Failing

Me, Us, and Them

I’m tired of telling people they’re not smart enough to have a job in America. Because when I give them an F in math, that’s what I am telling them, and their potential employers. It’s not as if, being nineteen and having failed elementary algebra, they will have to settle for the Chrysler assembly line, or go down in the coal mine, or get on at the mill. Those jobs are long gone.

Neither is it the case that they won’t get into med school, and so will have to take their second choice and go to law school; or have to make do with an engineering degree; or do their best with an associates. We’re a few steps below that. A high school diploma is as far as their abilities will take them, and they only got that because we’ve lowered the standards to keep the graduation rate up. No CNA, no CDL, no certificate in landscaping – and not because they’re lazy. Because they can’t master algebra, or even simple arithmetic, there’s no real job for them, anywhere in the US.

And what are they supposed to do? Go live in India? Not because people in India are stupid, but because all the low-skill jobs have gone to the third world. For lots of reasons the US economy doesn’t have jobs for a significant fraction of our citizens. What’s left for those? Not the Army, because they can’t pass the ASVAB. They can choose from begging, petty crime, and/or incarceration.

There are no such people? Yes, there are – people who are unable to learn enough to earn back, in America today, the price of teaching it to them. Much of literate society is insulated from them, or blind to them, willfully or otherwise. Teachers see them. Drill Sergeants see them, or used to.

Maybe this is the real reason for social promotion. Teachers get tired of sticking it to people, tired of screening for the Grand Societal HR Department, tired of enforcing standards that insulate the successful from the visible consequences of their choices. Does off-shoring do the same thing? Lets us profit from unrestrained nineteenth-century capitalism, while hiding the squalor in the third world?

Anyway, I’ll teach my students as much as I can, pass everyone who shows up and makes an effort, and wish them good luck. The meritocracy will have to look after itself.

No more Saturns

The Saturn car company is shutting down, after GM and the potential buyer, Penske, couldn’t close the deal. It’s a shame. I had a Saturn, and it was a nice small car, reliable and economical. Popular Mechanics has a thoughtful analysis, What Went Wrong With Saturn?, but it doesn’t describe what I think happened. In fact, my opinion is about the opposite.

It seemed to me that around 2002 Saturn lost its focus in a race for short-term profit. Instead of improving the small cars they knew how to build, they started making larger cars, sports cars, and an SUV. Everybody wants an SUV, right? Maybe it could have been Saturn that sold the first popular hybrid. Instead they came to be, de facto, another division of GM.

I blame GM management too. The original idea was that Saturn would be an independent company, owned by GM. When it was making money operating on its own, GM should have spun it off, issuing stock to GM shareholders and/or Saturn employees.

Most of all I blame the clueless idiot who hit and totaled my Saturn several years ago. The air bag fired and I didn’t get a scratch. Because besides being reliable and economical, the Saturn was safer than other small cars.

I still miss my Saturn. Too bad nobody will be making any more.

UPDATE: Another view: RIP Saturn – You Could Have Saved GM

Malthusian collapse:

Twenty years away for the last two hundred years

Here’s a great short video about overpopulation. Like P.J. O’Rourke says, for the far left it’s “Just Enough of Me, Way Too Much of You.”

Free-market liberals

Grandmothers and health care

It’s a misconception that Democrats oppose a free market in health care. In fact, they’ve been amazingly innovative.

End-of-life care eats up a huge slice of spending but we can’t change that, except by, um, counseling. So what’s to become of us? Well, Barrack Obama cut Grandma’s social security (hey, that’s what they would have said about George Bush). But that’s because the cost of living has gone down. So thanks to Barrack Obama (See? It all works out) Grandma’s nominal dollars will buy more Big Macs.

Especially in Chicago, but that’s just a coincidence.

Two all-beef patties…

I mean, put it all together. Social Security is in trouble, and Medicare is almost bankrupt. Eating a Big Mac improves your quality of life. At the same time, science (recall how Bush hated science) teaches us (No Child Left Behind) that a diet high in fat is associated with decreased longevity. So the real-dollar price of Big Macs goes down, the price old folks pay for their Statins goes up, and the problem is solved — Older Americas get a shorter and higher-quality life, Medicare is saved, and the economy gets a stimulus.

The Democrats took end-of-life counseling out of the health care bill because public-spirited corporations stepped up and met that need, spreading the word through their marketing departments.

If it sounds too good to be true…

Maybe there are consequences to unrestricted commerce (at least on our side) with repressive totalitarians. That is, consequences beyond cheap DVD players, all kinds of poison stuff, and the destruction of American manufacturing. I wonder what the Chinese leaders hoped free trade would get them? Probably tenure as leaders, and a pile of money besides. On our side, some of us thought free trade would lead China to embrace capitalism and human rights. Instead, Fake Steve Jobs thinks we have all become complicit in the repression.

“We all know that there’s no … way in the world we should have microwave ovens and refrigerators and TV sets and everything else at the prices we’re paying for them. There’s no way we get all this stuff and everything is done fair and square and everyone gets treated right. No way.” — I’m really thinking maybe I shouldn’t have yelled at that Chinese guy so much (Caution; strong language)

More coffee

Coffee “may reverse Alzheimer’s”? Then maybe apple pie prevents heart disease, and ice cream reduces the incidence of strokes. It’d be nice, but it seems like the kind of thing someone would have noticed before now. Anyway, more study is needed, and that’s fine with me.

If it turns out to be true (or if it doesn’t) maybe President Obama will send us some stimulus coupons. It wouldn’t bust the budget – the Treasury would just print up the coupons, and the coffee shops would honor them. It wouldn’t cost the coffee shops anything – they would just pass on the cost to their customers. And it wouldn’t cost the customers, because they’ll just pass on the incremental cost by charging more for their labor. It’s free; it reduces medical costs; it makes everybody richer; and at least a cup of coffee would actually be stimulative.

Drywall

Hate it…

But truly, I’ve hated drywall for years, even American drywall made from organic gypsum and the finest virgin paper. Mostly I just wanted to type “Radioactive Chinese Drywall“.

“A New Citizenship”

Michael Sandel speaks on on market triumphalism. His criticisms are solid, especially the marketization of things not traditionally bought and sold. But he says “should” and “ought-to” and “better”, a lot. That’s fine, but I’d like to know what basis he’s using. I’ll have to tune to his next 2009 Reith Lecture.

In the carboniferous epoch

Because there’s Always a Reckoning

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “If you don’t work you die.”

The Gods of the Copybook Headings , by Rudyard Kipling

Three from Wall Street, one from the beach

• Health Care: What does AARP Want? Basically, as much as they can get for old people. For myself, I’m looking forward to enjoying the deference young people accord their elders, and McDonald’s Senior Coffee.
• France: Sleepiest Industrialized Country – The French are asleep, the Mexicans are watching TV, and the Spaniards are playing soccer. Now we need a joke to go with the punch line.
• Wiped Out: Along With Jobs, Laid-Off Lose Photos, Emails – It’s wrong to treat people this way, but in 2009 you have to expect it and plan accordingly.
• Topless Photos of Gay Marriage Opponent – It doesn’t spark outrage because people assume it’s just a self-serving lie.