My Sister is Brilliant

This is not a complaint, but an awesome thing. My sister is now blog famous. Here is her Ph.D. Job Market Paper:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~millermc/Job_Market_Paper.pdf

Her web-site:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~millermc/ (ps - she is at U.Mich. but she is a native Clevelander, so don't give Michigan the credit)

It is being discussed all over the web. She basically determines that if slaves had been given land they would have been better off through a lot of math and extensive research (namely comparison to slaves living on Indian reservations who did get land). The funny thing is that the paper has turned to a discussion on reparations and the paper's support for reparations in blog world. This is funny for primarily two reasons: (1)the paper does not discuss monetary reparation in any way but instead the initial grant of land and (2)my sister believes (this is not really in her paper, but was mentioned to me when I asked about how this affects the concept of reparations) it is likely that in today's society neither land nor money would do anything to improve the status of former slaves. Instead, inner city primary and secondary schools need to be improved to provide african-americans with a better educational base as education is todays land and mule. If only people read what the paper discussed.

Also, aren't you impressed by the level of intelligence in my family? If only the elder sibling hadn't taken all the brain power, I might have had a chance at awesomeness. Oh, well.

All these really important blogs are discussing it:

the one that started it:

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2007/12/would-it-have-h.html

the ones that followed:
http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/12/40_acres_and_a_mule.php

http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/2007/12/revolution-but-half-accomplished.html

http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/45543.html

http://greenespace.blogspot.com/http://www.strategicboard.com/index.php?s=%22Civil++War%22

http://www.prometheus6.org/node/19044

http://www.agoravox.com/article.php3?id_article=7324#commentaire356906 (this one is funny because it features a picture of shirley temple - my sister looks nothing like shirley temple).

PS - Schools you should really hire her at the New Orleans Economics job fair

Boycotting China Products

Usually I use my blog to yell at people for being stupid. Now this is very easy to do because there are a lot of stupid people out there. But this article is about what we as a country should do to be smart. I'm not saying we're being dumb (though when you look at it, we are) but just that we can be smarter.

It is very important that we shift manufacturing away from China and back to our own hemisphere. There are a lot of problems (beyond loss of jobs) with the push to manufacture things in China.

I decided I was going to boycott China products, because, you know, I didn't want to die or kill a family member due to lead paint exposure or poisonous toothpaste. I have learned this is very hard to do because almost everything is made in China.

I then ran an informal comparison test between the few non-Chinese products I could find and those made in China. I have found my made in the USA socks are much more durable than the ones made in China, and they haven't been recalled!! It is actualy amazing the higher quality I found in US socks compared to China socks. I have also found a similar better quality of US products in the few other products from the US I have found. Also, south americans seem to make better jeans than China. The lesson is that there is more than just cost involved in manufacturing location choice and companies and consumers should be aware of this (This is also very apparent in consumer help call banks - they are much better in the US than abroad. When you purchase a product with consumer assistance, ask where the cal bank is).

Anyway, if a company was smart they would start making things here in the US and not in China. Also, this would be a good time for Unions to negotiate to increase their work here in the US. This would mean giving up some benefits in exchange for guaranteed expansion.

Also, I truly believe that China's undervalued currency and our extreme trade inbalance with them is one of the factors weakening our dollar. Well, that and unchecked predatory lending and a bust in the real estate markets due to idiots buying on speculation and unnecessarily driving up housing costs.

So companies, this is what I propose. First, make things in Mexico. I did not say US, because, though this would be most beneficial, it make be too much of a jump for companies. If things are made in Mexico, less Mexicans woudl illegally migrate to the US because they would have jobs. Stuff would also be less likely to be recalled and be closer to the US to allow for better oversite.

All in all, we should just stop buying from China. It would be best for everyone. Even the Chinese. If we stopped buying their lead based products, the Chinese workers would no longer be exposed to lead. It would be good for us because it would increase the value of the dollar, weaken the political threat of China, increase the quality of goods produced, potentially increase the available jobs for those without higher education, and all in all restabilize trade relations internationally.

So the message of this post: DON'T BUY CHINA

Saudi Arabia

My new bad country is....Saudi Arabia.

Well, beyond the obvious problems of their extreme supression of women and usual human rights abuses, they have just gone too far this time. If I was a protesting hippy, I would so be on a plane right now to protest. No, scratch that, as a female, I would protest at their US embassy. I'm not stupid, I'm not putting myself in the hands of the the Saudi Arabian justice system. They may give me 200 lashes for saying men shouldn't rape women. Apparently this is still a controversial issue over there.

I'll give the basic fact pattern: Saudi Arabian woman is gang raped and brings charges. Wonders of wonders rapists are actually sentenced. Oh, justice finally served, right? But wait, they sentence the rape victim to 6 months in prison and 200 lashes. You did not read that wrong the RAPE VICTIM was sentenced to 6 months in prison and 200 lashes. Oh, also, her lawyer has gotten in trouble and lost his license because he appealed her first case where she was sentenced to 90 lashes. Thay apparently decided to more than double her punishment for being a RAPE VICTIM.

to see article, go here: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/11/21/saudi.rape.victim/index.html

now many things in this world frustrate me, China products killing everyone, extremists killing people, the general allowance by society to allow the supression and abuse of women. The refusal of advanced society to tell middle eastern men (not all, just apparently the ones from saudi arabia and others like them) to grow up, get some balls, and control themselves. Exactly why are women unable to be in front of you in public? Are you so unadvanced you cannot control yourself? If you are, we maybe should put the whole lot of you in a zoo, because you aren't human yet.

But this takes the cake. How can anyone allow a rape victim to get lashed 200 times because apparently she put herself in the position to be raped. Under this theory, if say, the judge who sentenced her is walking across the street and i hit him with my car because i ran a red light, he should also be punished for putting himself in the street where he could get hit. Let's try his theory of justice. Someone hit him as he walks across the street and say he should be punished for putting himself there.

Computers

I have decided I need a new computer (Mainly because the piece of junk laptop I have is falling apart). Dell is out of the question because I cannot understand their customer service people (He may say is name is Ronny from North Dakota, but I am pretty sure he is Rani from New Delhi). I decided I would try to find a laptop not made in China as I did not want my laptop to give me lead poisoning or explode. No such luck. They are all now made in China. This means I will be forced to buy a piece of crap laptop that will not work and will probably kill me.

This whole Made in China thing has gotten out of hand. Companies have moved there and completely washed their hands of quality control while them pay their workers just enough money to not qualify as slave labor (most times - sometimes it is slave labor). Their profits go to executives and stockholders and their products kill Americans, but it is not their fault. Oh, no, choosing to manufacture your products in a 3rd world country with no government oversight should magically result in safe products. Crazy companies.

Anyway, here is my message to companies: I will pay more money for stuff made in America that will not kill me and will actually work. Just a heads up. In case you wanted to make responsible decisions in the future.

China AGAIN!!

Seriously, China is becoming a country of loons. The Chinese government has passed a law that essentially means that the Dalai Lama cannot reincarnate without the Chinese government's permission. I did not know a government could regulate someone's soul after they died.

The Chinese government is trying though, with the person chosen by the tibetan monks as the reincarnated Panchen Lama disappearing. I recommend we stop trading with China. This is ridiculous.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article2194682.ece


Stuff from China is killing people and they are killing people because their "soul" didn't seek permission from the government to reincarnate.

Seriously, we are missing the actual threats. The countries we should worry about are China, Russia (claiming the north pole??), and Venezuala. Well, and the terrorists, but they really are less a country and more a whole bunch of crazies.

Ignoring the Vote!!!

So we are a country founded on the idea of voting. Every decision in our country boils down to a vote somewhere.

The House Democrats has decided to ignore this principal. They have erased from the record a vote they disagreed with. ERASED FROM THE RECORD!! This is very wrong folks, very wrong.

This is very worrisome. Quite honestly, it is a great threat to the workings of our government. I cannot thing of anything more worrisome than a majority party of congress removing from the record a vote they did not like.

This is something that must get out to the American people. It represents a fundamental breakdown in the representative democratic process. This is more of a threat than any impositions on the civil liberties of the citizens of this country. This is a party choosing to ignore the rules that govern them.

Now there is some dispute as to the final outcome of the vote and more investigation is needed to determine the full extent of what happened, but as of right now it looks like the Democrats in the House have decided to simply ignore a vote they did not like. Now, hopefully, once the smoke has cleared it will not be as horrible as it seems right now, but if it is, every democrat in the house involved in erasing the vote should be voted out (I do not care if you replace them with another democrat or a republican, they just need to leave).

some sites to look at on this issue:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/0807/House_erupts_in_chaos.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dgkV6gerTY

what doesn't bother me

So, this post is not about something that bothers me, but something I think is great.

In response to Russia's "claiming of the North Pole" (what is wrong with Russia? this a blog for another time), Canada's foreign minister Peter McKay said:"Look, this isn't the 15th century. You can't go around the world and plant flags and say, 'We're claiming this territory.'"

This is great and hilarious!! What will be Russia's response?