To catch on in a crowded marketplace of ideas, say Chip and Dan Heath, authors of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, a concept must be communicated in a way that is simple,unexpected, and credible.
Last year, voters were confronted by a 200-page voter guide, 17 statewide ballot measures and a swarm of local questions. The political marketplace could not have been more crowded.
Some campaigns, however, broke through the election-year clutter using simple and unexpected economic analyses, prepared by credible authors.
Forward Observer reviewed third-party studies released last year by winning campaigns or related to major public policy issues. Here are some of the most noteworthy – and “stickiest” – numbers of 2016:
- $20.5 Billion – Economic burden of smoking in California. Proponents of Prop. 56, a $2 per pack cigarette tax, found a new way to talk about the impacts of smoking. Micah Weinberg of the Healthy Systems Project totaled-up the annual costs to the economy from lost productivity, premature death and health care. Weinberg also concluded smoking added $517.85 to the average annual health insurance premium for a family of four.
- $4 Billion – Potential economic activity generated by cannabis legalization in the Sacramento region.Truth Enterprises, an investment fund focusing on legal marijuana, commissioned an economic impact report from the University of the Pacific Center for Business and Policy Research analyzing the economic impact of legalizing marijuana on the Sacramento region. The authors estimated cannabis legalization would create at least $386 million and as much as $4 billion in new economic activity and add 1,600 to 20,000 jobs in the region.
- $1.5 Billion – Amount earned by Lyft drivers in 2016.Based on a survey of 38,000 passengers and 15,000 drivers across 20 cities, Lyft’s 2016 economic impact report also concluded passengers saved 26 million travel hours, valued at $500 million, and spent an additional $750 million in local economies.
- $603 Million – Losses suffered by farmers in California’s drought last year.California entered its sixth year of drought in 2016, as El Niño failed to deliver rain and snowfall levels even mildly above average. In their third annual report on the economic impacts of the drought, UC Davis researchers concluded the drought has cost California $603 million in 2016 and 1,815 jobs. The study found farmers spent an addition $303 million in electricity and other costs to pump depleted groundwater.
Here is one more number that is noteworthy: $500 million.
That represents the total amount raised by statewide ballot committees in the 2016 election cycle through November 8, according to The Los Angeles Times.
You can read our full report, along with Forward Observer’s other research briefs, here.