Privatization

In 1994, Republicans in California distributed a voter education pamphlet titled "The Welfare Mess." On its cover was a vivid montage of ghetto pathology: food stamps intermixed with hundred-dollar bills, drug paraphernalia alongside a snub-nosed pistol. Inside, the pamphlet catalogued welfare's pernicious effects. Teen pregnancy, runaway crime, moral decay, even falling SAT scores--all were blamed on a welfare system run amok. The pamphlet closed with a dire warning: "If You Don't Vote, THEY WIN."

Today the Republican Party… more

As election day approaches, the Bush campaign seems baffled by the continued reluctance of voters to credit the president for the past year's generally positive economic numbers. On the campaign trail in Ohio last week, President Bush insisted, "The economy is strong, and it's getting stronger." But, according to recent polls, most Americans believe the economy is getting worse or just holding steady, and the number who approve of Bush's economic stewardship has dropped significantly from the beginning of the… more

Michael Calabrese, director of New America's Wireless Future program, testified before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation in June 2004. His opening remarks are excerpted here; a full transcript is available below in PDF form.

There is a general consensus that rapidly completing the digital TV transition – thereby freeing up the 108 MHz of “beachfront” spectrum corresponding to TV channels 52-to- 69 – is clearly in the public interest. Because wireless signals at this frequency range pass easily… more

We're no fans of the attempt by the Federal Communications Commission to relax ownership requirements for TV stations and newspapers, but it would be a shame if the battle between FCC Chairman Michael Powell and Congress on this issue distracted attention from another harmful move being contemplated by the commission.

We're talking about the privatization of the airwaves, a public resource worth hundreds of billions of dollars in both market value and future federal revenue. The contemplated FCC… more

The Citizen's Guide to the Airwaves is the New America Foundation's attempt to educate the public about the tremendous value, government mismanagement, and impending giveaway of the nation's airwaves -- the most valuable natural resource of the information economy. The publications frame the spectrum debate in a language new to the policy world, using clear, graphic illustrations to depict the economic, social and political facets of spectrum policy.

The Citizen's Guide (viewable thumbnails below) includes… more

In August of 2000 the National Center for Children in Poverty, at Columbia University, released a study showing that despite the country's recent economic boom, 13 million American children were living in poverty -- three million more than in 1979. For most Americans that was unsettling news, but for a small group of publicly traded companies it represented an opportunity. As the ranks of children living in poverty have grown during the past two decades, so have the… more

As Congress finalizes its budget resolution for next year, there is one item you won't see: the taking, via eminent domain, of tens of billions of dollars worth of your airwaves rights.

You know what eminent domain is. The government comes and takes away your property for the sake of the "greater good." Usually, citizens fight such takings of their property kicking and screaming. And even if they lose, at least individuals have a constitutional right to compensation.

But there… more

Selected reviews of Silent Theft are featured below:

Monday, June 10, 2002 It’s almost human nature: if you’re allowed the use of something for enough time, you begin to think you have a right to it, even that you own it. Take broadcast television. Its signals travel by means of the electromagnetic spectrum, specifically that segment known colloquially as the airwaves. The spectrum is a fact of the physical universe. Capital didn’t create it. It can’t… more

Good morning members of the Commission. My name is Maya MacGuineas and I am a Fellow at the New America Foundation, a non-partisan think tank in Washington DC, where I work on fiscal policy. Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today. I realize that most of the country’s attention is focused on more immediate threats -- as is only appropriate. But it is important that at the same time, we take action to address the longer-term threats… more

On Sept. 17, in the regulatory equivalent of the dead of night, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced a change in policy that amounts to one of the most expensive and unjustifiable grants of corporate welfare in our nation's history. If it isn't reversed, it could set a precedent that will have a long-lasting and damaging effect on our pocketbooks and the U.S. economy.

The FCC's decision ... virtually unreported in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, except… more