OK, so despite my usual fear of "weighing in" (I am a large man after all--OK extra large damn you), I feel that being that I am a teacher, I ought to say at least a few things about Obama's recent speech on education.
Let me first say that though I have my picadillo's about the stimulus package and some of the other things that have gone on since Barack took office, I have to say, that he is doing a fantastic job of setting the table, and no one (not even Rush Limbaugh--by the way, isn't it time someone got that guy, and by got I mean kill) can say that the guy's been lazy or isn't trying hard. That being said, the general populace ought to be warned that if they really want to fix education, they are going to have to pay for it, and anyone involved in education deserves to be skeptical about the prospects for real change.
The good news is that if we can somehow avoid getting involved in dumb, useless wars like Iraq and Vietnam, we could easily pay for a revolutionary school system like the one Obama talked about in his speech. The problem, as usual, is that our kneejerk, meathead population, their Republican sponsors, and their sponsors, better known as arms dealers, are going to fight any reduction in military spending moronic soundbyte by senseless pundit.
The other problems are more complex. For instance, as a teacher, I am all for merit pay, but how are we going to judge merit. If it is based primarily on student testing data, you can count me out. Students, even high school students, are highly irrational and unreliable--especially when there is no real penalty for not passing a standardized test.
I could probably sit here all night telling you about the potential problems that merit pay could bring, but here's how it could work:
1) Raise the stakes for teachers and students. If a teacher is unable to help students achieve measurable gains in learning on a consistent basis, they should be fired. If a student fails to achieve measurable gains in learning on a consistent basis, they should be either put in a blue-collar, trade program, or sent off to military or other state or federal service.
2) Along with student achievement, teachers ought to be judged on A) professionalism, B) education, C) methods, and D) subject knowledge. This can be determined by continuing administrative observations, student/staff/parent surveys, pursuit of an ongoing education, and periodic subject testing. To ensure that judgments are unbiased, auditors could conduct at least some of these assessments.
3) Teachers ought to then receive a rating on a scale, for instance, excellent teachers would receive an 'A' rating, above average a 'B' rating, and so on and so forth.
4) Schools would then compete to sign the best teachers, with poor, urban schools given more money to encourage the best teachers to work in the toughest situations.
5) Schools should run year round, with a 8 hour/4 day work week (our whole society should go to a 4 day work week--more on this later) and a month off in summer, with a week off in fall, spring, and two weeks off in winter. Teachers are expected to take ongoing educational classes with their extra time off.
Though I have not addressed everything here, I believe that these ideas would go a long way to fixing our educational system so that we can compete in the future. Cheers.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Broken Capital
Quite frankly, I don’t think capitalism works. When I told my co-workers this at lunch, the response was typical: a few people coughed, one person got up and pretended to go do something, and the people sitting next to me acted as if nothing at all had been said, and went on talking about some mundane, sundry, meaningless topic…so, just be warned, people get more nervous than a gay Jewish man at a Nazi rally if you aren’t on board with capitalism.
Seriously though, think about it. All of our economic problems stem from, specifically, credit/investment capitalism. In a free market, buyers and sellers enter into contracts of voluntary exchange, in which someone receives a good or a service in exchange for an agreed upon sum of money. Now this is fine if the exchange remains simple. The problem is when expectations are placed upon the exchange, as is done with credit and investments. Take housing for example. The whole reason the mortgage business crashed was that expectations were placed on the agreement: A) the buyer pays the seller interest because s/he cannot pay the entire amount, and B) the buyer and seller expect the price of the house to rise, at least modestly, so that, hypothetically, the buyer can make money over the long term (and fully pay off what remains on the mortgage) when s/he sells the house, and the seller is insured that his credit risk is backed by real value if the buyer defaults: the house. The lynch pin is the assumption that housing prices will always rise (based on a foolish short term view rooted in the ever increasing expansion of credit), because as we now know, if they fall, both parties in the agreement lose—the buyer cannot now, even if s/he sells their house, pay off the mortgage entirely, and therefore the seller loses too, because they cannot fully recoup their investment from the buyer; nor can they, if the buyer defaults, because the value of the house, even if foreclosed, remains diminished.
This translates easily to nearly any scenario involving credit/investment. We are told to invest in the stock market to secure our future, but if quarterly profits drop, all parties involved lose money…and keep in mind that a loss in profits might not mean the company was not efficient, or that it was poorly run, or that there was even a loss at all. It might simply mean that the company’s performance did not meet the expectations required of the original goal or agreement.
Even a credit card fits into this mold, because again, if the user of the card cannot pay back the funds s/he borrowed, both parties lose—the user is forced to make payments for an extended period with an egregious interest rate, and the lender may not be able to recoup their investment if the user defaults.
OK, so what does this all mean? First of all, we have to understand that any expansion of credit without an associated growth in real wealth for our society, will ultimately lead to an economic collapse—which we are experiencing now. Second, the more our economy depends on credit, debt, and investment, the more violently our economy will swing from prosperity to recession/depression. Third, the attempt by the government to stop or slow said collapse is not sustainable in the long run; however, if it does succeed, it is also socialism that has succeeded. The injection of public money into private companies for government projects is socialism, plain and simple.
I saw a story this morning in the New York Times, decrying the fact that wealthy house owners were getting left out of the government’s plan to bail out people and banks that agreed to bad mortgages. Boo Hoo! We hear everyday about how all these CEO’s and VIP’s are making tons of money even if they haven’t been good stewards at the companies they worked at. Arrghh! And if I hear the term “golden parachute” one more time, I’m going to hit the next person I see in the face with a baseball bat! It’s not fair, and regardless of political affiliation, that fundamentally rubs Americans the wrong way. Personally, I think that if we are going to have a capitalist system, the people that made bad decisions should have to pay for them by losing their job, their house, and their possessions, if necessary. Either that or we ought to give socialism a try, at least for large, public industries, and we can thereby eliminate much of the risk that is inherent in a completely unregulated free market. It is clear that what doesn’t work is capitalizing the gains and socializing the risk, which is where we are now.
So the next time someone attacks socialism, or toots the horn of capitalism, remind them that we are in this mess precisely because of capitalism, and then tell them to get smart and keep their mouth shut in the time being. Or just hit them with a bat.
Seriously though, think about it. All of our economic problems stem from, specifically, credit/investment capitalism. In a free market, buyers and sellers enter into contracts of voluntary exchange, in which someone receives a good or a service in exchange for an agreed upon sum of money. Now this is fine if the exchange remains simple. The problem is when expectations are placed upon the exchange, as is done with credit and investments. Take housing for example. The whole reason the mortgage business crashed was that expectations were placed on the agreement: A) the buyer pays the seller interest because s/he cannot pay the entire amount, and B) the buyer and seller expect the price of the house to rise, at least modestly, so that, hypothetically, the buyer can make money over the long term (and fully pay off what remains on the mortgage) when s/he sells the house, and the seller is insured that his credit risk is backed by real value if the buyer defaults: the house. The lynch pin is the assumption that housing prices will always rise (based on a foolish short term view rooted in the ever increasing expansion of credit), because as we now know, if they fall, both parties in the agreement lose—the buyer cannot now, even if s/he sells their house, pay off the mortgage entirely, and therefore the seller loses too, because they cannot fully recoup their investment from the buyer; nor can they, if the buyer defaults, because the value of the house, even if foreclosed, remains diminished.
This translates easily to nearly any scenario involving credit/investment. We are told to invest in the stock market to secure our future, but if quarterly profits drop, all parties involved lose money…and keep in mind that a loss in profits might not mean the company was not efficient, or that it was poorly run, or that there was even a loss at all. It might simply mean that the company’s performance did not meet the expectations required of the original goal or agreement.
Even a credit card fits into this mold, because again, if the user of the card cannot pay back the funds s/he borrowed, both parties lose—the user is forced to make payments for an extended period with an egregious interest rate, and the lender may not be able to recoup their investment if the user defaults.
OK, so what does this all mean? First of all, we have to understand that any expansion of credit without an associated growth in real wealth for our society, will ultimately lead to an economic collapse—which we are experiencing now. Second, the more our economy depends on credit, debt, and investment, the more violently our economy will swing from prosperity to recession/depression. Third, the attempt by the government to stop or slow said collapse is not sustainable in the long run; however, if it does succeed, it is also socialism that has succeeded. The injection of public money into private companies for government projects is socialism, plain and simple.
I saw a story this morning in the New York Times, decrying the fact that wealthy house owners were getting left out of the government’s plan to bail out people and banks that agreed to bad mortgages. Boo Hoo! We hear everyday about how all these CEO’s and VIP’s are making tons of money even if they haven’t been good stewards at the companies they worked at. Arrghh! And if I hear the term “golden parachute” one more time, I’m going to hit the next person I see in the face with a baseball bat! It’s not fair, and regardless of political affiliation, that fundamentally rubs Americans the wrong way. Personally, I think that if we are going to have a capitalist system, the people that made bad decisions should have to pay for them by losing their job, their house, and their possessions, if necessary. Either that or we ought to give socialism a try, at least for large, public industries, and we can thereby eliminate much of the risk that is inherent in a completely unregulated free market. It is clear that what doesn’t work is capitalizing the gains and socializing the risk, which is where we are now.
So the next time someone attacks socialism, or toots the horn of capitalism, remind them that we are in this mess precisely because of capitalism, and then tell them to get smart and keep their mouth shut in the time being. Or just hit them with a bat.
Morons
If we ever expect to have a healthy economy again, we cannot continue to live in a culture and society that is rife with morons. Let me review a few recent events to highlight this problem.
The first, and perhaps most absurd, is that people have recently criticized president Barack Obama for having a beer at an NBA game. “The job of president is 24/7, so he shouldn’t be getting drunk on the job,” one person said. “At a time when so many people are suffering, it is inappropriate for the president to be drinking and enjoying himself at a basketball game,” said another. Really? Really? Are there seriously people criticizing the president for having one beer at a basketball game? I thought the whole appeal of W. was that he was a good ole’ boy that you could sit down and have a beer with? Where was the outrage when W. went on vacation to Kennebunkport or the Ranch? Apparently the message is that we are to hold Democrats, and especially black Democrats, to a higher standard than everyone else. The irony is that the same moralists that are bitching about this probably listen to Rush “druggie” Limbaugh, vote for Republicans who are responsible for shipping American jobs overseas so that shady business owners can run sweatshops and prostitution rings unabated, and, as our next item will suggest, may not actually be the moral Orals they profess to be.
According to an article in the NY Times, titled “Red Light States,” a recent study by Harvard Business Professor Benjamin Edelman found that subscriptions to online pornography sites were, SURPRISE, SURPRISE, “more prevalent in states where surveys indicate conservative positions on religion, gender roles, and sexuality.” http://blow.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/red-light-states/
A couple of the best nuggets from this study:
1. In states where more people agree that “Even today miracles are performed by the power of God” and “I never doubt the existence of God,” there are more subscriptions to this (online pornography) service.
2. Subscriptions are also more prevalent in states where more people agree that “I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage” and “AIDS might be God’s punishment for immoral sexual behavior.”
3. Eight of the top 10 pornography consuming states gave their electoral votes to John McCain in last year’s presidential election – Florida and Hawaii were the exceptions. While six out of the lowest 10 favored Barack Obama.
HA! HA, I say! If this doesn’t paint Republicans as charlatans, hypocrites, and liars, I don’t know what will. During the last eight years, they’ve lectured us on morality, and yet, are among the most likely to use pornography. Now, they are attempting to lecture us on the economy and about responsible spending, after they got us into this mess with their religious zealotry for a free market and a foolish, purposeless war in Iraq, where they still haven’t found weapons of mass destruction, or the over nine billion dollars in U.S. currency that was sent on pallets to finance W’s adventure. Socially, they have fought tooth and nail against women’s rights, the NAACP, the ACLU, and the rights of gays and lesbians to be legally married, and for the first time in a long time, Republicans had another reason to not vote for the Democratic candidate aside from the (D) at the end of his name.
Look, I’m not saying that people shouldn’t use pornography, or shouldn’t go to church, or shouldn’t be careful with their money—honestly, I don’t really care. Most liberals don’t, because we believe that people should be able to do what they want as long as they aren’t hurting other people by doing it. What pisses me off is being shamed and scolded and nay-sayed to death by these Republican ninnies and the tools that vote for them. Perhaps what they need is a bit of scripture, since God is coming any day now with the four horsemen and Armageddon…In Matthew 7:3, Jesus says,
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in someone else's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from the other person's eye.”
OK, the last recent indication we are living in a nation of morons…the press wrote loudly last week after Obama’s speech, that though it was stirring, “stock prices still fell.” And? I really don’t know what they were expecting…should the market rally just because someone made a good speech? If so, why? After all, Obama’s speech did not make any publicly traded company more efficient, more solvent, or better suited to do business. I feel a little silly saying this, but we have to stop looking at the economy as a magical entity. It seems that as a nation we have no problem telling our kids that money doesn’t grow on trees, but apparently our press, at least, believes it does emerge from the mouths of compelling politicians.
Until we, as a nation, begin living in reality, stop telling other people what to do, stop judging others, and start making rational and reasonable decisions based on facts, science, and research, we are in deep shit. That means addressing health care, education, our system of justice, immigration, energy, and transportation, rather than gossiping about celebrities, reality shows, or what the president chooses as a beverage at a basketball game. Cheers Barack!
The first, and perhaps most absurd, is that people have recently criticized president Barack Obama for having a beer at an NBA game. “The job of president is 24/7, so he shouldn’t be getting drunk on the job,” one person said. “At a time when so many people are suffering, it is inappropriate for the president to be drinking and enjoying himself at a basketball game,” said another. Really? Really? Are there seriously people criticizing the president for having one beer at a basketball game? I thought the whole appeal of W. was that he was a good ole’ boy that you could sit down and have a beer with? Where was the outrage when W. went on vacation to Kennebunkport or the Ranch? Apparently the message is that we are to hold Democrats, and especially black Democrats, to a higher standard than everyone else. The irony is that the same moralists that are bitching about this probably listen to Rush “druggie” Limbaugh, vote for Republicans who are responsible for shipping American jobs overseas so that shady business owners can run sweatshops and prostitution rings unabated, and, as our next item will suggest, may not actually be the moral Orals they profess to be.
According to an article in the NY Times, titled “Red Light States,” a recent study by Harvard Business Professor Benjamin Edelman found that subscriptions to online pornography sites were, SURPRISE, SURPRISE, “more prevalent in states where surveys indicate conservative positions on religion, gender roles, and sexuality.” http://blow.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/red-light-states/
A couple of the best nuggets from this study:
1. In states where more people agree that “Even today miracles are performed by the power of God” and “I never doubt the existence of God,” there are more subscriptions to this (online pornography) service.
2. Subscriptions are also more prevalent in states where more people agree that “I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage” and “AIDS might be God’s punishment for immoral sexual behavior.”
3. Eight of the top 10 pornography consuming states gave their electoral votes to John McCain in last year’s presidential election – Florida and Hawaii were the exceptions. While six out of the lowest 10 favored Barack Obama.
HA! HA, I say! If this doesn’t paint Republicans as charlatans, hypocrites, and liars, I don’t know what will. During the last eight years, they’ve lectured us on morality, and yet, are among the most likely to use pornography. Now, they are attempting to lecture us on the economy and about responsible spending, after they got us into this mess with their religious zealotry for a free market and a foolish, purposeless war in Iraq, where they still haven’t found weapons of mass destruction, or the over nine billion dollars in U.S. currency that was sent on pallets to finance W’s adventure. Socially, they have fought tooth and nail against women’s rights, the NAACP, the ACLU, and the rights of gays and lesbians to be legally married, and for the first time in a long time, Republicans had another reason to not vote for the Democratic candidate aside from the (D) at the end of his name.
Look, I’m not saying that people shouldn’t use pornography, or shouldn’t go to church, or shouldn’t be careful with their money—honestly, I don’t really care. Most liberals don’t, because we believe that people should be able to do what they want as long as they aren’t hurting other people by doing it. What pisses me off is being shamed and scolded and nay-sayed to death by these Republican ninnies and the tools that vote for them. Perhaps what they need is a bit of scripture, since God is coming any day now with the four horsemen and Armageddon…In Matthew 7:3, Jesus says,
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in someone else's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from the other person's eye.”
OK, the last recent indication we are living in a nation of morons…the press wrote loudly last week after Obama’s speech, that though it was stirring, “stock prices still fell.” And? I really don’t know what they were expecting…should the market rally just because someone made a good speech? If so, why? After all, Obama’s speech did not make any publicly traded company more efficient, more solvent, or better suited to do business. I feel a little silly saying this, but we have to stop looking at the economy as a magical entity. It seems that as a nation we have no problem telling our kids that money doesn’t grow on trees, but apparently our press, at least, believes it does emerge from the mouths of compelling politicians.
Until we, as a nation, begin living in reality, stop telling other people what to do, stop judging others, and start making rational and reasonable decisions based on facts, science, and research, we are in deep shit. That means addressing health care, education, our system of justice, immigration, energy, and transportation, rather than gossiping about celebrities, reality shows, or what the president chooses as a beverage at a basketball game. Cheers Barack!
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