Yankee Stadium “A Joke”
Posted on | May 22, 2009 | 1 Comment
I can’t find a link anywhere, but Mike and Mike this morning played a sound byte from Peter Gammons calling Yankee Stadium a “joke.” Seriously.
O’hare has a new website
Posted on | May 22, 2009 | 1 Comment
For some reason I just got an email about a new website for O’Hare: www.ohare-airport.org. A big improvement over there old site. You can track flights and sign up for email alerts, etc. Though, I guess this only really helps if you’re the one picking up or dropping off the traveller.
Credit Card Restrictions
Posted on | May 20, 2009 | 7 Comments
So I’m not very libertarian when it comes to credit cards. I admit this is as much because of personal experience as it is abstract reflection. But I believe credit card companies routinely take advantage of a certain tendency of people to be too lazy read the convoluted legalize in most of the aggreements they sign.
I think government should discourage 30% APR even on dilinquint accounts, even if that means less credit can be made available. Of course, this position admits two things that libertarians are rarely able to concede. First, humans are not perfectly rational creatures. While intellectually, they are capable of understanding their long term interests, given enough temptation, many of us can be persuaded to sacrifice long-term interest to our short term desires. While I don’t think the government should prevent us from making such a sacrifice, I think the government can play a role in making the costs of the sacrifice transparent.
But this implies some regulatory power over credit card companies, which means government has the “right” to regulate corporate behavior. This is something libertarians usually loathe, but that I think they fail to really think through. One of arguments against collectivism is that collective ownership detroys individual responsibility. Each individual has an incentive to consume as much as possible because the costs of consumption acrue to the collective as a whole. Self-regulation is no longer a rewared behavior.
How different is corporate ownership from collective ownership. The motive of the corporate share holder is simply to extract as much profit as possible, regardless of the long term consequences to the corporation itself or to the society at large. In fact, we should not desire the corporate owner to have any other motives, because it is this dedication that makes the corporation so extraordinary in its efficiency.
We have to acknowledge a difference between “value” and “profit.” It is the great achievement of liberal market capitalism that it does not demand of its citizens a uniform agreement on the nature of “value.” And yet, there is a paradox. The corporation as an entity does just this. It reduces “value” to simple “profit.” Again, this reduction plays and important role in maximizing efficiency. But we should question whether it is ultimately productive for the maintainance of liberty and of individual value, as opposed to corporate value.
This is a rather long winded way of say that individuals and corporation may be treated, for legal purposes, as the same kind of entity. But in reality, they are different. The individual creates values. The corporation reduces them. Therefore, it is entirely appropriate that we acknowledge different rights for each. Corporations, because their behavior is geared to profit maximization, some gentle restriction to ensure their endeavors do not endanger the system as a whole may in fact be necessary.
FYI: I am thinking outload here, so I reserve the right to reverse myself on any of the positions above.
CTA Complaints
Posted on | May 20, 2009 | 1 Comment
The Tribune has a report on CTA complaints. So called “pass ups” are the no. 1 peave. That’s where the bus driver see you waving and but drives right by leaving you shivering in the 30 MPH bluster.
Worse to me, are the the three buses that come by at the exact same time, ensuring it will be another half hour before another shows up.
Chicago Real Estate
Posted on | May 19, 2009 | 1 Comment
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Well, finally
Posted on | May 19, 2009 | No Comments
I’ve been travelling off and on the last couple of weeks. I apologies to all my loyal readers tuning in everyday to devour my intrepid prose. Ok, I apologies to the two loyal readers who tune in. Anyway, an apology is in order. I hope to resume blogging now and more regular intervals.
Here Here. Civic Federation Opposes Quinn Tax Increase
Posted on | May 11, 2009 | No Comments
I was a little worried the Civic Federation might be convinced to support this thing if Quinn threw in enough “reforms.” But it looks like they’re on the right side of the issue again.
Stroger Blocks Tax Cut
Posted on | May 11, 2009 | No Comments
Just in case you need another reason not to like Todd Stroger, you know, besides the nepotism and stupidity, he’s going to shoot down the sale tax reductions voted in last week.
Barack Obama, Playing in the Flames
Posted on | May 7, 2009 | No Comments
I’m not really a christian. I was raised episcopalian, which means I was barely christian to begin with. But while I certainly believe there is more to the universe than my puny little mind, I think we should all be suspicious of claims on the part of religion to have an understanding of whatever it is.
Now, that said, Obama is making a huge mistake not engaging the evangelical community. Acording to exit polls, Obama significantly improved democrats numbers among the devoutly religious. Only 35% of those who attend church “more than once a week” voted for Kerry in 2004, while in 2008 43% voted for Obama.
Moreover, the last thing Obama wants to do is aggrivate the most organized and ideological portion of the conservative coalition. It’s just bad politics. And … It makes me worry that, in fact, Obama isn’t like Clinton. He’s not in this thing to get reelected. He’s in it to serve an ideological agenda.
The good news is that if he keeps governing like this, he’ll be defeated in a landslide in 2012. The bad news is there’s still a lot of time left to do a ton of damage.
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