Browsing by Author "Blood, Tom"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5

America's Cargo Cult: The New Industrial Policy
(1984) Baden, John; Blood, Tom; Stroup, Richard
"A decade ago a vocal minority agitated for a no-growth, 'steady state' economy, in which wealth was created no faster than necessary to replace the wealth being lost. This goal was nearly reached when Congress imposed high marginal tax rates, inflation induced bracket-creep, increased regulation. Until recently, the most notable growth in the economy, aside from a few high technology areas, was in the underground economy. Discussing one such period, the editor of Fortune wrote, 'the country has just gone through a real life try out of zero growth [the period 1973-1975] which is remembered not as an episode of zero growth but as the worst recession since the 1930s.'"
Conservation + Fiscal Conservatism = Free Market Environmentalism
(1984) Baden, John; Blood, Tom
"Through their tax dollars, Americans are unknowingly subsidizing the destruction of some of their best wildlife habitat. This perverse outcome is especially unfortunate, for Americans' appreciation of their environment has increased substantially during the last decade-and-a-half. Public opinion surveys, whether taken by Gallup or the local newspaper,consistently demonstrate that public concern for the preservation of lands and waters, and the natural communities they support, has spread across the nation. Yet we continue to have our tax dollars fund the destruction of America's great 'duck factories,' the prairie potholes, most notably with the Garrison Diversion project of North Dakota. A coalition made up of fiscal conservatives and conservationists has the potential of redressing problems such as those created by the Garrison Diversion. These projects affront both ecological and economic sensitivities."
Innovation, Incentives, and Posterity: Wildlife and the Entrepreneur
(1984) Baden, John; Blood, Tom; Taylor, Shannon
"New institutions involving wildlife and habitat occupy an important place on the world's entrepreneurial frontier. Amenity demands for wildlife tend to increase disproportionally with income. Thus, there is potential for entrepreneurs to take advantage of the demand for high quality hunting experiences. This situation has already given rise to the development of ranches, farms, and commercial forests managed for the joint production of commodities and wildlife ranging from spring-creek trout to elk end deer. While this is encouraging news, such situations will occur only in isolated cases in the U.S. as long as ranchers shoulder the costs while rarely gaining any significant benefits for providing game habitat."
The Jungle Behind the Industrial Policy
(1984) Baden, John; Blood, Tom
"Anthropologists and their subjects provide opportunities for more than the satisfaction of intellectual curiosity. Ethnographic studies may be relevant to important contemporary policy issues. For example, it is possible to view Melanesia's Cargo Cults as relevant analogies to industrial policies. In the vast openness of the Pacific Ocean lies a group of islands inhabited by tribes known collectively as Melanesians. For thousands of years, these tribes existed in a primitive state, depending primarily on domestic pigs, gardens, and copra (a tropical fruit) as staples and producing no important commercial product. Nevertheless, during the early 1900s, the German government settled there and attempted to build copra and rubber industries on the larger islands. Predictably, using central planning to build such an industrial base was unsuccessful. Among other problems, rubber and copra market prices were insufficient to cover shipping expenses. While the Europeans were unable to develop viable commercial activities, they caused a series of increasingly costly movements among the natives. Anthropologists have labeled these movements 'Cargo Cults'."
Wildlife Habitat and Economic Institutions: Feast or Famine for Hunters and Game
(1984) Blood, Tom; Baden, John
"In Montana, few issues generate higher emotions than wildlife and hunting issues. The right of free access to game is often assumed to be a God-given, natural right. Unfortunately, the reality check of population pressures is challenging these conceptions. We recognize that many of the alternatives explored in this paper are highly controversial, but we also believe that clear and dispassionate analysis is preferable to frustration punctuated by pounding on bar tables. "Montana is indeed a treasure state, but its primary treasures are not restricted to commodities. Its aesthetic and environmental qualities are of immense value and are increasing in worth. Given that wildlife is a superior good--that is, that demand increases disproportionately with income--and that recreation tends to be non-taxed, we can reasonably expect our wildlife resources to come under increasing pressure. "The key to meeting increased demand lies with improved management. The question is what set of institutions will generate incentives for managers to use their land to produce wildlife alongside timber, livestock, and other agricultural products. A system of property rights and private management provides the most efficient, ecologically sensitive, and equitable scheme yet designed. It is this approach that we will explore in this paper."