Renouncing Market Capitalism

After deep thought and profound soul searching I have decided to renounce market capitalism. It has become clear from the past year that under regulation in every industry led the economy to the brink of collapse, with unemployment in the US surpassing 10%--almost the highest it has been since the great depression. I confess that I, as a recovering neo-classical, spent too much time advocating that policy should be geared towards increased productivity and efficiency and not enough time focusing on how it should be geared towards increasing jobs. I no longer believe the labor market is intrinsically stable without serious government intervention. I propose three policies that I believe will bring the unemployment rate close to zero basically overnight without the government incurring huge expenses.

Policy number 1: Set a maximum on the percentage of media you can buy online.

When I was a heartless capitalist, I thought of amazon.com and other giant online retailers as a godsend. They increased public good by decreasing the real price of books, CDs and basically everything by cutting out the middle man (the retailer) and thus decreasing overall overhead and labor costs embodied within the product. I unemotionally witnessed retail book stores and media outlets go out of business (The Bookshelf anyone?). “If people valued retail book stores they would continue to shop at them and they wouldn’t go out of business”, I argued. That seems so cold now. To remedy the problem and increase the number of jobs in the media retail sector I propose a regulation on the amount of media each person can purchase online, say 50%. Every time you buy a book or DVD, you must provide your social security number, whether online or in the store. A central database tracks your individual purchases and anytime you go over your online allotment you get hit with a huge fine, or perhaps it just doesn’t let you make the purchase. This would create so many jobs! Firstly, there would be more bookstores constructed, therefore construction jobs would increase. Jobs would be increased in the media retail industry as more people are hired to service the demand for media not online. Several high paying IT jobs would be created as a giant tracking database is set up and then privacy is maintained. People would have to get out more to buy media so you can expect increases in the transportation sector—more bikes, cars and busses produced, more gasoline consumed etc.

Policy number 2: Make all retail stores hire a welcome person.

As a capitalist I used to shop at Walmart. Whenever I walked into the store and was greeted by a welcome person I thought to myself ‘man I don’t want to be doing that when I’m retired’ and ‘what an inefficient use of labor’. Surely if Walmart didn’t hire people to greet their customers they could save the $6 an hour they pay them and pass those savings onto their customers and shareholders. Such inefficiencies drove me crazy! Now, however, I realize that this is what we need in our country, more workers that are basically unproductive. I propose that every retail store and restaurant be required to hire a greeter. Overnight you would create the number of jobs equal to the number of stores in existence multiplied by the number of shifts each store is open.

Policy number 3: Require all cars that are being driven on the roads be no older than 5 years.

I saw a Toyota advertisement the other day that said something to the effect that the majority of Toyota cars sold in 1990 are still on the road today—19 years later. At the time I thought to myself how great that was. By making reliable long lasting cars, Toyota has reduced the number of cars people have to buy saving them tons of money in their lives. But isn’t our auto manufacturing industry hurting from this? Wouldn’t Ford and GM sell a lot more cars if none of the cars sold in 1990 were still on the road today? I propose a law requiring that all cars driven on public roads be newer than five year old. Think of the jobs this would create! Not only would it create thousands, perhaps millions, of auto manufacturing jobs, steel production jobs, ore mining jobs and plastic manufacturing jobs, it would increase auto dealer jobs. There would need to be more factories and dealerships built so there would be an increase in construction jobs. The new cars have to be transported so there would be an increase in transportation jobs—more truckers, more truck manufacturing, more barge manufacturing etc. The law would need to be enforced so there would need to be more police patrolling the streets for old cars. The justice system would see higher traffic so there would be more jobs for judges, lawyers and clerks. The old cars would have to go somewhere so there would be huge job increases in waste management. Surely nonprofit environmental groups would be outraged by such waste and excess use, so they would hire more people. Because many unemployed people would now have jobs, they could spend more money eating out and on entertainment so these industries would also see boosts in employment. I actually can’t think of a single industry that wouldn’t see an increase in jobs.

These are my first thee ideas. If after these have been implemented the unemployment rate isn’t at below say 3%, just let me know, I can come up with these ideas all day long.

-Andrew, the job creation think tank

Fall of 2009

So far this fall we have done exactly three fun things. Here are some pictures:

1) At the end of the summer we took a two day one night trip to New York. I had never been in New york except for the airport. We took a bus there early on a Thursday Morning and returned home on Friday night.

2) We went to Montreal Canada on a last minute midnight trip with some of our friends.

3) For Gwen's Birthday we had a vampiresque themed party. She was Gwen from Buffy and I was Xander with an eye patch.

Also I wanted to congradulate Gwen on her new Job! She will working for the National Bureau of Economic Research -- working with the top economists on projects that pretain to retirement savings. It is going to be a sweet job that will utilize Gwen's many skills. Now I can quit my job and school and focus on my promising music career.

My New Favorite Frenchman and Free Trader

Frederic Bastiat wrote the following in response to new legislation in the 1840s on higher duties on all foreign goods in order to protect French Industry:

Petition of the Manufacturers of Candles, Wax-Lights, Lamps, Candlesticks, Street Lamps, Snuffers, Extinguishers, and of the Producers of Oil, Tallow, Resin, Alcohol, and Generally, of Everything Connected with Lighting." To messieurs the members of the Chamber of Deputies.

We are suffering from the intolerable competition of a foreign rival, placed, it would seem, in a condition so far superior to ours for the production of light that he absolutely inundates our national market with it at a price fabulously reduced. The moment he shows himself our trade leaves us— all consumers apply to him; and a branch of native industry, having countless ramifications, is all at once rendered completely stagnant. This rival, who is no other than the sun ....

What we pray for is, that it may please you to pass a law ordering the shutting up of all windows, skylights, dormer-windows, outside and inside shutters, curtains, blinds, bull’s- eyes, in a word, of all openings, holes, chinks, clefts, and fissures...

...if you shut up as much as possible all access to natural light, and create a demand for artificial light, which of our French manufacturers will not be encouraged by it?

... If more tallow is consumed, then there must be more oxen and sheep ... if more oil is consumed, then we shall have extended cultivation of the poppy, of the olive... our hearhs will be covered with resinous trees.

Make your choice, but be logical; for as long as you exclude, as you do, iron, corn, foreign fabrics, in proportion as their prices approximate to zero, what inconsisency it will be to admit the light of the sun, the price of which is already at zero durring the entire day!


And on a lighter note, I thougt this was pretty disturbing.

Offer to my admirable vegetarian friends

I have several vegetarian friends (and even two vegan friends). Though I am an omnivore, I would like to say just how impressed I am with their will and dedication. I imagine it is not easy, in a society where eating animals is central to most meals and where eating is an important part of culture, to abstain from eating meat. Be that as it may, there are several reasons to be vegetarian. Here are a few of those reasons.

The Environment
Animal grazing destroys natural habitats, riparian areas and emits large amounts of greenhouse gasses. It is a wonder to me that with so many negative externalities, the government (in an attempt to save jobs) subsidizes the meat industry with underpriced grazing access to federal lands and import limits on meat exporting nations. Instead, there should be a higher tax imposed on meat (in particular beef) to price in the whole cost of meat consumption.

Health
I’m no nutritionist but I don’t think I’ve ever heard a health expert suggest that we should eat more hormone injected red meat.

Cost
Eating meat is expensive. Thanks to my parents, I have been indoctrinated with a from-the-farm Idaho Mormon passion for frugality. While meat tastes great and can make one satisfying meal, it can also double the cost. Too rich for my blood (who says that?).

Animal Cruelty
The way the meat industry raises and slaughters the animals we eat can be less than humane at best. Nobody likes to see a living being suffer.

Whatever your reason for being vegetarian, I believe it is a noble one. That being said I would like to offer a standing invitation. If ever any of you vegetarians have an unquenchable hunger for meat and need moral support to bring yourself to temporarily lapse on your animal friendly commitment, I stand at the ready. We could go out for rodízio or I could fry up some steaks on my grill. If you want your indulgence to remain a secret, I won’t tell anyone—not your spouse, not even my wife.

Your judgment free pork chop awaits.

-Andrew

Recipe for Idiocy

As many of you have noticed I’ve been on a taxation kick recently. A few days ago, to bring my temporary obsession with taxation to an end I decided to write one more taxation blog—one that would solve the fiscal budgetary crisis, rising health care costs and the American obesity problem all at once. The title of this blog was “Fat Tax—Solving the Health Care Problem One Pound at a Time”. Upon completion, I forwarded the draft to Gwen to look over and post. She rightfully informed me that despite my minimal effort to keep it tasteful, the blog was outrageously offensive. She told me I could post it when I got home if I still wanted to. When I got home I still wanted to post the blog but realized that my sarcastic piece of satire could possibly be misinterpreted. Plus it was kind of mean. I then decided to shift my blogging attention away from taxation (and economics in general) to a less polarizing topic—recipe websites.

If you or your spouse is anything like my wife, no meal can be prepared without extensively researching several cookbook websites and blogs. Online recipes are a prime example of how technology has allowed us to collaborate and connect with a large number of people for the betterment of life (more specifically in this case, our meals). This, like the democratization of technology in general, has some unavoidable and interesting side effects. One such side effect, which I would like to comment on today, is the ridiculously irrelevant comments posted on some of these sites.

Most of these sites and blogs allow the general viewers to post comments on the recipes posted. This can be very beneficial. A small adjustment stumbled upon by an end user, when shared with the greater community, can increase the utility of everyone. This is an example of how collaborative innovation can be a magnificent method of creation. The down side of this technological democratization is that for every one thoughtful commenter and beneficial comment there are x number of dense commenters and ridiculous comments (where x>1).

Here are a few “has nothing to do with the recipe” comments I found online (or rather I made up, but they probably exist):

Woman, age 42 from Dallas writes:

“Thanks for the tuna casserole recipe. My husband doesn’t like tuna or casserole but I decided to make this anyways. He works really long days selling stuff he stole on ebay and generally prefers to eat frozen corndogs dipped in a strange sauce of ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise and butter. One day we ran out of ketchup so he sent me to buy some. I ran into an old friend of mine who also reads your blog. I don’t think she’s tried your tuna casserole recipe yet.”

Justin a bachelor age 33 from Georgia writes:

Title: beter by gold
“I made these here smoothies last nite. Last nite their was a meaten about the health care barak hoo-in-sane obama is gonna shuv down our throts. He is such a moran. It’s communism! He is gonna take away our wrights. I herd he is also gonna raise gas prices and send our jobs to Africa, like in china.”

There are also the “change the recipe until it is no longer even remotely the same” comments. Here are a few examples:

Tara, age 28 from Philadelphia comments on a chicken noodle soup recipe:

“This was absolutely disgusting! It didn’t taste at all like the chicken noodle soup I remember my grandmother making. I did exactly what the instructions said to except I didn’t have any salt so I just added a little extra pepper to compensate. I also was out of carrots and onions so I put in a little garlic for flavor. I accidentally doubled the amount of water so I let it boil for 10 extra minutes so that it would evaporate out. My fiancé and I only ate a few bites and then we had to throw the rest away. Do not make!”

John, age 23 from Oregon comments on a vegetarian taco recipe:

“These were the best tacos I have ever had! Thanks for the recipe. I did make a few adjustments that I think improved it just a bit. For example, instead of using black beans I used re fried beans. Instead of 1 cup yellow onions I used ½ cup red onions. Instead of using taco seasoning I used spaghetti sauce. I quadrupled the amount of cheese and added a package of bacon. Instead of frying the ingredients and putting them on tacos, I decided to bake them on a pizza crust. They turned out awesome."

The list of examples could go on for the length of several encyclopedia sets. Feel free to post a comment of your favorite ridiculous recipe comments.


-Andrew

I really love the color

yellow.


--Gwen

Comments fix

An avid blog follower informed me recently that he was not able to post comments on the blog. I investigated the issue and found that indeed posting comments was not working. This discovery answered the question that has been bothering me recently--"why are the estimated thousands (seasonally adjusted) of my blog followers not posting on my blog?" I fixed the glitch and now you all should be able to flood the boards with your praise.

-Andrew

A Republican saying increase taxes??

Wow two posts in just two days.

I was reading some past posts from my favorite blog (by Greg Mankiw) and I came accross this article

http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2006/10/pigou-club-manifesto.html

I generally don't have a good taste in my mouth for anything with "manifesto" in the title (Communist manifesto... anyone?) but after reading this article I decided to let go of my bias against manifestos and join the pigou club.

I fully support higher gasoline taxes for the reasons Mankiw listed in this manifesto. The article got me thinking about how our whole tax system should generally be based on consumption taxes. Here are a few reasons I believe this:

1) Consumption taxes imposed on things that aren't good for individuals can be highly beneficial. Generally called "Sin Taxes" taxes on things like cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana (if it were legalized) and I would even add fast food, candy, soda etc. discourage people from consuming things that are generally bad for them and encourage consumption of things that are generally good for them. People who consume the items listed above abundantly generally have worse health and therefore higher health care costs, especially in their later years. This becomes a high cost for the government as health care for the elderly is often paid for partially or entirely by the government. These taxes, therefore, make those responsible for the cost of health care the ones who have to pay for it. This reduces what I believe is a huge inefficiency. In a sort of twisted way a higher gasoline tax would be a type of sin tax in that it discourages you from doing something bad (driving) and encourages you to do something good (walking--at least to the T).

2) Immigration woes. One of the biggest anti-immigration arguments is that illegal immigrants fill our prisons, schools, and hospitals draining our money from our system. This may be a valid argument under the current tax system that we have in place, but if we shifted towards a more consumption based tax system, illegal immigrants who work for wages under the table (and avoid income tax) still pay taxes like the rest of us because they are still consuming. They, like the rest of us, would then be paying into the system which they, like the rest of us, take out of. At the very least it might silence the extreme right wing, gun toting, confederate flag wielding nut jobs from vomiting the same old (get those damn--insert ethnic minority here--out of our country) rhetoric.

3) Increases the incentives for savings. Like briefly mentioned in the manifesto, a more consumption based tax system encourages people to save, and with the savings rate recently near 0% in the US, that seems to be a pretty important thing. When I go to Burger King I have really only two options: Buy the Jr. Whopper for 99 cents or don't and save that 99 cents (I always eat off the dollar menu--due to my extreme frugality). If the whopper jr. were $1.30 I would be less inclined to buy it and more inclined to save the money. Our current tax system (largely based on income, payroll and corporate tax) discourages saving and encourages spending.


The biggest argument against consumption taxes (especially sin taxes) is that they are more regressive than income tax. While this doesn't necessarily have to be the case, it wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing to shift towards a less progressive tax system in the United States. The US currently has the most progressive income tax system of the OECD nations, (http://www.taxfoundation.org/blog/show/24944.html), and recently the top 1% of taxpayers began paying more income tax than the bottom 95% of tax payers combined. (granted income distribution is a key component of this figure--it's still surprising--see link above)

In short-tax negative externalities? Yes! Shift from an income tax system to a consumption tax system? Yes!

-Andrew

Friday afternoon

It is two hours until the end of the Friday work day. As is to be expected on a Friday afternoon at work I am slowly drinking a can of Coca-Cola © after enjoying a delicious lunch of left over Thursday night dinner—today that just happens to be mac and cheese. Much like any other Friday afternoon I find myself overly anxious for the work day to come to an end so that my weekend can begin. My gaze fluctuates between the contrasting silver on red “everyone pays KIDS price” Six Flags advertisement located just below the coke can's lip and the computer screen’s crisp exhibit of rows 19-55 and columns A to Q of a portion of a Microsoft Excel © worksheet which displays cells with words and numbers differentiated by varying colors of text and backgrounds. The clock located in the bottom right corner of the screen displays 2:15. The two solid dots separating the hours from the minutes remain in place giving no visual indication that seconds are passing by. Broadening my shoulders and straightening my posture I draw into my lungs a deep breath of the scentless office air and prepare to enter a deep relaxation and anxiety release exercise I mastered during my passage through Ogden City schools. Once my lungs are uncomfortably full I lean back on my chair, close my eyes and allow the majestic sounds of nature entrance my being into a state of unconscious bliss. My heart’s pace slows, my mind releases its grasp of the present and knots begin to twist into formation inside my stomach as mother nature miraculously pricks away my conscious barriers until my senses are completely surrendered in her nurturing care. The click of a mouse, the scroll of its wheel, the chatter of fingertips clapping away on keyboards,the distant sound of a hearty laugh, the not so distant muffles of a woman’s chatter, the ruffle of papers and the creek of a chair begin to fade into the vast nothingness beyond the reach of my mind--the great outside. Rich intoxicating images, sounds, smells and feelings drift into what once was my soul. Sharp contrasting oranges and yellows blaze across dark maroon reds and purples. Waves of sharp greens and dull blues burst into existence. The sounds of armies marching, butterflies flapping their wings and a squirrel leaping from branch to branch—his heart beating faster and faster as he avoids discovery by a determined aerial predator—flood into my ears. Popcorn freshly buttered and warm apple pie dominate my sense of smell though hints of wild sage, dark black smoke, gasoline and Kentucky Fried Chicken © also manifest themselves. Anger, desperation, defeat, triumph, gladness, depression, sadness, empathy, orgasmic bliss, and a deep sense of being content wrestle against each other to shape, manipulate or ingratiate me. Then all at once it vanished as a long stream of golden light penetrates the threatening overcast masses of nothing and everything to find its home on a single flower reaching out for sanctuary from its haunted past.

And in this moment, a dream is born.

And it is now 2:16.

-Andrew

I love lists

Things I love

Jacques Lacan
Spontaneously laughing so hard your drink comes out your nose
Playing with smiley babies
Day dreaming about if dragons were real
The Central Square Branch
When it’s too hot to wear clothes
Rusty
Pictures of children taken by their moms
Skirts that twirl


Things I Hate

People telling you: “you are over qualified for this job!”
Apartment “realtors”
When Rusty pukes and I watch him eat it—I can’t look away but it’s so gross!
Not being as adventurous as I imagine myself

--Gwen

Reminders that I am a Hick

Roy is a town 10 minutes from Ogden, where we grew up.

More about fiscal responsability

I found this article posted on Greg Mankiw's blog.

http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/05/barack_obamas_risky_deficit_sp.html

Also, I thought this was pretty funny.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiANPQV0BbgEzJt9ISFweAJpIk3rKEiSJmicQwhiH003x8L0608rgBwI5hqsKiAjl9trdtN0Wscmda-RLeekcKtxG8kjLdKSjX_YH_FvnN4rgPk1k6V44l3ag_Goy4ruL8N6u30vHTlHjs/s1600-h/deathstar-bailout.JPG

-Andrew

Congrats Gwen!

Just a few days ago Gwen finished everything she needed to for her Master's Degree at Harvard Divinity School in theological studies (woman in religion). If she had changed her name to conform to the patriarchy of our society she would have been the first Berger (in this generation) to get her Master's Degree, though now it looks like Mark will beat her to it, unless, of course, I can convince her to change her last name in the next 6 months or so.

But seriously, congratulations Gwen for finishing. You are truly an academic inspiration for me and my family.

-Andrew

Bipartisanism = Economic Populism

I've been thinking a lot about fiscal responsability lately, how could I not? The federal governemnt is projected to run huge deficits (and when I say huge I mean 10% of gdp huge) for the next 10 years under Obama's proposed budget. And why not? What's the big deal? We want everything and we don't want to pay for it so why not just borrow a bunch of money and have what we want?

Unfortunately, despite what we try to convince ourselves, deficit spending in excess of 3% or so is unsustainable. In other words, the United States does not have an infinite line of credit. It is interesting to note that of all the government debt about half of it is owned by the Fed (the federal reserve buys government bonds to inject money into the system and lower interest rates), but a surprisingly large amount is held by foreigners and foreign governments, about 28%. (Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt) Foreign holders of US debt are beginning to be a little wary of the stability of the dollar. In the G20 meeting held in London recently China's finance minister proposed replacing the dollar with an international currency as the main currency used in international trade--this is a clear sign that perhaps foreign governments are starting to lose faith in the US dollar. If that's the case, how are we going to finance our deficits? Perhaps the government should push the Fed to buy more bonds, decreasing the interest rate, and inflate away the debt. There is no geo-political risk associated with that (sarcasm). One thing is for sure, we can't cut spending or increase taxes. That is outrageous!!

Don't get me wrong I'm not only blaming the Democrats. I'm blaming both Democrats and Republicans. I am a member of the Republican party because I believed that the Republicans shared my view of lower flatter taxes, yes, but also fiscal responsibility. In fact, I always was under the assumption that fiscal responsibility trumped lower taxes in this party. Now, however, I'm not so sure that this is the case. George Bush, in his first year in office, turned soaring budget surpluses (we enjoyed thanks to the Clinton administration coupled with an economic boom), into an outrageous budget deficit by unprecedentedly cutting taxes, waging war and not vetoing one single spending bill (including a huge unfunded drug entitlement program) his entire tenure. Truly I feel bad for President Obama having walked into a budget nightmare.

If I can simplify the matter, Obama can do one of two things. 1) Commit political suicide and reform social security like it really needs to be reformed (cut benefits--especially on young retirees and increase taxes on everyone), or 2) pull a G.W. and cover your ears when economists begin to tell you that the budget is seriously out of control and uncover them just in time to hear Dick Cheney say "deficits don't matter". My worry is that he will chose the latter (as is apparent in his budget proposal).

My point is this: for years Republicans and Democrats have been fighting over size and scale of the government. Should we increase or decrease taxes? Increase or decrease spending? I'm just glad we have found a middle ground finally. We can now cut taxes and increase spending! Who cares?! Deficits don't matter! (thanks Cheney for that).

-Andrew

Starting a blog -- it's always about gender

A few days ago I told Gwen we should start a blog. Often whenever I suggest we do something Gwen interprets the "we" as "you" and makes it about gender--once again this was the case. "You mean 'I' should start a blog because 'I'm' a woman and it's the woman's job to keep family history," she responded in a ... well... feminist way. She continued to point out that out of all of our friends, only the women keep blogs going and that suggesting that we start a blog was somehow sexist. So Kate, Lisa, Elizabeth and the rest of the female bloggers, I join you! Maybe I'll even let Gwen post every so often.

I'll take this first-blog opportunity to introduce us a little bit. Gwen and I first met each other when we were toddlers in Pullman Washington where both of our parents went to graduate school at Washington State University. We really didn't know each other though, until high school where we became friends through a few common friends and we didn't start to date until our friendship was in shambles. The 2004 presidential election drove a huge rift into our friendship as I whole heatedly (at the time) supported the incumbent President Bush and Gwen supported John Kerry. It wasn't so much the debate of who should be our president for the next 4 years that caused the turbulance, but this did create the opportunity for heated debate about politics. At the time, I was a devout conservative talk show listener and Gwen was a hippie liberal college undergrad. Without getting into the juicy details, let's just say things got quite ugly. After the election, we were all but worst enemies. The only thing that could save our relationship was romance.

We dated for the next year until I went on a Mormon Mission to Bahia Brazil where I spent two years. While I was gone Gwen finished her degree in Middle Eastern Studies and developmental economics from the University of Utah, worked on a Kibbutz is Israel, and spent some time in South Africa. After the 2 years we met back up in Utah. She got accepted to Harvard Divinity School to do a Master's degree in theological studies - in particular women in religion. A year into her program we got married an I joined her in Boston where I am now finishing my Bachelors degree in Mathematical Sciences from Bentley University.

The past 4 years have really moderated us both politically. I am still a Republican and she is still a Democrat but we rarely fight about politics and find ourselves agreeing more often than not. The other day we were talking about how this was the case, when Gwen proposed that fundamentally I believe in individualism and the self made individual and she believes in community and the importance of people working together for the common good. While this fundamental difference causes me to self identify as a capitalistic free trading Republican (note: i no longer listen to conservative talk radio as I think they're a bunch of crazies) and her to self identify as a liberal Democrat we often find ourselves agreeing on contemporary issues. While I think it would be more exciting to say that I've gone so far to the right and she's gone so far to the left that we've somehow come together--perhaps at a crazed anarchist libertarian spot somewhere out in space--this isn't really the case.

We both like to watch TV. This somehow started only after we were married but we watch Bones, the Office, 30 Rock, Legend of the Seeker and Dollhouse basically every week. Gwen really likes to read, bake delicious treats, talk with her friends. I play the guitar and video games (in fact I'm trying to get a starcraft clan in place for when Starcraft 2 comes out---This is just thrilling!!!!...)

I'm really bad at wrapping things up, so I'll just end now.

-Andrew