Letter to VA Senators on Health-Care Bill

Posted on December 23, 2009 by John

I sent the below letter to my new VA Senators yesterday to urge them to withdrawal their support from the bloated and obscured bill that will likely be up for vote tomorrow afternoon. Merry Christmas Virginian’s, your state senator’s cast a vote to show that they have done something for the reason that something needs to be done, not becuase its right and the change will be beneficial. You can read both their statements at their respective websites (Senator Webb) and (Senator Warner).

I am writing to ask you to withdrawal your support for the Senate Health-Care Bill. This bill will soon come to a vote in the state senate and for reasons outlined below I urge you to withdrawal your support.

Deal making is career breaking
No matter how appropriate the majority of a bill is, deal making of the type thrown within this bill will never be accepted by VA citizens. It is utterly inappropriate to support a bill that provides support and monies to other states in the manner that this bill does. It is extremely inappropriate that Senators’ Nelson, Baucus, and Dorgan received last minute deals, among other Senators.

Unknown Costs
There is no reliable study on the exact implications on the costs or savings of this bill. In fact you mention in your support statement that it will, “reduce the deficit by more than three-quarters of a trillion dollars over the next 20 years.” Whereas your colleague Senator Webb states, “will lower the federal budget deficit by $133 billion over the next ten years, and by more than $1 trillion over the decade following.” It is insightful that not even a member of your same party elected in your same state can agree on the projected savings.

Reform Yes, but not this type of reform
Your statement also correctly identifies that our current system is not sustainable, “Most importantly, the status quo of our present system, which is damaging our national economy at many levels, is unacceptable.” However, voting for a change because a change is necessary is an extremely weak position. How about voting for change that is right, that correctly fixes the issue (a position I think only a fine minority in your party would state about this bill).

The passing of this bill will affect the ability of democrats to get elected in the next election cycles. Mainly because (1) people don’t like last minute deals (2) people really don’t like to pay for something in year 1 that may or may not save money 20 years in the future (neither young people nor old people) (3) the bill doesn’t actually put in place reform that is favorable.

People are smart, and they are getting smarter, they understand that senators want to show their constituents that they did something that helped, but they are smart enough to analyze if what was done actually helps and prefer to support people who make the right decision not those who just make a decision.

This letter went to Senator Warner whereas a similar letter was sent to Senator Webb.

USA Incorporated – Our New Business Eilte

Posted on October 29, 2009 by John

I read over a great WSJ article, Politicians Butt In at Bailed-Out GM, which demonstrates the problems with government intervening heavily in the decisions of businesses. A few quotes:

Thomas Geisel, chief executive of New Jersey’s Sun Bancorp Inc., says the bank paid back its federal money in June because of legislation that imposed limits on bankers’ pay, among other areas. “Lawmakers let emotion and ego get in the way of making good business decisions,” he says.

“I was elected to represent the interests of Montana, not General Motors, which is something that GM should have considered before letting the federal government assume control of their company,” Rep. Rehberg said recently.

The best way to repay taxpayers is to run the business as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible,” Mr. Socia wrote. “Uncompetitive supplier agreements do not support this priority.” [In response to Montana senators' insistence that GM source supplies from a Montana mine].

I am not sure how much of GM’s ‘decision’ to let the federal government assume control was ultimately GM’s decisions, but regardless they now do have control and it will be interesting to see how what will happen with GM. Hopefully we’ll continue to have some transparency around the whole issue, so that we can tell if the government is able to run GM well. But from the sounds of it the federal government pushing GM around to chose certain suppliers who are constituents or reinstate a constituent’s contract for a dealership is putting the odds in favor of those libertarians who think the government has no role in running a business.

Statism and Capitalism Where Confusions Arise

Posted on September 22, 2009 by John

People often get social institutions confused, by confusing the role of markets, the role of government, and the role of private social institutions.

Capitalism:

Capitalism typically refers to an economic and social system in which the means of production (also known as capital) are privately controlled; labor, goods and capital are traded in a market; profits are distributed to owners or invested in new technologies and industries; and wages are paid to labor. (Wikipedia)

Statism:

A major government or state role in the direction of the economy, both directly through state-owned enterprises and indirectly through the state-directed economic planning of the overall economy. (Wikipedia)

It is often stated that we live in a mixed economy, one where statism and capitalism co-exist. In some markets there is little to no government intervention in others there are large interventions by the government. I can think of no markets where government intervention does not exist outside of ‘black-markets’, or more abstract concepts of a market such as trading favors in a relationship, but these usually fall within the private social institutions grouping.

Socratic Debate I think it is important prior to expressing an opinion on something as broad as capitalism (or statism) to think about what social institutions create the concept of capitalism (or statism) and which particular social institutions are part of a critique or complaint. Usually the complaint is relative to a small aspect of a social institution rather than it to its entirety (or simply a critique about human nature rather than any particular social institution). Aligning our rhetoric with what we are truly perceiving helps with social discourse.

Government Steps on Wireless Providers

Posted on September 20, 2009 by John

cell phone tower I’m like most people who have complained in the past about my wireless provider, although I’ve been very happy with Verizon over the last few years. But my happiness and yours may diminish, as the Federal government might force wireless carriers to treat all web traffic the same, which means carriers couldn’t block or slow access to sites that are a drain on their networks or offered by rivals. To me this is a power grab by the FCC, unless their is some part of this potential regulation that I’m not grasping.

To quote the WSJ article:

If the FCC does force U.S. wireless carriers to open their networks to data-heavy applications like streaming video, it could push them beyond the limited capacity they have. Already, in areas like New York and San Francisco, a high concentration of iPhones has caused many AT&T customers to complain about degrading service.

Its a wonderful thing to have additional content on a wireless carriers network. I would suggest that this is one part of the service offering from a carrier that a consumer looks at when deciding on which carrier to use (although phone model offerings, and plans are likely more important). Although I’m no expert in the wireless industry, I just don’t see the market failure here. Why is it necessary for the government to step in and force an industry to do something that it doesn’t want to do, that it hasn’t done, and for which there are competitive pressures for them to be doing?

On the competitive pressure point. I imagine that one carrier would like to provide access to more websites and online content than their rivals. It provides more value to their customers making them more happy. I am fairly sure that they would want to properly balance this with network reliability and consistent access. I trust that they are doing a good job at balancing these issues or else someone else would do a better job and the company doing a bad job would go out of business (or at least loss market share). That’s competitive pressure, their is pressure within the industry to do this correctly. And I don’t see much evidence of the contrary.

One cited reasons for these new rules is that wireless providers are now in the content generation market, and they favor their own content and sites by slowing or speeding up certain sites. If their content is not good content and they favor their sites too much compared to their competition then customers would switch service providers, or at least bitch to their current service provider.

My point is basically, if consumers found this to be a problem such that they were not being served properly, then some company would realize this and offer a service which fulfilled that consumers needs. Or at the minimum you would here complaints from consumers rather than other businesses.

The Obama administration is taking the side of Google, Amazon.com Inc. and an array of smaller businesses that want to profit from offering consumers streaming video, graphics-rich games, movie and music downloads and other services.

WSJ article

Two Quotes on Government Intervention

Posted on September 18, 2009 by John

Given the current traction government intervention is having in the media and among some groups sentiments (see Regulating Compensation, Administrating Health Care Plans, Sole Originator of Student Loans, etc.) I thought I would share two quotes on government intervention.

My interpretation is that for some reason it is believed that government officials, be it representatives, appointees, or career bureaucrats, are somehow better suited to run things than a private market (think all of our social institutions not just companies). Milton Friedman in the below quote said it well, by asking, in an interview with Phil Donahue, why is it believed that politicians have a nobler self-interest than the self-interest of market participants (think, you and I).

“Do American Presidents reward virtue? Do they choose their appointees on the basis of the virtue of the people appointed or on the basis of their political clout? Is it really true that political self-interest is nobler, somehow, than economic self-interest? You know, I think you’re taking a lot of things for granted. And just tell me where in the world do you find these angels who are going to organize society for us? I don’t even trust you to do that.”

And F.A. Hayek sums up the concept that people in power like to exercise their power.

“The probability of the people in power being individuals who would dislike the possession and exercise of power is on a level with the probability that an extremely tender-hearted person would get the job of whipping master in a slave plantation.”

Yale Access Card Theories

Posted on September 15, 2009 by John

I always thought highly of Yale students, local civilians, and administrators, simply because of their status as a great school, but I’m disappointed in some recent comments. Several news articles and radio reports have indicated that Yale administrators and local police think the murder could only be committed by a few individuals because of a keycard necessary to access the building and basement. Well, I would suggest that it might be possible, maybe in the very least possible, that perhaps, and this is way out on a limb here, someone could of:

- Stolen someone else’s’ keycard
- Left a door ajar
- Electronically manipulated the system (I’m sure some 16 year old Yale student with an IQ of 150 could do so)
- Made an illegal copy of a key card
- Followed someone else into the building/basement
- Let someone else into the building/basement

Don’t get me wrong I would definitely check out those people who had access, but it’s possible someone without access gained access.

Some CNN media quotes:

“Only Yalies had access to that basement, and that seems to point to someone in our community being involved in this,” Kaplan said. “That’s what is so frightening.”

Yale professor Gary Rudnick, who interviewed Le when she applied for admission to the graduate program in pharmacology, told CNN that the building where Le’s body was found had good security, and only certain people could enter, let alone access specific areas. He said the circumstances suggested there could be a “murderer among us.”

Steelmakers and Tire Tariffs

Posted on September 15, 2009 by John

Flat_tire_edited_size I wrote in my Article titled, “US Steelmakers Support Green House Gas Legislation” on United Steelworkers supporting GHG legislation and assumed they were doing so to get more favorable treatment from the White House.

In fact the United Steelworkers couldn’t get any trade complaints passed through the Bush administration so their hoping for some traction with Obama (particular since he pledged to increase trade enforcement). They are currently trying to get ‘trade enforcement’ considerations by Obama on imported Chinese tires.

Well Obama ended up signing a 35-percent tariff on imported tires (a tariff acts like an additional tax on tires from China, read more about tariffs via wiki). The action provides a 35-percent tariff the first year, beginning September 26; 30 percent the second year; and 25 the third. That’s on top of the four-percent tariff that the U.S. already imposes. Then the statute expires completely at the end of 2013. The reason for the increased tariff is that current trade laws have a anti-dumping law which in this case has been investigated by the US International Trade Commission which has determined that (see their report),

On the basis of information developed in the subject investigation, the United States International Trade Commission (Commission) determines, pursuant to section 421(b)(1) of the Trade Act of 1974,1 that certain passenger vehicle and light truck tires2 from the People’s Republic of China are being imported into the United States in such increased quantities or under such conditions as to cause or threaten to cause market disruption to the domestic producers of like or directly competitive products.

So basically the Chinese are able to import tires that are less expensive and that this causes market disruption. I wonder if saddle makers made similar complaints to their US representatives in the advent of the automobile, claiming that automobiles will subject their industry to market disruptions.

I thought a quick overview of why this hurts all of us would be beneficial. China can produce tires with less expenses than a US company. They can do this because of differences that exist within their economy, like lower wages and lower costs of production. This provides the US market with less expensive tires. When a tariff is enacted it increases the price of imported tires and limits the number of imported tires that come into the US market (this later point is because Chinese firms profit margin decreases because the demand for their tires decreases due other additional costs imposed by the tariff and they produce less tires for export).

In fact, I just purchased a set myself, and was happy to buy a reliable well made tire from China that costs less money. If these tires were more expensive due to a tariff or not available because the Chinese companies can no longer remain profitable, then I would have to purchase more expensive US made tires, or pay for more expensive tires from China. That would leave less money in my pocket, and every other consumer who picked out less expensive Chinese tires. This makes me less well-off, there is less money to spend on other things like donations to universities or going out to dinner in my neighborhood.

Well, one my ask, why would a President want to hurt all of the consumers of tires in the US. Its not that the President wants to hurt consumers, but rather the US Steelmakers and a few other special interest have convinced the President that they are worth helping. Too bad US consumers can’t get the attention of the White House like special interest do.

I agree with a WSJ blog that this shouldn’t be viewed as a beginning of a Trade War, as it may just be a warning shot, but it still is unnecessary and doesn’t allow me to freely contract with a company providing me a more favorable alternative to US made tires.

To quote the president in a speech given Aug. 2, 2008,

When special interests put their thumb on the scale, and distort the free market, the people who compete by the rules come in last.

Well I’m following the rules as is every other consumer who wants to purchase less expensive tires, and we are coming in after the special interest. Hopefully people will start to learn that politicians manipulate public sentiments to get elected (i.e., they tell us what we want to hear which does not follow what they end up doing).

Why Should One Get Support While the Other is Hurt

carbon-cap-fedderman

Karaoke Slide Show

Posted on August 4, 2009 by John

At some point in my life I hope to play “Random Karaoke slide show”. There is an open source program called SlideShare Karaoke Randomizer, where you type in a search term and the web-based program accesses numerous presentations tagged with that search term. You then can present a random presentation ad hoc. Most will think, why the hell would I want to do that, well I think it would be great fun and a learning experience.

I have previously been involved with Toastmasters, which has helped me with speaking in public and presenting information. One of the most rewarding aspects of the toastmasters meetings was table topics. This is where someone randomly asks a member a question and that member has to speak extemporaneously for 1-2 minutes on the subject. This was a great exercise to learn how to speak off the cuff, an important asset in communicating effectively, as most communication is not formalized.

I think “Random Karaoke slide show” would provide similar benefits.

I first came across the SlideShare Karaoke Randomizer via this post.

The program can be accessed via this link.

I also came across this write-up on how to run your own powerpoint karaoke.

A screenshot of the SlideShare Karaoke Randomizer is below: