Quote of the Day
I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.
Nathan Hale
Dr. Hanson is a Stanford professor of classics. As a former MIS professor, I'm always intrigued by the stories of other academics. Any regular reader of this blog knows my first love is, and remains, philosophy, so in a certain sense I share a common ground with Dr. Hanson; he doesn't discuss in this essay whether others sought to dissuade him from a PhD in the classics--after all, there aren't a lot of want ad listings for credentialed classicists (i.e., ancient Greek and Roman writings). I suspect there are a limited number employed in liberal arts colleges and seminaries. In my case, I was told the only way I could make a living as a philosophy PhD was attrition of tenured philosophy professors. (In fact, many universities have abandoned Western Civilization courses in favor of politically correct ethnic studies or dubious-merit surveys of multicultural literature.) Dr. Hanson doesn't really describe the early 80's after achieving his doctorate, but as I recall, the economic recovery was slow in the aftermath of 21% interest rates, which broke the back of inflation.
He is clearly reflecting on the Wisconsin public sector collective bargaining kerfuffle which I have covered in multiple posts this week, and let us first dismiss the obvious objection that school teachers are going to make: there's a world of difference between teaching K-12 and universities, the amount of contact time is different (a typical class will meet 3 hours a week versus 5) and there are more class sections assigned. I'm not going to get into a food fight with high school teachers; let's just say I really was working over 70-hour week, no exaggeration, I had to put up with odd, sometimes doughnut-hole teaching schedules (a lot of night classes, some of them 3 hours long), and I was doing a lot of things like textbook reviews and unpaid university and professional services (including peer-reviewing conference and journal articles). We also have to hold office hours, and almost anyone in my discipline spent far more than the minimum prescribed by the university: among other things, I had to debug dozens of student computer programs.
In my case, I was also in the job market the last 3 years of my academic career. And unless you live in a place like Boston with over 30 universities, if you change jobs, it most likely requires moving to another state; all of this is a sinkhole of time (you have to locate prospective schools, there may be screening interviews at conferences, and if you get short-listed, campus visits where you make a presentation and meet with faculty, administrators, and/or students). I remember as I was finishing up my doctorate, thinking this is the last test I'll have to do, this is the last time I'll have to interview for a job, etc. I was living my dream; I still remember visiting Fr. Lonergan's office, the pungent smell of his pipe filling the office, classical music blaring from his stereo system (he loved Leonard Bernstein), discussing Aristotelian syllogisms, and it was like falling in love for the first time. It changed my life. [No, I've never smoked, and Fr. Lonergan would be troubled by my criticisms of unions, which he championed.]
What happened to me during my academic career as a professor I would not wish on my worst enemy. I will not discuss it in this blog or elsewhere, but it was a tragedy, not just for me but for the students I never had, for a discipline I truly loved. (I also loved going to conferences; it was like a grown-up Disneyland, meeting scholars whose articles I had read, browsing new research topics, discussing possible research projects with other academics, etc. I particularly liked talking to some of the European professors whom would cross the pond to attend...)
In any event, one of the reasons I mention this column is because Hanson at one point discusses probably the same recession marking the end of my academic career, when he mentions scores of resumes from candidates pleading for the type of opportunity he had almost come to take for granted. I do not envy his having had to deal with the unions, whereby even if you did not belong, you still had to pay your tithe for the dubious overhead of bureaucrats allegedly representing your interests (versus their own).
But I also enjoyed his tongue-in-cheek comparisons of the "stressful academic life" with the economic and physical risks associated with operating a small business like a farm, barely able to afford a high-deductible health care policy and putting doctor office visits and his first children's deliveries on his credit card.
As someone who has also been self-employed on multiple occasions, sometimes for bargain basement rates with no coverage of expenses or benefits, the entitlement class gets no sympathy from me; I am particularly unsympathetic about their commitment to save their jobs of their union representatives and executives, picking the pockets of the American taxpayer, seeing their responsibility as maximizing their take from hard-earned state and local tax revenues.
There was once an American President whom had these words to say, long forgotten in the subsequent class warfare politics of the Democratic Party that persists to this very day:
And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.
The Libya Crisis: Some Updates
French President Sarkozy showed leadership among the Western democracies by being the first leader to call on the Libyan dictator Qaddafi to step down and to call for the International Court of Justice to examine Qaddafi's orders to shoot to kill the current uprising. (I called on Obama to take similar actions days ago; I will point out that Obama earlier today called on Qaddafi to leave power.) I'm not as thrilled about Sarkozy's hands off policy over the point of military intervention. The issue isn't so much about the substance as the politics: I think that the possibility of force may mitigate what Qaddafi can or will do in terms of genocide of fellow Libyans; there has been open speculation over his possible use of deadly mustard gas stockpiles and a scorched-earth policy. In response to his concerns about any moves as being read as Western interference in African/Middle East affairs, it's difficult to argue that the unrest in Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Syria, Iran, Bahrain, and Libya is some Western conspiracy. Even Qaddafi himself hasn't made those allegations...
The UN Security Council issued a unanimous 15-0 vote to freeze Qaddafi's assets, bar international travel for the Qaddafi family, and referred allegations of crimes against humanity to the International Court of Justice. There are some additional disturbing allegations being made: "Several witnesses in Tripoli said forces loyal to Qaddafi had shot people from ambulances, used antiaircraft guns against crowds, and removed dead bodies from hospitals to try to obscure the death toll."
A bipartisan group, the Little Hoover Commission, has determined that California's pension system is unsustainable. The editorial goes into more specifics, but the bottom line is that in the heyday of the Nasdaq stock market bubble in 1999, the California legislature made some overly generous changes (including retroactive benefits) in the pension system, increased the percentage of income available for pension, and (then, in what can only be described as collective legislative insanity) actually LOWERED the retirement age, even as actuarial trends showed longer lives and hence longer periods of pension payments. The state and/or local governments then increased headcount by nearly 40% and raised salaries up to 50-60% over the last decade. The top 10 of 80 public pension programs in California, as of last year, are almost a quarter of a trillion dollars underfunded. Current projections show that local/state contributions to make up deficiencies in pension performance may need to go up 40 to 80%, compromising a third or more of city budgets--and that's assuming a robust 8% return (over 2000-2009, the DJ total market actually slightly declined). And if the return is less than expected, the cities and state will have to make up the difference--not only that, but these elevated contributions will go on for at least 30 years.
In short, the cities and state of California are totally hosed. The Democratic Party, in its incestuous relationship with public sector workers, has written checks on the backs of the next 2 generations of lawmakers, whom are stuck in a zero-sum relationship between essential public services and pension benefits unparalleled in the private sector.
It looks like the state courts are inflexible over the commitments to public sector workers; they say it's OK if you make benefits even HIGHER than they are now (!), but (in essence) a deal is a deal. Now it looks as though California is starting to take some long overdue changes in terms of revising benefits for new public sector workers and disallowing the game playing public sector employees can play just before retirement to artificially boost their pension benefit. But these won't help for the vast number of city and state workers.
You could hope that local and state unions will agree to rollback the unconscionable burden on the taxpayers and the implicit sacrifices of essential services. (All right: you can stop laughing now...) It looks like one of the things the commission is suggesting is capping and/or freezing the aggregate accruals.
I think the commission made the best they could of a bad situation; I give it credit for a sobering analysis.
But, for the local and state governments of California: to paraphrase the Soup Nazi: no federal bailout for you! Democratic politicians made promises they couldn't keep, but that doesn't make it the problem of American taxpayers...
Political Humor
A few originals:
- Hong Kong Customs recently intercepted a big shipment of cocaine headed for mainland China. We now understand why actor Charlie Sheen is so keen on Chinese briefcases...
- Embattled Libyan dictator Qaddafi claims that Al Qaeda-linked opposition leaders have recruited rebels by putting "hallucinogenic pills in their coffee with milk, like Nescafe". I think he's confused about the lab results that came back on his morning coffee...
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
The Bee Gees, "Night Fever". One of the iconic hits of the late 1970's...
