Fallacies ‘R Us — Michael Moore preaches about Jesus and economics

 

Michael Moore’s new movie is Capitalism: A Love Story and he wrote For Those of You on Your Way to Church This Morning …a note from Michael Moore on his blog.  He makes the same mistakes that many Christians and non-Christians do, namely taking verses out of context to match his view of the word and [...]

Car buying tips

I hate buying cars, primarily because I don’t like to be lied to.  But I know their games.  I’ll be buying another car this summer and have been getting psyched up for the experience.
Unless your current car is costing too much in terms of repairs, seriously consider holding onto it.  It is the least expensive [...]

Important job hunting tips

Some excellent job-hunting tips from The Ladder.  No, I’m not looking.  I’m quite happy where I am, but I like to keep up on the market and thought that others might benefit from these.
 1. Computers can’t read – here’s how to make your resume computer–friendly.
2. Age discrimination – it exists. Now what are we going [...]

Tax and free trade basics

Corporate taxes: If corporate taxes are too high it sends jobs overseas.  When I worked at Compaq the company shipped tons of jobs to Singapore, and it wasn’t for the lower wages.  They would have been offset by the logistics costs (freight, handling and timing). 
We moved the jobs because the corporate tax rate in the [...]

Privatize Social Security

Lotteries are illegal unless the government runs them, and so are pyramid schemes like Social security.
For most people, the government extracts over 15% of their pay for FICA.  Technically, half comes from the employee and half from the employer, but of course the employer could give it to the employee since it is already part [...]

Death taxes are ghoulish

While the estate tax debate is typically framed as a soak-the-rich proposition, I find the whole concept to be immoral. If the government desperately needs those tax revenues it should find them somewhere else. It is simply wrong for the government to profit from the death of anyone, rich or poor.  If actions such as [...]

Woo-hoo!

Man, I am so lucky.  My wife informed me that she actually prefers e-cards over the paper kind.  She thinks they are funnier and prefers that I not pay the $4-5 the regular ones cost.  I am thrilled.  I hate standing around looking at cards, trying to find something that isn’t too lame.  This will [...]

What stuff costs and why college is so expensive

Forbes had a great article in the early 90’s showing how the amount of inflation adjusted work hours required to buy various things was highly dependent on technology – with one exception.
The hours of work required in 1917, 1957 and 1992 to buy mundane things like newspaper, chocolate and the like were remarkably similar. 
The hours [...]

Avoiding poverty

A trip to the inner cities and/or a quick glance at the statistics of out of wedlock children in poor communities will show just how horrible the War on Poverty was.  If you make unwed motherhood a paying job you’ll have no shortage of applicants (that applies to all races, BTW).  It lead to all [...]

Kids and Quicken

When teaching Junior Achievement classes I always point out that while money can’t buy you happiness (really – studies show that aside from abject poverty money won’t make you happy), mismanaging money can buy you unhappiness.  So we’ve tried to teach our kids how to esteem money properly (give 10% or more back to God, save [...]

Weekly roundup

Testifying to God’s sovereignity - This gentleman has a profound understanding of God and his control over all things.  What a witness.
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Vance offers some thoughtful ideas on Caring for the Elderly.
Predefined orders such as these have the potential to save thousands of dollars while simultaneously giving people the dignified care they say they want when they [...]

Quote of the day – Forbes on philanthropy

I heartily endorse this perspective on philanthropy made by Forbes back in 1917.  They re-ran it as part of a 90th anniversary issue.
Too few millionaires who aspire to win fame as philanthropists begin at home, among their own workers.  To grind employees and then donate a million dollars to perpetuate his name is not a [...]

Subprime loans: Where greed and financial ignorance collide

Subprime loan: “A type of loan that is offered at a rate above prime to individuals who do not qualify for prime rate loans. Quite often, subprime borrowers are often turned away from traditional lenders due their low credit ratings or other factors that suggest that they have a reasonable chance of defaulting on the [...]

Health care

I’m not a health care expert, but a few things are really obvious to me.
Health Savings Accounts are a great idea.  When end users have no influence over prices then bad things happen.  The more people can influence medical costs, the better.  Note how elective procedures such as lasik or plastic surgery are much more competitively [...]

Executive compensation and stock options backdating

Nearly everyone except CEOs thinks CEOs make too much money.  I think other executives (except those at the company I work at, of course) tend to be overpaid as well.  I worked at a Fortune 50 company for 17 years and saw some laughably high bonus and retention package figures over the years – sometimes to [...]

Now I can retire early

I got an unexpected check in the mail just before Christmas.  It was for rounding and calculation errors that occurred in my 401k account over a three year period.  It came with a letter that had a lengthy explanation and a handy Q&A on the back.
So how much was the check worth?  $0.01.  Yes, one [...]