City dwellers read lots, yet their lawmakers missed Adam Smith
The state with the best read citizens has quite a poorly writen tax
| Sure would be nice if some of those urban readers could read up on sane tax policy, such as geonomics, and pass on the wisdom to policymakers in America’s mini-Scandinavia. We trim, blend, and append two 2008 articles, the first from USA Today of Dec 23 and the second from the Star Tribune of Dec 26. |
by Michelle Healy and by Paul Levy
- Seattle, Minneapolis most literate of big cities
Minneapolis and Seattle are the USA's most literate cities, according to an annual study examining the "culture and resources for reading" in the nation's largest metro areas.
For the past six years, the two cities have traded the first and second spots in the rankings, which analyze six key indicators of literacy (newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment, and Internet resources) against population rates for cities with populations of 250,000 or more.
The study does not look at reading test scores or how often people read, but what kinds of literary resources are available and used. This is "one critical index of our nation's well-being," says study author Jack Miller, president of Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Conn.
The findings come at a time when newspaper circulations across the USA are declining, and online newspaper reading is increasing. Miller's analysis suggests that, contrary to conventional wisdom, the availability of free online news is not to blame for the decline in newspapers' print circulation -- and that neither is the decline in bookstores across the country caused by the rise in online book buying.
Cities that ranked higher for having more bookstores also have a higher proportion of people buying books online, the analysis found, and cities with newspapers that have high per-capita circulation rates also have more people reading newspapers online. Likewise, cities that ranked higher for having well-used libraries also have more booksellers.
"Cities that rank highly in one form of literate behavior are likely to rank highly in other forms and practices of literacy," says Miller, noting that a literate society tends to practice many forms of literacy, not just one or another.
Preliminary results of a related study examining international literacy paint a less optimistic outlook for the USA. It notes that in per-capita paid newspaper circulation, the USA ranks only 31st in the world, far behind other countries, including Aruba, Liechtenstein, and Japan.
JJS: Even people who read a lot might not read what’s most relevant, that is, relevant to their material well-being. If there were a good primer on tax logic, perhaps that should be required reading for anyone taking on tax policy while leaving hubris aside.
- Minnesota farmers ripping out trees to avoid tax hit
Years ago, Dennis Berg, chairman of the Anoka County Board, planted rows of trees to use as a windscreen, protecting crops on his 60-acre farm. Last summer, Berg cut his trees down.
Minnesota’s Green Acres Program was supposed to ease the pressure of property taxes for farmers, but has literally changed the landscape of farms throughout Minnesota.
Sen. Rod Skoe, DFL-Clearbrook and chairman of the Senate Property Tax Division Committee, said changes were made to Green Acres because more than one-third of the state's 87 counties were not implementing the law.
Legislators rewrote their rules after developers reaped huge tax breaks from the Green Acres program by keeping land tillable until developed.
A parcel of land the state categorizes as tillable might pay a property tax of $36 a year. When considered un-tillable but developable -- as is land with trees on it -- the taxes go up to $700 a year.
With nonproductive acres susceptible to taxes far higher than taxes placed on tillable soil, some farmers who planted trees are clearing them off land they never thought they'd again farm, so they can lessen their taxes.
"When the Green Acres program was created 40 years ago, this is not what the state of Minnesota intended," said Thom Petersen, director of government relations for the Minnesota Farmers Union.
JJS: Unintended consequences. Where have we heard that before? It should be expected when people deal with symptom instead of solve the whole system. Conversely, when people make sure the fundamentals are fair, the rest should take care of itself. That’s because the world was designed to work right for everybody.
What that means is land should not be an object of speculation. The way to achieve that is for society, rather than individual owners, to recover land value. While an individual must sell out, lease, or develop a parcel to make a profit, the entire society maximizes its return when it optimizes its land use. Region-wide, land is at its highest value when it’s in its healthiest state, when human settlements are compact and effluents into air, water, and soil are few enough to be assimilated. So even without anyone changing their material values, even with just trying to enjoy the fattest return, this system of land dues and rent dividends, called geonomics, still conserves nature.
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Jeffery J. Smith runs the Forum on Geonomics.
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Also see: British children: poorer, at greater risk and more insecure
Public Libraries For Profit
Farmers got it rough; farm owners got it easy, thanks to taxpayers |
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