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Bill Cholenski's blog
Unemployment - What does it mean?
Submitted by Bill Cholenski on Thu, 2006-05-18 01:23.Picture this:
On Monday, the unemployment rate is X. On Tuesday, every stay-at-home parent in America decides to "get a job", by swapping children with a stay-at-home parent nearby (maybe they even get paid for their efforts, if you like). They're now all magically "employed". Unemployment figures should now drop (because they're all honest enough to report their newly-found income).
Let's forget that they have to pay taxes on their income - the remainder of which will be used to HELP pay for their newly-found nannies. read more »
Huh?
Submitted by Bill Cholenski on Wed, 2005-12-21 15:49.Help me find some logic in this quote from a NY Times editorial today:
No one expects the government to squander tax dollars on bad loans. But there are ways around that, through grants, for instance, and looser standards for the many who straddle the shoulders of good credit and bad credit. read more »
The Philosophy of Liberty
Submitted by Bill Cholenski on Fri, 2005-11-25 22:52.Via Lew Rockwell, I found this animation on Susan Hogath's website. I think it's cute, fairly concise, well-made, and worth watching. read more »
Call your congressman!
Submitted by Bill Cholenski on Thu, 2005-11-24 04:09.Quick! There have been reports of people reselling Xboxes with exhorbitant mark-ups! Some people are reselling packages on eBay for $2500! Clearly these gougers are preying on gaming-addicted teenagers who can't help themselves. They're profiting at the expense of others; profiting from the misfortune of those who aren't able to get their hands on a new Xbox. Unbelievable - the depths to which some will sink.
Empty Space, Empty Pockets
Submitted by Bill Cholenski on Mon, 2005-11-21 05:00.NASA is looking to "slash" funding for science experiments on the international space station. This, as it begins it's next quest, to send humans to Mars. It's looking to save $344 million from the space station alone.
So here we have a space station championed by an agency that was supposed to justify its existence by promoting science research that couldn't be done on earth, and we now find that it's even less justified. read more »
Submitted by Bill Cholenski on Sun, 2005-11-20 18:03.
Recently, US control over the domain name system (which manages the assignment of domain names like www.yahoo.com, to IP addresses like 68.142.226.36) has come under scrutiny. At the U.N. World Summit on the Information Society, an agreement was eventually reached, whereby the US would continue to maintain control. While I doubt this is the last we'll hear of this debate, and I'm glad it's been put-off at least for now, I also think that it represents nothing more than a bunch of ignorant bureaucrats trying to exercise power over something that they don't really understand. read more »
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Food shopping
Submitted by Bill Cholenski on Sun, 2005-11-20 04:43.I went food shopping the other day and found some frozen dinners that I really enjoy (no excuses, I haven't been cooking much lately). I practically emptied the store out. I'm guessing that when inventory was taken next, the manager of the store ordered more (when next I returned there were even more). What I didn't see on the shelves were the frozen dinners that nobody cares for. Which ones? I don't know. They died out long ago, when the manager bought them, and they hung around for weeks without a taker. How do I know? I'm theorizing. Work with me. read more »
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Greedy on the way up, and greedy on the way down
Submitted by Bill Cholenski on Sun, 2005-11-20 02:12.If you haven’t noticed, oil and gas prices have dropped significantly from their September highs. If you’ve been listening to anti-capitalists, you might wonder: “How is that possible?”
How is it possible that with so much rampant greed in the oil industry, the price could actually go down? Why would gas stations or oil companies lower prices? The short answer: they’re greedy. read more »
Greedy going up, and greedy going down
Submitted by Bill Cholenski on Sat, 2005-11-19 04:16.If you haven’t noticed, oil and gas prices have dropped significantly from their September highs. If you’ve been listening to anti-capitalists, you might wonder: “How is that possible?”
How is it possible that with so much rampant greed in the oil industry, the price could actually go down? Why would gas stations or oil companies lower prices? The short answer: they’re greedy. read more »
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Drivers are greedy too!
Submitted by Bill Cholenski on Fri, 2005-11-18 20:11.If you haven't noticed, oil and gas prices have dropped significantly from their September highs. If you've been listening to oil companies (or environmentalists), you might wonder: "How is that possible?"
How is it possible that with so many gas-hungry cars and car-hungry drivers, the price could actually go down? Why would drivers actually reduce their consumption of gas enough to lower prices? The short answer: they're greedy. read more »
What\'s Wrong With Child Labor?
Submitted by Bill Cholenski on Sun, 2005-11-13 15:31.It's like asking "What's wrong with that job?". The answer is: it depends. read more »
Lessons from Survivor
Submitted by Bill Cholenski on Fri, 2005-11-11 21:19.My wife watches a lot of reality TV, and so I'm exposed to a fair amount of second-hand Survivor. She commented today on how the contestants lose weight, and a lot of them come home with scars, parasites etc. They frequently compete for food, and seem to relish the simplest of meals or luxuries: a shower, some pizza, a cigar, etc. read more »
What\'s Wrong With Low Prices?
Submitted by Bill Cholenski on Wed, 2005-11-09 04:00.Are low prices a bad thing? I mean, overall. Obviously, if you've invested time and money in a career or business that assumes high prices in your field, you wouldn't be happy to learn of some competitor or technology lowering prices in your field. You'd certainly be worse-off in the short term.
But what about in the long term? Isn't it good to not have to pay much for the things you want and need? Low prices for food and clothing (and anything else) leave you with more money to spend on other things. read more »
Extending an old adage
Submitted by Bill Cholenski on Sun, 2005-10-16 13:02.If you subscribe to the view that one should invest in land because they're not making any more of it, what then do you make of the dollar? Shouldn't the reverse apply too: "Don't invest in dollars, they're making lots of them"?
I suppose many who believe the first adage invest in land precisely because they believe the second. But maybe other investments can similarly fit the bill:
Invest in gold, they're not making any more of it.
Invest in oil, they're not making any more of it.
Invest in water, they're not making any more of it.
Invest in non-renewable resources.... read more »
What are you getting for your money?
Submitted by Bill Cholenski on Tue, 2005-09-06 05:01.A quick point (or three): when you buy a house, you buy the location, you buy the bricks, you buy the new windows. You buy the garage, the driveway, the shade in the backyard on the hot summer afternoons. You buy the proximity to highway (or train), the local deli, movie theater, or shopping mall. You buy many things that contribute to the value of the house. They all contribute to the PRICE of the house. read more »
Gouging games
Submitted by Bill Cholenski on Fri, 2005-09-02 05:01.What kind of a world do you want to live in? read more »
Gouging games II
Submitted by Bill Cholenski on Fri, 2005-09-02 03:29.Here's a less-stark scenario. Stop me when someone has dones something wrong.
Mike is running late for his girlfriend's surprise birthday party. He ran into some traffic, and soon realizes that he needs to fill-up his car if he expects to get there at all. He pulls up to his favorite gas station to find that it's closed - very early, in fact. He sees the manager inside, so runs in to ask him why it's closed so early.
"No gas.", he says.
"No gas?" Mike asks. "What happened?" read more »
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Woe is me
Submitted by Bill Cholenski on Tue, 2005-08-30 05:02.With each natural disaster comes the inevitable call for protection from price gouging - for gas, food, whatever. I won't go into why such protections are naive and counter-productive this time - others can do a better job at that. I just wonder why in the midst of this housing boom no one has thought to protect me from the actions of the house gougers - those people who buy a house one day, and manage to charge an exorbitantly higher price for it mere months later. They do it because they know they can get away with it. read more »
Does Sesame Street Oppose Its Own Funding?
Submitted by Bill Cholenski on Thu, 2005-06-30 05:00.Episode 4033 of Sesame Street (originally aired 4/9/2003) (yes, I've been reduced to watching Sesame Street) offers a life-lesson at the conclusion of a bit of drama. Following a recent spate of cookie thefts, Cookie Monster finds himself falsely accused. The following excerpt occurs after the true thief reveals himself.
Maria: Hey, wait a minute. Those are my cookies. I baked them myself. Where did you get them? read more »
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Dependence on <i>Foreign</i> Oil
Submitted by Bill Cholenski on Fri, 2005-06-17 12:20.Is the fact that something is “foreign” important in discussing its merits? I frequently hear discussion about foreign oil, and how if we drilled more domestically, we could end our dependence on it. read more »