Captain's Quarters -

Whatever the Michigan Democrats have must've spread to Minnesota DFLers, too. At a time when Gov. Pawlenty's budget calls for a 9.3 percent increase in spending, the DFL Senate is proposing to increase commercial property taxes to the tune of $220 million. What they didn't take into consideration is that some businesses will close rather than pay that tax:

The tax increases puzzle Gorman and other Washington County business owners, who find themselves facing, in some cases, dramatic increases in the assessed value of their commercial property. “It was harsh and unexpected [and] wasn’t budgeted for,” said Thomas Loome of Loome Antiquarian Booksellers, a downtown Stillwater business that he said will close as a result.

The truth is that we can't afford the Democrats' spendaholic ways, whether we're talking about Michigan, Minnesota or Washington, DC.

PS- The Minnesota legislature wants spending to increase by over 15 percent this biennium. They've said that a 9.3 percent spending increase isn't enough.

If I remember the statistic correctly, there are some Detroit high schools that have a 20% graduation rate. 20%!!!!! That's either a very poor preparation for higher education, or an excellent preparation for living on welfare. It kind of makes you wonder what the actual goal is.

But, but Gary!

Those DFL'ers here are very quick to explain that those new taxes are just for the cheating RICH folks and those Profit Mongers, BIG BUSINESS!

And as for the spending increases, the DFL'ers (Dems for those not from MN) will certainly cover that with "we HAVE to - it's all for Education and our kids!"

I don't know. I'm starting to think that Sioux Falls has some nice property. : (

As I understand it, the Michigan economy is in the toilet. Could it be that high taxes and incompetent government have something to do with that?

No matter. The dems have artfully blamed Bush for the crappy Michigan economy (as they blame him for everything else).

It remains to be seen whether the people of Michigan will make it clear that they won't pay taxes so their idiot children can listen to tunes all day.

Wow, and I thought we had it bad here in The People's Republik of Kalifornia. One of the stupidest things ever done here was to vote for a full time legislature. All it's done is give them a full year to thing up crazy ways to:
1. create new taxes
2. ways to spend it
And if you protest, they always come back with that golden nugget "BUT, IT'S FOR THE CHILDREN".
When all the businesses are driven out of this state, I hope those liberals in Hollywood will be up to the task of supporting the rest of us on welfare.

Not up to your usual standards, Cap'n!

What is it that the iPod idea is supposed to accomplish, and why do you feel that the ends are not appropriate or the means are not cost effective? What are the arguments on this proposed policy, pro and con?

I, too, read this story in the Detroit News the other day. The funny thing about it is - imagine every kid did have one. Then what?

To be able to download anything, even if it were for listening to famous speeches and recorded lectures, rather than just the latest hip-hop, the kid would need a computer to connect it to. A lot of these kids (most?) don't have that at home, and maybe not even in the classroom.

If they do just want to download music, they may be disappointed too. Are they getting pirated music? If not, how are they setting up 'pay' accounts to get it. If mom and dad can't afford the hardware, they sure can't afford the media.

heh,

Those guys have nothing on the Dems up here in Maine. They voted to buy a laptop for every kid in the system.

Of course, our businesses are leaving because of taxes, we have a small population, but the second-highest tax rate in the nation (14+%) and more and more "refugees" are being dumped on us, which further taxes the welfare rolls, and we also have around 10% of our population working for the state.

Anyone else wonder why Maine has one of the highest per-capita alcohol consumption rates in the nation? It's because we're stuck here. We can't raise the money to move away because they tax everything we have.

heck, the governor even took out a mortgage on future lottery earning. I kid you not. He got some big finance company to loan the state millions against future lottery sales income in order to BALANCE THE BUDGET.

Respects,

LOL !

love this post...

read the article a few days ago, and was simply not surprised.

quality education to read, write, etc...

not important.

ipods?

sure...

why not gold watches?

gold rings?

in NJ a group of local Democrats wanted to give laptops for each high school student in a public school.

not laptops for the school for the kids to borrow, or use in school, but for the kids to own.

and the property taxes of the people who actually cannot afford their own laptop?

rising every year !

Democrats are very strange, the liberals do not trust the US Government, but at the same time support empowering it with more taxation, to provide mindless spending that will only waste the hard earned money of the American Public.

After all these years, you would begin to believe they would grasp the relationship between oppressive states, and overt taxation.

Carter was a disaster, and the Clintons who inherited economic growth gave us one of the biggest tax increases which eventually helped us sink into a recession...

This is the primary reason, besides National Defense, why everyone should work to stop the DNC.

before it is too late, and we all take turns visiting the Government, to see what our jobs will be, while we begin to work to pay off our taxes.

"I guess it makes sense if the kids vote, but it looks like the children are already in charge in Michigan."

Dayam, Cap, you're starting to sound just like Mark Steyn. I might add, this is a high compliment and hat tip.

Bling! Taxes for bling! More bling will solve everything!

Here in Washington State, our biennial budget in 2004 was $27 billion. The Democrats now have the upcoming biennial up to $45 billion and counting. This is without buying iPods of laptops for every student. Lord help us if they get that idea.

having lived in Detroit for 3 years prior to moving to MD, I'm NOT at all suprised that they would introduce as idiotic as this...not one bit!

Richard A. Vail, Ph.d.
Pikesville, MD USA

having lived in Detroit for 3 years prior to moving to MD, I'm NOT at all suprised that they would introduce as idiotic as this...not one bit!

Richard A. Vail, Ph.d.
Pikesville, MD USA

jiHymas said:
“Not up to your usual standards, Cap'n!
What is it that the iPod idea is supposed to accomplish, and why do you feel that the ends are not appropriate or the means are not cost effective? What are the arguments on this proposed policy, pro and con?”

jiHymas; do you have a blog of your own where you offer in-depth analysis of issues? If so, please share the address so we can all view your work.

As for your questions to Captain Ed, why don’t you think they were addressed in the post? Could it be because this whole idea is absurd on its face and does not require further analysis of the type you describe?

OMG - I knew jimmyhaha was a nitwit, but its good to see it confirmed so strongly.

Gwedd, I've lived in Maine for over 20 years and have watched the Dems in this state tax their constituents to death (sometimes literally). This states spends money like Connecticut. I was adamantly opposed to the laptops for fiscal reasons, but more importantly because I don't want my children to have unsupervised access to a computer with internet access.

You'd think that was a no-brainer but its hard to find brains in the Maine state government.

""An iPod for every kid? Are they !#$!ing idiots?":

has to be the best heading from an editorial that i have seen in many years!

I have the unfortunate pleasure of being a MI resident. And yes, our legislators and governor do have the approximate IQ of a box of rocks. They can't distiguish an I pod from an I mac and whichever they meant, we can't afford to layer more taxes on taxes to pay for it.

Of course, reducing expenses or closing non-essential government bureaus never crosses their feeble brains.

Getting rid of the bad legislators has become near impossible due to the unions that vote Dem. regardless of reality, but the market is slowly correcting this, as more and more companies leave the state and the unemployment keeps rising. The end result is that the skilled labor will follow the jobs out of state, the rest are SOL.

Keep an eye on Kerkorian and what happens to Chrysler in the next few weeks.

Michigan might just be the first state to finally crack under the weight of so many layers of stupidity accumulated over so many decades of New Deal liberalism. As the wealth-producing capacity of the state constantly shrinks, and the demands of its pandering political class reach frantic proportions, maybe we can learn something about the gaping logical hole right at the center of liberal economics; incentives matter!

This will be fun to watch from the outside, but a bitch if you're stuck living there. I wonder how long it will take for them to blame it all on George?

I do not understand the Collective mentality which espouses the theme "government say out of our private affairs, but give give us free health care, free housing, and free Ipods"

The divide in America is the fight between Individualism and Collectivism and I don't want to be any part of groupthink doublespeak.

The main reason why I have a problem with a Giuliani-type candidate, he's a groupthink doublespeaker as in, he wants undocumented workers in his free-market world or believes abortion is evil but women have the right to abort on the taxpayers dime.

In the wacky world of Collectivism nothing makes sense.

Country Squire : jiHymas; do you have a blog of your own where you offer in-depth analysis of issues? If so, please share the address so we can all view your work.

As for your questions to Captain Ed, why don’t you think they were addressed in the post? Could it be because this whole idea is absurd on its face and does not require further analysis of the type you describe?

I do have a blog but it is investment oriented (and even then, of interest only to Canadians with taxable fixed income portfolios); it's at www.prefblog.com if you're interested anyway

I suspect that the Cap'n did not include further details because he couldn't find any - I couldn't, after an admittedly brief internet search.

The idea does seem absurd on the face of it; on the other hand, it has been proposed (or, at least, attributed to) people in a position of responsibility who are not afraid to put their names on the idea.

What if, for instance, it is an integral component of an idea that has met huge success when tested - first at a handful of schools, then over an entire school district - and is now considered ready for prime time? What if, for instance, there is a body of evidence that shows that an expenditure of $500 per child on the player and ancilliary material increases the graduation rate from the 20% asserted by RBMN (for some schools) to 50%? Then the question becomes much more interesting.

There may be such evidence; there may not be. To shout down the idea on its first-glance absurdity is itself absurd; as absurd as shouting down the idea that man can fly because of course, you jerk, he doesn't have wings and feathers.

I'm skeptical of the idea, but the older I get the more I get it rubbed in my face that I don't know everything. The only thing I learnt from this post is that vituperation is considered legitimate political discourse ... by quite a few people.

I read this blog to get a grasp of the issues; not to hear "Four legs good; two legs bad" ad infinitum.

jimmy yoo-hoo, what in the world do Canadian's need investment advice for? I thought that wonderful socialist paradise took care of the proletariat from cradle to grave?

Isn't investing a (gasp) capitalistic activity, to be avoided at all costs?

Besides, in a country that taxes its people to the degree Canada does, isn't fixed income redundant?

Reminds me of the dark days in the late 70s when I was witnessing Ohio's rapid sinking. Businesses were either going bankrupt or leaving in droves. The dhimmicrat response? Impose a $1M (I believe) fine on those businesses wanting to leave. Ah, one must believe in God for giving the opposition such stupidity. However, one must believe in the evil guy for giving us folks who vote for them.

jiHymas@himivest.com wrote (April 8, 2007 10:35 AM):

The idea does seem absurd on the face of it; on the other hand, it has been proposed (or, at least, attributed to) people in a position of responsibility who are not afraid to put their names on the idea.

What if, for instance, it is an integral component of an idea that has met huge success when tested - first at a handful of schools, then over an entire school district - and is now considered ready for prime time? What if, for instance, there is a body of evidence that shows that an expenditure of $500 per child on the player and ancilliary material increases the graduation rate from the 20% asserted by RBMN (for some schools) to 50%? Then the question becomes much more interesting.

1. If there is evidence that providing kids with free i-pods raises the graduation rate, then you're right: it IS worth investigating. However, unless and until this evidence is put forward, this idea remains totally idiotic.

2. While your comparison to the argument that "men can't fly" has merit, let me offer another:

"We have come to the conclusion that the crisis Michigan faces is not a shortage of revenue, but an excess of idiocy. Facing a budget deficit that has passed the $1 billion mark, House Democrats Thursday offered a spending plan that would buy an M-16 for every school child in Michigan."

I think that most of us on this blog, even confirmed gun nuts like me, would still scoff at the idea as (to quote Country Squire) "absurd on its face and does not require further analysis".

Somehow, I think you'd be with us in that case. But, let's see. Would you support the following? Let's even assume that somebody provided some iota of evidence that it helps the dropout rate:

1. School prayer

2. Compulsory expulsion of students for criminal activities

3. Suspension / termination of teachers and school administrators for poor academic performance

4. Corporal punishment

5. Schools segregated by race

6. Union-free faculties

7. Compulsory religious instruction

8. "Holding back" students who fail to meet academic standards (i.e. an end to social promotion)

9. No busing

10. Reduction / suspension of funding for low-performing schools

11. An end to compulsory public education (i.e. if parents are stupid or apathetic enough not to send their kids to school, so be it; the world needs ditch diggers)

12. Reform school (i.e. low-level incarceration) for disruptive students

13. Mandatory school uniforms

14. Mandatory military training (JROTC)

I'm sure that, between us, Cap'n Ed and the other commenters here could come up with quite a laundry list of things the goverment could do with the schools that are AT LEAST as outrageous as spending public money to allow kids to listen to music all day. Worth investigating... Or so stupid on the face of them as to make further discussion a waste of time?

Well, at least we're agreed that the plan - whatever it is - cannot be judged without evidence! The arguments in favour - whatever they are - have not been given the same exposure as the schoolyard vituperation of the editorial that started this thread.

As far as your laundry list of other potential changes are concerned - well there are some that I am favourably disposed to (e.g., #3. In Ontario, anyway, it is virtually impossible to dismiss a teacher, once he's hired, for mere incompetence. I assume things are similar in the States), and some of which I view with skepticism (e.g., #2: the word "compulsory" gives me a little difficulty. If the school & school district administration can't be trusted to use their discretion wisely, why let them hang around getting paid?).

However, if Cap'n Ed & the other commentators want to make public education a focus of this blog, stating their positions and supporting their conclusions with evidence and argument, I'll be very happy to listen! Go for it! Public education is a public policy backwater - in Ontario, anyway, and particularly in Toronto - and a little bit more informed public debate would be a very good thing.

Like I said, I'll listen. I'll make the occasional comment. I will, I hope, wind up being better informed and having a better idea of why I believe the things I do even if I don't change my mind.

But you can rest assured that I will not call you a !#$!ing idiot simply because you come up with an idea I consider absurd on its face.

On this issue, the only "evidence" we need to seek out is proof that whoever came up with this idea is in cahoots with the producers of the gadgets in question.

Of those who voted for this idea…how many own stocks etc in the companies that are going to make millions supplying the gizmos?