McPheet.com

Archive for the ‘ NaBloPoMo 2008 ’ Category

Ling and I Have Two Things in Common

My friend and colleague, Ling Liu, and I have two things in common today.

NaBloPoMo is turning out to be a strain — we’re both running out of stuff to write. Ling’s threatening to inventory her make-up drawer. I’m recapping her blog.
We hate waiting for authors to write the next book in the series. I’ve got two examples.

William W. Freehling. The Road to Disunion, Volume I: Secessionists at Bay, 1776-1854 was published in 1990. I bought it a year or two later, and waited for Volume II. And waited. And waited. I even considered writing Professor Freehling to see what the hold-up was. Volume II: Secessionists Triumphant: 1854-1861 was published in April 2007, 16 years later.

Robert A. Caro. The Years of Lyndon Johnson.

Volume	Published	Caro’s Age
1. The Path to Power	1982	47
2. Means of Ascent	1990	55
3. Master of the Senate	2002	67

I’m starting to worry about whether Caro’s going to live long enough to finish the fourth book.

Allen Nov 24 NaBloPoMo 2008, Personal, Writing

If I Were President (or King…)

1 comment

Policies I’d introduce immediately if I were in charge.

End bailouts. The economy won’t get better until it reaches a bottom. Sometimes, our approaches to problems are like our approaches to Band-Aids. You can rip it off, which will hurt for a minute and then stop, or you can pull it slowly, which doesn’t hurt as much, but hurts for much longer. I vote for the rip-it-off approach.
Encourage giving through tax breaks. As the first step toward eliminating entitlement programs, I’d give dollar-for-dollar tax deductions for charitable deductions, up to a fairly large portion of the total tax burden. Currently, you can use charitable deductions to reduce your adjusted gross income, which in turn reduces the amount of tax you are supposed to pay. However, depending on the tax bracket you’re in, a dollar given to charity may only be worth ten cents or so in tax savings.
However, I propose that each dollar given to a charitable organization that represents a function that government would otherwise handle through an entitlement program (Temporary Aid to Needy Families, Social Security, Medicare) should reduce the tax liability by a full dollar, up to a maximum of, say, 70% of a taxpayer’s total amount to be paid. The idea is that you give to a charitable organization, and they take care of people directly, rather than having the federal government take care of those people The reason that the amount is capped at 70% is because that’s roughly the percentage of the tax dollar that goes to those programs, and we want to maintain government’s other responsibilities, such as national defense.
Increase the size of the armed forces. We live in a dangerous world, and too large a percentage of the nation’s armed forces are already deployed. The widespread deployment of the National Guard is a plain indicator that we need more soldiers in the regular army.
Require automatic enrollment into 401(k) and other retirement programs. Not enough people are taking advantage of the retirement plans their employers offer, especially in younger age brackets. Automatic enrollment into 401(k) plans would not be irreversable: the worker could opt out if they wished, but they would saving by default. Studies show many workers (about 30% according to AARP) simply fail to enroll because of procrastination, preoccupation with other financial demands, or simple lack of financial literacy.