If you're not confused, you're not paying attention.
Tom Peters
Congratulations, Stanley Cup Champion: Boston Bruins!
An Example of Counterproductive Progressive Policies
The concept behind this pet legislation initiative of liberals (equal pay for equal work) intuitively sounds good, but in reality it creates unintended consequences. In part, this legislation has the government micromanaging hiring processes; this directly raises the costs of hiring people. It also makes hiring processes more selective, creating winners and losers among applicants. (Of course, any multiple candidate opportunity has only one winner but I'm referring to artificial restrictions on the candidate pool.)
Let me give a couple of examples from my experience to make a point. There's a certain boutique Oracle technology which Oracle licenses at twice its normal cost; Oracle feels it can charge more because the technology can be made to run on cheaper hardware. None of my clients or employers have implemented the technology because of cost-benefit analysis for their applications (it makes more sense, say, if you are maintaining a web-based business and downtime means no interim sales and profits). Basically the only way you get into this segment is at a trainee-style position in an employers market (and no company wants to hire a resource at below-market rates for fear of losing the resource as market conditions stabilize). Otherwise, you face the "chicken-or-the-egg" factor.
The second example is there are a number of opportunities, but there is a huge barrier to entry: possessing an active security clearance. You can't get one on your own; you have to be submitted by a relevant government agency. Even if you're applying for one, the client will argue the situation requires an immediate fill, and they're not willing to wait. This becomes a vicious circle: you would figure there would be some way to allow a concurrent process; a few years back one recruiter actually suggested I keep myself unemployed for several months while the federal bureaucrats did their background check--even though over the past 7 year I've gotten public trust (a weaker background check) 3 times (because, of course, the federal government doesn't allow transportability across agencies. This makes it more difficult to find DBA's, which also implies you have to pay more to get the resource you need.
The point I'm trying to make here is that employers, if and when they do hire, are risk-averse. They may stipulate conditions that make it all but impossible to hire, say, mothers whom have been out of the market for a few years. (Going back to my DBA example, it might be experience with a newer version of database software.) The woman returning to the market might find herself locked out of a reentry moment until, say, it becomes more of a workers' market (i.e., low unemployment) On the other hand, if the woman was flexible on pay, she might be able to establish a critical mass of current experience which she should then be able to leverage into higher income. And that's also how I broke back into professional data processing after leaving academia when I found myself with a "chicken-or-the-egg" scenario. I accepted a position far below what I made as an underpaid professor (I was making 10-25% below my peers at other schools). But within 2 years, I had multiple pay raises leading to over a 50% increase within 2 years and more than what I made as a college professor. But if a company had to pay me what some bureaucrat thought having 3 advanced degrees was worth, I guarantee I would have been unemployed for a longer period of time.
Price is one of the tools I can use. Oracle used to bill me out (for their own consulting services) at over $200/hour over 10 years ago, and I've available for a fraction of that. And I'm a bargain at the original price. I've specifically offered breaks to get certain experiences with key technologies. I definitely don't want Uncle Sam interfering with my business decisions. What could the government do? Reform the security qualification process which opens the market for more quality applicants.
The Trump Pizza Kerfuffle
Let us review this emerging battle in the pizza war. We know Herman Cain, the former CEO of Godfather's Pizza came out in the recent NH debate decidedly in favor of deep dish vs. thin-crust. Earlier Donald Trump took Sarah Palin to Familglia where they both sat down to eat pizza with their knives and forks. Here is a relevant quote:
The Donald has shifted into damage-control mode, explaining in a video on YouTube why he eats pizza with utensils instead of by hand. "This this way you can take the top of the pizza off. You're not just eating the crust. I like to not eat the crust, so you can keep the weight down," he explained.Well, I have uncovered a startling twist: in my background research, I discovered that Donald Trump pitched, no, not Familglia but Pizza Hut, along with his ex-wife Ivana. I captured this still photo from a news report on the patent rights of stuffed crust pizza. I submit this is compelling evidence that Trump knows how to eat pizza with his fingers and also has eaten crusts. (It is possible his doctor in the interim put him on a lower carb diet. There are lower-carb whole wheat crusts or say, a Joseph's flax, oat bran and whole wheat lavash.)
Political Humor. Double dose to make up for yesterday's absent segment. (I didn't find any decent jokes to ad lib over or was inspired to write on my own.)
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s housekeeper says Maria Shriver became suspicious after noticing similarities between Arnold and her 13-year-old son. For instance, after serving as class president, he left the sixth grade with a $42 billion deficit. - Conan O'Brien
[Well, there was also the excuse he wrote for that Nunez kid in class...And when he left the class for recess, he told his homeroom teacher, "I'll be back" in a perfect Austrian accent (without ever having been to Austria.)"]
"The only thing Anthony Weiner is guilty of is being too photogenic." - David Letterman
[Weiner said, "Here, this is my TSA full-body scan... Do you want to see yours?"]
Some originals:
- Donald Trump turned 65 yesterday. Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) knew just the right gift to send him: a personally-autographed copy of his Medicare plan.
- How dirty is the 2012 Presidential campaign getting? Newt Gingrich came back from his Greek vacation to find out Donald Trump had fired his campaign staff.
The Hiroshima Syndrome blog notes:
- Wednesday update: Italy has folded to anti-nuke pressure and will substitute other energy sources; on the other hand, China has confirmed its own nuclear energy plans. The technologies to decontaminate waters in buildings and trenches appear to be working. There are more signs of poor Health Physics practices with many workers at or above cutoff exposure heuristics. There are some signs of overreaction, such as outfitting Japanese schoolchildren with dosimeters.
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
Chicago/Peter Cetera, "Save Me"
