Political and economic thoughts because of the upcoming elections
With the elections slowly moving upon us more and more people are talking politics, otherwise talking about things they really don't understand. Hopefully I can tackle just a few of these issues for you and give you a bit better understanding of what's actually the case.
Affirmative Action:
What is it? It's a catch all term for the process selecting individuals for something based on additional characteristics then their merit. Often we see it in terms of preferential selection in college applicants for minorities, hiring practices, and housing loans.
Why did it come about? It arose out of the belief that women and minorities were being unfairly denied economic opportunities solely because of their race.
Is it a good thing? No. Any business, academic research institution's primary goal is the conduction of their business. That is, making a profit, and advancing research. Any sort of application/staffing requirement that takes into account more than just merit will have a negative impact on the quality of work being done as not all of the applicants are being utilized. If it comes down to a white guy who can make a widget in 10 seconds, a black guy who can make the widget in 12 seconds, or a Chinese guy who can make it in 8, you pick the Chinese guy because he's 20% more efficient than the next best person. It's simple economics. In college if it comes down to a white student with a 3.8 GPA and a 1500 SAT score, or a black student with a 3.2 GPA and a 1100 SAT you pick the white student because they have the best opportunity to succeed and meet the institutional goals.
Social Security:
What is it? A portion of every dollar you earn is taken set aside by the federal government into a trustee pool, and used to supplement the income of retirees and disabled people.
How it came about: Part of FDR's work to fix what happened after the Great Depressions
Is it a good idea? Good implies some sort of morality which simply cannot be extended to this. Yes it's a nice idea, but it's wholly impractical, and hopelessly crippled by poor legislature. Here's the thing with Social Security a) it doesn't keep up with inflation, and b) it's fundamentally limited by population size. Problem a) is by far the biggest one. Currently Social Security funds are showing a negative growth which will only be exacerbated as time goes on. That is to say we're going to run out of money at some point in the future. Since social security funs aren't leveraged like an investment (an idea to prevent the funds from ever being lost if an investment goes south) the money only grows based on the net flux based money in vs money out. It doesn't take into account the cost of living. You put $20 in today you get $20 out later (plus some fractional growth from a population increase. Now since inflation>population growth that $20 is worth maybe $12 when you put it in. Now had a person put that money into savings, no only would they have kept up with inflation (at the very least) but they might have also made something on the deal. Problem b, was also addressed above. Something else to consider is that social security benefits are not proportional to the amount of money you put in over the years. That is a millionaire CEO is eligible for the same level of benefits as a 30k a year factory worker. Tell me how that makes sense. If you want to fix it, put it into private savings and take responsibility for this yourself.
Harvard's Ending the early admission process:
What happened? Harvard ended it's early admission process because it supposedly favored privileged students.
Why? Think of it as a continuation of affirmative action in school admissions by putting everyone on an equal playing field
What does it do? Absolutely nothing. It simply pads Harvard's PR image which has been called into question in recent years. The same qualified applicants will apply during the normal deadline, and the same minorities that were being "excluded" will continue to underperform and e passed over. But now Harvard has a big friendly, progressive face that makes donors happy.
Welfare:
What is it: The government steps in and offers financial assistance to low income or disabled persons.
How it came about? Another post Great Depression reform when the unemployment rate was hovering near 20 and 30 percent.
Is it a good idea? Heck no. It was originally designed as a stop gap, or temporary, measure to help millions of struggling Americans. Instead It has become an institutionalized system that all too many people see of as a way of life instead of a short term fix. Now many of you may say, "did you know that the biggest percentage of of welfare recipients are single minority mothers?" Yes, I do. Does that matter? Not really. Over a person's lifetime they are entitled to exactly 0 dollars of free money from the us government. That's right, not one penny. Until views of welfare fundamentally change it will continue to be a burden on the US tax payer. Ok, mister big shot, how do you fix this? It's simple. Start living within your means. If you can't afford to have kids then don't have them. It's more of a disservice to them than anything else. If you don't have enough money, work. It's your own responsibility to do work that can support yourself. There are plenty of jobs. Try education. It works. The earning power of of a high-school graduate is significantly higher than that of a non grad, and more than doubles if you graduate college. If you want to break the cycle then parents need to have only as many kids as hey can afford to raise and ensure that they get educated.
Illegal Immigration:
What is it? People move into the United states in violation of current visa laws. Most of the focus is on poor migrant workers, but there are also student and tourist violations as well
How it happened? We have the single most prosperous nation in the country. People are drawn here for economic opportunities not available to them elsewhere.
Is it a problem? No, it's not. Illegal immigration has become the scapegoat for many of my fellow conservatives as the leading cause for everything from unemployment to rising healthcare costs. That's complete and utter crap. The fact of the matter is that there are plenty of jobs available, people just don't want to work them. Democratic legislature has us believing that there should be something called "minimum wage" for services, that is no person should be paid below a given hourly rate for work because its not feasible to live on less than that. Sorry folk, but this isn't practical. Profit margins in small to medium business are small enough as it is. Increasing labor costs will only make things more difficult on business owners and cause them to raise prices. This in turn raises the costs of goods necessitating an additional rise in the minimum wage, putting more pressure on business. Do you see where I'm going with this. The problem is that again people have a sense of entitlement and are unwilling to work for sustainable wages. f you don't like what you make, get over it or become eligible to make more--that is, get an education already. Oh, and the increasing health care cost argument. Also false. Immigrants use next to nothing in government services because they are afraid of getting caught. Try increasing insurance premiums to cover the risk of our litigation happy society as the primary cost of rising healthcare. Sorry folks, find your scapegoat somewhere else.
Our big three auto makers:
What's going on: So here in Michigan our auto industry is vital to our economy, unfortunately as of late Ford, Chrysler, and GM are having sever issues maintain a profit and are having to buy out workers to stay afloat.
How it happened? Not a hard one to figure out. decreasing sales in an increasingly competitive market with growing import market share is killing American auto manufactures profits.
How do we fix it? We stop being dumb and buy American. Japan and Germany both have some of the highest import taxes on cars in the world, yet ours continue to remain comparatively low. So functionally we our auto makes are restricted to domestic and Canadian sales, while foreign manufacturers can sell to both their domestic and and our US markets. If we unilaterally match import taxes car costs will level out. That toyota that used to be three grand cheeper will now be the same price (as it should be). At that point the decision to buy american is simple. Watch as our auto industry rebounds. Issue number two that needs to stop: NAFTA/Forigen owned auto plants on US soil. These are two tactics foreign companies use to subvert our already low import taxes. Brilliant on their parts, stupid on ours. If a company's headquarters is overseas we need to hit them with what ever import tax that country has. End of story. This may hurt a few domestic workers, but it will save a whole lot more.
More thoughts on primary and higher education to come in the future. I'm tired of typing now.
Affirmative Action:
What is it? It's a catch all term for the process selecting individuals for something based on additional characteristics then their merit. Often we see it in terms of preferential selection in college applicants for minorities, hiring practices, and housing loans.
Why did it come about? It arose out of the belief that women and minorities were being unfairly denied economic opportunities solely because of their race.
Is it a good thing? No. Any business, academic research institution's primary goal is the conduction of their business. That is, making a profit, and advancing research. Any sort of application/staffing requirement that takes into account more than just merit will have a negative impact on the quality of work being done as not all of the applicants are being utilized. If it comes down to a white guy who can make a widget in 10 seconds, a black guy who can make the widget in 12 seconds, or a Chinese guy who can make it in 8, you pick the Chinese guy because he's 20% more efficient than the next best person. It's simple economics. In college if it comes down to a white student with a 3.8 GPA and a 1500 SAT score, or a black student with a 3.2 GPA and a 1100 SAT you pick the white student because they have the best opportunity to succeed and meet the institutional goals.
Social Security:
What is it? A portion of every dollar you earn is taken set aside by the federal government into a trustee pool, and used to supplement the income of retirees and disabled people.
How it came about: Part of FDR's work to fix what happened after the Great Depressions
Is it a good idea? Good implies some sort of morality which simply cannot be extended to this. Yes it's a nice idea, but it's wholly impractical, and hopelessly crippled by poor legislature. Here's the thing with Social Security a) it doesn't keep up with inflation, and b) it's fundamentally limited by population size. Problem a) is by far the biggest one. Currently Social Security funds are showing a negative growth which will only be exacerbated as time goes on. That is to say we're going to run out of money at some point in the future. Since social security funs aren't leveraged like an investment (an idea to prevent the funds from ever being lost if an investment goes south) the money only grows based on the net flux based money in vs money out. It doesn't take into account the cost of living. You put $20 in today you get $20 out later (plus some fractional growth from a population increase. Now since inflation>population growth that $20 is worth maybe $12 when you put it in. Now had a person put that money into savings, no only would they have kept up with inflation (at the very least) but they might have also made something on the deal. Problem b, was also addressed above. Something else to consider is that social security benefits are not proportional to the amount of money you put in over the years. That is a millionaire CEO is eligible for the same level of benefits as a 30k a year factory worker. Tell me how that makes sense. If you want to fix it, put it into private savings and take responsibility for this yourself.
Harvard's Ending the early admission process:
What happened? Harvard ended it's early admission process because it supposedly favored privileged students.
Why? Think of it as a continuation of affirmative action in school admissions by putting everyone on an equal playing field
What does it do? Absolutely nothing. It simply pads Harvard's PR image which has been called into question in recent years. The same qualified applicants will apply during the normal deadline, and the same minorities that were being "excluded" will continue to underperform and e passed over. But now Harvard has a big friendly, progressive face that makes donors happy.
Welfare:
What is it: The government steps in and offers financial assistance to low income or disabled persons.
How it came about? Another post Great Depression reform when the unemployment rate was hovering near 20 and 30 percent.
Is it a good idea? Heck no. It was originally designed as a stop gap, or temporary, measure to help millions of struggling Americans. Instead It has become an institutionalized system that all too many people see of as a way of life instead of a short term fix. Now many of you may say, "did you know that the biggest percentage of of welfare recipients are single minority mothers?" Yes, I do. Does that matter? Not really. Over a person's lifetime they are entitled to exactly 0 dollars of free money from the us government. That's right, not one penny. Until views of welfare fundamentally change it will continue to be a burden on the US tax payer. Ok, mister big shot, how do you fix this? It's simple. Start living within your means. If you can't afford to have kids then don't have them. It's more of a disservice to them than anything else. If you don't have enough money, work. It's your own responsibility to do work that can support yourself. There are plenty of jobs. Try education. It works. The earning power of of a high-school graduate is significantly higher than that of a non grad, and more than doubles if you graduate college. If you want to break the cycle then parents need to have only as many kids as hey can afford to raise and ensure that they get educated.
Illegal Immigration:
What is it? People move into the United states in violation of current visa laws. Most of the focus is on poor migrant workers, but there are also student and tourist violations as well
How it happened? We have the single most prosperous nation in the country. People are drawn here for economic opportunities not available to them elsewhere.
Is it a problem? No, it's not. Illegal immigration has become the scapegoat for many of my fellow conservatives as the leading cause for everything from unemployment to rising healthcare costs. That's complete and utter crap. The fact of the matter is that there are plenty of jobs available, people just don't want to work them. Democratic legislature has us believing that there should be something called "minimum wage" for services, that is no person should be paid below a given hourly rate for work because its not feasible to live on less than that. Sorry folk, but this isn't practical. Profit margins in small to medium business are small enough as it is. Increasing labor costs will only make things more difficult on business owners and cause them to raise prices. This in turn raises the costs of goods necessitating an additional rise in the minimum wage, putting more pressure on business. Do you see where I'm going with this. The problem is that again people have a sense of entitlement and are unwilling to work for sustainable wages. f you don't like what you make, get over it or become eligible to make more--that is, get an education already. Oh, and the increasing health care cost argument. Also false. Immigrants use next to nothing in government services because they are afraid of getting caught. Try increasing insurance premiums to cover the risk of our litigation happy society as the primary cost of rising healthcare. Sorry folks, find your scapegoat somewhere else.
Our big three auto makers:
What's going on: So here in Michigan our auto industry is vital to our economy, unfortunately as of late Ford, Chrysler, and GM are having sever issues maintain a profit and are having to buy out workers to stay afloat.
How it happened? Not a hard one to figure out. decreasing sales in an increasingly competitive market with growing import market share is killing American auto manufactures profits.
How do we fix it? We stop being dumb and buy American. Japan and Germany both have some of the highest import taxes on cars in the world, yet ours continue to remain comparatively low. So functionally we our auto makes are restricted to domestic and Canadian sales, while foreign manufacturers can sell to both their domestic and and our US markets. If we unilaterally match import taxes car costs will level out. That toyota that used to be three grand cheeper will now be the same price (as it should be). At that point the decision to buy american is simple. Watch as our auto industry rebounds. Issue number two that needs to stop: NAFTA/Forigen owned auto plants on US soil. These are two tactics foreign companies use to subvert our already low import taxes. Brilliant on their parts, stupid on ours. If a company's headquarters is overseas we need to hit them with what ever import tax that country has. End of story. This may hurt a few domestic workers, but it will save a whole lot more.
More thoughts on primary and higher education to come in the future. I'm tired of typing now.