Daily Archives: February 26, 2008

Misplaced Snark

This entry was posted in Economics on by

Left i on the News provides some information and links on the growing food crisis driven greatly by government driven biofuel programs and then snarks:

Although you won’t find it in the article linked above, last night’s BBC World did mention the figure of “billions” of people who may be in serious trouble because of this crisis. Like so many other problems, this is one that capitalism – production for profit rather than need – can never solve.

Well, yes, like so many other problems something other than the government/corporate symbiosis that constitutes modern capitalism might solve a problem created by misguided government incentives.

A Cost of obama

This entry was posted in Election 2008 on by

If you are typical mid-level lawyer living in New York City an obama victory in November may cost you the equivalent of a $34,000/year pay cut.
I suspect most folks will have little sympathy fsomeone who grosses around $280,000/year.
Nevertheless, everyone should include an analysis similer to that in the linked article in making their own decisions about who to vote for. Do you come out ahead or behind on a straight tax basis? What will be the financial impact on you of other economic and social policies? Do you value the things that the taxes will be used for? If you come out ahead is it because you earned it or because the difference is coming out of someone else’s pocket? How do you fell about that?

Of course, it may well be worth a $34,000 pay cut to many folks in this category to assure a discontinuance of some of the presidential policies of the past 7 years.