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Results 1 to 102 for the year 1997
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  1. Mackinac Center Moves to New Main Street Headquarters
     
  2. Cars, Chemicals and Corn Flakes Create Commercial Colossus
     
  3. Beware the Global Warming Treaty
    The existence of man-made global warming is highly uncertain, but the climate treaty's potential negative effects on Michigan's economy are clear.
     
  4. Tickets As Taxes: A Cautionary Tale from California
    As voters resist tax increases, municipalities turn to increased traffic fines for funding. Should exorbitant fines be used to fund local government?
     
  5. Boosting Savings and Growth through a Flat Tax
    Savings are the "seed corn" of the economy. A flat tax would improve the savings rate and promote economic growth.
     
  6. When the Telegraph Came to Michigan
    Even more than e-mail today, the telegraph changed the way Americans communicated with each other in 1847. Michigan's first telegraph line, from Detroit to Ypsilanti, was a free market triumph.
     
  7. Climate Treaty Would Hurt Consumers and Workers
     
  8. The Telegraph Comes to Michigan
     
  9. When Tickets Become Taxes
     
  10. Boosting Savings through a Flat Tax
     
  11. The Universal Tuition Tax Credit: A Proposal to Advance Parental Choice in Education
    This pathbreaking approach to expanding parental choice in education embodies a proposal to amend the Michigan constitution and establish a Universal Tuition Tax Credit (UTTC). The tax credit would offset a portion of private or public school tuition and would be claimed against state tax liabilities. In addition to improving education, the UTTC would save the state hundreds of millions of dollars per year. Unlike other tax credit plans, the UTTC would help needy families with low state tax liabilities by encouraging the creation of corporate scholarships to offset tuition costs not covered by the UTTC. The per-student credit could be claimed against the Michigan tax liability of any person or corporation. Unlike vouchers, the UTTC would not allow state funds to support religious schools, would not drain funds from the public schools, and would not spawn new entitlements or overregulation of private schools. The study includes detailed fiscal models, a discussion of school choice, a history of Michigan's constitutional impediments to education reform, and proposed language for a constitutional amendment. 76 pages
     
  12. The Tyranny of the IRS
    Congressional hearings revealed gross abuse and incompetence at the IRS. A simpler and saner tax code would help bring fairness to tax time.
     
  13. Are the Merits of Wind Power Overblown?
    Wind power farms are noisy, land intensive, unsightly, hazardous to birds, and uneconomical despite massive government subsidies. Do their benefits outweigh these costs?
     
  14. Changing Michigan's Constitution: An Idea Whose Time has Come
    Other states are racing past Michigan in improving education by giving parents freedom to choose schools. A Universal Tuition Tax Credit and constitutional amendment can keep Michigan from lagging behind.
     
  15. Charter Schools: A Reform That Deserves Support
    An audit that found flaws in Michigan charter schools suggests the need for more education reform, not less.
     
  16. Important Free Market Books
    What are some of the books in the field of free-market economics that you have found indispensable?
     
  17. Balanced Budgets and Depressions
    Do balanced budgets cause depressions?
     
  18. Environmental Protection vs. Corporate Profits
    Can the environment still be protected despite the ruthless, profit-driven, corporate world?
     
  19. Minimum Wage and Fairness
    In a free-market economy, wouldn't employees be paid less than the minimum wage?
     
  20. Student Loans and the High Cost of College
    What is your opinion of government student loan programs? Aren’t they helpful to students who can’t afford the high costs of college?
     
  21. Tax Cuts vs. Government Revenue
    Why does debate over the effects of income tax cuts on revenues and the budget deficit never end?
     
  22. Giant Chain Stores vs.  Mom and Pop  Stores
    What would happen to smaller businesses in a free market economy? Would they survive, or would large corporations put them all out of business?
     
  23. Health and Safety Standards in a Free Market
    In a free-market economy, what health standards are offered to consumers and employees?
     
  24. Balancing Imports and Exports
    Are Americans buying imports with exports?
     
  25. False Advertising and the Free Market
    In a free-market economy, what would prevent businesses from false advertisement? Businesses could easily say one thing and do another if no one is regulating. How can this be a good thing?
     
  26. Immigration and Open Borders
    How would an open border policy be beneficial to the economy of the United States?
     
  27. Professors and Academics as Champions of the Working Class
    Why is it that academics in universities around the world seem to portray themselves as champions of the working class?
     
  28. Regulation and Monopolies
    How does one respond to the idea that government needs to regulate monopolies? More specifically, in laissez faire economics, is there any time when government would intervene "for the consumer's good"?
     
  29. The Gold Standard and the Great Depression
    Did the gold standard in any way "cause" the Great Depression?
     
  30. Foreign Holdings of U.S. Currency
    It was reported recently that Russians are holding $30 billion of US currency in the form of cash. It was also commented that this constitutes a form of interest-free loan to the US. Why?
     
  31. Private Currency and the Gold Standard
    What is the feasibility of private currency, and how does the gold standard relate to this?
     
  32. Social Security Privatization
    Can Social Security be privatized? What is your opinion of the subject?
     
  33. Telecommunications Deregulation
    What prevents a wider array of musical choices in radio station listener markets?
     
  34. Charter School Audit Suggests Need for More Education Reform
     
  35. Tuition Tax Credits and the Michigan Constitution
     
  36. "Cuisinarts of the Air"
     
  37. Lighthouses Face Brighter Future Thanks to Center Recommendation
     
  38. Michigan Cigarette Policy Ignores Lessons of History
    Since Michigan tripled its cigarette tax in 1994, smuggling has become big business in the state, exactly as it was before in Britain and Canada. Michigan can learn from their history.
     
  39. Michigan and the Fantastic Federal Fur Failure
    In 1822 the nation's first experiment with a federally subsidized industry-the Michigan fur trade-showed how entrepreneurs can succeed where government fails.
     
  40. Term Limits Are Constitutional
    Michigan citizens voted in favor of term limits in 1992 but lawsuits may derail the referendum-if the courts choose to recraft the state's constitution.
     
  41. Private Sector Schools Serve the Difficult-to-Educate
    Nonpublic schools and organizations are helping thousands of students with special needs, laying bare the myth that private schools only "skim the cream" and leave the toughest kids to the public schools.
     
  42. Do Private Schools Serve Difficult-to-Educate Students?
    Private K-12 schools are sometimes criticized for accepting only those students most likely to succeed academically, and for leaving the most difficult-to-educate children to the public school system. Is this true? The diversity of private schools includes those that serve exclusively at-risk, incarcerated, or disabled children. The report describes private schools that educate each of these populations, reviews how public schools are contracting with private schools to serve difficult-to-educate students, examines policy implications including cost and school choice, and presents six case studies of Michigan private schools that serve exclusively students with special needs. 71 page
     
  43. The Fantastic Federal Fur Failure
     
  44. Do Private Schools "Skim the Cream?"
     
  45. No. 97-428 IN THE Supreme Court of The United States OCTOBER TERM, 1997
     
  46. Jungle Drums
     
  47. Consumers Should Be Wary of "Securitization"
     
  48. IMPACT! Fall 1997
     
  49. Union Racial Discrimination is Alive and Well
    Unions have a long history of petitioning government for special protections from competitive nonunion industries. The result has been a kind of institutionalized racism.
     
  50. Corn Flakes and Greatness
    From "dim-witted" dropout to one of the century's wealthiest Americans, Will Kellogg reminds us that personal and economic freedom encourage great achievement from even the most unlikely individuals.
     
  51. Why Does the Michigan House Want Schools to Waste Money?
    Outsourcing noninstructional duties saves money and improves quality for schools and taxpayers, but the Michigan House of Representatives voted to make doing this more difficult and costly for the state's school districts.
     
  52. Corn Flakes and Greatness
     
  53. Schools and Privatization
     
  54. Politics Ignores Students and Protects Failing Schools Instead
     
  55. PR Will Not Reverse Labor’s Waning Influence
     
  56. Let's Swap the Income Tax for a Sales Tax
    The onerous federal income tax system is anti-jobs, anti-savings, and anti-worker. Replacing the IRS with a national sales tax would be an improvement.
     
  57. A Grand Rapids Success: Helping the Homeless Help Themselves
    Goverment antipoverty programs can provide a check, but not the incentive and nurturing to change a life. Mel Trotter Ministries is an example of how the poor are better helped by private charities.
     
  58. A Free Market in Electricity: Will Michigan Get It Right?
    With Michigan on the verge of embracing choice in the electricity market, one big question remains. Will competition be killed in its cradle, or will consumers realize the benefits of a free market?
     
  59. Freedom to Choose School Affirmed
     
  60. Tocqueville and the Michigan Mosquito
    Vicious insects and their wetlands habitat once threatened to make Detroit the "Malaria City" instead of the "Motor City." Does today's wetlands policy balance human health and economic needs?
     
  61. Joe Louis vs. the IRS
    The heavyweight champion's toughest opponent was not a boxer; it was the IRS. Louis' tragic story shows why we should replace the current income tax with a low, flat rate.
     
  62. Road Reforms Are Critical to Michigan's Infrastructure
    Michigan's rough roads need more than money. The governor's plan would use existing funds more effectively, but the proposed gas tax increase should be offset with other tax cuts.
     
  63. Does Michigan Tax Itself Enough for Roads?
    A federal "level of effort" test would return money to states based on state tax and spending levels. States with high taxes and wasteful spending would be rewarded most.
     
  64. Michigan Should Enforce the Rights of Workers
    Most union workers are unaware that they can not be forced to pay for their unions' political, social, and ideological activities. The state should help workers understand their rights.
     
  65. The Difference Between a Fire and a Flood
    The North Dakota flood of 1997 and the great Michigan fire of 1881 inspired vastly different forms of generosity: one based on politics and the other founded in compassion.
     
  66. Competition is Coming to the Electric Power Business
    Electric power deregulation is a world wide trend. Industry lore has it that rate payers demanded monopolistic utilities, but the reality is that utilities themselves lobbied for special monopoly protection.
     
  67. Energizing Michigan's Electricity Market
    Michigan is about to allow customer choice in the electric power market and, by doing so, end nearly a century of monopoly protection and guaranteed profits for electric utilities. How the state makes this free market transition will impact Michigan's competitiveness and cost of living. The report reviews key decisions before the legislature; analyzes the Public Service Commission proposals; shows the technical, environmental, and economic impact of deregulation; compares Michigan to other states; and recommends ten specific actions to ensure fair, timely, and comprehensive customer choice. The effects of so-called stranded cost payments to utilities are assessed in detail. A four-page glossary of technical terms is included. 33 pages.
     
  68. Privatization's Pitfalls
    Feature stories: Accounting for all costs when comparing in-house to contractor costs, perceptions of privatizations that failed, common antiprivatization arguments and responses, and lessons from Michigan's failures in privatization of campground reservations and liquor businesses. Other articles include an interview with Ken McGinnis, director of the Michigan department of corrections, and the story of Detroit's first electric lighting monopoly.
     
  69. Mackinac Center Building Campaign Tops $2 Million
     
  70. Compulsory Union Dues in Michigan
    Nearly one million Michigan workers are forced to financially support a union in order to keep their jobs. Although federal law permits unions and employers to force workers to pay for union representation in the workplace, the law does not extend to forcing workers to pay unions for representation in the political arena. Over three-fourths of union workers are not aware that they do not have to fund their unions' political, social, and ideological agendas. This report documents the developing law surrounding compulsory union dues in Michigan, shows workers how to exercise their rights to a dues refund, presents positive union strategies for making workers aware of their rights, and calls for executive action by the governor. 28 pp.
     
  71. Herbert Dow, Monopoly Buster
     
  72. Temporary Workers and Pushbutton Unionism
    Thousands of temporary workers choose not to join unions. Should the law force them to do so? The answer may wipe out a nearly $1 billion Michigan industry.
     
  73. Lessons from Down Under
    We can learn from how the Kiwis "down under" restored economic growth and productivity after decades of failed statist policies in New Zealand.
     
  74. Herbert Dow, the Monopoly Breaker
    A spirited Michigan entrepreneur finds himself in an international trade war. He fights back with his own resources instead of asking for government help.
     
  75. Tax Freedom Day is May 9, 1997
     
  76. Showing Government's Burden
     
  77. EPA Rules Are Bad News for Michigan
    Proposed federal rules on air particles too small to measure would restrict millions of citizens' use of cars, lawn mowers, fireplaces, and even backyard barbecues.
     
  78. What Segregation Did to the Detroit Tigers
    The Detroit Tigers paid a heavy price for resisting racial integration in the 1950s. Market competition, not quotas, eventually drove the team to add talented black players.
     
  79. Flatten the Tax Before It Flattens Us
    Simplifying the tax code to require a single, flat rate would charge the economy with billions of dollars in productivity now wasted on tax paperwork.
     
  80. Buy a Brick
     
  81. Mackinac Center to Build $2.4 Million Headquarters
     
  82. Million Dollar Bequest Made to Mackinac Center
     
  83. Explosive Growth Leads to Headquarters Building Campaign
     
  84. IMPACT! Spring 1997
     
  85. 650-Lifer Punishment Is a Crime
    Michigan's harsh "650-Lifer" drug law is costing the state a fortune, restricting judges' discretion, and targeting many of the wrong offenders.
     
  86. Property Rights Protect the Environment Better Than Politics
    Some environmental groups are protecting thousands of acres of natural treasures not by lobbying for more regulations, but by buying the land they want to preserve.
     
  87. Getting Our Money's Worth in Reading Instruction
    Educational fads have failed to improve reading skills in over twenty years. Instead of increasing subsidies to the status quo, the current budget could be spent on more fruitful teaching methods.
     
  88. Workers of the World, Privatize!
    Feature stories: Big labor's antiprivatization techniques, OSHA's failure to improve workplace safety, and the possible forced unionization of temporary workers. Other articles include an interview with Ronald Reagan's first appointee to the National Labor Relations Board, Robert Hunter, and a review of how project labor agreements discriminate against nonunion workers and drive up construction costs.
     
  89. Minimum Wage Hurts Jobless by Making Work Illegal
    No legislature can make a person worth more by making it illegal for job providers to that worker less.
     
  90. Maze Begins Labor Policy Work
     
  91. Lakefront Property Owners Told, "Look, But Don't Touch."
    Property rights on the Upper Peninsula's Crooked Lake are being regulated away by the lake's biggest land owner-the federal government. This takes the "bad neighbor" concept to a new low.
     
  92. Bridging the Racial Gap
    A great Michigan builder benefited from a company that cared more about his skills than his skin color. Fred Pelham's experience illustrates the wisdom of rising above racial discrimination.
     
  93. Welfare Reform Means More Private Sector Involvement
    Can government reform welfare alone? Private business has the unique ability to match people with jobs, and private charity can provide the personal, compassionate attention government programs lack.
     
  94. Let's Get the Facts Straight on Charter Schools
    When charter school legislation was first introduced, critics charged that these relatively independent schools would be elitist, or even racist. Demographic statistics of actual charter school enrollment tell the real story.
     
  95. What is Real Compassion?
    Is it a mark of compassion to favor government aid programs for the poor? A look at the effectiveness of these programs and the traditional meaning of compassion help us tell the difference between those who just talk about compassion and those who actually practice it.
     
  96. A Case Where Local is Better than State
    "Friend of the Court" is a county government function involved in administering child support payments. A congressional mandate may require this local government function to be centralized at the state level. Is this good policy?
     
  97. Learn How Michigan Entrepreneurs Helped Make America Great
    Inspiring Stories Adapted from Empire Builders.
     
  98. High School Debate Workshop Registration Kit
    Over 4,000 Michigan high school debaters and their teachers have honed skills and deepened their understanding of the annual debate resolution to help prepare them for a tough season of competition. Nationally renowned experts help students and teachers learn the history and economic, political, and social implications of each year's topic. Championship debate teams credit these day-long workshops with helping them win. Students pay a nominal fee to attend their choice of five Michigan locations in early Fall.
     
  99. Cultural Advancement through Policy Innovation
    This brochure is the most comprehensive, yet concise, introduction to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. It answers common questions: What is the Mackinac Center? How does it help Michigan? What are the Center's ideas? What are its accomplishments? How does it influence policy? Why does Michigan need the Mackinac Center? This is the best publication for introducing your friends to the Center.
     
  100. Empire Builders (Hardcover)
    A handful of early Michigan entrepreneurs, including the Fords, Durants, Kelloggs, and Dows, transformed the state from a backwater wilderness into the industrial heart of North America. What made them and Michigan so pivotal in the innovations and inventions-from cars to corn flakes to Saran Wrap-that impact most of us each day? Folsom's inspiring account chronicles the roles of markets, government, politics, and individual achievement in the development of Michigan from its fur trading days, through the lumber era that led to furniture and carriage industries, leading finally to world-class automobile, cereal, and chemical industries. Spectacular failures of state-owned canal and railroad companies led to a crucial constitutional amendment in 1851 that restricted the business activities of state government. The amendment helped set the stage for massive private investment and prosperity for millions of workers. Whether you are a history buff, teacher, student, entrepreneur, or just a lover of Michigan, you will want to read this book. 183 pages
     
  101. Explosive Growth Leads to Headquarters Building Campaign
     
  102. Empire Builders (Softcover)
    A handful of early Michigan entrepreneurs, including the Fords, Durants, Kelloggs, and Dows, transformed the state from a backwater wilderness into the industrial heart of North America. What made them and Michigan so pivotal in the innovations and inventions-from cars to corn flakes to Saran Wrap-that impact most of us each day? Folsom's inspiring account chronicles the roles of markets, government, politics, and individual achievement in the development of Michigan from its fur trading days, through the lumber era that led to furniture and carriage industries, leading finally to world-class automobile, cereal, and chemical industries. Spectacular failures of state-owned canal and railroad companies led to a crucial constitutional amendment in 1851 that restricted the business activities of state government. The amendment helped set the stage for massive private investment and prosperity for millions of workers. Whether you are a history buff, teacher, student, entrepreneur, or just a lover of Michigan, you will want to read this book. 183 pages
     
Results 1 to 102 for the year 1997
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