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.
Monday, February 9, 2009
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?!
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