Wal-Mart CEO calls for minimum wage increase

Neat! Just 9 days after my post about the evidence that maintaining the current low minimum wage is not good for the economy, the AJC had an article about the Wal-Mart CEO urging Congress to raise the minimum wage: "Our customers simply don't have the money to buy basic necessities between paychecks."

Hurricane cycles

Everybody has surely noticed the increase in recent years of the numbers of severe hurricanes. In fact, we have now surpassed the previous record of all tropical storms and hurricanes in this area of the world, as we have used up all the names on the prepared list, and have gone on to tropical storms Alpha and Beta. Those who deny the impact of global warming on the earth (who are often funded by the giant oil company Mobil-Exxon) quickly attributed this to a natural cycle of 25-30 years. Then a researcer looked at the data since 1970 (i.e., for the last 35 years), and found a large increase in the number of severe hurricanes in since 1990 that was unprecendented in the earlier years. Well, the resourceful natural cycle proponents immediately started talking about cycles of up to 50 years. If the data turns out to show that the last ten years has an unprecedented number of hurricanes since whenever, the natural cycle proponents will claim a longer cycle.

Free will or not?

Some people deny the need to change habits that may harm their personal health by asserting that it's God's will how long they will live. They also deny the need to change habits that affect the environment by invoking God's will. I notice that when they want a job, they don't wait for God to provide them with one; they take personal responsibility. They look at want ads, etc., and fill out application forms.

Similarly, some people are claiming God is punishing the world by various natural calamities, including tsunamis and hurricanes. But when a bus carrying children to or from church camps is in an accident, killing and injuring the children, or as recently happened, a little girl who was walking to church was killed by a car, nobody is such a jerk as to ask what God is trying to tell people.

Earthquake prediction

Well actually, "prediction" is too strong, but it makes a better title than "quess".
I suspect that global warming will change the distribution and/or frequency of earthquakes and volcanoes, because when glaciers and ice caps melt, their weight will be relieved and transferred to the oceans.

Taking from the poor to give to the rich

The current Congress and President are truly awe-inspiring! Now they want to finance the cleanup of hurricane Katrina, which has resulted in many people being homeless and jobless, by cutting Medicaid and food stamp benefits. This is especially timely (sarcasm) because of the predicted doubling of home heating costs due to damage to gas processing plants by Katrina. Of course, much of the money will go to no-bid contracts that will enrich big companies, including Haliburton, that contribute to the Republicans.

Role of government

Certain people argue that the role of the federal government should not include helping areas devasted by catastrophe, such as hurricane Katrina. There is certainly a role for private agencies. However, the need for an effective federal response to oversee efforts was shown by the experience of a medical team from Atlanta which went to New Orleans to help. They were told for days to go someplace, only to find out when they got there that they were not needed at that place. No private agency has the resources to comprehensively track where aid is needed in such a situation. Unfortunately, FEMA was not at that time up to the task, because the people currently running the government think the government should be helping their political supporters and rich business owners, rather than victims of disaster.

Not an illustration

In the Sept. 28, 2005 AJC, Leonard Pitts (whom I respect) reports on a claim by a Britain named Ged Scott, who was on vacation in New Orleans when the city was devasted by hurricane Katrina. Ged claims that some policemen refused to help a group of women stranded on a roof because they wouldn't show their breasts. Mr. Pitts said that Ged's claim "received considerable play in British newspapers." Doing a Yahoo search on "Ged Scott" showed that it did indeed receive attention in the British press. The articles I saw did not appear to make an effort to ascertain whether this claim was true, or if Ged was even in New Orleans. Mr. Pitts himself admits that when he first heard the story, he assumed it was an urban legend. He goes on to cite it as an "illustration of the utter banality of evil." While it is possible that Ged's account is true, I would say it cannot be used to "illustrate ... evil" unless it is better documented to be true. It might turn out to be a better illustration of human gullibility!

When optimism fails

Optimism is w orshipped in this country. Indeed, there may be a genetic bias towards optimism in our country because we are mostly descendents of immigrants, whom we would expect to be mostly optimists. I know from experience that those of us who are more realistic are often criticized harshly. People often cite statistices showing that optimists are happier and healthier. But the definitions of "ooptimism" in these studies is not that of the general public. The optimists in the studies do not assume that all is and will be well. They believe that they can cope when things do not turn out will, and that they can influence (not necessarily determine) their lives. In fact, in long-term studies, people who were described as cheerful when they were children turned out to have a lower life expectancy.

Now, I'm not saying we don't need optimistic people. We need a variety of different kinds of people to fulfill various functions in society. Which is my point.

An example of a situation where optimism was a drawback are the people who choose to stay in areas which are predicted to be hit hard by hurricanes, when they had the means to escape. They are sure it won't be that bad. In the case of Katrina, they were wrong.

Do low wages make for prosperity?

The Republicans oppose the raising of the minimum wage, saying it would hurt the economy. The desire to gain the fruits of another's labor w/o paying a decent price is an example of the pervasive welfare/slave-holder mentality in our country; maybe it is human natiure? What has been the benefit of our decreasing minimum wage, allowing for inflation - increasing numbers/percentages of people in poverty and near-poverty, with the resulting lack of retail sales.

During the late 1990's, there were thousands of computer workers fixing the Y2K problem. This was a necessary endeavour to leep the economy from crashing, but added lilttle value to companies (except for the occasional hitherto unknown bugs we found as part of the extensive review of all programs). That was also a time when the economy was doing well. Once the Y2K conversions were done, and large numbers of people were laid off at the beginning or early in 2000, the economy immediately slowed.

Not saving enough

I notice that the same people who criticize Americans for not saving enough are the same one who encouraged people to keep spending during the recent recession, who oppose rasing the minimum wage, defend outsourcing of American jobs to foreign countries, and block attempts to decrease illegal immigration.

The number and percentage of Americans who are living in poverty or near-poverty and/or do not have health insurance has been increasing. For many people, it is a problem to pay for neccessities, much less save.

Do as I say

Has anybody else noticed that if a parent is unkind to his/her children, people will say sympathetically "They can't help it, that's the way they were raised." Whereas, if a person was mistreated terribly by their parents for many years, people say it shouldn't have any effect on them (outside of how they treat their own children). Parents hold themselves blameless if their children turn out badly, but take credit if their children turn out well. Is it really fair or logical that we expect children to behave better than adults?

Declining population

There have been predictions that the declining population in European countries will cause problems in supporting the retired population, because there will be fewer people to support each retired person. Supposedly, prosperity depends on an ever-increasing population. This is, of course, ridiculous. At some point, all carbon atoms in the world would have to be tied up in human bodies! The population of the U.S. has been increasing, due immigration of young workers, supposedly a positive thing, but it hasn't had the positive effects the "experts" keep predicting.

I have not seen anybody figure in the fact that a declining population should lead to smaller housing costs. Of course, this will hurt some people in the immediate future, but will make it easier for young people and those who rent. Also, real wages would be expected to increase. Food costs should decrease. Less money would be needed for schools. Age discrimination in jobs should decrease. The net results of a declining population might end up being positive.

How many number 2 leaders?

I had decided not to make a habit of commenting on illogic in the letters to the editors, at least of publications for the general public, such as newspapers; I would have to spend too much time writing about them, and any readers of this blog would be likely to see most of the fallacies themselves. But being a mathematician, I can't resist those which involve a misunderstanding or misuse of math, of which there have been several recently.

Several people have commented on the fact that there have been several reports by the U.S. government that the "number 2 Al-Qaida leader" has been killed or captured. In fact, Mike Luckovich had a cartoon making fun of it Sun., Oct. 2, 2005. Well, I don't know whether the claims that these people were all the no. 2 leaders were accurate, but they are not illogical. As soon as we get rid of the current no. 2 leader, someone else will take his place, as long as there are at least 2 Al-Quda members.

Prevailing wage

Pres. Bush has suspended the Davis-Bacon Act for the Gulf Coast devasted by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. This means contractors will not have to pay prevailing wages to their workers. Kirk Pickerel, guest columnist for the AJC, who happens to be president and CEO of Associated Builders and Contactors Inc., points out that "the hardest-hit communities have little familiarity with federal prevailing wage laws, like Davis-Bacon, because they have enacted no similar state laws. Louisiana, Missiissippi and Alabama are among 20 states that have cosen not to have state prevailing wage laws..."

Wow, what a recommendation! Three of the poorest states in the nation don't have prevailing wage laws. Surely the rest of the nation should follow suit, so their economies can have the same obviously helpful benefits. I can see why Mr. Pickerel thinks suspending this rule is wonderful. It is because he is such a wonderful humanitarian that he wants to make sure the illegal immigrants who were left homeless and jobless by the hurricanes get work. It has nothing to do with the opportunity he will have to make windfall profits out of other people's misery. (This is sarcasm, for those who are sarcasm-impaired.)

Short memory?

I never stop being amazed by my fellow humans.

Hurricane Katrina devasted a large portion of the Gulf Coast, including New Orleans, just a few weeks ago. I has been pointed out that the destructiveness of the hurricane was greatly increased because of the degradation of wet lands, marshes, barrier islands, and shore lands which used to serve to decrease the strength of storms. Since then, beaches in Florida have been washed away by hurricane Ophelia. Global warming is raising the sea levels by melting glaciers and ice caps, and because warm water occupies more volume than cold water.

So now we read that Georgia House leader Glenn Richardson (a Republican) is fighting to build a vacation home on 3/4 of an acre of beachfront land which a accumulated on the edge of St. Simons Island, on the Atlantic Ocean border of Georgia. The Monday, Sept. 19 issue of the AJC quotes him as saying "If the Supreme Court says we can [build], we will. If the court says we can't, we'll probably just deed it to our children. Sooner or later, there's something going to be built on that property."

What he is ignoring is the question of whether it is morally right for to build on this land. Having the desire and power to do something doesn't make it the right thing.

At some point a hurricane will hit this land, damaging if not destroying anything built here. Will Richardson then seek, or at least accept, government money to reimburse his losses. Since he has such a sense of entitlement to get what he wants, I would bet the answer is yes.

Y2K

In defense of disregarding warnings of danger, we still see refernces to the Y2K computer date problem, and statements that it turned out not to be a problem at all. That is totally false. Thousands of people like me worked for several years to find and fix these date problems. I personally looked at every line of scores, maybe hundreds, of computer programs. IT people had tried for years to get management to allocate time and funds to start working on the problem, but could not get the resources until disaster was near. If we had had the resources to start earlier, much of it could have been doen as part of other projects, or during slack periods, and would have cost less.

Almost any program that contained date calculations or comparisons needed to be fixed. This includes payroll programs (eg., calculations of vacation pay), savings account and loan interest, annuities, time clocks.

In fact, there were problems because of date computations that did not get fixed, including a malfunction at a nuclear power plant, but even those which were reported in the newspaper got small articles in back pages, where few people saw them.

Then. after people like me saved the economy of the world from crashing, we were thown on the trash heap.

Bill O'Reilly and the poor

A recent column by Bill O'Reilly says that to cure poverty, "American middle and high school students should be required to watch videotape of the poor people stranded by Hurricane Katrina." The teachers should tell the students that the government failed to protect the poor, and ask two questions "Do you want to be poor? And do you believe the U.S. government can protect you if you are poor?" Supposedly, this will result in children deciding to become good learners. But poor children don't have to see a video of the results of poverty; they live it. They know what it's like to be hungry and cold because of lack of money. They know what it's like to have to move frequently because they are evicted for lack of rent payment.

We are creatures with few instincts who inhabit many different environments; we need to learn almost everything we need to know to survive. People learn how to live by observing the culture we live in. Those who don't are likely not to survive. It is automatic - it has to be. Segregating people in low-income neighborhoods teaches them the habits of poverty. It teaches them hopelessness. Tv, movies, and pop music don't provide good alternative role models on how to achieve a better life.

What children, and grownups, need is to see and experience what does work. Something that has worked is subsidizing housing for poor families in middle-class neighborhoods. Welfare mothers in such environments tend to eventually get jobs, because that is what the people around them are doing. Their children have access to decent schools and see role models who know how to achieve success. They are around people who use good grammar (well, at least relatively), and speak with a middle-class accent. They learn to fit in with the middle class.

Of course, with the current economic situation, with the middle-class shrinking, and increasing rates of poverty, and the increasing gap between the ultra-rich and everybody else, there is no guarantee that children raised in a middle-class neighborhood will end up middle-class, but they will have a much better chance.

A way that individuals can help is by becoming a mentor to one or more poor children, or to tutor poor children. However, if you choose to become a mentor, you must be committed. A study of a mentoring program, where the mentors were middle-class men, found that the children who had mentors actually did worse. on average, than those who didn't. The reason turned out to be that the men would mentor for awhile, then get busy with other things, and drop out of the program. The boys had become attached to the mentors, and losing them was another loss in their lives, and damaged them even more.

Tasers

I was as shocked as anyone by the recent case where a man who was securely fastened to a restraint chair, was shocked numerous times with a Taser at the Gwinnet County jail. He lost consciousness, never revived, and was taken off life support 2 days later. The Gwinnett District Attorney Danny Porter has chosen not to seek indictments in Williams' death.

The SCLC has called for and end to the use of Taser stun guns by police, because some people have died after their use. That doesn't make sense to me. If a Taser is used instead of shooting someone, or knocking them unconscious, it would surely cause fewer deaths and brain damage.

The problem is when it is used inappropriately, as in the Williams case. This was a case of torture by the police, and it is inexcusable that Porter has chosen to let the police get away with it. The Gwinnett police said they continued to shock Williams because he continued resisting and trying to get away. Some police forces have required police who carry a Taser to allow themselves to be shocked by it, so they can experience the effects, to avoid frivolous use. Some police have objected. A policeman who had been shocked by a Taser said it was so painful, he would have done anything to get away from it, and that that Williams continued to try to escape because of the pain. I don't know whether the Gwinnett County police require those who use Tasers to experience the effects themselves. If not, they were less guilty, but not innocent; even if you have not experience a Taser shock personally, you have to expect it to be quite painful for it to be strong enough to be useful.

Driving barefoot

The AJC Q&A column got another query recently about whether it is legal to drive barefooted - it is. What I don't understand is whey do people care? What dire problems do they think driving barefooted will cause? Why don't they do something useful with their time.

When I am wearing flip-flops, I take them off while driving because I'm afraid they might get caught when I am changing pedals (my cars have always had manual transmissions). My current car is my first with air-conditioning. When I had to commute a long distance in the summer time in a car w/o air conditioning, I would take off my shoes to stay cooler. When I have to drive with uncomfortable shoes, I take them off. In all cases, I am improving my driving safety.

It has been said that Puritans are people who are haunted by the fear that someone, somewhere is having fun. Maybe it would be more accurate to say they are afraid that someone, somewhere is not as miserable as themselves.

Be prepared

Also in the current issue of the Atlanta "Creative Loafing", in the News of the Weird column, about the leak-safety standards for the proposed nuclear waste depository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain. The editor of the column seems not to think the proposed standards of leak safety for a million years are unreasonable. In reference to the fact the the EPA would regard the facility as safe for only 10,000 years, the editor noted that this is "almost five times the length of time since the birth of Jesus". In regards to the proposed standards, he made the following comment - Context: Science had not even discovered radioactivity 110 years ago.

The reason we need such standards is because of the long time that the nuclear waste will be dangerous. If we choose to put it in a place that will leak long before it has lost its danger, we will be endangering future generations. It would be hard to stop such a leak.

Also, the context is exactly why we need standards that will mandate safety for the length of the dangerous radioactivity of the nuclear waste; given the history of human society, there is no reason to assume that a society that understands the risk will continue to exist for a long period of time.