ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
Packing the Court Is a Real Threat .........5Union Wish List Bill Would Harm Workers and the Economy ......................6Marijuana Industry Bank Reform on Capitol Hill Agenda ..........................10Stakeholders Matter (and Always Have) ..11CEI Events and Public Appearances ......12The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly ........14Media Mentions ......................15End Notes ...........................16
COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE VOL. 32, NO. 4 | FALL 2019
FEATURED ARTICLES
BY PATRICK HEDGER
In Its Stores, Walmart Behaves the Same Way Amazon Does and No One Cares
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Green New Deal Is No Deal at All
BY KENT LASSMAN AND DANIEL TURNER
W
hen Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) unveiled the Green New Deal in February, they instantly changed the conversation on environmental policy. What in times past would be generally perceived as an intrusive, radically transformative proposal is now at the center of the Democratic Party’s platform.The Competitive Enterprise Institute and Power the Future recently published a joint study that shows households in five states can expect tens of thousands of dollars in higher costs for energy, housing, transportation, and shipping if this proposal is implemented.Despite the astronomical costs, many of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates have endorsed the proposal. No longer is it “climate change” but “climate emergency.” As such, small measures are unwelcome to Green New Deal supporters. Only the most radical environmental proposals, paired with a progressive wish list including single-payer health care, a jobs program, and decar-bonization of the economy within a decade could possibly be enough.Never let a “crisis” go to waste, indeed.But most have seen from the beginning what the Green New Deal really is—a big-government spending boondoggle and a threat to American freedoms, once again justified under the guise of environmentalism. But what does it cost?The framework rolled out by Ocasio-Cortez neglected to include any financial estimate of its implementation. Since it is a resolution, not an actual bill, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has not esti-mated the costs of the proposal.Some organizations have estimated the total costs of the plan, with the American Action Forum finding that at the high end, it would cost up to $93 trillion. Green New Deal supporters quickly lambasted that number.Our study sought to understand the costs of implementing just part of the Green New Deal. Specifically, we looked at the costs associated with additional electric-ity demand, changes to the shipping and logistics industry, acquisition of Green New Deal-compatible vehicles, and the costs to retrofit buildings. We limited our research to a manageable five states representing diverse geographies: Alaska, Florida, New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania.At a minimum, the Green New Deal would impose enormous and recurring costs on American households. We conclude that in four of the five states analyzed, the Green New Deal would cost a typical household more than $70,000 in the first year of imple-mentation, approximately $45,000 for each of the next four years, and more than $37,000
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BY RYAN YOUNG
More than Jobs: the Minimum Wage’s Many Tradeoffs
(continued on page 3)
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BY MICHELLE MINTON
E-cigarette Flavor Ban Would Be Ineffective and Dangerous
David Koch (1940-2019), RIP
by Kent Lassman
F
riend, philanthropist, inventor, and industrialist David Koch has died at the age of 79. He was a father and husband. Known best for his pro-liberty activism and involvement in national politics, he also improved countless lives with more than a billion dollars in philanthropic donations to artistic, cultural, and medical charities. His generosity, optimism, and commit-ment to a freer world will continue to bear fruit for many generations.David Koch got his train-ing in chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before eventually joining the family business, Koch Industries, in 1970. Over the next half-century or so, he played an integral role in building what had been a moderately success-ful regional oil company into the second largest privately held firm in the United States. Forbes reported in 2005 that, since the late 1960s, Koch Industries had grown 100 times in value, during a period when the S&P 500 only increased 13-fold. Today the company makes everything from cutting-edge polymers and agricultural fertilizers to car components, forest products, biofuels, and pollution control sys-tems, serving millions of customers every day.His political opponents often attempted to portray him as a kind of reactionary, but nothing could be further from the truth. When he ran for vice president of the United States as a Libertarian in 1980, the party platform called for drug legalization, an end to all business subsidies, eliminating the doctrine of sovereign immunity, “the cessation of state oppression and harassment of homosexual men and women,” and executive pardons for anyone previously convicted of a victimless crime. This kind of socially progres-sive agenda would be considered, by conventional political analysis, to the left of many elected Democrats today. Forty years ago, it was revolutionary.As is the case with most third-party presidential campaigns, David’s 1980 run didn’t change the world. The rest of his life, however, most certainly did. Working closely with his older brother Charles, David Koch helped create the modern free-market movement of think tanks and activist advocacy groups, of which the Competitive Enterprise Institute is one. Known for generous giving himself, David also played a large role in encouraging other liberty-minded individuals of means to invest in reforming policy and the political process. If David Koch had simply stuck to his university train-ing in chemical engineering and eschewed public life, the federal government today would almost certainly be far bigger, most costly, more burdensome, and overwhelm-ingly less conducive to human flourishing.David Koch was a good man and a great American. He believed it was a duty to engage in civic life and we are all better for it. The Competitive Enterprise Institute family will miss him.
A version of this article was origi-nally published in
OpenMarket
.
F R O M T H E P R E S I D E N T
Publisher
Kent Lassman
Editor
Ivan Osorio
Associate Editor
Richard MorrisonThe CEI Planet is produced by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a pro-market public interest group dedicated to free enterprise and limited government.
CEI is a non-partisan, non-profit organization incorporated in the District of Columbia and is classified by the IRS as a 501 (c)(3) charity. CEI relies upon contributions from foundations, corporations, and individuals for its support. Articles may be reprinted provided they are attributed to CEI.
David Koch.
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CEI.ORG COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
each year thereafter. In Alaska, estimated costs are much higher: more than $100,000 in year one, $73,000 in the subsequent four years, and more than $67,000 each year thereafter.Our analysis does not include a host of expensive government programs included in the Green New Deal, such as single-payer health care and guaranteed jobs, among many others, as costs for such programs are nearly impossible to accurately estimate. Furthermore, the Green New Deal is reliant on technologies that have not yet been invented, and such science fiction is impossible to calculate. How would we measure what doesn’t even exist?Yet even without these immeasur-able costs, our Green New Deal analysis can best be described as this: unfathomably overwhelming. The true cost of the Green New Deal is well north of our findings. Our report represents a floor of expectations for the costs associated with the imple-mentation of the Green New Deal in the short to medium term. A basic takeaway is that the Green New Deal would drive the American economy into a serious economic depression.Regardless of the urgency, or lack thereof, of the climate issue, the Green New Deal is not something America can remotely afford to implement. Such an unserious proposal leads one to surmise its authors and proponents do not take climate change seriously either.
Kent Lassman
(kent.lassman@cei.org)
is president of CEI. Daniel Turner is executive director of Power the Future. A version of this article was originally published at FoxNews.com.
Green New Deal,
continued
Thanks to the generous support of our friends, the Competitive Enterprise Institute has remained a successful advocate for liberty for 35 years. The Legacy of Liberty Society recognizes the faithful support of any donor who desires to advance the principles of free enterprise and limited government through his or her will, trust, life income gift, retirement plan, life insurance dedication, or another planned giving instrument. Contributions to CEI are tax deductible. We accept gifts via check, credit card, cash, or Bitcoin—as well as stock or other securities and assets. CEI also accepts contributions in a will or trust. Including CEI in your estate plans is easy, and can be altered as needed.Consult your tax professional about the limits and conditions regarding charitable deduc-tions and your tax situation. For contributions in a will or trust, consult a tax or estate profes-sional for language that is appropriate for your estate and financial situation.
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The Green New Deal is reliant on technologies that have not yet been invented, and such science fiction is impossible to calculate.
Antitrust Policy Needs to Move on from the Smokestack Era
Politicians and pundits across the ideological spectrum often call for greater competition in the marketplace. Today, the view that current antitrust law is necessary to ensure competition is common across the political landscape. Yet, as CEI experts demonstrate, a rethink of antitrust law is long overdue.
To find out more, go to
https://antitrust.cei.org/
COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE CEI.ORG
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