StrangeSox

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Mar 5, 2013 -> 12:15 PM) Except government is actually outgrowing GDP. Depends on what time frame you're looking at, but that's not relevant to my statement. You expressed a feeling of absurdity at the idea that the total government expenditures should grow with GDP when basic civics and economics would tell you that it should simply to maintain a status quo.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Mar 5, 2013 -> 12:12 PM) I sense a bit of jealousy on their part. Buh? I'm also posting on soxtalk?

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Mar 5, 2013 -> 12:08 PM) your point? I'm not sure how "productive" soxtalk-posting is, just poking fun

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Mar 5, 2013 -> 11:58 AM) As an increasing number of Americans get more and more lazy the majorities' share of the wealth gets smaller and smaller. correct; members of the bourgeoisie are becoming more and more parasitic at the expense of the working classes.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 5, 2013 -> 12:07 PM) Do you guys go to a grocery store that you drive to, or do you live in a place where your only source of groceries is the corner convenience store and it's an hour+ bus ride each way to get to the nearest grocery store (and you're limited to what you can carry home, and you've just finished up your 2nd 29 hour a week job when you head there?) IIRC there's conflicting research on the idea of the food desert, or at least how wide-spread it is.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Mar 5, 2013 -> 12:07 PM) What does each line refer to? I have an idea but just want to make sure. No idea what the blue "x" line is, but it's "f" federal, "s" state and "l" local.

Interesting idea too that the strength of the largest economy in the world isn't symbiotic in some ways with the strength, stability and investment of its government.

he says as he posts on soxtalk

As the country prospers, you'd expect government expenditures to grow, yes. Even if the scope of every federal program was frozen in place today, you'd still expect it to grow with the population and GDP. More people, houses and businesses mean more police and fire. More ports and port activity means more customs and security. More pharmaceutical research means more FDA review. Etc. etc. etc. This is back to like HS Civics, Economics and basic-reasoning stuff.

My wife is using her "day off" to grade papers. edit: but she did laugh at the kids walking to school in front of our house today

Euro-socialist Germany?? Ha!

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Mar 5, 2013 -> 11:19 AM) Ah yes, so canceling at 3am makes all the difference in the world! I know I was up at 3am calling for babysitters. Fail. My wife's school canceled just before 11pm last night. Ptact's kids' school canceled at 6pm. I'm not sure who canceled at 3am, but I'd agree that, by that point, it wasn't looking necessary. At 3am (or when you wake up at 5am for work) you could find out immediately and begin making plans for yourself or figuring out who you might be able to call. Better than waiting until 6:45am to see if your child's school was on the TV scroll or radio list like we used to do.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Mar 5, 2013 -> 11:18 AM) It's not a single snow day, that's the problem. Weren't they already on strike for a few weeks early this year? Maybe they'll be in school until August this year! That should be a great way to learn em'! Who is "they?" CPS? They were on strike for, IIRC, a week and a couple of days. There are dozens of suburban districts that have closed today as well. This is the first snow day my wife's school has called in the two years she's been there. I think you're projecting an awful lot onto this situation.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Mar 5, 2013 -> 11:16 AM) Yes, if only something like the Internet, or 24/7 news organizations existed to spread the word last minute in a very quick, efficient manner. Oh, wait...son of a b****, would you look at that, we actually DO have those technologies. Maybe we should actually use them instead of talking about using them and pre-canceling s*** like it takes 30 years for word to travel about school closings. Hell, even back in the 80's, we waited until THAT morning to see if school was closed. Excuses. Uh, it's not about how quick the information could be disseminated, it's about how quickly parents could make plans for childcare. Why is a snow day called based on reasonable weather forecasts the night before causing you to flip your s*** so much? edit: and I still think ISATs could be the main factor here. Testing at my wife's school starts at 8AM sharp. Late and absent students have to make up the exams separately within the next week or two. If you're reasonably anticipating a significant percentage of your student body to be absent and/or late based on weather conditions, why not cancel it and save all of the unnecessary rescheduling headaches?

I think you're overexplaining a single snow day that was called when it was anticipated we'd be getting 6-10 inches overnight less than 12 hours prior to the start of the school day. That's also quite the grand conspiracy to pull in so many different principals and superintendents.

I gonna go with it mainly being about the ISAT testing and how bad that'd f*** the scheduling up compared to playing it safe for a day. eta: when I went to bed last night, the snow was still anticipated to start around 3am and get worse throughout the morning. If you're reasonably anticipating have issues with late buses, absent children or getting everyone home without an early dismissal, it's much more convenient for everyone to call it the night before so arrangements can be made.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Mar 5, 2013 -> 10:32 AM) Yet Bush stayed generally around 18%, as Clinton did in his second term (after decreasing spending during his first term) while Obama has been around and above 20%. Sure, because Obama came in when GDP was severely depressed and all sorts of stabilizing spending was kicking in. That's going to shoot the ratio up right at the end of 2008 and beginning of 2009 regardless of who was elected and what policies they eventually put in place. Our economy is still limping along, so GDP is still about 5% below where it would be expected to be and stabilizer spending is still pretty high because unemployment is high and wages have remained low. I'm not sure if the Bush numbers include the off-the-books spending for the Iraq and Afghan wars since they weren't included in the budgets.

The chart continues past 2010. You'd expect spending-as-percent-of-GDP to climb when you enter a recession as 1) GDP falls and 2) automatic stabilizers kick in. That's the peak you see right before 2010 and then you see the gradual spending-per-GDP decline we've been on since then.

Seemed more descriptive than normative. Do you want to make a normative claim for the status quo?

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Mar 5, 2013 -> 09:25 AM) Can the resident state-worshippers tell me how the government does nearly four times the amount of "stuff" it does now than when it was fighting a two front total war on opposite sides of the planet? Every time I see that chart I ask myself that question. Ask yourself why you wouldn't look at % GDP and not absolute dollars

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Mar 5, 2013 -> 09:08 AM) We can't bust heads like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to tell 'em stories that don't go anywhere - like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. Give me five bees for a quarter, you'd say. Now where were we? Oh yeah: the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones..

It seemed more descriptive rather than normative.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Mar 5, 2013 -> 08:17 AM) See the "wussification of America thread" in the Buster for your answer. When I was a kid, it had to actually, you know snow ... about 10+ inches for schools to be closed. In my ENTIRE K-8 "career", school was canceled 2 times because of snow. Today, the sheer possibility of snow cancels school...for a measly 6 inches...or 3 now. Ridiculous. And don't give me that, "when I was a kid" crap either...this isn't some absurd example of having to walk uphill (somehow), both ways in a blizzard. This is schools being canceled before snow even begins falling, despite it only being 6 measly inches.

GOP budget bill seeks to defund ACORN ACORN hasn't existed in almost three years.

QUOTE (kev211 @ Mar 5, 2013 -> 06:29 AM) Doesn't mean all the major high school districts should be closed. If they're part of a Unit district they would be, but otherwise I dunno.