Category: entitlement generation

The Children Are Our Future

Children R Our Future entitlement generation Great Reset 7 Comments

And that’s why I’ve learned how to make pemmican.

This sense of demoralized ennui and bitter cynicism was created on purpose, by battalions of Marxist educators and popular culture. They worked hard to sever the natural bonds between young people and their family, culture, and nation, creating a generation of angry orphans.

The result of this educational program was not a generation of proud free thinkers, but rather a sea of despondent youth who are easily recruited to fanatical causes because they were taught to distrust traditions, family, capitalist freedom, and even humanity itself.

Zombie Nation

entitlement generation It's Probably Nothing nannystate Tommy Douglas: Not Dead Enough 23 Comments

When a business’ interest expense exceeds its profit, it is typically called a “zombie corporation”. It’s quite possible that Canada is going down a similar path right now. While the federal government doesn’t turn a profit, per se, major spending items are well on track to be utterly dwarfed by interest payments.

But the truly stunning figure is not just the size of the annual deficit, which is holding at $40 billion pending a red-ink tidal-wave next year to pay for massive-ticket items like the estimated $11-billion national pharmacare tab and looming fighter jet purchases.

In just five years that debt-financing tab will hit the jaw-dropping intersection where the $60-billion cost of paying interest approximates the cost of all federal transfers for health care.

Tax Bonanza

Alternative Subsidy entitlement generation Media 13 Comments

What productive business wouldn’t like a 35% tax credit for each employee they hire? Oh, wait, that’s a perk reserved for truly unproductive businesses. It’s the modern day equivalent of subsidies for the buggy whip industry, primarily designed to pay off Justin’s water carriers.

The government’s fall economic statement announced an increase to the Canadian Journalism Tax Credit, a refundable tax credit allowing qualifying news outlets to claim up to 35 per cent of up to $85,000 in salary for a qualified employee.

They Were Promised There Would Be No Math

Children R Our Future entitlement generation 34 Comments

it’s been an article of faith for decades that those with college degrees out earn those without. and it clearly shows up in the data.

the correlation is unmistakable. but, and this is a massive but, that does not mean what many suspect. it does not mean that “college creates earnings and opportunity.” for many, it starts to seem to mean the opposite: college is lost opportunity and vast expenditure and debt accumulation that will never pay for itself. and a lot of this comes down to bad expectations and a form of “lake wobegon fallacy” of statistical illiteracy.

the percentage of americans getting college degrees has exploded from around 4% in 1940 to the mid 37%’s now and this actually understates the issue as this is just the number who successfully completed a 4 year degree. over 70% of recent high school grads enroll in college which means that around 45% of 16-24 year olds are enrolled in college and more than half were at some point. what was once 1 in 20 is now 1 in 2. and that’s a VERY different thing and this is where the cargo cult emerges:

an institution for the top 5 percentiles of a society is a very different place than an institution for the whole top half. it must be structured differently, work differently, place different demands, and perhaps most of all: it’s output and the outcomes of those who attended are going to be different. college is not magic. it does not make people more motivated or smarter. it may select for these traits, it does not make those who attend “higher percentile” in terms of innate ability or expected outcome.

past a point, it may be inflicting harm and i would argue that based on the promises and expectations, it’s creating a mathematical impossibility.

it seems like every kid who enrolls in college is expecting to be in the top 10-20% of earners. this is sort of “the deal” that folks are buying into. but if 50% of society is enrolling, it’s obviously impossible. the real world is not lake wobegon. we cannot all be above average. half of society cannot be a top 10% earner and that’s the sort of outcome being mistaken for the marker of “went to college” a thing that used to all but unerringly signify “top decile” but that does so no longer. somewhere on the order of 3/4 of them are going to wind up being disappointed. they have to be. it’s just math. (perhaps this is why high schools and universities seem so increasingly loathe to teach it?)

It just so happens: “The average scores in three of the four subjects featured on the test – mathematics, reading and science – were below the ACT College Readiness Benchmarks. The benchmarks are the minimum ACT test scores required for students taking the test to have a high probability of success in college.”

Zombie apocalypse

entitlement generation Great Reset It's Probably Nothing nannystate 28 Comments

The only upside I can see in this story is that most governments in the world are in even worse financial shape than the U.S. federal government. But that will just delay the inevitable.

Some good news for a change…

Cronies entitlement generation Media 19 Comments

I’m surprised that the federal government has not rushed in to bail out TVA, but in the meantime, it’s nice to see the continuing implosion of the leftist corporate media model.

The TVA Group says it is laying off 547 employees — nearly a third of its workforce — amid restructuring as the company contends with declining audiences and ad revenues.

The Montreal-based broadcaster says the shift involves overhauling its news division, ending its in-house entertainment content production and optimizing its real estate assets — including a reconsideration of the future use of its headquarters east of downtown.

An offer he can’t refuse

Cronies entitlement generation There Goes The Narrative 10 Comments

As the strike by workers at Manitoba Public Insurance drags on, Wab Kinew is finding out that the very people that he thought were carrying water for him during the election are not as grateful as he had hoped. If he didn’t see this coming, then it’s pretty clear that the guy is already in over his head. If he’s not careful, he’ll be the next Bob Rae.

The MPI strike lasting more than two months will continue after the union representing the workers rejected an offer from the employer Monday.

MGEU members voting “overwhelmingly” to turn down the offer, according to union president Kyle Ross.

Doomsdays

entitlement generation nannystate 16 Comments

The term “doom loop” very accurately describes what is going on in Argentina right now. Despite the chaos gripping the economy, voters seem to be somewhat favoring the Peronist candidate who pledges to keep the free stuff flowing along with the resultant chaos as opposed to a fan of Von Mises and Hayek who would institute widespread free market reforms and stop the collapse.

Demonstrating a doom-loop in which crises caused by big government prompt citizens to increase their demands for for big government, a bricklayer en route to the voting booth told Reuters, “Peronism is the only space that offers the possibility that the poorest of us can have basic things at our fingertips.”

I can think of a few other nations on that same path. Can you?

The Children Are Our Future

Children R Our Future entitlement generation 36 Comments

And that’s why I won’t leave the house this winter without my Firebox Titanium Nano Stove.

I just fired a student, a first for me. 55 minutes into our THIRD session on his college personal statement, I started seeing lines get crossed out in the Google doc, and EDITED by a third person. He said “I have someone else looking at my essay now, I’ll tell her to wait.
I asked “Who is this other person?” He said “She’s a friend of the family, a professional grant writer, and she helped her son get into University of Chicago.”

Flushing capital

entitlement generation nannystate 20 Comments

Rising compliance costs are one big reason for the sharp increase in housing and construction prices, and while some levels of government express concern and desire to lower those costs, other jurisdictions can’t wait to saddle builders with even bigger burdens.

B.C. construction projects with more than 25 workers must have access to a flushable toilet, according to a law to be introduced by Premier David Eby.

Milking consumers

Alternative Subsidy Cronies entitlement generation nannystate 35 Comments

I suggest we go one step further: simply close down supply mismanagement and end the marketing boards altogether.

Voting for dollars

entitlement generation nannystate Tommy Douglas: Not Dead Enough 34 Comments

Any predictions out there as to who is going to triumph in the Manitoba provincial election being held on October 3rd?

Here’s mine: The tax and spend party is going to win out over the borrow and spend party.

Here’s why: voters are upset that seven years of rule by the borrow and spend party have not fixed socialized medicine. As happens in every election cycle, each party takes a stab at trying to make this centrally planned system function. It’s now the NDP’s turn to engage in a vain effort to accomplish the impossible. No one dares challenge the single payer model since that would result in electoral defeat.

Wab Kinew’s plan to reopen the ERs closed by the Tories is only going to happen by shifting staff from other areas, since extra staff are largely unobtainable. If you really want to determine the proper number of ERs that Manitoba needs, you would have to allow free interaction between health care practitioners and consumers in the context of a system with actual price signals. Since we have neither, good luck to Wab.

No profits for you!

entitlement generation Great Moments In Socialism nannystate 19 Comments

One really has to wonder why any investor would ever sink a dime into France.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday the government would ask the fuel industry to sell at cost price and would grant 100 euros ($106.52) in aid to the poorest workers who drive to work, to stem the impact of inflation on households.

“The Prime Minister will bring together all the players in the sector this week and we will ask them to sell at cost price, that is to say that no one makes a margin,” Macron said in an interview with France’s TF1 and France 2 television stations.

 

The horse is gone….

entitlement generation Great Moments In Socialism 24 Comments

I don’t recall hearing anyone of Doug Ford’s stature complaining when interest rates fell to zero and sparked a massive and unsustainable runup in asset and real estate prices. Too bad, folks, because that’s one big load of toothpaste that won’t be going back in the tube.

“Your rate hikes have made it next to impossible for young people, newcomers, and first-time homebuyers to have any place to call home,” Ford said in his letter.

He argued that cooling inflation was a reason not to raise interest rates further.

The recession cometh

entitlement generation Great Moments In Socialism It's Probably Nothing 17 Comments

Yet more evidence that the marginal consumer is financially strapped.

“One of the key reasons for this is because Dollar General’s core customers are feeling the acute pressure of the cost-of-living-crisis,” Neil Saunders, retail analyst and managing director at GlobalData, said in a report Thursday.

“This has been exacerbated by cuts in SNAP payments as temporary pandemic benefits came to an end. As a result, lower-income shoppers are cutting back on non-consumable and indulgent purchases from the chain in a bid to save money,” he said.

Some other dollars appear to be in for a rough ride as well.

The trap door opens

entitlement generation Great Moments In Socialism It's Probably Nothing 50 Comments

The marginal consumer is tapped out. The real culprit is not rising interest rates, but rather the prior fall to zero percent which incentivized consumers to load up on debt that they could not actually afford.

Anecdotally, my local boat and ATV dealer tells me that sales are slumping right now.

Macy’s is warning of a spike in customers who are failing to make credit card payments, adding to the evidence of mounting financial stress on consumers.

This situation is hurting Macy’s business, driving down credit card revenue by 36% year over year and contributing to a quarterly loss, he said. Citing worsening consumer leverage metrics, Macy’s is bracing for a further increase in “bad debt” in its credit card portfolio.

 

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