In this edition of Freedom In Five Minutes or Less, we talk about medical marijuana and why it is a freedom issue liberty-minded conservatives should support.

Supporters have begun the process of gathering signatures for a ballot initiative to legalize medical marijuana in Mississippi. Here are five common sense reasons why liberty-minded conservatives (and everyone else) should support medical marijuana:

• We don’t want government telling us what to put in our mouths any more than we want them to tell us what can come out of our mouths.
• Licensed medical doctors, already heavily regulated by the state, should be allowed to recommend solutions to deal with debilitating medical conditions, no matter the derivative of such solutions.
• Medical marijuana is not the same as recreational marijuana and to try to conflate the two is an insult to the citizens of Mississippi and comes at the expense of patients who should be free to choose a legal option to opiate-based painkillers, with the guidance of their doctor.
• Polling demonstrates that citizens are ahead of politicians and legislators across the county on this issue, with anywhere from as low as 65% to as high as 94% of Americans supporting the legalization of medical marijuana. And it spans all ages and party affiliations.
• This not a “crackpot” or “fringe” issue. The American Medical Association, The Institute of Medicine, and the American College of Physicians have all acknowledged the potential benefits of medical marijuana and the New England Journal of Medicine reported 76% of surveyed physicians would recommend it to a patient.

The Family First Initiative Summit, hosted by Governor Phil Bryant, First Lady Deborah Bryant and Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Dawn Beam, was recently held to bring together leaders across the state to work together to address the problems created by multigenerational family breakdown. In welcoming attendees, Gov. Bryant affirmed that Mississippi is already being recognized as a leader among states in reunifying families and helping children in crisis.

Part of the solution is an innovative public-private partnership between the Mississippi Department of Human Services and Families First for Mississippi, a Mississippi-based nonprofit. The aim of the partnership is to provide wraparound services – whether it be job training or family counseling – that helps families get back on their feet. The goal of the summit was to create a network to expand these services and help Mississippi families. As Dr. John Damon, CEO of the Mississippi-based nonprofit Canopy Children’s Solutions put it, “If families get just a little bit of help, they can make it.”

Longtime supporters will know that MCPP has played a significant policy role in helping strengthen Mississippi families, overseeing passage of a gold-standard welfare-to-work reform and, this past session, helping pass a tax credit for donations to nonprofits who work with children in crisis, children with special needs, and low-income families. We are proud to continue to partner with the Governor and the First Lady in creating a Better Mississippi.

In Janus vs. AFSCME, the United States Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling in favor of Mark Janus, a government worker in Illinois.

In the ruling, the Court restored First Amendment rights for Janus and all public sector workers. No longer will public sector employees be required to fund political agendas they disagree with. You can enjoy freedom of speech and association, even if you work for the government.

In addition, the way government unions will extract fees from members has changed. The union will now need public sector employees to “affirmatively consent,” or opt-in to pay dues, rather than being required to opt-out, something that unions often made very difficult.

The full impact of Janus on unions will be determined in the future. It is almost guaranteed that they will lose members, and therefore dues, because of the ruling. And by extension, political clout. In “closed-shop” states, those that are not right-to-work, the way the system generally worked was unions helped elect friendly politicians and those same politicians would choose to raise taxes or cut other programs before they would suggest cuts to pay or benefits for government workers. Not exactly a model for fiscal responsibility.

Unions have generally put on a positive front after Janus. But the question has long been, what will they do? Will they moderate in an effort to hold on to members who are not liberal Democrats? After all, only half of all teachers voted for Hillary Clinton. If recent conventions from America’s largest teachers’ unions tell us anything, the problem appears to be that the unions are actually not liberal enough.

The National Education Association (NEA), of which the Mississippi Association of Educators (MAE) is an affiliate, racked up these accomplishments at their recent convention:

• NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick received the NEA Human and Civil Rights Award. You can view other recipients here.
• Parkland survivor and anti-gun activist David Hogg shared the stage with NEA president Lily Eskelsen Garcia.
• A commitment to promote the Black Lives Matter Week of Action, which includes a mandate that ethnic studies be taught in all grades.
• Support for all teachers to learn how to properly address students by gender; apparently scientific descriptors like “male and female” or “boy and girl” are no longer acceptable.
• Support for removing the names of anyone associated with the Confederacy from schools.
• A call to delay any votes on the pending Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh.
• Encouraged teachers to assign readings that “describe and deconstruct the systemic proliferation of a White supremacy culture and its constituent elements of White privilege and institutional racism.”
• A pledge to oppose support for any business that “refuse services to same-sex couples and/ or LGBT individuals.” Who does that include? Well, the Southern Poverty Law Center will help them identify such businesses.

All business items are available for viewing here.

As for the nation’s other large teachers union, the American Federation for Teachers, they also got in on the fun of letting anyone to the right of Elizabeth Warren know they are not welcomed. Or at the very least, they do not have a voice.

In fact, Warren spoke at the convention. Along with her fellow senator, Bernie Sanders. The only person who could top Warren and Sanders was Hillary Clinton, and she was there as well. Among the issues AFT is demanding:

• Single-payer healthcare for all. (A new study showed this would cost taxpayers $32 trillion over the next decade.)
• Free college for all.
• Universal, full-day, free child care for all.
• Doubling per-pupil expenditures for low-income K-12 districts (emphasis on districts, not students).
• Taxing the rich…even more.

This is a crucial time for all government unions, including teachers unions. But they have made it perfectly clear what they are all about;and who is welcomed in their camps. Teachers unions may sounds nice because we all know teachers and we have all been impacted by teachers, but there is a world of difference between what teachers are doing in the classroom and what is coming out of the headquarters of AFT or NEA.

Not only do teachers unions stand against every student-centered education reform measure, they are fully aligned with far left ideology, whether it has anything to do with education or not.

Fortunately, the Supreme Court has spoken and individuals no longer have to pay for and be part of speech they disagree with as a condition of employment.

In this edition of Freedom In Five Minutes or Less, we talk with Claudia Williamson and Brandon Cline, the Co-Directors of the Institute for Market Studies at Mississippi State University and editors of Promoting Prosperity in Mississippi.

Get your copy of Promoting Prosperity by making a donation of just $30. Simply click on the button below and we will get your copy in the mail.

[give_form id="5278"]

Want to learn more? Get your copy of Promoting Prosperity in Mississippiby making a donation of just $30. Simply click on the button below and we will get your copy in the mail.

[give_form id="5278"]

Attorney General Jim Hood has filed a lawsuit against student loan lender Navient alleging “widespread abuses across all aspects of its student loan business.”

Just last month the attorney general of California filed a similar suit. Prior to that, a handful of other states had taken related action against the student loan management corporation formerly known as Sallie Mae. With some $1.5 trillion in student loan debt nationwide, expect to see more states getting involved in the lawsuits.

The lawsuits may or may not be successful, but they simply deflect blame. Neither Navient, nor any other student loan provider, is responsible for students not being able to pay back their loans.

For a few decades now, the belief that every child must attend college has been pushed on students from the moment they enter kindergarten. If you want to be successful, you need a college degree. Any degree will do, just get a college degree the message went.

And for students who were unable to pay for the rising cost of a college education, the government was there to help. By guaranteeing student loans, lenders are at no risk when students take on a loan; just the taxpayers. No 18-year-old, without any collateral, can walk into a bank today and ask for a $100,000 loan so he or she could get a degree in…something. But that is what taxpayers guarantee every day with student loans. At very low interest rates.

As a result, colleges annually raised their tuition, fees, and other expenses, just because they could. When you are receiving student loans, it is as if you don’t see the money. It just passes through like monopoly money and you often don’t realize how expensive everything is. Or how much it has gone up year-over-year.

Colleges can do this because there is no incentive to do otherwise. They gain nothing by lowering their prices. The government has created an incentive to raise tuition without any fear of repercussions. And colleges and universities, for the most part, are only growing.

Unfortunately, student loans are just another area where the government gets involved with noble intentions. This time it was to help people pay for college. But as a result of government involvement, college became a lot more expensive and a college degree lost value.

Of course, part of the reason a college degree may not have value is because of the degree you receive. It seems all too often that those who complain the loudest about their student loans, while asking the government (i.e., taxpayers) to forgive their loans, are those who have degrees in fields that have no application in the marketplace.

Education is valuable. But it is only valuable if your degree prepares you for a career field. And if somebody else actually cares about that field. Too many degrees simply prepare students to be professional baristas at Starbucks.

In a free market society, personal responsibility is imperative. That means you need to decide if college is or isn’t right for you. And don’t just do what the world says. Maybe you’d be better off in trade school. Maybe you start out in community college for two years, where tuition will be nearly free. These are choices everyone should make before enrolling in college.

But in the end, each individual is responsible for his or her actions. And that includes signing your name on student loans. Because lenders aren’t going to stop giving out student loans as long as the government is guaranteeing those loans.

Bob Franco grew up in Vicksburg and never really thought about leaving the state of Mississippi. It was all he knew. One of six children, the family didn’t travel much outside of Vicksburg.

After graduating from St. Aloysius, he moved to Oxford to attend Ole Miss. He then went to work for a couple different companies in the state before a new opportunity took him to New Orleans. And then eventually to Ohio as he worked his way to become the vice president of the $1 billion roofing division of Owens Corning. He would then go on to work for two different private equity firms in Ohio and Kentucky after Owens.

For a small-town kid with humble beginnings, he did pretty well for himself and had a successful career by any measure. And when Bob made the decision to retire, or semi-retire, he made the decision to come back to Mississippi after being away for more than three decades.

Bob didn’t plan to move to Louisiana or Ohio or Kentucky. It is where the opportunity took him. And where he could be as successful as he wanted to be. And as he looks back, and looks at his home state today, are the prospects any better a generation or so later? Has that much really changed?

Where are we starting?

Unfortunately, the current data, across many measures, paints a bleak picture. Mississippi has the lowest per capita personal income in the nation at just over $36,000. Our neighbors are doing better. Arkansas and Alabama enjoy incomes that are 10 percent higher while Louisiana and Tennessee have 20 percent higher personal incomes.

Figure 1: Per capita income in Mississippi and neighboring states

And these numbers are not simply impacted by one area of one state. Those living on the Tennessee side of the Mississippi/ Tennessee border have personal incomes that are, on average, $6,000 higher than those on the Mississippi side.

Over the past 15 years, per capita income, after adjusting for inflation, has grown at a rate of just 1.1 percent in Mississippi. In two separate 15 year periods prior to 2001, the growth rates were 2.1 percent and 1.9 percent. ‘Just one percent’ is not insignificant, and, unfortunately, Mississippi has not kept up.

But what explains these numbers? And what can be done?

Economic freedom in Mississippi

During the same time that Mississippi was experiencing minimal growth, other states in middle of the country were prospering. They did so because of sound policies that emphasized economic freedom and limited government.

Mississippi has the fifth largest government share of state economic activity. Is this just because of our reliance on federal funds? No. When just state and local spending is calculated, Mississippi actually moves up to fourth. This is a state problem, not a federal one. Many incorrectly believe that Mississippi’s problems are rooted in our government spending too little. The data shows that is not the case. It would, indeed, be very difficult to spend more.

When the government grows, the state has increased ownership and the private sector shrinks. And economic freedom wanes.

According to the most recent Fraser Institute Economic Freedom of North America report, which measures government spending, taxes, and labor market freedom, Mississippi was ranked 45th among the 50 states. And unfortunately that ranking is only moving in the wrong direction. In the mid-1990s, Mississippi was on par with the national average. And our per capita income was growing. But since then, the rest of the country has become freer, while Mississippi has become less free.

Figure 2: Economic freedom, Mississippi and U.S. average

Do these rankings matter? A review of the top five and bottom five states in terms of economic freedom shows the freer states are more prosperous, have higher per capita incomes, more entrepreneurial activity, and lower poverty rates. (The information in the graphic below intentionally uses pre-recession data.)

Figure 3: Economic performance measures

Economic freedom is centered around free markets and voluntary exchange, individual liberty, and personal responsibility. It is not supposed to be managed, orchestrated, and predicted by the public sector.

Government incentives, often in the name of economic development and being ‘business-friendly,’ attempt to lure businesses to the state through financial benefits, such as site preparation, infrastructure, job training, or special tax breaks. The only reason these incentives are necessary is because of higher taxes or policies that burden businesses. Instead of special incentives for a few, Mississippi should work to provide a favorable climate for every business. And let the market decide where a business locates or expands.

Adopting market based policies

CNBC’s 2018 “Top States for Business” rankings painted an all too familiar picture for Mississippi. Mississippi was ranked 49th, a one spot drop from 2017. And the various business ratings generally correlate with freedom ratings. The more freedom, the more business friendly a state is. And the more the individuals in the state prosper.

Market based policies work. And state leaders have attempted to improve the economic climate of Mississippi, most notably through tax and regulatory reform. That is significant and they should be applauded. Yet at the same time, this past year the legislature attempted to make it more difficult to become a real estate broker, a measure backed by the Realtors Association. There was no impending threat to homebuyers via rogue brokers; rather it was an attempt to stifle competition. While the bill sailed through the legislature, it was rightly vetoed by Governor Phil Bryant.

There is still much work to do. The instincts are not always in the right directions. But there are reforms the state could adopt, including:

• Reduction or elimination of personal and corporate income taxes
• Simplified and fairer tax system that does not just reward those companies with a powerful lobbying presence
• Reduction of existing occupational licensing restrictions
• Enhancements of personal property rights
• Elimination of business subsidies
• Expansion of school choice programs

It can be done

Bob Franco is no different than many others who grew up in Mississippi only to search for opportunity elsewhere. But policy reforms can change everything. We can create more opportunity and see more people moving in than moving out. We have the blueprint. A blueprint based on sound evidence of what states have done to grow over the past couple decades. The blueprint is freedom and free markets, supported by a limited but effective government.

Moving briskly with the right policies, Mississippi leaders can cast a vision for a better future that increase incomes and improves quality of life. And it can be done within a generation.

In our first edition of Freedom In Five Minutes or Less, we talk about our upcoming Liberty Luncheon on Thursday, July 26.