Price Gouging!

I realize I've been pretty lame as far as posting original content goes lately. Once midterms are over I can hopefully have thoughts of my own.

This is one of my favorite political cartoons ever. I saw it in a New Yorker in a waiting a few years ago and it never really left me. The fact that I found it in under 15 seconds on Google is one of those staggering things I know my damn future kids won't appreciate.

The reason I like this so much is because it points out the moral double standard we have for businesses. Everything people do (with maybe a few exceptions) throughout their day is done to maximize their personal benefit. If you are one of the people I know who love to rant about "evil price gouging companies" then take an extra few dollars out of your pay check for no reason.

How The Stock Market Works

"Can you say Ramadan on Fox News?"

This is a great unedited interview with Jon Stuart and Bill O'Reilly. Stuart demonstrates his true brilliance as he walks the tight rope that is an O'Reilly interview. Throughout the interview O'Reilly tries to trap Jon Stuart by making sweeping generalizations and cutting down straw men while Stuart tactfully avoids them all while making excellent points and still being hilarious (although only one person somewhere on the set was actually laughing at his jokes).

I remember when I used to watch Bill O'Reilly with my mom and would marvel at how they could let someone like him on television. Now, as the interview points out, Bill O'Reilly is one of the more boring, middle of the road guys on Fox. He actually graduated from my high school and came to speak at career day. You wouldn't think it possible but he is a way bigger asshole in person. During his speech he managed to shoot down both women and the underclass before answering pre-screened questions from students (the year before some kid asked him about his sex scandal and it did not go well).

Socialism!

I'm not sure who wrote this but I stole it off Jake's Facebook feed, interesting point.

This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the US department of energy. I took a shower in the clean water provided by the municipal water utility. After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC regulated channels to see what the national weather service of the national oceanographic and atmospheric administration determined the weather was going to be like using satellites designed, built, and launched by the national aeronautics and space administration. I watched this while eating my breakfast of US department of agriculture inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the food and drug administration.

At the appropriate time as regulated by the US congress and kept accurate by the national institute of standards and technology and the US naval observatory, I get into my national highway traffic safety administration approved automobile and set out to work on the roads built by local, state, and federal departments of transportation., possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the environmental protection agency, using legal tender issued by the federal reserve bank. On the way out the door I deposit any mail I have to be sound out via the US postal service and drop the kids off at the public school.
After work, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to a house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and fire marshal’s inspection, and which has not been plundered of all it’s valuables thanks to the local police department.

I then log onto the internet which was developed by the defense advanced research projects administration and post on freepublic.com and fox news forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can’t do anything right.

Crazy Violinist At Penn Station

Michael Shulman  by  md9

I was walking through Penn Station yesterday and came across this guy who's name is apparently Michael Shulman. At first I just thought he was a crazy street performer. He was drawing a huge crowd so I took a closer look and realized he is, well, a crazy street performer but an incredibly talented one none the less. He was absolutely shredding this electric violin while playing samples and dancing as well as playing some covers of everything from Britney Spears to Michael Jackson. He would put his violin riffs on loop and they play on top of them. The crowd was going crazy for him.
More Michael Shulman  by  md9

It turns out he has a website and everything. His bio is unbelievable. He came here from Russia when he was 17 without knowing one person here or a word of English. He also doesn't practice songs and just improvs everything he does. I bought a CD from him an uploaded the tracks.

Free The Grapes!

Enough is enough, it is time to free the grapes. As I mentioned in The Long Tail, Making Your Life Awesome Since 2004 we are shifting away from an economy of high sales of a few items to low sales of LOTS of items. Everywhere you look choices are becoming more numerous and products increasingly customized. However, if you happen to be a wine lover in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky,Tennessee,Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Utah, Montana or South Dakota I'm afraid you are out of luck. There, state law prohibits direct shipping of alcohol, meaning if you are a wine drinker in one of these states you must do something unthinkable to most Americans, get it yourself! Still, the real issue here isn't so much that you have to haul yourself down to Bottle Buy but the severe limitations that puts on your freedom of selection. Going to a store means having to pick from only the wines they offer as opposed to EVERY WINE AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET.

The nature of enjoying wine makes these laws particularly disenfranchising. When it comes to drinking wine each individual has a myriad of their own specific likes and dislikes. The extensive information and selection offered online lets you find wines that you personally will enjoy instead of rolling the dice with the suggestion of the shaggy 19 year old behind the counter of your local liquor store.
Internet wine companies also help support small businesses that lack the necessary brand recognition or access to distribution channels to get their quality wines to the people who would enjoy them. My Wines Direct for example screens thousands of wines from small vineyards all over the world to come up with savory gems for your enjoyment.
Free The Grapes! is a national, grassroots coalition of consumers, wineries and retailers who seek to remove restrictions on wine direct shipping. Maryland and New Jersey are two particular battlegrounds that are on the fence.
While politicians and economists scramble to find remedies to this recession, they fail to realize there are economic impediments right under their noses that benefit no one. If you would like to help overturn such laws check out the Free the Grapes! website. Until then, Pennsylvania wine lovers, maybe you can talk your New York neighbors into trading for some fireworks.

Awesome Chat Roulette Video

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Marx Dougherty

I've been thinking a lot lately about the philosophical Jacob Black to Milton Friedman's Edward Cullen (Twilight reference, and yes, I saw it), Karl Marx. I am always frustrated by people who write off Karl Marx with the faint hearted logic that since communism "failed" he has no insight to offer. Worse are those who dismiss him based purely on the negative connotations of his name in the context of our capitalist society. I think some of Marx' ideas have particularly relevant applications to our world today especially as we are seeing a rapid increase in the exploitation of the lower class by the upper class.

Before you get all excited and start throwing around words that start with "S" and "C"(no, not shit or cunt, those words are far more acceptable in America)I would like to point out that I am not a man of distinct political or ideological orientation so much as one who simply enjoys the intellectual exercise of looking at ideas form different perspectives.

Karl Marx wore a lot of hats; philosopher, sociologist, revolutionary, economist..etc. but as of late I have found his sociological insights particularly interesting.

According to Marx there are two groups in the capitalist system, the capitalists (upper class) and the proletariat (lower class). The capitalists have the majority of the wealth and therefore possess the majority of the influence. They use this influence to maintain their dominance over the proletariat. Two important factors that allow this occur are the relationship between the capitalists and the state and the relationship between the capitalists and the proletariat. According to Marx it is the primary function of the state to promote the interests of the capitalists. Since the capitalists control the wealth they can influence the state to act on their behalf. As for the relationship between the capitalists and the proletariat, the capitalists extract their wealth from the proletariat through what is called surplus value extraction (explained later). The most important part of this relationship is that the proletariat are unaware of the nature of their relationship to the capitalists. The state has no real interest in the well being of the proletariat because the proletariat has nothing to offer or persuade them with.

Now lets see how this compares with the present day...

In recent years the stratification between the rich and poor has grown at a devastating pace. In 1980, on average, CEOs at 365 of the largest publicly traded U.S. companies earned 42 times more than their average worker. By 1990 the ratio had increased to 85. Thats nothing compared to 2000 when the same CEOs made 531 times more than their average worker. I know what you Friedman(or Glen Beck for those who prefer patriotism over reading)fans out there are thinking. "The reason they make so much is because they are the most skilled and therefore require higher pay". I wouldn't argue against this for a second if the level of compensation was an accurate reflection of ability. According to advocacy group UFE, U.S. CEOs pay rose 313% from 1990 to 2003 while corporate profits gained only 128%. Its hard to argue that we don't have severe class stratification when the top 10% wealthiest Americans control 90% of the wealth.

The relationship between the capitalists and the state is always the one I find most personally upsetting. Almost every aspect of government in the U.S. is heavily influenced by its corresponding corporate sector. In my post Normal Food I talked about how judges and higher ups of the FDA have "close" relationships with major food producing corporations such as Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas previously heading up the legal team of Montesano. Even more disturbing is that FDA Deputy Commissioner on Policy Michael Taylor represented Montesano in the lawsuit over whether they should have to label genetically modified food (they won). On the international level the U.S. government forces third wold countries trapped in debt to sign massive contracts with U.S. corporations such as Haliburton (sound familiar?) and Bethel. These countries are also forced into privatizing government assets which extracts common wealth from the native people and sends it back to those corporations (ex people of Ecuador losing their oil reserves to Texcao).

The relationship between the Capitalists and Proletariat is subtle yet at the same time paraded around for all to see. In Marx' theory he talks about surplus value extraction. Surplus value extraction in a nutshell: Value is created through labor...workers create a certain amount of value throughout the day...instead of keeping the value they create they are given a small fraction of that in their wage...the capitalist extracts that surplus value that worker just created in exchange for a low wage and keeps the majority of the value. The most curios part of this relationship is the Proletariat's lack of awareness of the relationship. After a long hard day working for a proportionately miniscule wage what does the worker do with it? Gives that money right back to the capitalists. Its amazing in todays society how enamored we have become with material goods. This frenzied consumerism has stemmed from corporate demand for growth. In America we live in a fully saturated market. Everyone (except those who can't afford it) has everything they need. Therefore the only way for corporations to grow is to create wants so we can continue spending. The point of Walmart is that since everything costs less you can get more stuff. Their official slogan is "Save Money, Live Better". Nobody can deny that when you walk out of Walmart after finding an incredibly great deal you feel like you have somehow won. You have more "stuff" and you got it at Walmarts expense. In reality you have siphoned money out of your community and sent it back to Walmart headquarters so you can enjoy the cheap thrill of a short term gain at the expense of your community in the long run.




I realize all these points beg deeper explanation but I'm also aware that nobody wants to read a ten page paper (or maybe even brief blog post) about the modern applications of Karl Marx.

One of my favorite (and true) anecdotes regarding capitalists:
In his last dying days Andrew Carnegie sought rapprochement with his former business partner Henry Clay Flick. Upon being asked to make up Frick responded "Carnegie, we are both going to hell and I will see you there!"

Did you bring it?

I have no idea what this commercial could be implying

Affirmative Action

"I don't think I should get a job I don't deserve over a white man, but if its tie...fuck em." Chris Rock

First I'd like to thank all you high school and college students for breaking the mold. The link I posted on Facebook with the caption "post about marijuana" led to The Business Behind Getting High being the most popular post yet.





This pretty much says it all


Right now I'm writing a paper for my business ethics class on affirmative action. I'm supposed to determine whether it is morally right in certain situations for a company to set a quota for how many minorities they hire. At first glance this sounds outrageously immoral but upon logically analyzing the situation it seems to make perfect sense in some cases, specifically in those pertaining to larger societal discriminations that limit the opportunity for minorities to educate themselves to the point where they can join the skilled labor force. I've always believed in reparations but writing a check to the disadvantaged doesn't do anything to correct the broken system in place. Instead I think reparations should be provided through educational opportunities where people have an actual chance to better themselves. At this point I am putting off this paper so fervently that I've resorted to still writing about affirmative action but in a different medium.
I realize people hate engaging in almost any internet activity that doesn't increase their immediate social capital but I'd love to hear people's opinions on this. If you don't know what I mean by social capital read my post The Whopper Sacrifice

The Business Behind Getting High

I just finished watching a documentary about marijuana called "The Union: The Business Behind Getting High" and I thought it was excellent. It raised too many interesting points for me to cover in one blog post so I figured I would just put up the video itself. Let's be honest, you aren't doing anything important right now anyway.

"Friends Don't Let Friends Plead Guilty"

Where there's a demand there's a supply



I got this off the Freakonomics blog linked to the right of this page.

12 Biggest Ripoffs in America

An interesting blog post from billshrink.com

http://www.billshrink.com/blog/7636/the-12-biggest-ripoffs-in-america/

According to them the 12 biggest ripoffs in America are as follows

Movie Theater Popcorn
Text Messages
College Text Books
Brand Painkillers
"Free" Credit Reports
Wine Service at Restaurants
Hotel Mini-Bars
All You Can Eat Buffets
Premium Gasoline
Actively Managed Investments
In-Room Movies
Health Club Memberships
Ink Cartridges

New Official U.S. Emblem

Just Throw It In The Bank

I'll admit that in typical honky fashion I misunderstood the words to this song the first time I heard it on the radio. Instead of saying "bag" I initially thought he was saying "bank", which made sense to me since he starts by saying "I got that black amex aka that throw it in the bag (or bank) card". Although I now know the real lyrics I still enjoy listening to the song while assuming he is instead saying "bank" and talking about shamelessly acquiring copious amounts of credit card debt (give it a try). In this assumption of mine, Fabulous understands that he has no choice but to maintain a certain standard of living in the present regardless of what that equates to in the future. It doesn't matter that he is making disastrous long run decisions because HAS TO remain fly in the present.

Like most Americans, this song always makes me think about bank bailouts and where all those toxic assets really went. Everyone would agree that the recession we are theoretically coming out of has been an uncomfortable burden to bare but shouldn't it have been a lot worse? We aren't just talking about the dot-com bubble bursting or a housing market slump but the collapse of our entire banking system. As aggravated as all the populist rhetoric about bank bailouts is, they are what has allowed us to maintain this relatively stable, comfortable standard of living. Although we averted disaster via the government buying up bank's toxic assets that doesn't mean the problem just went away. It's not like there was some massive surplus in a glass case labeled "IN CASE OF RECESSION BREAK GLASS". So where did those toxic assets go? They got added on to the already enormous US debt, debt that we as a country have to pay interest on. Instead of dealing with the real recession we were supposed to face we have essentially thrown it on a credit card (call it China Express) to maintain the standard of living that has become ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY to America. Saying some banks are too big to fail is like saying Fabulous is too famous to be broke. I personally do not know enough to argue whether or not we should have bailed out the banks. However, I can say that I'm happy to be blogging on my laptop at college instead of standing on a bread line on Long Island.



Although those were all assumptions that I was making about Fabulous I can't help but suspect he needed to make some extra money on the side. Case and point, when I googled his name to find a picture for this post I discovered he was recently arrested for having 500lbs of marijuana on his tour bus en route from the NBA All Star Game in Phoenix to Boston where he claims to have been going to "pick up someone who's name he could not remember". I told myself I wasn't going to make a bailout joke here and I'm sticking to that.

Support YOUR Shirtless Dancing Guy

Here's a hilarious and surprisingly insightful video about leadership.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

The Golden Corral

It was six o'clock on a Sunday evening, three hours down and four remaining in our long drive home from the Mardi Gras Parade in Burlington, VT to Geneseo, NY. Broke, tired and hungry, we were not quite ready to succumb to the dismal quality of Mickey D's and pressed onward by mandate of a higher calling. Applebee's, TGI Friday's, Friendly's, all reasonably priced establishments of respectably higher quality. In the midst of discussing which one we should stop at we came across a Golden Corral. While The Golden Corral may sound like somewhere Abraham might have sacrificed his best ram in the Old Testament, it is actually an all you can eat BBQ and grill franchise. We had never seen one before but I personally had always found their commercials to be generic, failed imitations of the adds of their competitors. However, they must have done something right because the second we stumbled across it excitement washed over us like a Mardi Gras crowd catching a glimpse of the first float. We knew where we were eating that evening.

Hastily parking the car, we shuffled in amongst the flood of anxious Sunday night diners. We stood at the end of a long line leading up to the cash register where you were granted entry to the buffet. We'd never seen anything like this. The electricity in the air spoke more of a highly anticipated playoff game than the waiting lounge of a T.G.I. Friday's. Shocked by the droves of outwardly excited dinners, we chatted apprehensively about what it must be like inside. A rather corpulent woman behind Harrison, Gavin and I overheard that it was our fist time and chimed in about how excited she was for us as if we were children experiencing our first Christmas. During the wait we got in our fair share of people watching and quickly realized the extent to which we stood out, what with our lack of obesity and tattoos. After much anticipation we finally made it to the front of the line. Cost of admission is ten dollars, the exact amount of cash I had left, this place is a godsend. All rung up and ready for the dinning experience of a lifetime, we were handed our trays and unleashed upon the Golden Corral.

We were met by a spread of steak cooked any way you could want it and chicken prepared in every manner imaginable, not to mention a myriad of fish and shrimp. Plates heaving, we settled into our designated table and got down to business. The steak was a little tough, thats alright there's still chicken. Eh, the chicken's greasier than expected. How many years has this seafood been frozen and where does the breading end and fish begin? Well it is all you can eat for ten dollars and thats still a great deal, we settled, and continued plowing through the spread. We made numerous rounds to and from the buffet acquiring an army of plates yielding dishes with only one or two bites taken out of each. After what only felt like five or ten minutes we began to slow down, and I don't just mean rate of consumption. A grogginess we had never experienced before was suddenly cast upon us. Feeling more under the influence of cough syrup than tryptophan, our conversations began to space out more and more with each bite. We sat there surveying our surroundings in silence. Our once delectable, yet frugal oasis was quickly fading into a temple of gluttony before our eyes. "Where the hell are we?" I asked. After a few moments of numb silence my friend Harrison simply replied "We're in a college dinning hall." Looking around us we all burst out in uncontrollable fits of laughter realizing we had just paid ten dollars for five dollar meals in order to subsidize the 25 dollar meal of the 300 lb. woman behind us in line. Woozy and downtrodden, we returned to the car to spend the next four hours thinking about how many years of our lives we had just taken off. As we got settled and buckled our seat belts we looked at the clock. We had just lost a full hour in the wormhole of American gluttony that is The Golden Corral.