“You STUPID IDIOT!” screamed my client at her soon-to-be Ex. “You STUPID, FRICKIN’ MORON” she continued as the attorneys sat back and watched the drama unfold. Although nothing came to blows and the case eventually settled, a thought occurred to me, and I figure I’d better share it before it dies of loneliness.
Why do we feel the need to put the word, “stupid” in front of “idiot” or “moron?” I mean, isn’t it enough that we call the person an idiot or a moron. We then have to take the next step and say of all the idiots and morons, you are among the most stupid of the stupid. Then I wondered if you really could have a “stupid idiot” It just so happens that...........................you can.
Here’s what Dictionary.com has to say about the word IDIOT:
A person of profound mental retardation having a mental age below three years and generally being unable to learn connected speech or guard against common dangers. The term belongs to a classification system no longer in use and is now considered offensive.
Hmmm......offensive......interesting. I really want to know more about a classification system that is considered offensive. As an attorney, I’m always on the lookout for newer, more sophisticated ways of being offensive.
The classification system includes MORONS and IMBECILES.
An IMBECILE is:
A person of moderate to severe mental retardation having a mental age of from three to seven years and generally being capable of some degree of communication and performance of simple tasks under supervision. The term belongs to a classification system no longer in use and is now considered offensive.
A MORON is:
A person of mild mental retardation having a mental age of from 7 to 12 years and generally having communication and social skills enabling some degree of academic or vocational education. The term belongs to a classification system no longer in use and is now considered offensive.
Well, there you have it. An classification system that is NOW considered offensive. Don’t you miss the good old days when this classification system was not offensive. I wonder what has changed? I mean, we still use the same words and all.
Oh well....back to the original point. You can have a stupid idiot. That would be an idiot who is not near the mental age of 3 but is instead at a mental age of 1 or......something like that. So, a stupid idiot is the worst thing you can be in our offensive classification system.
Sadly, I will no longer get the same satisfaction out of calling someone a stupid moron because a moron is the highest functioning of the “offensive” classifications.
And really, I probably should start using the term “imbecile” more often, because technically, many of the people I meet fall into that range. I am simply aghast that I have been so blithely misusing this offensive classification system for so long and, as a wordsmith, I am simply ashamed of myself.
Geez, I wonder how many Village Idiots were really Village Imbeciles................
Blawgerman
Monday, May 19, 2008
Help Me Understand.....Greed (Gekko's Lament)
Help Me Understand Greed.....
Gordon Gekko (played by Michael Douglass), the lead character in the 1987 movie Wall Street, put into words the spirit of the free market when he said the following:
The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed -- for lack of a better word -- is good.
Greed is right. Greed works.
Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.
Greed, in all of its forms -- greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge -- has marked the upward surge of mankind.
And greed -- you mark my words -- will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.
Wow. That’s it. That is the basic tenet of our Free Market. The idea is that our freedom to pursue life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is in large part our desire to make a lot of money and live a life filled with the benefits of our prosperity. We eagerly export our free market thinking to other countries because we have confused true freedom with the freedom that comes with a “free market.”
While it is true that our Country gives us the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that right must necessarily be constrained by morality. The right to pursue our life, liberty and happiness without regard to the impact it has on others would simply mean that if you are interfering with my life, liberty or pursuit of happiness, I could just eliminate you.
When we set up our government, we set up a system of checks and balances. We have the President, the Congress, and the Judiciary. In theory, each of these institutions struggle with one another in an attempt to keep any one of them from becoming preeminent . A deeper examination of the system concludes that the framers believed that power left unchecked would influence and allow leaders to engage in behavior that suppressed the rights of the citizenry, because that is simply human nature.
The Free Market cannot be summed up any better than Mr. Gekko. Greed is right. Greed works. If you pursue wealth and happiness, you will come up with better products, better services, and better ideas. It will propel you to greater achievements......or.....it will propel you to come up with cheaper products that can sell quickly, dangerous products that you can sell and then avoid liability for by filing for bankruptcy or by incorporating in a foreign country, or any of a host of other ideas that you can envision that will cause great profits without regard to human impact.
You see, there is no corresponding “checks and balances” on the free market. Maybe you could say that each greedy corporation is checking and balancing the other greedy corporations. If that were the case, why wouldn’t all the greedy corporations band together to make money at the expense of the populace? Kinda like.....the gas companies? The US used to vigorously enforce the Sherman Antitrust Act, which was designed to prevent price fixing. The Act came as a result of super-wealthy individuals buying up entire markets and then unilaterally setting a price on a product which would ensure extremely healthy profits for the monopoly. We rarely prosecute under the Act anymore. I think it is because we now believe that Greed is good.
Any system whose prime motivator is greed must be regulated, because unbridled greed knows no moral constraint. Any government who promotes greed without moral restraint is just asking for trouble.
Decidedly Anti-Free Market,
Blawgerman
Gordon Gekko (played by Michael Douglass), the lead character in the 1987 movie Wall Street, put into words the spirit of the free market when he said the following:
The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed -- for lack of a better word -- is good.
Greed is right. Greed works.
Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.
Greed, in all of its forms -- greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge -- has marked the upward surge of mankind.
And greed -- you mark my words -- will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.
Wow. That’s it. That is the basic tenet of our Free Market. The idea is that our freedom to pursue life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is in large part our desire to make a lot of money and live a life filled with the benefits of our prosperity. We eagerly export our free market thinking to other countries because we have confused true freedom with the freedom that comes with a “free market.”
While it is true that our Country gives us the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that right must necessarily be constrained by morality. The right to pursue our life, liberty and happiness without regard to the impact it has on others would simply mean that if you are interfering with my life, liberty or pursuit of happiness, I could just eliminate you.
When we set up our government, we set up a system of checks and balances. We have the President, the Congress, and the Judiciary. In theory, each of these institutions struggle with one another in an attempt to keep any one of them from becoming preeminent . A deeper examination of the system concludes that the framers believed that power left unchecked would influence and allow leaders to engage in behavior that suppressed the rights of the citizenry, because that is simply human nature.
The Free Market cannot be summed up any better than Mr. Gekko. Greed is right. Greed works. If you pursue wealth and happiness, you will come up with better products, better services, and better ideas. It will propel you to greater achievements......or.....it will propel you to come up with cheaper products that can sell quickly, dangerous products that you can sell and then avoid liability for by filing for bankruptcy or by incorporating in a foreign country, or any of a host of other ideas that you can envision that will cause great profits without regard to human impact.
You see, there is no corresponding “checks and balances” on the free market. Maybe you could say that each greedy corporation is checking and balancing the other greedy corporations. If that were the case, why wouldn’t all the greedy corporations band together to make money at the expense of the populace? Kinda like.....the gas companies? The US used to vigorously enforce the Sherman Antitrust Act, which was designed to prevent price fixing. The Act came as a result of super-wealthy individuals buying up entire markets and then unilaterally setting a price on a product which would ensure extremely healthy profits for the monopoly. We rarely prosecute under the Act anymore. I think it is because we now believe that Greed is good.
Any system whose prime motivator is greed must be regulated, because unbridled greed knows no moral constraint. Any government who promotes greed without moral restraint is just asking for trouble.
Decidedly Anti-Free Market,
Blawgerman
Friday, May 16, 2008
Help Me Understand....EXTERNALITIES?
Help Me Understand......Externalities?
What?
You gotta be kidding, right? Externalities? What’s an Externality?
Ok. So, I’m a nerd. I think about things like this, so sometimes I write about them. It turns out that externatilities are very important in understanding why a free market isn’t really so free. So, indulge my nerdy side and let me muse.
Externalities, as they relate to the free market, are costs created by a seller that are not borne by the seller. An example would be the recent discovery that a manufacturer in China shipped out lunch boxes to the US which were made with leaded paint. Let’s assume that the manufacturer shipped out each lunch box to the US at a price of $2.00 per unit (to ultimately be sold by Wal-Mart for $6.99). The manufacturer makes 1,000,000 lunch boxes and gets paid for them at delivery. Thus, the manufacturer has received $2,000,000 and the cost of making the units was $1,000,000, leaving a profit of $1,000,000.
Now, Wal-Mart sells the units for $6.99. Their costs are more than $2.00 per unit when you include storage, shipping, warehousing, marketing, packaging, etc. Let’s say that their costs are $5.00 per unit, leaving a profit of about $2.00 per unit for Wal-Mart. So, the manufacturer has made a profit of $1,000,000 and Wal-Mart has made a profit of $2,000,000 on the boxes. Good so far?
Now, six months after being placed in the stream of commerce, a mother decides to take her child to the doctor because she’s acting lethargically. Test results reveal the presence of lead in the child. The mother frantically tears apart her home to find the source of lead contamination, but she can’t find it. In the meantime, her other two children dutifully take their lunch boxes to school with them everyday. So all three continue to be exposed to the lead.
Six months later, Mom hears an NPR newscast that states that Wal-Mart has recalled 1,000,000 lunch boxes because lead was used in the paint. Panicked, she immediately takes the lunch boxes and returns them to Wal-Mart for a refund. There is a run on returns at Wal-Marts all over the country, but only 300,000 of the lunch boxes are returned, leaving 700,000 lead painted lunch boxes wandering about the country. The boxes get used by children for about a year, then thrown into the garbage to end up at the county dump.
So, what is the real cost of the lunch box for the Chinese Manufacturer? Of course, the manufacturer has gone out of business and the government of China is not eager to help Wal-Mart find the right entity to sue. Thus, the manufacturer has made money and is immune from any further liability.
What costs has the manufacturer created? Well, the workers at the plant have all be exposed to lead paint (that’s China’s problem, I guess). They may have taken the products home to their children as well. Their children may have had health impacts as a result of lead exposure. Meanwhile, 700,000 US children have suffered from lead exposure. The exposure could range from insignificant to extreme. Considering that people react differently to lead exposure, there would be a wide range of reactions to the lead. Possible outcomes include children whose IQs have been affected, children who may have children with birth defects, etc., etc.
Who pays for the IQ deficit of the children? Who pays for the health impacts on the children? Who pays for the lead entering the water supply as it leeches out of the dump site? Certainly not the manufacturer. The manufacturer has benefitted from shifting the responsibility or costs of his product onto society as a whole. That is why industry must be regulated. Industry will create those type of costs, but without regulation, those costs will be passed on to the consumer and society in general.
The “free market” it seems, it not really free at all.
Nerdily Yours,
Blawgerman
What?
You gotta be kidding, right? Externalities? What’s an Externality?
Ok. So, I’m a nerd. I think about things like this, so sometimes I write about them. It turns out that externatilities are very important in understanding why a free market isn’t really so free. So, indulge my nerdy side and let me muse.
Externalities, as they relate to the free market, are costs created by a seller that are not borne by the seller. An example would be the recent discovery that a manufacturer in China shipped out lunch boxes to the US which were made with leaded paint. Let’s assume that the manufacturer shipped out each lunch box to the US at a price of $2.00 per unit (to ultimately be sold by Wal-Mart for $6.99). The manufacturer makes 1,000,000 lunch boxes and gets paid for them at delivery. Thus, the manufacturer has received $2,000,000 and the cost of making the units was $1,000,000, leaving a profit of $1,000,000.
Now, Wal-Mart sells the units for $6.99. Their costs are more than $2.00 per unit when you include storage, shipping, warehousing, marketing, packaging, etc. Let’s say that their costs are $5.00 per unit, leaving a profit of about $2.00 per unit for Wal-Mart. So, the manufacturer has made a profit of $1,000,000 and Wal-Mart has made a profit of $2,000,000 on the boxes. Good so far?
Now, six months after being placed in the stream of commerce, a mother decides to take her child to the doctor because she’s acting lethargically. Test results reveal the presence of lead in the child. The mother frantically tears apart her home to find the source of lead contamination, but she can’t find it. In the meantime, her other two children dutifully take their lunch boxes to school with them everyday. So all three continue to be exposed to the lead.
Six months later, Mom hears an NPR newscast that states that Wal-Mart has recalled 1,000,000 lunch boxes because lead was used in the paint. Panicked, she immediately takes the lunch boxes and returns them to Wal-Mart for a refund. There is a run on returns at Wal-Marts all over the country, but only 300,000 of the lunch boxes are returned, leaving 700,000 lead painted lunch boxes wandering about the country. The boxes get used by children for about a year, then thrown into the garbage to end up at the county dump.
So, what is the real cost of the lunch box for the Chinese Manufacturer? Of course, the manufacturer has gone out of business and the government of China is not eager to help Wal-Mart find the right entity to sue. Thus, the manufacturer has made money and is immune from any further liability.
What costs has the manufacturer created? Well, the workers at the plant have all be exposed to lead paint (that’s China’s problem, I guess). They may have taken the products home to their children as well. Their children may have had health impacts as a result of lead exposure. Meanwhile, 700,000 US children have suffered from lead exposure. The exposure could range from insignificant to extreme. Considering that people react differently to lead exposure, there would be a wide range of reactions to the lead. Possible outcomes include children whose IQs have been affected, children who may have children with birth defects, etc., etc.
Who pays for the IQ deficit of the children? Who pays for the health impacts on the children? Who pays for the lead entering the water supply as it leeches out of the dump site? Certainly not the manufacturer. The manufacturer has benefitted from shifting the responsibility or costs of his product onto society as a whole. That is why industry must be regulated. Industry will create those type of costs, but without regulation, those costs will be passed on to the consumer and society in general.
The “free market” it seems, it not really free at all.
Nerdily Yours,
Blawgerman
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Help Me Understand the Democrats!
Help Me Understand the Democratic Party!
Well, I must admit that I’m having trouble with both the Michigan Democratic Party and the Michigan Republican party in regards to their brilliant move in advancing our primary to January against the national rules of both parties. The result of this strategic coup? Well, the Democrats and Republicans completely ignored our state during the primary season. Barack Obama withdrew from the ballot and, more importantly, our state lost MILLIONS of dollars in revenue from ads and campaigning that would have occurred in times past.
Let’s see.....what would have happened had we not moved our primaries up? Well, this year, Michigan would have been in the spotlight, especially for the Democrats. We are an important swing state, and with the race being as close as it was, Michigan surely would have been a significant battleground between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, which means, incidently, that both candidates would have spent millions of dollars in our state. Instead, we are passed by.
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have spent days upon days traveling the US to speak to people who are being harmed by the economy. Michigan is in worse shape than most other states, and we missed an important opportunity to inform the candidates just how poorly Michigan is doing at the moment. Michigan citizens have forever lost the opportunity to speak out to the candidates to let them know just how bad it really is in Michigan, and we missed the opportunity to get the candidates to promise to work for our state.
So, what can I say about this situation? Simply that it’s a SHAME that the Democrats and Republics in Michigan chose to make our state irrelevant. And, as far as I can see, they are getting a free ride on the entire issue. Who is holding them to task regarding their reckless and ill-conceived plan? I don’t hear anyone telling them that they cost the state millions in campaigning funds and countless opportunities to let the candidates know just how bad things are in our state. In my opinion, both parties have done our citizens a great disservice.
As for the National Democratic Party, all I can say is that your heavy-handed dealing with Michigan and Florida has come back to bite you in the posterior. At the time the decision was made to invalidate the primaries, the Democratic Party never envisioned that Hillary Clinton would actually be involved in a real race for the nomination. Instead, the party simply anticipated that Hillary Clinton was the presumptive candidate and it would be a golden opportunity to make Michigan and Florida a prime example of what happens when you cross the mighty party of the donkey.
Well, the best laid plans of mice and Democrats sometimes go astray. Now, the Democrats look like total idiots, scrambling not to “disenfranchise” the millions of voters in Florida and Michigan that they were so quick to disenfranchise when they didn’t think that their would be any real challenges to Hillary in the primaries.
I guess the old thinking is still so true. The best thing that the Republicans have going for them is the Democrats.
Disenfranchisedly Yours,
Blawgerman
Well, I must admit that I’m having trouble with both the Michigan Democratic Party and the Michigan Republican party in regards to their brilliant move in advancing our primary to January against the national rules of both parties. The result of this strategic coup? Well, the Democrats and Republicans completely ignored our state during the primary season. Barack Obama withdrew from the ballot and, more importantly, our state lost MILLIONS of dollars in revenue from ads and campaigning that would have occurred in times past.
Let’s see.....what would have happened had we not moved our primaries up? Well, this year, Michigan would have been in the spotlight, especially for the Democrats. We are an important swing state, and with the race being as close as it was, Michigan surely would have been a significant battleground between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, which means, incidently, that both candidates would have spent millions of dollars in our state. Instead, we are passed by.
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have spent days upon days traveling the US to speak to people who are being harmed by the economy. Michigan is in worse shape than most other states, and we missed an important opportunity to inform the candidates just how poorly Michigan is doing at the moment. Michigan citizens have forever lost the opportunity to speak out to the candidates to let them know just how bad it really is in Michigan, and we missed the opportunity to get the candidates to promise to work for our state.
So, what can I say about this situation? Simply that it’s a SHAME that the Democrats and Republics in Michigan chose to make our state irrelevant. And, as far as I can see, they are getting a free ride on the entire issue. Who is holding them to task regarding their reckless and ill-conceived plan? I don’t hear anyone telling them that they cost the state millions in campaigning funds and countless opportunities to let the candidates know just how bad things are in our state. In my opinion, both parties have done our citizens a great disservice.
As for the National Democratic Party, all I can say is that your heavy-handed dealing with Michigan and Florida has come back to bite you in the posterior. At the time the decision was made to invalidate the primaries, the Democratic Party never envisioned that Hillary Clinton would actually be involved in a real race for the nomination. Instead, the party simply anticipated that Hillary Clinton was the presumptive candidate and it would be a golden opportunity to make Michigan and Florida a prime example of what happens when you cross the mighty party of the donkey.
Well, the best laid plans of mice and Democrats sometimes go astray. Now, the Democrats look like total idiots, scrambling not to “disenfranchise” the millions of voters in Florida and Michigan that they were so quick to disenfranchise when they didn’t think that their would be any real challenges to Hillary in the primaries.
I guess the old thinking is still so true. The best thing that the Republicans have going for them is the Democrats.
Disenfranchisedly Yours,
Blawgerman
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
What's Wrong with Michigan?
OK, What’s Wrong With Michigan?
I believe that Michigan is in a depression. Not a recession. A depression. We have the worst housing market since 1929......which means worse than the Depression. I don’t even feel better now that the rest of the country is suffering what we’ve suffered in Michigan for the past three years. What I want to know is....what is wrong with our State?
For starters, you can trace the decline of our state’s economy to the introduction of term limits. Term limits means that just as a senator or representative is learning their job, they have to move on. Now they have a game of musical chairs between state government seats going on. But there is no stability in our state houses of government, which is reflected by our lack of a cohesive, effective approach to the massive job losses we’ve suffered and the huge economic decline that has occurred. This has made Michigan one of the few states to actually lose population during the past few years. Term limits have also allowed incompetent people to take over spots in our government and to stay there for years and years.
If you don’t believe me, just trace our state’s economic performance after term limits started to cause politicians to have to leave their offices. Now, more than ever, we are subject to influence from special interests, who are far more important to our politicians because they know that they can only run as an incumbent for a limited time and will need more special interest money when their term limits expire.
Next is our ridiculous stance towards small businesses. The Single Business Tax was bad. People complained it out of existence because it penalized small business and made Michigan’s business climate less appealing. Well, we replaced it with the Michigan Business Tax, which is now costing most small businesses two to five times as much as the Single Business Tax. If you head down towards the Indiana border, you will see that Indiana has paid for Michigan billboards that are trying to entice Michigan businesses to come to Indiana to avoid the Michigan Business Tax!!! Nice. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that this is bad, but what have we done to correct it? Nada. Zip. Nothing. Nil. What’s on the horizon? More of the same. You have to wonder if an experienced group of non-term-limited politicians would have ever concocted such a tax scheme.
I don’t know if our Canadian Governor has any tricks up her sleeve, but simply saying “we need to educate our citizenry” is a simplistic response. We will have educated people in the unemployment line or we will educate people for positions in other states. We simply need to make our business climate better so that small companies can thrive. Our Republican legislature and courts have already placed the interests of large businesses above all else. Ironically, those businesses are the ones that are cutting and running and sending jobs to Mexico, India, China, and parts unknown. Small businesses should be our hope, but we are taxing them out of existence.
I don’t know that it can get much worse around here (as gas prices hit $3.89/gal). But it seems to me that we should trash term limits and the Michigan Business Tax as soon as humanly possible. We need to create a positive economic climate for small businesses, who don’t have the same incentive to cut and run as do the giants. In the meantime, we will probably do nothing and suffer the effects of an incompetent government which can’t seem to legislate its way out of a paper bag. All the while, we have to suffer the absolute indignity of INDIANA publicly calling out our stupid tax policies on our very own billboards! Oh, the shame of it all.
Blawging in a Funk,
Blawgerman
I believe that Michigan is in a depression. Not a recession. A depression. We have the worst housing market since 1929......which means worse than the Depression. I don’t even feel better now that the rest of the country is suffering what we’ve suffered in Michigan for the past three years. What I want to know is....what is wrong with our State?
For starters, you can trace the decline of our state’s economy to the introduction of term limits. Term limits means that just as a senator or representative is learning their job, they have to move on. Now they have a game of musical chairs between state government seats going on. But there is no stability in our state houses of government, which is reflected by our lack of a cohesive, effective approach to the massive job losses we’ve suffered and the huge economic decline that has occurred. This has made Michigan one of the few states to actually lose population during the past few years. Term limits have also allowed incompetent people to take over spots in our government and to stay there for years and years.
If you don’t believe me, just trace our state’s economic performance after term limits started to cause politicians to have to leave their offices. Now, more than ever, we are subject to influence from special interests, who are far more important to our politicians because they know that they can only run as an incumbent for a limited time and will need more special interest money when their term limits expire.
Next is our ridiculous stance towards small businesses. The Single Business Tax was bad. People complained it out of existence because it penalized small business and made Michigan’s business climate less appealing. Well, we replaced it with the Michigan Business Tax, which is now costing most small businesses two to five times as much as the Single Business Tax. If you head down towards the Indiana border, you will see that Indiana has paid for Michigan billboards that are trying to entice Michigan businesses to come to Indiana to avoid the Michigan Business Tax!!! Nice. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that this is bad, but what have we done to correct it? Nada. Zip. Nothing. Nil. What’s on the horizon? More of the same. You have to wonder if an experienced group of non-term-limited politicians would have ever concocted such a tax scheme.
I don’t know if our Canadian Governor has any tricks up her sleeve, but simply saying “we need to educate our citizenry” is a simplistic response. We will have educated people in the unemployment line or we will educate people for positions in other states. We simply need to make our business climate better so that small companies can thrive. Our Republican legislature and courts have already placed the interests of large businesses above all else. Ironically, those businesses are the ones that are cutting and running and sending jobs to Mexico, India, China, and parts unknown. Small businesses should be our hope, but we are taxing them out of existence.
I don’t know that it can get much worse around here (as gas prices hit $3.89/gal). But it seems to me that we should trash term limits and the Michigan Business Tax as soon as humanly possible. We need to create a positive economic climate for small businesses, who don’t have the same incentive to cut and run as do the giants. In the meantime, we will probably do nothing and suffer the effects of an incompetent government which can’t seem to legislate its way out of a paper bag. All the while, we have to suffer the absolute indignity of INDIANA publicly calling out our stupid tax policies on our very own billboards! Oh, the shame of it all.
Blawging in a Funk,
Blawgerman
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