As I’ve said in the past, if the federal government bails out a state, it should be under the conditions that it revert to territory status until it has demonstrated fiscal responsibility over a long period of time. And in the case of California, it should not be allowed to come back in as a single state. If this requires a constitutional amendment, I’ll bet you could slam one through enough of the more fiscally prudent states pretty quickly.
Category Archives: Economics
SLS Update
Bob Zimmerman notes the ongoing (and increasing) absurdity of the program.
The Cloud People
I totally get the anger that has created Trump. I share it. But I will never understand why they don’t see that he’s a false vessel for it.
Also, this is funny but sad, about Whole Foods customers.
[Update a while later]
This seems related: The new WASPs are Asians in Silicon Valley.
Five Problematic Events
…that could sway the election.
I think they’re more than five. And his fifth one is more of an ongoing process than an “event.”
Gary Kasparov
“Hey, Bernie, don’t lecture me on socialism; I lived through it.”
SpaceX’s Manifest And Schedule
Peter Selding has a good report on what Gwynne said earlier this week.
I don’t think sixteen more flights this year is overly ambitious. I’d sure like to see the heavy fly in November, the new announced date, but I also won’t be at all surprised to see it slip into 2017. And from what she said, I’m very encouraged about minimum refurbishment.
[Update in the afternoon]
Oh, isn’t this cute. Roscosmos thinks it can compete by cutting manufacturing costs on Angara.
Vulcan And AR1
Boeing and Lockmart still seem on board with the new rocket development, despite Congressional idiocy. Of course, they know that the only way to survive against SpaceX is to build a new rocket.
Great Moments In Socialism
[Late-morning update]
Related: Five economic myths that will not die.
A lot of economics is counterintuitive to many.
Luxurious College Apartments
When people ask why college tuition is so high, defenders of the higher-education system point to things like “Baumol’s cost disease” (costs in industries without much productivity growth tend to rise, because they have to compete for labor with more productive industries) and declining state contributions to public colleges. No doubt these play a part. But this cannot explain the vast upgrades in college residential amenities that have taken place in the 20 years since I graduated from college, when a student union and some ivy on the walls was about the best you could expect.
But of course, our parents were paying for it, and they didn’t care whether we had a swimming pool. A certain Spartan element was supposed to be part of the ritual of college attendance, just as it had been when they were in college. What changed? I suspect the answer is that rising tuition, and the increasing reliance on student loans, has placed more of the financial responsibility into the hands of students. And the students shop for colleges based on … well, about what you’d expect when you give tens of thousands of dollars to 18-year-olds and ask where they’d like to spend the next four years.
This is policy insanity.
The Space-Policy White Paper
Keith Cowing has some thoughts, with which I largely agree. This was clearly a compromise, in which the SLS/Orion supporters and Commercial Crew supporters agreed to come together to support each others’ programs, and present a united front. Unfortunately for the former, one program makes sense, and the other doesn’t. At some point, it will die, but not before billions more are wasted on it.