Cost of textbooks and iPads in classrooms

Here is an interesting chart comparing the cost of using textbooks in classrooms versus using iPads. Bottom line: it is still cheaper to use textbooks.
Created by: OnlineTeachingDegree.com

Christmas sales as an economic indicator

One of the frustrating things about the so-called end of the Great Recession is the fact that the people who are recovering are not even remotely in my neighborhood. As most of my friends and regular readers know, I am a firm believer in developing one's own set of economic indicators---that way you don't have to rely on the boiled numbers that the government issues.

Here is a good indicator of the health of the economy: When did Christmas displays and music hit the stores? When did the merchants start slashing prices?

The earlier you see and hear Xmas stuff, the worst retailers believe the holiday shopping season is going to be. Of course, I believe that the stock holders are worried about their stock prices and dividends---and not in the least concerned about their employees---which means that even if consumers pony up money (from under what barrel I have no idea) and go hog-wild this shopping season, I am willing to bet that the money is going to stay in the pockets of the rich stockholders and not flow back to the rest of the economy.

The earlier you see price cutting (especially the fire sale level), the worst the holiday shopping is based on store reciepts. The fire sale level of prices indicate that a store is just trying to break even for the season, and that layoffs of regular employees is going to accompany the letting go of the seasonal help.

And this year is alarming on a couple of levels already. I saw Christmas stuff out before October 1st, and HR departments are actually hiring less seasonal help than normal.

Is it wrong to think that perhaps certain retail chains stockholders deserve a lump of coal for Christmas? Probably. We all know that only rich people can create jobs for the poor. *frowns*

The American Scorecard so far

I am learning a lot this election cycle about what it is to be a "real" American.

First, I learned that this country was founded as a Christian nation, and that the Founding Fathers thought that you were not entitled to be a full American (with full legal protections) unless you were a Christian.

I also learned that I am poorly educated because this is not what I have been taught in college. And I am so poorly educated that I cannot find proof of this when I read the primary documents (their actual letters and essays), so I am forced to believe my professors when they say that the Founding Fathers were Deists.

And today, I learned that the Founding Fathers were also capitalists. I guess all the warnings about the evils of banks were planted by time-traveling Democrats.

Herman Cain, who is not going to get my vote, says that the current Wall Street protests are anti-American, and "to protest Wall Street and the bankers is saying that you're anti-capitalism."

Newt Gingrich, who is not going to get my vote, said that the protests are "a natural product of Obama's class warfare." Furthermore, the education system is to blame. "We have had a strain of hostility to free enterprise and frankly, a strain of hostility to classic America starting in our academic institutions and spreading across this country. And I regard the Wall Street protesters as a natural outcome of a bad education system teaching them really dumb ideas."

So lets' see, I am losing points for going to college, not being taught that America is a Christian nation, being a member of a non-Christian religion; and believing that despite the fact that I would like to become wealthy myself someday, that Wall Street and the banks went too far. Oh, and for believing that most of economic problems were actually created by the last President and not the current one.

I presume that I will be seeing some of my readers in Canada when I get deported for my unAmerican beliefs.

Quote of the day: Reagan on the Economy

The government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

Ronald Reagan

South Park as satire

The other night, I was watching a rerun of South Park. And I was reminded about the fact that South Park on one level is satire.

The espisode was about time travelers coming back in time to our present to look for work. Or so it looked like on the surface; I occasionally write science fiction myself and I am a big fan of it, so I realize that science fiction is almost always about the present.

And this espisode was all about immigration. "They stole yer job," was the big line of the espisode.

I did find it amusing that one of the suggestions to fix the problem was to improve the future so that the time travelers would stay in their own time period. This sounds like my idea that perhaps we should invest and improve the lands of our immigration problem (if it is a real problem), so that the immigrants can find work at home and not have to come here.

The other solution, the one that South Park had fun with was "lets wreck the future, so there is no future." Reminds me a great deal of what actually happened in our economy. I wouldn't go into detail about how they planned on wrecking the future, but many will feel that the CEOs of banks have done exactly that to us.

Ironically, now that our economy is in the tank and circling the rim, the immigrants are starting to go home. Grats CEOs---you have screwed all of us.