A Simple Consequence. What goes around comes around. This is one of the problems with higher education and the loans so many students have taken to complete their education. With a one trillion dollar collective debt, students are now seeing higher interest rates for their massive ($28K average student loan) debt. According to the Federal Reserve Bank, two-thirds of college graduates leave with some debt, and 37 million Americans are currently repaying a student loan. This was not the case just a couple of decades ago when tuition was much smaller, even affordable, and students were strongly motivated toward college. Society demanded it. The nation's youth agreed and went to college with the hopes of a better life. Now it happens that many grads are not even employed anywhere, much less in their preferred profession.
Johnny left home for college. Johnny graduated and is now unemployed. Johnny came back home, in some state of despair, hopelessness, certainly disillusionment, and is maybe a bit depressed. When you have little hope or see no light ahead...
It is a fact that the USA needs a highly educated workforce. Without it, we will soon transform to a lesser state, living off the largesse created by past generations. Economic forces are in play. The public, seeing the very high cost of education, want redress. They want, no they demand, students to pay more for their education. Tuition has jumped. As is the case in many government expenditures, this time for education, the budgets have reached a point where they have become totally visible. These expenses have thus reached the budget horizon. This sparks the demand. The resulting flames have caught national attention. Colleges are simply agencies of the states, and the states need to rein in costs. Colleges must comply.
What should happen at this point is the government should step in to help out, if only in the national interest. The problem is serious and it is real. But, and this is our simple consequence, the government has so overspent on creating a comfortable safety net for the unemployed, it dare not ask for even more money to give the urgentlyour nation afloat. Borrow now, worry about the debt later, seems a part of the national agenda.
This is just the camel's nose under the tent. Decrying student debt is the cause du jour. We have similar crises with debt encumbered by cities having overspent their future, and with roads and bridges rapidly going into disrepair. How about airports? How about the military? All require trillions in help; all want a "bail out." But the consequence of massive spending when it may not have been critical has created an environment where we cannot even consider giving help even when desperately needed - and where our future is at stake.
Bail outs have become modern buzzwords implying fiscal incompetence and even malfeasance in what was a great nation. The time of bail outs may be over. Yet, we hear from the Administration that a new bailout is needed. We have on the one hand that we've maxed out our credit, but on the other we need to increase this limit. Wish I could so consider.
Aristotle. From Aristotle we learn: It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. Let us go a bit further. It is the mark of an educated mind to entertain an idea, considering both its positive and negative aspects, and yet without accepting or rejecting it. Basically, for some matters, sitting on the fence is OK, if only temporarily. Indeed, clever practitioners can pose situations where acceptance is virtually impossible without a suspension of common sense. For example, I might say, "All mankind should share in the beneficence of our abundance." Or perhaps, "The utopian ideal of universal suffrage is our working hypothesis." Both goals sound wonderful; both goals are admirable; both goals are essentially unrealizable. Rejection sounds callous; acceptance is without operational reality.
Green People and Methodologies. The Greens have been with us for decades, if not centuries. In modern times, say since the seventies, let's look at the steps of their evolution. These are even today the steps to recruit and retain. Green is Clean is an unquestioned premise, the mantra of the movement. Green is Good is its twin sister. This is not a short note to denounce green ideas and green solutions. It is a short piece to examine methods, and the power and willingness of the true believers to promote their green religion.
A. Believe that green is good. (It is.) Believe that mankind is destroying the planet. Believe that green solutions are correct - and in fact the only solutions to save the planet. These give the proper gravitas to the cause.
B. Educate the public to these beliefs - the first tool of recruitment. Sign up the press - an important and key tool.
C. Develop a political agenda. Get involved and get politicians on board. Attach the movement to a political party. Work tirelessly. Demonize the non-believer. The introduction of corn-based ethanol was one of the first victories. It remains unassailable to the many scientific and economic reasons why it was a bad idea.
D. Cheat - scientifically. Devise complex quasi-mathematical, statistical projective models of global warming and then extrapolating to the cause of warming to be man made. Despite the fact that few understand the models, wrapping the movement with in scientific flag was and remains crucial to co-opting the skeptical. Using scientific arguments elevates the rationale of the cause - always does.
E. Cheat - economically. Develop economic policies to elevate the costs of non-green solutions (e.g. oil, coal) so that green alternatives (e.g. wind) become competitive.
F. Cheat - politically. Regulate the non-green solutions out of existence.
All of this is achieved without much open public debate, certainly no open scientific debate.
Egypt. Down goes Mubarak. He is history. The bad guy is gone with the blessings of the USA. Up comes Morsi, with the Egyptian democratic process at work and with the blessings of the USA. Now, comes the downfall of Morsi, this time without affirmation of western influence. The economy of Egypt has tanked. The people are confused or have little hope? The Muslim Brotherhood believes that first we must set correct the tenets of faith - regardless. What will the Egyptian Army do? What comes next? Do you know?
Obama Care. When you can't convince the adults of your program, then convince the students. This is easy. Just argue your program is "just*." If you can't convince the students, then convince the children. This is easier. Just give them candy.
*With students, no details are necessary.
Information Leaks. A national crisis on the US government's acquisition of personal information rages - theoretically. But all we hear about is the plight of Edward Snowden - now holed up in the Moscow airport. Some have called this a sideshow or distraction. Our government doesn't know what he has revealed to China and Russia, but seem insistent on keeping him away. My explanations might seem a bit cynical. So, I redact them. What do we don't know:
- We don't know what information he extracted.
- We don't know what others of the 5m+ having top secret access have extracted.
- We don't know what other governments now regard as abject infringements on their privacy.
- We don't know if, or how many, NSA contractors or employees have been compromised to mine for data.
- We don't know what other governments are doing the same.
- We don't know if Secretary of State is a exponent of the acquiescence and actually understands the issues at hand.
Dust. One item that most global climate change advocates and modelers have missed is the effects of dust. Dust, technically called aerosols, is often swept up into the stratosphere by storms and tornados from arid regions of the world, is most difficult to analyze. It also arises from power plants - probably to a lesser degree. The amount of dust in the atmosphere can very well counter the claims of greenhouse gas effects, producing a type of global cooling, for which there is some twenty+ years of evidence. Some claim the may be a cyclical phenomena in the global climate. It seems certain that serious volcanic eruptions over the ages have had this effect. But exact and continuing measurements over a long period of time are simply missing. Dust landing on snowfall can absorb more heat than purely landed snow. The consequence is an apparent snow-melt, not due to warming, not due to greenhouse gases, but simply an advent of heat absorption. Another wrinkle in the pat equation of those who believe in a simplistic model. But will they consider it as a possibility?
Lists. I love to make lists. They give the illusion of understanding.
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