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141. Rediscovering the Underclass

Author:
Charles Murray
Publication Date:
10-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Watching the courage of ordinary low-income people as they deal with the aftermath of Katrina and Rita, it is hard to decide which politicians are more contemptible—Democrats who are rediscovering poverty and blaming it on George W. Bush, or Republicans who are rediscovering poverty and claiming that the government can fix it. Both sides are unwilling to face reality: We have not rediscovered poverty, we have rediscovered the underclass. The underclass has been growing during all the years that people were ignoring it, including the Clinton years; and the pro- grams politicians tout as solutions are a mismatch for the people who constitute the problem. We have rediscovered the underclass. Newspapers and television understandably prefer to feature low-income people who are trying hard—the middle-aged man working two jobs, the mother worrying about how to get her children into school in a strange city. These people are rightly the objects of an outpouring of help from around the country, but their troubles are relatively easy to resolve. Tell the man where a job is, and he will take it. Tell the mother where a school is, and she will get her children into it. Other images show us the face of the hard problem: those of the looters and thugs, and those of inert women doing nothing to help themselves or their children. They are the underclass.
Topic:
Civil Society, Economics, Government, and Human Welfare

142. Why Does College Cost So Much?

Author:
Richard Vedder
Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
As college students begin a new academic year, many parents are reeling from tuition charges. This fall's estimated 8 percent average increase at public universities, added onto double-digit hikes in the two previous years, means tuition at a typical state university is up 36 percent over 2002—at a time when consumer prices in general have risen less than 9 percent. In inflation-adjusted terms, tuition today is roughly triple what it was when parents of today's college students attended school in the 1970s. Tuition charges are rising faster than family incomes, an unsustainable trend in the long run. This holds true even when scholarships and financial aid are considered. One consequence of rising costs is that college enrollments are no longer increasing as much as before. Price-sensitive groups such as low-income students and minorities are missing out. A smaller proportion of Hispanics between eighteen and twenty-four attends college today than in 1976. The United States is beginning to fall below some other industrial nations in population-adjusted college attendance.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Education, and Government
Political Geography:
United States

143. Market Comrades

Author:
R. Glenn Hubbard
Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Ceremonial gift-giving is an integral part of doing business in China. The value lies not so much in the gift (whose packaging is often more elaborate), but in the possibility of cementing a mutually beneficial relationship. And so it was a few weeks ago with the headline-grabbing announcement that China would revalue the yuan against the U.S. dollar. The modest gesture may make more possible a comprehensive economic dialogue between China and the United States in the interest of both nations. The announcement on July 21 by the People's Bank of China that it would revalue the yuan, abandoning the eleven-year-old peg of 8.28 yuan per U.S. dollar, caught financial markets by surprise. The jolt led market participants to gauge effects of current (and perhaps future) revaluations on currency values and interest rates. And, some U.S. political leaders claimed a victory in the campaign to blame Chinese “market manipulation” for external imbalances facing the United States.
Topic:
Economics, Emerging Markets, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States, China, and Asia

144. The Great Shift to Specialty Drugs

Author:
Scott Gottlieb
Publication Date:
06-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
When drug maker GlaxoSmithKline held a showcase day for investors late last year, the company bragged about its burgeoning pipeline of new medicines, but also a fruitful restructuring it undertook a few years ago. Glaxo broke its sprawling research shop into smaller units focused on a dozen or so disease areas. In was an emphasis on major health problems, such as cancer, heart disease, and brain disorders like Alzheimer's dis- ease. Gone were the same concerted efforts to focus the majority of its research on more routine medical problems such as sniffles, sore muscles, and nicotine addiction. Like a lot of other drug makers, Glaxo is moving its research upstream into weighty maladies that have remained unsolved by modern medicine and away from primary-care problems.
Topic:
Civil Society, Economics, Emerging Markets, and Human Welfare

145. Yuan Answers?

Author:
Phillip L. Swagel
Publication Date:
06-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
If China decides to adopt a flexible exchange rate, as many U.S. policymakers have urged, gains in U.S. exports and national savings in the long term will be offset by higher prices on Chinese goods and higher interest rates in the short term.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Politics
Political Geography:
China and Asia

146. Even Workers with "McJobs" Deserve Respect

Author:
James K. Glassman
Publication Date:
06-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Entry-level positions long criticized as "dead-end jobs" deserve respect as stepping-stones to greater success, as these jobs teach the basics of business to new workers.
Topic:
Civil Society, Development, Economics, and Education

147. Neither Fools nor Cowards

Author:
Eliot A. Cohen
Publication Date:
05-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
In an era of budget tightening and frequent foreign missions, both the military and many of our elite civilian universities have increasingly undervalued higher education as part of officer training, yet many soldiers credit their studies as indispensable training for the demands of contemporary warfare.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, Democratization, and Economics

148. The Politics of Compassion

Author:
Karlyn H. Bowman
Publication Date:
08-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
In 1976, for the first time as far as we can tell, a pollster asked people about various qualities that were important for a president to have and included “compassion” as an option people could choose. Seventy-four percent chose “placing the country's interests above their own,” 73 percent “intelligence,” 68 percent “sound judgment in a crisis” and, separately, “competence or ability to get the job done,” and 67 percent “compassion, concern for little man/average citizen.” [All questions discussed in this introduction appear below.] At about that time, Gallup asked several questions that compared Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford on this quality. Since that time, in every election, pollsters have compared candidates (and rated presidents) on being compassionate. The National Election Pool exit pollsters compared the Democratic candidates on it in the 2004 primaries. In January 2004, Princeton Survey Research Associates/Newsweek interviewers asked whether George W. Bush and, separately, John Kerry cared about people like you. In February, Harris, CNN, and Time asked whether each man cared about the average American. Also in February, Gallup, CNN, and USA Today interviewers asked which candidate was more in touch with the problems of ordinary Americans.
Topic:
Economics, Government, and Human Welfare
Political Geography:
United States and America

149. Beyond Kyoto: Real Solutions to Greenhouse Emissions from Developing Countries

Author:
Roger Bate and David Montgomery
Publication Date:
07-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Whether the Kyoto Protocol is ever ratified is fast becoming irrelevant. Many of the European nations that ratified the convention are failing to reach their targets, while developing countries, not required to comply with Kyoto, claim they will never participate in targets and timetables, as it would retard their economic growth. Given that developing countries are likely to emit well over half of future greenhouse gases (GHGs), a more promising strategy would be to devise an approach that limits emissions while helping development.
Topic:
Economics, Environment, Treaties and Agreements, and Third World
Political Geography:
Europe

150. China's Route to a Green and Prosperous Future

Author:
Roger Bate
Publication Date:
12-2004
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
By opening its economy to greater domestic and foreign investment in the technologies needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, China can dramatically improve its environmental record while becoming richer. The same promise holds for other developing countries as well.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, Democratization, and Economics
Political Geography:
China