Shot in the Dark

Deciding Question

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

My Facebook friends are still losing it about Trump.  Now the persistent theme is that his Cabinet appointments are rich people who know nothing about their departments; or worse, they do know something but it’s the wrong thing.

 The woman appointed as Secretary of Education sent her kids to private school.  So that means she knows nothing about public schools?  No, dummy, it means she could see what a complete disaster public schools are so she pulled her kids out to give them a chance at a decent education.  She’s taken the top education job to try to reform public education into what private education already is.

 The guy in charge of the Labor Department opposes the minimum wage.  Yeah, him and every other competent economist.  So what’s your complaint: he has a brain and isn’t afraid to use it? 

 The Marine we just put in charge of the military isn’t sensitive, he’s confrontational.  Oh for crying out loud, confrontation is the whole point of a War Department.  Those aren’t all “participation ribbons” on his chest: at least one is an award for heroic bravery in combat.  That’s the kind of leadership the military desperately needs nowadays.

 For all the whining and complaining, nitpicking and second-guessing, the issue still comes down to the same issue that decided the election.  Is he Hillary yet?  No?  Still not Hillary?  Okay, good to go.  Carry on.

 Joe Doakes

And to the left, the question is, “is he appointing liberals, after having beaten them?”

Posted

in

by

Mitch Berg

Tags:

Comments

11 responses to “Deciding Question”

  1. mjb003 Avatar
    mjb003

    Just after Kathy Landry was appointed head of public works, she spoke at an event that I attended. She got the job over reportedly more qualified candidates, those who had engineering degrees, those who had worked in public works departments. But, presumably, the Chris Coleman administration is too corrupt to let outsiders in. He appointed a politician.

    Anyway, she spoke at the event. She noted that her first introduction to the new department was suddenly hearing names of machines that she had never heard of before, let alone know what they do. She said she had a lot of learning to do, but was committed to the job. Well, certainly hope she is committed! But, what kind of morale must be at public works to have a boss that has never worked in the department before, doesn’t understand the job. I feel bad not just for the residents of St Paul, but the department’s employees.

    It is refreshing to see some heads of departments that shouldn’t require on the job training.

  2. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    Funny, but the Blamer/Golfer in Chief sent his kids to private school, after taking in millions from the NEA, but he gets a pass.

  3. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    I don’t normally patronize Bloomberg, but a very conservative friend of mine pointed me to a posting of a great transcript of an interview that one of his minions had with Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase. I call it out because he addressed one of JD’s points about Trump’s Secretary of Labor.

    Definitely worth the read.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-12-22/jamie-dimon-on-trump-taxes-and-a-u-s-renaissance

  4. Chuck Avatar
    Chuck

    mjb…. it sounds like the diversity coordinator was put in charge of the department of public works.

  5. Alt-right Jethrene Clampett Avatar
    Alt-right Jethrene Clampett

    What Dimon says about the minimum wage isn’t encouraging:
    “There are solutions. Skills training, like they do here in Michigan. I would also greatly expand the earned income tax credit. We only do it for mothers with babies. We don’t do it for single men. So if you’re making $8, $9 an hour, the government will pay you $3 or $4 [as part of your tax refund]. Figure it as negative income tax. If I can give you a job at a living wage, it helps small businesses. It’s not necessarily good for big business, but it’s a wonderful thing to do for society.
    . . .
    And raising minimum wage will help small business. If you’re a small business that needs wages at $10 an hour to get by and you can’t afford medical—I’m not saying you’re a bad person, but that’s how you survive—then this will really help you. You’ll be able to attract better people. They’ll be paid more. You’ll probably have less attrition. And it will allow you to maybe afford more benefits over time. Raising it is just a teeny piece of it.”

    The problem with the government moving towards a Universal Basic Income (UBI) is that it stigmatizes the portion of the population that benefits from a UBI. What if they are disproportionately minority, immigrant, or female? Eventually the part of the populace that pays the UBI gets around to asking what these people are for? Why are they allowed, for example, to have an unlimited number of children?
    Dimon is actually explaining why economists say that a minimum wage is inefficient. The labor is simply not returning a value greater than X 1.0 of wages paid at, say, $15/hr., unless you hire the top 10% of the people who will work for $15/hr. What about people who can produce value greater than x 1.0 of $10/hr, but not $15/hr.? I guess that’s why you need a UBI, but if the UBI raises income to the equivalent of $15/hr, you haven’t really gained anything. You are still paying a person $15/hr to produce $10/hr. value, but the taxpayer is paying the difference.

  6. mjb003 Avatar
    mjb003

    Chuck- the thing is, it doesn’t appear that diversity was a factor, unless you mean diversity of skills. The leading candidate that applied (Lantry never applied) was a black woman who had an engineering degree and was an assistant director of public works department in some Chicago suburb.

  7. Prince of Darkness_666 Avatar
    Prince of Darkness_666

    They should put the Mattis confirmation hearings on primetime TV. It will be entertaining as hell

  8. TheFedSucks Avatar
    TheFedSucks

    Mother Of God please everyone read David Stockman’s new book.

    I’ve heard Charles Murray’s description of the UBI. IMO, if we did it EXACTLY the way he wants it, it’s a great way to slash the hell out of INFLATIONIST government (which is inevitably doomed anyway) and poor people quit having big brother (the Democrat party) treat them like serfs.

  9. TheFedSucks Avatar
    TheFedSucks

    Unless you are in an inflationist wage price spiral, the minimum wage is nothing but pure destruction, one way or another.

  10. The Big Stink Avatar
    The Big Stink

    I’ve lost several “friends” because of this past election. I was told by my daughter I need to keep my mouth shut because I’m too caustic for some.

    Guilty.

  11. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    I am praying that I’ll continue to be proven wrong about Trump, but it’s worth noting that he could hardly do worse than to name Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education–the guy who presided over a school district that averaged a 6th grade reading level among its graduates–or Federico Pena, who leveraged his experience going 4x over budget with DIA and presiding over the economic disaster of the Denver area oil collapse in the 1980s to become Secretary of Transportation and Secretary of Energy.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.