Disqus - Latest Comments for triticale

Re: A Cold Compress for Status Fever

triticale — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 08:21:18 -0000

Actually, there can be more than one best jazz guitariist in Tucson, because jazz is a range of music. Just off the top of my head, I would suggest comparing Wes Montgomery and John McLaughlin.

Re: From Luxury Item to Disposable Good: The Amazing $29 DVD Player

triticale — Sat, 16 Apr 2005 18:32:10 -0000

Actually, DVDs can be a whole lot cheaper than that. I just bought one with "The Giant Gila Monster" (which I love because the heroes are kids with hotrods) plus another horror movie for $1.00 at Target. Wal-Mart has a similar selection at the same price, stuff like a version of "White Fang" with a brown German Shepherd miscast in the title role.

It isn't only the "digital divide" which is made irrelevant by these price decreases. When a commodity like a DVD player drops from $69 to $29, that counts against inflation, but because it wasn't a commodity at $1000, the real drop isn't counted.

Re: Dilbert Blog

triticale — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 09:49:31 -0000

You folks should come to Wisconsin for your septum surgery. They use badgers here instead of wolverines. Not exactly gentle, but less persistant.

Re: Buttons

triticale — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 20:41:15 -0000

Sleeve buttons aren't so bad. You don't need an exact match. What peeves me is when they get one of the collar buttons.

Re: Working for Sears Goods

triticale — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 09:17:28 -0000

I did a post a couple of months ago comparison shopping a 1980 Sears catalog I'd found. Being an observer of the economy and not an economist, I merely posted the dollar amounts, but my finding was similar.

As final proof things are getting better, I offered to scan and post the catalog page for Happy Mushroom Family kitchen accessories, but had no takers.

Re: Please Do Your Job

triticale — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 17:52:49 -0000

Income, income distribution, and changes in income tell only part of the story. Since 1980 I'd estimate that I've moved from the bottom to the top of the second quintile, but that doesn't describe how much better off I am. I'm not working anywhere near as hard for my money; instead of a hot, dangerous (I could show you scars) Rust Belt job I have an easy fun one in an industry which barely existed then. Thanks to the passage of time I no longer need to support a son out of that income; he's off in the bottom quintile himself now. Also thanks to the passage of time, I own two homes free and clear, and thanks to the Gingrich-era "tax cuts for the rich" I'm going to keep the couple hundred thousand I'm about to sell one of them for.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I fail to comprehend how I'm hurt by other people earning more as long as I'm living large on what I'm earning.

Re: Maybe We'd Be Better Off with Less Commerce

triticale — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 16:44:41 -0000

Bad transcription. "Trade is far and away the largest wait on the U.S. economy at present," and the time while waiting for the trade goods to arrive is risky.

Re: An alternative hypothesis

triticale — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 15:20:44 -0000

I am not made better off by iPods and big-screen TVs. I own neither. I haven't even bothered to replace the AM-FM radio in my car with the MP3-capable CD player I bought.

I am, however, unquestionably made better off by cellular phones. Without them there would be no employment for cellular RF optimization technicians. There's no job security; I work when a provider does an upgrade project, but my annual earnings are around what I made in that hot factory I hated, and I love what I do. Other factors, including the Gingrich-era "tax cuts for the rich" mean that the periods of unemployment between projects amount to leisure time. In short, macro statistics do not even hint at my situation.

Re: Counter-Critique and C-C-C

triticale — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 15:36:32 -0000

Youu can find low-enough quality goods to replicate 1973's lifestyle. You buy them at thrift stores for the classic "ten cents on the dollar". I recently even found some of the mushroom kitsch I complained about in the Sears catalog post I did around the same time as Don's.

As a matter of fact, we do most of our merchandise shopping at thrift stores. This is one of the reasons why my wee wifey and I are living a life we consider luxurious on about Don's earlier mentioned inflation-adjusted 1973 median. We shop aggressively for food bargains, and were able to fill the freezer of our upstairs fridge recently with ground beef and boneless skinless chicken breasts (brine-free) bought at the $.99 a pound we struggled to afford many years ago. If the economists who figure the CPI would do the same, the statistics would be very different.

Re: Status Won't Go Away

triticale — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 15:38:55 -0000

It is my understanding that the lowest, and therefore most visible, position on a totem pole was the one which represented the most status.

Re: Now and Then

triticale — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 10:45:23 -0000

Altho Steve has a valid point regarding division of labor, I figure that based on what I was quoted to have it done, I made a higher hourly wage installing my own water heater than I make on my best-paying tech contracts.

Re: Gasoline, Regulation, and Economies of Scale

triticale — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 17:36:46 -0000

On a couple of occasions I have attempted to point out to people complaining about "Big Oil" that they would have to pay even more if they had to deal with "Small Oil" instead. The concept of economies of scale is outside their ken.

Re: Glaeser on Paternalism

triticale — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 17:22:17 -0000

Cigarettes were known as "coffin nails" and "gaspers" in common slang long before the government stepped in. As for Enron, they were a company whose business plan was built on market distortions created by government interference.

Re: What Protectionists Intend

triticale — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 08:51:55 -0000

It should still be within peoples' memory that the last time such protection was put in place it did serious harm to the steel-using industries.

There is a company in the Milwaukee area, P&H Mining Equipment, which went into reorganization a few years ago and it looked like the employee retirement fund was at risk. Right now they are again in excellent shape, and actively seeking to hire welders, mostly because of overseas orders. Drive up the price of the steel they buy, and those overseas orders will be put at risk.

Re: The Real Story of Job Growth

triticale — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 06:03:30 -0000

Spencer, to prove your point, show us that the household survey led the establishment survey by similarly vast amounts in every previous cycle since 1974, and then lagged enough to generate your averages. Otherwise it looks like you are trying to disguise a trend with old data.

Re: Let's Go Googling

triticale — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 10:02:51 -0000

[W]ould taxing income from capital more lightly than income from labor be an example of those at the top stacking the game against everyone else?

To the extent that tax policy encourages capital investment, more subtly as noted above, it benefits little old me.

I do contract work on development projects in my field. I work when the client corporation makes capital investments. Q.E.D.

Re: Sudha Shenoy on the Trade Deficit

triticale — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 01:00:18 -0000

Bad analogy. The convenience of an ATM may encourage reckless cash flow, but it only provides access to liquid funds.

Re: The Society of Real Economists

triticale — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 16:29:59 -0000

One thing overlooked in all this discussion of the minimum wage is that raising it puts upward pressure on all wages. My understanding is that some labor contracts are directly tied to it by a multiplier or adder, but the rest are also, less formally, by market pressure.

Re: HBiPod

triticale — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 16:59:42 -0000

There aren't 20,000 songs worth carrying around in my shirt pocket, therefore the capacity is not an increase in utility...

Re: Protect Us from Protectionism

triticale — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 14:37:43 -0000

Bruce Hall is thinking the same way as a high priced trial lawyer who does his own filing because he is too cheap to pay a law clerk. If the Chinese can do something more cheaply, then it is misuse of our money to pay ourselves to do it.

Re: Economic Nationalism and War

triticale — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 17:24:20 -0000

"Americans in the steel industry AREN'T more important than Americans in the car industry. But they ARE more important than workers in the chinese steel and car industries. That's the whole point."

Now factor in the workers here in Milwaukee producing mining equipment for China at a factory brought back from bankrupcy by that export business. How important are they and the trade which generated their jobs?

Re: What Peltzman Found

triticale — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 14:52:54 -0000

When one particular Ferrari model was imported into the US in the early '90s, it had to be retrofitted with a three point lap and shoulder belt, because the factory supplied five point harness did not meet Federal regulations.

Re: Neologism

triticale — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 03:11:42 -0000

Isn't a "barrierist" somebody who works at an upscale coffee shop?

Re: Trade and Romance

triticale — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 15:10:50 -0000

Whilst I agree 'tis better to have loved and lost, in all probability some readers of this post are here because of raw animal lust.

Re: A Simple Question

triticale — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 01:54:03 -0000

My son likes to point out that it wasn't Wal-Mart that killed off the local businesses, it was Zayre and E J Korvette.

Re: What is vs. what I wish it were

triticale — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 17:38:05 -0000

What is the goal of government? We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

Re: Competing with High-Wage Workers

triticale — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 09:33:56 -0000

Martin mentions the buggy whip makers. I wonder if he saw the article in the WSJ back in 1970 about the company which was then revolutionising that industry thru the use of nylon and fiberglass and putting most of the companies which sold to the Amish and to sulky racers out of business.

Re: Zillowicious

triticale — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 15:59:02 -0000

They don't have an estimate on the place I'm looking to sell, which is just as well. They wouldn't know about the problem with the foundation.

Re: Protectionists Never Learn

triticale — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 12:03:27 -0000

If China cut itself off from the world, the first thing that would happen to the local economy in Milwaukee is that P&H, currently in constant need of skilled workers, would slide back into bankruptcy. They have other large orders, including North American oil sands, but it is Chinese coal mining which has them booming.

Re: War on Humanity

triticale — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 15:19:53 -0000

"But marijuana is NOT a medicine, and the entire legalization movement will only gain credibility when they drop the silly facade."

Much to the embarresment of the DEA, the research they have suppressed to maintain this fiction can be repeated outside of their jurisdiction.

More generally, there are ailments, and treatments, which produce nausea so severe oral anti-emetics cannot take effect. Ask any oncologist whether smoking marijuana can be useful in such a situation. Not all would prescribe it, even if they could, but they all know it works.

Re: War on Humanity

triticale — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 14:41:28 -0000

Standard double blind tests would be difficult, as a placebo would be obvious. What would make sense would be to get a hybrid purported to be medicinal, and double blind it with something super stony like White Rhino. If patients with genuine symptoms to be alleviated prefer the healing variety, we would have some evidence.

Re: Great minds think alike

triticale — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 07:08:06 -0000

Nucor's mini-mills are not backyard cupola furnaces. They are mini in compared to US Steel facilities, where the plant security has radar guns in their patrol cars. They are mini because they remelt and blend scrap - intelligently, in a country with plenty available - rather than working from raw or pelletized iron ore. Much of their economic advantage comes from not having unions who dictate that the repair weld of a motor mount bracket requires a millwright, an electrician and a laborer as well as a welder.

Re: What's the Difference?

triticale — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 07:12:21 -0000

My favorite example of displaced workers is the Pony Express Riders robbed of their employment by the telegraph. What protection and recompense did they ever recieve. Sadly, it is far too late to do anything about this.

Re: The Division of Labor

triticale — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 11:23:36 -0000

To paraphrase Stalin, how many divisions does labor have?

Re: The Double Thank-You

triticale — Wed, 30 May 2007 14:56:04 -0000

I get asked "how's it going" by strangers on the street (well, neighbors I don't particularly know) on a regular basis. I answer, with some accuracy, "back and forth".

Re: Don't Be Sari

triticale — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 04:59:58 -0000

So, when are you going to start buying your suits at Wal-Mart?

Setting aside the fact that I am fortunate enough not to need to wear a suit, I will start buying clothing at Wal-Mart when their prices are better than what I pay at Goodwill or Value Village.

Re: Thou Shalt Not Prosper

triticale — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 16:44:30 -0000

Spencer, if you care so much about the environment, why are you getting three newspapers? Especially given the inefficiency of paper recycling (I know of warehouses full that are mildewing) you would do far more good by cancelling your subscribtions and getting your news online.

Re: For Whose Benefit?

triticale — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 17:30:06 -0000

Muirgeo's posts are simplistic and error prone, but he isn't a fardling idiot. As shawn points out, he articulately states the common fuzzy thinking this blog serves to refute.

The world economy is not only not zero sum, it is not static. It has been a long time since low labor cost was Japan's competitive advantage, and I don't think it will be South Korea's much longer.

Re: Jibbitzing in the Prosperity Pool

triticale — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 17:49:25 -0000

Fortunately, not all Crocs have lots of holes in them. Thus my wee wifey is able to wear them on the job (nursing aide on the psyche ward) without having to worry about fluid spills.

Re: Conflicting Survey Results

triticale — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 03:34:24 -0000

My dad was a freelance writer and photographer, with a couple of magazine columns for baseline pay. I'd enjoy doing what he did; I'd just have to write about different stuff, but if I could do it I'd probably earn on the order of what I'm making these days.

Now consider the opposite direction. As of when my dad passed away, the industry in which I work didn't even exist.

Re: Straw Man

triticale — Sat, 30 Oct 2004 23:10:25 -0000

Yes, it is true that the Republicans in Milwaukee have been trying to hold down the number of ballots printed. After the last election, $20,000 worth of unused ballots had to be destroyed. The goal was to hold the run to only two per registered voter rather than the 3 times what is needed that the city wanted. In the rest of the state, one spare ballot for every four voters is all they get.

In the last presidential election, a representative of the DNC was videotaped buying votes, and there were solid reports of repeat voting. The District Attorney refused to even investigate. This time around, he and other city officials are ignoring massive irregularities in the vote generation activities of the "non-partisan" operations bankrolled by an international currency speculator. One of these operations is run by a woman who stepped down from elected office to end inquiries into how she had been elected. Our DA has, however, said that he will prosecute anyone who tests the registration process by making false representation with the intent of exposing potential fraud. This is, please note, a solidly Democrat city administration.

Also note that there is a strong, semi-anonymous, drive in the inner city to lead my neighbors to believe that they need to show up the infamous "them" who are trying to suppress their vote. This bogus flyer may well have been printed by the same people who put a card under my door which begins "They tried to stop us from voting with dogs and fire hoses..." in an attempt to suggest that "they" are still at it.

Re: Straw Man

triticale — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 18:10:30 -0000

kes:

Among the people to be sentenced to death in Texas by a jury of their peers while Bush was Governor of Texas was two of the three perpetrators of the pickup truck lynching. Are you calling for a commutation of their sentences?

That one hundred thousand is not a conservative estimate, it is the mid-range of a SWAG based on misapplied statistical expansion of a non-typical sample. It could also be no more than eight thousand.

Re: Liberals And Smoking Laws

triticale — Tue, 08 Feb 2005 11:02:41 -0000

Setting aside the debate as to the accuracy of studies claiming to show health effects of second hand smoke, the fact is that most restaurants, especially if built recently, have smoking and non-smoking sections which are physically seperate.

Re: Say Anything Fantasy Football Year #2

triticale — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 17:32:57 -0000

Now if this pastime were [i]really[/i] fantasy football, I could field my fantasy team, featuring Walter Payton, Ray Nitschke and Ben Grimm.

Re: Troofers

triticale — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 20:43:53 -0000

I've had it up to here with the Internet cheezburger jokes.

Re: Your Moment Of Schadenfreude For Today: Bush-Mocking Journalist Piers Morgan Gets His

triticale — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 01:48:25 -0000

As I recall, Segway did a software update to correct the uncontrolled condition which caused one to tip over as Bush was trying it out. Something to do with the start up routines.

Re: Man Arrested For Feeding Stray Cats To His Dogs

triticale — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 19:09:18 -0000

The real issue is which stray cats he was feeding to his dog. Surely nobody would be that upset if it was Brian Setzer.

Re: Appellate Court Shuts Down Horse Meat Plant In Illinois

triticale — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 17:51:47 -0000

Horsemeat was available retail for human consumption in Milwaukee as recently as the 1970s. By then the butcher shop no longer did business under the name of Man o' War.It is as tasty as beef, but somewhat sweeter for lack of a better distinction.