Something that transcends traditional left right divide

As our country, the USA, seems to be taking up it's traditional battle lines between left and right over how quickly to reopen things, I find it useful to look at situations which cross that divide; such as in Sweden. Sweden, often considered a model of left leaning economics is doing a strategy that is more like the open earlier philosophy that's associated more with the right wing, here in USA. Different from Sweden's other Nordic neighbors.

Who knows what the best strategy is as much of the science is still being found out. The science is evolving; especially when one takes into account what the best long term strategy is, for instance what are the results several years from now. The science becomes more complex when including not just deaths from this virus, but also the consequences of other things in society, such as increased poverty and domestic violence from cabin fever.

On the other hand, maybe society will be better due to a more shut down strategy. We may be learning to develop a society that is less fixated on money and / or being in crowds. That could be a long term argument for putting parts of the economy on hold.

The stimulus bill tried to do too many things at once. Two strategies are better. One to survive shutdown and the other to restart business.

I think the virus recover package was hastily cobbled together by Congress. Glad they did something, but it really needed to be two strategies for two different times.

The first strategy would be money so people and businesses can pay the rent, mortgages, overhead, whatever to stay put and not work. Also money for the front line people and businesses, like medical care and vaccine research that still need to work. Phase two would be stimulus to bolster consumption, a bit, after business is allowed to open up again (whenever that would be).

The two concepts were conflated in the bill that passed.

Depending on what epidemiologist specialists say, we may need to figure out how to put a big part of our economy on hold for a long time. This is a hardship for people and a lot of businesses; especially small businesses. We may need to print money to keep people solvent. Printing money can cause inflation, in normal circumstances, but this is uncharted territory. To keep the virus from spreading, demand needs to stay low at places like restaurants, shopping malls, airplanes and so forth. Demand normally pushes inflation. This would be uncharted territory (I guess I said that before). Money is needed to maintain lease payments, mortgages, insurance premiums, and therefore bank solvency on up the food chain; so to speak.

The type of stimulus to restart business is a different thing. It would need to be in a second bill, but who knows when that bill would be needed. As they say, "the virus sets the timetable."

Why housing costs outpace wages in a nutshell. At least in my opinion.

Interesting article from Seattle Times came up in my Facebook feed.

Coronavirus has cost more than 100,000 people around Seattle their jobs. So why aren’t rents going down?

Here's some of my related thinking.

The disconnect between high property values and much of the rest of the economy becomes more apparent during the corona virus shut down.

I would say that the disconnect between housing costs and much of the economy is driven by several factors. A big factor is that housing has become a for of savings. A more lucrative alternative to low interest rates at banks.

Other factors drive this problem as well, but the savings bank issue is a big factor.

Population growth, in popular areas, is big also, but it can't explain the entire thing.

Bad planning around automobile dependency and low density is part of the problem as well. These factors vary from region to region.

Possibly the biggest factor is the investment problem. Housing has become too much of an investment vehicle. It's become an alternative to low interest at banks. This relates, to some extent (I think), to the printing of money which has propped up low interest rates over recent years.

The inflation one expects from printed money hasn't shown up across the whole economy. Much of the economy remains based on cheap goods and services and the low wages these activities pay. The Walmart style economy. Much of the economy experiences pressure to keep prices and wages low. Pressure that comes from automation, globalization and other efficiencies. Think of all the low cost and free things available on the internet, for instance.

Inflation has shown up in housing costs. Costs at least in popular areas, like Seattle and to some extent here in Bellingham. It's also shown up in things like executive salaries and the high costs of education and healthcare associated with these salaries.

It's shown up in what economists call "asset bubbles." The stock market experiences asset bubble economics where the bubbles, sometimes burst. People, in general, tend to be wary of stocks so they invest in real estate instead.

Real estate has become the investment vehicle for the average American. Stocks are part of the investment picture, also, in terms of a portion of people's retirement plans, but most investment in stocks is highly skewed toward high income investors. Housing has become too much the investment of choice for more average people. Average as well as wealthy people.

Now some of those chickens are coming home to roost. In order to keep up with these prices, while maintaining the corona virus shutdown, our economy has had to resort to more printed money just to keep people whole. New printed money chasing after old printed money.

We now need more government spending for unemployment, aids to business, tax rebates and so forth. We probably also need more long term solutions such as expanded Section 8 housing vouchers and, of course, subsidized health insurance.

Cancelling people's health insurance is a bad idea in the middle of a pandemic. That's what happens when insurance is based on employment and people are ask not to go to work. Folks are being asked to refrain from working for the health of society. Lots of folks being ask not to work except for people in what is deemed "essential services," some others such as folks that can work from home.

Nothing is totally wrong with printed money as long as we can stay healthy and stay housed. Inflation can be a problem, but if all income classes can stay on the same page, or at least on a similar page, we can survive. If renters can stay on the same page as property owners, we can survive.

Across the board inflation isn't a problem now, but inflation is a problem if one's rent, or mortgage payments, are high while their income is low. This type of inflation has been apparent over recent years. Inflation has been in confined sectors; such as home values. Inflation is not evenly spread across all regions as well.

Folks setting economic policy often think of inflation as one figure. In reality it's a complex story of different inflation rates for different sectors. It's almost impossible to create rational policy in this environment.

Now we are just having to resort to printing more and more money just to keep people whole.

If overall inflation starts to rear it's ugly head, it isn't likely to be as bad as in past eras. This is an era when money is, basically, just a computer entry.

If a loaf of bread costs $100, in the future, someone will not need a wheel barrow full of heavy, awkward coins to purchase the loaf. It will just be a case of moving the decimal point over.

Here is a thought experiment. What if someone was to try and buy a "fixer upper" house, in Seattle, for 1 million dollars in pennies? That would truly be an inconvenient truckload. Several truckloads.

We don't really have that problem these days at least.

Myself, I am fortunate to be in subsidized housing so my rent takes my income into account.

We are now in uncharted territory.

I'm letting our leaders a bit off the hook, but big changes are needed in economic orthodoxy in light of COVID-19

Leaders of our various societies have made quite a few mistakes in this situation with the pandemic that's unprecedented in modern history.

The authoritarian system, in China, had people afraid to sound the warning for fear it would offend higher ups. Some did try to sound an alarm, but were even persecuted. We have similar problems in our US corporations and institutions. There's pressure not to rock the boat.

On the other hand there's the concept of "crying wolf." Alarms are sounded all the time and "business as usual" doesn't stop each time. For instance, some folks are worried about health effects of 5 G cellphone technology. That isn't a worry of mine, but who knows. 20 years from now we may discover a lot of problems that aren't really detectable in today's science. We can't stop for everything, however.

There's another phrase that says, "hindsight is better than foresight." Bad choices were made in the early days of this epidemic that may have not looked as bad at the time. In hindsight these choices look bad. There needed to be more money spent on testing, hospital preparedness and so forth. For the most part, more domestic spending, but there's always worry about busting the budget. Worry about needlessly burdening the taxpayers.

This virus is kind of like the "straw that broke the camel's back;" to bring up another old phrase. It exposed faults in our society and our economy. For instance people having to work so hard to pay inflated rents that they weren't likely to take sick leave. Coming to work slightly ill looks worse today than it did just a few months ago.

We have situations like large numbers of folks who loose their health insurance as soon as they have to cut back on working. A very bad system given this epidemic; employer based health insurance.

We have a society that has trouble taking a break, but now it's learning it must take a break. Most of society has had to slow down to slow the spread of the virus.

Lots of things that normally pay the bills have had to stop temporarily. Big time sports and theater productions, frequent world travel, crowded bars, restaurants and so forth.

Rents are still due and high property values are still needing to be maintained, somehow. That's where a lot of the stimulus checks will go. Money from the government to allow people, and businesses, to tread water, so to speak. Money to hold onto our homes, leases, retirement plans and so forth. Money that's largely printed from thin air, I guess, but money has been printed before.

Ever wonder why fixer upper houses, in cities, like Vancouver, BC, have sold for over one million dollars? Ever wonder how we could afford all those wars and tax cuts at the same time? It must be printed money.

Now we need printed money just to hold our places in the economy. To hold tight. To hang onto our homes, businesses and dreams till the economy can pick up again.

We are having to learn a new form of economics. Something far from past orthodoxies. There are also other challenges, such as climate change, that require us to part with much of our orthodox beliefs in economics as well as other areas of life.

Hopefully adversity becomes the mother of innovation.

The virus adds new meaning to the phrase, "shop till you drop." That's why so many businesses are asked to close.

This whole virus situation adds a new twist to the phrase, "shop till you drop."

It's been about 5 days since I've been to a grocery store. My kitchen supply is holding out okay. Trips to the store can be less frequent.

Compassion over the almighty dollar

Quite a few of my friends are what would be classified as vulnerable. People with various health conditions. So far, I am not aware of anyone, I know, who has died. It seems like society's attempts to protect the vulnerable from this virus has been working; to some extent at least.

It's like the economy stepping on the brakes to let a slower person cross the street.

The dance of avoidance or connection. Cute guys at the supermarket.

I've been doing fairly good reducing my trips to the store. Frozen vegetables are a great alternative to salad bars. A stash of these can last quite a while in the freezer. I just parcel out a serving each day heating it up in the microwave with a bit of salt, water and butter.

My weakest link is fresh milk. I go through close to a gallon in two days. Yes, I do drink lots of milk; now made with sugar free baking chocolate and just a dab of brown sugar; it's heavenly. People have suggested I stretch my milk supply with dried milk. Interesting to note that my dad had a big part in the development of powdered milk.

I do think cutting my fresh milk with powdered milk is a good idea, but, so far, I have had trouble finding powdered milk where I shop. Looking for powdered milk means lingering longer at the store. I must admit that long aisles of products can make my head spin. The aisle with all those tiny bottles filled with naturopathic supplements is scary.

One of the dance studios, I have gone to, talks about the dance of the supermarket. These days, it's the dance of avoidance. That dance studio is now doing it's dance practice online; or at least trying to recreate the experience of dance online. All this stuff always gets me to thinking. In the supermarkets of today, it is the dance of avoidance. Before the virus, I'd even alter my path to a different aisle just to walk past some cute guy in the next aisle over; like taking the scenic route to that pragmatic need for a product.

This kind of "dance" can still happen, even now, as it is easily done maintaining even 15 feet of separation. In today's grocery stores, most people just look like masked bandits so I'm more apt to do the dance of avoidance than connection. I still say hi, when seeing folks I know. Also I see little point in being anxiety prone when people quickly pass closer than a 6 to 10 foot radius of me. This sometimes happens on narrow, lonely trails in the woods as well, but I doubt that's a problem in quick passing. Sometimes I do hold my breath passing folks on the trail in a park, but I also let out enough breath to say, hi. If longer conversation happens, we can stand back even 20 feet as there's usually lots of distance along a trail. The few stores I have shopped at have been okay. Not real crowded. I haven't been to the big stores that can often be magnets for the big crowds. I have just been to some medium sized places.

As for the dance on city streets, I'm usually on my bicycle. The bicycle is a god send for relieving cabin fever while still maintaining distance from other folks.

Recently, I've noticed, here in Bellingham at least, that that traffic is much more careful than normal. Cars and people are maintaining distance better around me on my bike. The virtues of not being in a hurry.

Someone suggested I buy more than one gallon of milk at a time. Duh. I bought two gallons last trip to the store. That should last me the greater part of a week.

----------------

Earlier I wrote.

I'm learning to eat at home more. I used to use restaurants, delis and salad bars each day. Cooking is still not my forte. I only know how to make macaroni & cheese out of the box, but I can toss in lots of vegetables, tomato sauce and so forth. I can put things in the microwave. Cook a frozen pizza in the oven, heat up stir fry vegetables, make a peanut butter sandwich.

I'm enjoying lots of my low sugar chocolate milk mix from the blender using baker's chocolate and a dab of brown sugar. Just a dab. I've always eaten lots of apples. Apple sauce is easy to store. Things like canned tuna fish are good. Bran cereal with nuts and raisins; good.

Turns out I haven't been panic buying, but I do, for the first time in my life, have a better stocked kitchen. One of my goals is to be well organized and not buy stuff that goes to waste.

More of my thinking about shopping on Flickr.

When the doctor recommends slowing down Mr. economy, high overhead makes that difficult

After corona virus shut down, things may have to open up gradually to avoid the spread of the virus continuing to haunt us. Things may need to come back toward normal gradually and cautiously.

Maybe there will need to be new sets of rules for maximum capacity. Rules set by health departments, rather than just the existing capacity rules set by fire departments. Places trying to be less popular, so to speak, but just having a mellow flow where distancing can still be maintained.

There needs to be long term relief on overhead costs, such as rent and insurance costs, so business can survive at a slower pace. Less overhead could make society more resilient to this kind of situation where slowing down, at least temporarily, is just what the doctor ordered.

Relief even if it has to come from printed money because I think it's printed money, to a large extent that has lead to dramatic inflation of property values, rents and other overhead in the past few decades. To keep solvent, we may be in a situation of printed money to keep up with prices created by earlier printed money.

The rat race; another problem in normal society revved up by high overhead, high rents.

A somewhat slower economy could be better for human well being and the natural environment. Progress in science and other fields can still happen, but just a bit more intentionally. During the corona virus shutdown people were dragged, in some cases maybe kicking and screaming, farther into online existence. Schools moving their classes online, people shopping online, things like Zoom video conferencing getting real popular. Less commuting traffic, more work from home. History keeps moving on.

A different twist on Kurzweil's back to basics ideas only tech industry more prominent rather than less.

A while ago, I noticed a news item where the government was loosening some restrictions on the southern border realizing that many of the people who cross are the people who pick our crops. Food is something we do need. Otherwise American citizens would have to get out into the fields and pick the crops. American citizens doing that in mass is still not a likely prospect.

The whole prospect of US citizens having to go out into the fields to eat does remind me of predictions that have been made by the author Ray Kurzweil who spoke, a few years back, at Village Books here in Bellingham. Related to global warming and the possible break down of economics as we know it. Kurzweil spoke of Americans having to go back to the basics of survival. Give up our frivolity. For instance use our ports more for actual shipping of necessities rather than harbors for fancy hotels and casinos. He was even quite critical of the technology sector. He describes companies, like Google, as being mere toys that will not save us given the harsh times ahead.

I tend to be more of an optimist than that. During this pandemic crisis, internet technology is helping us in this era of face to face distancing. I doubt the foreseeable future is likely to be as stark as Kurzweil predicted, but I do think Americans, in general, could learn a bit of humbleness. Farm work, custodial work and so forth is valid work. Changes we could be making now might be good practice for some of the changes we need to make to address global warming. We need a more nimble and innovative society.

As a custodian, I have used the internet a lot listening to many a podcast. Intellectual stimulation; a good supplement for manual labor tasks. The combination can be meditative.

They've called me a digital janitor.

Everything at once stimulus bill is a bit haphazard, but it's good to be paid to not work during the virus shutdown at least.

Seems like stimulus legislation is always haphazard. People do need to be paid for not working, of course, to reduce transmission of the virus. To "flatten the curve" as they say. Much of our economy is dependent on folks congregating in so many places like churches, bars, restaurants, theaters, stadiums, shopping centers, gyms and so forth.

People in these sectors do need to be paid for not working so large parts of the economy can go into suspended animation. Folks and businesses need to be able to pay the rent and ride this out.

Other stimulus ideas are part of the stimulus package as well. Things that are designed to stimulate consumer spending once the economy gets rolling again, depending on when that happens. Who knows when. I think these stimulus things may be a bad idea now as people are being ask not to go shopping; so to speak.

After the virus scare passes, is a time for the other stimulus measures. The time for this isn't even truly known yet.

Too bad that legislatures just haphazardly throw everything into one bill and then adjourn. We may need some better strategic planning, but politics doesn't usually provide that.

Paying people not to work is good, in this situation. Something Republicans don't like to do. I do think, however, that some construction sites, factories and other things can reopen if distancing can be maintained. Also there are folks who are still working hard, like grocery store clerks and medical staff, police officers, computer operators (with all the folks on the internet) and so forth. I appreciate that.

Printed money might help make us whole again after economy takes a rest.

What's considered good for the economy is often not good for people's health. Looks like our economy is needing to learn how to be put partially on hold to protect our health. Lots of money is being lost, but money is just money. We've worshiped it like a god, but it's basically just a number system. Today, it's not heavy coins in a wheelbarrow, but just weightless numbers and decimal points on computers.

More importantly, besides our health, are the assets that we also consider part of our economy. Assets like the knowledge we gain, such as science. Assets such as our buildings, infrastructure and equipment. Things like airplanes and houses are assets. If they can be preserved, along with human lives, we haven't really lost that much.

These assets may be worth a lot less, in terms of dollars, but if maintained, the assets still exist. Stocks, real estate values and other things may drop in price, but the assets still exist. From what I hear, some airlines are mothballing planes temporarily in the deserts of southern California so, I guess, they are less likely to rust.

Dollars have disappeared as people and businesses, who are no longer working, can no longer pay the rent; so to speak. Rent and overhead has been extremely high and hard for most folks to keep up with anyway.

We could be headed for some deflation which also means lower prices for many things, but it's likely that the Federal Reserve is just printing more money so some of these dollar values can be maintained. For instance new housing construction could go bankrupt if people couldn't afford rent, but if printed money can prop up things like expanded sick leave and expanded rent subsidies, even values of assets, as measured in money, can be maintained. The stock market, for instance, could go back up in not too long of a time. I do think many of these assets were priced too high, before this virus situation, anyway. Propped up with low interest rates and printed dollars.

To some extent, keeping up with these high dollar amounts, high rents, high overheads and so forth has been stressful for workers. It's been bad for our health.

In the long run, I'd like to see economics relax, a bit. Less concern about pure money. That would be a step forward for our health and also a better mindset for tackling the long term problem of climate change.

That's my outside the box economic thought. Maybe it's not orthodoxy. I've taken few economics classes, but I do hear a lot of people starting to think more this way. Economists on NPR and so forth.

Could that malaria drug be something similar to drugs that treat AIDS in lieu of a vaccine? Maybe, maybe not.

I can sort of see why Trump holds out some hope for treatment of corona virus with a drug for malaria. I certainly didn't vote for him, tho.

The malaria drug hasn't been certified for this and may not be that good an answer, but I hope we can figure something out until, or if, a vaccine can be found.

When I think about the AIDS epidemic, it's other drugs, besides a vaccine, that has significantly reduced the death rate there. It did take a lot of time for those drugs to be demonstrated as safe and effective.

It seems odd that there is still no vaccine for AIDS. I hope corona virus is different in that way so a vaccine can be found before too long.

We'll need to figure out how to survive putting large parts of the economy on hold to get through this corona virus pandemic

Like summer fallow fields. The ability to let things rest.

They've paid farmers for not growing crops. Looks like they will have to pay workers for not working and maybe businesses; like small businesses for not being open.

In the Palouse, there is the practice of summer fallow anyway, but not necessarily because of farm subsidies.

Farmers around Pullman, where I grew up, have a practice called Summer Fallow for their fields. Without even subsidy, this was a normal practice. I think still in use. A crop rotation. Wheat one year, then peas the next year. Then summer fallow where the field and the soil would be allowed to REST. The field being empty.

The pea crop would fertilize the soil, naturally, using legume nitrogen fixing bacteria that is naturally in the roots of peas and other legumes. The bacteria take nitrogen out of the air and turn it into nitrate fertilizer; naturally. After the pea crop is harvested, the soil is allowed to rest as the pea vines compost. I think a 3 year cycle.

I think the empty fields on steep hillsides of the Palouse area around Pullman did have an erosion problem, but they could use special plowing techniques to address this problem.

Maybe the Federal Reserve can just print the money so we can afford to go into almost suspended animation. Put parts of the economy on hold for a while to help us become more resilient to this virus.

I've been biking around remaining at least 6 feet from people. Past a large construction site for apartments to deal with Bellingham's housing shortage. At least those people are still working.

I got to thinking that a lot of developers could go bankrupt due to boom and bust. As they finally stared building, now just about everyone laid off. This is where a great expansion of things like HUD Section 8 Vouchers would help society get through this.

Trump and his team like a dear in the headlights dealing with this pandemic crisis

Trump said he had no idea his pandemic response team was disbanded.

Republican philosophy does call for trimming extra government agencies; such as pandemic response commissions. I'm not surprised this is happening at all. Reminds me of a situation, many years ago, here in Bellingham, where they thought they could save money by selling off the snow plow fleet that is rarely needed. They thought it would be cheaper to contract to the private sector on rare occasions when there is heavy snow. Soon after that decision, a big snow hit and all chaos broke out.

Trump does seem to be stumbling along. I can imagine that it would be difficult to keep track of all the things going on in such a large bureaucracy as the White House and the government. It's believable that he doesn't remember all the details. This epidemic situation seems to be blindsiding people in power. Trump's responses to the questions are telling. One can imagine themselves in this situation. Of course he did ask for it in wanting that job.

So many people put up a facade that they are in control. As Trump stumbles along asking, "did that commission get eliminated?" the facade is paper thin, if existing at all. That may be a form of transparency. Some folks are comforted by Trump's ordinary person, folksy style. I'm less critical of that then I am of the policies; such as cutting things we need like Medicaid. Then spending more on bombers. That's Republican orthodoxy.



Whenever I see pictures of Mike Pence near Trump, he almost always has a worried look on his face. This picture is case in point. Pence, quite a bit smoother than Trump. He's like a stuffed shirt executive in the establishment looking like he's hoping it all doesn't go off the rails.

Our rat race economy has pushed people to the breaking point and now Coronavirus is exposing these vulnerabilities. Health is more important than money.

Given the news, I now think we are very likely to be headed into a major recession. The virus emergency is a shock to the economy. One big worry is when will this situation end? Social distancing can slow the spread, but until a vaccine is available, one wonders if spread of the virus may just keep picking up as soon as we let our "social distancing" guard down.

There may be better science about curbing the spread of epidemics than my speculation here, but this could be a long term problem. Let's hope warmer weather can help slow the disease season; so to speak.

Health is a real important thing. Without a cure or vaccine we are reliant on our immune systems. This brings up deep questions about our economy, politics and culture. The high stress world has made us more susceptible.

I think our economy has pushed humans to the breaking point. Not only do we have things like global warming stressing the environment, but we, humans are also at the breaking point. Have folks been getting enough sleep or is working more than one job and facing long commutes getting in the way?

Income inequality, along with the constant push for increased prosperity, is taking it's toll. Do people have sick leave, for instance?

Is our economy structured in such a way so we can slow down, at least temporarily, to ride things like this out? I think not. The bills are mounting. This may force us to do some major rethinking of the economy and even our culture. There may be some long term lessons here.

Maintaining one's health is a virtue that has been a bit of a low priority in the past. Maintaining health was not as easy to do while the bills were mounting.

I wonder if life has gotten back to normal, or near normal in places like Singapore that took drastic steps to stop the spread early on? How about China and can we trust information out of China?

The health of our immune systems are (I would think) an important factor in controlling the epidemic. When a vaccine is found, that is basically a boost to our immune systems. Meanwhile we depend on healthy living and things like hand washing. If life does go back to somewhat normal, even without a vaccine, that is encouraging. Otherwise the economy is in for a long slump. A vaccine would cause the stock market to rally, but remember, they still don't have a vaccine for AIDS. This may be different.

This epidemic may push us more toward a cyber, "work from home" economy. Such an economy was predicted during the internet euphoria of the 1990's.

Bernie or Biden. Not an easy slam dunk choice.

In many ways, it's not an easy "slam dunk" decision as to whether Biden or Bernie should be the democratic nominee. One important criterion is who will be more electable in the November general election. That's not really an easy guess either.

Some people think Bernie would be able to pull in more votes from angry lower income folks who are struggling and don't like the elites. They'd vote populist.

On the other hand much of the population of this country is still pretty conservative yet possibly a bit uncomfortable with Trump's wackiness. Crossover voters. Some Republicans and independents who Biden would be better at picking up. There's the Mitt Romney "Never Trumper" people and the constituency of Christianity Today that came out for Trump's removal from office. Still fairly conservative, but not really Trump fans.

Low interest rates are kind of a blunt tool for dealing with Coronavirus fears. Target new money toward true needs via government spending.

As stocks continue to slide and economic worries mount, it looks like the Federal Reserve is trying to shore up confidence with lower interest rates. Today on March 3 NPR Marketplace, I hear that lowering interest rates may not be the best tool to deal with this problem, but it's basically the only tool the Fed has.

I got to thinking that low interest rates mostly just cause people to buy property for investment purposes. Not really the solution we need. Just adds to long term property inflation.

What we need, to deal with this epidemic and the fear that goes along with it, are things like a stronger social safety net. Safety nets are what helps folks ride out things. It's better than going to work sick and spreading more disease.

This does bring up the whole question of investing in our people. Do workers have sick leave? Do workers have health insurance? Now that some people are being quarantined, do people have housing? In the news, it says that King County (Seattle area) has set up quite a few portable shelters to bring in homeless people who might be sick. Also they have bought a motel for quarantine use. Government spending. Other needs are things like research for a vaccine. Often it's government spending that comes to the rescue.

Seems like when the Fed prints money, it's needed to run the government. Maybe that's a new economic model, rather than raising taxes, print money and run the government that way. Government does an important job so it does need to be funded somehow. Some economists might be cringing, however.

Does anyone need to have billions of dollars? Maybe in this circumstance.

How much money is enough money? How many vacation mansions does one family need? Some people have way too much money. There's vast and growing wealth and income inequality. If everyone was alike, it would be a more boring world, but too much inequality is the other bad extreme.

Income inequality is often justified by the need that business has for capital to run the business. Someone doesn't need hundreds of millions for personal consumption, but the budget of a business may need to be in the millions, or the billions to meet the payroll and build the facilities that house the business.

If the money is invested in a business, that money is needed. Tax discussions need to take this into account, but for "pure luxury personal income," some people make way too much money for the health of society.

Andrew Yang had a good run. He's now dropped out of the 2020 race.

I remember Yang once saying that just influencing the discussion is a form of success for his presidential run. He always realized it was a long shot. My favorite candidates are Pete Buttigieg or Amy Klobuchar. Andrew Yang was one of my favorites also, but I would vote for any Democrat.

I'm hoping some of Yang's ideas and talents can stay in the discussion whoever the final nominee becomes. I like his analysis tho I think the idea of minimum income wasn't the best strategy for this campaign season. People quickly say, "we don't need that, unemployment is at record lows."

In the long run, or thinking more deeply beyond the sound bytes, there is downward pressure on wages due in part to efficiencies and automation. Meanwhile real estate prices and other things keep going up. Most workers need a better deal. Economics does need new thinking.

We need innovative thinking beyond just the stale old talking points of the left versus the right.

I would even vote for Billionaire Mike Bloomberg if he was the nominee. When that question came up on someone's Facebook wall, I wrote:

I would still vote for the Democrat; especially thinking about the prospect of a Supreme Court totally stacked with hard core right Republicans. There's the danger of all branches of federal government being run by one party; the Republicans.

As for Bloomberg being a billionaire, it isn't ideal, but it's up to us to push for the ideal after whoever gets into office. Given our celebrity culture, maybe it takes being a billionaire to have name recognition. Otherwise, gee, maybe I should run.

We the people often fail at living the ideal. We don't shop based on our politics as well as we might. We are the market forces. Corporate power and advertising corrupts us, but we are not totally helpless, or faultless. It is kind of a vicious cycle. Corporate influence and then our mass behavior in the market. "It's which came first, the chicken or the egg." For instance if people want them to do more about lowering carbon emissions; like having a carbon tax; we can't then turn around and complain about rising gasoline prices. We have to be the change we want to see in this world.

One reason why it's hard to pay teachers more. There are a lot of teachers.

Some folks say that teachers should be paid as much as lawyers or how about pro sports players. The problem is in the numbers. There are a lot more teachers than there are lawyers so it's harder to be elite if one is part of the majority, in some cases. School districts are often the biggest employers in a community. I think that usually teachers are paid moderately well compared to large segments of the workforce. Restaurant employees, janitors, gardeners, home healthcare workers, Uber drivers, security guards, for instance.

I remember thinking, back in the 1980's that teachers were fortunate to at least have health insurance. Back then, we were starting to realize that a large percent of the workforce didn't have health insurance. In the 1980's there was a big push to try and elevate teacher pay and also the pay of college professors. Various states were worried about loosing their talent, in these professions, to other states that paid more; like the grass is always greener on the other side. Brain drain. I remember thinking, back then, that someone needed to speak up for the many restaurant workers, and so forth, who didn't have healthcare.

Since the 1980's it does look like teacher pay hasn't gone up a huge amount relative to other more elite (in numbers of people involved) professions. It's hard to bring up a large group, compared to a small group such as elite lawyers or a handful of celebrity actors or football stars, or maybe a smaller number of highly specialized technicians. Sine the 1980's there has been a rise of elite tech workers. Smaller, in number than the vast number of teachers in each region. Tech workers are mostly concentrated in a few cities like Seattle and San Francisco Bay Area.

When labor unions shot themselves in the foot

I've often thought that unions led to their own demise, to some extent, back in the 1970's and 1980's. Back then, it seemed like the unions mostly just cared about their members working for a specific business. They would rise wages for Georgia Pacific employees, for instance, but didn't care that much about whether non unionized workers, say at a local restaurant, had access to healthcare. As less and less people were members of a union; members of a bargaining unit, the political constituency of union members dried up.

I remember when I heard, back in the recession days of the early 1980's, that one pretty much had to have a relative in a union to get an apprenticeship in the trades, such as in the plumbers union. They were trying to restrict entry into the trades to keep the wages of insiders up. Now days there is a very low percentage of the workforce; especially in private enterprise, that are in unions. Not that large of a constituency for political power in society as a whole anymore.

Now it's a different situation. I hear that there is a shortage people who do skilled trades. Entry into the field may be easier, now, but the unions have already lost their members and their political clout. These days, more of the economy is self employed, like Uber Drivers. Activism needs to look at the big picture and push for things like universal access to healthcare.

To address these problems, I think we really need to look at the big picture. Support things like healthcare access. Obamacare is an attempt at that. Also support things like affordable housing. Things that bring up all people rather than just certain union members or segments of the population. These days, it does seem like what is left of the unions is doing better at advocating the larger political issues rather than just concerned with the financial well being of their own members. Bottom line really should be quality of life and sustainability of the environment rather than just "how much can I get for my people;" so to speak.

Now it's nearly 40 years ago when PATCO (air controllers union) lost their battle with President Reagan. They went on strike and he fired them. Ironically, the PATCO union endorsed Reagan for president in 1980 in spite of Reagan's campaign rhetoric to cut government spending. The air controllers were government employees. They must have thought he would have made a special exception for them, but he did stand his ground and fired them in spite of their earlier endorsement of him. That endorsement was definitely a tactical mistake that even other unions didn't do.

I think it was a case of putting self interest over the big picture. I do remember that they were not just asking for more money, but better working conditions. Better working environment for air controllers equals safer situation for flying public. Some laudable goals, but they did pretty much loose it all. Endorsing Reagan, not long before that, was a bad idea. I wonder what they were thinking? They cut off the limb they were standing on. They endorsed Reagan, yet they were government workers. He was campaigning against government workers in general.

Now, many years later, this news situation is often seen as a watershed in history. My take on it is an example of self interest versus looking at the big picture.

Before internet dating, classified ads were skimpy for a reason.

Before internet dating sites, there was the meet-a-mate classified ads in newspapers. Back then, one had to pay by the word so the ads were usually pretty short. Like sound bytes. I wasn't into dating partially for that reason. Then when the internet got popular with it's unlimited space for messages and descriptions, I thought that would solve a lot of the problems that people going on dates face. Better, more detailed descriptions. One would know the person better before going on the date. Well, I guess that isn't really happening. The descriptions still tend to be quick. Maybe it's even moving faster now than before. I'm not into dating so I wouldn't know except just from what I can gather. There was also meeting in bars, back then, which encouraged alcohol use. I guess that's still happening to some extent now.

Ironically, the concept of life long committed relationships is often based on superficial things like first impressions. Another problem with dating is how competitive it can be. I think of the phrase, "the early bird gets the worm." Things can move pretty fast. Quite often people fall in and out of love at the drop of a hat.

Newspaper box I passed by, many years ago, from outdated and no longer in business dating publication.

One of several advantages Social Security has over most private retirement savings.

One advantage that Social Security has over private retirement savings. You aren't likely to be sued for your money because it's not your money. It's the public's money. You are just entitled to an income from it, but there's no lump sum that someone could try and take from you.

Distracted driving in the bad old days. Cellphone were called car phones when they first came out.

When cellphones first started coming out in the 1980's they were called "car phones." More recently, it's being realized that these things should not be used behind the wheel. Our ideas are evolving. They are called Smartphones today, or at least "smarter" than they were before.

Anger and fighting can definitely lead to friendly fire such as accidentally shooting down a civilian airliner

Hostility can backfire. I'm not a fan of anger and fighting. There has got to be better strategies to oppose an injustice.

Now it's clear that Iran accidentally shot down a civilian airliner with its citizens on board. I'm remembering, just a few days before this incident, a post I put here about accidentally blowing up the wrong temples in Israel. It was a "what if this were to happen" thought. Now this airliner incident has happened. A coincidence.

I'm not letting the US off the hook either. In 1988, we accidentally shot down an Iranian airliner.

Looking it up on Google, I find it was July 3rd 1988. I do remember it was not that long before the Fourth of July. There was quite a bit of shame and soul searching, within the US, after that incident.

I remember watching the Forth of July fireworks, that year, from Boulevard Park as they were shot out over the bay. A patriotic celebration, but definitely tempered with guilt.

Looks like there is soul searching in Iran over this recent incident as they accidentally shot down their own passengers. I'm glad they aren't still denying that it happened.

Often it is human nature to deny something in spite of overwhelming evidence. Total denial of climate change; for instance. I'd also put into the denial category, a lot of strongly held religious beliefs; for instance the 6 day creation story, or the tale of Noah's Ark, just the way it's written in holy scriptures. Questioning authority is valuable.

I also think that total sanctions against Iran is a bad idea. We need to think of better strategies to help the people of that country; especially the people who are trying to push for a better society.

Links to my New Year's Mailing and also an article about gravity waves

New Year's mailing I sent out to around 18 people that I still send to in the US Mail. It's kind of a summary of my year. Also talks about my possible plans for retirement, or at least maybe going even more part time; work wise at least.

In December of 2019, I reached the milestone of age 65. It means getting older as time keeps moving on, but it also feels like looking forward to a big vacation. I still remember (at times almost like it was just a few years ago) the last day of school. Anticipating that day just before the start of summer vacation was always a good experience from grade school all the way to college. More recently, I'd get that feeling before some bike trips.
New Year's 2020 On Flickr, click to enlarge.

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My latest article in the Betty Pages. In January. About the gravity wave detector we have here in Washington State. LIGO Hanford.

Detecting events in the universe, like collisions between two black holes. Events so catastrophic that it rattles the very fabric of time itself.
Article in January The Betty Pages about gravity waves On Flickr, click to enlarge.

Conservatism may come from the old white guard in conservative churches, but in liberal churches, it may come from the Third World

Welcoming banners for GLBTQ people at Garden Street Methodist, here in Bellingham.

Like a lot of denominations, the Methodist Church may be splitting into two factions if this recommendation goes through. Attempting to be an amicable split, however.

It's interesting to note that these splits, which have been happening within liberal Christian denominations, are different than the politics of more conservative; fundamentalist denominations.

In conservative churches, the old, white "America first" conservatives are a said to rule the day. In liberal churches, it's the western, American, Canadian, European side that's more liberal while African and other third world sides tend to be more conservative. The Methodist denomination tends to be liberal, in the west at least, from what I gather.

The split here is on gay rights and also on theology. How literally do theologians take the so called "clobber" passages, in the bible, about homosexuality? In this case, the west, which could tend to be more white, also tends to be more liberal.

Personally, I am quite a critic of the conservatism that has its roots in the third world, or maybe it's roots are still in the west as it's often said to be a vestige of past colonial conservatism.

One thing that doesn't get discussed much, but I think about a lot, is the problem of overpopulation. I think that conservative attitudes about sexuality don't serve the third world well. Rapid population growth can bring on lots of poverty, misery and environmental destruction. The third world needs more women's rights, birth control and gay rights.

I know someone who was at a recent conference related to the split within the Methodist Denomination. He said that a delegate, from Africa, said something like. "You colonizers told us to do it a certain way, like saying homosexuality is a sin." "Now you've changed your mind." It seemed like he was saying that the African delegation would try and hold us, westerners to our original word.

Bush Jr. delivered Iraq to Iran on a silver platter made from our money

The US has stumbled along. In the 1990's we fought a war against the Sunni led government of Iraq after Iraq invaded Kuwait. That war was largely to defend stability in the oil world.

Then, after that war, we thought we had made a mistake by abandoning the majority Shiite population, in Iraq, who were still under the boot of the Sunni lead government of Saddam Hussein. We went back to help out the poor Shiite majority that we had abandoned and left to languish as they were caught between Hussein's brutality and our economic sanctions on Iraq.

The second war delivered Iraq to it's Shiite majority and to Shiite led Iran. Delivered to Iran on a silver platter made from our money.

Then we realized that was a mistake and have been trying to patch up ever since. Now hostility is kicking into high gear between the US and Iran.

Fighting over the sacred places

There is lots of feuding between religious people in this world. Not all religious people, of course, but it does seem prevalent; especially among fundamentalists. Much of that fighting happens around what are sometimes called the "Holy Lands," like where Israel / Palestine now resides.

Over the years, I've sometimes thought that it would be poetic justice if someone hellbent on destroying a nation, such as Israel, or Palestine, for that matter, Accidentally destroyed holy sites that they, themselves hold as sacred. So many of these sites that are highly regarded among the 3 religions of Islam, Judaism and Christianity are in very close proximity to one another. An errant weapon could easily destroy the wrong temple. Seems like such a mistake would serve angry religious leaders, who would launch such a weapon, right.

Now it looks like our leader, Donald Trump, is toying with the idea of purposely destroying sacred sites. This wouldn't be an accident; like in my above thought, but on purpose. Trump does, of course, still have the backing of a lot of fundamentalist Christians in USA. Religious feuding continues.

If this were to happen on purpose, rather than just as "collateral damage," it would be on the level of ISIS destroying Ancient Roman sites in Syria or the Taliban destroying the large Buddhas that were built into the cliffs of Afghanistan. It's a race to the bottom.

Proposal to ban natural gas heating in Bellingham may be just a gimmick to appease consumer guilt about energy consumption

When someone ask me, on Facebook, what I thought about the proposed ban, (written about in New York Times 01/05/2020. Bellingham made the New York Times). Here's what I wrote.

On first thought, I think the ban is probably not a good idea, but worth discussing. I kind of think the ban on natural gas is a "feel good" thing. A lot of "liberals" like the idea. I consider myself a liberal, but this is grabbing at straws. Trying to do "something" when more effective measures; such as a carbon tax, aren't likely to pass voters.

Problem with a natural gas ban is that much of our electricity comes from natural gas anyway. We really need to cut down consumption, but that is politically more difficult. Electrifying everything doesn't help; especially if much of the electricity comes from natural gas.

Maybe we should ban, or heavily tax, fossil fuel consuming automobiles, but that would never pass the voters either.

A philosophy behind banning natural gas is that electricity is more versatile. If something, like a furnace, runs on natural gas, it has to be that one fuel. Electricity can be sourced from a wide variety of sources, including solar, wind, nuclear (dare I say nuclear) and so forth. This is said to help push us toward things like solar. Also natural gas is said to be problematic due to methane leaks all along the way.

Ideally, an all electric, solar powered world is good, but it isn't easy to get there, given people's greed and unwillingness to consume less if the cost of solar is (at least in the short run) higher. Natural gas is less expensive for the average consumer than baseboard heating and the baseboard heating might still be coming from power generated by natural gas.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, a large percent of our electricity comes from hydroelectric power, but we just don't have enough rivers to supply our growing population and prosperity. As we keep growing, the percent of our power that comes from hydro tends to drop. Natural gas, wind and other green energy sources make up the difference. We still have a moratorium against wind power sites in much of Whatcom County. Worry about bats, birds and the aesthetics of wind turbines. Hydro power has it's problems too. The effect on salmon migration. There are proposals to breach many of our hydroelectric dams.

Advocates for this ban are pushing for heat pump technology. That is more efficient than baseboard heating. Heat pump means "refrigerating the outside," such as ground and roof areas, to transfer the heat inside. It tends to work best in mild climates.

If it gets too cold outside, the heat pump is working too much "uphill," so to speak and many heat pump systems have resistance electric heating as backup. Baseboard is a form of resistance heating. Sometimes they have the resistance coils right inside the heat pump unit to switch on as backup when the heat pump isn't able to keep up with demand.


Washington Square High Rise Apartments.

Interesting to note, the 8 story building, I live in (Washington Square HUD Housing), has a heat pump system, so I hear. It just works for the hot water system. I don't know a lot about it, but I think it provides at least part of our hot water by "refrigerating" the ground around the building and putting the transferred heat into our hot water.

I also hear that heat pump systems are fairly expensive to install. The regular heating, in this building, is from a natural gas boiler that heats water for the radiators in each apartment. The system works well.

Probably the most efficient thing about this building is the fact that 97 apartments are all together in one building with little surface area for heat loss. Not a lot of land is taken for 97 people.

We also have solar panels on the roof. I hear it provides about 10% of the building's electricity. Only 10% because a fairly tall building doesn't have a lot of roof area exposed to the sun versus the number of folks living here.

Of course one could note that by 2040, when this proposed ban would take effect (if they don't push it up to 2035), the world could be a lot different; especially if climate change is as serious as many people think it is.