Buffalo Dave

The chairwoman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers is Christina Romer.  She was interviewed on CNBC this morning regarding the recent jobs numbers and unemployment data.

The unemployment rate is lower because people have given up looking for work, not because they have been put back to work.  Yet, the Whitehouse tried to spin this like it was somehow positive for the country.

CNBC Article

Romer was encouraged by the down tick in unemployment.  Really?  You are encouraged that people have given up looking for work?  Ahh.. I see.  The Obama plan of economic recovery involves waiting for people to become hopeless in their search for a job so that they choose an alternative approach like retirement.  Great idea guys!  Woo hoo!  What a concept.

What a bunch of idiots. 

This Romer lady is ridiculously incompetent and totally reinforces the accusation that this cabinet is an incompetent one.  When was the last time that the President’s cabinet was populated with this level of total incompetence?  She needs to get the boot along with most of the other cabinet members.

If you were watching the president’s State of The Union Address last night, you may have caught the part where he said that college loans should only have to be paid back for twenty years and only 10 years if you choose public service.  He insinuated that the government would pick up the tab for the balance of the loan at that point in time.

His reasoning was that no person should go broke because they want a higher education.  Is this guy for real?  I have rarely heard anything more ridiculous in my entire life.  Talk about socialism.

The reason some people aren’t attending college is not because of the costs.  They are not attending college because they don’t realize that it is critical to their future success.  They don’t realize how much easier life will be if they could only put for the effort to get an education.  If a person wants to go to a certain college that they can’t afford, it does not prevent them from going to college at all.  It merely prevents them from going to that college.  Ultimately, they decide to go to a less expensive one even if that means a community college. 

Face it.  These kids who choose not do go to college at all just don’t want to learn.  They don’t want to go to college.  If they did want to go, they could certainly afford it.  Any kid can afford to go to a school like ECC or GCC or MCC.  There is absolutely no reason they can’t.  These colleges will accept anyone with a GED.  All you have to do is graduate high school and you are in.

The problem is that these kids who skip college are not interested in learning.  They don’t have a thirst for the knowledge and skills that these higher learning institutions offer.  If they did want to go badly, there is nothing stopping them, including costs.

I am so sick of this argument about college costs.  Stop subsidizing the expensive schools.  Let the market decide how much a student is willing to pay for their higher education.  The whole idea of subsidizing college tuitions is counterproductive to maintaining a low cost of education.  This is basic economics people.  If the government quits paying for people’s college educations, the colleges are forced to find ways to deliver that education for less money.  This is how it is supposed to work.

The goal should not be to give people enough money to go to college.  The goal should be to let the market force colleges to make themselves affordable to students.  When the economy is booming tuitions could go up.  When the economy is suffering tuitions would go down.

Part of the reason our educations cost so much is because schools get funding from places other than the enrolled students.  This creates the perfect environment for a wasteful bloated bureaucracy.  Let the markets determine school tuitions.

If the government agrees to pick up the tab for educations at the end of 10 or 20 years, you are going to see an absolutely massive increase in tuition costs.  Pumping more money into colleges does not guarantee a better education.  We have proof of this in the public school system that has had funding increases since the beginning of time.  It is counterproductive.

Prestigious universities and community colleges alike are capable of delivering an absolutely outstanding education if and only if the students are there because they actually want to learn about what is being taught.  If they aren’t self motivated to learn what is being taught, then they come out of there with a substandard education.   

If you want to reduce the cost of education, stop sending kids there who don’t want to be there.  Stop handing colleges free money.  The more you give them, the more they will cry that they need even more.

The populist attitude around this country is that every kid should receive a free higher education and the government should see to it that they get one.  How about focusing on getting them to graduate high school first you fricken morons?  A college education is easily and readily attainable to any kid who wants it right now.

As the age of the internet begins to mature, it is becoming ever more apparent that communication skills are one of the most important skills a person can acquire.   People are complaining about how the income gap is widening between the “haves” and the ”have nots”.  If you look more closely at it, I think you will find that these lines also split people based on their communication skills.

It could be a reflection of the level of education a person achieves as well.  Obviously as a person’s education level increases, their communication skills also tend to increase along with it.  The two items are somewhat correlated even though they are different.

The thing that brought this to my attention was the fact that you see search engine results improving based on quality.  For Google at least, it is becoming apparent that they are actually figuring out ways of using filters to determine some level of quality about any given website.  Although they obviously aren’t 100% accurate, they are certainly much better than they used to be.

This is a trend that is bound to continue.  Not only will you see it continue online, but you will also see it happen in many other areas in life.  The salesman with the best communication skills will sell more product than his counterparts.  The politician with the best communication skills will quickly rise to power as is evident with president Obama.  The business man with the best communication skills will climb the corporate ladder much faster than others.

Doesn’t this just make perfect sense?

Shouldn’t we then encourage our children as much as possible to better their communication skills on every level?  Shouldn’t we discourage them from writing to each other using abbreviations for words instead of writing complete sentences with proper grammar?   Shouldn’t we try to make ourselves good examples for the children around us to learn these habits?  Shouldn’t we demand that our schools deny diplomas to students who cannot write in complete sentences using reasonable grammar?

Parents and educators alike are accepting sub-par performance from children and young adults when it comes to communication skills.  Students, regardless of age, should be expected to speak English and write English very well.  Neglecting this basic and fundamental prerequisite to a better life is truly a disservice to that child.  We should not let them down.

The Colts will host the Jets again.  This time it is for the AFC Championship though.  The Colts could have knocked off the Jets a month ago when the Jets last went to Indy.  If you remember though, the bonehead coach of the Colts decided to pull his starters and essentially throw the football game half way through the third quarter.

Can you imagine how stupid that coach is going to look if the Jets pull out a win?  He will be the bonehead of the year.  In my opinion he already is.  There is no way he should have thrown away the opportunity to go undefeated the whole way.  This team could have rewritten NFL history.  They could have set the ultimate record.

So, as much as I want Indianapolis to win this game, I won’t be completely disappointed if they lose.  At least then the Colts’ coach will be exposed for making the bonehead call of the year.  With the way the Jets’ defense is playing, anything is possible.  This is yet another reason why a team should try to win every single game and not take anything for granted.