A Living Wage

I was listening to a news report on NPR regarding raising the minimum wage for fast food workers and other low paid occupations and some idiot being interviewed said "why should someone working for McDonalds in Denmark make $15 an hour and I can't here in the US".  I know that the ignorance of some people sometimes leaves me speechless but my first instinct was to say "because you don't live in Denmark you ". The comment did get me to thinking about "living wages" so I did some checking.

Most minimum wage people here in the US pay little or no income taxes after deductions and even if they did the lowest tax rate is 15%. However if a McDonalds employee in Denmark were to make $15 an hour their lowest tax rate is 45% so that $15 per hour turns into $8.25 take home. Also the social state in Denmark raises the cost of living: gasoline averages $8.55 a gallon, an average pair of Levis cost $145 and the average cost of a Big Mac meal in Denmark is $8.20 USD compared to about $5.75 here.

I guess ignorance is bliss, but if NPR had spent a few minutes checking facts (like I did) I doubt they would ever have broadcast the comments of that concerned "community organizer".

It's all in how you count things

About (mumble, mumble, ahem) years ago I worked for the Veterans Administration and as part of the job I lead the team that designed and implemented an automated claims tracking and control system for veterans benefits. When a claim was received it was entered into our system and as the claim was worked the status of the claim was continually and automatically  updated. At any time it was possible to see just where in the system the claim was, what was holding up processing and who was the responsible individual that had the claim sitting in their inbox.  It replaced a manual system that was replete with errors and that had made it possible for people to manipulate the figures. At first management didn't like it since it showed that it was taking lots of time to complete a claim that they had previously been able to hide from review.

The system was so successful that it is still in use today, although I certainly hope they have updated it over the years since I retired. The medical side of the agency adapted the tracking concept and built their own version in order to track veterans health claims and both systems worked as designed...giving hones and direct answers to requests concerning individual claims status and providing statistical information for management and Congress.

When I designed the system we realized that the Achilles heel of all such systems was that if a claim (or request) was not entered when received the system failed to track. We depended on the basic honesty of employees and management to assure a complete and accurate reporting system. And for the most part it has worked. But there is always some individual (or office) that will take advantage of the system for their own ends. It appears that the Director of the VA Hospital in Phoenix did exactly that. She had employees withhold input date from the system in order to make the stats look better than they really are. From what I've read (and heard form friends in the Agency) she did the same thing at two previous hospitals she was assigned to.

Like the IRS employees who were caught cheating on their tax returns and who then received performance bonuses I suspect that this particular Hospital Director will be kicked upstairs to a management position at headquarters. And that all future reports and statistics from the Agency will be doubted by those who care. What was once a fine system has been debased by those who care not how things are, just so long as they look good.

Duty of Care and the media

In 1928 a Mrs. Donoghue was served a bottle of ginger bear at a bar in Paisley Scotland. The bottle contained the well rotted corpse of a snail and Mrs. Donoghue spent several days in hospital. She sued the manufacturer of the bear and the case (which is known in legal legend as the “Paisley Snail” case) was finally decided by the House of Lords in 1932.

Their decision created the modern concept of negligence, by setting out general principles whereby one person would owe another person a duty of care. Before the Paisley Snail decision courts had ruled that there had to be a contractual agreement between the parties in order that a tort action be taken. Since then however courts have generally held for the concept that any one who produces a product owes it to future users to assure that there are no obvious defects or errors and omissions that could negatively impact the user.

While the original concept pertained to goods and manufactured items I’d like to see the concept expanded to thoughts and statements that commentators and writers knowingly issue when they know the statement is untrue. Today if the media lies and demeans me as an individual I can sue for libel, but what if the untruth is a lie directed to the public at large. If the writer (or commentator) knowingly evades the truth, or does not provide an honest and complete version of events should they not be responsible for their product?

Two thousand years ago Marcus Aurelius said “If it’s not right do not do it, If its not true don’t say it”. Those words are just as important today as they were in his day. Perhaps we should apply the concept of Duty of Care to those who try to influence society by distorting or ignoring truth.

Please comment…I’d like to know if my thoughts have merit.

A Thought

I declined the opportunity to watch the annual State of the Union message because it’s my belief that it has become a political event that allows the President to strut and posture his ego before a large and captive audience. As a report to the people and as a governmental policy statement it has become a useless moment in time strictly because is neither reports to the people (the owners of this Republic) or offers an accounting of any governmental activity. Instead of watching the event I spent that evening in amateur radio, listening to people connect and relate around the globe and never once bringing politics into the conversation. It was a refreshing way to spend an evening.

By design, people I work and relate with occupy a wide range of political and social opinions and conversations with them can be active and informative and I learn more by considering their opinions than I do reading about and listening to political creatures and their party positions.  Lately even my liberal friends are expressing doubtful thoughts about the direction politics and party in power are taking the country. For the most part their concerns are that the branches of government are no longer operating as the Founders wished and that the President seems to feel that it is in his interest to run the country by executive action rather than working with the Legislative Branch. In the past 4 years he has issued about 1,000 Presidential Orders that seriously impact on each and every one of us. In contrast the most any previous President seems to have issued is less than 90 such orders over an 8 year period.

I do know that the plethora of executive orders is having a large impact on individual activity and the future direction of the country and my present wish is that the next President starts his administration by cancelling all executive orders issued by his predecessor. In the meantime we should all be aware of the content and scope of the orders that the President is so freely issuing. Interestingly enough the White House is still required to list those orders and a simple Internet search can provide you with reams of reading material. Material that the media seems to think we are too dumb to comprehend or to disinterested to be concerned about.

In theory we are still a republic and as such each of us has a vested interest in the conduct and future of our country…it will make us better citizens if we individually kept an informed eye on the antics of those we have elected.

Ice and political science

The US Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Star being sent to the Antarctic to rescue the two ships trapped in the ice sheet, a Russian "research vessel" and the Chinese icebreaker that was sent to rescue them.  Just in case the global warming crowd doesn't know, the Polar Star burns 49.5 gallons of fuel a nautical mile. (Based on a carrying capacity of 1.4 millions gallons and a cruising range of 28,275 nautical miles).

The scientists that believe that the planet is irreversibly warming are now four ships and a helicopter into fossil fuel use trying to extract themselves and their ships from the expanding ice sheet at the bottom of the world. I don’t have enough information about the other ships to even estimate the total amount of carbon being released in the process, but the irony being released is off the charts.

Just Asking

The people who closed off public roads leading to public parks and memorials; the people who shut down privately owned and operated businesses because they were leasing space from the government; and the people who closed off over a thousand square miles of the Atlantic Ocean did so because they wanted to throw a temper tantrum.

The same people who refuse to talk to anyone with a different opinion unless the other party gives in to them before the conversation.

Believe it's a good idea to be involved in your health care

So tell me...why is this a good idea?

Not in my day

A student in Bryant School District in Arkansas brought home a worksheet that presented her with a scenario that referred to the Bill of Rights as “outdated” and that as part of a special committee she would need to throw out two of the Amendments.

The worksheet was handed out to Sixth grade students in a History class. According to the girl’s mother the young lady had not received any government or civics classes and this was the first assignment dealing with the Constitution or Bill of Rights.

 The reference to this education atrocity noted that the school district used the controversial Common Core curriculum. Common Core is an educational philosophy that pushes political liberalism, centralized government, minimizes family importance and denies any place for religion in an individuals life. 

Families need to be aware of what the younger generation is being taught in school and respond if those values conflict with their family beliefs. In Pennsylvania a few weeks a go a father was arrested for asking, at a public meeting, questions about the Common Core studies program in his kids school. All he did was ask a question, apparently without causing a scene, and was detained and charged with disorderly conduct and assaulting a police officer.

A peaceful question about a public policy was encouraged in my day, but apparently "those in authority" in today's world cannot abide anyone questioning their decisions.