|
|
||||||||||
|
30 September 2007MemeVia Le Colonel Chabert by way of love and terrorism. - Grab the nearest book. 'The details of the following script are implementation-dependent.' (from 'Common LISP: The Reference', Franz Inc., 1988, Addison-Wesley') More interesting quotations with links"inquiry into the criminal question made plain that the great mass of crimes are crimes against property; even those crimes arising from jealousy are property crimes resulting from the notion of a right of property in flesh. Allowing property to be eradicated, both in practice and in spirit, no crimes are left but such are the acts of the mentally sick."--Voltairine De Cleyre"One wonders how long such a system can last since most kleptocracies fail, bloodily, when there is no more wealth to loot. The powerful leave, and poor fight each other for what's left."--Kvatch"Death To Memes! Up With People!"--William"When the working class unites, there will be a lot of jobless labor leaders."--Eugene Debs"...you do what your boss says because you've become dependent on your job..."--anon.(?)"Look at the development of Christian theology: the paradox of salvation by good works versus salvation by faith would never exist had Christianity greater respect for critical thought."--Jasonanother web "to do" listagcomments to nisc artsrevenge over graffiti crackdown asnational report on needs of adults with asperger astrologyatrocitybiobizlbo-talk carthe green automobile catcomptorpark dissentstrike the root earthecona basic income for all edupo' scholar fund financecredit crunch explained folkxjack saturday food"food deserts" gisgurdhistoryhoodcreate more public sector jobs infolist of search engines jardinabout food not lawns kidlangmedlongevity pro+con nethackopiniondestroit paranoiaour post-privacy future philanthropyphilosophyanarchist philosophy politicsdemocracy on the rocks religionblog against theocracy soctransit"mass transit" detroit warbuy them body armor 18 September 2007Time for the mitten to bite the handIt's time for the state of Michigan to bite the hand that ostensibly feeds it; that hand being the one-trick pony called the auto industry. I myself have lived in the metro Detroit area since the day I was born, so the "analysis" which follows is largely Detroit-based. Nevertheless, the same basic set of problems seems endemic to much if not most of America, and I'm not in the mood to wait even more decades for transportation policy to somehow materialize somewhere between the local and state levels. So I'll frame it as a state-level issue. So sue me. Michigan needs a transportation policy whose primary goal is to make the (a?) car-free lifestyle feasible, without major inconvenience. Minor inconvenience is no small nuisance, but I vowed once never to promise anyone a rose garden. Obstacles to this desperately-needed public policy focus are numerous and seem intractable: * Middle class attitudesThe mainstream kulture of the metro Detroit area seems to have a handful of preconceived notions about who is (or should be) in the market for mass transit. Demographic groups for whom mass transit is socially acceptable include the elderly, people of ability and perhaps the occasional high school student. This mainstream constituency does, of course, realize that there are other sorts of folx in the market for a bus ride, such as people too poor to afford a car, or people who have lost their license to DWI (driving while impaired or driving without insurance, take your pick). There seems to be an esteem gap between the "deserving carless" and the "undeserving carless." It is reasoned that with so many civic and philanthropic programs offering rides around town to the elderly and differently-abled, there should be no need for an "expensive" overhaul of what passes for mass transit. * Prevailing human resources praxisIt never hurts to dress conservative for a J.O.B. interview, and in the Motor City, your car, like your wardrobe, tells the world who you are. Currently standing precedent has it that you can be fired for having an Air America bumper sticker on your car, at least in Colorado. It would stand to reason that arriving at a job interview in a transportation special makes about as much sense as wearing a dirty shirt for the occasion. The concept certainly isn't lost on the automotive segment of downmarket TV advertising around here; specifically used cars and the financing thereof. You see it in help wanted advertising, too--"must have reliable transportation," or even "must have own transportation." Some claim "articulate," in a help-wanted context, is a "code word." I have often wondered aloud whether, in de facto terms, "reliable transportation" is a code word for "late model transportation." It's said that in the steak business, the role of salescrittership applies to the sizzle, not the steak. It's a very well-known fact that in the dealer-based segment of the used car market, the fast pitch is for the loan, not the car. The really vicious think about borrowed money in general is that it raises the lower limit on "stay afloat" income. This has several very profound implications for the employer-employee relationship. One is that the more money one needs for debt service, the less money one has available to squirrel away as "go to hell money." The more hand-to-mouth one's cash flow picture, the less "luxury" one has to take one's job and shove it, or more importantly, to take any kind of career-strategy risk. This is very important in an economic climate in which people are expected to be much more tolerant of both competition and risk than the previous few generations. The main$tream media describe the automobile as an instrument of personal freedom. For the lower middle class, the automobile is an (expletive deleted) albatross. In addition to car payments, gasoline and insurance are burdens that amount to a sizeable percentage of a below-average paycheck. To add injury to insult, insurance premiums tend to be inversely proportional to the ability to pay, thanks to redlining and "credlining." * Michigan Vehicle CodeYou know you're po' when your car gets orange-tagged. The poor tax has gone up here in Michigan. The so-called "Driver Responsibility Law" broadens the criteria for police stops for DWI (driving without insurance). In addition to the $175 fine for DWI, there is a "Driver Responsibility Law" "fee" of $500 in three annual installments. Additionally, the in$urance industry assigns you to the so-called "risk pool," so of course what the public sector milks you for is just the tip of the iceberg. Let me make it absolutely clear that I do not advocate DWI. It's a question of whether the punishment fits the crime, and more importantly, a case study in political cowardice. The sad fact (as I see it) is that Governor Granholm is too DLC to have the stones to finance state government with (gasp!) taxes. Other auto-related de facto tax hikes of Granholm's first term include punitively high late fees on fees for driver's licenses, vehicle titles and registrations, etc. Perhaps the state shouldn't have to let its accounts receivable use it as a doormat. But who's really being trodden upon here? It could be worse. Other states burden car owners, and disproportionately owners of older cars, with such things as emissions tests (and subsequent repair$) and $afety in$pection$. * Metro-Detroit infrastructureThe Motor City is literally designed around the needs of the Motor. More to the point, it's built around certain assumptions about the good life. We've already discussed the assumption that car ownership or leasing is within reach of anyone who's not a total loser. One assumption underlying North American suburban communities in general is the assumption that high quality of life coincides with low population density. The infrastructure implications of the automotive lifestyle as a prescriptive social norm are not limited to mass transit. Another casualty is sidewalks. Others include storefronts, public space, front porches as social space, destinations within walking distance, bicycling without serious head protection plus nerves of steel, etc. etc. etc. * Possible worker displacementsChange never seems to happen without both winners and losers. One can speculate that mass transit that actually works might decrease demand for used car salescritters, repo-critters, carjackers and perhaps others. Hopefully the governor's No Worker Left Behind bill will pass, and will provide sufficient educational benefits to allow them to re-train for other lines of work. * Entry and exit costsThis arcane jargon comes from the dismal world of economic theory. One of the key difference between a monopoly market and a competitive market is the fact that in a monopoly market entry and exit costs are high, while in a competitive market they are low. By entry costs they mean how much it costs to set oneself up in a certain line of business. Exit costs, I think, have something to do with closing shop, selling or tearing down plant and facilities, environmental cleanup, and the like. Here, I am applying the concept not to entering or exiting being in business for oneself, but to exiting or entering the automotive lifestyle, which is to say entering or exiting the car-free lifestyle. Let's say you attempt to pro-rate (per daily commute, say) the multiple financial burdens of the automotive lifestyle--car price, loan interest, loan gotcha clauses, insurance premiums, insurance deductibles (probabilistically pro-rated, I guess), tax, title, registration, part$, $ervice, police $itations, turtle wax--the whole ball of whacks. Let's say for the sake of argument that your best guesstimate turns out to be more than bus fare. At first glance, it would appear to be a no-brainer. But there's a catch. If you stop driving your car you stop paying for gas and probably most of wear-and-tear (since you have an unstuffed garage). You should also qualify for one of the lower mileage brackets for insurance purposes. But you still need to keep your plates etc. current; the lion's share of that cost, of course, being that insurance is a prerequisite for registration. The obvious solution is simply to sell your car. The catch this time is that now you've taken the plunge and committed yourself to a 100% car-free lifestyle. By forking out $ on keeping your car "legal" you "keep your options open" for eventualities ranging from road trips to bus driver strikes to J.O.B. interviews not within walking distance of a bus stop. Once we're talking about keeping our options open, the math gets intractably hairy, but there's hope. One strategy people have devised for this conundrum is so-called "car sharing." From what I've heard, it sounds like a cooperative economics version of a rental car agency. * Knee-jerk antisocialismPart of the reason "public transportation" is a dirty word is because "public" is a dirty word. That's why, for example, the Michigan Department of Public Health was re-christened the Department of Community Health. That's also why, until this point in the present essay, I have used the nomenclature "mass transit." Another dirty word is "subsidy." There seems to be a blanket assumption that public transportation is paid for by taxpayers as well as fare-payers. It is hard to refute this claim when funding for the SMART bus system faces periodic millage renewal votes in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties. The fact of knee-jerk reaction against public subsidy can be attacked from several angles. One is to explore the question of whether subsidies for public transportation are more than offset by statutory impediments to its development or use. Another is to expose and document the role of government subsidy in putatively private transportation such as the personal automobile. I plan to start by reading verdant.net's essay Conspiracy to Destroy America's Streetcar Systems. A third approach, of course, is to question the conventional wisdom that the mixed economy (or subsidy in general) is inherently inefficient, bureaucratic or even anti-freedom. The conventional wisdom is that this is a public opinion non-starter in post-Reagan America, but there do seem to be some signs of a pendulum swing. At any rate, I'm only throwing ideas out there. Readers (if any) clearly have their own world-views, and it is simply hoped that an ideologically diverse coalition of citizens can form around a shared belief that mass transit is currently too small a slice of the transportation pie. * The so-called "on-demand economy"Conventional wisdom has it that certain traits are (in the aggregate) inherent in American culture (and hence economic behavior). It's unthinkable that car consumers will choose fuel economy over "performance" (except of course as a passing fad in reaction to gasoline price spikes). It's common knowledge that no middle class American will choose to take the bus to work. It's assumed that commuting in America will always be done in private automobiles, most often one person per car. A similar logic is deployed around more generic questions of energy policy. Solar and wind power will never catch on because American's will never accept energy sources that are not available "on demand." The idea that people may once again schedule economic and leisure activities around the day/night cycle, the wind, the tides, etc. is unthinkable. Perhaps the best way to counteract stereotypes about what things Americans will or will not do is to do the things we're not supposed to, and make a point of being seen doing them. When the number of people seen at bus stops gets noticeably larger and larger, the things we have been told about ourselves so many times by the ma$$ media that we start to believe them, will start to lose their power. There are many people calling on Michigan to develop a mass-transit-feasible lifestyle. There always have been. We must refuse to be relegated to the margins or dismissed as a fringe element in public opinion. We must insist that the main$tream media present mass transit as mainstream transit, not a charitable gesture by society to the deserving carless. We must not allow the continuation of current cultural norms that hold carlessness in lower esteem than homelessness (not, of course, that bigotry against the homeless is OK). Another future is possible. There is an annual political tradition in Michigan called the Mackinac [sp?] Conference, in which the state's political class goes to Mackinaw [sp?] Island to kiss up to its bu$ine$$ cla$$; traditionally understood to consist largely of the so-called Big 3 (now called the "traditional Big 3"). Now the business community is understood to be more functionally diverse, and more economic diversity is sought. The "Big 3" no longer employ a large portion of the local population. They are making a very conscious and obvious effort to engineer the "legacy" of "generous motors" out of their business models. In times like these, it would not be biting the hand that feeds us to make a studied effort at deep "cutbacks" in our consumption of automobiles. Hooray for so-called post-autistic economicsThey have a website: www.paecon.net I must start by indicating my objection to the moniker. It plays into the stereotype of autistic people as lacking in empathy, sense of humor, and interests other than mathematics. It is unfortunate that an incipient school that has attracted feminist and afrocentric economists has a name that is a not-so-subtle jab at a demographic group. Ironically, the interests of some of the characteristic varieties of autistics are likely better served by the civil service exams of yesterday's mixed economy than the video resumes of today's neoclassical economy. On June 21, 2000, so the story goes, economics students at the École Normale Supérieure circulated the petition against autism in economics. Perhaps a perception of political incorrectness in talk of autistic economists, like of autoerotic Buddhists, is due to things getting lost in translation. In any case, I think the nomenclature is unfortunate, but the concerns are worthy. A "second economics department" has been established at the University of Notre Dame, and has of course been hailed as a mixed blessing for the heterodox or post-autistic economics communities. The post-autistic movement appears at this point not to be a school of economics but a movement. For now, it seems to have become a catch-all term for "schools other than neoclassical." Perhaps the terms "post-autistic economics" and "heterodox economics" are synonymous. The Notre Dame situation seems reminiscent of the treatment of computer programming in college catalogs in the 1980's: Typically there would be a department of Management Science teaching COBOL, and a department of Computer Science teaching "languages other than COBOL." Consider the following sentence: "The autism of orthodoxy stems from its treatment of the human agent, who is mindless and does not interact with other agents." This seems more than mildly offensive to autistic people, and I don't think it's even a fair characterization of orthodox economics. For example, one of the orthodox teachings that troubles me the most is the strong efficiency hypothesis. This is used as the basis for the claim that prices incorporate all information. The implication is that people can and do convey information to the price mechanism without conveying it to other people. Autistic people tend to be outside the informational loop for reasons that include both disability issues and social exclusion by others. If anything, they have the most to lose under an economic order in which information access is not an entitlement. Ironically, they also possess firsthand knowledge of the fact that prices don't incorporate all information, e.g. the amount of "insider information" inherent in career "networking." Undoubtedly there are autistics working in the economics field, but they are surely are not representative of professional economists. Research careers, like careers in general, aggressively filter out those whose social "networking" skills are not above average. So, don't blame autism for what's wrong with orthodox or neoclassical economics. But I'm so glad that there is finally some organized resistance within the economics community that I'm inclined to forgive as perhaps innocently naïve the packaging of their program. Interesting quotations with links"Money is about power, about testosterone."--Helen Caldecott, on The Time is Now"...in America, the study of economic history was killed off with the Intellectual, the Social Activist, and the Teacher."--Stephen T. Ziliak"Government is the entertainment division of the military industrial complex."--The late Frank Zappa, quoted by litbrit"In the end, economic growth is, in more than a metaphoric sense, the largest pyramid scheme possible."--Mark Meritt quoted in Growth is Madness"The human species was not born into a market economy."--Eliezer Yudkowskydebt=indenture"Class warfare is being waged in America and the wrong side is winning."- Bernie Sanders, In These Times"There is no God but the logical structure of the universe, and Mohammed is not his prophet. "--Johnny Red"Unless we establish an economic system that does not rely on expropriation and exploitation, no amount of aid or trade is going to end world poverty. It is worse than naïve; it is a deception to argue that it might."--Molly Scott Cato“Being born is like being kidnapped. And then sold into slavery.”--Andy Warhol"Where there is a monopoly the consumer is, of course, helpless, and where there is competition he is almost entirely at the mercy of advertising."--Walter Lippman, Drift and Mastery, 1914, quoted in Flagrancy to ReasonIf your heart is free, the ground you're standing on is liberated territory. So Defend It!--anarchaAs bad as a “Mommy State” is, the idea of a “Daddy State” is infinitely more terrifying.--Jason McBrayer"Capitalism is a system of pimps and whores. You are either a pimp, whore or a little of both."--Graeme"For every Ph.D. there is an equal and opposite Ph.D."--Albert A. Bartlett"Market capitalism is a restless system of experimentation in pursuit of sustainable rents based on private knowledge."--John Nightingale and Jason Potts"You can automate the production of cars but you cannot automate the production of customers".--Walter Reuther"How can a building owner that festoons his public surfaces with the visual intrusion of advertising into the public viewshed then object to personal grafitti?"--verdant.net
web "to do" listagcomposting with red wiggler worms asastrologybizopen source business blogcar2007 union-made vehicles catfund neuter/spay in nc dissent5 ways to stay focused earthsustainability southeast blog econmutual aid, kropotkin eduopen university financesubprime bait & switch folkxdeborah foodmore than enough organic food gtqueer+trans inclusiveness gurdplanets have aligned just right hoodknow your place infopreserving privacy by dividing it up lexlibrismedmigraabolishing the borders from below music"acoustic bass guitar" nethackopinionwhat kind of liberal are you? paranoia"system to assess risk" philanthropyphilosophybookchin's legacy politicsmydd on kucinich psychbsct queerpride in the park realestateangels and architects bigots and buffoons fact sheet on mandatory inclusionary zoning sprawl city high density living religionapostate windbag scicommoditization of science socaaas atlas of population and environment spacespooktransitconspiracy to destroy america's streetcar systems tvvojagxwarwmdwymynwhich western feminist icon are you? zap14 July 2007More political slogansThe pragmatic faction of any movement is the co-opted faction."Revenge is a lazy form of grief. Most of us got over that initial reaction."--Liberty Lover, quoted on Thom Hartmann radio program"Liberty without socialism is privilege, injustice; socialism without liberty is slavery and brutality."--Mikhail BakuninThe far right is far from right.I'll believe in the free market if and when the free market believes in me.Free speech implies the right to SCREAM!The clothes don't make the man; the clothes destroy the man. That's why a man in a suit is referred to as a suit."No incorporation without representation"--Paul"Silent Freedom is Freedom Silenced"--ThisCanadian"As long as each individual is facing the television tube alone, formal freedom poses no threat to privilege."--Noam Chomsky"If politics is ugly, then realpolitik is downright revolting."--WonquettePower knows no conscience.Britain ... will this year export 111 million litres of milk and 47 million kilograms of butter, while simultaneously importing 173 million of litres of milk and 49 million kilograms of butter.--Menno SalverdaAnarchism implies anagorism."Risk taking is fabulous... -- but not when it's involuntary."--New York magazine, quoted by "living on less""Temp-to-perm" is HR-speak for "Permatemp."Grandchildren are not an entitlement.24 February 2007Conservative politician holds Q&A session on radio Conservative Democratic governor Jennifer Granholm does Q&A on Michigan Public Radio, 16 February, 2007. The war against public libraries A respondent wanted to know whether a 50% cut in state aid to libraries was consistent with the governor's commitment to the knowledge economy. Governor Granholm pointed out that it's a lesser evil than more criminals on the street. Libraries are the textbook example of a low-priority public institution. Typically implemented in this country at the municipal level, they are basically expendable in any local community straining to pay for the two sacred cows of local government, police and fire. As the caller pointed out, libraries are America's last line of defense against the digital divide. America is pretty much the only first-world country that doesn't subsidize residential internet access in some way, and it shows. Just compare the content at actuary.com with that at actuary.ca, for example. Better, we suppose, to sacrifice our last line of defense against the digital divide, than our last line of defense against putative Hobbesian Reality. By the way, all of the content at the present blog is posted from a public library. Given the austerity plan the public sector is under, don't be surprised if I go cyberspace silent sometime soon. It doesn't appear I've attracted an audience, anyway. I probably wouldn't even be missed. L Education as means to economic ends I have been aware for some time of the state's (proposed?) program to provide displaced workers with scholarships to learn a new trade or perhaps profession, (specifically?) at community colleges. What I learned from today's radio broadcast is that it's a one-time (and time-limited) program. The governor sees no economic value in tenyear track students, it seems. Neither does anyone else, of course. But what of the one-time nature of the program? Definitely reading from the conservative Clinton-welfare-reform playbook, it seems. In post-risk-shift America, two careers per lifetime is almost as unrealistic as one. For more of my thoughts on the hard push toward community college education (for those needing financial aid) see my ascendancy of the illiberal arts The two-penny tax I should give the governor some credit for bravery, since any tax increase takes a great deal of chutzpah in today's knee-jerk public opinion climate. 'Two penny' in this context means, of course, two cents on the dollar. On haircuts. This is what Granholm offers as a partial revenue replacement for the so-called single business tax (21% of state budget). Obviously, no reasonable person would be against abolishing the single business tax. The purpose of the 'two penny tax,' according to Governor Granholm, is to make the state more competitive. Here's a hint: If I thought competitiveness was uniquely qualified to be the savior of Michigan, I would have voted Republican. Michigan's item pricing law The normally conservative Granholm also took the nominally liberal side of this issue. She's been an item-pricing hawk since her first elected office, that of state attorney general. Her continuation of item pricing enforcement was in the tradition of her predecessor Frank Kelly, who put the item pricing issue, and for that matter the office of state attorney general, on the map. The caller, self-identified with the retail community, had asked (in so many words) how the item pricing law (being essentially a 'regulation,' I suppose) is conducive to competitiveness. She answered a slightly different question by pointing out that year after year, violations continue to be detected. Then pressed by the caller for an explanation of how the item pricing law helps Michigan's economy (worded in terms of 'economic value,' as I recall). She pointed out that consumers, particularly seniors, gain value from accurate pricing. Singling out seniors as especially deserving or needing certain kinds of protection from the state, I think, plays into the hand of the war against entitlement, by positing (however indirectly) the 18-64 age group as an 'unentitled class.' With this question more than any other I wished it was me rather than her fielding the questions. I would have stated matter-of-factly that economic theory has clearly established that market transparency is a prerequisite for market competitiveness, and that market transparency requires no resistance to the process of getting price quotes. I would have gone on to 'admit' that the item pricing law was perhaps not the best policy instrument for promoting a competitive (i.e. transparent) consumer market, suggesting that a better alternative might be an online database representing ongoing and exhaustive surveying of item pricing. (See pubwan scratchpad and one small step for market transparency) Diversity of immutable characteristics Happily, Granholm has always taken the liberal side of the queer rights issue. Again, though, she soft-pedals the issue. I am agnostic over whether queer identity is a matter of choice. I am committed to the political idea that demonstrable harm to others must be the only criterion of impermissibility of anything. Often people, in apparent protest against so-called political correctness, will ridicule those of us on the left for constantly inventing new forms of discrimination, and adding them to a long laundry list...weight discrimination, looks discrimination, vertically-challenged discrimination, etc. I must concede that they have a point. That is why I advocate abandoning the notion of anti-discrimination law as long lists of things that can't be used in humyn resources decisions, and replacing it with a short list of things that can! 22 December 2006The ascendancy of the illiberal artsLiberal education, by reputation, is learning for its own sake. For this discussion I shall take "illiberal" to be the opposite of liberal. Illiberal education is a means to an end. Perhaps the distinction can be better expressed by contrasting "education" with "training" than "liberal" with "illiberal." I have chosen the latter approach based on several considerations. My concern about the ascendancy of illiberal training coincides with my fear and loathing of the loss of liberal values. Also, some of the pedagogical ideas I have come to see as illiberal clearly have self- identified constituencies. These have injected themselves into public policy debate on education, as such, and consistently refer to their projects as educational; less often as training. So, in the wonderful world of education, what's hot, and what's not? Are the liberal arts dead? I believe liberal arts education will endure, but will retreat to its earlier role in society as an intellectual plaything of the leisure class. One force driving this retreat is the trend in college financial aid policy toward fewer grants and more loans. To borrow, for any purpose, is to place a bet on one's future earning power. Education paid for with borrowed money is necessarily a means to economic ends. Another economic trend eroding the standing of liberal arts is the de-professionalization of scholars. This de- professionalization is being accomplished on numerous fronts simultaneously. A shrinking percentage of faculty are tenured, and a shrinking percentage of graduate students are supported, which is to say, have fellowships. Wayne State University recently ran a radio ad campaign for a liberal arts master's degree program with professional adults as its stated intended applicant pool. The new intellectual ethic is; get established first, use resulting discretionary income, if you wish, to lead the proverbial examined life. An analogous trend is perhaps visible in the promotion of retirement strategies by the major brokerage firms. Today's generation of retirees, they suggest, is obliterating retirement as we know it by managing the wealth generated during professional-level careers for investment in careers with perhaps altruistic implications, involving such activities as teaching and mentoring. The new social ethic is that every human activity requires economic success as a justification. What does the new illiberal education look like? Liberal education has always stood alongside vocational education, but I fear vocational education, like liberal education, belongs to a more innocent age. The traditional home of post-secondary vocational education is the trade school. The trade school is alive and well, and seems to be enlarging its market share in the education industry. The trade school segment is certainly marketing its wares aggressively. Consider the now-famous Universal Technical Institute, a center of automotive learning. I just sat through their infomercial, which places heavy emphasis on their industry relationships. It seems some of the institute's students will qualify to enter training programs specific to the dealer networks of Toyota, Ford and BMW. There is also a program geared specifically to careers in the NASCAR(tm) racing circuit. I found this all very intriguing. I wonder: If I were to be accepted into their prestigious NASCAR(tm) program, would I be violating some non-disclosure or non-competition agreement by pursuing a technician career in Indy Racing League? Hopefully I will find answers to at least some of my questions about this institute at their website, uti.tv. Another trade school that has been saturating the local airwaves is called ComputerTraining.com. Their decibel- enhanced radio spot encourages us to take their online entrance exam, which is an opportunity to demonstrate that you have "solid computer skills," this being a pre- requisite for their Windows XP training program. Next time I get online I will also visit their website. Hopefully I won't have to agree to too many things in order to check out their test and find out what they mean by solid computer skills. Trade education has never been learning for its own sake, but is it still vocational in nature? A vocation is a calling. Does a calling have a brand name? Trades have always had trade secrets, but they used to have trade unions, too. Paid apprenticeships are giving way to paid- for (usually with borrowed money) training programs. 30 September 2006The other risk shiftMuch has been said of the many profound effects of the shift on the employment and finance markets, 'Risk shift,' is an apparent phenomenon allegedly documented in a book titled Risk Shift: ? The selected target market, of course, is resentful post-boomers. * A tribute to Mosca's theory that Democracy implies not just * A tribute to Burnham's theory that Mosca's doctrine that (democracy implies universal * A suggestion that price inflation can be used as a de-facto moral weapon, in apparent * A book title shouldn't be obscene, unless parties promoting the book feel morally Other attention-grabber titles might be worth running by the marketing dept.'s * Risk Shift: Involuntary Austerity or Market Correction? * Risk Shift: Bilateral Asymmetry or Persecution Complex? Risk Shift: Science or Technology? What might bilateral asymmetry be like?Bilateral asymmetry as objective fact means two supporting 1. transfer of risk (beta?) from institutional consumers to individual producers 2. transfer of risk from institutional producers to individual consumers I have not read Risk Shift:?. The question of bilaterality is a proposed test of the The suggestion that there might be a lesson to be learned If bilaterality can be confirmed, one may speculate as to Is market risk (defined as non-diversifiable risk) cyclical or structural Quality-of-life as vector-valued-quantity.My own personal bias concerning the question of My inner purpose in doing this is not in this case I decided to try to posit a mathematical model for a basically * It has occurred to me that, in a world in which * It has occurred to me that, in a world in which * Given the intellectual-property-gold-rush nature In spite of these disincentives (or perhaps
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
|
About Me
Facebook BadgeSubscribe To
Posts
All Comments
|
||||||||
Es un Alimento Muy Completo Copyleft ↄ⃝ 2003-2010 by Lorraine Lee |
