Analytics

Sunday, August 31, 2014

Miscellany: 8/31/14

Quote of the Day
The world is moving so fast these days 
that the man who says it can't be done 
is generally interrupted by someone doing it.
Harry Emerson Fosdick

Tweet of the Day
Chart of the Day
Via Mercatus Center
Rant of the Day: Keynesianism is DEAD

HT Carpe Diem: Scott Grannis' post: What happened to all the profits?
Despite assurances from politicians and most economists of Keynesian persuasion, not only did the biggest and most rapid increase in our federal debt burden since WW II fail to boost the economy, it coincided with the weakest recovery in history—growth of only 2.2% per year on average.
Here's the failure in a nutshell: The government can't stimulate the economy by borrowing from Peter and sending a check to Paul, because that doesn't create any new demand—it's like taking a bucket of water from one end of the pool and pouring it into the other end; the level of the water doesn't change. And the government can't stimulate the economy by spending more, because the government is notoriously inefficient (not to mention the fraud, waste, and incompetence that surround most major public initiatives); the private sector is far more likely to spend its money wisely and productively than the government is. 
Here's my interpretation of what really happened in a nutshell: the private sector generated $8.9 trillion of profits in the past six years, and the federal government borrowed 83% of those profits to fund a massive increase in transfer payments, income redistribution, bailouts, subsidies, and a modest increase in infrastructure spending (as I noted here, only 8% of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act went to transportation and infrastructure). 
That (the unprecedented sluggishness of the economy despite the unprecedented growth of corporate profits) most likely can be explained by the fact that federal government borrowing consumed almost all of the profits; corporations generated tons of economic resources (i.e., capital) that the government then squandered. When the government commandeers a huge portion of the fruits of the private sector's labor, much money is wasted through inefficiencies, bureaucratic costs, waste, fraud, and the creation of perverse incentives (e.g., taking/borrowing from the most productive members and giving/lending to the least productive). The result is meager growth. 
Ippon!

 Image of the Day
Via Overlawyered
Via Overlawyered
Via Libertarian Republicans



Via Lawrence Reed and the Daily Mail
Via Being Classically Liberal
Some Key Points on Tenure in Lower Education

I have not worked in lower education, but an aunt, a sister, two cousins, and two nieces have education degrees (a nephew with a Master's in English has joined my two nieces as active educators, and another nephew is finishing up his teaching degree). I have not visited their classrooms, but on the Facebook page of one of my nieces, I have seen unsolicited praise, including one parent saying how upset her daughter was to find out my niece wasn't going to be her teacher. Some states, including the one my nieces teach in, have already implemented tenure reforms.

Katebi has written an excellent short post on the recent California tenure decision (thumbs UP), and I would like to single out some key points:

  • For California, teachers only have to work for 18 months before being granted tenure. When five school districts in California were surveyed to see how many new teachers were granted tenure, 99 percent made the cut...However, when fellow teachers were asked, 68 percent reported that many of their fellow tenured educators were unfit to teach.
  • A study by the New Teacher Project found that only 13 percent to 16 percent of teachers that are let go in the current seniority system would also be let go if teacher quality was a consideration.
  • Between 2000 and 2010, the Los Angeles School District spent $3.5 million to discharge only seven teachers, of which only four were successfully fired. 
  •  Research from Harvard University has found that replacing a less competent teacher with even just an average teacher can raise a student’s lifetime earnings by $250,000 per class.
  •  California is just one of 14 states that make seniority the sole consideration for termination. Teacher performance, however, is the primary factor in teacher firings in only three states and the District of Columbia.

More Posts on Lower Education

Vicki Alger says it all in her post title: Competing for Students, Not Federal Funding, is Still the Best Preschool Policy.

Let's go with the 3 studies often used by Statist propagandists used to justify Obama's dubious universal preschool agenda:
The first is the High/Scope Perry Preschool Project, conducted from 1962 through 1965. Back then project researchers asserted that taxpayers would get a $7.16 return for every dollar spent—except neither they nor toddlers got the promised bang for the buck. Aside from the weak scientific methods used (see here, p. 3; here, pp. 2-3; and here, pp. 18-21), the results have never been replicated. Moreover, the project focused on just 58 disadvantaged preschoolers with mental retardation, and experts caution that this is a poor model to universalize. In fact, David Weikart, past president of the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation, told U.S. News & World Report, “For middle-class youngsters with a good economic basis, most programs are not able to show much in the way of difference.”
The Carolina Abecedarian Project, begun in 1972, involved 57 infants averaging about four months old (see here, pp. 3-4; and here, pp. 21-23). These children received intensive home interventions that lasted until they entered kindergarten. As with the Perry Preschool Project, results were never replicated, and experts noted that after nearly five year there was very little difference between participants and non-participants.
A federally funded longitudinal study of the Chicago Child-Parent Center Program began in the mid-1980s and at least had a larger study group—more than 1,000 low-income children. But those children participated with their parents in extensive workshops and tutoring—again far more than just preschool (see here, pp. 4-5). Like the Perry Preschool and Abecedarian Projects the Chicago program analysis used suspect methodologies. 
I won't go into arcane discussions of statistical power (number of subjects), the nature and extent of observation points (short-term vs. long-term), individual differences (e.g., generalizing from a group of mentally retarded students), variances in treatments, not to mention deviations from Obama's target program. The lack of replication, not to mention longer-term attentuation of purported advantages (prominently observed with the subsequent Head Start program), are red flags. In fact, all the usual hyped alleged economic benefits are not based on hard data whatsoever:
None of this has stopped Obama, Pelosi, Kristof, and others from linking any number of long-term benefits to government preschool, from more than 10 to 1 rates of return on taxpayer subsidized “investment,” to reduced incarceration rates, and higher college attendance rates.
Alger concludes:
Evidence shows that federal Head Start program funding hasn’t noticeably improved preschoolers’ academic outcomes. Yet President Obama wants universal government preschool for all American four-year-olds—whether parents want it or not.
A better solution is universal options for all. Let taxpayers keep the money that would otherwise be funneled into failing fed ed programs such as Head Start. Let parents save for the preschool options they prefer. Keep them in charge of whether their children’s schools are performing or not. And, make preschools compete for students and their tuition dollars.
A final post from Jenna Robinson reminds me how bored I was in lower education; in fact in high school, my biology teacher told me that I didn't have to come to class anymore--it was a waste of my time because he would lose all the other students teaching to my level. In fact, my high school counselor was the one who brought up graduating in 3 years, saying I would be better off in college earlier. I know I could have done college level work by sixth grade (as for maturity or relevant social skills, that's a more open question...) I'm not implying I was unique; in fact, the older brother of a fellow freshman was accepted at MIT straight out of his junior year (and never graduated high school). But the point is that college allows a more flexible way for students to advance at their own pace. She suggests 5 lessons lower education could learn from higher education:

  • Students learn at their own pace. 
  • Students and parents have skin in the game.
  • Professors are required to have degrees in their field. 
  • Students can attend any school for which they’re qualified. 
  • Professors are paid as individuals, not as a collective. 

Facebook Corner

(Reason). If you want to help the poor, give them money directly. But don't pretend that minimum wage increases - that distort labor markets and go to workers who often belong to middle- and upper-class households - are an effective anti-poverty policy.
Lowering the minimum age won't help anyone so not sure why the argument exists that raisin it would hurt
Economically illiterate trolls with Facebook are like 2-year-olds playing with knives. There should be NO minimum wage, period. Minimum wages are PROHIBITIONS against people who would otherwise find employment, experience which can lead to better jobs or pay down the line.
It's not a cure-all but certainly helps
No, it doesn't help anyone. More than 98% of jobs pay above minimum wage. Use common sense: if we set a minimum pice for TV's at $500, does it help the retailers? No; if I don't want to buy a TV at $150, I certainly won't at $500. I might buy a TV below $500, but the law of supply and demand tells us we sell fewer widgets as the price of widgets goes up. Wages are not immune from supply and demand.
No worker should earn less than a living wage.
No one who has never run a business has the right to bitch about wage policy.
Those claims have never been shown to be true in real world situations. A minimum wage benefits all society.
Bullshitter. A minimum wage benefits NO ONE. Some 98% of jobs pay above it. If someone's skills and experiences were worth more than some number a political whore pulls out of his ass, he would already be making it. A minimum wage simply outlaws contracts between willing parties, which is none of your goddamn business, jerk!

(IPI). There are 300,000 government employees in Illinois, generating a minimum of $120 million in revenue for government unions each year.
So how exactly do government unions use the money they are given?
Check out our latest report for a breakdown.
Quit beating up unions , fuck the non union work sites no pay benefits job protections ect ,,, all you are at the policy are attorneys and trust fund babies , go out and guard prisons , scrub toilets, send r kids off safe , take care of the elder , give our citizens drivers test. , put our fires , plow our roads and highways , and many more , we do the work you people at the policy consider BENEATH YOU
Talk about a self-serving ego. Unlike all you parasites who feed off the real economy without having to compete for your job, we have to provide real goods and services to compete for voluntary transactions in the marketplace. If you bothered to read the article, IPI is talking about lack of transparency in public union dues reporting and grossly overpaid union leadership, all made possibly by corrupt crony relationships protected by corrupt state laws.

(Being Classically Liberal). (Wrinkle) If the United States of America is such a horrible nation, why do people continue to risk their lives coming here?
Despite government, it has the biggest, most diversified economy, abundant natural resources, world-class education and industries, a fairly high standard of living, occupational freedom and entrepreneurial opportunities, a better future for your children.

(Being Classically Liberal). In your opinion what is the single best change/reform the U.S government could make?
Example: repealing the income tax, tax reform, putting cameras on police officers, etc.
Devolve all individual benefit spending to the state/local level in accordance to the principle of Subsidiarity.

More Proposals










Political Cartoon

Courtesy of the original artist via IPI
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists

Petula Clark, "I Know a Place"

Posted by at
Labels: , , , ,