Massachusetts and the Copernican Principle

By Steve Poftak
September 5th, 2007

In rough terms, the Copernican Principle states that we should assume we are not special (i.e. the universe does not revolve around us).

So why does Massachusetts think it’s so exceptional? Three examples:

• Auto Insurance — 49 other states have some form of managed competition. Why can’t we? I don’t pretend to know the ins and outs of the recently proposed reforms (start here and follow the links on the third page for the details). But how about this for a test — What do we have to do to get Geico, Progressive, and Allstate to offer car insurance in this state?
• Police Details — This is an old story worth repeating — 49 other states use paid flaggers on construction details and somehow avoid catastrophic levels of roadway carnage. Why can’t we lower our construction costs by doing the same?
• Retail Healthcare — Many other states already allow in-store health clinics to provide a limited array of services that consumers want. We are in the process of regulatory hand-wringing over the prospects of MinuteClinics opening here.