As you know I am part Irish. And I find these jokes INSENSITIVE AND INSULTING! No, just kidding, I'm actually quite secure in my Irish-hood. Actually, if you have any, certainly please feel free to send them my way. St. Patrick's day is only 186 days away. Need to start preparing for it now.
Here's your joke;
So Paddy asks Murphy, "Why do SCUBA divers always fall backwards off their boats?"
To which Murphy replies, "Well if they fell forward they'd still be in the frickin' boat."
Thus concludes your recession medicine for the day.
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
A Self-Inflicted Energy Crisis
I mean this sincerely because it will happen, but once the excesses of capitalism wear off (or more likely, run out) and this country is forced once again to adhere to reality instead of borrowing money from the future to bail themselves out of problems in the present, people are going to look back and say, "WTF were they thinking? How did they go from the greatest nation on the planet to a North American version of old Europe and collapse so quickly?"
And arguably one of the more stark examples of insanity will be energy. We have, according to the latest congressional report, MORE ENERGY RESOURCES (of the real variety, not the green-faux variety) THAN ANY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD.
This testifies to something we've on the adult side of the political spectrum have known all along, but still find ourselves having to remind the child side of the political spectrum;
THERE IS NO ENERGY CRISIS.
This is a self inflicted crisis.
And arguably one of the more stark examples of insanity will be energy. We have, according to the latest congressional report, MORE ENERGY RESOURCES (of the real variety, not the green-faux variety) THAN ANY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD.
This testifies to something we've on the adult side of the political spectrum have known all along, but still find ourselves having to remind the child side of the political spectrum;
THERE IS NO ENERGY CRISIS.
This is a self inflicted crisis.
So here's what I want you to do. Could you just once, JUST ONCE instead of listening to public school teachers, professional politicians and nobel prize winners and left-leaning journalists NONE OF WHICH HAVE ANY EXPERTISE OR ENGINEERING BACKGROUND IN ENERGY, just listen to somebody that does?
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Where 505025 Doesn't Apply
Kim was this cute black girl in Chicago. I met her while on a short vacation to Chi-town while swing dancing. I was all of 22 years old at the time, had this dinky little convertible with
Wisconsin plates on it. I was having a good time, had a couple drinks in me and since I was 22 was still idealistic and hopeful. I was only in town for a week, but thought, what the heck, I'll ask her out on a date anyway.
Sure enough she said yes.
Of course by this time I was well aware of the Rule of 505025 and didn't really bank on anything, but still headed down to the south side of Chicago, where, sure enough she was there, dressed up very nicely, ready to be picked up. We went out dancing, had a good night, and I drove her back, pastey white kid in a Wisconsin plated convertible to the south side of Chicago late at night. I got some funny looks.
I asked her out on another date where we headed up the shoreline to Winnetka (the complete opposite of south side Chicago) and sure enough she not only agreed, but showed up at the designated time and was ready to go.
A short year later I was in Minneapolis again at a now-defunct joint called "Popeye's." Quite the accomplished swing dancer by now I was accustomed to having more or less 1 in 2 women say yes to a dance with me. But upon entering the club I saw the band. And not only did I see the band, I saw their female vocalist who I would learn later was the charming and enchanting Charmin Michelle.
Not knowing who she was (because she is a rather well-known local celebrity) I immediately asked her to dance with the foolish and idealistic hopes that it would lead to a date. And then one of the most heavenly experiences happened to me;
she shot me down.
But she shot me down in such a heavenly way. She smiled at me, my dumb slobbering 23 year old face and she said, "Oh, thank you so much. I would love to, but I'm dating somebody." She could have said, "you're an ugly, skinny twerp and I'd rather kiss a crocodile with Ebola," and I would have still had the slobbering dog-like face because her voice was just pure velvet. Regardless, her face and smile were so sincere and she let me down so nicely, that getting shot down by her was actually better than having the average girl say "yes" to a dance.
Now the reason I bring this up is that in my life I have not had many romantic escapades with black women. In large part because of the demographics of Minnesota and also in part there are not many black people in the ballroom dance/fossil hunting/economics scene. But the few that I have, have been enjoyable. All of them. I was never stood up, I was never misled or strung along. In every instance it was a pleasant experience (even getting shot down by Charmin Michelle). And I never really noticed this until I saw this chart.
This comes from an online dating service showing "response rates" by different races. It takes a bit to make heads and tails of it, but if you look at the top and go down you see what percent response women of varying ethnicities have to men of different ethnicities and black women have the highest response rate. I'm sure there are other reasons, but it just reminded me that when it came to courting the few black women in my life I have, there were no games. It was the most head-ache free dating experiences I had.
In any case, a hat tip and more in-depth (albeit incredibly politically incorrect) analysis of it here.
Wisconsin plates on it. I was having a good time, had a couple drinks in me and since I was 22 was still idealistic and hopeful. I was only in town for a week, but thought, what the heck, I'll ask her out on a date anyway.
Sure enough she said yes.
Of course by this time I was well aware of the Rule of 505025 and didn't really bank on anything, but still headed down to the south side of Chicago, where, sure enough she was there, dressed up very nicely, ready to be picked up. We went out dancing, had a good night, and I drove her back, pastey white kid in a Wisconsin plated convertible to the south side of Chicago late at night. I got some funny looks.
I asked her out on another date where we headed up the shoreline to Winnetka (the complete opposite of south side Chicago) and sure enough she not only agreed, but showed up at the designated time and was ready to go.
A short year later I was in Minneapolis again at a now-defunct joint called "Popeye's." Quite the accomplished swing dancer by now I was accustomed to having more or less 1 in 2 women say yes to a dance with me. But upon entering the club I saw the band. And not only did I see the band, I saw their female vocalist who I would learn later was the charming and enchanting Charmin Michelle.
Not knowing who she was (because she is a rather well-known local celebrity) I immediately asked her to dance with the foolish and idealistic hopes that it would lead to a date. And then one of the most heavenly experiences happened to me;
she shot me down.
But she shot me down in such a heavenly way. She smiled at me, my dumb slobbering 23 year old face and she said, "Oh, thank you so much. I would love to, but I'm dating somebody." She could have said, "you're an ugly, skinny twerp and I'd rather kiss a crocodile with Ebola," and I would have still had the slobbering dog-like face because her voice was just pure velvet. Regardless, her face and smile were so sincere and she let me down so nicely, that getting shot down by her was actually better than having the average girl say "yes" to a dance.
Now the reason I bring this up is that in my life I have not had many romantic escapades with black women. In large part because of the demographics of Minnesota and also in part there are not many black people in the ballroom dance/fossil hunting/economics scene. But the few that I have, have been enjoyable. All of them. I was never stood up, I was never misled or strung along. In every instance it was a pleasant experience (even getting shot down by Charmin Michelle). And I never really noticed this until I saw this chart.
This comes from an online dating service showing "response rates" by different races. It takes a bit to make heads and tails of it, but if you look at the top and go down you see what percent response women of varying ethnicities have to men of different ethnicities and black women have the highest response rate. I'm sure there are other reasons, but it just reminded me that when it came to courting the few black women in my life I have, there were no games. It was the most head-ache free dating experiences I had.
In any case, a hat tip and more in-depth (albeit incredibly politically incorrect) analysis of it here.
Adventures in "Going Galt" Manliness
After a full day yesterday of chainsawing wood, hauling it, and then splitting it, I felt very manly. However, unbeknownst to me if you have a chainsaw you inevitably have to sharper the chain or replace it. Since buying a new chain would only create a transaction that the government could tax, a friend of mine has a chain sharpening kit he is willing to give me for free. This "going Galt move" now allows me to get several uses or cycles out of one chain rather than replacing it. Furthermore, this is additional proof that going Galt makes you manly. "Sharpening chainsaw chains" is pretty damn macho.
Monday, November 02, 2009
Wow!
NPR readers don't even support BO.
Maybe there's hope (of the legitimate sort) for the country afterall.
Maybe there's hope (of the legitimate sort) for the country afterall.
Death of the MSM
The only newspaper, THE ONLY NEWSPAPER NOT to have its subscription drop was the one semi-conservative newspaper.
I'd be curious to see how The Economist is selling.
Recession Medicine - Hogan's Heroes II
Yes, I know accoridng to the government bloated GDP figures, the economy is "out" of the recession. But for those of you who were not fortunate enough to get jobs as "walk ambassadors" and other make work imaginary jobs, here is another episode of Hogan's Heroes.
Sunday, November 01, 2009
PPP Adjusted Wage Gap
One of the more amusing scenes is the "Baby Boomer/60 Something Meat Market" which, if you're ever Twin Cities way you can see in all of its splendor and glory at a joint called "Red Stone" in Eden Prairie. Here you see, in a VERY general sense, men in their peak earning years picking up twice or thrice divorced who are still glitzed up thinking it's 1986. The tactics haven't much changed, but one of the more interesting ones I've seen is men putting their "Audi" or their "BMW" key chain on the bar so girls (well, women) can see what a fancy car they drive. Everyone is still dressed in designer clothes as if these things matter, but there was one thing that made my economic spidey senses tingle;
The men made bank while the women are still employed as hair salonists or waitresses or some other such profession.
Naturally the men buy, but as I waited for my baby boomer friend to show up, it got me thinking;
"Would the wage hap between men and women be closed if we adjusted for all the income transfers?"
Forget buying a lady a beer, just last night you could not have had a better example. $500 costume contest, and who does it go to?
The guy dressed as a sailor?
The guy dressed like Yoda?
Or the girl in a french maid outfit?
Of course this is peanuts to things like the money men fork over for dating, let alone in divorce settlements where I think the plurality of income/wealth transfers occur, but if we adjusted for that would there be an income gap at all?
Probably impossible to measure and we'll probably never know, but it would be interesting to see what the figures are.
The men made bank while the women are still employed as hair salonists or waitresses or some other such profession.
Naturally the men buy, but as I waited for my baby boomer friend to show up, it got me thinking;
"Would the wage hap between men and women be closed if we adjusted for all the income transfers?"
Forget buying a lady a beer, just last night you could not have had a better example. $500 costume contest, and who does it go to?
The guy dressed as a sailor?
The guy dressed like Yoda?
Or the girl in a french maid outfit?
Of course this is peanuts to things like the money men fork over for dating, let alone in divorce settlements where I think the plurality of income/wealth transfers occur, but if we adjusted for that would there be an income gap at all?
Probably impossible to measure and we'll probably never know, but it would be interesting to see what the figures are.
Friday, October 30, 2009
And the Tea Parties are Organized Arms of the Republican Party?
I get the occasional e-mail from the remaining arm of Obama's campaign in that I signed up for it when he was running. What this shows is how it's "bad" when people organize to protest the government taking working people's money away from them, but if it's of a socialist stripe AND OBVIOUSLY ORCHESTRATED by the administration, then it's OK. Just like Bush's deficits are BAD and Obama's deficits are GOOD. Here you go;
It's late; I know you've gotten a lot of messages from us recently, and everyone here at OFA headquarters is pretty tired. But the last reports of calls and commitments are just coming in from events on the West Coast, and I wanted to share the news with you.
As you know, we set a big goal: 100,000 calls to Congress placed or committed to in a single day by OFA supporters and allied organizations. By 2:30 p.m., you had crushed it. So, we gulped and said let's go for 200,000, not knowing what would happen. But the calls just kept pouring in -- keeping phones ringing off the hook in congressional offices in D.C. and your representatives' district offices around the country.
Then, OFA supporters gathered in over 1,000 living rooms and community centers from Macon, Georgia to Missoula, Montana. You called hundreds of thousands of key voters in your community and got them to agree to call Congress and speak out for reform, too. President Obama joined in at a call party in New York -- and he had some amazing words of support for the folks like you who make this movement possible.
I'm looking at the numbers, and with almost all of the reports now in, the tally wasn't 200,000 calls placed or pledged -- it was 315,023. You did it.
Take a moment to watch the President's inspiring words to OFA volunteers on this incredible day.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/m/55c103cc/506a9e4d/d1f4f0ef/1188608c/2445921390/VEsE/http://my.barackobama.com/page/m/55c103cc/506a9e4d/d1f4f0ef/1188608c/2445921390/VEsE/
Your voice was overwhelming -- with reports in the media of congressional offices "completely crushed with calls." CBS News described your effort as an "onslaught." And a congressional aide was quoted with a common response, saying their office was deluged by "pretty much non-stop health care calls from OFA."
You set a new OFA record, you caught the national media's attention, and you certainly put Congress on notice. But you know that's not what really matters.
The message I sent earlier talked about a woman, Jenny U., whose insurance company cut off her coverage because they decided her kidney donation to her sick daughter counted as a "pre-existing condition." What really matters is that today you brought America one giant, irreversible step closer to being a place where no one will ever have to suffer that kind of injustice again. That's what all the messages, late nights, and phone calls ultimately add up to. It's what makes everything we do together worthwhile -- and it's why we'll keep fighting together until the job is done.
Watch President Obama's special message to you from a call party in New York:
http://my.barackobama.com/TTDreport
Thank you, so much, for being part of the team.
Sincerely,
Mitch
Mitch Stewart
Director
Organizing for America
Thursday, October 29, 2009
"Real Real" Gross Domestic Product
Because of all the federal stimulus money, Real Gross Domestic Product is no longer quite a reliable measure as to how much the economy is growing. Sure we adjust for inflation to get RGDP, but do we adjust for temporary stimulus spending from the government? Here's a break down of RGDP growth by category.
Notice the government alone accounted for .5% of that economic growth, but if you factor in cash for clunkers, home purchasing credits, not to mention ditch-digging-then-filling projects like this, RRGDP is more like 1.8%. Recovery? Yes. Booming? No. Enough growth to create jobs for the increasing population? Certainly not.
Alas, leave it to the bubble-addicted markets to drive stock prices up by 150 points on the DJIA on the nominal 3.5% growth rate and not the RRGDP.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
I Think I Had the Pig Flu
Actually, I'm being half-serious about this.
I got a HORRENDOUS cold last month, took three weeks to fully recover, a worse cold than the typical cold I normally get during the cooling months, but still not the "worst" cold I've ever had.
Slept in, had girls come over to pamper me (and do electrical work), ate well, and didn't work more than I had to. Sure enough, like all other colds in the history of colds, this one went away as the Captain's T-cells went to battle.
So I was thinking that it was too coincidentally timed with the pig flu epidemic as several cases were reported here in Minnesota (although who knows, maybe it was just the schools shutting down being overworried).
Regardless, I wondered, "Did I have the pig flu?" and so I looked up the symptoms here at the CDC.
Wow, the pig flu is just like the regular flu, BUT!!!! (drum roll)....
IT'S SPELLED DIFFERENTLY!!!!
Seriously, it wouldn't surprise me if I had the pig flu.
Since then Young Joie more or less explains my position of this flu as well as provides some informational links about Pig Flu.
Never let a crisis, real or fabricated, go to waste.
I got a HORRENDOUS cold last month, took three weeks to fully recover, a worse cold than the typical cold I normally get during the cooling months, but still not the "worst" cold I've ever had.
Slept in, had girls come over to pamper me (and do electrical work), ate well, and didn't work more than I had to. Sure enough, like all other colds in the history of colds, this one went away as the Captain's T-cells went to battle.
So I was thinking that it was too coincidentally timed with the pig flu epidemic as several cases were reported here in Minnesota (although who knows, maybe it was just the schools shutting down being overworried).
Regardless, I wondered, "Did I have the pig flu?" and so I looked up the symptoms here at the CDC.
Wow, the pig flu is just like the regular flu, BUT!!!! (drum roll)....
IT'S SPELLED DIFFERENTLY!!!!
Seriously, it wouldn't surprise me if I had the pig flu.
Since then Young Joie more or less explains my position of this flu as well as provides some informational links about Pig Flu.
Never let a crisis, real or fabricated, go to waste.
You Will Visit Alice the Camel
Alice has been a long time blog-friend and as I slowly update my blogroll (as I recently learned how to program one) I will be putting new folk up there.
Regardless, pay Alice a visit. Also send her pictures of camels.
Regardless, pay Alice a visit. Also send her pictures of camels.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
American Labor Takes Too Long to Incubate
A real quick, but very insightful post, then I have to go.
I read this on Mish's blog and it got me thinking, "Dude, you're practically middle age by the time you get your doctorate and are ready to go into the labor force."
And then it got me further thinking as to just how much time we waste when we education our children and college students and how we could considerably shorten the time it takes to bring a kid from kindergarten to an employable adult.
First off a sheer improvement in efficiency by eliminating bad students that do nothing but distract those students with potential would certainly allow a teacher to cover an insanely higher amount of ground and impart an insanely higher amount of education. Along the same line would be getting parents to be real parents and force their students to study, to do well, and to do their homework.
Since both are politically incorrect because we champion losers in this country as well as it is a sin to accuse bad parents of...well...being bad parents, we have to focus on things that don't hurt people's feelings, especially morons at the expense of our future labor force.
This changes the focus to what I believe to be the inordinate amount of worthless "pre-requisite" classes that we force students to take to (put it simply) employ people who would otherwise be unemployable.
Why do we have phy ed?
Why do we mandate students take high school psychology?
How many of you took years of foreign language and never used it to this day?
It is these classes that need to be eliminated at the K-12 education level. They serve no purpose in training children into future workers, but they do employ a lot of people who wouldn't otherwise have jobs in the real world.
Then there is lord knows how much spent on "extra-curricular" activities that serve no purpose in helping a kid's future.
Admittedly, I teach dance. But this is recreational and for adults who have since graduated and are presumably in the working world. They have no illusions about going out and competing professionally. It is a veritable recreation. But I don't know how many women I've ran into who I could tell had previous dance experience. And when I asked them,
"Have you danced before?"
They invariably say,
"Yes, tap, jazz and ballet when I was a child."
"So are you a professional ballet dancer now?"
"Oh, no! *giggle*"
Well how much time, labor, effort, money and taxpayer cash was used teaching kids a dance they will never use? Line dance? Jazz? Ballet?
Music is the same way. Along the same line of sports (as well as I presume ballet), what percentage of students that take music and are in high school band go on to make careers in music? Less than 1% I presume. And this speaks nothing to the psychotic parents that (like my own) force their children at the insanely young age of 3 to take piano or violin or tennis.
Now these are all topics or hobbies kids pursue as kids during their k-12 days. However, when they graduate onto college, the pointless "jumping through hoops" classes do not relent.
Freshman composition is the perfect example.
I don't care how bad people's writing is. If it doesn't cut it, it doesn't cut it. But no matter if you had straight A's through k-12 in English, you still need to take this class. Why? Because a bunch of English majors in COLLEGE need a job.
But forget English, the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota require you not only take 3 years of a foreign language, but that you PASS A TEST before you can get your degree. I pissed away 2 years of college German that could have been spent on economics and finance which would have made me an even BETTER economist (if you can imagine that). Regardless, this is not for the students' benefit, this is to employ a bunch of people who majored in a foreign language and can't find a job at the UN.
Business school is just as guilty as any other college.
Why, if you are majoring in accounting, do you need to take HR or marketing? Again, it is not to make you "well-rounded" it's to employ otherwise unemployable "doctorates" in marketing.
And though I did not attend engineering school, there is no doubt a plethora of worthless and pointless pre-requisites in the arts and humanities you must have suffered that only postponed your graduation by a full year.
Now you may be asking "Captain, why are you so hard on people? Why can't you just let people enjoy life a little bit? Life is not all about math and science and engineering and economics."
You're right, that's what you do on your free time. But when you go to school, let us not kid ourselves, it's not for entertainment. It's to train you for a real job in the real world. It's to give you the skills so that you may work up enough money in a successful career so that you may afford pursue your hobbies in the future. Arguing otherwise is putting the cart before the horse, and no doubt you wish to make a living out of your hobby which is almost a guaranteed way to become a rent-seeker.
But there is a larger consequence, or perhaps "opportunity cost" for being so lackadaisical in the education and training of our future labor, and that is foregone production.
Consider this - it is in my estimation that a full 3 years could be cut out from the K-12 education by simply eliminating the worthless classes and activities as well as forcing our students to work harder. I also believe that if you get rid of all of fluff and forced-pre-requisite classes at the college level, you could scale an engineering degree down to 3 years and a liberal arts degree to 3 months (just kidding!). I also believe most masters degrees could be done in 4 years and doctorates (unless in a REALLY advanced field) could be done in 6. And in focusing our efforts on studying as well as eliminating the unnecessary classes, you could have online fully trained and qualified, labor ready to go to work.
Bringing this labor online 4-5 years ahead of schedule and you have some amazing benefits.
Most notably 4-5 years of additional production per graduating class. This alone would (assuming near full employment) more than pay for Obama's spending binge.
You worried about collecting social security when you're older? Well, if people were allowed to get to work earlier instead of rotting in a mandatory "Global-Warming and Why Bush is Hitler Sociology' class, the tax revenues might be there to actually shore up the SS fund.
And, of course, lest we forget, how about all the extra money those students make for themselves (assuming we don't tax them to death) with that extra 4-5 years income? Let alone less student loan debt they might have. Less debt and an extra 4-5 years of income, who knows, all those Gen-X'ers and Gen Y'ers could have actually AFFORDED the houses they tried to buy 3 years ago.
In short you would have a HUGE increase in generational production, GDP, tax revenues and wealth and the country would be immeasurably off.
But of course, there is one thing standing in the way of this;
Big Education.
For you see, such a streamlined educational system would mean a LOT less money for that industry, and no matter how noble and how prosperous a faster, more focused educational system would be for this nation, society must suffer a lower standard of living so we can employ some more theater professors and German teachers.
Enjoy Freshman Comp!
I read this on Mish's blog and it got me thinking, "Dude, you're practically middle age by the time you get your doctorate and are ready to go into the labor force."
And then it got me further thinking as to just how much time we waste when we education our children and college students and how we could considerably shorten the time it takes to bring a kid from kindergarten to an employable adult.
First off a sheer improvement in efficiency by eliminating bad students that do nothing but distract those students with potential would certainly allow a teacher to cover an insanely higher amount of ground and impart an insanely higher amount of education. Along the same line would be getting parents to be real parents and force their students to study, to do well, and to do their homework.
Since both are politically incorrect because we champion losers in this country as well as it is a sin to accuse bad parents of...well...being bad parents, we have to focus on things that don't hurt people's feelings, especially morons at the expense of our future labor force.
This changes the focus to what I believe to be the inordinate amount of worthless "pre-requisite" classes that we force students to take to (put it simply) employ people who would otherwise be unemployable.
Why do we have phy ed?
Why do we mandate students take high school psychology?
How many of you took years of foreign language and never used it to this day?
It is these classes that need to be eliminated at the K-12 education level. They serve no purpose in training children into future workers, but they do employ a lot of people who wouldn't otherwise have jobs in the real world.
Then there is lord knows how much spent on "extra-curricular" activities that serve no purpose in helping a kid's future.
Admittedly, I teach dance. But this is recreational and for adults who have since graduated and are presumably in the working world. They have no illusions about going out and competing professionally. It is a veritable recreation. But I don't know how many women I've ran into who I could tell had previous dance experience. And when I asked them,
"Have you danced before?"
They invariably say,
"Yes, tap, jazz and ballet when I was a child."
"So are you a professional ballet dancer now?"
"Oh, no! *giggle*"
Well how much time, labor, effort, money and taxpayer cash was used teaching kids a dance they will never use? Line dance? Jazz? Ballet?
Music is the same way. Along the same line of sports (as well as I presume ballet), what percentage of students that take music and are in high school band go on to make careers in music? Less than 1% I presume. And this speaks nothing to the psychotic parents that (like my own) force their children at the insanely young age of 3 to take piano or violin or tennis.
Now these are all topics or hobbies kids pursue as kids during their k-12 days. However, when they graduate onto college, the pointless "jumping through hoops" classes do not relent.
Freshman composition is the perfect example.
I don't care how bad people's writing is. If it doesn't cut it, it doesn't cut it. But no matter if you had straight A's through k-12 in English, you still need to take this class. Why? Because a bunch of English majors in COLLEGE need a job.
But forget English, the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota require you not only take 3 years of a foreign language, but that you PASS A TEST before you can get your degree. I pissed away 2 years of college German that could have been spent on economics and finance which would have made me an even BETTER economist (if you can imagine that). Regardless, this is not for the students' benefit, this is to employ a bunch of people who majored in a foreign language and can't find a job at the UN.
Business school is just as guilty as any other college.
Why, if you are majoring in accounting, do you need to take HR or marketing? Again, it is not to make you "well-rounded" it's to employ otherwise unemployable "doctorates" in marketing.
And though I did not attend engineering school, there is no doubt a plethora of worthless and pointless pre-requisites in the arts and humanities you must have suffered that only postponed your graduation by a full year.
Now you may be asking "Captain, why are you so hard on people? Why can't you just let people enjoy life a little bit? Life is not all about math and science and engineering and economics."
You're right, that's what you do on your free time. But when you go to school, let us not kid ourselves, it's not for entertainment. It's to train you for a real job in the real world. It's to give you the skills so that you may work up enough money in a successful career so that you may afford pursue your hobbies in the future. Arguing otherwise is putting the cart before the horse, and no doubt you wish to make a living out of your hobby which is almost a guaranteed way to become a rent-seeker.
But there is a larger consequence, or perhaps "opportunity cost" for being so lackadaisical in the education and training of our future labor, and that is foregone production.
Consider this - it is in my estimation that a full 3 years could be cut out from the K-12 education by simply eliminating the worthless classes and activities as well as forcing our students to work harder. I also believe that if you get rid of all of fluff and forced-pre-requisite classes at the college level, you could scale an engineering degree down to 3 years and a liberal arts degree to 3 months (just kidding!). I also believe most masters degrees could be done in 4 years and doctorates (unless in a REALLY advanced field) could be done in 6. And in focusing our efforts on studying as well as eliminating the unnecessary classes, you could have online fully trained and qualified, labor ready to go to work.
Bringing this labor online 4-5 years ahead of schedule and you have some amazing benefits.
Most notably 4-5 years of additional production per graduating class. This alone would (assuming near full employment) more than pay for Obama's spending binge.
You worried about collecting social security when you're older? Well, if people were allowed to get to work earlier instead of rotting in a mandatory "Global-Warming and Why Bush is Hitler Sociology' class, the tax revenues might be there to actually shore up the SS fund.
And, of course, lest we forget, how about all the extra money those students make for themselves (assuming we don't tax them to death) with that extra 4-5 years income? Let alone less student loan debt they might have. Less debt and an extra 4-5 years of income, who knows, all those Gen-X'ers and Gen Y'ers could have actually AFFORDED the houses they tried to buy 3 years ago.
In short you would have a HUGE increase in generational production, GDP, tax revenues and wealth and the country would be immeasurably off.
But of course, there is one thing standing in the way of this;
Big Education.
For you see, such a streamlined educational system would mean a LOT less money for that industry, and no matter how noble and how prosperous a faster, more focused educational system would be for this nation, society must suffer a lower standard of living so we can employ some more theater professors and German teachers.
Enjoy Freshman Comp!
The End Game of Leftist Policies
This is what happens when leftist policies are enacted. This is not hyperbole, nor rhetoric. This is just the truth.
The simple reason why is that you destroy any incentive to work. You do not promote nor protect the productive people. You punish investment and profit. And all you are left with are the degenerates of society living off of government hand outs TO THE POINT THAT LAND HAS A NEGATIVE VALUE.
The simple reason why is that you destroy any incentive to work. You do not promote nor protect the productive people. You punish investment and profit. And all you are left with are the degenerates of society living off of government hand outs TO THE POINT THAT LAND HAS A NEGATIVE VALUE.
Pig Flu Ala Charts
I like charts. Charts make things simple and provide relativity. From Herr Mueller.
OMG! AN EPIDEMIC!!!! RUN FOR THE HILLS!!!! SAVE YOURSELF!!!!!!
OMG! AN EPIDEMIC!!!! RUN FOR THE HILLS!!!! SAVE YOURSELF!!!!!!
Monday, October 26, 2009
Recession Medicine - Hogan's Heroes
Hogan's Heroes is hands down the best show ever made. Certainly will get you out of those recessionary blues (of which you shouldn't have because you don't really control this economy anyway). Here is an episode that is bound to make your day go better.
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