Even though the following webpage is for kids, I think it's an excellent way to explain natural gas to anyone, including adults. More after the jump, courtesy of the federal government:
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/kids/energy.cfm?page=natural_gas_home-basics
"And if an epitaph be my story, I'd have a short one ready for my own: I had a lover's quarrel with the world." -- Robert Frost
Friday, March 5, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
34K for Kindergarten Tuition?
The rich are not like you or me. $34,000 for kindergarten tuition? More after the jump:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20603037&sid=aMSOxnqW3VQs
Tuition at Dalton [Kindergarten]...is rising 3.5 percent to $35,300 for the 2010-11 school year. If you ask me, these kids would do just as well if they went to a private Montessori school.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20603037&sid=aMSOxnqW3VQs
Tuition at Dalton [Kindergarten]...is rising 3.5 percent to $35,300 for the 2010-11 school year. If you ask me, these kids would do just as well if they went to a private Montessori school.
RIP Theresa Pfeiffer, Esq.
A good woman and a good lawyer, Theresa Pfeiffer, recently died. I saw her in court and in seminars several times, and she was always so dignified--gentle yet strong. When we talked, she always left an impression with her beautiful blue eyes and soft voice. I couldn't read the obit, because I started to tear up.
RIP Theresa Pfeiffer.
RIP Theresa Pfeiffer.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Day of Action for California Public Schools? Seriously?
Apparently, there's going to be a Day of Action for California public schools tomorrow, March 4, 2010. Here's a response I wrote regarding this so-called "Day of Action" to someone who was protesting "public education cuts":
Correct me if I'm wrong, but California's Constitution still requires that public schools receive first crack at any state revenues, right?:
From all state revenues there shall first be set apart the moneys to be applied by the State for support of the public school system and public institutions of higher education.
So when you refer to "cuts," you mean that in the midst of a recession, tax revenue declined across the board, right? Not just for teachers, but for most government programs, right? (The less taxes/revenue a state receives, the less money it has to fund all government programs, including education.) That means in order to maintain education spending at the same levels as last year or the year before, some other government program has to be cut, right? So if you really think about it, anyone complaining about "cuts" to education is really asking people outside the public education sector to give public school teachers and public schools preferential treatment, even when the money to maintain other government programs and services doesn't exist.
Without spending cuts, including cuts to education, California has only two other options: raising prices (i.e., UC tuition increases); or forcing other people to pay more taxes (e.g., the higher sales tax, which disproportionately hurts the poor). Am I missing something here? I'm sure we all wish we could fund wonderful government programs, including education programs, but if the money isn't there, then what do we do? How much more can we expect individual taxpayers in California to pay so that teachers, schools, and teachers' unions benefit?
FYI: according to the California Budget Project, "In 2007, more than four-fifths (82.9 percent) of statewide spending for schools went to pay for the salaries and benefits of teachers and other staff."
Another example: let's assume like the state of California, I have no savings. If I make less money in 2009 than I did in 2008, and I want to maintain the same level of spending I had in 2008, what do I need to do? I have to borrow money, i.e., use my credit cards. A state, however, has no credit cards. If it wants money, it has to issue bonds, sell assets, or get loans to raise revenue. Unfortunately, California is in the hole $20 billion, and it can't sell $20 billion worth of assets. It needs to borrow money, which is another way of saying it needs to borrow against the future income of its residents, namely, the kids.
When educators say they want more money to help the kids or to invest in children, remember: they are actually saying they want to take money away from the next generation of kids to help themselves. When someone says, "Think of the children," you should say, "Darn right, we need to think of the children. That's why we need to cut spending, so we don't have to borrow money from our kids to fund government programs." I'm just sayin'.
Counterpoint: California Spends Less on its Students.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but California's Constitution still requires that public schools receive first crack at any state revenues, right?:
From all state revenues there shall first be set apart the moneys to be applied by the State for support of the public school system and public institutions of higher education.
So when you refer to "cuts," you mean that in the midst of a recession, tax revenue declined across the board, right? Not just for teachers, but for most government programs, right? (The less taxes/revenue a state receives, the less money it has to fund all government programs, including education.) That means in order to maintain education spending at the same levels as last year or the year before, some other government program has to be cut, right? So if you really think about it, anyone complaining about "cuts" to education is really asking people outside the public education sector to give public school teachers and public schools preferential treatment, even when the money to maintain other government programs and services doesn't exist.
Without spending cuts, including cuts to education, California has only two other options: raising prices (i.e., UC tuition increases); or forcing other people to pay more taxes (e.g., the higher sales tax, which disproportionately hurts the poor). Am I missing something here? I'm sure we all wish we could fund wonderful government programs, including education programs, but if the money isn't there, then what do we do? How much more can we expect individual taxpayers in California to pay so that teachers, schools, and teachers' unions benefit?
FYI: according to the California Budget Project, "In 2007, more than four-fifths (82.9 percent) of statewide spending for schools went to pay for the salaries and benefits of teachers and other staff."
Another example: let's assume like the state of California, I have no savings. If I make less money in 2009 than I did in 2008, and I want to maintain the same level of spending I had in 2008, what do I need to do? I have to borrow money, i.e., use my credit cards. A state, however, has no credit cards. If it wants money, it has to issue bonds, sell assets, or get loans to raise revenue. Unfortunately, California is in the hole $20 billion, and it can't sell $20 billion worth of assets. It needs to borrow money, which is another way of saying it needs to borrow against the future income of its residents, namely, the kids.
When educators say they want more money to help the kids or to invest in children, remember: they are actually saying they want to take money away from the next generation of kids to help themselves. When someone says, "Think of the children," you should say, "Darn right, we need to think of the children. That's why we need to cut spending, so we don't have to borrow money from our kids to fund government programs." I'm just sayin'.
Counterpoint: California Spends Less on its Students.
Bill Simmons is Right
THIS Bill Simmons article on the NBA's woes is spot on. David Stern and the NBA's owners need to sit up and pay attention.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Obama Not Helping the Unemployed?
Interesting link about the job market and excerpt below:
http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=1752
We’ve spent the last seventy years increasing the hidden overhead and downside risks associated with hiring a worker — which meant the minimum revenue-per-employee threshold below which hiring doesn’t make sense has crept up and up and up, gradually. This effect was partly masked by credit and asset bubbles, but those have now popped. Increasingly it’s not just the classic hard-core unemployables (alcoholics, criminal deviants, crazies) that can’t pull enough weight to justify a paycheck; it’s the marginal ones, the mediocre, and the mildly dysfunctional.
http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=1752
We’ve spent the last seventy years increasing the hidden overhead and downside risks associated with hiring a worker — which meant the minimum revenue-per-employee threshold below which hiring doesn’t make sense has crept up and up and up, gradually. This effect was partly masked by credit and asset bubbles, but those have now popped. Increasingly it’s not just the classic hard-core unemployables (alcoholics, criminal deviants, crazies) that can’t pull enough weight to justify a paycheck; it’s the marginal ones, the mediocre, and the mildly dysfunctional.
If that doesn’t scare the crap out of you, you’re not paying attention. It’s a recipe for long-term structural unemployment at European levels of 10%, 15%, and up. What’s even crazier is that the Obama administration wants to respond to this problem by…raising taxes and piling more regulatory burden on employers.
Raise the cost of something fungible, and demand usually falls. Raise the cost of hiring someone, and unemployment usually rises.Monday, March 1, 2010
Must-Read Article on Crime Rates
Fascinating article on the crime rate--THIS ARTICLE is a must read. (Ron Unz, American Conservative, March 2010, "His-Panic") Below is an excerpt:
Personal experiences are no substitute for detailed investigation, but they sometimes provide a useful reality check. Since the early 1990s, I’ve lived in Silicon Valley, a region in which people of white European ancestry are a relatively small minority, separately outnumbered by both Asians and Hispanics, with many of the latter quite poor and often here illegally. On any given day, more than half of the people I encounter in Palo Alto are Hispanics from immigrant backgrounds. Yet my area of the country has exceptionally low crime rates and virtually no serious ethnic conflict. This confounds the expectations of many of my East Coast friends.
You should click on the link above and read the whole thing.
Personal experiences are no substitute for detailed investigation, but they sometimes provide a useful reality check. Since the early 1990s, I’ve lived in Silicon Valley, a region in which people of white European ancestry are a relatively small minority, separately outnumbered by both Asians and Hispanics, with many of the latter quite poor and often here illegally. On any given day, more than half of the people I encounter in Palo Alto are Hispanics from immigrant backgrounds. Yet my area of the country has exceptionally low crime rates and virtually no serious ethnic conflict. This confounds the expectations of many of my East Coast friends.
You should click on the link above and read the whole thing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)