#Green New Deal 2.0 and other commentary

Joe Biden has adopted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “top-down, centralized, command-and-control” Green Deal program.
EPA

Joe Biden may not officially label his environmental plan “the Green New Deal,” but it’s really not much different from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “top-down, centralized, command-and-control” extravaganza of that very name, observes Reason’s Ronald Bailey. From its left-wing rhetoric to its specific calls for clean energy, Biden rehashes earlier Green New Deal ideas, like phasing out gasoline-powered cars, forcing buildings to abide by “a net-zero emissions standard by 2030” and promoting unions — the “same economic policies” progressives have “long advocated.” The price tag: $5 trillion over 10 years. A far more sensible and cheaper solution to climate change, contends Bailey, would encourage “rapid economic growth,” ensuring that future generations have “the wealth and superior technologies” to tackle the issue.

Foreign desk: Time to Invest in India

The United States “urgently” needs “to deepen its economic integration” with India, particularly after that nation’s recent conflicts with China, argues Noah Smith at Bloomberg. Indeed, opening US markets to Indian goods even without a “reciprocal opening by India” makes “geopolitical sense” — because boosting an ally’s economy makes it “more able to resist military encroachment by rivals.” Better still: “increased direct investment by the US.” Economists say such investments boost growth and promote technology transfers that help a country develop. “Making India a richer, more advanced and more powerful country would strengthen it as a bulwark against Chinese domination of Asia.” India’s already taking steps to attract US investment; now “the US needs to do its part.”

Campaign watch: Joe Clueless on Capitalism

One thing stands out in Joe Biden’s otherwise “unremarkable” economic vision, Allison Schrager notes at the City Journal: his “vow to ‘put an end to the era of shareholder capitalism.’” Unclear is whether that means “a corporation should simply consider the best interests of its workers, its community and the country” — or that Biden will “demand that corporate boards and officers explicitly account for the interests of other stakeholders.” Fact is, “shareholder primacy,” which “remains baked into American corporate governance,” has “many benefits” for all “stakeholders,” including aligning the “incentives of corporate managers, a corporation’s owners and the broader community” and providing an objective measure of a company’s success. By contrast, “forcing companies to behave more like governments and acquire more representative constituents will distort business, dampen value and erode prosperity.”

Education expert: School Choice Is the Answer

Two “political earthquakes” offer “vastly different” ways to boost minority learning, writes Lance Izumi at the Washington Examiner. The first: California’s push to repeal Proposition 209 and restore “race-based admissions” in college admissions and other areas. Yet research shows “K-12 public education, not Prop. 209, is the real obstacle” for minorities, which may be why 60 percent of blacks and Hispanics nationally oppose the use of race in admissions. Polls also show minorities want more school choice, and the second earthquake — the Supreme Court’s recent green light to use public scholarship programs at religious schools — could help provide it. “Rigorous studies” on scholarship programs have found “a positive impact on student performance, graduation rates and college enrollment.” Indeed, choice, not “race preferences,” is the “true civil-rights issue of our time.”

Religion beat: Hands Off Hagia Sophia

“There is just nothing like Hagia Sophia,” the legendary cathedral that has “inspired awe” since its completion in 532, kvells Thomas Madden at First Things. “For nine centuries it was a church, for nearly five centuries a mosque and for almost one century a museum.” Now, thanks to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, it’s a mosque again. Some liken that switch to the “statue-toppling and cancel culture in the US and Europe,” but it’s really just “political”: As his popularity among moderates and progressives has “faltered,” Erdogan is “increasingly reliant on rural Islamic conservatives to keep him in power.” Yet the “history of the West is bound up in that remarkable building,” sighs Madden. “Let Hagia Sophia be Hagia Sophia.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board