The Public Interest articles from September 2000

The Public Interest archives from September 2000

Immigration in the new economy.
September 22, 2000... THE populations of the world are on the move, propelled by oppression and poverty in some countries; attracted by job opportunities or by the relatively generous welfare benefits available in the world's richer countries; and facilitated by the...

Paradoxes of welfare-state conservatism.
September 22, 2000... AT times an unbridgeable gap seems to separate the policy sciences from the practical world of politics. Politicians complain that policy analysis is not "useful" to them, and policy analysts lament what they see as politicians' ignorance of...

The demise of child-rearing.
September 22, 2000... CHILD-REARING is America's cultural third rail. It is the gateway for debating everything from family structure (or the lack thereof) to exactly who should care for those regarded as the most vulnerable and malleable among us: very young...

Death, wealth, and taxes.(Statistical Data Included)
September 22, 2000... WHILE there are many economists and philosophers who have defended the right to become wealthy, few have defended wealth per Se. But in fact, the simple existence of wealth is economically of great importance, quite apart from the familiar need...

The new gospel of health.
September 22, 2000... OVER the last two decades, the public has come to embrace the importance of the "healthy life style," which is said to include a proper attention to diet, regular exercise, no smoking, and less alcohol. The healthy life style has even become a...

Crime-fighting and urban renewal.
September 22, 2000... For most of the past 35 years, conventional wisdom has held that poverty causes crime. "Warring on poverty, inadequate housing, and unemployment is warring on crime," wrote the members of the 1967 Presidential Commission on Law Enforcement and...

Bobos in purgatory.
September 22, 2000... THE bourgeois boors whom H.L. Mencken dubbed the "booboisie" have experienced a curious inversion. A twist of bohemianism has turned the boobs into "Bobos." This latest neologism belongs to David Brooks, who sketches the features of the...

Godly people in the public square.
September 22, 2000... THE name George Gallup is synonymous with state-of-the-art opinion polling. The Gallup Organization, which he chairs, is most famous for its work on politics, but for decades Gallup himself, age 70, has specialized in the study of religion. We...

Counting heads.
September 22, 2000... STEVEN Holmes, a New York Times reporter, tells us that the Bureau of the Census is "one of the most apolitical of all federal agencies." But according to Vincent Barabba, a former director of the bureau, "The census is one of the most...

The politics of asylum.
September 22, 2000... BISMARCK famously observed that legislation, like sausage, is something one would rather not see being made. Philip Schrag, whose office is within a stone's throw of the nation's law factory, thinks otherwise. But Schrag's meticulous and...