John Hood, who is a John Locke Foundation board member Wrote a terrific article this week for The Carolina Journal, which is available in its entirety at this LINK. We recommend your read the article in full and here are a few highlights:

Put me down as entirely unsurprised that media companies are adding commercials back into their streaming services as a means of making them profitable. Advertising has never been as unpopular as its critics imagine — a truth that North Carolina policymakers should embrace as they try to finance new infrastructure without irritating taxpayers.

My argument, then and now, is that advertising confers net benefits on society. It conveys critical information about the cost, value, and availability of goods and services, fueling the innovation and competition that boost living standards over time. Contrary to popular belief, for example, services for which advertising is restricted or prohibited tend to have higher prices, not lower ones.

What do such findings have to do with state and local policy? Plenty. Just a couple of months ago, the North Carolina General Assembly overrode Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of a bill that, among other provisions, allowed outdoor advertisers more latitude to keep foliage from obstructing motorists’ view of their billboards (so long as they compensate the state for cutting trees on public property and obtain the permission of private landowners to do the same).

State lawmakers called this one right.

Insider’s Note: You can find our initial article on the NC tree issue HERE and the followup article HERE.

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