We celebrate our birthday’s as the time we left our mother’s womb at 9 months of age. But in fact, our lives began a little bit earlier. When you were conceived, your DNA already determined if you would be male or female, what color your hair will be, along with the color of your eyes.…
ND House Tax Committee To Hear Bill Reducing The State Sales Tax
There are a ton of tax proposals being considered by the North Dakota legislature this session. From property taxes to the income tax, there are a lot of ideas floating around about how to give taxpayers at least some of their money back out of the windfall in revenues the state government is enjoying. Today…
North Dakotans Aren't Asking The Right Questions About Supposed Property Tax Relief
I was happy to see this headline run in the Fargo Forum today. It’s gratifying to see skepticism of the state buy-downs of local spending we’ve been calling “property tax relief.” There are a lot of reasons to be skeptical. Heck, there are a lot of reasons to believe it isn’t really tax relief at…
America Has So Many Environmental Regulations They Can't Even Be Counted
Yesterday I wrote about modern Luddites who argue that America’s economy is suffer because too many laborers are being replaced by technology. Which doesn’t make any sense. Should we go back to farming with horses because that was more labor-intensive and employed more people on farms? Rather, I argued that America isn’t being held back…
North Dakota Student Loan Debt Has Increased 125% At NDSU, UND
According to the Grand Forks Herald, student loan debt accumulation has increased dramatically over the last decade: In the 2010-2012 school year, undergraduate and graduate students at UND and North Dakota State University borrowed an average of $7,855 in a year, according to the university system report released Friday. That’s up 125 percent over the…
ND Legislature Hall Of Shame Week 3: Rep. Bob Skarphol
This week’s Hall of Shame honoree is Rep. Bob Skarphol of Tioga. Skarphol is the sponsor of HB1189, which would seek to target out-of-state drivers with larger speeding fines than in-state drivers while rewarding law enforcement agencies who target out-of-state drivers over in-state drivers with the revenues from the tickets they write. Here’s the text:…
Kopp Column: Fascism Is Alive And Well In America
Recently John Mackley the president of a large food company, Whole Foods who is himself a vegan and is also a left-thinker called elements of today’s federal power system fascist. He is right. Let’s be clear on this point: He did not say “Nazism,” but fascism. The Third Reich was fascist, but not all fascists…
Is It That Technology Changes Too Fast, Or Is The Government Holding Us Back?
There are two mistaken ideas about economics that, throughout history, significant numbers of people make again and again. One is the Malthusian idea about diminishing resources. This has been around since Thomas Malthus wrote about humanity outgrowing its ability to produce food, which would inevitably lead to widespread famine according to Malthus. Of course, that…
Aircraft Management Bill Amended To End University System Exemption
During the interim between the 2011 legislative session and the current one it seemed legislators were ready to crack down on the abuse of private airplanes by the university system. Legislators chastised NDSU for overspending on the plane they own for the use of university officials, noting that the university (which, ironically enough, has largely…
Researchers Find "Minimal Relationship" Between Higher Ed Spending And Quality Of Education
Something to keep in mind the next time you hear a politician, or a higher education bureaucrat, talking about what we get in return for all of our “investment” in higher education. Everyone knows there’s a reason the most expensive colleges in the country — generally private residential institutions — charge so much. The money…