The FCC, Net Neutrality, Property Rights and the First Amendment

“The American”, The Journal of the American Enterprise Institute, reviewed a great article written 50 years ago. An economist, Mr. Coase wrote about the Federal Communications Commission and the effect of government regulation on the process. The article covers three of Coase’s points about the problem with government regulation. Mr. Coase’s points are:

“(1)    The existence of a market failure or externality does not in and of itself justify government intervention; indeed, government is often the underlying cause of the problem.

(2)    Government intervention is seldom either administratively efficient or politically neutral; to the contrary, it often results in what Coase called the “mal-allocation” of resources.

(3)    Government control of the economy is a threat to political liberty; for example, government control of the broadcast spectrum has consistently been used to limit free speech.”

These three points appear to be applicable to any project the government takes on. For FCC just substitute Health Care Reform, Cap and Trade, failed Bank and Financial Institutions, etc. The article is applicable to today’s world as it was 50 years ago.

Recently the BBC radio had a 3 part program on conservatism called “Conserve What”. It was basically historical, yet it attempted to place David Cameron, the current head Tory, in line with other Tories like Benjamin Disraeli and Margaret Thatcher. How do Cameron’s principles compare with their principles?

The BBC reached a conclusion about the major differences between Tories (conservatives) and the Socialist, Communist, Fascist groups. That conclusion was that Tories, when they determine the need for change they first assess what they have and then and only then do they start to make smaller changes. The Socialist, Communist, or Fascist changes systems by throwing the existing system out and making broad sweeping changes without regard to the parts of the system that works well. Many people call this throwing the baby out with the bath water.

Thought’s on Capitalism and an Opposing System

There is much confusion about capitalism, what it is, and how it works. Dr. Walter Williams, economic professor at George Mason University has a good article to answer these questions. It is a misunderstood economic system that has never been completely tried in the U. S., like other systems tried or in current use in the U. S. we currently have some capitalism, socialism, and a mix of other systems. We might be more clearly defined as a free enterprise system.

The current debate about reforming health care is an exercise by a group of elites setting the priorities for the populace, things they continue doing, apparently because the populace isn’ smart enough to decide what is good for us. Another one of my favorites, uses a childhood story to bring home the point that we are often times better off with what we have than in what our neighbor has that we might think is bigger or better than what we have.

Dr. Sowell uses the childhood story of a dog with a bone in its mouth who crosses a stream walking on a downed tree. Looking down the dog sees a larger dog with a larger bone in the reflection from the stream. He decides that he would like the bigger bone so he drops his bone and jumps in the stream to get the other bone. Of course, the bone he dropped couldn’t be found and so he ended up without a bone.

We may all end up without any bone as well.

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Choosing The Right College

Want some information on how to choose the right college? Here are some various helps I have come across.  A really good article is by Thomas Sowell published on Townhall.com. There are quite a few matters he investigates that many people might not consider.

Another columnist considers your child’s education and where it should happen. Walter Williams in this article talks about secondary education.  A couple of comments we really eye opening. One about where public school teachers send their children to school. In Philadelphia 44% of public school teachers choose private schools for their children, in Chicago 38% and Cincinnati 41%. In the U. S. House of Representatives 37% choose private schools, and 45% in the U. S. Senate. The President of the United States sent his children to private school in Chicago and now in Washington DC. Dr. Williams likens this to him taking you to dinner at a restaurant and then informing you that the chef and the wait staff won’t eat in this restaurant.
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Do Big Endowment Fund Losses and Extended Graduation Time Effect Scholarship Levels?

A resounding YES to that question.

College endowments have taken big hits this year. Harvard’s  funds and Princeton’s are down 30% and Yale is down 25% according the the “Communique’s” Alexander Green, Investment Director, The Oxford Club. He further stated that their real world returns were probably even worse because their investments are fairly illiquid. Therefore, it is very difficult to fix a fair value and maybe even find a buyer. If these three major  colleges and universities are doing so poorly perhaps no endowment fund is doing any better and most will probably be worse.

What does this portend for college applicants? Lower college endowment funded scholarships is the most likely scenario. If your capital was reduced by 30% you would also reduce your expenditures if you had a choice. Particularly in tough times like now. The last time we had a really bad depression or recession it took about 16 years to recover with the government intercessions. Are we going to do any better this time. The government’s involvement is much greater this time so maybe it will last longer. They seem to be following the policies of FDR which didn’t work until after about 1946 and WWII. Here are the results of a recent economic study that supports the assertion that Obama’ s plan doesn’t work  and is making the same mistake as FDR’s plans.

Not only will the endowment fund losses potentially effect the size of endowment financed scholarship. Another matter that effects your college and university costs that seems to be coming to the front is the time it takes to get a four year or bachelor’s degree. The American Enterprise Institute has published a report on diplomas and dropouts. This a fairly lengthly report and appears to cover most institutions and their record of graduating students with a four byear degree.

College Bound Seniors 2009 SAT Results

Looks like the SAT scores students have earned have remained about the same this year as last.

The big deal this year is diversity as it has been for many years. As the scores are about the same, there is nothing to celebrate nor is there a need for excuses so there is even more diversity celebration.

Included below are a couple of links. Interested in Florida overall results?  There are 15 pages of statistics, but couldn’t find an overall picture for Florida.

See press releases College Bound Seniors 2009.

See results for your state

Uncle Buck’s Unofficial Review of American History

This is an “Education Comments”, blog , but some of you may not be sure that is accurate. My purpose is to not only comment on education “stuff” going on in the public and private sectors, but to try to educate people about some things that are going on in this country and the world. Most of these comments will be critical because there are people in this country who want to tear it down. Actually, there were people who wanted to change our country right after the Constitution was signed.

Part I-  Here are some of the events that have transpired during my lifetime so far.

I was born a year and and few days before Nazi Germany invaded Poland. I don’t believe the two events were necessarily connected.

World War II remembered almost.

Two of my uncles were in World War II, stationed  in Africa and later in Europe.  When they were home on leave and after the war there were family gatherings celebrating their safe return. They usually brought something fr0m the countries they had been stationed in. I don’t remember much about the war except  for VJ (Victory over Japan) day. It was celebrated by people driving their cars to the center of town,  lots of honking of horns,  and the setting off of  firecrackers.

I remember playing war and wanting an army helmet, which I never got. I don’t think my parents were interested in training a future soldier.

Why I Love Pie

During the first few years of my life my father worked for one of my uncles by marriage. The job he had was delivering pies from my uncle’s bakery. Picture this, my Dad delivering pies on a motorcycle with the pies in a pie case in the sidecar. If they were to do the same thing today they would probably be breaking a thousand or more health, business regulations, and other various laws. There are some remarkable stories that have been handed down regarding the motorcycle, sidecar, pie rack and pies being driven on and sliding around on ice and snow. The funny thing is no one ever got hurt on or by the motorcycle or got food poisoning from the pies.

This uncle had a law degree, although, he never practiced law to my knowledge. He was an instructor at the Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana for awhile. He then started the pie bakery and my father delivered pies for him. He was always taking on some branch of government because of their interference with his personal property or personal  rights. I don’t think he was particularly a Democrat or a Republican, but a person whose interest was in a very small government that would not be strong enough to steal property or freedom from it’s citizens.

Were he alive today, he would still be fighting federal, state, and local governments for control of his own destiny. Perhaps he would also be in jail.

During  this uncle’s lifetime there was  a journalist,  H. L. Mencken (1880 to 1956). I first read Mencken several years ago. Mencken has fallen into disfavor with current journalists, if they can be called journalists. Most of today’s journalists really are cheer leaders for the statist government. There does not seem to be any professional reason to disrespect H. L., other than he had low regard for governments and government elected officials or bureaucrats. These people today seem to be held in high regard even though most of them are simply unconvicted crooks. H. L. was a great advocate of very small government, did not support FDR’s  New Deal,  entry into World War I, or W.W. II. I recommend you read some of his writings. We certainly need some of his ideas now. Here are some samples of his writings. Enjoy them. If you don’t like them, maybe you need to lighten up.

Here is a Constitution written by H L Mencken in 1937 for the New Deal. Could have been written just as appropriately for 2009.

More later

Uncle Buck

WHO PAYS MOST OF THE TAXES? YOU DO, BELIEVE IT OR NOT

I recently read that 40% of U S income taxes are paid by 4% of the U S citizens and President Obama keeps talking about the top 5% of taxpayers who he is going to make pay for everything for the rest of us.

I am not sure those figures are really correct. Income taxes are paid by many different entities such as corporations, some non-profit organizations, and certain other entities that are not people. There is also some information going around that claims that 95% of the citizenry don’t pay any income taxes or if they do won’t have their taxes raised one dime. See the New York Times article for some serious comments from the left and the right. Perhaps these statements are correct as far as they go.

There are many names for taxes in the United States and the various States and many ways for them to be assessed. You can avoid some of these taxes by not using or consuming the article on which the tax is imposed. By not smoking, drinking alcoholic beverages,  using other products that have excise taxes, etc. you can avoid excise taxes.

One of the greatest proofs of who pays the tax is the sales tax. Sales tax is always paid by the last consumer and there shouldn’t be any question about that.  Buy something that requires sales tax and you prove my point.

Let’s consider a slightly more complicated purchase and how tax might be applied and who ends up paying the tax.

Let’s assume that all the parts of this product are made and sold by companies that make a profit. The other day we bought a lawn chair for $19.96 to use on our patio. This particular chair has plastic feet and drink holders which are formed from an oil by-product. For this small part of the chair we have the tax on the sale of land on which to drill,  tax on companies that explore for oil, tax on the manufacturing company that makes and sells the feet.  The frame is some kind of steel, the frame would incur taxes on the land bought for mining, the mining company that mines iron and any other products from mining to make steel, then there is the company that turns the ore into steel tubing or sheets. There are net seats and net backs sewn into cloth seats and backs so that there is air flow through both areas. Made from the same cloth material is the bag to store the folded chair. I am beginning to get tired of this so I will just state that we still need dye for the cloth, netting, and the storage bag, the thread used to sew the cloth, netting, and bag together, paint for the steel frame, the steel grommets that allows the seat and arms to slide up and down and other miscellaneous parts and supplies.

If the federal corporate tax rate is 50% based on all the profit from all these companies, and the profit is 25% of all the combined selling prices there is a calculated total federal tax on this chair of $19.96 X 25% = $4.99 and a tax rate of 50% = $2.50. The $2.50 does not include sales tax which in this case was $ 1.40.

Assuming that the above rates are somewhat accurate we paid $21.46 including sales tax and federal tax of $2.90 or 13.5% taxes paid by us as a consumer on this one item.

Think about how much “hidden” tax you are paying and how much more would you like to pay?

“Dumbest Generation Getting Dumber”

Dr. Walter William’s article (the above title is his) reminds me of some of the reasons we have become involved in the education process. Our involvement started when our sons were in grade school. We were living in “Middletown USA” (for those of you old enough to remember where that is).

Middletown has a teachers college (from which I graduated), and at that time produced more teachers for our children than any college except Columbia.

While driving through the campus I caught a broadcast from the college radio station where a student was interviewing an assistant dean of the school of education. The college official being interviewed had input into what the student teachers were being taught about what they should teach your children. The schools at that time were pushing a math method called “new math”. They continue pushing this, however, they change the names of the classes. The student asked the college official what was wrong with the “old math”? The college official answered, “There are those of us in the education community who think there are needed social changes in the USA and the quickest way to bring about those changes is to lessen the influence of the parent over the child”.

Many of you may have taken “new math” classes or the same thing with a different name.

We run into people who have had to participate in these classes during their public school student careers. We meet these people as we interview students and parents for enrollment in our private school in Florida.

Why does Dr. Williams call this generation the, “Dumbest Generation”? I think it is not because the members of that generation are especially dumb. His article uses some test scores to determine that this generation is the dumbest. What has caused the test scores to be so low. Of course, the test results are determined by the questions asked and the students exposure to those subjects while in school. Could it be that the tests do not test what has been taught? We know that some of the tests have been “re-centered”, that means to add points to the student score to keep the scores higher. Another reason could be the mandatory subjects that are covered, but do not belong in the typical core course categories.

At a meeting in Florida with one of the testing companies the public school teachers were complaining about the ten subjects that they had to teach along with all the regular classes. The two courses that were mentioned most were “Anti-bullying” and “Aggressive Girls”, these are real money makers for the people who produce the course material. These courses do not come home with the student to complete, that is why public school students have more homework each day. Many parents and students we interview complain about the loss of time to do extra curricular activities or family activities due to new greater amounts of home work.

Dr. Walter E. Williams, who is on the faculty of George Mason University as a John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics, an author, a columnist, and other activities. Dr. Williams article below was published on Townhall.com

Walter E. Williams : Dumbest Generation Getting Dumber – Townhall.com .

Get Into College or University Easier

Get into college or university easier. There is a big difference between when your parents had to do something to gain admission and what they had to do and how this applies to today’s student.

When I was graduating from high school in 1956 we started thinking about college in February of 1956 or later. Today by February of your senior year most colleges and universities have already accepted students and have granted admission, some scholarships and other forms of aid, and their incoming freshman class maybe full, you may only get into college after May when the early appliers who have been accepted by more than one college have to choose which school they are going to select to attend.

There wasn’t much  thought of scholarships in 1956, my memory maybe faulty but I remember college being relatively affordable. This was before the federal government’s involvement in higher education.

College prices have increased mostly from the federal government furnishing loans and the government’s involvement in currency depreciation. The cost of college has increased as government loans have increased in size. The same applies to housing prices. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has an inflation calculator that will show you the effects of currency devaluation (inflation). If your tuition is $4,000 in 2009 that equates to $508.75 in 1956 dollars for a year at college. As a multiplier for each $1000 of tuition costs in 2009 multiply $127.49 by the number of thousands to covert to 1956 prices.

There are many sources for information about getting into college or university at bargain basement rates, but most sources only cover one area, so you have to search all over for more information. We have an e-book about the secrets to college or university admission which cover the areas you need to cover and some free reports. The e-book was written for public school, private school, and home school students. We suggest that college and universiy planning starts as early as 4th grade. Get the book to see how to be worth at least $1,000,000 more after college.

Florida School Grades and Graduation Rates

Want to know how the public schools did on state tests. Here is a blog on that process. In the high schools the overall math scores improved while the the scores for reading, writing, and science were lower. You can get Florida school grade cards on FL public schools here.

Graduation rates are another interesting statistic, Education Week shows the Florida graduation rate is 57.5% in the year 2005-2006 with the national average being 69.2%. These figures might have been good 50 or 75 years ago. Even New York which many hold up as an example only does about 10% better. FL officials calculate this differentlyand do not appear to be very happy with Education Week figures.

Florida & Tampa Bay schools blog – The Gradebook.