The Devaluation Solution

As our obsession with what those at the top and the bottom make and keep contines to grow, those of us in the middle continue to suffer all of the collateral damage.  Take for instance a new study by the Brookings Institute that touts what a huge benefit the Affordable Care Act will be for those in the bottom 20% of income earners--possibly increasing their average incomes by 5-7% (if you count the federal subsidies to purchase health insurance premiums as "income").  But what the same study finds is that income across the other 80% of Americans will FALL as a result:

Keep in mind, these income projections do not take into account the expected increase in health insurance rates due to mandatory ACA coverages.  You may notice that the impact on those at the very top is less than that in the middle--showing that "redistribution of wealth" via government involvement is still dependent upon the largest section of the population (the middle class) to finance it.

And now our old Keynsian friend Paul Krugman is back demanding that monetary policy move toward promotion of inflation "in order to get the economy growing again".    http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/06/oligarchy-and-monetary-policy/

Krugman's argument is that the government (and those on the lower end of the income and wealth scale) are saddled with too much debt--which is stifling the spending of more money throughout the economy.  But rather than move out of debt and free up more cash for spending in the future, Krugman and his Keynsian allies in Washington believe that flooding the economy with as much cash as possible now will de-value all of that debt.  And what better way to do that than with increased entitlement spending by the government and raising the minimum wage.  Poof--just like that, everyone is making more money!  Well, except for the majority of us who can't get lawmakers to just vote us a raise.  We end up with the higher prices at the gas pump and the grocery store. 

The Keynsians brag that an added benefit from higher inflation is that it devalues the assets held by those at the top--an extra bit of "revenge", if you will--which will be augmented by higher taxes and cuts to corporate profits.  That will teach them for being successful!!

But for those of us in the middle--with much more modest financial holdings--that devaluation effort will have a much greater impact.  Losing two to four percent of your buying power or asset values causes Donald Trump and the Koch Brothers to frown.  Losing that same two to four percent for Joe Middleclass means retirement is pushed off even further.  It's bad enough that we can't get even one percent on our savings, CD's or money market accounts--now you want to make it even more worthless to save money for the future.

I guess that is the price you pay to make things "fair".

Doomed To Continue Failing

Later this week, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Ever's Achievement Gap Task Force will hold its first meeting.  The committee is charged with finding ways to improve school test scores among minority students in Wisconsin--which continue to lag well below those of white students in the state.  (Or at least I hope that is the goal.  You never know, they could adopt the same tactics as those trying to solve "income inequality" by just lowering the standards for those at the top and the middle to get closer to the bottom.)

For those who missed it last week, the Annie Casey Foundation released a report that put Wisconsin at the bottom of all 50 states for the status of African-American children--while white kids in Wisconsin face the tenth best futures.  Graduating more than one third of our African-American males from high school would be a good start toward improving those numbers.

But I am discouraged about what this Achievement Gap Task Force will be able to achieve following an interview the chairman, Mequon Superintendent Demond Means had on Upfront With Mike Gousha this weekend.  Means started out talking a good game, saying we need to expect more from minority students in order to get better results.  But when Gousha (very delicately as you will notice) tried to raise the issue of what I believe is the single largest factor in the failure of minority students in Wisconsin: the lack of accountability on the part of parents--Means insisted that only the school is responsible for a child's education:

http://www.wisn.com/Closing-the-Racial-Achievement-Gap/25341860

Of course, why would a parent think they are responsible for their kids' educations anymore?  The Government steps in as soon as it can to take the child out of home for "preparation to learn".  There's early childhood at three, pre-kindergarten at four, all day kindergarten at five, before-school programs, after-school programs, and summer school programs--all promising to improve student performance.  And yet, the kids who have grown up with all of these "improvement" programs from day one of their lives--are the ones falling farther and farther behind.

I can already tell you what the Achievement Gap Task Force will list as its "solutions"--even before they host their first meeting: more funding for education, more teachers in the classroom, earlier intervention, more alternative learning programs, and moving away from "testing-based" outcomes--all of which will mean more expense for you and me.  While the people most responsible for the failure of their own children continue to think that is what we "owe" them.

Good vs Evil

On Saturday night, the never-ending battle between Good and Evil will play out again on a basketball court in Dallas, Texas.  The Wisconsin Badgers--whom the country has embraced as the representation of what is still good about college athletics--will take on the Kentucky Wildcats--whom many consider to be the embodiment of everything that has gone wrong with the NCAA.

Wisconsin is a team made up of student-athletes who will likely stay in the program for four years and graduate with degrees.  When the New York Times did a story on the demands placed upon players during the NCAA Tournament, they featured the Badgers.  There was Jason Bohannon doing work for his MBA course (the first active athlete ever accepted into Madison's MBA program)--and Ben Brust completing a NASCAR podcast as part of his independent studies program.  And win or lose this weekend in Dallas, by the middle of next week they will be back on campus and in the classroom.

The Badgers are beloved by basketball insiders for their team concept--forged by years of playing together--and for their unselfishness, which means any of their seven or eight regular players could be the leading scorer on any given night.  Sir Charles Barkley has become enamored with Frank Kaminsky for his solid fundamentals and the use of such forgotten skills as the pump fake and the pivot.

Wisconsin is coached by Bo Ryan--who has built championship programs at all levels of basketball--and who is respected by his peers for his integrity and knowledge of the game.  Bo's kids always play hard, improve every year they are on campus and they graduate.

Meanwhile, Kentucky is made up of so-called "One and Done" freshmen.  Players with aspirations to play in the NBA--and who are in the college game only because the rules of the Association bar them from going directly from high school to the pros.  They take just enough credits in the first semester to maintain their eligibility for the second semester--where attendance in class is optional at best--since suspensions for poor grades wouldn't become an issue until after the hoops season is done.  And win or lose this weekend, they won't be seen on campus after this because there will be agents to hire, shoe and clothing contracts to sign, strength and agility coaches to work with and pre-draft combines to attend.

The Wildcats had been labeled as an "under-achiever" this year.  The pre-season Number One has been criticized for selfish play--as potential draft picks worried more about their individual numbers than the team's success.  Their main offense is to use exceptional athleticism to overwhelm opponents--driving past them for dunks in the lane or out-jumping them for put-back baskets.

Kentucky is coached by John Calipari--who is one of only two men to ever take three different schools to the Final Four.  Of course, the first two UMass and Memphis were placed on probation immediately after Calipari jumped ship to another job and those Final Four appearances were actually vacated by the NCAA for recruiting violations, academic scandals and alleged payments to players.  Kentucky, desperate to restore their once-powerful basketball program was willing to overlook Calipari's past transgressions and hired him.  He has returned Big Blue Nation to glory--built on a foundation of "One and Dones"--none of whom have ever graduated.

Now if this was a Hollywood movie--or a scripted "reality" show--the Good would rally past the Evil for a dramatic win.  But this is sports, and that result is never guaranteed--especially when the Bad Guys bring so much more talent to the floor.  However, if Wisconsin does go down to defeat, at least we Badger fans can hold our heads high--knowing that our team is doing it the right way.

Applying the Same "Logic"

Satire

noun

1.

the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.

 
As the nation mourns yet another mass shooting at a military installation, we have to ask what will it take for this country to take the steps necessary to get guns out of the hands of our soldiers?  The list continues to grow: Fort Bragg, Fort Hood once before, Quantico Marine Base, the Washington Navy Yard, Naval Station Norfolk and once again Fort Hood this week.  Case after case of military personnel gaining access to weapons to kill innocent people--and our government does nothing to stop it.

There is no need to have the types of weapons used in these assaults even produced.  They are not for hunting or for sport shooting as the NRA claims.  And who could possibly need the high-capacity magazines produced for these weapons?

The next thing you're going to try to tell me is that this could have been avoided if everyone on the military base had been carrying a gun.  Like having every soldier armed is going to make an installation safer.  If anything, that will just lead to more gun violence, accidental shootings and deaths.

And let's not forget the culture of violence within the military.  The weapons training, the field exercises, the books and videos about killing and war--even computer simulations that do nothing but glorify the use of guns and "desenstize" people to the act of killing another.

Sure, all of these shooters (except for the original Fort Hood shooter, Nadal Hassan--who killed in the name of militant Islam) suffered from diagnosed mental health problems and probably should have been institutionalized.  But those people can't just be locked away.  That's "inhumane".  It's far better to have them walking around in society--where we need to trust them to be taking their medications and seeing their counselors to "work out those issues on their own".

So call or email your Congressperson or Senator right now.  Demand that they take immediate action to take away the weapons that these military personnel are using to kill.  Tell them to ignore the "powerful gun lobby in Washington" and to take the steps to make sure that this can never possibly happen again.

Apathy Wins Big....Again

A former member of the Oshkosh School Board once famously said in the wake of an overwhelming defeat of the referendum to build a new Oaklawn Elementary School on Ryf Road (far away from the neighborhood where most of the children who attended Oaklawn lived and in an area with few if any houses) that "Oshkosh obviously doesn't care about education."  Despite last night's operational expenses referendum win, it appears that statement would still hold true.  How else to explain why only about 20% of eligible voters in the District bothered to cast ballots on Tuesday.  (Other than there was no evening early voting, no bus trips from churches to City Hall to cast absentee ballots and everyone wasn't sent an absentee voting application in the mail by both sides of the referendum debate.)

I've always thought that it would make for a more accurate presentation of election results if they were presented as a percentage of possible votes (rather than actual votes cast)--with the "non-turnout" listed as We Don't Care.  That would put last night's Oshkosh School Referendum results as:

We Don't Care--80%
Yes--12%
No--8%

State Senator Mike Ellis floated the idea on WOSH yesterday that perhaps all such referenda should be required to be on the November Presidential/Gubernatorial ballot--so that more people would actually vote.  While is sounds like a great idea (except to those who know smaller turnout favors school referendum votes) apathy would still win the race.  Turnout for the 2012 Presidential election was 58.2%  That means the Possible Voting Percentage breakdown would have been:

We Don't Care 42%
President Obama 30%
Mitt Romney28%

Even the huge turnout in the 2008 Election--with its long lines and polls kept open past the deadline to meet demand--had turnout of just 61.6%.  Those numbers would be:

We Don't Care   38%
Barack Obama 32.5%
John McCain 29.5%

Even those heading to the polls don't seem to be that "tuned in" to what's going on.  That point was driven home in the race for Outagamie County Board yesterday in Kaukauna, where at least 130 voters were given the wrong ballots for the district in which they lived.  The mistake wasn't discovered until one of the candidates himself got his ballot at City Hall and noticed he wasn't on it!  It's possible that the previous 130 citizens didn't even cast a vote in the County Board race and that is why nobody said "Hey, the guy I was planning to vote for isn't on here, what's going on?"  But it's more likely that those 130 didn't even know what County Board district they live in--and had no idea before voting who the candidates should have been.  Now we are likely looking at at least two lawsuits challenging the results of the two affected districts--and the possibility of special elections to determine the real winners (which will likely see 5% turnout--and an even bigger win for We Don't Care).

Perhaps I should change that label of "We Don't Care" for the non-voters to "We Have No Right To Complain"--since you had your chance to determine the path of local government and chose not to take it.

Now the Hard Work Begins

Now that the extended, extended deadline to enroll in health insurance plans has passed (except for those who got the "absolute" last extension by simply entering their names on the healthcare.gov website--when it was working yesterday) what comes next?  Well believe it or not, this is where actual hard work begins.  Up until now, all we've been doing is trying to convince people to buy something they either didn't want or didn't want unless it was free.  From here on out, all of the effort will go into keeping the system from imploding upon itself.

Let's start with collecting the penalty--I mean tax (for constitutionality purposes)--from those who failed to meet the extended, extended deadline to enroll.  While some steadfastly refused to join in for political reasons, most of the "scofflaws" likely aren't paying any income taxes anyway--so how is the IRS going to collect the "onerous" $95 fee?  And how many agents will be dedicated to checking to make sure that the policies filers claim to have on their 1040's next year are actually active?

Then let's move to making sure that all of those young, healthy people that are the key to keeping the policies in the federal exchange "affordable" (with government subsidies) don't actually use the policies they were just made to purchase.  The "invincibles" are cheap to insure because they don't go to the doctor.  But that doesn't hold true anymore if all those 20 and 30-somethings decide to get their money's worth--instead of just being "subsidizers".  We should expect daily tweets from the White House Press Secretary Jay Carney and Hollywood celebrities reminding everyone to "buckle up when you drive today--we don't want you to get hurt in an accident!"  We should also start running public service announcements telling young adults to give up mountain biking, wind-surfing, contact sports weightlifting because "you might get hurt and need to see a doctor!"

Our next challenge is to get everybody else to actually use what they just bought, properly.  Just because women of any age (and men) can get free birth control pills doesn't mean they are going to take them every day so they work.  We are talking about people who "forgot" to sign up for insurance until the last minute of the last day.  Maybe First Lady Michelle Obama can create another viral internet video with LeBron James asking those ladies "Have you taken your pill today?"  We also need to ride the Type II diabetics to put down the junk food, and the folks with the high cholesterol to bypass KFC and the drunks to stop drinking and the smokers to stop smoking and the drug users to stop using (except for potheads, of course--because marijuana is medicinal and good for you, man), and the mothers to give their kids carrots instead of Cheetos and couch potatoes to actually go for a walk around the block every few days.  Otherwise, having this "blessing" of mandated health insurance isn't going to do them a lick of good. (Or lower the costs of health care).

And finally, health care providers now have to adapt to their new "customer base".  30-million people "desperate" to see the doctor now can (not that they were barred from doing so before).  Unfortunately, we don't have a glut of health care professionals in the market right now--in fact we are quite short at pretty much all positions (except cosmetic surgery).  So somehow coming up with more hospital and clinic staff out of nowhere suddenly becomes a priority.  And many of these new patients are the same people that we are told can't make it to to polls on Election Day between 7:00 am and 8:00 pm every two or four years--so how can you expect them make it to appointments during "regular" clinic hours? 

If you thought it was tough just getting the Affordable Care Act off the ground, just wait until you see the effort (and expense) put into keeping it from crashing into a giant atomic mushroom cloud.

Play Ball.....For Four Hours

Major League Baseball starts a new season today, and I predict it is going to be a long one.  We already know that the World Series could stretch into November again, but what I'm talking about is the pace of play in a game already considered way too slow by many casual fans which is now going to get even slower.

This is the first season that MLB will be be using expanded instant replay.  Instead of determining just fair or foul calls and whether a ball cleared the fence or home run line, now plays on the bases and catches in the field can be reviewed as well.  For the first six innings, managers will have one challenge each.  If their first challenge is upheld, they get a second.  That means four challenges are possible each game.  Starting in the seventh inning, the umpires can request a replay review of their own.

Given the nature of baseball, with a small ball being used on a large field--and the number of bang-bang plays occurring on the bases--the possibilities for challenges and umpire-reviews are nearly endless.  And as we've seen in the NCAA Tournament--where every finger to the eye, last-minute shot and ball deflected out of bounds has led to momentum-killing video reviews courtside--watching umpires on the phone with the video command center in New York is not going to be must see television.

Pace of play was a big topic on the internet this weekend, with suggestions ranging from pitch clocks to home run derby to decide tie games after the 10th inning.  But here is a novel idea to speed up pace of play--and encourage more offense as well: CALL MORE STRIKES.

The strike zone in today's pro game is a joke.  A ball four inches above the belt is now "high".  And yet, you see the same pitch thrown to the same batter in his next at-bat and he drills it 450-feet out of the ballpark.  The tight strike zone has also played into the hands of the Sabermetrics crowd--who believe you want lineups filled with batters who take a lot of pitches and can foul off borderline pitches until they get a juicy hanging curve out over the plate to drive somewhere.  The Red Sox, Yankees and Cardinals are masters of that technique--and they all play some of the longest games in the Majors--drawn out, four hour affairs with numerous pinch hitters, pitching changes to face one batter and 15-pitch at bats that end up with a walk.

If you went back to the bottom of the armpits to the bottom of the knees--and call strikes all the way out to the edges of the plate, hitters would go up there ready to swing, because they know they are going to see strikes and they need to be aggressive to avoid falling behind in the count.  You might also see more complete games and fewer three-pitchers-used-in-one-inning situations--as starters won't reach the 100-pitch mark in the 6th inning so often.

So enjoy the 2014 baseball season, fans.  You are going to be there awhile.