Economics

Over Paying Jobs?

This entry was posted in Economics on by

I’ve often wondered about this one:

For a 35-hour workweek, orthodontists earn a median $350,000 a year, according to the Journal of Clinical Orthodontics. General dentists, meanwhile, earn about half as much working 39 hours a week on average, in a much dirtier job.
The difference in their training isn’t like that of a heart surgeon vs. a family-practice doctor. It’s a mere two years, and a vastly rewarding investment if you’re among the chosen: U.S. dental schools have long been criticized for keeping orthodontists in artificially low supply to keep their income up.
This isn’t brain surgery: Orthodontists simply manipulate teeth in a growing child’s mouth — and often leave adjustment work to assistants whose handiwork they merely sign off on. What makes their windfall egregious is that they stick parents with most of the inflated bill, since orthodontia insurance benefits cover nowhere near as large a percentage as for general dentistry.

From this list of the most overpaid jobs. Your mileage may vary on the accuracy of this list.
Via Barry Briggs.

Senate Supports Spammers 97-0

This entry was posted in Capitalism Constitution Culture Domestic Terrorism Economics Federal Government Internet Libertarianism Marketing Spam on by

Well, it sure looks this way to me.
For instance,

the bill now includes a provision, supported by some opponents of spam, that directs the Federal Trade Commission to come up with a plan for a no-spam registry.

I think the off shore spammers will love this one: a list comprised of mostly good email addresses! Yea, I know that the spammers are supposed to send in their lists for scrubbing but I suspect joes p*rn shop won’t be sending in their list.

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AOL Violates User’s Computers

This entry was posted in Economics Intellectual Property Law Microsoft Spam Technology on by

I couldn’t disagree more with this guy:

Russ Cooper, a security expert with TruSecure Corp., said anyone who needs the Windows messaging function that AOL disabled ought to be smart enough to know how to reactivate it.
“I hope more and more providers do this type of proactive security,” he said, “and that we don’t condemn them for things we wish everybody would do for themselves.”

He is talking about AOL which has made changes to the system settings of more then 15,000,000 of their user’s Microsoft Window based systems without those users prior consent.

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Some Modern Dinosaurs may be a bit Closer to Extinction

This entry was posted in Capitalism Culture Economics Information Taxation Technology on by

I expect to see a lot more headphones on folks while they are at their computers (or just a wireless signal away) and not just to listen to the latest music downloads.
Check out this article about Skype, the latest hot peer-to-peer application that will be making a lot of encumbent telephone companies (both land and cellular) nervous and will have government officials at all levels wondering why their utility tax revenue stream is shrinking.
This has the potential to be a classic case of creative destruction and I, for one, think it is a good thing!
Via Assymetrical Information.

Wal-Mart Illegals

This entry was posted in Constitution Domestic Terrorism Economics Immigration Law on by

Surely no one is really surprised by this:

Federal officials are sweeping Wal-Mart stores across the United States as part of an effort to arrest some 300 illegal workers by Thursday evening…..
Officials say investigators are concerned about a pattern of Wal-Mart using contractors who employ illegal aliens and that Wal-Mart has, in fact, continued to use contractors who have been convicted of hiring aliens in the past.

Or that Wal-Mart would try to hide behind the ‘contractor’s employees’ argument:

“They arrested a number of members of the floor cleaning crews.” Williams emphasized the workers are employed by contractors, saying, “they’re not Wal-Mart associates.”

If Wal-Mart really did not know then there are some management types who need to be fired for failure to do due diligence in hiring the contractors.