More Thinking On IQ

Posted on August 6, 2013 | 4 comments

IQ

I was in conversation with a friend the other day when IQ came up.  And I used my road construction worker /Harvard grad example again.  Which got me to thinking.

Is there anyone alive right now that really believes the mean intelligence of 1,000 road construction workers is anywhere near the mean intelligence of 1,000 Harvard law graduates?

With that being true, we have to accept that given a random mate selection process that filters on intelligence, the children of the Harvard Law grads would have higher levels of intelligence than the children of the construction workers.  EXCEPT the gap would be smaller.  With a similar random mate selection occurring in the second generation, the grandchildren of the Harvard Law grads would be much more equal to the grandchildren of the construction workers.

Which means that it is okay to say that one group of people has elevated levels of intelligence without implying that another group is somehow genetically limited in their ability to attain those same levels.

It very well may be true that immigrants to America are less intelligent than the domestic population.  This shouldn’t be controversial.

Moving away from the immigration debate, consider what happens to the first and then second generation Harvard Law grads vs construction worker if mate selection is NOT randomized.  That is, we filter ourselves via homogamy.

Now the Harvard Law graduates are not marrying random mates, rather, they are marrying people much like themselves.  Almost certainly a college graduate and likely a member of the same social class.  And if the same phenomenon is occurring at the lower range of intelligence, the opposite expected results will take place – perhaps with consequences that are startling.

Poverty tracks with lower cognitive ability.  Likewise, lower cognitive ability predicts more children sooner with more of those children being illegitimate, which further drives poverty and risk.

I’m not sure what it all means, but it’s a rather scary proposition.

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Posted in Economics, Life, Politics: National

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Another Reason To Hate Unions

Posted on August 5, 2013 | Leave a comment

Unions

As if I needed another reason to continue to hold unions in disrepute:

A judge ordered one of Chicago’s most politically powerful labor unions to suspend picketing against 16 funeral homes last week after receiving reports that striking Teamsters had, among other things, disturbed a child’s funeral.

SCI Illinois Services, Inc., one of the nation’s largest funeral home chains, asked a district court to intervene after striking funeral directors and drivers with Teamsters Local 727 allegedly harassed grieving families.

“We are grateful that the court agreed to issue this temporary restraining order, and we are hopeful that it will help protect grieving families who are experiencing the most difficult times of their lives,” Larry Michael, managing director for SCI Illinois Services, Inc., said in a release. “While we recognize and respect the Teamsters’ right to lawfully picket, we have been shocked and saddened by their attempts to make grieving families the target of the cruel and outrageous attacks.”

The company testified in its filing that union members blocked grieving family members from leaving its parking lot, used bullhorns to shout obscenities at workers and mourners, and unleashed a German Shepard on a dead woman’s daughter and husband.

Stay classy buys – stay classy.

 

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Posted in Idiots on Parade, Lobby/PAC

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On The Basis Of Race

Posted on August 5, 2013 | 10 comments

Together

It was only a matter of time before someone realized that being white was to be a numerical minority in the United States.  And since we have minority organizations in every corner of our society, it only makes sense that this was to happen:

Georgia State University officials say that six students have complained after seeing fliers around campus advertising a new student club known as the White Student Union.

Freshman Patrick Sharp says he started the club so that students of European and Euro-American descent can celebrate their shared history and culture. He said members can also discuss issues that affect white people, such as immigration and affirmative action.

This brings me to one of my main points in racial conversations.  If we want to eradicate the differences among the races, perhaps we should listen to Chief Justice:

The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.

Hardly controversial.

The other point I make when discussing culture and history is that I have no sense of German or Swedish history, culture or roots.  I have no idea from which region of either country my family is from.  I have no idea how the governments of either are formed.  I do not know anything regarding either of these places.

My mother, whose father stepped off the boat at Ellis Island, knows that she is German but only has a sense of America as her home and native country.  She grew up speaking English, reading American history and when the Olympics were on, pulled for the Americans.  It’s the American National Anthem that stirs her, not the German Anthem.

If it sounds silly that Mr. Sharp wants to celebrate his European culture, then why would it not be as equally silly to celebrate an individuals Mexican culture, or Arab or African?

But think on these words:

“If we are already minorities on campus and are soon to be minorities in this country why wouldn’t we have the right to advocate for ourselves and have a club just like every other minority?” Sharp, 18, said “Why is it when a white person say he is proud to be white he’s shunned as a racist?”

Indeed.

 

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Posted in Politics: National, Race

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Wherein Pino Is Fine With A Worker’s Strike

Posted on July 29, 2013 | 2 comments

Strike

I’m harsh on labor unions.  In today’s world – and for much of the time I’ve been alive, labor unions have been the scourge of life.  Nothing but sucking the productive forces of our economy and lining their pockets off the backs of the workers.

Actions truly worth protest march.

Anyway, today there is a semi-nationwide strike:

Workers at the nation’s best known fast-food restaurants in seven cities across America are planning to walk off the job Monday to protest what they say are wages that are too low to live on. In a move orchestrated with the help of powerful labor unions and clergy groups, the workers plan to strike for a day to demand their wages be doubled.

The Washington Post reports that the protests will take place in New York City, Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Kansas City, and Flint, Mich., involving workers at McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s and KFC. Some employees at stores including Dollar Tree, Macy’s and Victoria’s Secret are also expected to join the protesters in several cities.

The workers are calling for wages of $15 per hour, more than double New York’s current minimum wage of $7.25.

As far as I can tell, these workers are not represented and actually could be fired if their employer so desired.

THAT is the type of labor protest that I can respect!

I remember, years ago, working in a catering gig when the boss, a reasonable man, offered me a promotion running a cafeteria at a local community college.  WAY more responsibility and work, staff and everything.  When I asked what my raise would be he said, “There wouldn’t be a raise, just the opportunity.”

Knowing that my field of choice was not going to be in the food industry I declined claiming that the money didn’t justify the effort.  He mentioned that he could just change my assignment and force me to report to my new job Monday.  I told him that he could, but that he wouldn’t want to have to train me and then my replacement in a matter of 6 weeks.

So I GET the fact that people don’t wanna work for less money than they feel they ought to.  And I think that they SHOULD walk out if they feel strongly enough.

Good for these guys and gals.

What I oppose is the racket that is the union basically legislating rules that tip the balance in their favor.

However, the grievances these guys make are less than compelling:

“A lot of the workers are living in poverty, you know, not being able to afford to put food on the table or take the train to work,” Fast Food Forward director Jonathan Westin told CBS New York. “The workers are striking over the fact that they can’t continue to maintain their families on the wages they’re being paid in the fast-food industry.”

Simple fact – these jobs are not meant to support families.

Robert Wilson, Jr., a 25-year-old McDonald’s employee in Chicago, told The Washington Post that he makes $8.60 an hour after seven years on the job. A previous walkout in April led to “small victories,” he said, including additional hours and slight raises.

Simple fact – These jobs are not meant to be stayed at for 7 years.

The truth is that these jobs are meant to be entry level low paid gigs that, in addition to paying money for baseball cards and skateboards, teach young people work ethic, job skills and interpersonal skills.

These jobs are MEANT to be worked for a year or 3 while in school and then left for greener pastures.  These employees are being underpaid, they are overstaying.

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Posted in Economics, Minimum Wage, Politics: National

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Detroit – How Did We Get Here

Posted on July 29, 2013 | 2 comments

Detroit

De’troilet is and has been a mess for decades now.  A prime example of what happens when a democrat party controlled by unions (sorry to repeat myself ) has control of a city.

An insightful story in what residents of De’troilet have to look forward to:

In a small mill town in New England, dozens of retired policemen and firefighters are feeling the pain of what they see as a broken promise, offering a glimpse into what could happen to thousands of public workers in Detroit facing massive reductions in pension payouts after the city’s declaration of bankruptcy.

Donald Cardin became a firefighter at age 20 in Central Falls, R.I., a town just north of Providence that filed for bankruptcy in 2011. He was making $60,000 a year as a fire chief before retiring at age 42 in 2007 to take care of his wife Lana, diagnosed with thymic carcinoma, a rare cancer with extremely low survival rates.

The couple relied on Cardin’s health insurance, which required no copay, to cover Lana’s $8,000-a-month treatment. Cardin worked a part-time contracting job to make up the difference between his $34,000-a-year pension and his former salary.

But that all changed in 2011 when Cardin, and his fellow firefighters and policemen, were called to a meeting at the local high school, where state-appointed receiver Robert Flanders warned them that the city would not have enough money to survive if pensions were not cut. Weeks later the city would file for bankruptcy.

…

Bruce Ogni, 53, president of the Central Falls Police Retirees Association, won’t forget that day, either.

“All of a sudden they dropped this on us. There was no real negotiation. Flanders came in and said the city is in big trouble, we need half your pension and your medical,” he said.

…

With a wife and twin boys to care for, Ogni lost $1,200 a month and had to pay additional fees incurred by his wife’s health insurance. Eight months ago, Ogni’s wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, adding more medical bills to the family’s worries.

…

Ex-fireman Laurie and his wife, Kathleen, live off disability from social security (which he receives from previously working part-time jobs in addition to his service as a fireman) and a $19,000-a-year pension — down from $39,000 before the cuts.

The Lauries makes just enough money not to qualify for public assistance, but the $2,700 the family brings in each month barely covers their $2,300 in monthly bills.

Each of these individual stories is heartbreaking, to be sure.  Life threatening cancer to disability to expecting twins.  All of which is enough to occupy a man, but then the additional pressures of having your world turned upside down.

But there are some striking observations:

  1. What reasonable world do we live in that allows a man to retire at 42 with $34,000 in pension AND full health benefits?
  2. Every single one of the subjects is a tragedy.  Cancer, disability and expecting wife with twins.
  3. A 53 year old President of the Retired Police Association?

Personally, I think that contracts between companies and their pensioners should be upheld – the folks no longer have a position from which to bargain.  If my company changes my compensation, I can leave or stay.  However, with that said, these unions have absolutely been acting in bad faith and without moral concern for the parties involved.

They elect their cronies to office in order to negotiate with themselves.  The deals they strike are so ridiculous as to fail to pass a red face test.  And then, when the parasite finally kills the host leaving nothing but a dead husk – they act so SO surprised and innocent.

As if.

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Posted in Economics, Economy, Politics: National, Politics: State

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The Liberal’s Head Will Explode

Posted on July 26, 2013 | 2 comments

Blow Your Mind

How is a liberal to think?  On one hand you have technology improving the delivery of fresh produce to markets thereby reducing the need for processed goods.  On the other, you have technology reducing the need for labor:

SALINAS, Calif. –  On a windy morning in California’s Salinas Valley, a tractor pulled a wheeled, metal contraption over rows of budding iceberg lettuce plants. Engineers from Silicon Valley tinkered with the software on a laptop to ensure the machine was eliminating the right leafy buds.

The engineers were testing the Lettuce Bot, a machine that can “thin” a field of lettuce in the time it takes about 20 workers to do the job by hand.

The thinner is part of a new generation of machines that target the last frontier of agricultural mechanization — fruits and vegetables destined for the fresh market, not processing, which have thus far resisted mechanization because they’re sensitive to bruising.

Me?  We don’t have  workers willing to work at the price being offered.  Technology is a win-win.

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Posted in Technology

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Medical Intervention

Posted on July 26, 2013 | Leave a comment

When we measure a health care system, are we measuring the right things?  For example, consider heart attacks.  Is the best measure of a medical care delivery system one where we measure how many people survive a heart attack once it’s happened or is it one where we measure how many people have heart attacks?

I suggest that one measure is a reflection of societal norms.  The other medical care delivery.

With that said, do we measure the US system fairly?

Cancer Survival Rate

It’s not even very close, really.  And this plays out to what we know to be true – the world comes to America for medical care, not the other way around.

Sure – move to the ranch in Montana and you have less access to medical care.  But is tat the fault of the system or a feature?

But what about life expectancy?

Life Expectency

When fatal injuries are removed, which occur before medical care can be applied, the US moves from 19 to [ahem] 1.

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Posted in Health Care, Politics: International, Politics: National

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The Republican Conundrum On Social Security – California

Posted on July 26, 2013 | 5 comments

Savings Account

As the debate raged over Obamacare, I warned that republicans were painting themselves into a corner.  It has been correctly pointed out that the idea of the individual mandate was an idea first introduced by the right.  After all, by requiring everyone to purchase health insurance, the costs would be spread more equitably – those more likely to require care would pay more, those less so would be less.

While that debate was raging, republicans were pushing the idea of reforming Social Security.  The goal was to institute personal retirement accounts.  In other words, the government would still take 6% of your money, probably 6% of your employers money, and give you the option of investing it as you so desired.

Forced savings.

I didn’t see the difference between forcing someone to purchase health insurance and forcing them to  purchase savings accounts.

To be sure, both are good ideas – VERY good ideas.  But having the government force it on us?  No bueno.

Now see this:

California lawmakers are pushing a controversial, first-in-the-nation plan that would require private-sector employers to remove 3 percent from every worker’s paycheck. The money would go into a new state fund with a guarantee that all withheld funds plus investment gains will be available for distribution at retirement age.

The idea behind the Secure Choice Retirement Savings Program, which got preliminary approval, is for it to be a state-run supplement to Social Security, but only for people who don’t have traditional workplace retirement plans. For an estimated 6 million working Californians, the benefit of a pension or 401(k) is out of reach — so state lawmakers are trying to implement the new mandatory retirement fund for private sector workers.

Boom.

Now, to be fair, there is NO WAY that California doesn’t spend the money before the benefits come due causing a dramatic budget deficit.  Beyond that, however, there is little difference between this plan and the one republicans called for in social security reform.

Maybe the good news is that by being continually to the right of the crazy, the crazy will feel the need to move right.

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Posted in Economics, Politics: State, Republicans Can Be Leftists Too

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Race Relations: Having A Conversation

Posted on July 24, 2013 | 7 comments

Race Relations

George Zimmerman.

Treyvon Martin

Race.

I’ve never not thought that we needed to have a conversation about race.  Of course we need to have a conversation and we have to have one now more so than in the recent past.  It hasn’t been since Obama – McCain in 2008 that we’ve talked about race in a significant manner.  And this moment in time seems more poignant.

So yeah, let’s have that conversation.

And that means putting on your big girl panties.  A conversation means interaction; interaction in ways that might be difficult, emotional and divergent from your own views.

So here is Bill:

Controversial?  Yup.  Opinionated?  Yup.  A conversation starter?  Yup.

A response:

So, Hayes has an opinion.  I get that.  And his opinion is that he doesn’t like O’Reilly’s opinion.  Which, I guess, is fine.  But what we’re trying to do here is have a conversation.  Which, like I said, is about engaging with UNlike minded people.

Hayes isn’t doing that here.  What he’s doing is anti-conversation having.  What he’s doing is offering a soliloquy, a speech of one with no option of dissenting views.

Which, like I said, is fine.  But it’s not a conversation.  And we need to have that conversation.

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Posted in Politics: National, Race

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There Goes The Neigborhood: Literally

Posted on July 24, 2013 | Leave a comment

As if we haven’t learned by now that unions are corrosive and abusive organizations that provide no productive benefit, there are states that continue to pass legislation that helps them grow*.

Ahh, Minnesota, why you?

A bitter debate results in opportunity for providers to unionize. However, Republicans say unionization would drive up daycare costs.

The bill will allow the approximately 12,700 registered in-home care providers a chance to decide whether to form a union.

If a union were to form, providers would have to pay union dues if they accept state child care subsidies, or they would be required to pay what are called “fair share dues” if they choose not to join.

Those who would rather not participate at all say they will have to turn away children whose parents pay with subsidies.

Unions backing the bill stand to collect millions of dollars in union dues, according to various estimates.

Luckily for the unions, you can’t open day care facilities in South Carolina for Minnesota families.

* 10 bonus points if you guess what political party is in power in Minnesota right now.

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Posted in Liberty, Lobby/PAC, Politics: State

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