Oswald Krell
Businesses behaving badly
In past posts, I have explained actions that businesses–usually large corporations–have taken that are decidedly contrary to the interests of the general public. For this, commentors have claimed that I’m anti-business, that I’m using scare tactics, I’m just a socialist, or some combination thereof. However, in the news over the past month or so we [...]
For MetLife and Rhode Island, size matters
In the brouhaha about MetLife leaving, I did see and hear people try to blame this on the too-high RI taxes. Of course; it’s always about the taxes, isn’t it? I would like to make one point about that. For 2012, MetLife reported $1.4 Bn of operating earnings. In comparison, the $80-90 Mn of tax [...]
The Jilted Spouse
Here’s a familiar story. A man and a woman get married when they’re young. Time passes, they age, they grow, and, before you know it, 25 years have passed. Then, one day, with no real warning, the man tells the wife that she’s too old. He’s dumping her for a younger woman who doesn’t have [...]
A Brief Word On Guns
We all need to realize that allowing people to purchase and own AR-15s is just as much social engineering as not allowing them. Either way creates a certain sort of society, which is pretty much the definition of social engineering. The problem is not pro-gun per se. The problem is that the current manifestation of [...]
Labor vs. Management
Full disclosure: I grew up in a time and an environment that accepted an adversarial relationship between labor and management. I still agree with that belief. Everything I have experienced in the last 30 years has convinced me, over and over again that this is the fundamental relationship between the workers and the bosses. More, [...]
Why Stock Buybacks Benefit Corporate Greed
One of my last posts touched on how corporations are spending their money, what they are doing and not doing with the piles of record profits they’ve been making in the past few years while median wages have stagnated or fallen. Here’s some additional information. First, the cites: online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444657804578052472320753336.html www.thereformedbroker.com/2012/10/12/the-buyback-epidemic/ If you piece the two [...]
Why Progressive Taxation Is Right and Proper
Check this out. We hear a lot these days about ‘entitlements’. Usually, this is a disparaging term used to slam the mooching 47% who don’t pay federal income tax. But, IMO, if you want a sense of entitlement, you really have to watch someone with money in action. However, the point to make about this [...]
Income Inequality and Entry Level Wages
Evidence shows that real wages for college grads fell in 2011. More: real wages for college grads are down from 2000, and real wages for college grads are down from 2004, the trough of the Bush recession. These wages did go up–sharply–in 2005, and then began a long, not-so-slow slide from which they have not [...]
Who Protects Our Freedom
“What do they have supremacy over?” “…I’m assuming you’re familiar with natural rights? Everyone has a natural right to life, liberty and property. Whether a gov’t exists to suppress those rights doesn’t invalidate them….” While reviewing the comment thread from a previous post, I came across the comment above. I was thunderstruck. This is an [...]
Libertarianism and the Efficiency of Free Markets
There are two intellectual positions with which I have serious problems. The first is the whole idea that markets are efficient; the second is libertarianism as a legitimate school of thought. First, markets, since some of libertarianism (from what I can gather) is based on the idea that markets should be utterly unfettered (I paraphrase). [...]
May 5, 1886: The Bay View Massacre in Milwaukie, Wisc.
One topic that has been on my mind lately is the attempt to kill the 8-hour workday. In many places in the private sector, anything less than a 10-hour day is derisively referred to as working ”half-a-day”. Purely by accident, I learned the May 5 is the anniversary of what is called the Bay View [...]
Ontario Poses Conflict for Conservative Ideology
OK, I recently spent some time in Ontario. Which, is part of Canada, but it’s only a part. I cannot speak about Canada as a whole, but I can speak about Ontario. Ontario has a much higher tax burden than any state (including RI and NJ) in the USofA. Gas costs more than $5 per [...]
The 40 Hour Week vs. Corporate Stupidity
Anyone who works in corporate America is familiar (all too familiar) with the way corporations ‘increase productivity.’ The standard method over the past 20 years has been to fire (and that is the proper word: fire) a whole bunch of workers at the bottom end, and make the survivors do the work that those fired [...]
Your Tax Dollars At Work
Check this out. This is a really cool map of the US, showing where federal tax dollars are going. That is, to which parts of the country. It has a number of different categories, such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Income Support, Unemployment, plus an overall picture. Guess which parts of the country are hoovering [...]
Been there, done that–part 3 (and final)
One problem that we face here is that this is blog post; it’s not a history book. As such, a certain amount of compression is necessary, and whenever compression occurs, distortion creeps in. There is simply no way around that, save greater length. But greater length leaves more nits behind that can be picked. Some [...]
Been there, done that reiterated
First, let me apologize that I’m not addressing this in the comments of the original post. I simply am not able to participate in the discussion on the threads. However, I am pleased to see the amount of intelligent discussion that took place. In particular, there was some back-and-forth about unregulated capitalism, what constitutes it, [...]
Lucky Duckies
One of the more reprehensible things that conservatives have come out with of late is the idea of the ‘lucky duckies.’ This is what the Wall St Journal’s op-ed page called those of our society who are ‘fortunate’ enough to make such a low salary that they don’t have to pay fed income taxes. This [...]
Been there, done that
I suppose the aspect of conservative thought that most…puzzles? annoys? makes me laugh?…let’s say ‘puzzles’ me is the sense they seem to have that their ideas are somehow bold, and daring, and novel. In fact, conservative ideas–low taxes, no regulation, no government–have all been tried. In fact, these ideas describe how government operated throughout most [...]
Additional Thoughts on the Cranston Prayer Banner
After reading the comments regarding the prayer banner in Cranston, I would like to add a few comments. To begin: any sentence that contains “the founding fathers believed/thought/said/wanted/intended/were, etc is necessarily wrong. Yes. wrong. The founding fathers were not a monolithic bunch. Exactly the opposite. They were a group of men, many of whom had [...]
On Reading Classical Economists
“Classical’ econoimists refer to those thinkers who laid the foundation for modern economic thought. Since the U of Chicago school is full of neo-classical thinkers, I thought it would be good to go back to basics. And because I like to share, here’s a test for you. All of the quotes below come from either: [...]
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