Misunderestimating Our Governmental Economy.

Over the last year or so, the elephant in the room has been our pending budget crisis. So I thought I might post a couple things in relation to any conversation on the subject that everyone should know.

Here is a graph (h/t The Daily Dish) of what citizens say they want cut versus the actual federal budget:
So when talking about spending cuts it is important to know what the main drivers are in our fiscal picture. As you can see above, the overwhelming majority of respondents want to see foreign aid cut. Yet you see how tiny a piece of the budget it is. Basically I think Dr. Krugman, once again gives a succinct way of viewing the basic issue:

The basic picture of the federal government you should have in mind is that it’s essentially a huge insurance company with an army; Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid — all of which spend the great bulk of their funds on making payments, not on administration — plus defense are the big items.

Unless we are willing to seriously address Medicare, Medicaid and Defense spending we have no hope of solving our budgetary issues. It absolutely is going to take some combination of spending cuts and tax increases to dig out this hole.

-Cheers

A New Nerdy Post...

So maybe I am the only person who would find this article interesting but over at the New York Times they have a series starting, in which they talk about calculus.

In middle school my friends and I enjoyed chewing on the classic conundrums. What happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object? Easy — they both explode. Philosophy’s trivial when you’re 13.

But one puzzle bothered us: if you keep moving halfway to the wall, will you ever get there? Something about this one was deeply frustrating, the thought of getting closer and closer and yet never quite making it. (There’s probably a metaphor for teenage angst in there somewhere.) Another concern was the thinly veiled presence of infinity. To reach the wall you’d need to take an infinite number of steps, and by the end they’d become infinitesimally small. Whoa.

They had me at this picture:


-Cheers

This is why you shouldn't be taken seriously.....

No comment.

-Cheers

Left versus Right: Quote of the day.

I always struggle when trying put into words some of the structural differences between right and left ideologies. So it was like I was hit with a lightning bolt when I saw these little paragraphs by the inestimable Dr. Krugman.

"On the right, people are for smaller government as a matter of principle — smaller government for its own sake. And so they naturally imagine that their opponents must be their mirror image, wanting bigger government as a goal in itself.

But it’s not true. I don’t know any progressives who gloat over increases in the federal payroll or the government share of GDP. Progressives have things they want the government to do — like guaranteeing health care. Size per se doesn’t matter. But people on the right apparently can’t get that."

This is a large part of it. Liberals and Progressives do not want a bigger government for the sake of bigger government. Specifically I want a smarter government. If it is big or small I do not really care as long as it works and does the things I deem are necessary. If a larger government infrastructure is required then so be it. It is not the size that I am preoccupied with, it is its efficacy that matters to me.

So to dispel the myth, I do not want a bigger government, just a better one. Somethings require more governmental intervention.

-Cheers

To the Pain....

So after a couple of tooth related mishaps for co-workers in the past week, I thought this was a bit funny. Peeps over at hyperbole and a half decided to update the tried and true pain chart.

You all may be familiar with the classic:


They updated it to provide a bit more information for the medical personel:

11: Blood is going to explode out of my face at any moment.
Too Serious For Numbers: You probably have Ebola*. It appears that you may also be suffering from Stigmata and/or pinkeye.

Ebola is such a colorful disease, it really gets your point across. Nothing says, "Help I am dying a horrific painful death. Get me immediate assistance or shoot me in the face!", quite like Ebola. Also the descriptions they have up
for the charts win at the funny...

-Cheers

A mind is a terrible thing to waste....

If you are a student, soon to be a student or know a student, you should probably read this article.

As mentioned before with the signing of the ACA (Affordable Care Act) and the reconciliation piece that followed, a major overhaul of the student financial aid system was also passed in to law.

There is some interesting and much needed changes in there. Here are some of the high points:

What's In
The compromise version of the
student loan legislation contains:

• $36 billion for Pell Grants
• $2.55 billion for historically black and other minority serving colleges
• $2 billion for a grant program for community colleges and career training programs
• $1.5 billion to expand income-based repayment options for student loan borrowers
• $750 million for College Access Challenge Grants
• $50 million to help colleges make transition to direct loan program

The whole piece bares reading, there might be some nuggets in there to help make you college journey a bit less expensive. So the short form is there is less money going to bank overhead an more money flowing directly to students.

Also I would like to wish Ed Whalen a blog-belated Happy Birthday. May his loins be girded, and may he be hail and hearty for years to come.

As well as preemptive congratulations to Scot Camp.....err...Doctor Scot Campbell on successful completion of his doctoral defense and dissertation deposit. Good job sir!

--edit: Oh What the hell...in honor of Ed and Single T a little youtube aeronautics for yo' ass!




-Cheers

Lying Women?!?

This is an interesting read and actually makes a whole lot of sense.

With the changes over the last several decades in social opportunities, this shouldn't be surprising. I guess the socialization has its blind spots. I would not have guessed that the numbers were so close.

In particular I found this section compelling:

The truth is that we have always lied about our sex lives. British men consistently claim to have had more partners than women - the current average is 13, while women claim to have had only nine.

Plainly, someone is lying here. While men might exaggerate their sexual conquests, the bigger liars are women.

When studies about sexual partners or fidelity use a mixture of face-to-face interviews and anonymous computer questionnaires, men will give the same answers to both, but women will report much higher numbers when the answers are anonymous.

Capt. Obvious alert>>> I guess women are just better liars them men.

In case you are wondering why I was perusing this article it all started with this post from Matt Yglesias. I tend to agree with Mr. Yglesias. The reason we don't see more female politician sex scandals, is because we a very small pool of female politicians.

There are differences between men and women, don't get me wrong, but politicians tend to be unified in a couple traits that are ripe for sex scandals. Huge massive egos, and Guido levels of narcissism.

-Cheers