Penn and Teller Bullshit: Taxes

This is just a suggestion to watch the new Penn and Teller: Bullshit that came out today (August 6, 2009). It is the 7th episode in episode 7 and the subject taxes. I think most of America (me included) could use a Bullshit free explaination of taxes, because we are being taxed more than ever before. The Republicans have Tea Parties and the Democratics are trying to tax us out of Capitalism, so it will be great to see the side opposing both of them.

Over the years Bullshit has been a show about debunking the myths in society today. They take no prisoners, whether they talk about Chiropracting, Bottled Water, Lie Detectors, or Illegal drugs.

I haven't been able to catch this show yet because I don't have Showtime, but as soon as it is available on Amazon (or I visit a friend who recorded it) I will watch it and maybe write a review on it if I feel like it is a good episode.

If anyone has seen it and would like to comment that would be great, but really this is just a suggestion to tune in if you don't usually watch the show.

Cash for Clunks. Success?

The first advice my economic teacher gave my High School class was that a new car is basically the worst investment someone could make. They always go down in price, in fact they go down substantially in price as soon as they leave the lot.

Apparently the US government hasn’t taken any classes in economics. We are using billions of dollars to help Americans buy new cars, many of which will have to take out loans and get more into debt in order to pay for the car.

The money being given out isn’t enough to bankrupt the country or anything of the sort, but it really makes no sense to call it a success.

This is what happens when the government gives money directly to the US people. Of course people are going to take advantage of a free $4,500.

If nothing else, this “success” shows the governments failings in the past. This upped sales in a section of the economy that billions of dollars directly to the company couldn’t help.

Americans having more money to spend is a good thing, but not in just one sector. We’ve spend hundreds of billions of dollars to help companies get off the ground, instead we should have given the money back to the tax payers.

They could spend it on the companies that offer the best services, which in turn would allow those companies to grow and the old failing companies would not even be missed.

Volunteering for the Libertarian party

I am just posting here to say that I have officially sent in an application to volunteer for the California Libertarian party.

I am very interested to see how the political process looks close up, and I feel like this will make or break whether I will run for office or stay only in the private sector after my collegiate career.

Here is the website if you are interested in helping the Libertarian party.

Legalize Gambling

Gambling needs to be legalized in California. Right now they are talking about adding slot machines to racing tracks, and I can’t possibly see what would be wrong with that. There is already gambling going on at the race track, and it seems like putting slots in wouldn’t the society any more than a track already is. Plus, race tracks are falling off the map in California with places like Golden Gate being closed in favor of selling houses.

If horse racing wants to survive it needs to be able to add slot machines. But the issue is bigger than that to me, and shows yet another option for California to make money off the sins of its citizens.

I found the exact numbers from the Nevada Gaming board on the money they make per year, but I couldn’t really figure out how much revenue they made, as opposed to the amount that could be taxed. I have the link to those reports at the bottom of this blog.

Nevada is expected to make $620 millionin the first nine months of this year from gambling taxes, which comes to $826 million over the fiscal year if the number stayed the same for all 12 months. Sorry for the lake of the real number, but the link below should help if you are really interested.

With the amount of people in California, and the amount of tourists already coming here, it would seem like the state would make much more than $1 billion per year with Gambling. This would also increase revenue in many other ways (sales tax, more tourism, ect).

It seems like it would be another good solution on how to bring money to the state. Legalizing marijuana would bring about 1.4 billion revenue (and savings in the prison system). Both of these would put California on the cutting edge of the nation becoming sane again. Right now they are the leaders of the insane with the green movement, but I hope that things can turn around.

Link to Gambling revenues: http://gaming.nv.gov/gaming_revenue_rpt.htm

California School Voucher Solution

Today I just want to talk about the simple idea of school vouchers for the state of California.

California is an odd state in the fact that the state pays for most of the schooling, as opposed to the local communities. This fact is hurting education all over the state in this time of recession, and the idea of how to fix it seems pretty clear. School voucher systems have worked in places like Washington D.C. Though they were revoked for political reason. John Stossel has a great piece about this in his 20/20 Special Report Stupid In America.

The voucher system would be cheaper, because it would cut much of the administration cost out of the schooling sector. It would also bring about competition in the school environments, which would allow for much better run schools.

The model I picture when I think of a well run school is St. Catherine’s. It was a K-8 Catholic school. The staff had one teacher for every grade as well as a PE teacher, music teacher, and computer teacher. The administration was very low, they carried a Principal, Vice Principal, and a Secretary. Because of this the tuition was less than what California pays per student for a public education.

With competition happening in schools the ones that are mismanaged would go away, and new ones would pop up. To solve the problem of some kids not being able to go to good schools it may be good to subsidize bus tickets for kids going to school. This would allow for much more flexibility on a child’s school than in the current system where you can only go to the school that you are zoned in.

Unions have lost their hold on almost everything in this country besides teaching and the car industry. Both of these unions are doing everything they can to hide their failure. Something will have to be done about the California education system. If the state can save money as well as improve education (and get the teachers union to no longer have any power at the state level), then it seems like it would have to be tried. California does some nut job things, but they also aren’t scared to try things and see if they work, my only hope is that someday California can admit that the current system is broken, and search for something new.

Stossel Links can be found at his website: http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/

High-Speed to LA

As a Libertarian, it’s really hard to be optimistic about the direction our country is going. Both the left and the right are so far to the center that neither are close to my philosophies.

Gambling, Drugs, Prostitution, and Nuclear Power are all basically illegal in a country that could use every one of them. We are worried about funding as well as clean energy, and those issues can be solved if we just learn that living in a Republic is better than living in a Democracy. If we just taxed the sins then everyone could pay less in taxes, and the people who drag society down will at least be paying taxes instead of wasting tax dollars in jails.

California, where I live, is a perfect example of why a Democracy doesn’t really work. Here we can vote on ballot measures for spending in the state, which reminds me very much of the Ben Franklin quote, “When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.”

During the election we voted on a high-speed train going from LA to San Francisco. It would cost the state billions of dollars, and the tickets for it would be $50. On Southwest I can fly the same distance in about the same amount of time (airport time included) for only $10 or $20 more. So, in my opinion the train wasn’t worth it to me, because I wouldn’t be for it if it was an option in the free market.

When I told my sister this she told me that she voted for it because it wasn’t me paying for it, it was the collective pull of many people. But the way I see it, if I wouldn’t pay for it myself, why would I want to tax it on the rest of the state?

This has gotten off topic, but I’m going to begin posting a lot of articles on here about my Libertarian beliefs, because this is the internet, and the internet breeds Libertarians. The free exchange of information really does seem to create a more Libertarian way of thinking. I believe that is because it allows people to see past the common misconceptions of the world that we have.

Wikistudy

I have decided that this blog should be doing its part to make college life better. I will share the knowledge I have learned, whether it be studying (as it will be in this blog), money saving tips, or anything that I feel enhances my college life (or could enhance if I did it). As I just stated, this blog is going to be a short blog telling the world how I’ve learned to study in college. This can only really be used for GE classes, but because half of college is GE’s now, this is a great way to coast through college.

I like to call my method the Wikipedia method, because I have no creativity. This method helps study for test as well as save money, because it allows me to not buy books for most of my classes. Every college student knows how much beer money can go into a single book, so I feel the method is well worth it. All my method requires is a laptop and an internet connection.

What I like to do is go to my classes, and just surf the web most of the class. This in itself is not different than most college students who bring laptops to class. Throughout my classes I’ve seen people playing World of Warcraft, watching movies, and even watching porn (but that was in High School, not college).

My method allows me to go to class and do much of the same as I would do when I’m at home. Honestly, I get to be more productive while in class than almost any time. Most of the blogs I write (including this one) are done in class, and at least a forth of my homework is done while in class. This class period is a perfect example. I am writing a blog or two, then doing my Creative Writing homework due on Friday, all while learning Critical Thinking.

Enough of the introduction, here is the method. As I surf the web or write I keep an ear out for what the professor is saying. Each transition of a lecture has an introduction, which I then use to find the Wikipedia page. I then copy and paste the Wikipedia article about the subject into my notes document on my computer, as well as a few points that the teacher makes, because usually the first few points can give clarity to Wikipedia.

Here is an excerpt from my Monday/Wednesday Biology class:

Gene Regulation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_control

Control Gene is like the manager of genes. It tells them what to do, and genes do.

Mutant control gene gives the order more than once (usually just twice)

Workers mindlessly obey.

 

I actually think that is all I have to say. The method is not all that intense, in fact I think it’s the laziest way to get through college. It’s my free ever changing version of cliff notes. In the end that is what this blog is really about, how to be a lazy drunk and get away with it (and maybe save some money too)