Rest in peace.
He wrote great fiction, but his economics was short sighted.
In general, SF writers aren’t that great at economics — (too) many of them are, after all, leftists, particularly the New Wave types. Heinlein was one of the few who generally got it right.
What an economically stupid idea. Particularly if you think that Washington can come up with one, one-size-fits-all, for the entire country, from Omaha to New York City.
“If there was really a STEM labor market crisis, you’d be seeing very different behaviors from companies,” notes Ron Hira, an associate professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology, in New York state. “You wouldn’t see companies cutting their retirement contributions, or hiring new workers and giving them worse benefits packages. Instead you would see signing bonuses, you’d see wage increases. You would see these companies really training their incumbent workers.”
“None of those things are observable,” Hira says. “In fact, they’re operating in the opposite way.”
And even if there was, the notion that NASA would help it is ludicrous. Particularly if anyone thinks it’s going to do so by building rockets to nowhere.
Calling out the demagogues on their Bravo Sierra.
These liars are just contemptible.
So why do we have a Labor Day anyway? What is it about “labor” that deserves a day off (isn’t that ironic) and a three-day weekend, but not (say) Entrepreneurs Day, or “People Who Have To Meet A Payroll” Day?
I know, I know, it was a reaction to some of the brutal labor practices and strikes of the later nineteenth century, particularly Pullman. But as Detroit exemplifies, we went too far in glorifying labor, and we don’t seem to care enough about the people who actually create the jobs, to the point of abuse. It’s not surprising that, in the wake of ridiculous overregulation (capped by ObamaCare) they’re going on strike, and we’re becoming a part-time nation, at best.
The World Federation of Scientists says it’s not a planetary emergency. So #ScienceSaysSo, right? #Consensus.
Looking for them because you don’t like someone’s political opinions.
Well, people voted for the guy who said he wanted to “fundamentally transform America.”
He got what he wanted. Did you?
Is it the dumbest strike ever?
Well, that’s stiff competition, but I suppose some strike has to be.
This is fundamentally a Marxist strike. That is, their argument is not that they should be paid more because they are really worth more, but because they can’t live on the wage it pays (“…to each according to his need”). If they can’t live on burger flipping, then they should get a better job. If they can’t find a better job, maybe they should complain to the moron that most of them helped put in the White House who is waging war on job creators.
I’ve posted about this before, but here’s another article on the concept. I often wake up in the middle of the night, but we have to get up early in the morning, regardless of how much we sleep. Unfortunately, it’s not practical for people who work modern industrial jobs.
Ignoring our fiscal issues, this is one of the biggest problems our society will face in the coming decades, I think.
[Update a while later]
This seems related, somehow: The ugly side of open borders. I agree with Mickey that charity and shaming are not the solution to hard-working but unskilled people.