Well, Assuming That You Even *Have* Cash

A large assumption to make ...

Quote of the Day on Government Spending, Debt, and the Innumeracy of Politicians

We rant a lot about the evils of illiteracy.  Yes, illiteracy is bad.  SO IS INNUMERACY.  Here is a suitable quote about the perils of innumeracy mingled with political silliness and general idiocy: 

Government can’t balance a checkbook. They’re idiots. I know finance math. I do it for a living. And when I look at the numbers involved here, (and the interest!) it makes my head swim . . . It doesn’t work. No matter how hard you wish, no matter how hard you hope, no matter how much compassion you can fit in your stupid compassionate heart, no matter how much you happen to like some program that helps somebody do something wonderful… math never lies and interest never sleeps. Caring don’t pay the bills.

The source of that quote is, by the way, also the best tax rant of Tax Day 2011. Read the whole thing.  (Slight language warning!)

Wordplay Hilarity: The Japanese Banking Crisis

This little bit of fictional entertainment is too funny.  I give you an excerpt:

Origami Bank has folded.

Sumo Bank has gone belly up.

Bonsai Bank announced plans to cut some branches.

Ninja Bank is reported to have taken a hit, but they remain in the black.

Nerd News: Financial Advice for New College Grads

Worth a look!

Tax-Loving Idiot Provokes MM's 2010 Tax Rant

Ugh. Look, there is a point to some taxes (I will happily pay to maintain our kick-butt military and maintain interstate highways, for instance), but any tax-loving idiot who writes words like "Charity yielded to justice" (I am not making this up!) in a sappy love letter to higher taxation deserves my contempt.

Oh, yeah, I know, I know, it's yet another one of those "taxes are patriotic, so shut up and give us all your money, you selfish slimeball" sorts of editorials. But what does that even mean, that "taxes are patriotic"? Government spending is now huge, wasteful, and largely stupid. How patriotic is it to subsidize some special-interest cause or asinine earmark that I don't support? A citizen's objection to governmental spending follies is patriotic too - except now, when if you disagree, you're automatically a raaaaaaaaaaacist or whatever?

In recent days, I've heard not one but two other nerds make the most extraordinary utterances about taxation. One complained that his home state had no income tax. Another said he would happily pay more taxes because he could afford them. To both I say, if you're so hot to pay taxes, how about paying MINE? I flatly told the second one that he might feel differently if he had a family and kids to support.

As for the matter about ever-more taxes, overweening government, and the incessant demands that I further impoverish myself in the name of whatever cause the utopians feel like pursuing as a means to grab power, all I'm going to do is quote Thomas Jefferson in his first inaugural address:

Still one thing more, fellow-citizens -- a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.

TRUE DAT.

The advocates of social engineering are constantly banging on and on about the needs of this group or that group or the the "community" or whatever super-sounding term you like -- but always is the individual seen as the obstacle. It's basically why high-minded utopian efforts always end in disaster, because inevitably some individuals will not want to participate, but the utopian project prioritizes the collective, so the individuals get steamrollered.

And in these current days of increasing tax serfdom, what are we to say?

And for the record, YES, I am a selfish money-grubbing kulak who wants to keep as many of her pennies as she possibly can. I might be persuaded to engage in private charity for good causes, but I will forever refuse the idea that government -- any government -- knows better what to do with my money with regard to my own self.

Besides, a girl's got to think of her future. There's nobody who's going to do it for me, and I think, deep down, I wouldn't want that. We all have to think about our own futures. It's bloody terrifying, but what's even more terrifying is not doing everything -- everything -- in your power to ensure as much of your own financial future as you can in whatever circumstances you have. (Remember this?) The trouble is that with ever more taxes (not to mention ludicrous government policy ideas that will raise prices all over, be it the cap-and-trade energy tax or the utterly hellish VAT idea), it's going to get harder and harder to squirrel away pennies for a rainy day.

BTW, I just did my taxes. For the record, I don't feel patriotic. I feel ANNOYED.

I also refer you to my 2009 tax rant, in which I called taxation "government-endorsed financial vampirism." Not bad wordsmithin', if I do say so myself!

My 2008 tax rant is here, complete with a song.

Nerd News: the Higher Education Bubble

The Insta-Prof has the link. Now if you've read me for any time at all, you know that I've been harping about this. Click on the "cost of education" tag.

What Fresh Hell Is This? -- Social Security as Cannibalistic Ponzi Scheme

OK, this is actually rather old hell, but hell all the same. I knew that this was the bitter and horrifying truth, but that still didn't keep me from screaming.

Note to just every young taxpayer of my generation: We're all pretty much screwed.

On a personal rant ... I'm totally frustrated. Like almost everybody else I know, I have some school debt, and like plenty of my peers, I'm paying all my own bills and living expenses on my own. I'm trying to to pay off that school debt, and I'm trying to save as many pennies as I can ... which aren't a lot of pennies because the cost of living is high and so is the level of taxation in Nerdworld. I'm barely scraping by, and I am frankly flabbergasted at the loopy government that wants to "save" money by spending more of it and enacting measures that will cost the taxpayer ever more money. A vast percentage of my paycheck goes into the government pocket, and in the case of Social Security, I'll never see it again. JUST HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO EVEN THINK ABOUT SAVING FOR MY FUTURE? I'm too busy paying FOR OTHER PEOPLE'S PRESENT. Never mind me even thinking about retirement -- I'll probably be working until I die. I'm too busy paying for other people's retirement. How am I ever going to support a young family of my own? Then I realize that in the Ponzi scheme-tastic universe of huge and increasing government entitlements, my "future" is basically the same as "working myself to exhaustion forever just to pay taxes and other people's bills and programs." It's like death by a thousand paper cuts.

Anyway, since I support myself and actually pay taxes, I apparently count as "rich" and can expect to pay ever more confiscatory taxes to support a system that basically rewards the parasites and slackers and special interests busy suckling at the government teat. I'll tell you this too: despite all the good press it gets from pie-eyed utopian-minded fools, socialism is a morally irresponsible and horribly inhumane approach to life. In it, people want their government-guaranteed goodies and couldn't care less that it's their own children who will be utterly impoverished.

It's time and past time to take this to the ballot box. Get out of the way, Fedzilla, you sticky-fingered, money-guzzling government beast!

The Great New York Tax Flight

Voting with their feet!

Related news here.

Penalized for Working Hard and Being Responsible

PERVERSE. Great quote: "The harder I work, the more they take away from me."

Given all this, pretty soon even having a work ethic will be a liability!

How to Create an Whole New Generation of Young Fiscal Conservatives and Libertarians

Can you think of a better way to do it than THIS?

Nerd Analysis: Insane Government Spending Policy

Harvard economics professor Greg Mankiw has some terrifying numbers for you. OMG!

Hello Kitty Monstrosity of the Day: the Hello Kitty Credit Card

In case you had any lingering doubt about the all-consuming evil of this cute cartoon kitty. She will drown you in credit card debt! And NO, debt is never, ever cute!

The annual fee is paid not with yen or euros or dollars,

but with YOUR SANITY.

Household Income and Expenditures: Where Does the Money Go?

Some friends and I were having this discussion recently. We're all budgeting and counting pennies, and despite everything, we're always a little flummoxed: WHERE DOES ALL THE MONEY GO?

(Still, some things are just pricelessly precious.)

Anyway, here is an interesting link (filched from Neatorama) about how the average American family spends its income, according to a new survey by the US Department of Labor. Of course, when it comes to the actual percentages, YMMV. Check out the intriguing graphic (click to enlarge).

Going to the poorhouse? I'll meet you there!

Nerd News: 8 Tuition-Free Universities

Check out this list. Yes, the tuition is free, but students are fully expected to (gasp!) WORK.

Nerd News: the True Cause of Increasing College Tuition?

Via the Insta-Prof comes this link at the Freakonomics blog. Blurb:

Over the last two decades, colleges and universities doubled their full-time support staff while enrollment increased only 40 percent, according to a new analysis of government data by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, a nonprofit research center.

During the same period, the staff of full-time instructors, or equivalent personnel, rose about 50 percent, while the number of managers increased slightly more than 50 percent.

The data, based on United States Department of Education filings from more than 2,782 colleges, come from 1987 to 2007, before the current recession prompted many colleges to freeze their hiring.

Hmmmm. More managers and admin types than teachers or students? *Sigh.* It reminds me of conversations with fellow teaching-nerds that sound like, "Can someone explain to me why we really need 20 vice-presidents in administration? I mean, what do all those people actually DO?" Goodness knows they enjoy better pay than teaching-nerds.

Nerd News: Tax Problems at Harvard?

Hmmmm.

Shady dealings and general skulduggery on a university campus? I'm shocked, SHOCKED!

Friday Fun Video and Satire Alert: "Treasury Department Issues Emergency Recall of All US Dollars"

The humorists at the Onion are inspired. Enjoy!


Treasury Department Issues Emergency Recall Of All US Dollars

Sign of the Apocalypse: MM and Putin Agree on Something

I stumbled across this just today -- and it's quite old -- but I was startled by some of the ideas in it. I'm talking about Vladimir Putin's address at Davos.

You know that I almost never agree with Putin on anything, so I'm calling it absolutely a sign of the apocalypse that I found this bit of his speech pretty close to something that I might say:

True, the state's increased role in times of crisis is a natural reaction to market setbacks. Instead of streamlining market mechanisms, some are tempted to expand state economic intervention to the greatest possible extent.

The concentration of surplus assets in the hands of the state is a negative aspect of anti-crisis measures in virtually every nation.

In the 20th century, the Soviet Union made the state's role absolute. In the long run, this made the Soviet economy totally uncompetitive. This lesson cost us dearly. I am sure nobody wants to see it repeated.

Nor should we turn a blind eye to the fact that the spirit of free enterprise, including the principle of personal responsibility of businesspeople, investors and shareholders for their decisions, is being eroded in the last few months. There is no reason to believe that we can achieve better results by shifting responsibility onto the state.

OMG!

Are you trying to say that Putin -- PUTIN! -- has a better grasp on capitalism than some current US politicians?!

AIG Bonus Scandal: Seppuku-Mania!

Senators to AIG Execs: "Drop dead -- literally."

AIG Execs to Senators: "You first."

Real Japanese samurai: *FACEPALM*

Advocating suicide as an honorable way out? Neither side in this mess has much (or any?) honor to begin with, so bringing up old-fashioned ideas of falling-on-your-own-sword-to-save-your-honor is pointless.

Meanwhile, is this all you guys can come up with, the AIG bonus kerfuffle as the biggest possible operatic theater of moral hypocrisy and pseudo-pietistic posing and grandstanding by everybody involved?

MEH.

Obligatory caveat: MM does not endorse suicide, honorable or not.

UPDATE: The other MM picks up the Japanese theme and calls the whole media circus the "Kabuki Theater of AIG Outrage."

Nerd News: A Small Guide to Sources of College Funding

Hey, check this handy little guide to scholarships and other types of funding.