Friday April 1, 2016

Elon Musk held a party and 100,000 folks pre ordered the next car model.

One succeeds in the car business by building cars people want to buy.  A 200 mile range is claimed.

Friday April 1, 2016

Free College Tuition? Not Exactly!
By
Alan Preston, MHA, Sc.D.
I must confess, I never thought so many Americans would be attracted to a self-described socialist running for president. As one who has embraced our constitution and what I thought were universal American values, such as liberty, freedom, capitalism, and individuality; I have been surprised by the vast appeal of socialism, particularly by the younger generation of this country. After talking to many of those youthful Americans, it has become clear as to one of the reasons they like Bernie Sanders; free tuition! To be fair, Hillary Clinton also supports “free” tuition.

Looking at the Bernie Sanders website, there is a statement that has resonated with many Americans: free tuition! The Sanders plan would make tuition free at public colleges and universities throughout the country. Who, going to college, would not want free tuition?

Of course, the devil is in the details. Note that Bernie Sanders qualifies what type of college or university is subject to a government subsidy to make tuition “free” to everyone who wants to attend. The qualification is for PUBLIC colleges and universities. Of course, this should be no surprise for anyone who understands the philosophy of socialism. Socialism does not support private enterprise. Private enterprises may be the enemy of socialism.
In transforming America to a socialist country from a capitalistic country, a brilliant way to accomplish the transformation is to appeal the various groups in giving them “free” tuition in this case. Of course there are implications to the private universities in competing with a public university that offers free tuition. If you are a parent and your child wants to go to college, will you pay 35k per year to go to a private college or university, or would you save the 35k or more per year ($140,000 + for the 4 years) and send your child to a public system? The answer to this question should be obvious!

What will happen to the private colleges and universities that want to attract students? A lot of the costs that goes into the price of college tuition is the fixed infrastructure in buildings and faculty who teach the esoteric subjects in their field of expertise. Additionally, there are capacity restraints that make economies of scale difficult to achieve in a university setting. Thus, one reason the tuition is high these days. Of course, private colleges and universities will lose many students under the Bernie Sanders plan and many will go out of business and the few that survive, will more than likely, have to increase their tuition. That can’t be good for the middle class.

Another implication for free tuition is that public schools will receive an overwhelming number of students applying to their institution for a finite number of fixed slots. The effect will be to crowd out any student who does not achieve a 4.0. If a student has a 3.2 and is otherwise a great student and has tremendous capability, they are likely to be denied due to capacity issues. So much for helping the middle class! Bernie fails to address the millions of students that will apply for a limited number of spaces. How does he address the sheer number of students that will be turned away as a result of capacity issues? I guess that is a detail he fails to address. So free tuition is not a guarantee that you will get into a college or university and almost assuredly will deny more applicants that they accept. This is a socialistic principal that all socialist seems to forget to disclose. It creates a waiting “line” for those students who want to go to college but can’t due to capacity restraints. In Venezuela last year, a Reuters article described the waiting lines as follows: “…the lines symbolize the economic incompetence and inevitable scarcities of socialism.” For the college applicant who was denied a free slot, the free tuition plan will not seem all that equitable anymore.

Of course, when you are trying to create a socialistic nation, this is indeed a great plan. You can appeal to those who want “free” things and then get the public sector to provide the free stuff at the expense of the private sector. It will wipe out the private sector and in a socialistic society, that is ok. Because socialist have a view that capitalist make too much money on the backs of the working class. If you want to achieve “income equality” you first have to go after the wealthy and confiscate their wealth by taxing them at a rate of 90% or more and then transform the private industries to public entities.

The Bernie Sanders plan is not about free tuition; it is about transforming this country that was founded on the principals of freedom, individual liberty, private property, and capitalism. Socialism is about central planning and thus not about individual freedom and liberties. Socialism tries to achieve “equality” of outcomes through mandates while the American capitalistic system achieves “equal opportunity” that allows individuals to succeed or fail on their own and thus there is no guarantee of either.

One model has been superior to all others if we look at history. In over 200 years, the United States with the idea that a Federal Government would be established by the people for the people, has produced the greatest number of wealthy individuals in the world! And that has attracted millions to flee to the USA in hopes of the American Dream of unprecedented opportunity. Our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is over 16 trillion dollars a year; the highest of the 190 countries in the world.

Socialist countries unfortunately do not and have not achieved such success. Their model zaps the incentive to create greatness because in doing so, will get the income created by great ideas confiscated and redistributed to those who do not desire to create greatness. So the most productive members of the socialist society get punished and the least productive members of a socialist society are rewarded for little to no productivity. A model that stifles the most productive members of society. Of course, those countries never have to worry about people flocking to their borders trying to get in because of individual opportunities; because there are none.

The lesson we should learn is be careful what you wish for, because you may get more than what you bargained for.

Friday March 25, 2016

Kirk Tuck's Visual Science Lab is one of my favorite weblogs. In this post, How Sharp Does It Need to Be

he tells an interesting story about a client who said they wanted a really top notch photo that could be blow up a large size say 40 in by 60 in.

After haggling the intermediary did not call back, but Kirk did. Read the link to find out what happened.

Once again, quality wins the race.