If the Federal Government Shuts Down...

In the even that the Federal Government gets “shut down” by the lack of a budget bill, what will we miss out on?

Schools and colleges will still be open to “educate” us.

Utility companies will continue to provide electricity, water, and trash collection services. Even your cable TV will be unaffected.

The internet will remain online. Your precious porn will not suddenly disappear, nor will you be unable to Tweet to your friends about it.

Hospitals will not start refusing new patients. ER's will not suddenly become overcrowded (no more so than they are now, anyway), overwhelming medical services across the nation.

Banking institutions will continue to handle your credit card transactions and loan applications.

Even unemployment benefits will continue unabated, as these, while mandated by the fed, are paid for by state governments.

I understand that the unfortunate fact is that there ARE things that will indeed be affected by a so-called government shut down, and some of these services are critical to the lives of certain Americans. I'm just trying to quickly illustrate that a great deal of the services we have come to expect have nothing to do with the federal government, and I have a feeling that most Americans could live without them. Maybe that is why there is so much publicity about this – Congress is afraid that we'll realize we don't need them if they disappear for a while?

Hmm... I wonder if congresspeople, and/or the President, still get paid if this “shut down” happens...

Gassy Gripe

Been quiet again for a while, I know.

The thought had crossed my mind to play an April Fools joke by posting that I was going to close down the blog, but I realized that in the off-chance that anyone read it, it would probably be 30 days before I'd post again. Probably wouldn't be very funny by then.

Anyway, I feel like griping a little.

The only real gripe I have right now is the cost of gasoline going up so dramatically over the last couple months. I can attest to a 17% or more increase in the price of gasoline since December 20, 2010. Some people tell me that we're still nowhere near Europe's prices, of which I am well aware, but this isn't Europe. This isn't a country where mass transit is readily available, or even practical if it were, for half or more of the population. Further, I've noticed a cost increase between 4-10% on everything we buy (except beer, oddly) that I believe is linked to the rising fuel cost.

The mantra I hear repeatedly is that we need to drive less, and I agree with that in principle, but I can also say that I already drive near the absolute minimum. I don't go cruising about town for fun like I did when I was a teen, and I generally only drive to and from work every day with no other stops.

Sure, I could use a bicycle for my six mile commute, but I have to admit that my fear of other drivers maiming or killing me (particularly at midnight on the return trip) dissuades me completely from the idea... that and I'm woefully out of shape for the task and a significant portion of the trip to work is an uphill climb. But really, I think I'd do it if it weren't for other drivers sharing the space with me, I'd just have to walk part way until I reconditioned my body to the biking again.

So I look at this situation as an ever-depressing downer on my otherwise stagnant internal economy, and I'm not impressed. Worst of it is, some jackass is making money off of me and I feel powerless to prevent it...

Hell, I even had one guy at work tell me that I needed to buy a more fuel efficient car because of the fuel costs. I guess he doesn't realize that first, we're bankrupt and would probably be laughed at when we try to apply for a loan, and second, the monthly car payment (even at a “good,” pre-bankruptcy interest rate on a used vehicle) would certainly be larger than the fuel costs that it would be saving.

Yes, I learned this the hard way when we bought the Escort a few years back. On paper, it looked OK, but in practice we still spent more. And then the insurance cost more too... that was nice.

Well, I guess that just kinda came out as a ramble. Not sure how best to close this, so I'll just go random. Coffee FTW! Oh, and come on Cardinals! Start winning!

Educational Debuff

Writing “Unlevel Playing Field” got me thinking, there is another issue that I believe presents a major drawback to the American people in today's global economy. As we see fewer and fewer manufacturing jobs (for a verity of reasons ranging from outsourcing to increased automation), we see an increase in the need for people to become more educated so that they can compete for a number of less physically strenuous, but more complex service related jobs. Yes, I am equating manufacturing jobs with “unskilled labor,” which seems to be a fair comparison coming from someone who works in a position that qualifies as such.

The issue isn't that I'm against education. In fact, I admit that I have a tenancy to evaluate a person's base worth to society based first on my own estimate of their intelligence, as ugly as that sounds (at least I'm honest). The problem here is that the cost of getting a decent education is prohibitively high, making it extremely difficult for people to justify the decades of student loans they will be repaying.

I have learned, however, that in some countries, a student would not be burdened by such insane costs. Of course, this could lead me to issues of constitutionality if someone wants to suggest that the U.S. federal government pay these costs, but state governments could without question, if they weren't already fiscally destitute. And yes, that too could lead me on another tangent.

So what I'm getting at with this is it would seem to me that another massive debuff on our economy is the significant lack of college educated people... arguably our high school diploma level of education is barely adequate, and many people are unable or unwilling to invest the little money they may have in what they may consider a gamble at-best. This coming from a non-college-educated person married to a woman with a four-year degree that has not been particularly helpful to her getting a job, yes I consider many college degree programs to be a gamble, and I'm too risk averse to bother with it.

So take what you will from my rambling... and maybe I'll come back soon with more to add.