Idiosyncratic US States

1. Subdivisions

   All US states are divided into counties - except for Louisiana, which has parishes, and Alaska, which has boroughs. Louisiana inherited a French legal system based on Catholicism and civil law, which also meant that slave transactions were notarised like real estate, which was the subject of my university thesis. Supposedly the Alaskans in 1955 wanted to create different types of borough - perhaps to avoid a situation analogous to Wyoming and California having the same number of senators…

2. Lloyd’s

   US insurance is state-regulated, and brokers must conduct a ‘diligent search’ for a state-regulated (‘admitted’) insurer before approaching any out-of-state insurers to write what’s known as ‘surplus lines’ insurance. Hence, Lloyd’s of London insurance is only accessible to American companies on a surplus lines basis - except, until 2021, in Kentucky, Illinois, and the USVI, where Lloyd’s had a licence. I’ve not yet been able to find out why they (alone) had that licence, but it’s been true for a long time - the 1988 book A View of the Room presents it as a solid fact.

3. Zoning

   Ok, it’s not a state - but Houston is the larget US city to not have real zoning laws. There were three referenda on zoning, in 1948, 1962, and 1993 - and all of them rejected it. But according to The Big Rich and this article, the 1948 referendum to get rid of zoning was a battle between Jesse Jones, a banker who served in the FDR administration, and his bitter rival Roy Cullen, the leading oilman of his day.
   
   Cullen hated Jones, hated the ‘Jew Deal’, and particularly hated the zoning committee - once he found out that Jones controlled it. Cullen bankrolled the anti-zoning campaign to a 67-33 victory for Texan freedom over Northern collectivism - and got one over Jones in the process.

Marketing Ploys

1. De Beers didn’t just come up with “a diamond is forever”; they also invented the idea that you should spend two months salary on an engagement ring, ratcheting up the precise number of months over the course of the twentieth century.

2. Type A/B personality theory asserts that type A people are competitive and ambitious, whereas type B people are relaxed and receptive. Between the 1950s and 1990s, research into the theory was funded by tobacco companies as a way to misdirect attention from smoking as a risk factor in cardiovascular disease - he didn’t have a heart attack because he was a smoker, he was just very type A!

3. Ogilvy and Mather invented the concept of a personal ‘carbon footprint’ for BP, as a way to distract attention from corporate responsibility for climate change. BP published their first carbon footprint calculator in 2004.

4. Breakfast was invented by breakfast companies to sell more breakfast. In particular, the idea that it’s the most important meal of the day has been the subject of some pretty serious marketing dollars over the years. The jury’s still out on this one.

5. My mother thinks that both Halloween and Mother’s Day were invented by American corporations to sell more stuff. Jury’s out on this one too.