30 Apr 2005
The Social Security Mess

There's no doubt that the Social Security system is a mess. It's essentially a Ponzi scheme, bound to fail as the birthrate falls. My grandfather's generation set it up like this, and my father's generation piled on new "benefits", including medical and disability. It's ultimately unsustainable without tax rates approaching 100%, and that, of course, is a political and economic impossibility.

So people have been quite surprised to discover that I'm generally opposed to the reforms President Bush has proposed for the system, especially those who know of my strong libertarian leanings. What on earth could be wrong with private retirement accounts?

Well, there's actually nothing wrong with private accounts! What's wrong with the proposed scheme is that these will not really be private accounts at all. In a private account, I can deposit (and withdraw) any time I please, and while I may have to take an interest penalty if I withdraw before the term is up, I can certainly cease making contributions when I choose. Not so with Bush's proposed scheme - it's still a tax, it's still taken by force from it's rightful owner and deposited into some account over which he or she has a limited degree of control.

The difference in Bush's scheme is that these funds, rather than being used to pay benefits to present retirees as is the case now, will be invested in the private capital markets, at the discretion of the account holder, earning a return dependent on the vagaries of market. This will necessarily entail fewer deposits into the Social Security Trust Fund, which will, in turn, mean fewer dollars available to pay currently due benefits. Does anybody seriously think Congress is going to lower benefits for AARP members? Not a chance - so where's the money going to come from to pay them? There's only one place - a general tax increase.

Now, this may not have to happen for a decade - but it will happen under Bush's plan. It's also true that if we don't touch Social Security, there's ultimately going to have to be a tax increase as well - but that one won't come for several decades.

But the real problem with the Bush reform plan is the near inevitability of fraud. What funds and companies are going to be available for investors tax dollars? Why, the ones that meet government approval, of course, and are watched over by an agency of the government with serious regulatory powers - say like the Securities and Exchange Commission. Am I the only one who remembers Enron and WorldCom? Who doubts that "approved" in the context of bureaucracy is a synonym for "crony"? This opens the door to corruption on a vast scale - and that corruption will ultimately be outed.

When that happens (and it will happen - there's no "if" about it) the political blowback will be tremendous. Hordes of angry citizens calling their Congresscritters and complaining about having their retirement monies stolen with the collusion of the government! How do you think the AARP would react to that one? How would Congress react?

You got it: they'd immediately act to "make good" those investments. Which would defeat the whole purpose of the scheme, and raise taxes even sooner and probably by a larger amount than would otherwise be necessary to cover their constituents perceived losses.

Social Security really is an insoluble morass. The only way to fix it is to raise the birthrate (or otherwise increase the number of contributors) or just eliminate it entirely, neither of which is likely to happen in my lifetime. There are several ways to extend the viability of the system: eliminate the cap on taxable earnings for Social Security, eliminate the ability of groups to "opt-out" (especially the Federal employees - it just looks bad, fellas), or raise the retirement age again. None of these are particularly politically popular, but none of them would raise my taxes.

And hence my opposition. Adopting this scheme will raise my taxes sooner, and by a larger amount, than simply doing nothing. If you're worried about Social Security "being there" for you at retirement, don't be. It'll be there, dispensing barely enough cash to cover your dog food bill. Bush is right about one thing: the best way to handle the perceived crisis on a personal level is to set up and maintain a private retirement account. We can each do this now, one by one, contributing as much as we can afford, when we can manage to do so. I have no expectation of being able to live in my retirement strictly from my Social Security check. But I have no need for another government mandated and controlled saving plan, funneling my money to the political cronies of those in power so they can play on Wall Street.

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Interesting Times

The title of this post certainly describes the happenings at Hammerstead Farms of late. I seem to have stumbled into a serious opportunity, and like all such adventures, there's a element of excitement in the air.

I've not blogged a lot about the farm because, well, I've been busy blogging about other things, and too busy with the farm to really collect my thoughts. But the time has come to set down some of the events of the past few months on (digital) paper, and take stock of what's been a wild ride.

I've mentioned the egg route briefly - we've since added another 50 hens, and will be adding another 25 or so by the end of this week. And I'm still selling every egg those girls are laying. We have a batch of meat chicks in the barn, trying to stay warm in this unseasonably cool weather, and I've secured a source for organic milk - the real deal, pasteurized but not homogenized, and with a real cream plug in the top of it's glass bottle - for home delivery to go along with my eggs. The milkman is making a comeback.

The business has doubled every month since January.

We've purchased a portable commercial milk cooler, and are in the process of getting it rigged up to be mounted in the back of my little S-10 pickup. I'm ordering blank egg cartons in lots of 800, and the new bulk tank will cut the feed costs for my girls considerably.

The downside? All of this takes money, and we're being stressed to the breaking point. It's become a real treat to eat a sandwich out, and Kris purchased the first book either of us have bought in months tonight.

Further growth is going to take advertising, and that's not a cheap proposition. Additionally, I have to be real careful not to overdo it - once all the new hens get up to speed, we'll only be getting about 50 dozen eggs a week, and if I get the same kind of response to new ads that I got to the first one, we'll be sold out again in a couple of days.

I'd like to get a another batch of meat chicks in the brooder - but that takes cash, too. If I can't find the money, I run the risk of running out of birds for the summer barbecue season, which would not do at all. But if I spend the money getting meat birds, I won't be able to ramp up egg production as fast or possibly even buy enough advertising to sell them. And after nearly two years of unemployment my savings (and credit) are nearly exhausted. It seems like an impossible situation ...

And, in reality, there's only one way out. I need to take on a partner - to sell a portion of this business I'm growing. It really does take money to make money, and the search for cash has been eating up most of my time. So if anybody out there's sitting on a little extra investment capital, and has ever thought about owning a piece of a farm, well, my email address is the left-most column of this page ...

00:00 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

29 Apr 2005
Indiana passes daylight-saving time bill

Well, we've got it now - despite earlier defeats, and by a very close margin, the Indiana House passed a Daylight Saving Time bill last night, moving us on the "spring forward, fall back" schedule starting next year.

But exactly when we'll be changing our clocks is still a bit of a mystery. You see, Congress is considering an energy bill that would extend DST to run from March to November. And I must say, that for purely local political reasons, I hope they pass it! Why?

It's well known to my readers that I consider myself a conservative kinda guy, and have, in the past, supported Republicans, mainly on the basis of fiscal responsibility and a perceived lack of willingness on their part to "change for the sake of change".

But what with the advent of the Religious Right, and the increasing willingness of the party to kow-tow to large business interests (the House also passed a new tax bill that increases taxes on me, in Boone County, to build a new stadium for the multi-millionaire owner of the Colts in Marion County ... go figure) I have become disaffected with the Republicans - I have been labeled a "RINO" (Republican in Name Only) due to this disaffection, and have resolved to rid myself of that label - if the Republicans don't want me, perhaps the Democrats do.

Anyway, because this idiotic measure was pushed by Republicans, if Congress extends DST, and Indiana remains in the Eastern time zone, sunrise in Indiana on Election Day in 2006 will occur at 8:20 am. And I believe that most voters will be totally pissed off by leaving their kids standing at the bus stop in the dark, voting in the dark on their way to work, and then getting on the job and it still being dark. They'll remember the reason we abandoned DST some forty years ago. And the morons that voted to do this to their constituents are about to discover it...

When 47 states move their clocks forward an hour next April to observe daylight-saving time, all of Indiana is expected to join them for the first time in decades.

(link) [CNN]

00:00 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

Exploding toads baffle scientists

Just plain strange ...

More than 1,000 toads have puffed up and exploded in a Hamburg pond in recent weeks, and German scientists still have no explanation for what's causing the combustion, an official said.

(link) [CNN]

Update: from Secular Blasphemy.

00:00 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link

Ancient Oaths

is the title of a post today from Laudator Temporis Acti, and an excellent essay it is, too! He analyzes various oaths from the Greco-Roman world in terms of structure, not just content, and (perhaps inadvertently, as he never mentions the connection) ties them into a tripartite structure so common in Indo-European heathen practice (see this article on Georges Dumézil for more info). Read it, and learn.

00:00 /Asatru | 0 comments | permanent link

28 Apr 2005
Beggars May Need Licenses in Minneapolis

Ja, sure, you betcha! Everybody has to have a license in Minnesota!

AP - Panhandlers on Minneapolis' busy street corners may soon carry more than the cardboard signs that spell our their pleas for money. If the police chief has his way, they'll have photo IDs hanging around their necks.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

00:00 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link

Fight fraud not ID theft

A very interesting point:

Schneier said that rather than focusing on making identity harder to steal it makes more sense to make information harder to use for criminal purposes. "The industry is going the wrong way in the US by worrying about keeping identity details secret. The focus should be on fraud. European countries, such as Holland [The Netherlands], are doing better than the US," he said.

There are some steps being taken in this direction, but overall the focus here has been on "identity theft" - which is the precursor to fraud in many cases, rather than on the fraud itself. Of course, identity theft is literally impossible to detect, until it's been used to commit fraud, so why is is all of the buzz about identity theft, and not the frauds it enables?

ID theft is a misnomer which is hurting the fight against fraud, according to encryption guru Bruce Schneier. Instead of talking about ID theft it's better to talk about fraud due to impersonation, he claimed.

(link) [The Register]

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Microsoft Chairman: End overseas hiring limits

Thanks, Mr. Bill. This makes it quite plain where your loyalities lie.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates urged the Bush administration and lawmakers Wednesday to abolish immigration limits on foreign engineers who can be hired by U.S. companies, a sensitive subject among American technology workers watching their own jobs increasingly move overseas.

(link) [CNN]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Bug killers making farmers buggy

Well, doh! I'd say there'd be more reason to report on folks who spend weeks inhaling organophosphates and don't get sick! Just by way of clarification, for weed control we use goats, sheep and vinegar, and for rodent control we have cats. The llama and the cattle keep larger predators (coyotes) pretty much at bay, but we're still armed humans, and have proven to be pretty deadly ourselves to things that view our livestock as a cafeteria... and so far none of our weed or pest control efforts have poisoned us! Go figure!

New research shows that farmers who used agricultural insecticides experienced increased neurological symptoms, even when they were no longer using the products. Data from 18,782 North Carolina and Iowa farmers linked use of insecticides, including organophosphates and organochlorines, to reports of reoccurring headaches, fatigue, insomnia, dizziness, nausea, hand tremors, numbness and other neurological symptoms. Some of the insecticides addressed by the study are still on the market, but some, including DDT, have been banned or restricted.

(link) [Science Blog]

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

27 Apr 2005
Chickens and Eggs

Golden Comet The egg route has been a huge success, so much so that I had to ask the Reporter to pull the ad I've been running. We're selling about 30 dozen eggs a week now, and I was only getting about 12 dozen out of my girls. I was buying the rest from neighbors I trust, but the time was now to purchase some new birds of our own. I got 30 Golden Comet pullets last Sunday from a dealer in Muncie.

I say pullets but these are mostly yearling hens: last years pullets. And do these girls lay eggs! They're not the prettiest brown color I've ever seen, but the quality of taste and the sheer quantity makes up for it! We now own 76 laying hens, and are on track to produce 34 dozen a week. And that's in the winter: I wonder if we'll be swimming in yolks by the time July gets here!

00:00 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

How To Finance a Hollywood Blockbuster

And these Hollywood moguls have the nerve to complain about peer networks ripping them off! Wow ... wish I had that much chutzpah!

As paradoxical and absurd as it sounds, it's cheaper for a Hollywood studio to make a big-budget action movie than to make a shoestring art film like Sideways. Consider Paramount's 2001 action flick Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. On paper, Tomb Raider's budget was $94 million. In fact, the entire movie cost Paramount less than $7 million. How did the studio collect over $87 million before cameras started rolling?

(link) [Slate]

via Secular Blasphemy

00:00 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

Study: 3 percent follow health advice

Ohmigosh! It seems as though very few of us swallow all the government propaganda throw at us in the guise of 'health advice'! Whatever are we going to do? The author of this study has a suggestion:

"We need to do much more societally and in terms of government in making an environment where it is a lot easier to do this..."

You can supply your own translation. Random fat checks, anyone? Mandatory exercise programs? Perhaps we're on the road to a truly Healthy State.

Only 3 percent of Americans follow health advice to keep the weight off, exercise regularly, eat five or more servings of fruit and vegetables a day and avoid smoking, according to a report issued Monday.

(link) [CNN]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

25 Apr 2005
Frist defends efforts to end judicial filibusters

How quickly recent history is forgotten. My advice to Mr. Frist - just expect your opposition to behave exactly as you did when you were in their position, and keep in mind that no majority lasts forever.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist was telling conservatives on Sunday that judges deserve "respect, not retaliation," no matter how they rule, and he defended his effort to strip Democrats of their ability to block votes on President Bush's court nominees.

(link) [CNN]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Hopping Holstein shuts down cow pie bingo

Good grief! I remember when this happened to us: we never worried about lawyers! But perhaps we should've... I wonder what's next? Perhaps we could arrange to have trial lawyers as the targets for a contest like this.

"Baby" will not be dropping off her annual charitable contribution at Westby's Syttende Mai Festival this year.

(link) [Wisconsin State Journal]

via Overlawyered

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

23 Apr 2005
E-mails hurt IQ more than pot

Those must be some pretty potent missives ...

Workers distracted by phone calls, e-mails and text messages suffer a greater loss of IQ than a person smoking marijuana, a British study shows.

(link) [CNN]

00:00 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link