A 'New' Road in Northern Virginia...50 Years Later

In a few weeks officials in Northern Virginia will open the missing two-mile segment of the Fairfax County Parkway, ending a 50-year struggle to build a central road through Fairfax County. This Washington Post article about the Parkway begins by recounting the process to get the road completed. The road was first envisioned over 50 years ago, but due to intermittent funding from all levels of government the Parkway has been built in pieces. With the money to complete the final segment nowhere to be found, the project was on hold until funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act finally broke the gridlock. Nevertheless, if Milton Friedman were still alive he would probably use the Parkway as an example of government inefficiencies and why government should not provide roads as a public good.

After discussing the road’s funding saga, the article talks about the Parkway’s positive and negative externalities. On the positive side, the road has an external benefit in production because it is a critical link to highways and other roads throughout Northern Virginia. Not only that, but it allows for the continued commercial and residential growth that helps Fairfax County remain one of the economic pillars of the Washington, D.C. metro area. (On a personal note, my neighborhood would likely not have been built if the Parkway wasn’t right next to it.) This growth is one of the main reasons why the road needed to be completed: the Parkway allows for easy access to Fort Belvoir, which is in the process of adding thousands of jobs due to the Defense Department’s Base Realignment and Closure plan.

Unfortunately, these positive externalities contribute to a major negative externality in consumption: traffic. The same Parkway that is a transportation link and engine of economic growth has led to the addition of thousands of cars on Northern Virginia’s roadways. I personally know how congested the Parkway becomes when both commuters and local residents are on the road during rush hour. In fact, in a perfect world transportation officials ought to be working on widening the road, though with both Virginia and Fairfax County still working to recover from the Great Recession, funding will likely not be available anytime soon.

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Don't Know What You Got 'Til It's Gone

Last summer, the fourth biggest city in New York, Yonkers, was forced to cut a great deal of teachers and almost all of its extracurricular funding due to an ever increasing deficit. While many of the cuts resonate greatly with the community, one of the most surprising was the overwhelming vitriol directed against the decision to completely cut Athletics from the school districts. It has long been argued that children who play sports often see positive external benefits of consumption from playing sports; namely better grades, better health, and the decreased likelihood of consuming drugs and alcohol. But the comment from one of the students raises another potential lost benefit:

Darius Lofton, the quarterback on Gorton High School’s football team, told the meeting, “Without sports I am not going to college.”

The cutting of programs in this city has had overarching effects on the lives of its citizens, and many of these cannot be overlooked. For these students, the lack of sports leads to a very traumatic change in their potential future earnings. The benefits of saving money do not outweigh the negative consequences, at least with regards to the sub-group of student athletes. However, whatever happened to doing your work and going to college on your own merit? Maybe he can raise his grades in the free time he has now that he doesn’t have practice multiple hours every day and games every Friday night.

When Silly Bandz Get Serious

This Daily Progress article discusses the newest craze among school-aged kids - Silly Bandz. These "bandz" are being worn by people of all ages (I'll admit I have 3), but kids in elementary and middle school can be seen with enough silly bandz to cover half their arm. Schools across the country are citing the bandz as a major distraction to a proper learning environment and have resorted to banning the bandz. Cale Elementary School is the first school in Albermarle County to have banned these stretchy bracelets. "When you think about a distraction to the learning environment, it's through a multitude of things, whether that is arguing over them, [trade deals or] people accusing other students of stealing their Silly Bandz," said Lisa Jones, the principal at Cale. The schools banning these bracelets are arguing that there is a negative externality in the consumption of the bandz. It appears that the benefit to the school as a whole is much less than the private benefit to the consumers of these bandz - really cool 7 year olds. If schools continue to ban these bandz the fad that took the nation by storm this past summer probably won't last much longer.

Hairy Logic

In a recent a recent Yahoo! Sports article, the iconic dreadlocks of baseball star Manny Ramirez have come under attack by his new team's personal conduct policy. The Chicago White Sox have a rule that players must have a "neat" haircut, which would mean the unfortunate demise of Manny's flowing locks that have come to symbolize his larger than life personality that his fans adore. Ken Williams, the general manager of the White Sox explains, "from my understanding, it's not going to be an issue, and he's going to make an adjustment and conform to how we like to have our players represented out there."

This policy assumes that any player with hair that is not "neat" would therefore be imposing a negative externality on the team. It is the view of the management that such an unkempt appearance would tarnish the professional reputation of the ball club, and cause fans to consume less of their product in the form of ticket sales and merchandise.

This logic ignores the marginal benefits produced by Manny's hair. A large part of Manny's appeal as an athlete is his laid back goofball attitude, which is embodied by his wild looking hair. When fans pay to see Manny play or buy his uniform, part of it is due to the persona he has made for himself, not just for his production as a player. Furthermore, by forcing him to cut his hair, it could harm his on-field performance by damaging a source of his confidence. The question remains, do the benefits outweigh the costs of a haircut of this magnitude?