Well, here’s a resource we should be trying our utmost to deplete: poverty. Yes, poverty is a resource, and one that […]
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Charles Murray is a courageous, tough-love analyst of social policy. His new book by AEI Press, In Our Hands, is the most radical I’ve read. Ever. Charles has worked to counter poverty since in the Peace Corps four decades ago. With a Harvard B.A. and MIT Ph.D. in political science, he is one of America’s […]
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Who but misanthropes and exploiters of cheap labor would oppose the goal of increasing Montana’s minimum wage by one dollar to $6.15 per hour? Only a committed ascetic who inherited a home can enjoy a wholesome, healthy, independent life here on $12,000 per year. Clearly, the proposed increase falls far below a “living wage.” Fifteen […]
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Here’s new evidence MSU is prospering. First the Carnegie Endowment just ranked MSU among the top 96 research universities in the U.S. No other school in our region made the cut. Second, on March 6th, Sikorsky Aircraft announced a new Bozeman design center to begin operation this July. Mark Miller, vice president of research and […]
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The drive for energy independence is rooted in three concerns. First, we are vulnerable to oil disruptions. Second, our energy demands generate national security entanglements. And third, we face rising emissions of climate-altering carbon dioxide. Politicians have been calling for American energy independence for over thirty years. In 1973 U.S. foreign oil imports were at […]
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Every major university claims to celebrate diversity. And they are clearly sincere if we restrict the term to race, gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. However, if we include philosophical orientation and political party identification, such claims are decidedly disingenuous. Conservatives and classical liberals are rarely welcome — and Republicans are scarce. “The jury on Marxism […]
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Montana’s experiment with electricity restructuring didn’t deliver its promises of lower costs. NorthWestern Energy’s residential customers currently pay some of the highest electricity rates in the region. And prices are likely headed higher. This has important consequences for policymakers concerned about Montana’s poor and elderly citizens. Is there a fix? A group called Montana Public […]
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Jerry Johnson’s column last week reminds us of those in our community struggling to makes ends meet. Bozeman is an organic community. It’s very different from many other Rocky Mountain towns, for example Sun Valley, created out of thin air by Averell Harriman, the railroad and banking magnate. And unlike Sun Valley or Aspen, Bozeman […]
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The Gallatin Valley is truly a great place to build a life. As John Baden recently observed, the community is growing richer in civic culture, and access to high-quality amenities is easy. But might it also be an “ecological trap”? If it is, let’s understand it in hopes of helping folks avoid it. Here are […]
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