Saturday, December 17, 2011
Kafka
"You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait. Do not even wait, be quite still and solitary. The world wil freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet."
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Other WP articles
Black community groups selling out to big tobacco and alcohol - an editorial.
15% capital gains tax is in addition to 27% corporate tax, but half of corporate tax is passed on to shareholders or workers in the form of lower wages - so something like 25% is a realistic assumption. Respond with progressive consumption tax.
15% capital gains tax is in addition to 27% corporate tax, but half of corporate tax is passed on to shareholders or workers in the form of lower wages - so something like 25% is a realistic assumption. Respond with progressive consumption tax.
The death of public school education?
Washington Post article:
Public school education, as we know it, is based on a system of regulations and structures that are obsolete. Take tying school funding to the mill rate. In a high tech world, it becomes all too easy for "cloud schools" to stay one step ahead of these regulations.
Regulators would have to first overcome the local political links that seek to prevent school funding from originating from where the students live - the extra money to Collier County public schools from wealthy students elsewhere, for example, or already significant pressure from wealthy parents to fight equalization pay. The political economy required to enact a new set of regulations is not insignificant.
When it happens, tying money for local schools to where students live is probably a good idea. But it essentially sets schools in competition with each other to attract the poorest students. Is that fair for students with wealthier parents, who then must face at the very least insidious obstacles in getting into the "best" schools? At the very least, we'll find out whether students make the school or if the school makes the students.
But overshadowing this entire debate is the question of just how much money a virtual school needs anyways. Probably very little. Likely much less than even the dollars per student of the poorest schools.
So actually the debate of how much funding is really tangential to the debate of whether schools should get any funding at all. They are too popular to stop getting public funding as "charter schools" - that's for sure. So as long as they continue to get formula funding, people will realize that they are effective for the highest-achieving students but not the poorest-achieving ones. But the former has much more political leverage, thus pushing virtual schools more and more into the forefront until finally virtual schools cause a significant collapse in several public school systems.
Public school education, as we know it, is based on a system of regulations and structures that are obsolete. Take tying school funding to the mill rate. In a high tech world, it becomes all too easy for "cloud schools" to stay one step ahead of these regulations.
Regulators would have to first overcome the local political links that seek to prevent school funding from originating from where the students live - the extra money to Collier County public schools from wealthy students elsewhere, for example, or already significant pressure from wealthy parents to fight equalization pay. The political economy required to enact a new set of regulations is not insignificant.
When it happens, tying money for local schools to where students live is probably a good idea. But it essentially sets schools in competition with each other to attract the poorest students. Is that fair for students with wealthier parents, who then must face at the very least insidious obstacles in getting into the "best" schools? At the very least, we'll find out whether students make the school or if the school makes the students.
But overshadowing this entire debate is the question of just how much money a virtual school needs anyways. Probably very little. Likely much less than even the dollars per student of the poorest schools.
So actually the debate of how much funding is really tangential to the debate of whether schools should get any funding at all. They are too popular to stop getting public funding as "charter schools" - that's for sure. So as long as they continue to get formula funding, people will realize that they are effective for the highest-achieving students but not the poorest-achieving ones. But the former has much more political leverage, thus pushing virtual schools more and more into the forefront until finally virtual schools cause a significant collapse in several public school systems.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
CAFE
Chrysler head Lee Iacocca said this in 1986 when Ford/GM lobbied the Reagan Administration to lower (“CAFE”) fuel efficiency standards: “We are about to put up a tombstone that says, ‘Here lies America’s energy policy’. CAFE protects American jobs. If CAFE is weakened now, come the next energy crunch, American car makers will not be able to meet demand for fuel-efficient cars.”
If CAFE is weakened now, come the next energy crunch, American car makers will not be able to meet demand for fuel-efficient cars.” Well, the rest of the world kept on truckin’ as he suggested, and have more efficient fleets (see chart). If the US fleet were 30% more efficient, US gasoline consumption could fall by 40 billion gallons per year (~1 billion barrels). For context, the US imports 0.36 billion barrels of crude per year from Venezuela, and 0.62 billion from the Persian Gulf. The US just increased fuel efficiency standards, but it will take time to make an impact.
If CAFE is weakened now, come the next energy crunch, American car makers will not be able to meet demand for fuel-efficient cars.” Well, the rest of the world kept on truckin’ as he suggested, and have more efficient fleets (see chart). If the US fleet were 30% more efficient, US gasoline consumption could fall by 40 billion gallons per year (~1 billion barrels). For context, the US imports 0.36 billion barrels of crude per year from Venezuela, and 0.62 billion from the Persian Gulf. The US just increased fuel efficiency standards, but it will take time to make an impact.
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