Wed 15 Apr 2009
Posted by Charles Clarkson under Economics, Government, Politics, The Good Fight
No Comments
What is a budget surplus?
Let’s say that you normally spend $400 per month on groceries.
This month you budget for $10,000,500 and you spend $500 on groceries.
You are out $100 more than usual on groceries. You’ll have to make up for it some where else in your budget.
But you have a $10,000,000 grocery budget surplus.
You should celebrate.
Sound good?
Perhaps you should go into government.
Tue 24 Mar 2009
Posted by Charles Clarkson under The Good Fight
No Comments
I remember reading about a plan to grow algae and live on the sea on a man-made platform in a Scientific American sometime back in the 1980’s. I also recall seeing a show on big ships where millionaires could purchase an apartment on the ship. I believe there is a converted offshore drilling rig or two which are now tiny cities.
Seasteading dreams have been around for decades. Perhaps with the advent of sea going apartments the Seastead is finally on the horizon.
(Pun Intended.) 
Mon 23 Mar 2009
Posted by Charles Clarkson under Economics, Government, Politics, The Good Fight
No Comments
Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it.
— Milton Friedman
I think all too often we forget that people in power are ambitious and the person who reins in power to do some good now also reins in power for so many others to do so much bad tomorrow.
Sun 22 Mar 2009
Posted by Charles Clarkson under The Good Fight
No Comments
Every business owner can benefit from an article on pricing. With everyone buzzing about inline marketing, there is a danger of giving too much away for free. I recently wrote to an old client and friend that selling something for a price places certain conditions on the buyer and on the seller that are not available to the purchaser of free services.
Another friend and client and I have spoken at length about under pricing products. The same quality product which sells for sells for $59 is viewed as inferior to something which costs $199. The purchaser will certainly return the higher priced item if it lacks value. The lower priced item may already be marked in the purchaser’s mind as inferior. My client found she sometimes sold more events at a higher price even though the market for the less expensive items seemed larger.
I have had a similar experience comparing shoppers in New York (NY) with shoppers in Louisiana (LA). In a previous life I worked at The Home Depot. A big box retail store. In LA, shoppers were bargain hunters and had little respect for the products or the people servicing them. In NY, shoppers tended to be affluent people with money to spend. They had a great deal of respect for the merchandise and for the sales clerks.
(more…)
Fri 20 Mar 2009
Posted by Charles Clarkson under Economics, Government, Politics, The Good Fight
No Comments
Sheldon Richman worte the following in Obama’s Uninformed Optimism on the Future of Freedom Foundation web site.
There is more to fear than fear itself. There’s government and its dim-witted attempts to fix the economy.
The article articulates a pet peeve of mine. Lawyers, like President Obama, do not have the training needed to make economic decisions about a whole country. Heck, economists do not have the training to make economics decisions for a whole nation.
IMO, we need a system of government which strips government of the power to affect the economy.
Swearing a person into office does not magically imbue that person with a means to predict the future or to understand an economy. Relying on any government official to “fix” the economy reveals at least one major flaw in our system of governance. As long as we rely on a flawed system of government we do ourselves and our descendants a huge disservice.
Mon 16 Mar 2009
Posted by Charles Clarkson under PHP, Programming, WordPress
No Comments
John Kolbert wrote a function to to get a list (array) of users by their role name. For example, he shows how to get a list of editors. I would only change the function slightly to accommodate my own programming style (and because I can't leave well enough alone).
As John notes, remember this is for use in the admin panels.
Thanks, John.
Sun 15 Mar 2009
Posted by Charles Clarkson under Government, Politics, The Good Fight
No Comments
It seems counter-intuitive to some folks that raising tax rates might lower tax revenues. Here's a story about a story about oil companies leaving a high tax nation for a low tax nation. This is how we chase tax revenue from our country by raising taxes.
Tue 24 Feb 2009
Posted by Charles Clarkson under Entertainment, Erath County, Texas, Words
No Comments
I just read an article in my local newspaper (sorry there links seem to expire). It seems American Cowboy Magazine has named 20 cities which are most favorable to the Cowboy lifestyle. "Stephenville has been named one of the best places to live in the west," according to the newspaper.
I'm kind of bucking the trend or maybe there is a shift as we completely leave manufacturing and embark on a the true information age. I moved from the city to the country.
I grew up in a suburb of New Orleans where it is difficult to tell when you move across a political line. I moved around the North East and wound up in Dallas, TX.
Now I live outside of Stephenville, TX. Population 15,000. Give or take a hundred or so. If I need to get to the bank across town and I hit every light, it will take about 20 minutes and I'll barely go over 40mph.
I love it here!
I can understand why cowboys like it here too.
Tue 24 Feb 2009
Posted by Charles Clarkson under Economics, Words
No Comments
While we are certainly in a worldwide recession, not everyone is hurting. Throughout much of the world a new middle class is expending. I read this article in The Economist and the one it refers.
A lot depends on what you call middle class. The American Middle Class would hardly recognize the Chinese Middle Class, but a very large portion of the world is becoming the new world middle class and that means we will see a lot of the things that come with emerging middle classes.
Things like more democracy and more migration from rural to urban areas. And political machines being replaced by term limits and subsidizing agriculture and selling lots of televisions and cell phones.
Sun 22 Feb 2009
Posted by Charles Clarkson under Government, Politics, Science
No Comments
IMAGINE you are seated at a table with two bowls in front of you. One contains peanuts, the other tablets of the illegal recreational drug MDMA (ecstasy). A stranger joins you, and you have to decide whether to give them a peanut or a pill. Which is safest?
It is common to hold one's own beliefs to a different test than the beliefs we are confronting. I have been guilty of that. I will be guilty of it again. I only hope that I'm not guilty of it now.
Where do your beliefs fit? Can they withstand the scrutiny you apply to new beliefs? THink about it.
