Nobrainer’s Think Tank

I’m always amused by some of the searches that bring people here. Being the curious type, I follow a lot of the referring links. One of those links from Friday night led to some interesting things.

Perhaps the strangest part of it, is that once I followed the referring link from google I couldn’t find my website anywhere. How is it that a link can suddenly disappear from a search engine’s search?

Well the query was about Clemson and the Facebook. So I was intrigued that one of the results was from the UVA newspaper, the Cavalier Daily. (OK so they have Clemson beat in that they manage to publish a paper more than once a week). The column in question, however, is really not too much more than any of my random posts. But what caught my attention was this bit:

Why are Sprite and 7UP cans and bottles green? The drinks aren’t green. They’re not made from green fruits. For once I’d like a soda to embrace its clearness and not try to be something its not. Don’t try to deceive me, soft drinks.

Except that the drinks are lemon/lime flavored. Limes are definitely green. That, my friend, is something you should have learned in college.

Another link went directly to some person’s facebook profile. Of the thousands of profiles for Clemson students, why there was just one link to one person, I have no idea.

But the link that really caught my attention went to some girl’s webshots online photo album. I was surprised that google would actually link to something like that. Naturally I had to take a look. I’m not sure if the owner is actually attractive or if her best friend/roommate is actually that hideous. Seriously, when you smile and reveal more upper gum than upper teeth, you are officially your friend’s grenade.

• There are a number of non-permanent bike racks all over campus. These things are standard bike rack size and have a dozen or so semi-circular archs welded to a rectangular base. One, I noticed has had a couple of the welds broken between the arch and the base. No matter how good your lock and chain are, they don’t do shit if they’re locked to nothing. To go further, I think it would be a great prank to steal whole racks with all the bikes still attached. Wouldn’t that be a hoot.
• UVA’s campus does look pretty good in the spring with all the flowers in bloom. I still prefer Clemson.
• As I was walking home, I passed a girl who was sitting on some steps below me. Let’s just say that she could put some plumbers to shame. Or should I suggest that she must be addicted to crack? Either way, I really wish I had a camera phone for the sake of sharing this piece of humor.

As was posted on fark yesterday, Congress tries again for a dollar coin.

Supporters realize that the dollar coin is the Rodney Dangerfield of American money. So they make clear that any new coin would augment — not replace — paper currency.

[snip]

They hyped its cost-savings — metal lasts much longer than paper, so you don’t need to mint as often as you print.

Here’s an idea. Instead of pussyfooting around by trying to have competing forms of the dollar, just quit making the bill. If Congress would bite the bullet, the transition would happen and Americans would quickly learn to accept it. (as an aside, I’m still waiting for the glorious American switch to the metric system.)

We can continuously complain about taxes and government spending. But when they have a legitimate program to save some money, the American public gets all pissy because they might have to adapt a tiny portion of their lives to a new way.

The complaints I usually hear are along the lines of “well I don’t want to carry around a pocket full of heavy change.” Seriously, how convenient is it to carry around a wad of $1 bills? If those 10 coins in your pocket become too much of a burden - buy something!

Or for those who shy away from the Old D bar in favor of the new one… well yeah, you’re probably going to have to find other options. Though I’m sure this can be easily solved. Much like some arcades require tokens, the club owners can make you buy their own currency. Hell, now that I think of where my money might have been, I’m not sure I want to carry $1 bills anyway.

For those who are Hell bent on carrying only paper, I guess you’ll just have to switch up to the $2. And don’t forget to stamp on a Tiger paw.

Espn.com Page 2’s Jim Caple reminds you why you shouldn’t become too attached to the things you love, such as t-shirts.

For no good reason, the idea of private social security accounts isn’t taking off. It really does not matter much to me. No where in my retirement planning do I account for SS payments. Once my money is in the government’s hands, I don’t consider it mine. Of course, even if I don’t need the money, which I hope I will not, you can be darn sure I’m going to take everything I can get. So for me, private accounts make a lot of sense. It’s like gambling (as if it’s that risky) with other people’s money.

But now the Democrats feel, and rightly so, that they should offer an alternative plan since they are so resolutely against introducing risk into social security. They believe that citizen’s should not be given the choice to act in a fashion that may improve their lives. Of course, this logic follows as it eminates from the minority party. (Additionally, shouldn’t they be out trying to dismantle every single lottery system, casino, sports book, horse track, and dog track in the country?) But I digress, from the AP

Among the ideas being considered, according to congressional aides speaking on the condition of anonymity, are improvements to existing retirement savings programs, such as trying to increase participation in corporate 401(k) plans by automatically enrolling workers. Under current law, workers must opt into such programs.

Another idea in a more developmental stage is a civilian version of the Thrift Savings Plan, the 401(k)-style program that federal employees can invest in on top of the contributions they make to Social Security.

As I’m not really in the work force yet, I don’t have a complete grasp of 401k’s. But by “automatically enrolling workers” aren’t they just telling workers what to do with their money? I think 401k’s are great, but should they be mandated?

And the article goes on to mention many more tweaks to current retirement systems, but nowhere does it appear that the actual social security system should be tweaked. Of course they are all based on market investments. The same type of market investments they feel are so deplorable within the SS system.

So while the proposals are generally not bad, why not introduce them in addition to social security reform with the option put SS funds into private accounts?

Addendum: I just found this interesting data on why long-term, broad investments are such a good idea. (yeah, yeah. I know that past performance is no prediction of future results).

This chart illustrates how fast past bear markets have made a recovery:

Dates of Bear	Months to Bottom	Percentage Drop	Months to Recovery
July – Aug 1998	2	-15.4	3
June – Oct 1990	5	-14.7	4
Sep – Nov 1987	3	-29.5	18
Dec 1980 – July 1982	20	-16.9	3
Jan 1977 – Feb 1978	14	-14.1	5
Jan 1973 – Sep 1974	21	-42.6	21
Dec 1968- June 1970	19	-21.3	9

And this

Chance in the Past of Making Money in Stocks

Any 1 Year	72%
Any 3 Years	84%
Any 5 Years	90%
Any 10 Years	97%
Any 15 Years	100%

I really don’t have a point with this post. I’m just going to throw out some ideas and see if any of them stick.

Lately, as more people have been looking to the future, they have been looking at trends in birth rates. This is wise. However, most are complaining about the low birth rates that are starting to appear. Again, this is wise if you wish to maintain many social systems that basically exist as government mandated pyramid schemes.

Some are going so far as to squarely blame abortion for these low birth rates. And while that is not to be neglected, the question of to have or to not have children is still mostly a matter of preference of the (would-be) parents. We could just as easily blame contraception. Although this ‘blame’ is curious. That indicates, to me, that the high birth rate advocates are insinuating that unplanned pregnancies are necessary and perhaps even fortuitous.

But why are birth rates varying throughout the world? Is there a correlation between government benefits and birth rates? If the gov’t is going to take care of you, you don’t need children for assistance later in life. Does it relate to economic freedom? Does it relate to economic growth? Or is it possible that different groups of people literally have different genetic mindsets?

Similarly how does government mandated “charity” detract from regular charity? How does the the federalization of charity take away from local charity? Can this help explain the decline of churches in the US and Europe? My thinking is that we used to rely more on local communities for help. But as the state and federal governments have gotten into the game, people feel less need to ‘belong’ in their local community circle.

Does anyone think that the main objectives of government hand-outs (social security, medicare, medicaid, welfare) would be just as well served by knocking big government out of the loop? I posit that American’s are fairly generous. With extra disposable income, it seems that we should be able to create (non-beaurocratic) jobs. We should then be able to contribute to the charities of our choice. If the donors decide the charity is mismanaged, they can opt out, i.e. bad charities will be weeded out and the more meaningful will stand out.

That’ll do. Your thoughts?