More on the wastefulness of the $787 first stimulus. And we're told we need another? No thank you.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704204304574544063776158046.html?mod=loomia&loomia_si=t0:a16:g2:r2:c0.122208:b28961300
At least funny bones are being stimulated by the Obama Administration's $787 billion economic stimulus bill.
To wit, how many Americans does it take to make nine pairs of work boots? According to the White House's recovery.gov site, an $890 shoe order for the Army Corps of Engineers, courtesy of the stimulus package, created nine new jobs at Moore's Shoes & Services in Campbellsville, Kentucky.
The job-for-a-boot plan may not be American productivity at its best. But such stories go a ways toward explaining how the Administration has come up with 640,329 jobs "created/saved" by the American Recovery Act as of October 30.
Jonathan Karl of ABC News deserves credit among Beltway reporters for committing journalism and actually fact-checking White House claims. Head Start in Augusta, Georgia claimed 317 jobs were created by a $790,000 grant. In reality, as Mr. Karl reported this week, the money went toward a one-off pay hike for 317 employees.
Other media outlets and government watchdog groups have also found numerous errors in the stimulus filings. Jobs have been overstated or counted multiple times. One Alabama housing authority claimed that a $540,071 grant would create 7,280 jobs. The Birmingham News reports that only 14 were created. In some cases, Recovery Act funds went to nonexistent Congressional districts, such as the 26th in Louisiana or the 12th in Virginia. Up to $6.4 billion went to imaginary places in America, according to the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity.
Asked by the New Orleans Times-Picayune why so many recipients would misstate their districts, Ed Pound, the director of communications for the Obama Administration's recovery.gov, said, "Who knows, man, who really knows."
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Fake Job Creation Numbers
Monday, November 9, 2009
Internet Piracy: A Response to Pirates' Justifications
So we're supposed to believe you will take time to download stuff you do not enjoy and you do not want? That's ridiculous and no intelligent person will even bother making that defense. Do you go around taking grass from parks and front yards? Do you take sand from the beach? No, you won't bother to voluntarily spend time to collect stuff that is worthless to you, the very fact that you do spend time downloading music, movies, or software means that they have value, and means you are getting something for nothing. In the real world, that's usually only possible with theft.
If it's worth nothing to you, then it won't hurt you if it is taken away and you don't ever spend time on it. If there were a pile of sand in your room, would you care if I took it away? No, maybe you'd even pay me to take it away. If these games and stuff are truly worthless, that you aren't getting any benefit, then it shouldn't matter if I prevent you from accessing these things beyond the free demos and trailers given to you buy the owners. You can prevent me from accessing toxic waste, that's worthless to me and I don't care that I can't have toxic waste or play round in it. You can also come and take away what I put in the trash bin anytime you want and I don't care. I'd actually thank you for taking it away, again, it is worthless to me. But it's funny to hear you people complain so loudly about having your "worthless" music and software taken away from you. Why you'd think it was WORTH SOMETHING to you the way you argue and try to make LAME excuses that are so easily dismissed that the very intelligence of those making them has to be questioned. THIS is the best you can come up with? We all know you pirates are getting something valuable and not paying. That's wrong, and that's destructive for the economy and for society. We cannot have a class of people (artists, bookwriters, software developers, etc.) who are not allowed to make money for their labor. That would be slavery and no one allows that anymore. If they should be allowed to make money from providing you a VALUEABLE good or service, then it's up to them to decide the price. Yes, too high a price and you won't buy. Too bad for them huh? The seller absolutely has a right to set a price or to reject a price for the goods/services he is selling. I could go on and on destroying every argument you pirates make, but I think the point has been made. Enough of your BS, you can't justify pirating and so the decent people of society WILL stop you.
Pirating can't be stopped, really? What if a mandatory 5 year jail term in federal prison PER item pirated with NO chance of parole or early release? Are you still sure? How about mandatory software that comes with every computer and every OS that tracks and reports to a government agency what you are doing on your computer so encryption can't hide your piracy? Add that to the mandatory jail term in federal prison, do you still want to tell me piracy can't be stopped? Piracy can be stopped with very draconian and invasive procedures, it's best for society if some other means could be found to make pirates stop without resorting to those measures. The first step is to stop enabling pirates. Take away their BS arguments and make it clear that they have no justification whatsoever for what they are doing. Just like the thief can't claim poverty or that someone else stole from him, as justification to steal. We have to establish in EVERYONE's minds that pirating is wrong. Some people won't do an act that they consider wrong even if they can do it and get away with it. That's a start, but it needs to happen or the draconian stuff will be the only solution left.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Wall Street Greed, Economics, and Society
Economics is only one of the fields of social science. It seems greed and self-interest in our society, are being examined solely within the realm of economics, completely ignoring that there are many other social forces at work.
Social norms and mores are incredibly powerful and greatly influence behavior within societies at all times. Group dynamics and acceptable norms can override economic self-interest.
There is almost no mention of moral relativism and the degradation of using social pressure to enforce norms. As John Bogle noted in his books, "Enough", and "Fight for the Soul of Capitalism", it used to be that managers had a sense of duty towards the owners. Likewise, people didn't take advantage of government programs unless they had to, many felt ashamed to take charity and would do their best to avoid the welfare label. It seems the shame of managers enriching themselves and dependence upon public charity has eroded to the point where social pressure no longer exists. Could they be related? Could the new social message of, you are entitled to get these benefits if you are qualified to, if you can legally, regardless if you need it or deserve it? What I see today is a focus on legality, not morality. If it's legal, it's right, there's no shame in doing something that is legal but morally despicable because morality is no longer agreed upon. That could be good or bad, but the weakness and lack of a cohesive moral code means that social forces are weaker too, and that could explain much of the breakdown in ethics we are seeing today.
Who's values, who's morality? That's a refrain often repeated, and it might be good overall to question certain social mores and all societies change their codes of conduct over time. We could be in one of the times of great change. Nevertheless, that also weakens the ability for society to restrict behavior. If it can't be said that some behavior is "wrong", then the only question that remains is, "is it legal?". This is increasingly the question I see being asked today. Right and wrong are simply not factors considered when making decisions. We should not use economics alone to analyze broad social behaviors, all of the fields of social science should be employed in such an analysis.
Linking Government, Tax Rates, and Economic Growth
Tax policy does have an effect on the overall economy. However it's hard to measure because of the lack of a "control" group. How much would have economic growth grown had taxes been lower? Perhaps we would have had a 4% growth rate instead of 3%, it's difficult to determine what if.
That's why the studies referenced below are important.
http://www.asymptosis.com/an-open-letter-to-robert-barro.html
http://www.asymptosis.com/europe-vs-us-who%E2%80%99s-winning.html
Unlike other studies, they try and control for other factors leaving tax rates as the variable, this is how any good study of a variable should proceed. These are the only types of studies I know of that try and control for other variables. It's nearly worthless to compare tax rates across different eras to come to a conclusion because of the different conditions that exist. The best we can do is compare countries with similar conditions and with differing tax rates to get an answer. Yet there are so many variables that even those studies cannot completely eliminate outside factors. Still, the studies confirm basic economic theory, that taxes are distortionary and are a negative factor to economic growth. Now people should also see that taxes translate into government spending and that can have positive benefits. It is possible for those positive benefits to outweigh the negatives of a tax, an easy example is the construction of a bridge or road to reduce transportation costs which stimulates economic growth. So it seems that higher taxes can be positive ONLY if the taxes are spent in a way that produces more benefits than the cost of the tax. You can disagree with my analysis of the data, but you should visit the website anyway because there are good and constructive analysis from both sides. Given today's government with its high inefficient manner of allocating resources and spending, it seems highly unlikely to me that the proceeds from a higher tax would be spent wisely.
The focus of my post was to point out that we should consider using all the fields of social science to deal with broad based social issues such as greed and morality.
To continue as an example, tax rates could be raised much easier if social praise and reinforcement were given to those who paid the most taxes. Costless praise and other forms of recognition such as a "national taxpayers day" where high tax payers received kudos for their generosity and a brief statement by politicians acknowledging that the nation's operations rests on their shoulders (true or not) would lessen the opposition to higher taxes. Social rewards are a type of currency that can be used in exchange for monetary currency. That's why in previous large scale wars like WWII, every nation involved used praise and shame to raise enormous amounts of money and quell discontentment over the low level of consumer goods provided to society. Almost everyone bought War Bonds even though they knew the low interest and unfavorable terms were likely to produce an economic loss for the buyer. Yet the social rewards outweighed the economic gain. There is a case where "greed" and "self-interest" in economic terms were overcome by costless (economic) social forces at work. The same forces can be heralded again to produce positive outcomes.