The Current Events, News, and Politics Thread
#4161
Right. FHA minimum is 3.5% on many loans. I think that's a problem and it seems rooted in the ideas that (A) home prices don't go down and/or (B) negative equity doesn't bother anyone combined with (C) ever-increasing home prices are a good thing.
Consider that in most retail brokerage accounts, a sophisticated investor can have no less than 50% equity. That is, they can have a leverage ratio of 2:1. If you buy a house at FMV with 20% down, you have a leverage ratio of 5:1. If you buy a house at FMV with 3.5% down, you have a leverage ratio of 29:1.
That's Lehman Brothers level of leverage taken on by Bill the carpenter and his lovely wife, Susie homemaker. I'm not sure that's a good thing.
Consider that in most retail brokerage accounts, a sophisticated investor can have no less than 50% equity. That is, they can have a leverage ratio of 2:1. If you buy a house at FMV with 20% down, you have a leverage ratio of 5:1. If you buy a house at FMV with 3.5% down, you have a leverage ratio of 29:1.
That's Lehman Brothers level of leverage taken on by Bill the carpenter and his lovely wife, Susie homemaker. I'm not sure that's a good thing.
#4162
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this is why minimum wage is racist and govt substidies to colleges are harmful:
McDonald's demands bachelor's degree, two-years experience for cashier
McDonald's demands bachelor's degree, two-years experience for cashier
#4164
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All of the other issues which you posted are not actually blue state issues. They're divided much more along geographical boundaries- east coast vs. west coast. Out here on the Pacific, we're uniformly blue, and yet nobody here is trying to regulate how large of a soda I can buy.
If you were to spend some time living in California, or on the west coast in general, you might genuinely be shocked by how much social freedom we enjoy here. I say this as a person who grew up in Port Charlotte (100 mi south of Tampa) and went to school in Gainesville (130 mi north of Tampa), before spending 5 years living in southern Ohio. All historically "red" areas.
It would be highly erroneous to generalize Cali / Oregon / Washington as being of the same mindset as the fascists in New York / New Jersey / Penn / Delaware, or the communists in Mich / Ill / Wisconsin.
For example: Parent Trigger Laws: What Leading Thinkers Have To Say
Parents in Adelanto, Calif., scored a victory for advocates of the "parent-trigger" law last week. The law allows public-school parents who gather signatures from a majority of their peers to transform a school into a charter. They can also opt to remove a consistently failing school's staff or close the school entirely.
(...)
First introduced in California two years ago, so-called "parent-trigger" laws have since spread to other states. There are now variations on the law in Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio and Texas.
It would seem that California is literally leading the nation in giving parents the ability to directly control their children's schools, with lots of "red" states following in its footsteps. (...)
First introduced in California two years ago, so-called "parent-trigger" laws have since spread to other states. There are now variations on the law in Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio and Texas.
Or is that what you're opposed to?
Just about the only reason I allign myself with Republicans over Democrats is because I believe that fiscal policy is way more important than social
this is why minimum wage is racist and govt substidies to colleges are harmful:
McDonald's demands bachelor's degree, two-years experience for cashier
McDonald's demands bachelor's degree, two-years experience for cashier
I am certain that a person with a GED who demonstrated basic arithmetic skills and a functional grasp of the rules of English grammar would be able to attain that job as well.
#4165
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except that the issue is there are so many applying for cashier jobs with BA's that they are making it a requirement now, since you can pay someone with a BA the same amount as a irresponsible teenager or crack addict without one. This suggests a major failure in the current climate.
You can say they are raising the bar, but it's just plain sadl no one with a BA should ever be touching a cash register.
You can say they are raising the bar, but it's just plain sadl no one with a BA should ever be touching a cash register.
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except that the issue is there are so many applying for cashier jobs with BA's that they are making it a requirement now, since you can pay someone with a BA the same amount as a irresponsible teenager or crack addict without one. This suggests a major failure in the current climate.
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the value is ****, yes. yet colleges will keep raising prices so long as the gov't keeps giving them cash to subsidize the current rate it's an endless cycle that will never stop because if you ever suggest to stop/lower school funding, you're a slave-holding, murdering, adulterous, baby-raping, incestuous, snaggle-toothed, backward-assed, inbreed, imported criminal-minded kin folk.
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Given the kind of ignorance and illiteracy I have seen demonstrated by customer-facing workers all long the Atlantic coast, it seems reasonable that McDonald's might want to "raise the bar", so to speak.
I am certain that a person with a GED who demonstrated basic arithmetic skills and a functional grasp of the rules of English grammar would be able to attain that job as well.
I am certain that a person with a GED who demonstrated basic arithmetic skills and a functional grasp of the rules of English grammar would be able to attain that job as well.
#4170
Hiring and firing is expensive. Not to mention these jobs burn you out and most people will not maintain a good customer service oriented attitude for a job that pays at or just above minimum wage.
When I worked at the deli in Publix for 3 years we would hire atleast 2 people for every one position we needed to fill because the turnover was that high. Even among the people who are more than capable of doing the job only maybe 10% will keep a customer service oriented attitude for more than a month on the job. People get overworked for little pay and become resentful and they just do not give a **** about the job anymore.
When I worked at the deli in Publix for 3 years we would hire atleast 2 people for every one position we needed to fill because the turnover was that high. Even among the people who are more than capable of doing the job only maybe 10% will keep a customer service oriented attitude for more than a month on the job. People get overworked for little pay and become resentful and they just do not give a **** about the job anymore.
#4171
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Normally, we think of economics as working the other way around. When you subsidize a business, the end-user cost of that businesses product or service goes down. At least, that's what liberal-arts colleges teach in their macroeconomics classes.
Regardless, we can hope that as the value of a liberal arts degree becomes corrected, people may increasingly elect to study something other than art history or 16th century feminist classical literature.
I can say that out here, where we have a lot of poorly educated immigrants working minimum-wage jobs at restaurants, the quality of service (including the quality of grammar and diction of the staff) seems to be uniformly higher than is the norm in the southeast. I attribute this much more to social/demographic factors than to any legislation.
#4172
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I fail to see how increasing government subsidies for liberal arts colleges would have the direct effect of increasing the price of a liberal arts degree.
Normally, we think of economics as working the other way around. When you subsidize a business, the end-user cost of that businesses product or service goes down. At least, that's what liberal-arts colleges teach in their macroeconomics classes.
Normally, we think of economics as working the other way around. When you subsidize a business, the end-user cost of that businesses product or service goes down. At least, that's what liberal-arts colleges teach in their macroeconomics classes.
this explains it better than I
Subsidized Education : The Freeman : Foundation for Economic Education
What happens, though, if the price of a product is artificially set below its clearing price?
If music CDs usually sell for, say, $15, there will be a given number of people willing to purchase them at that price. However, if a third party decides to subsidize music lovers to the tune of $5 per CD, more people will decide they can afford to purchase CDs. Demand will increase. Delighted producers will make more of them. Sales will increase.
Before long, producers will realize that all those people willing to buy CDs at the unsubsidized price of $15 are paying less than they are willing to pay. So the producers will start increasing their prices, say to $17 at first, then $19, then $20. After all, with the subsidy, the consumer has to pay only $15.
But some consumers who have grown accustomed to buying cheaper CDs will have to cut back on their purchases or stop entirely. They are unhappy about seeing their living standard fall. So they demand a larger subsidy, joined by the producers, who face declining sales. If the buyers succeed in getting the “music they deserve” at the price they want, the whole cycle begins again.
So it is with government programs that mask the true costs of college for students. State and federal grants, guaranteed student loans, and direct subsidies to public colleges and universities lower the apparent price of obtaining a college education. This leads to a higher demand. College administrators then feel justified in increasing tuition and fees, realizing that many if not most students are subsidized in one form or another.
The cycle is born: raise tuition; give out more aid; raise tuition again.
Lesser Students
A side effect of this policy is that it attracts more poorly qualified and less motivated students who value higher education less than others who are willing to pay the full price. Colleges have to devote more resources to remedial programs, and students in these programs have a greater dropout rate.
Another problem is that since public administrators do not have to show a profit to stay in business, they are less concerned with the satisfaction of their customers. (Remember the last time you had to wait in an interminable line at the post office or department of motor vehicles?) Administrators also have incentives to increase their budgets needlessly. After all, increased “costs” translate (through a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy) into increased subsidies.
Read more: http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detai...#ixzz2PQRqxtMc
If music CDs usually sell for, say, $15, there will be a given number of people willing to purchase them at that price. However, if a third party decides to subsidize music lovers to the tune of $5 per CD, more people will decide they can afford to purchase CDs. Demand will increase. Delighted producers will make more of them. Sales will increase.
Before long, producers will realize that all those people willing to buy CDs at the unsubsidized price of $15 are paying less than they are willing to pay. So the producers will start increasing their prices, say to $17 at first, then $19, then $20. After all, with the subsidy, the consumer has to pay only $15.
But some consumers who have grown accustomed to buying cheaper CDs will have to cut back on their purchases or stop entirely. They are unhappy about seeing their living standard fall. So they demand a larger subsidy, joined by the producers, who face declining sales. If the buyers succeed in getting the “music they deserve” at the price they want, the whole cycle begins again.
So it is with government programs that mask the true costs of college for students. State and federal grants, guaranteed student loans, and direct subsidies to public colleges and universities lower the apparent price of obtaining a college education. This leads to a higher demand. College administrators then feel justified in increasing tuition and fees, realizing that many if not most students are subsidized in one form or another.
The cycle is born: raise tuition; give out more aid; raise tuition again.
Lesser Students
A side effect of this policy is that it attracts more poorly qualified and less motivated students who value higher education less than others who are willing to pay the full price. Colleges have to devote more resources to remedial programs, and students in these programs have a greater dropout rate.
Another problem is that since public administrators do not have to show a profit to stay in business, they are less concerned with the satisfaction of their customers. (Remember the last time you had to wait in an interminable line at the post office or department of motor vehicles?) Administrators also have incentives to increase their budgets needlessly. After all, increased “costs” translate (through a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy) into increased subsidies.
Read more: http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detai...#ixzz2PQRqxtMc
#4173
I fail to see how increasing government subsidies for liberal arts colleges would have the direct effect of increasing the price of a liberal arts degree.
Normally, we think of economics as working the other way around. When you subsidize a business, the end-user cost of that businesses product or service goes down. At least, that's what liberal-arts colleges teach in their macroeconomics classes.
Normally, we think of economics as working the other way around. When you subsidize a business, the end-user cost of that businesses product or service goes down. At least, that's what liberal-arts colleges teach in their macroeconomics classes.
What?
Government isn't subsidizing the business -- it's subsidizing the consumer.
It's the same thing that happened with the first-time homebuyer credit. It didn't make really benefit first-time homebuyers, and it certainly didn't make buying a home "more affordable" -- it just inflated the housing market by a certain amount.
#4174
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Not even God can keep a leftist honest:
Police: Va. Minister Painted Racial Slurs on House Before Setting It On Fire « CBS DC
Police: Va. Minister Painted Racial Slurs on House Before Setting It On Fire « CBS DC
#4176
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For once I agree with Bill Maher.
JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST: Mayor Bloomberg is somebody that…
BILL MAHER: [Sighs] Ohh.
KIMMEL: Now, what do you think of his efforts to protect us from carbonated beverages and the like?
BILL MAHER: I don't like it. You know, I think it gives liberals a bad name. I really do. It makes liberals look like bullies who want to tell people what to do. And they never met a regulation they didn't like. I mean, obviously we do have a problem with child obesity. I don't want our children to be 99 percent Mountain Dew. But this is not the way to go about it.
You know, I mean, because, first of all, we all do something that hurts our health, you know? We all eat stuff we shouldn't. Probably the optimal food for primates is bread, fruit, lawn clippings and rain. But at a certain point that gets old. And we just don't want, I mean, we don't want to be a nanny state like this. I mean, you know, I don't know what Mayor Bloomberg has in mind, but there's something wrong about the seventh richest man in the world sitting in bed at night thinking, “You know what people shouldn't do? Drink too much Sprite. Let's make that a law.” That makes me want to join the Tea Party and marry Ann Coulter, you know, and that's not where I want to be.
BILL MAHER: [Sighs] Ohh.
KIMMEL: Now, what do you think of his efforts to protect us from carbonated beverages and the like?
BILL MAHER: I don't like it. You know, I think it gives liberals a bad name. I really do. It makes liberals look like bullies who want to tell people what to do. And they never met a regulation they didn't like. I mean, obviously we do have a problem with child obesity. I don't want our children to be 99 percent Mountain Dew. But this is not the way to go about it.
You know, I mean, because, first of all, we all do something that hurts our health, you know? We all eat stuff we shouldn't. Probably the optimal food for primates is bread, fruit, lawn clippings and rain. But at a certain point that gets old. And we just don't want, I mean, we don't want to be a nanny state like this. I mean, you know, I don't know what Mayor Bloomberg has in mind, but there's something wrong about the seventh richest man in the world sitting in bed at night thinking, “You know what people shouldn't do? Drink too much Sprite. Let's make that a law.” That makes me want to join the Tea Party and marry Ann Coulter, you know, and that's not where I want to be.
#4178
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with that being said:
As the chief financial officer of the nation’s second-largest state, even I have found it hard to get a handle on how much governments are spending, and how much debt they’re taking on. Every level of government is piling up incredible bills. And they’re coming due, whether we like it or not. Even in low-tax Texas, property taxes have risen three times faster than the inflation rate and four times faster than our population growth since 1992. Our local governments, meanwhile, more than doubled their debt load in the last decade, to more than $7,500 in debt for every man, woman and child in the state. In Houston alone, city-employee pension plans are facing an unfunded liability of $2.4 billion. But too many taxpayers aren’t given the information they need to make informed decisions when they vote debt issues. Recently I spent several months holding about 40 town-hall meetings with Texans across our state. Each time, I asked the attendees if they could tell me how much debt their local governments are carrying. Not a single person in a single town had this information.
Last edited by Braineack; 10-08-2019 at 09:48 AM.