Hope from Rhode Island

“Hope” is Rhode Island’s state motto and if it follows through on a recent cost-cutting action, it’s hope the rest of us might try. The Associated Press says Gov. Don Carcieri plans to shut down state government for twelve days over the course of a year, police and other essential services excepted.

The idea is probably to save the money or to stake out a bargaining position with state employee unions, but it has attraction beyond tiny Rhode Island’s 1,545 square miles, 500 of which are water anyway.

We’ll call it The Rhode Island Rule: Succeed more – Try Less.

This is an idea so simple that even unrecovered politicians might grasp it. If governing costs more than the governed want to pay, govern less.

Suppose your state’s cost for prisons is skyrocketing, with police and courts generating a growing stream of convicts. The obvious solution is less convicts. If you make state prosecutors and courts take unpaid time off, they’ll generate fewer convicts. Credit the Rhode Island Rule.

Or maybe your state’s motor vehicle agency generates 1,000 complaints every day it is open. People complain about lazy clerks, incomprehensible instructions and endless lines. If it is open five days a week now and you reduce that to three, you will have reduced citizen complaints about the motor vehicle agency forty percent, not to mention operating costs. Credit the Rhode Island Rule.

The Rhode Island Rule is a real celebration of bringing the cost of anything back on a level of ability or interest in paying. A school district complaining that many students drop out before completing high school diplomas can solve that problem just by reducing the number of years required. No fancy remedial programs, expensive teachers or tax hikes needed. Credit the Rhode Island Rule.

Applications of the Rhode Island Rule on the federal level are endless. China, for example, has a record of ignoring U.S. human rights requests. If the Obama administration makes fewer human rights requests, it is perfectly entitled to issue a press release saying “China Ignores Fewer Administration Human Rights Requests.” Credit the Rhode Island Rule.

There are even sure-fire applications in personal life. Suppose over the course of a 365-day year your spouse responds to your amorous overtures with 359 migraines, leaving you feel like a loser. Just limit getting frisky to six times a year and you’re batting 100 percent, you big old heartthrob. Credit the Rhode Island Rule.

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