Friedman and Zakaria are two of my favorite journalists/authors and they have written a pair of editorials that are definitely worth sharing.
Both editorials focus on the challenges we face as a nation and what we may see in the future. If you don’t read anything else today you should read these - and if you feel so inclined, let me know what you think.
I read an interesting post at Freakonomics where they discussed who was paying a higher percentage of total income in taxes - the super rich or those who aren’t as fortunate. It appears, through a straw poll of sorts, that the top 10% of wage earners who are said to earn 50% of the total income pay less than their receptionists. Warren Buffett has actually posted a challenge with a prize of 1 million bucks (chump change for him I’m sure) to all of the people on the Forbes top 400 list to find someone whose receptionist pays a lower percentage of income in taxes - so far - there have been no challengers.
I’m not in the mood to write a full post so I’m going to give you a file and a couple of links. First off is the best appeal to an Article 15 punishment that I’ve ever seen. Its well worth the read - I had a feeling that I wasn’t the only sarcastic ass in the Air Force.
Next up is an writer that looks at our nation and its productivity if we completely eliminated obesity. Its more editorial than fact but she does bring the work of a few economists into the mix. Its an interesting read thats worth checking out.
Last is an article about corn and how it is and isn’t impacting the cost of food and gasoline in our country. For some reason, as an Iowa native, I feel compelled to write about corn whenever I get a chance. My home state only stands in the spotlight once in a great while. Most Americans only hear about Iowa once every four years during the Caucus. It’s a shame that most of them are still unable to point it out on a map.
If you’ve got too many random web pages in your rotation an easy way to keep them organized is with an RSS reader - a free one is available at Google. If you wanted - you could add my RSS feed. Included is a daily list of everything that I’ve found interesting on Digg - the list is exclusive to my RSS feed.
If you’ve been paying attention - we’re paying more for many of the things that we use daily. The rising cost of oil impacts the cost of transportation, consumer goods, and food. Companies are trying to cut costs wherever possible while trying to retain the most talented and hardworking individuals. Some would blame the war for our economy that is in a downturn. Everything is linked - I read a few articles and found myself hitting CTRL-B five times and I thought it was worth sharing. Each is tied to the other; lets hope that I can explain what I mean.
According to recent polls many Americans have stated that they have felt that it has been much harder to “get ahead.” Our standards of “ahead” have changed since the days when my father was growing up in the 60’s. I’m going to guess that getting an education, having shelter, a good family life, and something (anything except mustard greens) to eat. Times were tough but if you were to persevere you could make a better life for the next generation and hopefully yourself in the process. Now we demand consumer goods as a measure of how well we are doing. Measures of American success include an car (or two), a house, high speed internet, and cable TV. Without these things many believe that they are failing in the race to get ahead. We’re demanding more than ever while overlooking the basics. I’m going to go out on a limb but maybe we should be looking for a little less - check out the full text at the Washington Post.
Some who claim they are having trouble would point the finger at the ever rising costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the increasing price of gasoline. While the cost of the war far exceeds most if not all of the original estimates we’ve paid for most of it with credit. Its been added to our national debt and will probably remain for years to come - the price of oil is increasing rapidly due to increased consumption in America and in south east Asia in places like China and India. Companies outside of OPEC control have made few if any significant discoveries in recent years. It takes a considerable amount of time to find a sizable cache of carbon deposits, negotiate drilling rights, and remove them for refining and delivery. Simply put, even if there are reserves available we may not find them before demand outstrips supply. We have plenty of oil to last for the next 20 years but there has been rampant speculation of what will happen if consumption continues to increase at the current rates. If we cannot find additional reserves we might have a problem - we might find ourselves in a global energy crisis. (I hate the word crisis because I feel as if I am on a cable news network where EVERYTHING is a crisis). The futures market has seen this and that is why we are experiencing the recent increase in oil prices - sure - they could have seen this years ago but its happening now. I wonder if they took off their rose colored glasses at some point in the last two years and saw the error of their ways - the end result of their revelation is that we’re paying for it.
We can do our part to consume less but its going to take a concentrated effort. If we were to determine car insurance premiums based upon the number of miles that we drive we could leverage our savings against those who drive everywhere. They would be forced to consume less simply because they would be unable to afford all of the driving. Enacting immediate changes in MPG requirements and subsidizing companies that reduce consumption while taxing those that use heavily could help. The economic impact of such a decision can hardly be measured by me, but, it’s on the table.
Everything is tied together - change is going to impact our ability to “get by” and may impact our quality of life. We cannot continue to increase consumption at current rates or we are going to see a bubble - a big bubble - and only the those with the most resources in the end will be able to survive.
Jessica added White Coat Rants to her blog roll a few weeks ago and spoke highly of its merits. I hadn’t checked it out until tonight - and I was blown away by one of the posts on the front page.
The blog is written by an ER doc - and is chock full of real life experiences. The post that caught my attention was about a girl who came to the ER at 3AM for constipation - and gave birth to a baby. The story doesn’t end well but its an extremely interesting story.
I read a great article at the NY Times that details the last five years in Iraq. The journalist, who spent the last five years in that country, offers an interesting take on what is transpiring in the country. We claim what victories we can and some victories are not all they are cracked up to be - take the last vote for example.
With 12 million people casting ballots, a turnout of about 75 per cent, it was natural enough for President Bush to say Iraqis had embraced the American vision. In truth, what the majority produced was less a vote for democracy than a vote for a once-and-for-all, permanent transfer of power, from the Sunni minority that ruled in Iraq for centuries, to an impatient, and deeply wounded, if not outright vengeful, Shiite majority.
George Bush is the worst orator I have seen since I have been alive. Reagan could turn a phrase and Clinton was great with the people but Bush stumbles over everything. Gail Collins explains further at the NY Times.
Ok, I haven’t had any great links to share until today and I found a few that somebody might enjoy
Glen Beck doesn’t believe that Florida and Michigan should get a do-over primary because they broke the rules. Instead of giving reasons why the primaries should be held they are only providing excuses - and he believes that the democratic parties in those states are taking that example from the government.
These stories prove how personal responsibility has all but vanished in America, and our government is leading the way.
A 100 year old man celebrates his birthday at a local Hooters. This man knows how to party
The Typo Eradication Advancement League (TEAL) is tired of seeing typos. To combat the problem they are venturing across the country in a bid to eradicate them. Check out NPR’s story and the website itself. I’m guilty - thank god for spell check.
A British Chap fended off an attack by over 150 Taliban fighters and was later awarded for his gallantry. During the battle he was hit - all he had to say was
It was just a flesh wound really
Do you think that he watches Monty Python? Read the rest at the TimesOnline
National Geographic has some amazing pictures - this gallery has island aerials. I REALLY want to go to Bora Bora - looks amazing.
White women in peril The media LOVES to talk about white women in peril - they’ll spend days talking about it. I don’t remember any stories about any other type of women in peril except for younger white women. Huh… They have a website - probably done tongue in cheek - because - you’ve got to be f’ing kidding me if its for real.
sorry - thats all I’ve got for the moment
ok - just thought of this
One man, a republican, was the Governor of the State of New York. The other man, a democrat, was the President of the United States of America. Both were elected officials that strayed from their marital vows and had sexual relations with another woman. One person paid for it and the other person received it freely. One resigned after the incident and the other leveraged it to gain more acceptance from the public. What was the main difference between the two? One was a republican and the other a democrat.
Yes, there is far more to it than that but its an extremely easy way to break it down - wouldn’t it be crazy if I was right?
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