Dick Armey, in Policy
se Review (Winter 1988), Heritage Foundation,
214 Massachusetts Ave. N.E., Washington, D.C.
20002.
Located in an inhospitable comer of northern Maine, Loring Air Force Base averages 105 inches of snow a year. It was built during the late 1940s to ensure that limited-range B-47 bombers could reach the Soviet Union from a base in the continental United States. As B-47s were re- placed with longer range B-52 and B-1 bombers, Loring's far-northem site was no longer a strategic...
David Clinton, in
TocqueviUe Today The Washington Quarterly (Winter 1988), 55
Hayward st.,cambridge, Mass. 02142.
In Democracy in America (1835-40), French political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) argued that U.S. democracy could not pursue long-term foreign policy interests. "A democracy," Tocqueville wrote, "finds it difficult to. ..fix on some plan and carry it through with deter- mination." Any president, trying to distinguish himself from his predeces-...
Richard J. Herrn-
stein and James E. Mazur, in The Sciences
(Nov.-Dec. 19871, New York Academy of Sci-
ences, 2 East 63rd St., New York, N.Y. 10021.
"The natural effort of every individual to better his own condition. . . is so powerful a principle," wrote Adam Smith in 1776, "that it is alone.. .capable of carrying on the society to wealth and prosperity." Economists still hew to this theory of "utility maximization," which is applied not only to financial decisions...
Richard J. Herrn-
stein and James E. Mazur, in The Sciences
(Nov.-Dec. 19871, New York Academy of Sci-
ences, 2 East 63rd St., New York, N.Y. 10021.
"The natural effort of every individual to better his own condition. . . is so powerful a principle," wrote Adam Smith in 1776, "that it is alone.. .capable of carrying on the society to wealth and prosperity." Economists still hew to this theory of "utility maximization," which is applied not only to financial decisions...
the politics of selfishness."
Congress passed the Railroad Retirement Act in 1934, over the pro- tests of the Roosevelt administration. The act nationalized existing pension plans into a Railroad Retirement Fund (RRF) that taxes both workers and employers in a manner similar to (but separate from) Social Security. Lobbying retiree groups has kept pensions generous. Railroad pensions range up to 125 percent of a worker's final salary.
Railroads pay for these generous pensions through high...
Richard A.
and Easterlin, in Population and Development Re-
view (June 1987), The Population Council. 1
Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, New York, N.Y.
10017.
In 1968, fully 25 percent of Americans over the age of 65 lived in poverty, but only 15 percent of children under 16 did so. In 1985, only 13 percent of the aged were poor, but 21 percent of children were in poverty.
Why are the elderly prospering and children not? Easterlin, an econo- mist at the University of Southern California, finds "independent...
Richard A.
and Easterlin, in Population and Development Re-
view (June 1987), The Population Council. 1
Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, New York, N.Y.
10017.
In 1968, fully 25 percent of Americans over the age of 65 lived in poverty, but only 15 percent of children under 16 did so. In 1985, only 13 percent of the aged were poor, but 21 percent of children were in poverty.
Why are the elderly prospering and children not? Easterlin, an econo- mist at the University of Southern California, finds "independent c...
forcing more recourse to doctors, have an indirect effect in reducing illness, but patients with com- plex ailments will see a physician regardless of whether a prescription is required. "Consumers," he notes, "are able to understand the value of a doctor's advice even if they are not required to seek it."
Schools and "Business-Led School Reform: The Second Wave" Denis I? Doyle, in Across the Board (Nov. 1987), The Conference hard, 845 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10022.
Even...
Lowell Edmunds, in Johns Hopkins Magazine (Dec. 1987), 203 White- head Hall, Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, Md. 21218.
The dinner party, says Edmunds, a classics professor at Johns Hopkins University, "was a prime form of self-expression" for the Roman aristoc- racy. But what did hosts want their banquets to say about themselves? The answer, Edmunds believes, is that meals were a means to transmit and preserve traditional virtues.
Hosts usually invited nine men to dinner; guests reclined...
serving exqui- site food brought from their simple country houses.
The Romans loved disguising food to express the distinction between appearance and reality. The poet Martial (circa A.D. 40-103), for example, once "knew of a chef who could make a whole banquet out of gourds." Edrnunds concludes that culinary deception derives from the belief that a person's outward appearance masked his inner nature. "The Roman ban- queter," he notes, dined "upon his world view."
PRESS &am...