Money money money

Fridays at the Art Pope Puppetshow are always interesting affairs. John Hood takes a much need break from his daily hackery, allowing the minions to step up to the plate of free-market fanaticism. I read the stuff every week because it provides good insight into how the JLF brainwashing machine operates.

Today's guest column features a screed against the City of Raleigh's impact fees on new development by Jon Sanders. What's most interesting (but not at all surprising) is the thinking behind Sanders' commentary. Simply put, Sanders conflates "money" and "benefits" as though the two are indistinguishable concepts. In reporting the results of a study by Michael Walden, an economics professor at NC State, Sanders weighs into the "all growth is good" swamp with both feet.

Unlike the City of Raleigh, however, Walden didn't stop at just calculating costs. Walden also looked at the other side of the economic ledger: the benefits of growth. He researched their effects on tax-revenue sources, such as property taxes, local sales taxes, utility excise taxes, inspection and permit fees, and motor vehicle taxes.

As you may know, the economics department at NC State has mostly been bought and paid for with money from the Pope foundation. So it's entirely predictable that any analysis of costs and benefits would begin and end with a simplistic view of revenues. Other costs and benefits such as school crowding, traffic congestion, stormwater runoff, water shortages, air quality, etc., are irrelevant to free-market extremists ... for a couple of reasons. First, they are much harder to quantify on a balance sheet (no sense in doing hard work). And second, they involve government planning, which every Puppet knows is the original deadly sin.

We have to know what we're up against when we're dealing with Pope's multi-million dollar opinion manufacturing machine. Their simplistic siren song of go-go-growth is dangerous. So please take time to read this stuff and think it through.