Posts Tagged ‘education’

• My uneducated view

  Date: 2009.12.23 | Category: Life as we know it, ahh the news, rants | Response: 0

  I’m 15 pages deep into Economics 201 I don’t know near enough to figure out what has and hasn’t work in our economy in the past few years. I’m sure that with one to two more years of study I still won’t know enough to figure it out. What I do know is that the “talking heads” on our 24hr news stations surely can’t grasp a problem as large as the one we face. There are simply too many variables involved. Normative economic principle (how people should behave) and positive economic principle (how people will behave) both come into play. How many people have put off spending money because of the “economy”? How many of these people are salaried and haven’t seen a drop in their income nor an increase in their cost of living? Why would they stop spending at their normal rate (unless they decide to pursue a different monetary goal)?

  Questions like these are why I love economics – huge, broad, expansive questions with long detailed answers – answers that we may not get correct. Sure, our policy makers are educated and their advisors often have PhD’s in their respective fields but the problem is simply massive. By the time we’ve collected and analyzed all of the data the situation will have surely changed.

  Look at the weather, for example, how often have we been told that that the mean temperature on our planet is rising. How much bizarre weather have we all experienced in the past few years? Isn’t it strange that Seattle had its warmest and driest summer ever but is experiencing one of its coldest winters so far? Our climate, much like the economy, is a massive system with millions of variables. To think that we can figure out what is causing it and “solve” the problem completely is ridiculous. I think that we can find solutions that will improve our situation but I doubt we can “stop” the warming like we can stop our cars in front of a stop sign. It’s simply too big. If we ALL changed – today – forever – we could start a gradual change in both the economy and in our climate. Without everyone involved its simply going to take time.

  Wait a minute? I remember a speech from our President shortly after he came into office saying that it would take some time for our economy to recover. Hmmm… good advisers? Wise choice of words? Absolutely! Recent indicators show that we are on our way out of this hole that we have dug – we’re not out of the woods yet but we’re headed into the right direction.

  Just my two cents.

• Here goes nothing

  Date: 2008.09.17 | Category: Life as we know it | Response: 0

  Billy Madison said it best “Back to school! Back to school, to prove to Dad that I’m not a fool! I got my lunch packed up, my boots tied tight, I hope I don’t get in a fight! Ohhhh, back to school! Back to school! Back to school! Well, here goes nothing!”

  Jessica is done with classes and I have no pending deployments so it’s time to head back to school. I took a DANTES test today on world religions and I’ll find out in a few weeks how bad I failed. When I do fail it will reaffirm the need to take a humanities course and one math course to get my associates degree.

  I registered for a US History class today and I’ll start the online portion of that as soon as my book arrives in the mail. If that goes well, I’ll register for some actual sit in a seat and stare at a professor class that will start in the middle of Oct. I’m looking at taking “The Problem of Evil” and “Business and Society.” I want to work on an economics degree but the most convenient school only offers it as a minor. If I really want to make it work I can always go to UW and transfer the needed credits. Why business and economics in light of our poorly performing financial sector? They obviously suck at what they are doing and it might be time for some fresh input or… the title of your degree really doesn’t matter it just means that you won’t get cut in the first round of resume sorting.

  The interesting bit of my education is that I won’t be getting my credits from one institution. I’m going to try and knock out prerequisite and some general education all online at school “A” while I take classes that actually interest me in front of a real live talking person at school “B.” We live in a wired society and its all possible now. They’ll probably keep me on midshift for a while so I know that I’ll have adequate time to do my schoolwork. Even if they shift me to days I’ll still have ample time to work. I need to keep the distractions minimal – I need to moderate goofing off. Its all good if it comes in the right sized doses.

• Links!

  Date: 2008.03.11 | Category: ahh the news, links! | Response: 0

  Carl Rove is hated by University of Iowa students – wait a minute – isn’t he universally loathed? Check out this story about his recent lecture – I think the crowd could have been considered “hostile.” – CNN picked up the story too

  What do you know about the NSA? I’m guessing that you’re aware that they are a domestic security agency but thats probably about it. What do they know about us? Quite a bit more than I would have imagined. Check out the article at the Wall Street Journal.

  A NY charter school is going to do the unimaginable – they are going to pay teachers 125K/yr – far more than the administrators in charge. Competition for the jobs is fierce but this could change the way we think about paying our educators. Lets hope that they are on the right path – read on at the NY Times.

  Here is an unofficial list of the top ten Hubble images – cool stuff

  Here are some great pictures from Russia – they still have a little catching up to do after the fall of communism – then again, we have quite of bit of catching up to do in any area where there are trailer parks and white trash.

  Improv Everywhere does some amazing things in places you wouldn’t imagine. This time, they started a musical in the middle of a food court without the knowledge the consumers seated around them. There is a video of the performance – unfortunately, I can’t watch it but its gotta be great. In the past they sent 200 people in blue shirts and khakis into a best buy – needless to say, security flipped out. Check it out!

• I’m so excited / What a strange Reunion

  Date: 2008.02.21 | Category: desert | Response: 0

  I just finished reading the book The World is Flat and I’ve got to say that I’m extremely excited about globalization and all of the challenges that we are going to face in the future. The more I dig into books about economics, business, sociology, and trade the more intrigued I become by the subject. I am unable to stop thinking about some of the points and conclusions he has drawn that affect us today and tomorrow. I’ve got to get my hand on some more books in this vein – maybe this is what I should have studied in college from the get-go. Oh well, I’m still young and the military is paying for my tuition so I’m free to study what I want.

  I’m also excited because of what is in store for Jessica. We had an intense conversation about her education and from we discussed she is planning on continuing her education. I couldn’t be more proud of her at the moment. Too many of us are happy with being vanilla – to keep ourselves viable as employees we need to be a banana split with a cherry on top. She won’t start until she gets settled in a job but I think its a fantastic idea. We all need to keep expanding our knowledge throughout our lives and she is making the first steps towards doing it. The only thing that separates us from the people above us is education and experience – education is easy to acquire and experience goes along with it hand in hand – there is some short term pain but its well worth it for the long term gain.

  Pt 2.

  I rarely see any of my family members because I’m a bit of a recluse. Well, thats a flat out lie – I am a complete and total recluse. Its not that I don’t wish to see my extended or nuclear family, I seldom have the opportunity to do so. I tend to use this blog as a one way form of communication – if you wish to know what I’m doing in whatever part of the world that I might be in all that you need to do is to visit this website. Others don’t like to share themselves in the same way – and I don’t blame them. So… I’ve got to get back to the point of the story.

  I have two cousins that serve in the Army National Guard. One is from the King side and the other from the Harvey side. As luck would have it (if you could call it luck), one of them is stationed at Balad. We tried to meet a week ago but we probably looked right at each other and failed to draw a mental connection. So, after a volley of emails back and forth we got to meet a few nights ago. I haven’t seen my cousin in years and I’ve got to say – I remember him being at least a foot shorter than he is now. He’s got an interesting job – to say the least – but he’s doing well and he thinks his job is rather boring. The world seems so much smaller when you can meet a cousin you haven’t seen in 3-4 years on the other side of the planet.

• Contradictions in Obamas campaign?

  Date: 2008.02.13 | Category: ahh the news | Response: 1

  First off, I am an undecided voter who is unsure as to what party or candidate that he will be voting for in the general election in November. I am worried about our country as a whole and I am particularly worried about our the education of Americans and our job market. I’ve been reading economic books as a hobby for a while – I am no expert by any means but I’ve got a firm grasp of the principles. Barrack Obama gave a speech today at a General Motors factory and talked about jobs and education. Needless to say, I was intrigued by what he said because I consider him a front runner. So, I checked out his website and found the following excerpts.

  Trade that Works for Workers – Obama will end tax breaks for companies who ship jobs overseas and give breaks to companies who create good jobs with decent wages here in America.

  Millions of New Green Jobs — Obama’s energy plan will invest $150 billion over ten years to establish a green energy sector that will create millions of new jobs over the next two decades – jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced. He will also provide funding to help manufacturers convert to green technology and help workers learn the skills they need for these jobs.

  Ok, Mr. Obama is planning on stopping tax breaks to companies that outsource employees from other nations. In the classical view of economics if you are unable to compete in a market and another company or location can do it better you should let them. Prime examples of countries that do much of the work we used to do in house are China and India. We have moved a large number of technical and non-technical jobs to these companies because they can often do our work for pennies on the dollar. When a company moves jobs out of the country we need to react accordingly to create new jobs left in the vacuum. Occasionally, we must move vertically instead of horizontally in our job choice. Instead of moving to the same job we had before we might need to increase our skill set or education level. Obama plans to help people move vertically with training required to create and obtain “green” jobs. What I don’t understand is why he is planning on penalizing companies that outsource jobs – other markets that can do the job better should do the job. It is in the best interest of the consumer if a product is produced by the cheapest and most efficient manufacturer at all levels. Yes, the unskilled labor will face a crunch at the on set of such a change but if he moves vertically he will be able to get a product at a cheaper price than when he was making it.

  Below is an excerpt from a speech he gave today -

  I believe that we can create millions of those jobs around a clean, renewable energy future. A few hours northeast of here is the city of Manitowoc [MAN-a-ta-WOC]. For over a century, it was the home of Mirro manufacturing – a company that provided thousands of jobs and plenty of business. In 2003, Mirro closed its doors for good after losing thousands of jobs to Mexico.

  But in the last few years, something extraordinary has happened. Thanks to the leadership of Governor Doyle and Mayor Kevin Crawford, Manitowoc has re-trained its workers and attracted new businesses and new jobs. Orion Energy Systems works with companies to reduce their electricity use and carbon emissions. And Tower Tech is now making wind turbines that are being sold all over the world. Hundreds of people have found new work, and unemployment has been cut in half.

  Here he is talking about people that moved vertically – this is exactly what we should do in every situation. We should stop trying to prevent outsourcing – even though there is some short term pain it is in the best interest of all to do so. From what I’ve read on his website it almost seems like he is contradicting himself. I’m not quite sure if two separate people are writing his speeches and press releases but it doesn’t make much sense to me at the moment.

  I want to get McCain’s take on the whole thing – but, his website is down at the moment – well, I can’t get to it on a govt. computer at the moment – so his website could be working without a hitch.