National Service Topic

Micro-Finance for the Developing World: Promise, Problems, and Alternatives

An alternative to expanding the Peace Corps or other National Service programs (the 2006-2007 NFL debate topic) is to enable the poor to help themselves. Access to credit is key, as was recognized by awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to economist Muhammad Yunus, the "banker to the poor". Governments in poor countries have long restricted economic freedom, including banking. Tyler Cowen discussed government interference with microcredit in his New York Times Article, Aug 10, 2006. An in-depth look at the process is available for download from Yunus's Grameen Bank Foundation website (after registration).

But all is not well in the micro-finance world, with problems still to be ironed out. This Forbes article outlines some issues still to be resolved.

Microfinance is offered as an alternative to pouring millions of tax-dollars into top-down development projects (where states and special interests tend to siphon off millons, and bureaucrats misdirect millions more). An alternative to both govt.-directed foreign aid projects and microfinance (very small loans to very small entrepreneurs), are for-profit and nonprofit investment banks that back mid-size enterprises in developing countries. SEAF argues that funds invested in SMEs (Small and Medium size Enterprises) generate significant job gains and a ten-fold boost to local economies in developing countries.

Volunteers vs. Employees... What Detroit can Learn from Bangalore by Shikha Dalmia
What are the trade-offs for human and capital resources invested in nonprofit volunteer enterprises? Well, for one, these same people and resources could be working in for-profit enterprises with similar goals: providing goods, services, and jobs for the disadvantaged in the U.S. and around the world. Indian-born journalist Shikha Dalmia compares and contrasts Bangalore, India with Detroit, Michigan. She finds the economic policies that long kept India poor and now being tried out in Detroit. A reasonable alternative to expanding national service programs would be expanding economic freedom by reducing regulations that block entrepreneurial efforts both in the U.S. and overseas.

"National Service" debate topic presentations in Texas and Michigan: Click here to see the overheads.

What Every Debater and Extemper Should Know About Economics & Prosperity by David Beers (2006 version with reference to National Service and NATO)

Lecture outline for Mackinac Center Workshops (pdf)

Click for Quicktime overheads and presentation (by Greg Rehmke).

Death by Government by R. J. Rummel (online information from book)
Terrorists kill people and governments are called upon to protect citizens. But we should be careful to surrender too much power to governments. During the 20th Century, more people were killed in war than died at the hands of terrorists. And far more people were killed by their own governments than were killed either in war or by terrorists. R.J. Rummel's book, Death by Government documents the horrific operations of Communist China, the USSR, the Nazi's, Pol Pot in Cambodia, and other "terrorists in power" who drew on the power of the state to destroy life within their own borders. Here is a list of estimates by country.

Federalism

Conservation, Not Commerce, Keys Revival Of Environmental Localism by Lynn Scarlett (3/2/2001)
"...The new localism is not mainly a battle between economy and environment. It’s a struggle over information -- over who has knowledge tailored to best manage ocean habitat and resources. The locals say they, not the feds, have that knowledge."

Federalism Failure: States no Model for Health Care Reform (older Cato study)

The Federalism Project (American Enterprise Institute)

Laboratories of Democracy by Michael Greve (AEI)