--With thanks to Chareen on the Sonlight Curriculum Forums
|
|
2.5 |
|
|
2.5 |
When It's Right to 'Unwrite'The quote is included in a sidebar of the latest newsletter from one of my favorite commentators, Denny Hatch.
As an avid stitcher in my spare time, I often have to rip out my work to fix mistakes. My fellow stitchers jokingly call this "reverse stitching." As a writer of nonfiction for young people and adults, I often find myself doing something very similar. I call it "unwriting"—and it's no fun.
What's particularly frustrating about unwriting is how unpredictable and time consuming it is. The story will be moving along and then, out of nowhere, it will stall out. This happened about a third of the way through my book on Prohibition for young people ... I pressed on, writing a few pages one day and deleting them the next. Then I'd do it again. A week passed, and I was still stuck.
Finally, with books across my desk and articles across my lap, it hit me: I didn't need this section at all ... Thanks to unwriting, days of work became a mere 10 lines of text. Just as often, unwriting is required to overcome my irrational attachment to certain facts or storiesKaren Blumenthal
The Wall Street Journal, July 30, 2011
|
|
2.5 |
|
|
2.5 |
I recall nothing of trigonometry and physics, except the feeling of nausea as the teacher filled the blackboard with a mystifying jumble of numbers and letters (the infernal, elusive x!). Higher math, I assumed at the time, was created for the sole purpose of adding to teenagers’ misery and self-loathing—the academic equivalent of acne. This awful memory comes to mind because my daughter Jessica is now taking trig and physics in her junior year of high school. Jessie is a better math student than I was, but she shares the family predilection for English, history, and verbal subjects, and will not be making a career in engineering or science. So why must she break her brain on quadratic equations?In case you want to see the original article to which Falk refers, check out How to Fix Our Math Education.
Two brave mathematicians have stepped forward to argue she need not. In a column in The New York Times, Sol Garfunkel and David Mumford say algebra, trig, and calculus are wasted on those of us with no aptitude for higher math. Students clearly not headed for science or engineering careers, they propose, should track to courses that provide “quantitative literacy”—the ability to handle our own finances, understand percentages and probability and risk, and intelligently assess what “experts” like banks and doctors and politicians tell us about the mathematics of real life. The desperate need for literacy of this sort is indisputable: The average American carries more than $6,000 in credit-card debt; about half of all retirees have saved less than a quarter of what they will need; and our elected leaders convince the gullible it’s possible to balance budgets while preserving their benefits and cutting their taxes. Why keep fiddling with x, while Rome burns?
|
|
2.5 |
|
|
2.5 |
|
|
2.5 |
It's no secret that the cost of university education, especially in the United States, is staggering. Tuition at private schools in the US averages $30,000 annually, and students often graduate over $50,000 in debt.I wish someone had suggested some of these options to me when I was in high school! Not so much for the cost savings. (I did just fine. Despite having to pay 100% of my tuition, room, board and all expenses for the last three years of college, I graduated with less than $150 of debt.)
This leads to a fancy form of indentured servitude; students with this kind of debt load are forced to take the first paid work they can find, and they'll work for the next 14-years of their life just to start back at zero. For parents footing the bill, the prospect of huge tuition fees can keep people up at night for years fretting about the payments.
Graduate schooling can be even more painful. Top MBA programs can charge $50,000 per year or more, and for those who still cling to the idea of working their way up the corporate ladder, this has become a necessary step.
Especially now in the midst of a severe recession, it has become a new trend for people to head back to school, firm up their credentials, and wait out the economic downturn.
I have a better solution for you to consider: head overseas.
Going to a school overseas ticks a lot of boxes-- for one, it's a hell of a lot cheaper, and you don't emerge deep in debt like you would back home.
Second, the quality of the education is as good if not better than what you would otherwise receive.
Third, and most importantly, it's just more interesting. The experience abroad will be much more fulfilling, and it will distinguish you from the pool of other candidates who all have generic resumes.
Let's say you're an Ivy League type. Why pay Harvard $52,000 per year when you can go to the University of Cambridge in England for around $19,000 per year? Cambridge is consistently rated as one of the top universities in the world: same quality education, a fraction of the price.
If that sounds like too much, consider a place like Hong Kong University. Tuition at Asia's top school is around $15,000 per year, and there are plenty of scholarships and financial aid packages available. Not to mention you'd be networking with future movers and shakers in the region.
Still too much? Look at Erasmus University in the Netherlands, whose Rotterdam School of Management is one of the top business schools in Europe. Tuition in the all-English program is around $11,500 per year, 73% less than Notre Dame's Mendoza School, and 26% less than Michigan's Ross School of Business.
Still too much? Try Qatar University, where there are numerous English-language programs in disciplines such as business and engineering. Tuition for foreign undergraduates is just $4,000 annually, and you'd be spending formative years in one of the world's most thriving, opportunity-rich economies.
Still too much? Try Albert Einstein's Alma Mater, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. If you make the cut, ETH's tuition fee is a whopping $750 per semester for both undergraduate and graduate programs, and the school is typically ranked among Europe's top 5 universities.
Here's the bottom line-- if you're facing an uphill battle for prospects and opportunities, get creative; don't simply follow the same path that everyone else is taking. The world is a big place-- stop limiting yourself by geography and start looking overseas for solutions.
One of the things that people pick up on very quickly as they travel are how different price levels are around the world. I’ve been to roughly 100 countries, and I still find it amazing how much variance there is among things like food, property, and entertainment prices.I have to agree with that last statement. It was Sarita's and my experience, too, in Norway earlier this summer, where a trip to a public restroom would set you back a good NOK20 or NOK25 (USD3.72-USD4.65), minimum. Yep. Just to go to the bathroom. Indeed, there was hardly anything in Norway that cost less than NOK20. I came to the conclusion that NOK20 was, pretty much, their mental equivalent of a quarter.
There are certain places– Cambodia, Ecuador, Tanzania– that are so jaw-droppingly cheap that it almost seems unreal. And you wonder how these people could possibly ever survive if they came to your country.
Well, the United States has just joined this proud cadre banana republics… at least if you’re from Switzerland.
|
|
2.5 |
|
|
2.5 |
I don't know whether the imposter intended this, but his joke has a stroke of brilliance.
By making the outrageous comment, he indirectly compels Krugman to respond to it, and say for the record whether or not he accepts it. The beauty is that no matter what Krugman says, it will make him look like an idiot.
If he says he does not accept it, then he contradicts his own worldview, because the comment is exactly in line with Krugman's orthodoxy. It wasn't an advocacy, it was simply an argument of economics.
If he says he does accept it, then he will just reconfirm what everyone already knows. That he's crazy.
If he fails to say he rejects or accepts it, then that will insinuate that he has something to hide, which conveys the impression that he secretly accepts it and is too embarrassed to explicitly admit it.
Since Krugman seems to imply in the NYT blog that the fake comment is "really stupid [and] outrageous," (although we can't be sure, and I bet Krugman carefully worded his column so that he doesn't explicitly say the comment is really stupid and outrageous, but at the same time denying he said it), then the imposter has succeeded in getting Krugman to contradict himself.
|
|
2.5 |
People on twitter might be joking, but in all seriousness, we would see a bigger boost in spending and hence economic growth if the earthquake had done more damage.It turns out those words were definitely not written by Paul Krugman.
|
|
2.5 |
|
|
2.5 |
|
|
2.5 |
You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP all sitting members of congress are ineligible for reelection.Good luck getting Congresspeople to agree to such a law! But, hey!
EXCLUSION OF SOCIAL SECURITY FROM ALL BUDGETSCongress has been raiding Social Security for just about "forever"--using all funds brought into the Social Security system to fund current government expenses. I.e., the approximately $2.6 trillion Social Security trust fund consists solely of federal government IOUs--sorry: debt.
Pub. L. 101-508, title XIII, Sec. 13301(a), Nov. 5, 1990, 104
Stat. 1388-623, provided that: "Notwithstanding any other provision
of law, the receipts and disbursements of the Federal Old-Age and
Survivors Insurance Trust Fund and the Federal Disability Insurance
Trust Fund shall not be counted as new budget authority, outlays,
receipts, or deficit or surplus for purposes of -
"(1) the budget of the United States Government as submitted by
the President,
"(2) the congressional budget, or
"(3) the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of
1985 [see Short Title note set out under section 900 of this
title]."
If the US Government was a family, they would be making $58,000 a year, they spend $75,000 a year, and are $327,000 in credit card debt. They are currently proposing big spending cuts to reduce their spending to $72,000 a year. These are the actual proportions of the federal budget and debt, reduced to a level that we can understand.I replied:
That was interesting, Miriam. I really appreciate your sharing that. It puts things into a more manageable perspective.And Steve Forbes, Larry Summers and others see the S&P downgrade of American credit worthiness as an "outrage"?!? Would you want to lend to a family with this kind of credit profile?
But something didn't seem right about the numbers. The spending seemed too low. So I did a little checking.
Based on what I can find—from the 2010 federal budget (see charts on the right hand side of thepage; data from the Congressional Budget Office Historical Tables) . . .
If we start with a family income of $58,000 and multiply by the proportion of spending as compared to income of the federal government (divide by 2,162, then multiply by 3,456): you've got a proportional annual spend of $92,714!
Oh. And when it comes to “cuts”? Supposing Congress actually follows up on them all, we're looking at a reduction in annual spend from approximately $93,000 to $82,000 ($93,000 * (3,056/3,456)). So that’s nice. The family is proposing “only” to go into further debt at a rate of $24,000 a year instead of its former $35,000 a year!
Finally. It’s probably unfair to call it “credit card debt,” since credit cards are generally considered short-term debt and are charged at a much higher rate than the federal government. But that’s a relatively minor quibble. With an acknowledged debt of about $15 trillion and an income of $2.2 trillion (approximately), we find ourselves with a debt multiple of 6.8 [15/2.2]). Multiply $58,000 by 6.8 and you come up with the proportional total debt of this family: about $395,000.
Families with annual incomes of $58,000 generally aren't permitted to purchase $395,000 homes . . . or to wrack up $395,000 debts. Not normally, anyway! They can't pay their debts back. Especially not when their standard and expected annual expenditure--for years and years--is and has been significantly more than their income. (Even--to use Buffett's example--a "modest" 3% deficit for a family with annual income of $58,000 is $1,740. But when the family is borrowing--and seems intent on continuing to borrow $24,000 more every year for the next 10 years, at least?)
|
|
2.5 |
This issue was highlighted last year when the Obama Health Care law imposed an onerous requirement that all sales exceeding $600 – not just sales of gold – be reported to the IRS on Form 1099. Fortunately, that little ray of misguided sunshine was extinguished in a rare Congressional act of reason.What?!?
Passage by Congress of the national health care legislation has had an unintended consequence to the nation’s coin collectors, vest-pocket dealers who buy and sell coins, and larger dealers who are frequent buyers of coins that collectors periodically liquidate as they trade up their collections for better coins, or simply sell to take a small profit or loss.A little bit later in the same article:
What has happened is that effective Jan. 1, 2012, the whole system of giving and receiving Internal Revenue Service 1099 forms will be turned on its head and all persons (including corporations) who are in business will now have to give 1099 tax reporting forms for coins and other goods that they sell as well as buy.
Form 1099 is used to report independent contractor income, income from dividends, income from other things – and is one of the reasons why children receive tax bills for work or labor or services performed.??? Whoa! Now, wait a minute!
Section 9006 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111-148. . .) turns 1099 forms into reporting forms not only for independent contractor’s income – what they have long been used for – but also to show sales, gains and losses on purchases and sales of goods as part of a trade or business.
The section reads (in relevant part) “SEC. 9006. EXPANSION OF INFORMATION REPORTING REQUIREMENTS. (a) IN GENERAL. – Section 6041 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the following new subsections:
"(h) APPLICATION TO CORPORATIONS. –(b) PAYMENTS FOR PROPERTY AND OTHER GROSS PROCEEDS. –. . . for purposes of this section the term ‘person’ includes any corporation that is not an organization exempt from tax under section501(a). . . ."
Subsection (a) of section 6041 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended –
(1) by inserting ‘‘amounts in consideration for property,’’ after ‘‘wages,’’
(2) by inserting ‘‘gross proceeds,’’ after ‘‘emoluments, or other’’, and
(3) by inserting ‘‘gross proceeds,’’ after ‘‘setting forth the amount of such.’’
I don't see the sense in filing 1099's to companies I do business with such as Amazon.com, Costco, American Airlines, Marriott and Comcast. These are large corporations that I would trust would not be hiding income. If the IRS believes this to be so, why don't they audit these companies instead of overloading us with forms? I don't see how the IRS will make more money. I do see how they will cost everyone more dealing with these forms. As for my reaction, I will try to limit my purchases from any company to be less than $600 a year to avoid this or only use one provider to avoid multiple forms. Could this also be an incentive for some companies to buy from foreign companies?Sadly, the bill to repeal, I found, "is no longer current." And, apparently, never passed. So then what?
I sure do not want to fill out a 1099 form to Walmart and all the other stores that we shop at. We would definitely have to keep track of receipts and try to find out all the tax payer ids for all the businesses we shop at all year. What a nightmare. What if I can't remember who I bought $600.00 worth of stufffrom? . . .
I'm an American customer. If this bill to stop 1099's does not pass, does that mean that we will have to send a 1099 form for our electric bill, gas, water, house, food and clothing, etc.? All these things add up in a year's time to way over $600.00.
Nancy Ploeger, president of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, said some members wondered why the provision was inserted into the health care bill at all.I am unable to answer the last question. But the earlier one, about why it was in the health care bill?
“The fact that it was buried in the health care bill was bizarre enough, and then it was yet another burden on the backs of business owners, more paperwork,” she said.
“Also, what is the point of it?” she asked. “You issue a 1099 to an outside contractor, which is understood because the government wants to keep track of the income of outside contractors. But any major corporation you're making purchases from already has a reporting requirement.”
The idea seems to be that using 1099 forms to capture unreported income will generate more government revenue and help offset the cost of the health bill.Wow! The (minimum) 5 minutes you would have to spend each year filling out a 1099 for each of the people and corporations from whom you purchase $600 or more worth of goods in a year, not to mention the postage required to send these forms to all the companies with whom you deal--and to send the reports to the IRS: this is less onerous than an additional tax?
A Democratic aide for the Senate Finance Committee, which authored the changes, defended the move.
"Information reporting improves tax compliance without raising taxes on small businesses," the aide said. "Health care reform includes more than $35 billion in tax cuts for small businesses ... indicating that during these tough economic times, Congress is delivering the tax breaks small businesses need to thrive."
The new rules could drastically alter the tax-reporting landscape by spotlighting payments that previously went unreported. Freelancers and other independent operators typically write off stacks of business expenses; having to issue tax paperwork documenting each of them could cut down on fraudulent deductions.
More significantly, the 1099 trail would expose payments to small operators that might now be going unreported. If you buy a computer for your business from a major chain retailer, the seller almost certainly documents the revenue. But if you buy it from Tim's Computer Shack down the street, Tim might not report and pay taxes on his income from the sale.
The IRS estimates that the federal government loses more than $300 billion each year in tax revenue on income that goes unreported. Using 1099s to document millions of transactions that now go untracked is one way to begin to close the gap.
|
|
2.5 |
Letter to Congress on the DebtIt was that penultimate sentence that put me over the top: "The President's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform
Dear Members of Congress,
Today, I delivered remarks on the Senate floor about our government's inability to come together to address our looming national debt and its fast-approaching limit. The clock is running out, and Americans are calling for a comprehensive, bipartisan solution. Yet once again negotiations are at an impasse. Our escalating national debt stands at over $46,000 per citizen - that's an outrageous number that is weighing down our economic recovery, jeopardizing our status as the world's economic leader and threatening our national security.
There's a growing disconnect between what most Americans want - quality roads, a safety net for the sick and elderly, and strong investments in education and research that will develop the well-paying jobs of tomorrow - and our country's ability to pay for them. But I believe we have to be realistic and make tough decisions - on both sides. For example, spending cuts alone won't reduce our deficit. And if those cuts are too deep they will hurt the middle class and prevent us from creating the jobs we need for a full economic recovery. So I believe generating more revenue must at least be part of the solution. There are plenty of wasteful tax loopholes - not tax rate increases, but corporate giveaways through the tax code - that can be closed. Our economic future rests on the fulcrum of this balance: both sides have to come to the negotiating table with skin in the game and agree that nothing is off limits.
If we continue arguing over whether to use the right or left paddle, we'll just keep going in circles until we careen over the edge together. I'm willing to stay in Washington as long as it takes to achieve a sensible, bipartisan plan that puts our country back on track. We already have a template: The President's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, chaired by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, came up with a set of recommendations that would reduce the debt by over $4 trillion over the next decade, including spending cuts, reasonable entitlement reform and revenues generated from closing special interest tax expenditures. Now let's start paddling in unison.
Respectfully,
Senator Mark Udall and co-signers
| Table 1: Life Expectancy for Social Security |
||||
| Year Cohort Turned 65 |
Percentage of Population Surviving from Age 21 to Age 65 |
Average Remaining Life Expectancy for Those Surviving to Age 65 |
||
| Male |
Female |
Male |
Female |
|
| 1940 |
53.9 |
60.6 |
12.7 |
14.7 |
|
|
2.5 |
At the heart of the public library is the notion of community sharing. We are a cooperative purchasing agreement. . . . [P]ublic libraries take many small contributions of money, and leverage that into the purchase of collections, or access to collections, that are far beyond what any of us could afford individually.
You've got an ebook reader? Wonderful! . . . The library can provide books for your e-reader, too.
The argument is pretty straightforward: libraries are way more cost-effective than buying everything yourself, most of which you really don't want to keep anyhow. Just because the book is electronic doesn't change the value proposition. Teaming up - buying once, using many times - is a smart investment.
A second [benefit of libraries:] we help individuals of any and all ages and backgrounds to explore and discover anything they like. . . for school. . . for their jobs. . . learning a new language, or building a porch, or growing a garden, or learning to play banjo. Or. . . just reading science fiction or murder mysteries or romances or browsing fashion magazines. Public libraries are a patriot's dream: We are all about the pursuit of happiness.
A third [benefit of libraries:] we build community.. . . Last year our 7 locations in Douglas County racked up over 2 million visits. People come to homeowner's meetings, children's story times, civic clubs, and evening programs. They meet friends and associates. They chat with each other as they wait to use public computers. They get out of their homes and get to know one another.
So it's ironic. Often the busiest place in town, a place where people can follow their interests, save heaps of money, and build enduring bonds with their neighbors, libraries still have to fight the false perception that no one needs them.
Once again, Yogi nailed it. "Nobody goes there any more," he said. "It's too crowded."
|
|
2.5 |
|
|
2.5 |
|
|
2.5 |
