When we last left our hero he was trying to demonstrate how facial cosmetics might possibly be applied to a pig with some positive effect. In the first episode, he suggested that handing taxpayer money back to taxpayers hoping they will go to a movie and order butter with their popcorn was an even worse idea than passing a stimulus bill at all.
Instead, since the stimulus package is a fait accompli, he suggested the money be handed to the pirates and brigands that are Corporate America with instructions to use it to supplement their own investment in an industry dedicated to economically extracting our natural resources in a responsible and environmentally friendly manner.
This will come with the warning… scratch that… the genuine and very legitimate threat of violent penance should they cheat or cut corners. He also knows he is dreaming about all of this, but so is DC so, so what?
But it takes more than mining, farming and chopping down trees.
Assuming the money keeps flowing out of Washington like water from Meribah, it should continue to help build processing plants that turn natural resources into primary products. These raw materials and parts will then be used to manufacture finished goods and machinery. Domestic and foreign consumption are certain to follow.
New jobs will be created in construction, first for the industrial complexes themselves followed by housing, retail and schools for the people they will employ and their families. Transportation, research and development and even jobs that can’t be described because they will be the result of innovative technologies not yet even created!
Pie in the sky predictions from some nutcase with his head in the clouds?
Maybe. But in their own way, this is precisely what the president and Congress are telling you right now about a stimulus bill, now passed, that for most Americans will result in a few bucks more in their paycheck (and will be lost later) that they will run out to the mall to buy an iPod with.
My suggestion, that is to say using taxpayer dollars to bring manufacturing back to this country, could work. What the President and his pals are doing though, will not work. I have no doubt they will claim it worked regardless of the outcome, but it won't work.
I’ve been reading the actual bill that was passed. Next time I’ll tell you some things your stimulus dollars are going to that are not making the news. (Example: Over $3 billion for rural sewer systems.)
Monday, February 23, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Economic Vanity
As I have said here before, the Economic Stimulus Package cannot work because it is nothing more than handing taxpayer dollars back to the taxpayers with instructions to spend them on frivolous goods and services.
It is the economic equivalent of vanity.
The bill will briefly stimulate local economies but this effect is sustainable only as long as stimulus dollars are available to spend. It will not typically result in new jobs, and will only temporarily stave off the loss of existing ones. Indeed, it may not even do that.
At the end of this Yellow Brick Road, the only economies that may possibly be stimulated are those belonging to the countries that supply us with television sets and iPhones.
There is a way it could work, but it may violate antitrust laws.
An article that I wrote and never posted referred to economies as quasi-living machines lacking any sort of conscience and caring about nothing. The one absolute and constant reality of any economy is that in the beginning, as surely as God created the Heavens and the Earth, economies require something to be created from nothing.
This of course is impossible.
Unless it was created a long time ago and we pull it out of the ground now.
We have become so used to a service economy that we have forgotten that it is possible to use raw materials. We still have them, but by and large it became too expensive to extract them, either because of labor expenses or the cost of mining in a way that is environmentally acceptable.
Enter the Stimulus Package, the Magic Money, and the BailOutBucks. Whatever we call them, they are perfect for going back to the dirt under our feet and pulling things we can use out of it.
Instead of giving all this cash to ordinary people who will typically squander it even without instructions to do so, give it to the big, evil corporate entities with strict instructions that this is to alleviate the costs of once again producing raw materials and selling them to manufacturers.
If they cheat, then they get to build the brick walls they will stand in front of in their corporate board rooms as the firing squads are led in.
You seem to think I’m kidding.
America was built on the land with materials pulled from the land. Stimulus dollars could effectively allow us to rebuild America, but like it or not, we need Corporate America to do it.
Otherwise, we will just watch more TV.
It is the economic equivalent of vanity.
The bill will briefly stimulate local economies but this effect is sustainable only as long as stimulus dollars are available to spend. It will not typically result in new jobs, and will only temporarily stave off the loss of existing ones. Indeed, it may not even do that.
At the end of this Yellow Brick Road, the only economies that may possibly be stimulated are those belonging to the countries that supply us with television sets and iPhones.
There is a way it could work, but it may violate antitrust laws.
An article that I wrote and never posted referred to economies as quasi-living machines lacking any sort of conscience and caring about nothing. The one absolute and constant reality of any economy is that in the beginning, as surely as God created the Heavens and the Earth, economies require something to be created from nothing.
This of course is impossible.
Unless it was created a long time ago and we pull it out of the ground now.
We have become so used to a service economy that we have forgotten that it is possible to use raw materials. We still have them, but by and large it became too expensive to extract them, either because of labor expenses or the cost of mining in a way that is environmentally acceptable.
Enter the Stimulus Package, the Magic Money, and the BailOutBucks. Whatever we call them, they are perfect for going back to the dirt under our feet and pulling things we can use out of it.
Instead of giving all this cash to ordinary people who will typically squander it even without instructions to do so, give it to the big, evil corporate entities with strict instructions that this is to alleviate the costs of once again producing raw materials and selling them to manufacturers.
If they cheat, then they get to build the brick walls they will stand in front of in their corporate board rooms as the firing squads are led in.
You seem to think I’m kidding.
America was built on the land with materials pulled from the land. Stimulus dollars could effectively allow us to rebuild America, but like it or not, we need Corporate America to do it.
Otherwise, we will just watch more TV.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Do you really want this budget deal?
It will result in a $14 billion tax increase.
It will result in $15 billion in spending cuts.
It will result in $11 billion in borrowing.
It will waive environmental rules to speed up works projects.
It will provide tax credits to small businesses and tax reductions to Hollywood.
The voters will have to approve five separate measures in May.
Borrowing money from mental health funds.
Borrowing money from children’s health programs.
Changing the way the lottery works.
Changing the way we handle school financing.
Creating a spending cap.
It could change but this is essentially it as of now.
I am inviting replies, and I promise not to respond (by this, I mean argue with you) unless you ask me to answer a specific question.
It will result in $15 billion in spending cuts.
It will result in $11 billion in borrowing.
It will waive environmental rules to speed up works projects.
It will provide tax credits to small businesses and tax reductions to Hollywood.
The voters will have to approve five separate measures in May.
Borrowing money from mental health funds.
Borrowing money from children’s health programs.
Changing the way the lottery works.
Changing the way we handle school financing.
Creating a spending cap.
It could change but this is essentially it as of now.
I am inviting replies, and I promise not to respond (by this, I mean argue with you) unless you ask me to answer a specific question.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Sunday Musings
When did we become mean and why are we so frightened?
I realize that blogs and comments on articles are hardly scientific. But it isn’t just blogs and comments. I hear it from real people. They are frightened, and frankly, sometimes they are mean.
I have listened to otherwise very nice people tell me that they think if an illegal alien comes into an emergency room, that they should not be treated. In effect, they believe we should let them die if it comes to that.
Let them die. Is that what we do in America? Do we just let people die?
I read about a drunk driver killing an innocent, and it turns out he’s here illegally. The focus of the story becomes his illegal alien status when the problem in this case is drunken driving, not illegal aliens. The vast majority of drunk drivers who kill and maim innocent people are here quite legally.
Some say that the children of illegal aliens, whom I suppose most are illegal also, should be denied an education.
Is that what we do in America? Deny children an education because we don’t like their parents?
I wonder if other countries are so fixated on illegal immigration. I’ve done some basic research, more in the way of just glancing around. By and large, it would appear that most countries have illegals.
They don’t start printing everything in two languages. They don’t speak multiple languages in the classroom and they certainly don’t debate the idea of issuing drivers licenses or anything else that might somehow lend legitimacy their residency.
Nor do they label them all potential terrorists or drug dealers. They don’t make them into villains. They simply recognize them for what they are, and when they come across them, they are detained and deported.
There is nothing mean about it. There is no real fear displayed. They just deal with it.
Deal with it. Isn’t that what America used to be famous for? Dealing with the problem?
Any police officer should be able to detain someone for unlawful entry or for overstaying their visa.
Emergency room doctors are required to report all sorts of suspicions already. They can treat someone and also call Immigration.
If a child meets the address requirements for a school district, then they should enroll him or her. If they have reason to believe the child is here illegally, then they can report it.
And regarding each of my admittedly oversimplified solutions, they could all be appended with “or not”. We expect professionals to make on the spot decisions all the time and if they choose not to pursue their suspicions about someone’s status, we can just assume they have their reasons.
However you might describe the current state of affairs, we are not dealing with the problem.
We need to start.
I realize that blogs and comments on articles are hardly scientific. But it isn’t just blogs and comments. I hear it from real people. They are frightened, and frankly, sometimes they are mean.
I have listened to otherwise very nice people tell me that they think if an illegal alien comes into an emergency room, that they should not be treated. In effect, they believe we should let them die if it comes to that.
Let them die. Is that what we do in America? Do we just let people die?
I read about a drunk driver killing an innocent, and it turns out he’s here illegally. The focus of the story becomes his illegal alien status when the problem in this case is drunken driving, not illegal aliens. The vast majority of drunk drivers who kill and maim innocent people are here quite legally.
Some say that the children of illegal aliens, whom I suppose most are illegal also, should be denied an education.
Is that what we do in America? Deny children an education because we don’t like their parents?
I wonder if other countries are so fixated on illegal immigration. I’ve done some basic research, more in the way of just glancing around. By and large, it would appear that most countries have illegals.
They don’t start printing everything in two languages. They don’t speak multiple languages in the classroom and they certainly don’t debate the idea of issuing drivers licenses or anything else that might somehow lend legitimacy their residency.
Nor do they label them all potential terrorists or drug dealers. They don’t make them into villains. They simply recognize them for what they are, and when they come across them, they are detained and deported.
There is nothing mean about it. There is no real fear displayed. They just deal with it.
Deal with it. Isn’t that what America used to be famous for? Dealing with the problem?
Any police officer should be able to detain someone for unlawful entry or for overstaying their visa.
Emergency room doctors are required to report all sorts of suspicions already. They can treat someone and also call Immigration.
If a child meets the address requirements for a school district, then they should enroll him or her. If they have reason to believe the child is here illegally, then they can report it.
And regarding each of my admittedly oversimplified solutions, they could all be appended with “or not”. We expect professionals to make on the spot decisions all the time and if they choose not to pursue their suspicions about someone’s status, we can just assume they have their reasons.
However you might describe the current state of affairs, we are not dealing with the problem.
We need to start.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Happy Saint Valentine's Day!
My father was pretty predictable in some ways. For example, if I felt like an argument, all I really needed to do was walk into the room and say something like “Ronald Reagan being elected president was the worst thing that ever happened to this country.”
Sometimes he was really depressed, so I would venture that Richard Nixon was not only a crook and a liar, but that also he looked funny and probably smelled bad. It never failed to lift him out of his depression and sally forth against this pinko-liberal offspring that his wife insisted belonged to him.
And on Valentine’s Day, he would invariably look through the little school valentines and read them out loud: “Be my one true love…signed JOE!” Or “Steve” or whatever.
There were plenty of Nancys, Janes, and Marys as well, but he didn’t pay attention to them.
He believed that the boys should give valentines to the girls, and girls should give valentines to the boys. Frankly, that makes more sense to me too. But of course, popularity is one of those natural concepts that schools and other governmental entities are always trying to fool with, and the result though well-meant ends up being silly.
Some kids are liked more than others. Without any regulation of such practices, some kids will get a boatload of valentines and others won’t get any. Ergo, every kid in the classroom gives every other kid in the classroom a valentine.
Now I see, in my youngest son’s school district anyway, that they don’t exchange valentines at all because it is disruptive and has nothing to do with providing a well-rounded education. I can say this with authority because the school sent a letter home telling me so. It certainly stops people like my dad from having all sorts of sarcastic fun.
Happy Saint Valentine’s Day, and Joe, wherever you are, I can only hope you got over me.
Sometimes he was really depressed, so I would venture that Richard Nixon was not only a crook and a liar, but that also he looked funny and probably smelled bad. It never failed to lift him out of his depression and sally forth against this pinko-liberal offspring that his wife insisted belonged to him.
And on Valentine’s Day, he would invariably look through the little school valentines and read them out loud: “Be my one true love…signed JOE!” Or “Steve” or whatever.
There were plenty of Nancys, Janes, and Marys as well, but he didn’t pay attention to them.
He believed that the boys should give valentines to the girls, and girls should give valentines to the boys. Frankly, that makes more sense to me too. But of course, popularity is one of those natural concepts that schools and other governmental entities are always trying to fool with, and the result though well-meant ends up being silly.
Some kids are liked more than others. Without any regulation of such practices, some kids will get a boatload of valentines and others won’t get any. Ergo, every kid in the classroom gives every other kid in the classroom a valentine.
Now I see, in my youngest son’s school district anyway, that they don’t exchange valentines at all because it is disruptive and has nothing to do with providing a well-rounded education. I can say this with authority because the school sent a letter home telling me so. It certainly stops people like my dad from having all sorts of sarcastic fun.
Happy Saint Valentine’s Day, and Joe, wherever you are, I can only hope you got over me.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Triskaidekaphobia
I’ve never been superstitious. Knock wood on that!
Actually, I have one superstition. I don’t know if it is a Scottish thing, or just a family thing, but I am very superstitious about trimming photographs. The less rational part of me becomes very uneasy whenever it occurs.
This became apparent to my wife not long after the wedding. Prior to marriage, we discussed career plans, children, finances and what habits one of us (me) would give up.
Curiously, the subject of trimming photographs never came up in conversation.
One fine Saturday about a month after the wedding, she proudly hands me an album. My interest was feigned at first as I took it but upon opening it became quite genuine.
OMG as the young texters write, You Cut Pictures!
She had trimmed pictures here and there, in order to get them to fit on the pages. I’m having trouble writing this even now.
I suddenly felt the need to sit down, although I don’t believe I actually lost consciousness. My wife in the meantime was quite worried, wondering if her new husband was about to expire permanently. I know I was sweating and I’ll wager I had turned snow-white. This was bad. This was real bad. This was The Titanic Has Hit An Iceberg Bad!
A few moments later, I had recovered enough to explain to her why I became so upset, and then like a gentle missionary speaking to some savage group of headhunters on a distant island, I told her with as much gravity that I could possibly muster about her injudicious folly and gave her dire warnings about never doing it again.
She said, “That’s silly”.
That’s silly? That’s silly?
Good heavens! The headhunters have rejected the missionary and are rubbing oil and spices all over him! They can’t understand the horrible path they have chosen! She is the love of my life and I can’t save her!
But I continued to try to get her to see the error of her ways and finally she turns and says “School Photos”.
I swallowed hard. I knew where this was going.
She said “the wallet sized photos all come on one sheet. Your parents had to trim them.”
I said nothing, and refrained from thinking about at least fifteen years of school photos, six to a sheet and quite intact, in the envelope they came in, in a case in my parents closet.
But she figured it out.
“Your parents never cut them up and put them in wallets?”
I stayed silent.
“Why did you think they sold wallet sized pictures?”
I didn’t answer, and had never really given it much thought, but thinking about it now, I guess I figured it was just a way of making money. Anyway, most of the pictures were awful. Who wants to see a nine-year-old with a forced smile and so much Butch Wax in his hair he looks like the progenitor of Jimmy Neutron?
With time our marriage re-stabilized, and while I suspect my wife still cuts photographs to this very day, she must do it when I’m not around. I rarely open albums though.
Happy Friday the 13th!
Actually, I have one superstition. I don’t know if it is a Scottish thing, or just a family thing, but I am very superstitious about trimming photographs. The less rational part of me becomes very uneasy whenever it occurs.
This became apparent to my wife not long after the wedding. Prior to marriage, we discussed career plans, children, finances and what habits one of us (me) would give up.
Curiously, the subject of trimming photographs never came up in conversation.
One fine Saturday about a month after the wedding, she proudly hands me an album. My interest was feigned at first as I took it but upon opening it became quite genuine.
OMG as the young texters write, You Cut Pictures!
She had trimmed pictures here and there, in order to get them to fit on the pages. I’m having trouble writing this even now.
I suddenly felt the need to sit down, although I don’t believe I actually lost consciousness. My wife in the meantime was quite worried, wondering if her new husband was about to expire permanently. I know I was sweating and I’ll wager I had turned snow-white. This was bad. This was real bad. This was The Titanic Has Hit An Iceberg Bad!
A few moments later, I had recovered enough to explain to her why I became so upset, and then like a gentle missionary speaking to some savage group of headhunters on a distant island, I told her with as much gravity that I could possibly muster about her injudicious folly and gave her dire warnings about never doing it again.
She said, “That’s silly”.
That’s silly? That’s silly?
Good heavens! The headhunters have rejected the missionary and are rubbing oil and spices all over him! They can’t understand the horrible path they have chosen! She is the love of my life and I can’t save her!
But I continued to try to get her to see the error of her ways and finally she turns and says “School Photos”.
I swallowed hard. I knew where this was going.
She said “the wallet sized photos all come on one sheet. Your parents had to trim them.”
I said nothing, and refrained from thinking about at least fifteen years of school photos, six to a sheet and quite intact, in the envelope they came in, in a case in my parents closet.
But she figured it out.
“Your parents never cut them up and put them in wallets?”
I stayed silent.
“Why did you think they sold wallet sized pictures?”
I didn’t answer, and had never really given it much thought, but thinking about it now, I guess I figured it was just a way of making money. Anyway, most of the pictures were awful. Who wants to see a nine-year-old with a forced smile and so much Butch Wax in his hair he looks like the progenitor of Jimmy Neutron?
With time our marriage re-stabilized, and while I suspect my wife still cuts photographs to this very day, she must do it when I’m not around. I rarely open albums though.
Happy Friday the 13th!
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
An operating automobile being necessary the security of a person’s job, the right of the people to have and use automobiles, shall not be infringed.
A functioning Nordic Track possibly being necessary to the reduction of a prominent waste line, the right of the people to purchase expensive exercise equipment and then hang laundry on it, shall not be infringed.
I received an email from someone asking my position on gun control since I had skipped over that one in my position statement the other day. I replied that in my opinion, people should keep very careful control over their guns. Furthermore, if they want to wear short-sleeved shirts, that is their business!
Furthermore, if they want to wear short-sleeved shirts, that is their business!!
Furthermore, if they want to wear short-sleeved shirts, that is their business!!!!!
You know!! Keep and “bear” arms….bear or bare arms as in not clothed…
Oh, never mind.
I absolutely believe that Americans have the right to arm themselves to the teeth if they want to and the second amendment to the US Constitution says it right there, plain as day. I don’t see what the controversy is. The other two versions I created clearly show that you can still buy cars and Nordic Tracks and use them pretty much anyway you want to. Frankly, we should keep better control of our automobiles and Nordic Tracks should be outlawed altogether.
The FOUNDING FATHERS gave the reason for the right to have assault rifles, but they clearly did not make the reason a requirement.
They did not make the reason a requirement.
I can have guns without belonging to a militia just as I can have a car and use it to go see Neal Diamond live at ARCO Arena. I can make payments of $59.95 every month for thirty-six months while I hang my shirts for work on my Nordic Track.
Does that make sense?
For the record, I don’t have any guns and this former Marine, if he had a magic wand, would wave it and make all of them disappear. Guns may not kill people, but people kill other people a lot more efficiently with guns.
But there are no magic wands, so there you go.
Just watch where you point that thing!
An operating automobile being necessary the security of a person’s job, the right of the people to have and use automobiles, shall not be infringed.
A functioning Nordic Track possibly being necessary to the reduction of a prominent waste line, the right of the people to purchase expensive exercise equipment and then hang laundry on it, shall not be infringed.
I received an email from someone asking my position on gun control since I had skipped over that one in my position statement the other day. I replied that in my opinion, people should keep very careful control over their guns. Furthermore, if they want to wear short-sleeved shirts, that is their business!
Furthermore, if they want to wear short-sleeved shirts, that is their business!!
Furthermore, if they want to wear short-sleeved shirts, that is their business!!!!!
You know!! Keep and “bear” arms….bear or bare arms as in not clothed…
Oh, never mind.
I absolutely believe that Americans have the right to arm themselves to the teeth if they want to and the second amendment to the US Constitution says it right there, plain as day. I don’t see what the controversy is. The other two versions I created clearly show that you can still buy cars and Nordic Tracks and use them pretty much anyway you want to. Frankly, we should keep better control of our automobiles and Nordic Tracks should be outlawed altogether.
The FOUNDING FATHERS gave the reason for the right to have assault rifles, but they clearly did not make the reason a requirement.
They did not make the reason a requirement.
I can have guns without belonging to a militia just as I can have a car and use it to go see Neal Diamond live at ARCO Arena. I can make payments of $59.95 every month for thirty-six months while I hang my shirts for work on my Nordic Track.
Does that make sense?
For the record, I don’t have any guns and this former Marine, if he had a magic wand, would wave it and make all of them disappear. Guns may not kill people, but people kill other people a lot more efficiently with guns.
But there are no magic wands, so there you go.
Just watch where you point that thing!
Perhaps the United States is relevant after all.
Actually, I always thought it was, but since the recession was announced and progressed into what is now called The Cavalcade of Trillions* the rest of the world, who over the last couple of years has suggested that the United States was no longer relevant vis-à-vis international affairs, seems to be thinking differently.
The alphabet soup of European market exchanges fell, as did those in Asia. And of course, Wall Street itself, but hey, we’re getting used to it. It would seem that even today, when the United States catches cold the rest of the world contracts pneumonia. So much for irrelevant notions of irrelevancy.
Could it be that these other countries don’t think our new president, whom I like very much and agree with about almost nothing, is up to the job? Or, it could be that they have realized their level of self-deception based on jealousy and the popularity of US-bashing in general has blinded them to the realities underscoring just how important the US really is to the rest of the planet? Maybe they are just a bunch of whiny schmucks who are just like the home-grown variety, the only differences being language and stylish clothing.
Personally, I think it is ignorance and arrogance. They think that we will ultimately solve our problems the same way they would and do solve theirs. They assume the banks will be nationalized. They think this because in their minds, government is always the solution. Ultimately, so goes the belief, the only entity with the resources to solve big problems is THE GOVERNMENT. Funny, but didn’t I hear President Obama say that yesterday?
I would point out that “government resource” translates into “taxpayer dollar”, and that every one of those dollars comes from you and me. Oh, but wait. There will be prodigious borrowing as well and since we Americans are so bloody unstable the cost will be high. The taxpayers providing those resources are currently attending the second grade. Teach them proper manners so they will be sure to thank you for the debt you plan to let them inherit.
Could the banks be nationalized? The answer is yes, under US law it could happen, but it requires they be in receivership or in serious danger of failing. Generally speaking they just get swallowed up by another bank and six months after all the jocular “business as usual” statements from the two CEOs standing next to each other “like an old married couple”, the CEO of Loserville Bank bails out with his golden parachute and most of the employees that worked for him start looking for boiled shoe recipes.
As I write this, the $700 billion last year is turning into reliable projections of $2 Trillion.
Let the rest of the World worry about our troubles as much as they want. It proves what we’ve always known. The US is just as relevant as it ever was and will continue to be so for some time to come.
*I made that up but it is a cool name.
The alphabet soup of European market exchanges fell, as did those in Asia. And of course, Wall Street itself, but hey, we’re getting used to it. It would seem that even today, when the United States catches cold the rest of the world contracts pneumonia. So much for irrelevant notions of irrelevancy.
Could it be that these other countries don’t think our new president, whom I like very much and agree with about almost nothing, is up to the job? Or, it could be that they have realized their level of self-deception based on jealousy and the popularity of US-bashing in general has blinded them to the realities underscoring just how important the US really is to the rest of the planet? Maybe they are just a bunch of whiny schmucks who are just like the home-grown variety, the only differences being language and stylish clothing.
Personally, I think it is ignorance and arrogance. They think that we will ultimately solve our problems the same way they would and do solve theirs. They assume the banks will be nationalized. They think this because in their minds, government is always the solution. Ultimately, so goes the belief, the only entity with the resources to solve big problems is THE GOVERNMENT. Funny, but didn’t I hear President Obama say that yesterday?
I would point out that “government resource” translates into “taxpayer dollar”, and that every one of those dollars comes from you and me. Oh, but wait. There will be prodigious borrowing as well and since we Americans are so bloody unstable the cost will be high. The taxpayers providing those resources are currently attending the second grade. Teach them proper manners so they will be sure to thank you for the debt you plan to let them inherit.
Could the banks be nationalized? The answer is yes, under US law it could happen, but it requires they be in receivership or in serious danger of failing. Generally speaking they just get swallowed up by another bank and six months after all the jocular “business as usual” statements from the two CEOs standing next to each other “like an old married couple”, the CEO of Loserville Bank bails out with his golden parachute and most of the employees that worked for him start looking for boiled shoe recipes.
As I write this, the $700 billion last year is turning into reliable projections of $2 Trillion.
Let the rest of the World worry about our troubles as much as they want. It proves what we’ve always known. The US is just as relevant as it ever was and will continue to be so for some time to come.
*I made that up but it is a cool name.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
I really like our new president.
Really, I do. But I find I need to keep reminding myself of it. Of course, I like the girl that sells me bagels at Raley’s too, but I wouldn’t have voted for her either had she been running. But then, I actually saw her out running one evening in what appeared to be the amalgamation of a bikini top and track shorts. Maybe I would vote for her. I’ll also wager she doesn’t eat a lot of bagels.
Suffice it to say that every time President Obama opens his mouth I keep looking at the note I wrote in the palm of my hand that says I will give the man one hundred days before I start pounding on his every thought, word, deed or policy.
And I will.
Probably.
In the mean time, someone sent me an email asking what I am. After some email banter, I came to understand that he wanted a position statement from me. In addition to making me feel terribly important, this gave me something to write about this morning.
Metaphorically, if politics were a college, I would major in conservatism and minor in libertarianism. The libertarian in me is more like a stain that won’t wash off. (How often do you find nested metaphors in a blog?) Frankly, I find them to be just a bit too socially Darwinist for my taste.
Bruce on Marriage:
I firmly believe that the ideal family model is one man traditionally married to one woman, both completely devoted to the best interests of each other and to those of their children. Now you can’t get much more conservative than that, can you? Actually, you can but we won’t go there.
But the libertarian stain on my collar won’t leave it at that. Libertarian Bruce demands to know why the majority, in the guise of The Government, thinks it can tell people that just because an arrangement is not ideal, they are not allowed to participate in the process at all.
Curiously, the same crowd that insists on coed wedding cakes frequently decries liberal notions of idealism when some pinko city councilperson decides the people in his or her district are too damned fat and pushes laws restricting business licenses for fast food outlets.
Bruce on taxes:
I am not against taxes, nor am I against tax increases. I am fully aware of the need for taxation and the benefits they provide to me as a citizen. Wow, I wish I had Mao’s little red book to wave around right now!
I am against waste, and raising taxes to compensate for it is abhorrent to me as a conservative. I think people should take responsibility for themselves and for their lives and stop waiting for The Government to come to their recue. Libertarian Bruce says to hell with government. Dump the whole thing and save all kinds of money. Now all I need is a farm, some barbed wire and a cache of military surplus supplies and weapons.
I suppose at this point I need to say that in my metaphor there is also room for a few electives to round out the degree and they are classically liberal. Thinking about those, I have to accept that some people need more help than others and that the people, in the form of The Government, will benefit as a society by helping them to develop and should be willing to invest in their potential.
Bruce on the death penalty:
I’m against the death penalty in principle, although I find myself making exceptions. You will never see me standing outside San Quentin holding a sign because I couldn’t care less about people on death row. I have no doubt they deserve it, I just don’t think we have the right to kill them. That said, I have no trouble with the idea of prison cells taking the form of pits with a grating over them.
Bruce on abortion:
I am most definitely prolife. That said, I wouldn’t outlaw choice because I remember when women and girls went to back-ally butchers and I won’t bring that back. I’ll just work on creating a world where people will always prefer to keep their babies. It is curious how my only truly moderate position leaves me with almost everyone mad at me.
Well, I’m rapidly approaching my self-allotted one thousand words. Hopefully this will give the two or three people reading this who actually care some insight into the guy who will probably be whining about the President for the next four or eight years.
I see he just announced at a news conference that The Government is now the economy’s only hope. Look at the hand Bruce, look at the hand.
Suffice it to say that every time President Obama opens his mouth I keep looking at the note I wrote in the palm of my hand that says I will give the man one hundred days before I start pounding on his every thought, word, deed or policy.
And I will.
Probably.
In the mean time, someone sent me an email asking what I am. After some email banter, I came to understand that he wanted a position statement from me. In addition to making me feel terribly important, this gave me something to write about this morning.
Metaphorically, if politics were a college, I would major in conservatism and minor in libertarianism. The libertarian in me is more like a stain that won’t wash off. (How often do you find nested metaphors in a blog?) Frankly, I find them to be just a bit too socially Darwinist for my taste.
Bruce on Marriage:
I firmly believe that the ideal family model is one man traditionally married to one woman, both completely devoted to the best interests of each other and to those of their children. Now you can’t get much more conservative than that, can you? Actually, you can but we won’t go there.
But the libertarian stain on my collar won’t leave it at that. Libertarian Bruce demands to know why the majority, in the guise of The Government, thinks it can tell people that just because an arrangement is not ideal, they are not allowed to participate in the process at all.
Curiously, the same crowd that insists on coed wedding cakes frequently decries liberal notions of idealism when some pinko city councilperson decides the people in his or her district are too damned fat and pushes laws restricting business licenses for fast food outlets.
Bruce on taxes:
I am not against taxes, nor am I against tax increases. I am fully aware of the need for taxation and the benefits they provide to me as a citizen. Wow, I wish I had Mao’s little red book to wave around right now!
I am against waste, and raising taxes to compensate for it is abhorrent to me as a conservative. I think people should take responsibility for themselves and for their lives and stop waiting for The Government to come to their recue. Libertarian Bruce says to hell with government. Dump the whole thing and save all kinds of money. Now all I need is a farm, some barbed wire and a cache of military surplus supplies and weapons.
I suppose at this point I need to say that in my metaphor there is also room for a few electives to round out the degree and they are classically liberal. Thinking about those, I have to accept that some people need more help than others and that the people, in the form of The Government, will benefit as a society by helping them to develop and should be willing to invest in their potential.
Bruce on the death penalty:
I’m against the death penalty in principle, although I find myself making exceptions. You will never see me standing outside San Quentin holding a sign because I couldn’t care less about people on death row. I have no doubt they deserve it, I just don’t think we have the right to kill them. That said, I have no trouble with the idea of prison cells taking the form of pits with a grating over them.
Bruce on abortion:
I am most definitely prolife. That said, I wouldn’t outlaw choice because I remember when women and girls went to back-ally butchers and I won’t bring that back. I’ll just work on creating a world where people will always prefer to keep their babies. It is curious how my only truly moderate position leaves me with almost everyone mad at me.
Well, I’m rapidly approaching my self-allotted one thousand words. Hopefully this will give the two or three people reading this who actually care some insight into the guy who will probably be whining about the President for the next four or eight years.
I see he just announced at a news conference that The Government is now the economy’s only hope. Look at the hand Bruce, look at the hand.
Monday, February 9, 2009
BailOutBucks
It is tough to compete with the taxpayers, but that is what banks that refused aid from the Troubled Asset Relief Program are doing. In saner times when banks went belly-up, fortunately a rare occurrence, other banks would buy them at bargain prices thus bringing their value back to reality and would then proceed to fix the things that were wrong with them in the first place. Or sell them off piece by piece. Usually a little bit of both.
Now however, using taxpayer dollars and a whole boatload of them at that, these banks are being kept alive in spite of their disastrous investment and lending decisions, usually with the same command structure at the helm. Perhaps minus a well compensated CEO, but hey! We’ve plugged up that leak, right? Don’t get me started…
It is rather like absolution without contrition. The worst offenders didn’t even have to admit they did anything wrong. They were “forced” to take the money, although I don’t recall any lawsuits being filed by them to stay DC’s order. Hmmm. And rather than offering prayers and dropping a ten-spot in the poor box, they are instead handed a big basket of cash and told to go out and sin no more. One major bank has been to the anti-confessional twice so far and it has only been six months since this all started.
While all this is going on, other better managed banks and credit unions are trying to compete in a tight market, only now we have the added burden of doing so against huge institutions that are very well funded with what will end up being almost unlimited taxpayer dollars. This was sold to us with the “To big to fail” tagline. Watch that morph into the “We’ve invested too much to stop now” mantra.
The biggest humbug of all is that so far it hasn’t even worked. Three of the biggest recipients are way down, one nearly eighty percent. This could be blamed on the economy, but when compared to the banks that didn’t take the BailOutBucks, we find that the economy seems to be hitting TARP-Takers much harder.
Things will take a while to play out, and who knows, maybe the geniuses in DC will be right in the end, but I doubt it. The biggest problem the Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen create whenever they get involved in any kind of enterprise is they turn it into a social experiment. I’m already hearing them say things like there being more important things than making profits for the shareholders. That is true in social settings, but not in for-profit businesses.
I’m beginning to think Fidel Castro actually died already and has been reincarnated in Washington.
Now however, using taxpayer dollars and a whole boatload of them at that, these banks are being kept alive in spite of their disastrous investment and lending decisions, usually with the same command structure at the helm. Perhaps minus a well compensated CEO, but hey! We’ve plugged up that leak, right? Don’t get me started…
It is rather like absolution without contrition. The worst offenders didn’t even have to admit they did anything wrong. They were “forced” to take the money, although I don’t recall any lawsuits being filed by them to stay DC’s order. Hmmm. And rather than offering prayers and dropping a ten-spot in the poor box, they are instead handed a big basket of cash and told to go out and sin no more. One major bank has been to the anti-confessional twice so far and it has only been six months since this all started.
While all this is going on, other better managed banks and credit unions are trying to compete in a tight market, only now we have the added burden of doing so against huge institutions that are very well funded with what will end up being almost unlimited taxpayer dollars. This was sold to us with the “To big to fail” tagline. Watch that morph into the “We’ve invested too much to stop now” mantra.
The biggest humbug of all is that so far it hasn’t even worked. Three of the biggest recipients are way down, one nearly eighty percent. This could be blamed on the economy, but when compared to the banks that didn’t take the BailOutBucks, we find that the economy seems to be hitting TARP-Takers much harder.
Things will take a while to play out, and who knows, maybe the geniuses in DC will be right in the end, but I doubt it. The biggest problem the Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen create whenever they get involved in any kind of enterprise is they turn it into a social experiment. I’m already hearing them say things like there being more important things than making profits for the shareholders. That is true in social settings, but not in for-profit businesses.
I’m beginning to think Fidel Castro actually died already and has been reincarnated in Washington.
Sunday Musings
It was not exactly the best job I ever had, but I think I was happier there a greater percentage of the time than in any other job before or since.
Those old enough to remember Woolworth’s five-and-dime stores may also recall that there were Woolworth’s Garden Centers. I worked in one for a number of years before running off to the Marine Corps, which was certainly a more satisfying vocation, but I was almost never happy there. This may in fact have been by design, but that is for another musing.
I knew nothing about plants or gardening when I was hired but the boss insisted that I carry around the Sunset Garden Book and that when asked questions, I refer to it before running off for help. I still ran off for help a lot, but before long I knew a lot about plants and gardening. I still do.
I loved the place so much because of the people who came in to shop there. Exceptions can always be found, but for the most part, our customers were in their own version of a hobby shop, and like any ten year old looking at a model of a P51, the fifty, sixty and seventy-something’s eyes would glow as they looked at a bare-root rose or a six-pack of strawberries.
It wasn’t all fun and games. When the forklift was offline, a common occurrence, we had to unload sacks of fertilizer by hand, tossing them to each other like a smelly bucket brigade. I’m convinced all the practice tossing steer manure around prepared me for a management position in financial services. The garden center was definitely a two-shower per day job.
Most jobs allow and even require some professional distance between the shopkeeper and the customer. Not so at the garden center. These folks were in our store living part of their own personal dream, and when things were good they would share their passion. When they were not so good their pain was evident, and quite real. They needed help and came to us for advice and a cure.
I guess people are a bit different when they are immersed in whatever gives them joy and satisfaction. Who knows but it was fun being around them and being part of it. I still get that kind of satisfaction now, because I do have the opportunity to help Members of my credit union to reach their goals and live their dreams. Unfortunately these days, most are just struggling to get by.
I never did get the hang of that professional distance thing. I’ll be glad when things turn around and pick up again. I like the joy in their eyes and haven’t seen as much of it lately.
Those old enough to remember Woolworth’s five-and-dime stores may also recall that there were Woolworth’s Garden Centers. I worked in one for a number of years before running off to the Marine Corps, which was certainly a more satisfying vocation, but I was almost never happy there. This may in fact have been by design, but that is for another musing.
I knew nothing about plants or gardening when I was hired but the boss insisted that I carry around the Sunset Garden Book and that when asked questions, I refer to it before running off for help. I still ran off for help a lot, but before long I knew a lot about plants and gardening. I still do.
I loved the place so much because of the people who came in to shop there. Exceptions can always be found, but for the most part, our customers were in their own version of a hobby shop, and like any ten year old looking at a model of a P51, the fifty, sixty and seventy-something’s eyes would glow as they looked at a bare-root rose or a six-pack of strawberries.
It wasn’t all fun and games. When the forklift was offline, a common occurrence, we had to unload sacks of fertilizer by hand, tossing them to each other like a smelly bucket brigade. I’m convinced all the practice tossing steer manure around prepared me for a management position in financial services. The garden center was definitely a two-shower per day job.
Most jobs allow and even require some professional distance between the shopkeeper and the customer. Not so at the garden center. These folks were in our store living part of their own personal dream, and when things were good they would share their passion. When they were not so good their pain was evident, and quite real. They needed help and came to us for advice and a cure.
I guess people are a bit different when they are immersed in whatever gives them joy and satisfaction. Who knows but it was fun being around them and being part of it. I still get that kind of satisfaction now, because I do have the opportunity to help Members of my credit union to reach their goals and live their dreams. Unfortunately these days, most are just struggling to get by.
I never did get the hang of that professional distance thing. I’ll be glad when things turn around and pick up again. I like the joy in their eyes and haven’t seen as much of it lately.
I don’t think state workers are all that upset
Yes, the furloughs have resulted in a 9.2 percent pay cut. I realize that. I know! But it isn’t really a pay cut. Out here in the real world, a pay cut goes more like this:
Boss: Hi Joe! We’re cutting your pay by 9.2%! Now go back to work!
Joe: Wow, so I have to take two Fridays off each month?
Boss: Ha ha! No Joe, you’ll still work full time. But now you will do it for less money!
Joe begins to walk out of the boss’s office.
Boss: Oh, Joe!
Joe: Yes?
Boss: Do you remember Sam?
Joe: Yes...
Boss: I fired him this morning. You’re doing his job too! Don’t you feel special?
State workers will get two three day weekends a month for a short while, since this won’t go on much longer. They may lose a little money, but I suspect they can file for unemployment insurance of some sort for the days they are losing. Plus, assuming they drive they will not have to pay for gas or parking. And many probably buy their lunch, so they will lose that expense as well. Oh, and child care! Won't need that!
Hey! There is no need to hit the old Starbucks or Peet’s Coffee either! Home-brewed coffee is less expensive and usually better anyway.
I suggest you leave the TV off and spend some time with your kids. Go to a park and fly kites or stay home and bake cookies.
Frankly, I think this is punishing people in the private sector more than the state workers. All the people who serve the coffee and the lunches and provide the child care are the real victims here.
Stop whining. It isn’t so bad.
Boss: Hi Joe! We’re cutting your pay by 9.2%! Now go back to work!
Joe: Wow, so I have to take two Fridays off each month?
Boss: Ha ha! No Joe, you’ll still work full time. But now you will do it for less money!
Joe begins to walk out of the boss’s office.
Boss: Oh, Joe!
Joe: Yes?
Boss: Do you remember Sam?
Joe: Yes...
Boss: I fired him this morning. You’re doing his job too! Don’t you feel special?
State workers will get two three day weekends a month for a short while, since this won’t go on much longer. They may lose a little money, but I suspect they can file for unemployment insurance of some sort for the days they are losing. Plus, assuming they drive they will not have to pay for gas or parking. And many probably buy their lunch, so they will lose that expense as well. Oh, and child care! Won't need that!
Hey! There is no need to hit the old Starbucks or Peet’s Coffee either! Home-brewed coffee is less expensive and usually better anyway.
I suggest you leave the TV off and spend some time with your kids. Go to a park and fly kites or stay home and bake cookies.
Frankly, I think this is punishing people in the private sector more than the state workers. All the people who serve the coffee and the lunches and provide the child care are the real victims here.
Stop whining. It isn’t so bad.
The Adventures of CreditUnionMan
The biggest single concern I had about our new president was that he might decide that for good or ill, he knew best. This was a reasonable fear because most presidents believe the same thing about themselves.
After yesterday’s speech and announcement about the stimulus package, I believe my fears will be realized again with President Obama. He knows what he wants to do and he is going to insist upon following the path he chooses, because the American people voted for him and for change and dog-gonnet that means he can do no wrong.
Perhaps I exaggerate. We’ll see.
What I do know is we have had eight years of a fellow who followed his own course, or a particular course…who knows if it was his own, despite popular opinion, despite advice from his own party, regardless of opposition he kept doing it his way.
I think we just elected ourselves another one.
After yesterday’s speech and announcement about the stimulus package, I believe my fears will be realized again with President Obama. He knows what he wants to do and he is going to insist upon following the path he chooses, because the American people voted for him and for change and dog-gonnet that means he can do no wrong.
Perhaps I exaggerate. We’ll see.
What I do know is we have had eight years of a fellow who followed his own course, or a particular course…who knows if it was his own, despite popular opinion, despite advice from his own party, regardless of opposition he kept doing it his way.
I think we just elected ourselves another one.
The Adventures of CreditUnionMan
o the state employees who will have to take unpaid days because the governor and his compatriots are too incompetent to put together a budget, please believe me when I say I’m sorry. I do have sympathy for you, but you have to understand it could be much worse.
Out here in the private sector, we deal with incompetent leadership too. In case you haven’t noticed, there are businesses that have failed to the point they are firing thousands…tens of thousands of employees. The firings are coming in waves. Just when employees who think they have dodged the bullet manage to relax, another round of layoffs hits, sweeping them out too. And a lot of these companies are taking BailOutBucks supplied, in part by the very taxpayers they are firing.
And our new president has responded to all this by limiting their CEO’s income to $500,000 per year. Maybe they’ll start taking a Friday or two off each month to compensate. Who knows, the guy sitting at the table across from you at Starbucks tomorrow may just be a furloughed CEO! Who says we have nothing in common with rich people?
Just in passing, I didn’t notice what the president said about the CEO’s deferred income. I should look into that.
Personally, I think any company that accepts BailOutBucks should require the CEO, the CFO and the COO to resign and stand in front of the corporate offices for a month wearing chicken suits and holding signs that say “We’re the ones who lost all the buck-buck-bucks”
Well, it was just an idea.
So I suggest that you look at your own budget and decide what you need to cut for your furlough days and if you can’t be happy about still having a job, then maybe you can at least be grateful for it, because there are a whole lot of people in worse shape than you are right now.
Out here in the private sector, we deal with incompetent leadership too. In case you haven’t noticed, there are businesses that have failed to the point they are firing thousands…tens of thousands of employees. The firings are coming in waves. Just when employees who think they have dodged the bullet manage to relax, another round of layoffs hits, sweeping them out too. And a lot of these companies are taking BailOutBucks supplied, in part by the very taxpayers they are firing.
And our new president has responded to all this by limiting their CEO’s income to $500,000 per year. Maybe they’ll start taking a Friday or two off each month to compensate. Who knows, the guy sitting at the table across from you at Starbucks tomorrow may just be a furloughed CEO! Who says we have nothing in common with rich people?
Just in passing, I didn’t notice what the president said about the CEO’s deferred income. I should look into that.
Personally, I think any company that accepts BailOutBucks should require the CEO, the CFO and the COO to resign and stand in front of the corporate offices for a month wearing chicken suits and holding signs that say “We’re the ones who lost all the buck-buck-bucks”
Well, it was just an idea.
So I suggest that you look at your own budget and decide what you need to cut for your furlough days and if you can’t be happy about still having a job, then maybe you can at least be grateful for it, because there are a whole lot of people in worse shape than you are right now.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Stimulate Your Own Economy
Both the Executive and Legislative branches of our government have a particular way they would like for all of us to handle our stimulus rebates. The Judicial branch may have an opinion as well, but so far they’ve kept quiet about it. Personally, I’m looking forward to seeing a grainy film of Antonin Scalia helping Anthony Kennedy carry a new flat screen TV into his house on YouTube.
There are three reasons I don’t like stimulus bills. Historically their performance is at best mediocre and the rest of the time their success was more a matter of opinion than a matter of fact. I’ll get to the last reason shortly.
The packages have taken a number of forms over the years. Sometimes they implement additional tax deductions or credits. Other times they played around with dependent exemptions and capital gains. They have even actually lowered tax rates.
And then there are rebates, and this brings me to my biggest problem with stimulus packages: They only work if everyone follows very bad advice.
Our new President, whom I like very much and disagree with about almost everything, in alliance with the distinguished ladies and gentlemen on Capitol Hill want us to take that rebate check and cash it. They want us to take that cash and spend it. And not just spend it on any old thing. They would prefer, based upon my own highly scientific calculations, that we spend approximately 65% on consumer electronics and the rest on dining or entertainment.
These plans usually get talked about a lot before they are actually passed and signed into law. Discussions both public and private whip the population into a bit of a frenzy, and whether people are for the plan or against it, a certain anticipation begins to grow. Eventually when everyone knows it is just a matter of time, many won’t even wait for the checks. They will go out and spend money on credit. This has the effect (hopefully) of revving up the economy without even parting with any money yet. When the dough-ray-me finally arrives, they will often, too often, not bother paying down the credit cards. Instead, consumers will cash the check and consume even more.
All of this has a very good effect on banks and credit card companies. It is great for stores and restaurants. And the politicians are delighted with their improved reelection poll numbers, but it really hasn’t improved the average taxpayer's situation at all. Certainly not in the long run.
So what is the best thing to do with that stimulus money? My recommendation is that you either pay down personal debt or save it. If you have no real savings but a fair amount of debt, then you should definitely pay down the debt. True, it is good to have some savings, but if you have none…zero…zilch, then you are not a saver. Pay down the debt because even if you put it in a savings account, it won’t stay there.
Getting rid of personal debt or saving for the future will not have the effect on the national economy that DC is hoping for, but it will have a significant effect on your personal economic situation. In this case, a good significant effect.
Since I don’t think stimulus bills help much even in the best scenarios, I’m very comfortable suggesting you take care of yourself here and let Washington worry about the big picture. If this causes you to feel guilty, let me know and I’ll post an economics lesson I’ve titled Economies are Apathetic Psychopaths.
There are three reasons I don’t like stimulus bills. Historically their performance is at best mediocre and the rest of the time their success was more a matter of opinion than a matter of fact. I’ll get to the last reason shortly.
The packages have taken a number of forms over the years. Sometimes they implement additional tax deductions or credits. Other times they played around with dependent exemptions and capital gains. They have even actually lowered tax rates.
And then there are rebates, and this brings me to my biggest problem with stimulus packages: They only work if everyone follows very bad advice.
Our new President, whom I like very much and disagree with about almost everything, in alliance with the distinguished ladies and gentlemen on Capitol Hill want us to take that rebate check and cash it. They want us to take that cash and spend it. And not just spend it on any old thing. They would prefer, based upon my own highly scientific calculations, that we spend approximately 65% on consumer electronics and the rest on dining or entertainment.
These plans usually get talked about a lot before they are actually passed and signed into law. Discussions both public and private whip the population into a bit of a frenzy, and whether people are for the plan or against it, a certain anticipation begins to grow. Eventually when everyone knows it is just a matter of time, many won’t even wait for the checks. They will go out and spend money on credit. This has the effect (hopefully) of revving up the economy without even parting with any money yet. When the dough-ray-me finally arrives, they will often, too often, not bother paying down the credit cards. Instead, consumers will cash the check and consume even more.
All of this has a very good effect on banks and credit card companies. It is great for stores and restaurants. And the politicians are delighted with their improved reelection poll numbers, but it really hasn’t improved the average taxpayer's situation at all. Certainly not in the long run.
So what is the best thing to do with that stimulus money? My recommendation is that you either pay down personal debt or save it. If you have no real savings but a fair amount of debt, then you should definitely pay down the debt. True, it is good to have some savings, but if you have none…zero…zilch, then you are not a saver. Pay down the debt because even if you put it in a savings account, it won’t stay there.
Getting rid of personal debt or saving for the future will not have the effect on the national economy that DC is hoping for, but it will have a significant effect on your personal economic situation. In this case, a good significant effect.
Since I don’t think stimulus bills help much even in the best scenarios, I’m very comfortable suggesting you take care of yourself here and let Washington worry about the big picture. If this causes you to feel guilty, let me know and I’ll post an economics lesson I’ve titled Economies are Apathetic Psychopaths.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Stimulus Package Bubbles
Stimulus packages keep getting bigger. This one is either $800 billion or $900 billion or even more or even less depending on who talks about it.
That should be our first worrisome clue.
Democrats want to get those stimulus dollars out there quickly so they can take credit for improving an economy that would likely have turned around anyway. The Republicans are holding out for more tax cuts. Big surprise.
I have been predicting to Members of the credit union I work for that the economy will turn around and the recession will be over on June 15th at 2:30 in the afternoon. It will be a largely jobless recovery for another twelve months during which the mortgage issues will settle down and the companies we bailed out will actually start spending the money we gave them…I mean loaned them…wink-wink-nudge-nudge…in ways that will begin to actually employ people.
I have no idea what this stimulus bill will look like when it finally passes, and I really don’t care because it is irrelevant to our eventual recovery. I wish all it took was to give people anywhere from three hundred to twelve hundred bucks in extra spending money, but things just are not that simple.
But things are not all that complicated either. What typically happens when stimulus checks arrive is local economies have a nice little surge. There is a sudden spike in local sales of TV sets and barbeques, or other consumer goods. Restaurants do a bit better for a while and trips to Disneyland increase.
People feel better and consumer confidence improves. This is a good thing, because recessions are what happen when the reverse is true
But then the money is gone and the effect doesn’t last long enough to add new jobs or lift anyone out of their current economic situation. If they were struggling before, the checks will only help temporarily. Incidentally, those who are really in trouble, and there are a lot more of them now than in 2001, will use the money to pay the rent or buy food, both laudable behaviors but generally not very stimulating.
Worst of all, from the ordinary person standpoint, is people will often go farther into debt in anticipation of the rebate without paying the balance back down when the money arrives. More on that tomorrow.
It may be obvious that I am not a fan of this or any other stimulus plan. The reason of course, is THE GOVERNMENT pays for it.
Newsflash: THE GOVERNMENT has no money.
When you look at the text of the bill, you will see that the money simply comes from the treasury. The treasury gets money from the taxpayers. The taxpayers are the ones getting the stimulus payments and then at some point in time turn around and pay taxes that are stored in the treasury. Frankly, there will probably be borrowing as well. More debt, goodie.
It is somewhat akin to the notion of stirring water around in a bathtub and expecting the level to rise.
But what if you add some soap to the water? Then when you splash it around, the bubbles form on the surface and have a two-fold effect. First, the level appears to rise while adding nothing. Second, they obscure what is going on beneath the surface.
Now you know why politicians like stimulus packages so much.
Unfortunatly, just like tech bubbles and housing bubbles, stimulus bubbles also pop eventually.
More tomorrow.
That should be our first worrisome clue.
Democrats want to get those stimulus dollars out there quickly so they can take credit for improving an economy that would likely have turned around anyway. The Republicans are holding out for more tax cuts. Big surprise.
I have been predicting to Members of the credit union I work for that the economy will turn around and the recession will be over on June 15th at 2:30 in the afternoon. It will be a largely jobless recovery for another twelve months during which the mortgage issues will settle down and the companies we bailed out will actually start spending the money we gave them…I mean loaned them…wink-wink-nudge-nudge…in ways that will begin to actually employ people.
I have no idea what this stimulus bill will look like when it finally passes, and I really don’t care because it is irrelevant to our eventual recovery. I wish all it took was to give people anywhere from three hundred to twelve hundred bucks in extra spending money, but things just are not that simple.
But things are not all that complicated either. What typically happens when stimulus checks arrive is local economies have a nice little surge. There is a sudden spike in local sales of TV sets and barbeques, or other consumer goods. Restaurants do a bit better for a while and trips to Disneyland increase.
People feel better and consumer confidence improves. This is a good thing, because recessions are what happen when the reverse is true
But then the money is gone and the effect doesn’t last long enough to add new jobs or lift anyone out of their current economic situation. If they were struggling before, the checks will only help temporarily. Incidentally, those who are really in trouble, and there are a lot more of them now than in 2001, will use the money to pay the rent or buy food, both laudable behaviors but generally not very stimulating.
Worst of all, from the ordinary person standpoint, is people will often go farther into debt in anticipation of the rebate without paying the balance back down when the money arrives. More on that tomorrow.
It may be obvious that I am not a fan of this or any other stimulus plan. The reason of course, is THE GOVERNMENT pays for it.
Newsflash: THE GOVERNMENT has no money.
When you look at the text of the bill, you will see that the money simply comes from the treasury. The treasury gets money from the taxpayers. The taxpayers are the ones getting the stimulus payments and then at some point in time turn around and pay taxes that are stored in the treasury. Frankly, there will probably be borrowing as well. More debt, goodie.
It is somewhat akin to the notion of stirring water around in a bathtub and expecting the level to rise.
But what if you add some soap to the water? Then when you splash it around, the bubbles form on the surface and have a two-fold effect. First, the level appears to rise while adding nothing. Second, they obscure what is going on beneath the surface.
Now you know why politicians like stimulus packages so much.
Unfortunatly, just like tech bubbles and housing bubbles, stimulus bubbles also pop eventually.
More tomorrow.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
On Fixing the budget According to the Bee
I’ve been working on a piece about the governor’s office, but so far it is a real snoozer for anyone who doesn’t like numbers and spreadsheets. You know, that is a big part of the whole problem. To talk about this stuff intellegently requires that spreadsheets be used and cited. But when you spend too much time with them, you can hear the heads hitting the desks and the laptops clattering on the floor. Anyway, the Bee’s editorial yesterday talked about how they would fix the budget and I thought I would respond.
Californians are often accused of state budget hypocrisy – wanting it all but being unwilling to pay for it.
Californians are accused of all sorts of things. Most Californians are simply trying to hang on to their jobs and their homes in that order.
Yet according to a recent poll, Californians are more than willing to accept higher taxes to help bridge the state's $41 billion shortfall. The problem, in their view, is intransigence by state lawmakers and the state's two-thirds vote requirement to pass a budget.
What recent poll? Was it taken at the welfare line downtown? People who pay no taxes are often quite willing to raise mine.
According to the poll by the Public Policy Institute of California, 85 percent of those surveyed supported higher taxes on alcohol, 72 percent supported higher taxes on the wealthy, 60 supported higher corporation taxes, 58 percent supported an increase in the vehicle license fee, and 52 percent supported an increase in the sales tax.
Sin taxes always sound good when someone else is the sinner. Wait until they start taxing coffee, cheese and cellular telephones and take another poll. Corporations don’t really give a hoot about taxes because they just complain a lot while they pass them on to the consumer with higher prices. And are we really going to tax wealth, or just the wealthy’s income? Most would be surprised at how low the wealthy’s income can turn out to be. As to vehicle taxes, I think they should be based on the weight of the vehicle. Period.
The PPIC poll showed, for the first time, that a majority of those surveyed want the Legislature's two-thirds vote requirement to pass a budget lowered to 55 percent. There was also wide support for a cap on annual spending increases to prevent deficits in the future.
I agree with both of these ideas, although arbitrary caps on anything bother me. We need to bring some thought back into the process.
The survey should put to rest the idea that Californians won't accept personal sacrifices to restore some semblance of fiscal health to the state.
Where do these surveys come from anyway? Californians are hardworking and long suffering citizens of the state that has often driven the US economy while being called a bunch of goofballs who do nothing but sit in hot tubs and tickle each other with feathers. When I look around right now, I see Californians continue to make sacrifices all the time. This is nothing new.
Yet lawmakers still must decide which mix of taxes and spending reductions will cause the least harm to the economy while spreading the burdens equitably. On that score, they cannot be guided by polls alone.
Most of the windsocks we have occupying space at the Capitol won’t blow their nose without a poll or a number. Harm to the economy and spreading burdens equally? Ha ha! They just want to get re-elected!
This page has previously laid out some of its views on budget solutions. At the risk of repetition, here are some principles that should be the core of any deal.
• Cut up the credit card. Resist the temptation to issue "revenue anticipation notes" or other forms of borrowing. Such measures only will only increase the debt burden and extend the fiscal crisis to the future.
Agreed, but I don’t see bond measures mentioned, so I will. Bonds sound great to voters who own no property.
• Don't just solve the midyear budget problem. To the extent possible, close the entire $41 billion shortfall.
You mean by raising taxes, right? Why don’t you just say so? I might actually agree with you.
• Don't depend on a sales-tax hike. A better alternative: Temporarily increase personal income taxes and raise the vehicle license fee to 1 percent, in line with the property tax. Both the VLF and personal income taxes are federally deductible, unlike the sales tax.
There, was that so hard? Now we know what you are talking about. I’m not averse to raising taxes, but are you willing to cut some programs and executive and legislative office budgets?
• Broaden the state sales tax but reduce the rate to make it revenue-neutral in the first year. It is only fair that, in a service economy, service businesses and consumers of those services pay their fair share.
Fine, give it a try. But what will probably happen is people will make fewer purchases. And by the way, who says they were not paying their fair share before? You? Who else?
• Increase the state gas tax and index it to inflation. Use this money to pay off transportation debt and support transit programs, freeing up money in the general fund.
Sure, fine, do it. But only because it will encourage people to drive less and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. What do you plan to do when everyone takes the bus and quits smoking and drinking?
• Cut the costs of prisons, which have doubled to $10 billion annually in the last decade. The legislative analyst has proposed shifting 14,000 low-risk prisoners – drunken drivers, drug abusers, etc . – to local rehabilitation programs paid for by a hike in the VLF. Moving low-risk prisoners from high-cost prisons would save the state billions while reducing overcrowding.
Agreed. Low risk prisoners should be released and forced to work and pay taxes. Maybe we can shoot them if they fall back. I’ll admit that I admire yet another hit to the vehicle licensing fee. I still say weight only.
• Control costs in the In-Home Supportive Services program, which provides payments to relatives and other workers to care for the elderly and disabled as an alternative to nursing homes. Costs for the program have risen markedly since 2001 and now constitute $1.8 billion of the budget.
Agreed. Old people are expensive to care for and we are all getting older in increasing numbers. Keep in mind though, that “Control costs” in budget-speak means “make cuts.”
Lastly, as painful as it will be in a recession, the Legislature must make cuts to welfare and social service programs, even though some of California's most vulnerable – the poor, the elderly, the disabled – depend upon them.
Yes. Anger the poor, the elderly and the disabled. The poor have nothing and pay no taxes, so they will embrace every bond measure and tax increase that comes down the pike. The elderly are one of the most affluent groups in existence. They have great wealth and little income. They can always be counted upon to raise my taxes. I don’t know what the disabled will do, but if I know the bee, they have determined they will vote to raise taxes. The real irony of this is that by hammering these groups, they will actually be more inclined to vote for measures they think will help them when in fact all they will do is raise taxes to close the deficit while only donating a token amount to their causes, if indeed any money at all goes to them.
But in a report, the legislative analyst recently offered some good ideas for minimizing the pain. Lawmakers should use it as a road map for making some extremely tough choices.
Our legislators love pain so long as it is not theirs. Pass the damned budget and move on. God knows we’ll survive. We always have and we always will. Californians rock.
Californians are often accused of state budget hypocrisy – wanting it all but being unwilling to pay for it.
Californians are accused of all sorts of things. Most Californians are simply trying to hang on to their jobs and their homes in that order.
Yet according to a recent poll, Californians are more than willing to accept higher taxes to help bridge the state's $41 billion shortfall. The problem, in their view, is intransigence by state lawmakers and the state's two-thirds vote requirement to pass a budget.
What recent poll? Was it taken at the welfare line downtown? People who pay no taxes are often quite willing to raise mine.
According to the poll by the Public Policy Institute of California, 85 percent of those surveyed supported higher taxes on alcohol, 72 percent supported higher taxes on the wealthy, 60 supported higher corporation taxes, 58 percent supported an increase in the vehicle license fee, and 52 percent supported an increase in the sales tax.
Sin taxes always sound good when someone else is the sinner. Wait until they start taxing coffee, cheese and cellular telephones and take another poll. Corporations don’t really give a hoot about taxes because they just complain a lot while they pass them on to the consumer with higher prices. And are we really going to tax wealth, or just the wealthy’s income? Most would be surprised at how low the wealthy’s income can turn out to be. As to vehicle taxes, I think they should be based on the weight of the vehicle. Period.
The PPIC poll showed, for the first time, that a majority of those surveyed want the Legislature's two-thirds vote requirement to pass a budget lowered to 55 percent. There was also wide support for a cap on annual spending increases to prevent deficits in the future.
I agree with both of these ideas, although arbitrary caps on anything bother me. We need to bring some thought back into the process.
The survey should put to rest the idea that Californians won't accept personal sacrifices to restore some semblance of fiscal health to the state.
Where do these surveys come from anyway? Californians are hardworking and long suffering citizens of the state that has often driven the US economy while being called a bunch of goofballs who do nothing but sit in hot tubs and tickle each other with feathers. When I look around right now, I see Californians continue to make sacrifices all the time. This is nothing new.
Yet lawmakers still must decide which mix of taxes and spending reductions will cause the least harm to the economy while spreading the burdens equitably. On that score, they cannot be guided by polls alone.
Most of the windsocks we have occupying space at the Capitol won’t blow their nose without a poll or a number. Harm to the economy and spreading burdens equally? Ha ha! They just want to get re-elected!
This page has previously laid out some of its views on budget solutions. At the risk of repetition, here are some principles that should be the core of any deal.
• Cut up the credit card. Resist the temptation to issue "revenue anticipation notes" or other forms of borrowing. Such measures only will only increase the debt burden and extend the fiscal crisis to the future.
Agreed, but I don’t see bond measures mentioned, so I will. Bonds sound great to voters who own no property.
• Don't just solve the midyear budget problem. To the extent possible, close the entire $41 billion shortfall.
You mean by raising taxes, right? Why don’t you just say so? I might actually agree with you.
• Don't depend on a sales-tax hike. A better alternative: Temporarily increase personal income taxes and raise the vehicle license fee to 1 percent, in line with the property tax. Both the VLF and personal income taxes are federally deductible, unlike the sales tax.
There, was that so hard? Now we know what you are talking about. I’m not averse to raising taxes, but are you willing to cut some programs and executive and legislative office budgets?
• Broaden the state sales tax but reduce the rate to make it revenue-neutral in the first year. It is only fair that, in a service economy, service businesses and consumers of those services pay their fair share.
Fine, give it a try. But what will probably happen is people will make fewer purchases. And by the way, who says they were not paying their fair share before? You? Who else?
• Increase the state gas tax and index it to inflation. Use this money to pay off transportation debt and support transit programs, freeing up money in the general fund.
Sure, fine, do it. But only because it will encourage people to drive less and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. What do you plan to do when everyone takes the bus and quits smoking and drinking?
• Cut the costs of prisons, which have doubled to $10 billion annually in the last decade. The legislative analyst has proposed shifting 14,000 low-risk prisoners – drunken drivers, drug abusers, etc . – to local rehabilitation programs paid for by a hike in the VLF. Moving low-risk prisoners from high-cost prisons would save the state billions while reducing overcrowding.
Agreed. Low risk prisoners should be released and forced to work and pay taxes. Maybe we can shoot them if they fall back. I’ll admit that I admire yet another hit to the vehicle licensing fee. I still say weight only.
• Control costs in the In-Home Supportive Services program, which provides payments to relatives and other workers to care for the elderly and disabled as an alternative to nursing homes. Costs for the program have risen markedly since 2001 and now constitute $1.8 billion of the budget.
Agreed. Old people are expensive to care for and we are all getting older in increasing numbers. Keep in mind though, that “Control costs” in budget-speak means “make cuts.”
Lastly, as painful as it will be in a recession, the Legislature must make cuts to welfare and social service programs, even though some of California's most vulnerable – the poor, the elderly, the disabled – depend upon them.
Yes. Anger the poor, the elderly and the disabled. The poor have nothing and pay no taxes, so they will embrace every bond measure and tax increase that comes down the pike. The elderly are one of the most affluent groups in existence. They have great wealth and little income. They can always be counted upon to raise my taxes. I don’t know what the disabled will do, but if I know the bee, they have determined they will vote to raise taxes. The real irony of this is that by hammering these groups, they will actually be more inclined to vote for measures they think will help them when in fact all they will do is raise taxes to close the deficit while only donating a token amount to their causes, if indeed any money at all goes to them.
But in a report, the legislative analyst recently offered some good ideas for minimizing the pain. Lawmakers should use it as a road map for making some extremely tough choices.
Our legislators love pain so long as it is not theirs. Pass the damned budget and move on. God knows we’ll survive. We always have and we always will. Californians rock.
Sunday Musings
My favorite snapshot is tacked to the refrigerator door. My eleven-year-old, then an eight-year-old is standing with his arms spread in front of the ocean that he had just seen for the first time.
I was born near the beach and lived within twenty minutes or so of it until I was sixteen. Money was always tight and the beach was close and free to use, so it set the standard for family entertainment. From late spring until autumn and sometimes even well into the winter we would be at the beach for part of the day. We were there almost all day during the summer. I had quite a tan, probably one that I’ll some day regret but it looked pretty good at the time.
When Dad got a new job in some place I’d never heard of named Palo Alto, we moved to a city called San Jose, it being just barely familiar to me and solely because of a song in which Dionne Warwick keeps asking me where it is. Once we got there, I found I rather wished dad hadn’t known the way, but that’s a different story.
There was one advantage to the Bay Area so far as I was concerned and that was there were no beaches. I couldn’t believe anyone in their right mind would swim in the bay itself, and Santa Cruz was over the hills and through the woods, and the beaches while quite nice were next to an ocean that was quite cold. After sixteen years of coastal existence and sand-encrusted food, I had experienced my fill of beaches and would have been content to spend the rest of my life satisfied with images of them on wall calendars.
Marriage and our first child came along and when he was about four it was decided we should go to the beach. I didn’t really want to go and I recall my wife having suddenly found herself saddled on a long drive with two four-year-olds, one chronologically, the other psychologically.
A coworker had suggested Moron Beach near Santa Cruz, a name I thought perfect for this excursion. It turned out its name is Moran State Beach and it is frankly, a nice little beach. We spent the day there even though it was a cloudy summer day and the water felt close to freezing. The only excitement was after the waves and the water kept receding in that way that draws you out farther and then a rogue wave arrives to knock you down and pull you out.
This happened to our son and between the two of us, my wife being a lettered swimmer in high school and me being mostly in her way, we managed to rescue him and also reunite the family in a common purpose, this being that it was time to go home.
Twenty-four years passed with nary a whisper of an inclination to go to the beach again. In fact, we had since moved north and east to Sacramento and brought forth two more children into a world fraught with many dangers. Fortunately, those requiring a visit to the beach may as well have been on the other side of the world.
Then one day I heard them talking in the kitchen. An inspiration had blossomed into a conversation and was now rapidly becoming a conspiracy. The youngest had just manipulated his mother into agreeing that it was genuinely reprehensible that he had never been to the beach. I considered ways of getting out of what I knew was inevitable. Thoughts of toxic waste and stories of sharks began to percolate down through my cerebral cortex. Yes, I can get out of this.
Two weeks later we arrived at the tiny parking lot across from Moran State Beach. The trip was uneventful and I kept my inner-child in check, resigned to the inevitabilities of a beach visit including warm sodas, crunchy sandwiches and sunburned legs and shoulders. Sigh…
It was a nice sunny day, with a light breeze. We were there quite early so we were able to park in the lot and avoided the mile walk required of most visitors since the lot can’t possibly hold more than fifty cars.
Our oldest, the one who had a run-in with a wave not far from where we stood had long since moved away. Our autistic daughter was also here for the first time and she was her usually happy self, content to be at the beach, in the car or sitting at the kitchen table.
Our youngest though…he is experiencing something completely new and totally foreign to him, and I’m beginning to see this and relive something I had lost a long time ago. TV and calendars do not do justice to the ocean. You can smell the sea air and feel its breeze. You can hear the waves rumble like thunder, but you can also feel the impact tremors of the waves as they crash on the shore. And the best thing about Moran State Beach, at least today is that you can’t see the ocean until you get over a rise twixt lot and water. Then suddenly, there is the Pacific Ocean in all its power and glory. My son was so excited that he couldn’t contain himself.
He ran up and down the beach with his arms spread, dancing along, shouting and singing praises. He had wanted this, but it so vastly exceeded his expectations that he was literally overwhelmed with joy. And I stood there, spellbound at this. Not just that I’m having a great time, which I surely am, but also I keep trying to remember if this ever happened to me. If it did, I mourn its loss and rejoice in its resurrection because it is back now.
We have returned to the beach every year since and the trips are good ones. But some things can only be experienced once to such a full effect and this is one of them. I suppose that’s life.
I just don’t want him to lose it for so long like I did.
Have a great week. I have some numbers from the governor’s office. I just have to figure out how to make spreadsheets interesting.
Bruce
My favorite snapshot is tacked to the refrigerator door. My eleven-year-old, then an eight-year-old is standing with his arms spread in front of the ocean that he had just seen for the first time.
I was born near the beach and lived within twenty minutes or so of it until I was sixteen. Money was always tight and the beach was close and free to use, so it set the standard for family entertainment. From late spring until autumn and sometimes even well into the winter we would be at the beach for part of the day. We were there almost all day during the summer. I had quite a tan, probably one that I’ll some day regret but it looked pretty good at the time.
When Dad got a new job in some place I’d never heard of named Palo Alto, we moved to a city called San Jose, it being just barely familiar to me and solely because of a song in which Dionne Warwick keeps asking me where it is. Once we got there, I found I rather wished dad hadn’t known the way, but that’s a different story.
There was one advantage to the Bay Area so far as I was concerned and that was there were no beaches. I couldn’t believe anyone in their right mind would swim in the bay itself, and Santa Cruz was over the hills and through the woods, and the beaches while quite nice were next to an ocean that was quite cold. After sixteen years of coastal existence and sand-encrusted food, I had experienced my fill of beaches and would have been content to spend the rest of my life satisfied with images of them on wall calendars.
Marriage and our first child came along and when he was about four it was decided we should go to the beach. I didn’t really want to go and I recall my wife having suddenly found herself saddled on a long drive with two four-year-olds, one chronologically, the other psychologically.
A coworker had suggested Moron Beach near Santa Cruz, a name I thought perfect for this excursion. It turned out its name is Moran State Beach and it is frankly, a nice little beach. We spent the day there even though it was a cloudy summer day and the water felt close to freezing. The only excitement was after the waves and the water kept receding in that way that draws you out farther and then a rogue wave arrives to knock you down and pull you out.
This happened to our son and between the two of us, my wife being a lettered swimmer in high school and me being mostly in her way, we managed to rescue him and also reunite the family in a common purpose, this being that it was time to go home.
Twenty-four years passed with nary a whisper of an inclination to go to the beach again. In fact, we had since moved north and east to Sacramento and brought forth two more children into a world fraught with many dangers. Fortunately, those requiring a visit to the beach may as well have been on the other side of the world.
Then one day I heard them talking in the kitchen. An inspiration had blossomed into a conversation and was now rapidly becoming a conspiracy. The youngest had just manipulated his mother into agreeing that it was genuinely reprehensible that he had never been to the beach. I considered ways of getting out of what I knew was inevitable. Thoughts of toxic waste and stories of sharks began to percolate down through my cerebral cortex. Yes, I can get out of this.
Two weeks later we arrived at the tiny parking lot across from Moran State Beach. The trip was uneventful and I kept my inner-child in check, resigned to the inevitabilities of a beach visit including warm sodas, crunchy sandwiches and sunburned legs and shoulders. Sigh…
It was a nice sunny day, with a light breeze. We were there quite early so we were able to park in the lot and avoided the mile walk required of most visitors since the lot can’t possibly hold more than fifty cars.
Our oldest, the one who had a run-in with a wave not far from where we stood had long since moved away. Our autistic daughter was also here for the first time and she was her usually happy self, content to be at the beach, in the car or sitting at the kitchen table.
Our youngest though…he is experiencing something completely new and totally foreign to him, and I’m beginning to see this and relive something I had lost a long time ago. TV and calendars do not do justice to the ocean. You can smell the sea air and feel its breeze. You can hear the waves rumble like thunder, but you can also feel the impact tremors of the waves as they crash on the shore. And the best thing about Moran State Beach, at least today is that you can’t see the ocean until you get over a rise twixt lot and water. Then suddenly, there is the Pacific Ocean in all its power and glory. My son was so excited that he couldn’t contain himself.
He ran up and down the beach with his arms spread, dancing along, shouting and singing praises. He had wanted this, but it so vastly exceeded his expectations that he was literally overwhelmed with joy. And I stood there, spellbound at this. Not just that I’m having a great time, which I surely am, but also I keep trying to remember if this ever happened to me. If it did, I mourn its loss and rejoice in its resurrection because it is back now.
We have returned to the beach every year since and the trips are good ones. But some things can only be experienced once to such a full effect and this is one of them. I suppose that’s life.
I just don’t want him to lose it for so long like I did.
Have a great week. I have some numbers from the governor’s office. I just have to figure out how to make spreadsheets interesting.
Bruce
I was born near the beach and lived within twenty minutes or so of it until I was sixteen. Money was always tight and the beach was close and free to use, so it set the standard for family entertainment. From late spring until autumn and sometimes even well into the winter we would be at the beach for part of the day. We were there almost all day during the summer. I had quite a tan, probably one that I’ll some day regret but it looked pretty good at the time.
When Dad got a new job in some place I’d never heard of named Palo Alto, we moved to a city called San Jose, it being just barely familiar to me and solely because of a song in which Dionne Warwick keeps asking me where it is. Once we got there, I found I rather wished dad hadn’t known the way, but that’s a different story.
There was one advantage to the Bay Area so far as I was concerned and that was there were no beaches. I couldn’t believe anyone in their right mind would swim in the bay itself, and Santa Cruz was over the hills and through the woods, and the beaches while quite nice were next to an ocean that was quite cold. After sixteen years of coastal existence and sand-encrusted food, I had experienced my fill of beaches and would have been content to spend the rest of my life satisfied with images of them on wall calendars.
Marriage and our first child came along and when he was about four it was decided we should go to the beach. I didn’t really want to go and I recall my wife having suddenly found herself saddled on a long drive with two four-year-olds, one chronologically, the other psychologically.
A coworker had suggested Moron Beach near Santa Cruz, a name I thought perfect for this excursion. It turned out its name is Moran State Beach and it is frankly, a nice little beach. We spent the day there even though it was a cloudy summer day and the water felt close to freezing. The only excitement was after the waves and the water kept receding in that way that draws you out farther and then a rogue wave arrives to knock you down and pull you out.
This happened to our son and between the two of us, my wife being a lettered swimmer in high school and me being mostly in her way, we managed to rescue him and also reunite the family in a common purpose, this being that it was time to go home.
Twenty-four years passed with nary a whisper of an inclination to go to the beach again. In fact, we had since moved north and east to Sacramento and brought forth two more children into a world fraught with many dangers. Fortunately, those requiring a visit to the beach may as well have been on the other side of the world.
Then one day I heard them talking in the kitchen. An inspiration had blossomed into a conversation and was now rapidly becoming a conspiracy. The youngest had just manipulated his mother into agreeing that it was genuinely reprehensible that he had never been to the beach. I considered ways of getting out of what I knew was inevitable. Thoughts of toxic waste and stories of sharks began to percolate down through my cerebral cortex. Yes, I can get out of this.
Two weeks later we arrived at the tiny parking lot across from Moran State Beach. The trip was uneventful and I kept my inner-child in check, resigned to the inevitabilities of a beach visit including warm sodas, crunchy sandwiches and sunburned legs and shoulders. Sigh…
It was a nice sunny day, with a light breeze. We were there quite early so we were able to park in the lot and avoided the mile walk required of most visitors since the lot can’t possibly hold more than fifty cars.
Our oldest, the one who had a run-in with a wave not far from where we stood had long since moved away. Our autistic daughter was also here for the first time and she was her usually happy self, content to be at the beach, in the car or sitting at the kitchen table.
Our youngest though…he is experiencing something completely new and totally foreign to him, and I’m beginning to see this and relive something I had lost a long time ago. TV and calendars do not do justice to the ocean. You can smell the sea air and feel its breeze. You can hear the waves rumble like thunder, but you can also feel the impact tremors of the waves as they crash on the shore. And the best thing about Moran State Beach, at least today is that you can’t see the ocean until you get over a rise twixt lot and water. Then suddenly, there is the Pacific Ocean in all its power and glory. My son was so excited that he couldn’t contain himself.
He ran up and down the beach with his arms spread, dancing along, shouting and singing praises. He had wanted this, but it so vastly exceeded his expectations that he was literally overwhelmed with joy. And I stood there, spellbound at this. Not just that I’m having a great time, which I surely am, but also I keep trying to remember if this ever happened to me. If it did, I mourn its loss and rejoice in its resurrection because it is back now.
We have returned to the beach every year since and the trips are good ones. But some things can only be experienced once to such a full effect and this is one of them. I suppose that’s life.
I just don’t want him to lose it for so long like I did.
Have a great week. I have some numbers from the governor’s office. I just have to figure out how to make spreadsheets interesting.
Bruce
My favorite snapshot is tacked to the refrigerator door. My eleven-year-old, then an eight-year-old is standing with his arms spread in front of the ocean that he had just seen for the first time.
I was born near the beach and lived within twenty minutes or so of it until I was sixteen. Money was always tight and the beach was close and free to use, so it set the standard for family entertainment. From late spring until autumn and sometimes even well into the winter we would be at the beach for part of the day. We were there almost all day during the summer. I had quite a tan, probably one that I’ll some day regret but it looked pretty good at the time.
When Dad got a new job in some place I’d never heard of named Palo Alto, we moved to a city called San Jose, it being just barely familiar to me and solely because of a song in which Dionne Warwick keeps asking me where it is. Once we got there, I found I rather wished dad hadn’t known the way, but that’s a different story.
There was one advantage to the Bay Area so far as I was concerned and that was there were no beaches. I couldn’t believe anyone in their right mind would swim in the bay itself, and Santa Cruz was over the hills and through the woods, and the beaches while quite nice were next to an ocean that was quite cold. After sixteen years of coastal existence and sand-encrusted food, I had experienced my fill of beaches and would have been content to spend the rest of my life satisfied with images of them on wall calendars.
Marriage and our first child came along and when he was about four it was decided we should go to the beach. I didn’t really want to go and I recall my wife having suddenly found herself saddled on a long drive with two four-year-olds, one chronologically, the other psychologically.
A coworker had suggested Moron Beach near Santa Cruz, a name I thought perfect for this excursion. It turned out its name is Moran State Beach and it is frankly, a nice little beach. We spent the day there even though it was a cloudy summer day and the water felt close to freezing. The only excitement was after the waves and the water kept receding in that way that draws you out farther and then a rogue wave arrives to knock you down and pull you out.
This happened to our son and between the two of us, my wife being a lettered swimmer in high school and me being mostly in her way, we managed to rescue him and also reunite the family in a common purpose, this being that it was time to go home.
Twenty-four years passed with nary a whisper of an inclination to go to the beach again. In fact, we had since moved north and east to Sacramento and brought forth two more children into a world fraught with many dangers. Fortunately, those requiring a visit to the beach may as well have been on the other side of the world.
Then one day I heard them talking in the kitchen. An inspiration had blossomed into a conversation and was now rapidly becoming a conspiracy. The youngest had just manipulated his mother into agreeing that it was genuinely reprehensible that he had never been to the beach. I considered ways of getting out of what I knew was inevitable. Thoughts of toxic waste and stories of sharks began to percolate down through my cerebral cortex. Yes, I can get out of this.
Two weeks later we arrived at the tiny parking lot across from Moran State Beach. The trip was uneventful and I kept my inner-child in check, resigned to the inevitabilities of a beach visit including warm sodas, crunchy sandwiches and sunburned legs and shoulders. Sigh…
It was a nice sunny day, with a light breeze. We were there quite early so we were able to park in the lot and avoided the mile walk required of most visitors since the lot can’t possibly hold more than fifty cars.
Our oldest, the one who had a run-in with a wave not far from where we stood had long since moved away. Our autistic daughter was also here for the first time and she was her usually happy self, content to be at the beach, in the car or sitting at the kitchen table.
Our youngest though…he is experiencing something completely new and totally foreign to him, and I’m beginning to see this and relive something I had lost a long time ago. TV and calendars do not do justice to the ocean. You can smell the sea air and feel its breeze. You can hear the waves rumble like thunder, but you can also feel the impact tremors of the waves as they crash on the shore. And the best thing about Moran State Beach, at least today is that you can’t see the ocean until you get over a rise twixt lot and water. Then suddenly, there is the Pacific Ocean in all its power and glory. My son was so excited that he couldn’t contain himself.
He ran up and down the beach with his arms spread, dancing along, shouting and singing praises. He had wanted this, but it so vastly exceeded his expectations that he was literally overwhelmed with joy. And I stood there, spellbound at this. Not just that I’m having a great time, which I surely am, but also I keep trying to remember if this ever happened to me. If it did, I mourn its loss and rejoice in its resurrection because it is back now.
We have returned to the beach every year since and the trips are good ones. But some things can only be experienced once to such a full effect and this is one of them. I suppose that’s life.
I just don’t want him to lose it for so long like I did.
Have a great week. I have some numbers from the governor’s office. I just have to figure out how to make spreadsheets interesting.
Bruce
Correctional Officers Don’t Appear To Be The Problem
I’ve read here that some believe the union for correctional officers is a major reason for our current budget deficit in California. I’ve placed links below that are representative of typical salary descriptions.
According to one, they can make as much as $73,000 annually with benefits that look to be worth another three to five thousand per year, so let’s say on the top end about $78,000 per year. Reading through the details, most appear to make less.
According to Payscale.com the median salary is about $54,000 per annum and there is significant regional variance. The total budget currently proposed allocates about $14.5 billion for corrections and rehabilitation.
I’ll concede that the average salary for correctional officers is higher than I thought I would find, but I don’t really regard it as being especially out of line. The number is significantly higher than other law enforcement salaries, but they vary widely, again, between regions.
Of course, adding to the fun, simply dividing the total expenditure by the number of guards, we get an average of $141,000 per year. This could be because some higher ranking officers make a lot more than the average or it could be some of the screwy math that governmental agencies love so much precisely because it makes it hard to figure out where money goes. I suspect it is a little bit of both.
I’m going to dig a little more, but so far, the camp suggesting our problem is in large part due to a powerful correctional officer union taking better care of their team than the rest of us think prudent are wrong or they know something I don’t know, can’t see or have not discovered. If I am wrong, misguided or something worse, please let me know what I’m missing and where I can find the numbers. (I’d prefer you were nice about it, but if it must come at the price of calling me names or suggesting I’m stupid, I’m willing to pay it.)
The other big union in California covers a lot more jobs, with diverse average salaries. It may be more difficult to show one way or another if we are overpaying them but I’ll see what I can do.
Like everyone else, I don’t particularly like some of the heavy-handed methods used by powerful unions to manipulate governmental policy. But if we are looking for a budgetary whipping-boy to blame for our current budget position, I can’t prove it is the correctional system using the numbers I have found thus far. It appears we need to look elsewhere.
We have a real problem in California. Wasting our time blaming the wrong people is not going to solve it.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Links:
http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Employer=The_State_of_California/Salary
http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Career_Opportunities/POR/COIndex.html
http://swz.salary.com/salarywizard/layouthtmls/CA/swzl_compresult_state_CA_LG12000016.html
http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/StateAgencyBudgets/5210/agency.html
http://swz.salary.com/salarywizard/layouthtmls/swzl_narrowbrief
According to one, they can make as much as $73,000 annually with benefits that look to be worth another three to five thousand per year, so let’s say on the top end about $78,000 per year. Reading through the details, most appear to make less.
According to Payscale.com the median salary is about $54,000 per annum and there is significant regional variance. The total budget currently proposed allocates about $14.5 billion for corrections and rehabilitation.
I’ll concede that the average salary for correctional officers is higher than I thought I would find, but I don’t really regard it as being especially out of line. The number is significantly higher than other law enforcement salaries, but they vary widely, again, between regions.
Of course, adding to the fun, simply dividing the total expenditure by the number of guards, we get an average of $141,000 per year. This could be because some higher ranking officers make a lot more than the average or it could be some of the screwy math that governmental agencies love so much precisely because it makes it hard to figure out where money goes. I suspect it is a little bit of both.
I’m going to dig a little more, but so far, the camp suggesting our problem is in large part due to a powerful correctional officer union taking better care of their team than the rest of us think prudent are wrong or they know something I don’t know, can’t see or have not discovered. If I am wrong, misguided or something worse, please let me know what I’m missing and where I can find the numbers. (I’d prefer you were nice about it, but if it must come at the price of calling me names or suggesting I’m stupid, I’m willing to pay it.)
The other big union in California covers a lot more jobs, with diverse average salaries. It may be more difficult to show one way or another if we are overpaying them but I’ll see what I can do.
Like everyone else, I don’t particularly like some of the heavy-handed methods used by powerful unions to manipulate governmental policy. But if we are looking for a budgetary whipping-boy to blame for our current budget position, I can’t prove it is the correctional system using the numbers I have found thus far. It appears we need to look elsewhere.
We have a real problem in California. Wasting our time blaming the wrong people is not going to solve it.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Links:
http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Employer=The_State_of_California/Salary
http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Career_Opportunities/POR/COIndex.html
http://swz.salary.com/salarywizard/layouthtmls/CA/swzl_compresult_state_CA_LG12000016.html
http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/StateAgencyBudgets/5210/agency.html
http://swz.salary.com/salarywizard/layouthtmls/swzl_narrowbrief
Bail Outs Don’t Fix Anything
More proof I need to get out more…I’m traveling and have discovered something totally wicked! Hotels let you log onto the internet! Astonishing.
I saw the headline about the Governor announcing that the bailout will not solve California’s woes. My question is did anyone think it would?
Let’s look at the term “bail out”. The origin, if I understand it correctly, refers to scooping water out of a boat to keep it afloat. The method works fine if you can keep up with the water, but it does nothing to fix the problem. The problem being of course, that there is a hole in the boat! Fix the hole and you don’t need to bail anymore.
Using another analogy, if you are digging a hole for yourself, you cannot get out by continuing digging. At some point you need to put down the shovel and start climbing. And yet we see, metaphorically of course, this happen all the time. We keep digging and digging and wonder why we are not out of the hole yet.
I’ve even heard people say “we need to dig our way out of this hole!”
Bailouts may help, but they don’t fix anything.
A number of those commenting on other topics here have mentioned large unions as being the problem, or a large part of it. I’ve been looking over the tax code, but I think I want to learn a little more about these unions and hopefully gain some understanding of why they might be such a problem, (if they really are), and what we can do to effect some positive change.
Internet access in hotels. What will they think of next?!
I saw the headline about the Governor announcing that the bailout will not solve California’s woes. My question is did anyone think it would?
Let’s look at the term “bail out”. The origin, if I understand it correctly, refers to scooping water out of a boat to keep it afloat. The method works fine if you can keep up with the water, but it does nothing to fix the problem. The problem being of course, that there is a hole in the boat! Fix the hole and you don’t need to bail anymore.
Using another analogy, if you are digging a hole for yourself, you cannot get out by continuing digging. At some point you need to put down the shovel and start climbing. And yet we see, metaphorically of course, this happen all the time. We keep digging and digging and wonder why we are not out of the hole yet.
I’ve even heard people say “we need to dig our way out of this hole!”
Bailouts may help, but they don’t fix anything.
A number of those commenting on other topics here have mentioned large unions as being the problem, or a large part of it. I’ve been looking over the tax code, but I think I want to learn a little more about these unions and hopefully gain some understanding of why they might be such a problem, (if they really are), and what we can do to effect some positive change.
Internet access in hotels. What will they think of next?!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
