Compulsory Volunteering: Not Platinum

I don't really understand the new and distasteful phenomenon of "sexting" and nor is that the focus of this post. And regardless of whether you believe minors should be prosecuted and arrested for "sexting" is another thing entirely. I just wanted to focus on the language of an excerpt from a letter from the Office of the District Attorney of Wyoming County, PA, who threatened charges on students involved in sexting. They told the students they would have the option to participate in a five-week after school program followed by probation in order to avoid charges.

The wording: "Participation in the program is voluntary. Please note, however, charges will be filed against those that do not participate or those that do not successfully complete the program." Voluntary? Let's not kid ourselves.

We such speech patterns in other areas of government as well.

Can you name one person who still used it?

Creative destruction at it's best. Do you even miss it? I don't. This is why I like markets.

Platinum Teaching

This reminds me of exactly the way I got interested in economics. Anyone else?

Marriage Proposals, platinum style

This guy is awesome for two reasons (among many):

1. He wrote this book. Freakonomics mentions it here.
2. He proposed to his fiancee by doing this.

Platinum Links

1. Explaining the Geithner Plan and why Wall Street went up 500 points today

2. Why effective measurement is tricky in education

3. Is Sweden like the US or vice-versa?

4. Privatizing infrastructure from a couple of perspectives

Amtrak is a Non-profit

Well, aside from the fact that I can't recall the last time Amtrak turned a profit, it appears that they are on the list of entitities getting money from the bailout. More precisely, 1.3 billion (with a b). To give you some perspective, the budget for DC Public schools is approximately 740 million dollars (not including charter schools).

From the Amtrak website:

In FY 2008, Amtrak earned approximately $2.45 billion in revenue and incurred approximately $3.38 billion in expense. No country in the world operates a passenger rail system without some form of public support for capital costs and/or operating expenses.

That's a hilarious statement. I did some quick calculations of how much money this is on an individual basis. Admittedly, I suck at math. With 1.3 billion dollars and 28.7 million riders, every rider of Amtrak is getting about $45 taxpayer financed discount on the cost of each ticket they buy this year. Similarly, every man, woman,and child in America has just donated about $4.50 to Amtrak. Speaking as someone who knows multiple people who use Amtrak, I'd rather just give the money directly to my alma mater, TFA, or even the guy who plays music in the metro and get the tax deduction.

Things I Miss from the Midwest

Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy living out here, and there’s a lot of places and things I missed besides friends when I went back to Kansas to complete my senior year before moving back out here (the Capitol, Trader Joe’s, The Express, to name a few). Here’s just some stuff I was surprised to discover I missed now having been out here for an extended period of time. It’s not a rant, but more of a tribute to what the Midwest has to offer:

The proximity of big box stores: I miss having Wal-Mart and a Super Target so close to where I lived. The aisles were twice the size of any stores around here. And Wal-Mart’s a little farther out than I’m used to. It’s cramped at the regular Target. Those were my go-to stores and their sheer size always made shopping an easy and enjoyable experience instead of the bumper to bumper shopping cart traffic I encounter out here. I realize because property is so valuable out here, holding the same amount of space here as in the Midwest would be relatively more expensive for the retailers.

Parking lots without validation: Besides driving in DC, I loathe attempting to find a place to park almost anywhere within the beltway besides home or work. I hardly have cash on me (bad habit, I know), much less quarters, dimes, and nickels for timed parking. And just when you thought a street was available to park, you need a permit for another 15 minutes until it’s 6pm. Or parking in a parking lot to go shopping. Oh, your store doesn’t validate my ticket for the place I parked? Guess I’m going to go buy an expensive slushie from another store to get it validated then. I understand that charging for space to park makes parking available, and I appreciate that—I’m willing to pay if I know what I will owe and how to pay before even leaving my house. But since the rules are not universal for everywhere I go in terms of times, form of payments, and what can and can’t be validated, I may be stuck with just a credit card and a prayer that someone will lend me correct change.

Non-state-owned liquor stores: I enjoyed being able to buy beer, wine, and liquor all in one place; and at a liquor superstore with a lot of variety at that.

Tailgating: I think my friends and I have done a pretty solid job at attempting to recreate tailgating halfway across the country. But I can’t help but miss visiting friends from truck to truck in a vast expanse of cars, red cups, and team flags prior to and during halftime of K-State football events. It’s like one giant barbeque covering a solid square mile.

Watching my alma mater play football and basketball: I’ll admit, my team hasn’t had a lot of face time on national television, but one advantage of being in the vicinity of the Midwest is being able to watch them on TV regionally. Props to the Wildcat 91.9 for live streaming their radio coverage of K-State sports for free.

Buffalo Wild Wings: We’ve started having watch parties for 24, and the apparently natural choice to supplement the show is buffalo chicken wings with beer. Unfortunately, there’s no wings place close to our viewing party that will let us pick up or order delivery of cheap delicious wings. Dominos is the closest we’ve got, and they’re not expensive, but they’re not that great of a deal compared to what I’ve known. BWW, I miss your many wings’ sauces and wings for extra cheap.

Watching field burning at night: Driving down I-70 and turning onto highway 177 heading to Manhattan (the Little Apple for you non-Midwesterners) at night, it’s really beautiful to watch the slow burn of old foliage over the ridges of the Konza Prairie. You’re lucky if you’re not the one driving so you can watch the miniature walls of flames climbing across the rolling plains. It smells amazing too.

Sonic: Do not get me started on Sonic. I freaked out when we found one on the way to Dewey Beach last summer. Every time I fly into Kansas City, my first request is to get Sonic. I miss its drink happy hours (Route 44 Diet Cherry Limeade or Vanilla Coke!) for half price, the fries, burgers, and Super Sonic Breakfast Burritos anytime of the day. What’s more, we always get Sonic commercials here when the closest one is at least an hour away. Fortunately, I hear that the company is scouting out places in the beltway!

I know I have more, but this extensive enough. You get the idea. Anything you guys miss having been out here for almost a year?

Conserving is Platinum

This is a pretty interesting article on how constraints actually force us to do a better job. Wired always has pretty interesting stuff, but I found this pretty cool to read. Be sure to check out the articles on water bottles and blast-proof towers. Key quote:

Think of a young tree, a sapling. With water and sunshine, it can grow tall and strong. But include some careful pruning early in its development—removing low-hanging branches—and the tree will grow taller, stronger, faster. It won't waste precious resources on growth that doesn't serve its ultimate purpose. The same principle applies to design. Given fewer resources, you have to make better decisions.

Charter schools vs. Vouchers

One of the reasons I prefer vouchers to charter schools some of the time is this. Catholic schools across the country are, in the face of financial desperation, converting to charter schools. Now, I love school choice, but it's important to note what is changing here. Choice that used to exist in a private manifestation is now becoming publicly funded. It's a subtle difference, but an important one in my mind. The problem with charter schools is that in the long run, they could very easily begin to take over the private market for education, eventually setting up a situation where every kid is enrolled in a public school (charter or traditional) of some sort. Aside from the political capture questions, there are some huge financial implications if something like this were to happen. More than likely, I believe it would result in a greater stratification of the public/private distinction in which anyone who is not truly "wealthy" would be unable to attend private schools.



In economics, what I'm referring to is called "crowding out." When government begins providing/funding a service, it will, no matter how well that service is provided, crowd out private entrepreneurs from attempting to enter the fray and innovate. The best example I can think of is Social Security. When first enacted, there were small private firms attempting to provide the same kinds of accounts to individuals. Regardless of whether you like Social Security, the net effect was these private accounts no longer really made any sense to invest in unless you were wealthy and had a great deal of money you wanted to invest for the long term.



A great quote in the article is from a parent who used to have a child enrolled in a the catholic school, but took them out when it converted to charter status.



'“If we wanted our kids to go to public school, we would have sent them there,” said S. Kathryn Allen, a parent leader who protested the Catholic school closings last year. Ms. Allen has a son in a Catholic school in Washington but did not have a child at Holy Name.



“When you change to a charter school, you are not allowed to do the things that make a Catholic school Catholic and that preserve our mission,” she said.'



Embedded in the statement is the understanding of how a charter school, while offering choice, isn't the same kind of choice that this parent wants and is used to. What's fascinating to me about all of this is how it reveals how "choice" can look completely different depending on where you're coming from. I wonder how a low income family in the city would look upon the changeover?

Comparing Stuff

Recently, I've noticed that I compare a lot of services that I use on a regular basis. Here is the first in a series of musings on different services that I use to accomplish the same task. First up, something I'm getting pretty familiar with: cheap buses. All of the bus companies listed below are part of the growing segment of buses that do trips up and down the East Coast and all have different models for pricing, amenities, and rewards. These are just my general impressions based on a few years of experience on and off.

Megabus
Pros: Megabus does(and I think was the first to do) variable pricing. This means that your ticket price is based on when you buy your ticket. It's a genius innovation that an airline is even using. The buses are clean and they go to a bunch of different places on the East coast and in the midwest. Megabus in DC leaves from Metro Center, which is pretty convenient, no matter where you are coming from. They run a bunch of trips every day, so you can almost always get a ticket.

Cons: Megabus has an incredibly inefficient boarding procedure, mainly because the tickets you print out online aren't easily read by the bus drivers. They have to check off every single person getting on using a 20 digit code. This takes forever and creates a push and shove queue that is no fun. Megabus doesn't offer Wi-Fi or outlets and the bus to and from NYC is a double decker. This sounds like more fun than it is. Both floors are cramped and there is no overhead space to put small bags, which means you either have to hold stuff in your lap or put it in the cargo space. Very annoying. My advice, use Megabus only when in the midwest. Oh, and they don't have any rewards program.

Tripperbus:
Pros: Leaves from Rosslyn(close to home and work for me) and has wireless, plugs for my laptop, and a good rewards program that gets you a free trip after every 4 full price tickets. The buses are clean and I haven't had any problems with my trips up or down. The first three tickets sold for every trip are 1, 5, and 10 dollars. Every ticket after is 25 dollars. Reasonable if you get your ticket early.

Cons: Because of the pricing system, it's pretty hard to get one of those cheap tickets. I end up getting $25 tickets more often than I'd like to admit. Unlike Bolt or Mega, the price jumps up very quickly to the highest level, which can be problematic. They also seem to be fond of showing movies on the bus. This would be fine, if everyone wanted to see the same movie and they had a lot of choices. Obviously this is not true. So it's possible you'll get stuck watching a really bad movie on the bus because you've been outvoted. That is annoying.


Boltbus
Pros: Similar pricing as Megabus, only they have wi-fi and electrical outlets. They also only do single decker buses. This means much more space to stretch out. Bolt was also really chill the time I accidentally bought the wrong tickets and needed to get them changed. Good customer service is worth it's weight in gold.

Cons: Because they're good, it's hard to get cheap tickets. They also leave from Metro Center, which is convenient for most people, but I live and work in Arlington and it would be great if they left from a place somewhat closer to me.

Vamoose:

Pros: Jewish, otherwise identical to TripperBus in every respect, including location.

Cons: Again, identical to TripperBus.

Chinatown
Pros: The buses leave from inside the city and have very straightforward prices (usually about $17 one way).

Cons: The first to do low cost trips up the east coast, one would think would be a quality service. One would be wrong. Buses are old, dirty, and don't have any amenities (wi-fi, outlets, working bathrooms). The drivers are mean, and the other passengers aren't much better. I've seen people get left at rest stops. Multiple times I've seen people lose their seat on the bus after they've purchased it simply because they didn't line up at the front of the queue. This is definitely a last, last resort and is a buyer beware situation writ large.


My current philosophy is to compare Bolt, Tripper, and Vamoose when I'm going to buy a ticket to NYC. My preference at this point is Bolt or Tripper, although Tripper's insistence on playing movies will deter me in the future if they don't cut that crap out.

Paradigm shifts are really hard...

Part of the problem with changing that status at any organization is that there are multiple reasons to keep doing whatever is the status quo. It's easy, no one has to be uncomfortable, and it has a guaranteed result. Change, on the other hand, is hard, makes everyone uncomfortable, and there are really no guarantees other than "change." Which is why, in order for change to occur, people have to be really unhappy with the status quo AND they must have a vision of what a better alternative would mean for them personally. This is what good leadership is all about. It means getting people to not just buy into change, but actually get excited about it (See Obama, Barack).


Which is why I find this article on being an adjunct faculty member really interesting. The author lays out why he thinks academics in general and tenure are pretty poor insitutions and claims that 20 years from now there won't be much more than a handful of tenured academic professors. I'm not an academic and I generally held most of my profs in pretty high regard. I found adjunct profs at my college to be incredibly bad on a variety of levels, but it's interesting to hear a different perspective.


What was striking about the article was how much of it parallelled my experience in teaching K-12 and how tenure can corrupt even the best of us. Seeing himself as a free agent with services to sell, he states, "...think of yourself as a valuable service provider trying to reach as much of the adjunct market as you can. Apply for jobs and schmooze everywhere. If you're good, you have a lot to offer. So offer it. You can help a lot of people and get paid well for it. Do well by doing good." I believe this is the better way of saying this.


Last thought on this is that when people complain that teachers don't get paid enough, they fail to incorporate tenure into the pay that teachers receive. In giving out tenure so readily, schools have essentially included the cost of not being able to hire and fire people at will on the basis of performance into the salary of someone who essentially can stay as long as they want in the job. If tenure was abolished tomorrow, I imagine that this individual's philosophy would become the norm.


Oh, and this is cool as well. Makes me rethink some of my plans about grad school for the future, but I probably will go ahead with my current plan.

Platinum Links

Security is all about...incentives.

For the ladies...guys.

Creative destruction at work.

Incentives at work.