David Morris is co-founder of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and directs its initiative on The Public Good. He is the author of New City States and four other non-fiction books. His essays on public policy are regularly published by On the Commons, Alternet, Common Dreams and the Huffington Post. More
What’s In a Name? by David Morris April 9, 1996 In full page ads in five major U.S. newspapers, Taco Bell recently made a dramatic announcement. “In an effort to help the national debt, Taco Bell is pleased to announce that we have agreed to purchase the Liberty Bell…It will now be called the Taco… Continue reading
NAFTA: A Clear Failure of Public Policy by David Morris March 11, 1996 A little over two years ago the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect. NAFTA constituted an unprecedented experiment in social and economic policy. Never before had two nations with such unequal economies been so forcibly integrated. NAFTA opponents forecast… Continue reading
On February 15, 1996, ILSR’s Vice President David Morris testified before legislative committee hearing in Minnesota on a 1996 bill, H.F. 3063, the Economic Efficiency and Pollution Reduction Act of 1996 (EEPRA).
He Who Has the Gold Rules by David Morris February 13, 1996 There’s an ominous trend threatening our civic and cultural health. It is an inevitable result of the increasing concentration of print and electronic media into megacorporations. And it reinforces the basic law of money and politics. He who pays the piper calls the… Continue reading
A factsheet related to the proposed Energy Efficiency and Pollution Reduction Act (EEPRA) in Minnesota during 1996-1997. EEPRA is a revenue neutral measure that proposes to increase energy taxes by $1.5 billion and to reduce existing taxes on labor or income by an equal amount. Continue reading
The Dark Side of Privatization by David Morris January 30, 1996 From Virginia to California, privatization is in. Roads, prisons, fire departments, water departments, emergency medical services, health services, parks, landfills, schools. Virtually every institution and service in America is being handed over to private firms. We used to walk down a public sidewalk to… Continue reading
Why Has the Balanced Budget Become the Holy Grail? by David Morris January 16, 1996 How did a perfectly balanced budget become the holy grail, to be secured at any cost? Why have we come to believe that the stock market rises and falls based on our progress towards reducing the federal budget deficit to… Continue reading
Global Warming is Real. What Will We Do About It? by David Morris December 19, 1995 The scientific jury is in. Human activities are affecting the weather. In past years many scientists maintained that we didn’t yet know enough, that the science was still immature, that the computer models were unreliable. Not this year. Scientists… Continue reading
Would Republicans Destroy Even Good Government Programs? by David Morris November 21, 1995 When President Clinton assumed office he promised to reinvent government by making it smaller, more efficient and more responsive. Washington skeptics laughed. Undaunted, Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore set about their task. And although they would be the first to… Continue reading
From Roosevelt to Gingrich: A Revolution in Compassion by David Morris November 8, 1995 At the 1932 Democratic Convention, the newly nominated Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared, “The first obligation of government is the protection of the welfare and well-being…of its citizens.” That new idea spawned the New Deal. In January, Republicans vowed to overturn the… Continue reading
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