Rhode Island Culture

Re: Rhode Island’s Retrograde Fiscal Culture

By Justin Katz | November 30, 2005 | Comments Off on Re: Rhode Island’s Retrograde Fiscal Culture

Andrew puts his post about Rhode Island’s fiscal position relative to its neighbors in the “Rhode Island Economy” category, but the issue is at least as political and cultural as it is economic. Over years of patchwork research, I’ve found that Rhode Island always tops Massachusetts in all the wrong ways. It takes bad or…

Finishing the Line

By Justin Katz | January 31, 2005 |

In his commentary in the Providence Journal, which Don mentions in the previous post, Rhode Island College student Bill Felkner does the single most important thing for government reform: Let’s draw a straight line: The school teaches the “perspective”; graduates get jobs at the state Department of Human Services and the Poverty Institute; the DHS…

Grab for the Goods, or Stand for the Good?

By Justin Katz | January 28, 2005 |

Heading back from the post office, where I’d hoped to find waiting any of a handful of checks that I desperately need, I heard a caller to the Dan Yorke show who’s in a position with which I’ve some personal experience. The guy had just incurred $25,000 of debt so that his wife could acquire…

A Charitable Interpretation

By Justin Katz | November 10, 2004 |

Michelle Malkin color-coded a by-state generosity index to reflect the election outcomes. Wading through the eighteen blue states — not one of which broke the top twenty-five — I found a silver lining for Rhode Island: at least we beat Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Putting aside methodological questions, what could account for RI’s poor showing?…