The Public Good Resources – Results
Page 1 of 32
How Cities Are Adapting to the Mobility Revolution (Episode 90)
Host John Farrell is joined by ILSR Senior Fellow David Morris to talk about how new transportation technologies are changing how cities prioritize public space. … Read More
Military – The Public Good Index
Number of years the DOD has failed to satisfy a 1993 Congress mandate that all federal agencies be audited: 35
Amount of military spending that could not be account for as of 2016: $6.5 trillion.… Read More
Elections – The Public Good Index
Percent of population making under $50,000 in 2014: 48 percent.
Percent of those voting making under $50,000: 36 percent.
Percent of population making over $100,000: 22 percent.
Percent of those voting making over $100,000: 30 percent.… Read More
Inequality – The Public Good Index
1947-1979 change in real income of poorest 20 percent of population: 122 percent.
Of richest 20 percent: 99 percent.
Change of richest 1 percent: 39 percent.
Change of richest .01 percent: 29 percent.… Read More
Work – The Public Good Index
Number of U.S. states that mandate paid maternity leave: 4.
Number of countries that do: 185.
Maximum number of weeks of paid maternity leave in U.S. states: 16.
Number of countries that provide more than 16 weeks of paid maternity leave: 105.… Read More
Education – The Public Good Index
Pell grants, awarded solely on need, are the largest single source of non-loan assistance to postsecondary education. Two thirds of Pell recipients enroll in public colleges and universities.
Fraction of tuition, fee, room and board expenses in public four-year colleges covered by Pell Grants in 1975: 79 percent.
In 2017: 29 percent.… Read More
To Save the Internet We Must Own the Networks
In October FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced, ““We’ve been energetic in advancing the public interest…over the past nine months…” Energetic? You bet. In the public interest? Not on your life.… Read More
The Movement for Free College Tuition Is Growing
In 2015, President Obama proposed making community college free nationwide. He pointed to a pilot free tuition program just being launched by Tennessee for recent high school graduates and might not have been aware of a free tuition program operating in Louisiana for almost two decades. The election of Donald Trump killed the prospect of federal … Read More
Video from the ILSR Archives: David Morris Speaks to TPT’s Portrait Series
In May of 1991, David Morris was featured in Minnesota Public Television’s (TPT) Portrait series on prominent Minnesotans. During the 25 minute interview David discussed the founding of ILSR, how he came to Minnesota, his work on building a homegrown economy and his vision for the future. … Read More
Farmworkers of the World — Unite!
This article was originally published in our The Public Good: Reports from the Front Lines (October 26, 2017), available here. Florida produces 90 percent of our winter tomatoes. The Immokalee region in southwestern Florida grows one-third of all U.S. tomatoes. The plight of farmworkers in the Immokalee area has been publicly known for decades. That plight was featured in Edward R. Murrow’s searing … Read More
Protecting Communities from Gentrification
We have a workable model for making housing affordable and protecting neighborhood residents from displacement: a Community Land Trust. Only one city to date has embraced it aggressively and, perhaps unsurprisingly, it began to do so when Bernie Sanders was its mayor. Now a coalition is pushing Baltimore to make a major investment in this model.… Read More
A Thoroughly Modern Way to Fleece the Customer, Dynamic Pricing
This article was originally published in our The Public Good: Reports from the Front Lines (September 27, 2017), available here. In the beginning there were no fixed prices. Every transaction involved a negotiation between buyer and seller. Then, in 1861, as Guardian reporter Tim Adams informs us, Philadelphia retailer John Wanamaker introduced price tags along with the slogan, “If everyone … Read More
Big Finance is Destroying Big Retail
This article was originally published in our The Public Good: Reports from the Front Lines (September 27, 2017), available here. In the 1980s, leveraged buyouts became financial engineering’s newest invention. Corporate raiders would use the assets of the target corporation to collateralize the debt required to take it over. The resulting large debt payments burdened the … Read More
The Public Good: Reports from the Front Lines (September 27, 2017)
ILSR’s insight on recent news stories that have to do with the public good. In this round-up: Dynamic pricing is a thoroughly modern way to fleece the customer; How community land trusts protect communities from gentrification; Punishing corporate criminals; and more.… Read More
The Public Good: Reports from the Front Lines
ILSR’s insight on recent news stories that have to do with the public good. In this round-up: Germany’s public banks; The story behind the effort to “repatriate” U.S. overseas profits; The remunicipalization movement grows; How Philadelphiais expanding the civic commons; and more.… Read More