-Caveat Lector- ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- Date sent: Fri, 10 Sep 1999 09:12:19 -0500 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: "John C. Goodman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: NCPA Policy Digest 9-10-99 National Center For Policy Analysis POLICY DIGEST Friday, September 10, 1999 PointCast can automatically load NCPA's Policy Digest summaries on your desktop for easy reading. For information go to http://www.ncpa.org/pointcast.html IN TODAY'S DIGEST o MEDIA COMPETITION HAS DOUBLED THE CABLE AND BROADCAST NETWORKS available to American viewers....USA TODAY o DENVER SCHOOLS WILL LINK TEACHERS' PAY TO PERFORMANCE in a two-year pilot program expected to be approved today....NEW YORK TIMES o ON-SITE FEDERAL DAY CARE CENTERS WILL LEAD TO REGULATION of the industry, warn analysts....HERITAGE FOUNDATION/WASHINGTON TIMES o LIVING STANDARDS WILL BE 10 PERCENT LOWER than they otherwise would be by 2050, due to the rise in dependent seniors....ECONOMIST o FALSE LIFE INSURANCE CLAIMS COST INSURERS $250 MILLION annually, says the industry....FORBES o SEATBELTS COST $30,000 PER LIFE SAVED, WHILE AIRBAGS COST $1.6 MILLION, say researchers....NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH/BUSINESS WEEK IN TODAY'S NEWS AN EXPLOSION OF MEDIA CHOICES Despite highly-publicized acquisitions of one media company by another -- such as Viacom's buyout of CBS -- competition is alive and well in the video and entertainment fields. Experts say that is because technology has spawned a vast array of new outlets. Twenty years ago, American television viewers had a choice of just three networks -- NBC, CBS and ABC. But the picture is far different today: o There are now six television networks and 181 cable networks -- more than double the number of channels available just seven years ago. o The number of radio stations has almost doubled in the past 20 years, as has the number of magazine titles. o Certainly the Internet has added a vast new layer of choice -- with magazines, local newspapers and radio stations, encyclopedias, academic research and government documents all easily available. Experts see these developments as broadening the scope of opinion and information available to viewers and voters. That is bound to enliven the world of ideas. Source: Editorial, "Shrinking Competition? Not From a Customer's Point of View," USA Today, September 10, 1999. For more on Antitrust & Competition http://www.ncpa.org/pd/law/buslaw/index1a.html PAY-FOR-PERFORMANCE PLAN FOR DENVER TEACHERS Teachers in Denver are expected to approve a pay-for-performance plan today -- believed to be the first such program in the nation. While there are already plans that reward teachers as a group for the overall improved performance of their schools, the Denver policy would link teachers' pay raises to the performance of the students in their individual classrooms. o If the two-year pilot program pans out, raises based on such criteria as years of service or cost-of-living considerations would be things of the past. o At the end of the two-year period, school officials will evaluate the results and recommend criteria on which to base pay -- then the teachers' union will vote on whether to make the plan permanent. o Annual salaries for Denver teachers now range from $24,000 for a first year novice to $56,200 for a 41-year veteran of the system. If the pilot plan is approved, school administrators intend to select three groups of five schools -- four elementary schools and one middle school -- to put the plan into effect. In the second year, the district plans to add a high school to each of the three groups. o Each of the three groups of schools would be evaluated by a different indicator -- either the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, or a measurement of tests and classroom work given by the teacher, or a measurement of student improvement in classrooms taught by a teacher who has sought to improve teaching skills by taking a development course. o Each teacher in the pilot schools would receive $500 for participating and an additional $1,000 if, by the end of the academic year, a majority of the teacher's students improved. o District officials estimate that the pilot program would cost about $3 million. Source: Michael Janofsky, "For Denver Teachers, a Pay-for- Performance Plan," New York Times, September 10, 1999. For more on Teacher Performance http://www.ncpa.org/pi/edu/edu7.html#d FEDERALIZING CHILD DAY-CARE Political observers are warning about a seemingly innocuous new benefit for federal workers: on- site day-care centers for their children. Critics say that the plan, which is part of the Treasury/Postal Appropriations bill, would create a whole new federal bureaucracy with the power to regulate the entire child- care industry. o The House provision, sponsored by Rep. Connie Morella (R- Md.), grants the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) the power to "issue regulations necessary to carry out" establishment of "an executive agency which provides or proposes to provide child-care services for federal employees." o The Senate version of the plan, sponsored by Sen. Jim Jeffords (R-Vt.), allows OPM to regulate such things as the design of facilities, personnel qualifications and training, "developmental appropriateness" of educational activities and staff accreditation. o Critics fear that such open-ended language will in a few years lead to such regulations being applied to the huge flow of federal dollars going to states, municipalities, schools and even private firms. o They predict day-care costs will skyrocket, small providers will be driven out, big providers will dominate the market and parents will be left with less choice. The Department of Defense, which runs its own extensive day-care system, supports the plan. Observers find it ominous that DOD's general counsel, Judith Miller, wrote the following to Rep. Morella: "This sets the stage to make the entire federal government a model for the country in the provision of affordable child care." Source: Patrick Fagan (Heritage Foundation), "Government Child Care Creep," Washington Times, September 10, 1999. For more on Other Spending Programs http://www.ncpa.org/pd/budget/budget-7.html IN OTHER NEWS CONSEQUENCES OF DISCOURAGING OLDER WORKERS When Ronald Reagan reached age 73, he was fighting his second presidential election campaign. Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan is now also 73. They could afford to work past the age for Social Security to kick in. But millions of Americans are out of work because of age or lured out of a job because Social Security reduces their benefits if they continue to work. o Only half of men aged 60 to 64 are still in the labor force. o Because of immigration -- which adds younger people to the work force -- the number of people between 25 and 50 will continue to grow until 2020, but only by 3 percent over the whole period. o Since the old of the next half century have been born already, the world's most productive countries are becoming its oldest. o According to estimates by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the rise in dependent oldsters will reduce America's living standard by 10 percent below what it might have been by 2050. While older people seem to be healthier than ever before, the benefits of retirement have risen relative to costs -- not only for Americans, but for workers in European economies. Just when the old are most needed in the work force, government policies encourage early retirement. In some countries, it is illegal to work while drawing a pension. In others, workers can only draw a pension after leaving their current job. In the U.S., those eligible for Social Security lose $1 for every $2 in benefits after they make over $9,600. Add in payroll taxes and income tax, and that is the equivalent of a marginal tax rate of up to 80 percent. Source: "Ageing Workers," and "Let Old Folk Work," both in Economist, September 4, 1999. For more on Workforce Participation - Older Workers http://www.ncpa.org/pd/economy/econ5.html GROWING NUMBER OF FRAUDULENT DEATH CLAIMS According to reports from the life insurance industry, a lot of people who are supposed to be dead, aren't. The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud estimates that fake death claims are being filed at the rate of 250,000 a year. What's more, some people are getting away with it. o Fifteen percent of those fake claims result in payouts -- costing the industry up to $250 million, or about $7,000 each. o Convictions for this kind of insurance fraud are extremely rare -- perhaps as low as 1 percent a year. o Most insurers don't want to spend the money to prosecute, so they simply refuse to pay -- knowing that if fraud is involved, the claimant will simply give up. o Red flags go up when a death supposedly occurred overseas, or if a wave of overseas deaths suddenly occurs among one immigrant community. It is reported that courses in how to perpetrate insurance fraud are taught in developing countries. Also, "death kits" are sold for $100 or so in Nigeria and Haiti and in immigrant neighborhoods of Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. They contain a death certificate with photo, police reports and, sometimes, even videos of a funeral. Some Third World officials are said to be open to bribes from those anxious to obtain a death certificate. Claims agents are trained to look for suspicious patterns -- such as too much documentation. Source: Julie Androshick, "Zombie Insurance," Forbes, September 20, 1999. For more on Insurance http://www.ncpa.org/pd/law/buslaw/index1d.html SEATBELTS MORE COST-EFFECTIVE LIFESAVERS THAN AIR BAGS Seatbelts are more effective in saving lives than most previous studies suggest, while air bags are less effective, say Steven D. Levitt and Jack Porter in a new study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Specifically, they found: o Seatbelts reduce the likelihood of death in a crash by about 60 percent and air bags by 9 percent to 16 percent in front-end crashes. o Using recent data on the cost of airbags and seatbelts, they estimate that the cost per life saved with seatbelts is about $30,000, compared with $1.6 million for airbags. o Thus, for example, increasing seatbelt use by 10 percent would reduce fatalities more than by equipping all cars on the road with airbags. Past studies of the effectiveness of airbags and seatbelts have been flawed because of sample selection bias since systematic data are collected only for fatal crashes -- thus excluding crashes in which seatbelts or airbags reduced injury severity so no one was killed. Levitt and Porter only used data for cars involved in accidents in which someone in another vehicle was killed, which removes the bias in the sample selection, say the researchers. In other words, they didn't count people simply because they themselves were killed, but only when a person in the other car was killed; thus those who walked away relatively unscathed were as likely to be included in the sample as those who died. Source: Gene Koretz, "Buckling Up Beats Air Bags," Business Week, September 6, 1999. For more on Air Bags http://www.ncpa.org/pd/regulat/reg-2.html ********************************************************************** NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS DALLAS, TEXAS "Making Ideas Change the World" Internet Address: http://www.ncpa.org ********************************************************************** A<>E<>R ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your common sense." --Buddha + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller, German Writer (1759-1805) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." 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