FREE WHITEWATER

Economy

Broader U-6 Rate at 17%: The Long-Term Unemployed and the Dark Side of Jobs Report – WSJ

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The U.S. jobless rate was flat at 9.6% in October, but the government’s broader measure of unemployment dropped slightly to 17%, possibly due to long-term unemployed dropping out of the labor force….

The comprehensive gauge of labor underutilization, known as the “U-6″ for its data classification by the Labor Department, accounts for people who have stopped looking for work or who can’t find full-time jobs….

The drop in the size of the labor force is likely an indication that many discouraged workers are just giving up. The labor force is only about 50,000 higher than it was in October 2009, but the population of working-age Americans who aren’t in the military or an institution, such as a prison or home for the aged, has increased by nearly two million people over that time.

There’s a way out — and back to high levels of employment so necessary for prosperity and well-being — a shift away from government spending and taxation toward fewer burdens and lower taxes for private businesses.

Via Broader U-6 Rate at 17%: The Long-Term Unemployed and the Dark Side of Jobs Report – Real Time Economics – WSJ.

Politics

Capital Times: Disrespect for League Harms Democracy

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Over at the Capital Times, there’s an editorial entitled, “Disrespect for League Harms Democracy.” The Cap Times contends that major parties have come to ignore the League of Women Voters’ non-partisan voters’ guides and debates. (Hat tip to The Phantom Stranger for the link.)

The paper contends that ignoring the League harms our statewide politics.

Yes, I think it does.

Here’s the argument from the paper’s editors:

Historically, candidates of all parties have respected and worked with the league.

But as big money has taken over the electoral process, the league has been pushed aside by the power players, who would rather manipulate elections than allow voters to make honest and informed choices.

The disregard by the political class and its corporate sponsors for the LWV’s good work really began back in the 1980s, when the former chairs of the Democratic and Republican national committees conspired to take management of presidential debates away from the league. They established the Commission on Presidential Debates — with help from the television networks — as a vehicle to limit access to the most important forums for presidential nominees. It worked. With the league out of the picture, third-party and independent candidates were largely excluded from the national forums, while the formats and questions have been dictated more by partisan players than a respect for the public’s right to know.

They also note that the situation is one-sided in Wisconsin, where many more Republicans, rather than Democrats, ignore the League.

That’s too bad. No moderators will be perfect, but I’d be easily comfortable with the League’s role as moderator, especially over other alternatives.

I’ve been asked, sometimes, if I would ever debate someone in Whitewater. Of course. Websites will sometimes devote a day or few days to a back-and-forth exchange between two people. One takes one side of an issue, the other the opposite view, and they engage in an extended exchange. The fewer the constraints, the better.

As has been true from the first day of this website, my email address appears on the right sidebar: adams@freewhitewater.com.

City

On Recent Job Losses in Whitewater, Wisconsin

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I’m not sure what to make of a local job loss amounting to over one hundred people, of which a local politician reports that there are no bumping rights. (That is, the right of more senior workers to take the jobs of lower-level associates whose positions are not otherwise subject to termination.)

Bumping rights don’t help those lowest on an organizational chart — they hurt them, to the advantage of high-placed workers. The higher-level workers, rather than compete in the marketplace with their stronger skills, drop down and displace those more vulnerable, with lower skills, who will have a harder time making a go of it. Bumping rights are a way to insulate high-level workers from having to return to the job market, at the expense of lower-level workers. Worse, these rights-of-displacement are an incentive to lower productivity, as higher-level workers know that as long as the business endures, they’ll have a chair reserved for themselves, and be able to push someone else out.

Nor, by the way, would unionization have assured any of these workers a job, and especially not low-level workers in conditions of bumping rights.

See, Compulsory Unionism and the Free Rider Doctrine:

A widely accepted standard of wage equity is that an individual?s hourly earnings be tied to his productivity…. Super-seniority for union officials; wage rates based on seniority diverging from measured productivity; the determination of job assignment, job-bumping rights, job security, and assignment to overtime all by seniority; compressed wage differentials negotiated by the union; and union resistance to job evaluation all tend to sever the link between effort and reward.

In any event, mitigation of the effects of job loss isn’t the root problem; job loss, and job creation, themselves, are Whitewater’s problems.

Comment Forum

Friday Comment Forum: Thoughts on the 2010 Election

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Here’s the Friday open comments post.

Today’s suggested topic –thoughts on the 2010 election. What do you think — are prospects now better, the same, or worse?

The use of pseudonyms and anonymous postings is, of course, fine.

Although the comments template has a space for a name, email address, and website, those who want to leave a field blank can do so. Comments will be moderated, against profanity or trolls. Otherwise, have at it.

I’ll keep the post open through Sunday afternoon.

Have at it.

Cartoons & Comics

Underwire — Cinematic Superman: Earth One Reboots Man of Steel

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Here’s something for discerning readers — a new version of a great — and so very American — story —

J. Michael Straczynski’s cinematic comic Superman: Earth One reads like a blockbuster film while rebooting the Man of Steel’s origin story for a 21st century desensitized to supertropes….

While we have seen much of Superman: Earth One’s origin story before, give or take a few self-absorbed mope sessions from Earth’s greatest alien superhero of all time, Straczynski’s tale should satisfy longtime Superman fans as well as late adopters. It’s both recognizable and refreshed, carrying over some traditional narrative points — and even nodding in the direction of Superman’s first cover — while creating some new ones wholly out of supercloth….

Here’s a part of that story —



Image courtesy DC Comics

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 11-5-10

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Good morning,

Today’s forecast for the Whippet City calls for a mostly sunny day, with a high temperature of forty-two degrees.

It’s the end of the first quarter in our school district. It’s also Eagle Day and Spirit Day at Washington School today.

NASA sent a spacecraft to fly close to comet Hartley 2, to photograph and study the comet. The mission has been, apparently, a great success, and both photographs and video of the close encounter are available.

Here’s a photo of Hartley 2, with the caption that NASA issued —



Introducing Comet Hartley 2
Comet Hartley 2 can be seen in glorious detail in this image from NASA’s EPOXI mission. It was taken as the spacecraft flew by around 6:59 a.m. PDT (9:59 a.m. EDT), from a distance of about 700 kilometers (435 miles). The comet’s nucleus, or main body, is approximately 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) long and .4 kilometers (.25 miles) at the “neck,” or most narrow portion. Jets can be seen streaming out of the nucleus.

Here’s a video, with NASA caption, taken from a greater distance —




This movie, taken by the spacecraft’s High-Resolution Instrument, shows jets spraying out of comet Hartley 2 as the comet tumbles through space.

Politics

FTC’s first Chief Technologist: DRM basher Ed Felten

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Congratulations to Princeton computer science professor Ed Felten —

What do you get when you spend your academic career exposing broken DRM schemes, suing the recording industry when they try to silence you, showing the insecurity of e-voting machines, filing DMCA exemption requests, and freeing US court documents from behind their paywall? You get to be the first-ever Chief Technologist at the Federal Trade Commission.

Here’s how insecure a voting machine can be —



Link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDEBMp6uwdc.

Via FTC’s first Chief Technologist: DRM basher Ed Felten. more >>

Government Spending, Politics

John Stossel: Did Freedom Win?

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Libertarian John Stossel has cause for skepticism:

….Remember the last time the Republicans took power? They promised fiscal responsibility, and for six of George W. Bush’s eight years, his party controlled Congress. What did we have to show for it?

Federal spending increased by 54 percent. That’s more than any president in the last 50 years. Much more than the 12 percent increase under Bill Clinton, and it even beat the 36 percent increase under big spender Lyndon Johnson.

The number of subsidy programs grew 30 percent, and the regulatory budget grew 70 percent. The private sector shrank, while the government sector grew by 1.6 million jobs….

See, John Stossel: Did Freedom Win?

City, Police, University

The Weak Reasoning of Prohibitionism

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A few weeks ago, Whitewater police cited one-hundred thirty-two underage drinkers at a house party in Whitewater. Thereafter, Whitewater’s police chief acknowledged that information about the party came from ‘undercover students,’ an acknowledgment that’s just foolish and tone-deaf. (Yes, Coan’s actually quoted calling them ‘undercover students,’ by the way.) I wrote about Coan’s remarks, in a post entitled, The Utter Foolishness of Jim Coan’s Prohibition.

One could guess that rather than think twice about any of this, Whitewater’s leadership would double-down. And, right on schedule they did, in remarks appearing in a story entitled, Whitewater police say homecoming week ‘tame.’

Here’s what Whitewater’s Lt. Otterbacher had to say about homecoming, as she’s quoted in WalworthCountyToday.com:

Whitewater police say homecoming weekend was ‘tame’ this year, drawing a typical number of drinking violations on and off campus.

Police Lt. Lisa Otterbacher said officers issued 65 citations last weekend – 31 of which were alcohol related.

A week earlier, 132 tickets were written at an underage drinking party off UW-Whitewater’s campus. Otterbacher believes that publicized the strong police presence and might have resulted in fewer violators.

Anyone reading this, even quickly, will intuit the error in her reasoning. Otterbacher conflates persons cited with violators. They’re not the same thing. Those issued citations (if identified properly) are a subset of all violators. All violators include not merely those cited, but anyone who might be drinking while underage, including drinking in places and circumstances not detected

There’s a significant difference between those punished for an offense and the incidence of the specific behavior that’s punishable. Incidence and punishment are not the same thing.

It’s erroneous to contend that if police ticket ten speeders one week, and five the next, then speeding has declined by 50%. Ticketing may have declined by 50%, but that says nothing about overall speeding. Perhaps, just perhaps, that’s why Otterbacher says ‘might’ have resulted.

It’s a tenuous ‘might,’ indeed.

I’m not sure what would be worse: if Otterbacher can’t see the distinction, or she hopes readers can’t see it.

Regrettably, the listing of a greater number of citations one week over the next is equally valid evidence for a conclusion that undermines a prohibitionist position — It’s just as likely, if not more so, that publicized sanctions one week drove the incidence of violations underground, the next week. Violations didn’t decline, since covert and surreptitious violations increased proportionately. Violators were simply craftier and more cautious.

The same behavior, though, likely took place all over town.

How do I know?

Because if Whitewater can reduce the incidence of underage drinking in an entire town by about over 75% in a few weeks (132 down to 31), then it has found the single greatest alcohol prevention program on earth.

No program in the history of all medicine has been able to reduce the incidence of consumption by that amount, in an entire town, that quickly. Not the finest physicians and therapists in America, Europe, or Asia — no one has done anything so grand.

Of course, Whitewater’s policies haven’t done so either, because Otterbacher’s not describing incidence, but only the tiny subset of incidence — those who are cited.

Rather than encourage treatment and education, policies like these only drive behavior — just as common — underground, into more dangerous and risky places.

The self-congratulatory pose merely ignores real harms, to real people, left untreated and hiding, despite a proud declaration of success.

Post script — Did a Whitewater official really say Whitewater’s homecoming was ‘tame,’ rather than ‘quiet?’ Were those someone’s words? No one committed to true community policing would speak like that. People and scenes — including those in a neighborhood, among residents — are quiet or bositerous, perhaps. They’re not ‘tame’ or wild. Animals are tame or wild. That’s revealing of a second, equally evident misunderstanding.

Laws/Regulations

Reason.tv – Nanny of the Month for October 2010: San Francisco Supervisor Eric Mar

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Perhaps you can market carrots, but should government force private businesses into a choice between abandoning toys or hawking carrots? More to the point — will a government mandate produce behavorial change that will be lasting and meaningful? No. These kinds of dietary changes require more than a municipal ordinance.



Video link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waOdmBdcS8w.

Here’s the description accompanying the video —


Last month the food police sued a North Carolina man for growing fresh vegetables, and this month San Francisco’s food cops have committed a different kind of atrocity by making the City by the Bay the first major metropolis to ban toys in happy meals.

This month’s top busybody is the pol who sponsored the ordinance to make happy meals sad, the one who hopes his “food justice” agenda goes nationwide.

Presenting the Nanny of the Month for October 2010: San Francisco Supervisor Eric Mar!

Approximately 75 seconds.

“Nanny of the Month” is written and produced by Ted Balaker. Associate Producers: Paul Detrick and Alex Manning. Opening animation by Meredith Bragg.
more >>

Weird Tales

La Crosse Tribune: Man Arrested While Trick-or-Treating in Diaper and Bib

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I am fortunate that I didn’t spend this Halloween in Maryland. There are probably many reasons for that, but among them would be avoiding

….[Forty-seven year old Joseph] DiVanna [who] said he was wearing a full baby costume complete with T-shirt, bib and bonnet and believes neighbors upset at his trick-or-treating alerted police. DiVanna said he had been drinking, but wasn’t drunk and was provoked by teens, who he said were the ones acting disorderly….

The teens apparently threw both insults and candy at DiVanna as he walked by. Although he has a right to dress up, it’s well possible that his conduct and not his attire was his problem. (Although the description of his costume suggests only unsavory images.)

To my knowledge, nothing like this happened in Whitewater on the 31st. I’m sure if it had, someone would have let me know (“Hey, Adams, you’ll never guess what I saw while trick-or-treating last night…”)

La Crosse Tribune: Man Arrested While Trick-or-Treating in Diaper and Bib.