Month: January 2011

Job-Killing Labor Costs and the Manufacturing Sector | Mises Institute

If the cost of labor increases, someone has to pay for it. Laborers may pay in the form of decreased work opportunities, investors may pay in the form of decreased returns on capital, or consumers may pay in the form of higher prices required by increased costs.

Source: Job-Killing Labor Costs and the Manufacturing Sector | Mises Institute

 

US manufacturing output is still enormous, it has simply been achieved with ever higher levels of capital (e.g. machines) as labor has been made more and more expensive (through minimum wages, benefits, etc. that US corporations are taxed or regulated into providing).

The Rise of the New Global Elite – The Atlantic

F. Scott Fitzgerald was right when he declared the rich different from you and me. But today’s super-rich are also different from yesterday’s: more hardworking and meritocratic, but less connected to the nations that granted them opportunity—and the countrymen they are leaving ever further behind.

Source: The Rise of the New Global Elite – The Atlantic

 

What happened to patriotism? Are today’s super-rich really *all* unsympathetic about the living conditions of other people? I suppose part of the problem is that those other people are seen as “other”, being neither friends, neighbors, peers, fellows, or anything else beyond replaceable employees.

100% Renewable Energy in 40 Years Not Limited to Our Wildest Dreams: Study | Fast Company | Business + Innovation

we’ve done similar things, as Jaconson notes—it’s an effort “comparable to the Apollo moon project or constructing the interstate highway system,” just compressed into a short timescale and requiring action from a majority of nations.

Source: 100% Renewable Energy in 40 Years Not Limited to Our Wildest Dreams: Study | Fast Company | Business + Innovation

Fix education, fix the future | ExxonMobil’s Perspectives Blog

Speaking at a conference hosted by The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas late last week, our chairman and CEO, Rex Tillerson, made an interesting statement that I think has implications for U.S. policy as we usher in a new Congress.

That’s why in 2007, ExxonMobil committed $125 million to help found the National Math and Science Initiative, a nation-wide effort to identify the most successful math and science education programs and scale them up to the national level.

Source: Fix education, fix the future | ExxonMobil’s Perspectives Blog

Why military spending remains untouchable – Salon.com

Despite extraordinary expenditures, it’s clear that Americans just aren’t getting much for their money

Source: Why military spending remains untouchable – Salon.com

 

I think that there is much that could be said about the article. I’d start with what Americans (and the world) are getting for our money.

Continue reading Why military spending remains untouchable – Salon.com