2013 February
2013 February 28
Why Traders Are Rushing Into the EU Carbon Trading Market
There are several ways to reduce the emissions of carbon into the atmosphere. You could encourage people to stop emitting (not very effective), you could create an artificial regulatory mechanism as described in this news story (with certain artificial variable to be set), or you could simply impose a tax on each unit of pollution emitted. This last option would necessitate research in order to determine the proper tax amount for each unit, but such research into setting one variable is easier to do than the research required to set multiple variables, especially when such variables are purely artificial in nature.
The current carbon trading market requires that a cap on allowable emissions (a variable dependent on human judgement) be set. Then it distributes (another variable to be set by humans) or auctions off emissions allowances. To achieve a significant carbon reductions over time, the total cap must be reduced over time (another variable that is dependent on human judgement).
The same goal of reducing carbon emissions could be achieved in a simpler way by merely imposing a tax on each unit of carbon emitted by each producer. Such a tax could be charged either before or after the carbon is emitted. That would be determined by agreement between industry and government. The rate of the tax should be the same for everyone. After all, it doesn’t matter who or what process emits carbon, all carbon atoms have the same greenhouse effect. For the sake of simplicity and fairness, the carbon tax should be the same. There would be nothing for producers to factor into their costs of production other than this carbon tax. They wouldn’t need to try and figure out when to buy carbon credits, how many to buy, or whether they should complain about there being not enough or too many carbon credits available.
If, after reviewing the data, governments determine that too much carbon is still being emitted, they could then decide to raise the tax.
Natural Environmental Harvest Tax
Imposing an additional tax (other than the sales tax), would result virgin carbon resources becoming a little more expensive. Thus, demand would be lower than if this tax were not to exist.
Tax Trade Across Political Boundaries
Fossil fuels often travel long distances. Imposing a tax for every political boundary that it crosses would make it more expensive to the end consumer. This would encourage conservation, utilization of more local resources (resulting in less carbon emitted during transportation), and the greater adoption of distributed generation facilities, especially facilities located on the end users own facilities (like photovoltaic cells).
2013 February 27
Chuck Hagel Clears Filibuster Hurdle, Headed for Confirmation Vote
Filibusters constitute an unacceptable disruption in government policymaking by allowing one person to hold the government hostage for a cause which is clearly not held by the majority. Once the proper checks and balances have been instituted into the policymaking process, it is unacceptable for one or a few legislators to overrule the system.
Bill Introduction/Procedures/Final Resolution In Congress
The process of getting things done should be straight-forward. A simple rule requiring a certain critical number of initial supported of a piece of legislation should made which would then justify bringing up the issue for the full legislative body to study and vote on it.
2013 February 26
Germany Doubles Arms Supplies to Persian Gulf Nations, Report
The responsibility for the security of all distinct people groups should lie with an international military organization with binding powers. The United Nations, as currently constructed, will not work. Under this proposed international military framework, member countries would not be able to maintain military grade arms (except for riot control, etc.) under for sovereign purposes and would not be able to sell such arms without the approval of the majority of the member states who are a member of this international military organization.
2013 February 25
Bill Would Open the Door to Undergraduate Teaching Credentials
People with talents as teachers would be encouraged to enter the education profession because of this increased (whether perceived or actual) compensation scale (especially for new teachers) compared to the standard computing of compensation (usually based mainly on years of experience). This bill, SB 5, if passed would encourage more people to try out teaching at a younger age, providing a large population from which effective teachers could be identified and hopefully encouraged to stay in the profession. Classroom experience is many times more important than academic learning, even when it come to learning subject matter taught at an elementary level. College level applicants should need to pass basic tests proving a functional understanding of the subject matter they will teach before they actually are allowed to teach a class, but they should not need anything more than that. Experience will fill in all the more significant gaps in teachers’ knowledge.
Logically, teacher pay should be determined by some measure of effective transfer of knowledge. Such a statistic is obviously based both on the number of students taught and the amount of learning experience by each student under that teacher per unit of time (such as one year). Now, the amount of learning a student does in one year is obviously not all due to the teacher or in the classroom (comprising only around 15% of the time in a year), because students learn from their other life experiences outside that classroom (a portion which constitutes about 85% of the students’ time). It is not practically possible to distinguish between these two sources from where a student’s knowledge came. However, the greatest amount of learning in the essential (and tested) areas is likely to originate from the teacher/classroom.
Under this proposal, teachers could vary the number of students they would like to teach each year. The greater the number of students, the greater the teacher’s pay. But also, the lower the test scores of these students (at the end of the year), the lower the teacher’s pay. So there is an incentive for teachers to balance the number of students they teach with how well they are able to teach them.
If the base pay is set correctly, market forces will work effectively to properly incentivize an effective transfer of knowledge to the greatest number of students.
2013 February 24
Afghanistan: US Special Forces Must Leave Province
Militaries of any single country should (ideally) never be operating within any another country. It should be an international military organization that bears this responsibility, guided by the will of the proportional popular vote of representatives of the international community.
2013 February 23
Md. Man Get 12.5 Year Term in Biodiesel Credit Fraud
Costs of a Crime & Punitive Penalties
This crime is valued at around 9 million dollars. Adding in the cost that the buyers of these fake credits needed to pay above the price that they paid for the fake credits, the total direct costs of the crime would be somewhat higher. Adding in the indirect costs (investigation, etc.) would add some more. A punitive multiple should be placed on the ‘direct cost’ portion of this crime. In the end, the court, through its own calculus, determined that the total fine amount should be around $42 million.
The bottom line is that this is not a violent crime and does not deserve a prison sentence. However, the courts, through their own calculus, determined that the total fine amount is around $42 million.Sentencing this man to prison for over 12 years with not only prevent him from working in his field (thus likely earning less money) but would also cost the taxpayers money by housing him in prison at a cost to the taxpayers of over $40,000/year.
This is a much better way to regulate pollution. Just tax every unit of pollution emitted. Forget all the credits and formulas. Tax it at a constant rate and just adjust the level of the tax if government wants to allow more or less. This problem would never have occurred had pollution credits never been allowed. There is far less potential for corruption with a simple tax imposed per unit emitted.
2013 February 22
UN Rejects Haiti Cholera Compensation Claims
Emergency Fund Maintenance Formula
An emergency fund able to have been immediately relied upon to help fund emergency shelters and other services right after the disaster would have prevented or alleviated at least some of the cholera illnesses. Of course, a disaster of this magnitude would have necessitated outside funding.
Every country should have an equivalent force, but the US could have used its Emergency Response Force to augment any other organization reimposing order, safety and sanitation in the affected areas. Portable water filtration units could have been flown to various locations to provide a sanitary water supply.
2013 February 21
Mexico’s Disappeared
Any person with any information about corrupt police officers or others involved in these ‘disappearances’ could reap large rewards if informants were compensated with a proportion of the criminal’s fines. Any person could clandestinely record corrupt officers talking about participating in these ‘disappearances’ and thus create a valuable proof for their eventual conviction and a strong proof that the informant provided a crucial role in a conviction.
Audio/Video Recording of Interaction Between Law Enforcement & Public
If every officer were to be recorded, the chances of these getting away with stuff like this while on duty would be lowered. There could be random reviews of such recordings, even in real-time, by multiple departments or agencies (even NGOs) to minimize the risk that corruption in some reviewing departments would effectively keep such atrocities hidden.
Widespread Use of Video Cameras In Pubilc
If video cameras were much more ubiquitous, the chances that so much stuff would be hidden out of the public’s view would be reduced. Of course, the data feeds from such cameras would need to be distributed, uncompromised, to various independent organizations to provide an effective check.
2013 February 20
Warren Hill Execution Stayed: Georgia Death Row Inmate Spared In Last Minute Decision
Mental Status Is Irrelevant for Determination of Criminal Responsibility & Punishment
As a rule, nothing other than whether the crime was committed by the accused individual should matter when considering whether to impose a punishment. The degree of punishment could be varied according to the particular facts of the case, health of the criminal, etc. However, the total quantity of punishment should not be changed. This means that the same punishment could be given in two relative ways: short and intense or long and mild. But the death penalty, by its very nature, is not conducive to throttling. Anyone who kills another person in anger or through reckless disregard to their vital safety, must be put to death. In this case, whether or not Warren Hill is mentally retarded or not should have absolutely no bearing on this case.
People who can be proven (with physical evidence) to have killed someone without any valid elements of self-defense involved should be given the death penalty. I’m not sure what the details of this case are, but if Warren Hill was in someway defending himself against against any future abuse by his victim, that may disqualify him from the death penalty. Prisons are notorious places of abuse by fellow prisoners, so this may have been a factor in Warren Hill’s murder of his fellow cellmate.
2013 February 19
Drag Queens, Fake Beards, and Chocolates: Notable Diamond Heists
Compensated informants are often the best source of information both because they usually have the most reliable information and because they have the incentive (compensation) to actually come forward with that information. With a crime like this one run by extreme professionals, it is likely difficult for their to be informants because of the criminals’ extreme caution regarding divulging such information. But this fact would only make the potential reward offered to an informant larger because of the fewer informants which could potentially share the prize money.
2013 February 18
U.N. Panel Finds Conflict In Syria ‘Increasingly Sectarian’
Syria should have been divided up into separate countries like Iraq and many other countries in southwest Asia and Africa. Colonial era boundaries are too often does not mark the traditional or natural boundaries between people groups. In the Arab world, Sunni and Shitte muslims should have their own countries.
Mandatory General Education Completion
Educating populations beyond a certain degree seem to virtually immunize them against widespread acceptance of philosophies that advocate terrorism. Educated people are more likely to empathize with the opposition.
2013 February 17
Blasts Across Baghdad Kill at Least 21
Iraq should have been divided after the fall of Saddam Hussein into Shitte and Sunni independent countries. It is not worth the effort to try to artificially keep these two parties together within the same political block. The terrorist bombings described in these attacks were the result of elements within these two populations fighting each other. Had they been independent, the chances of these attacks and other like them would be dramatically reduced.
These blasts would definitely fall under the category of terrorism because they were undeniably directed against pure civilians, and not even remotely against any physical or personal targets directly belonging to the opposition.
Mandatory General Education Completion
An education is perhaps one of the best ways to prevent large-scale terrorist acts and prevent the widespread adoption of philosophies that are compatible with terrorism.
2013 February 16
Synthetic Marijuana Linked to Kidney Damage & Failure, Warns New Study
Legalizing Drugs & Drug Plants
The efforts and resources spent prohibiting natural-state marijuana use could be better used. The restriction of natural marijuana products has resulted in the substitutionary creation of similar products that technically escape the prohitionary provisions of existing drug laws. The synthetic marijuana featured in this article is one such example of a substitute that is more dangerous than the real thing–natural marijuana. Natural marijuana is not as dangerous as many other legal and widely consumed drugs, especially alcohol.
2013 February 15
NYC Teachers’ Pension Fund Divests From Gun Makers
Employers should not provide pensions. Employers should only provide direct wages in exchange for labor. The employer/employee relationship is like a buyer/seller relationship. One party offers something (labor), the other party offers something else (wages). Why should one party, say the water company, offer the buyer (customer) to sell the water at the regular price in the present and then also agree to pay half the customer’s water bill after the customer turns 65 years old? Why should the employer/employee have a relationship that outlasts the exchange of services? Arrangements like these are not logical and just make life too complicated. Wouldn’t it be better to just get paid a higher wage to compensate for all the benefits (in the present and future) that are no longer being funded, and use that extra money to plan and purchase those benefits yourself. I know that economies of scale and large group purchasing discounts could result in significant savings over someone purchasing individually. However, this whole practice of employer-provided non-wage compensation should be abolished because 1) it is not logical, and 2) because individual purchasers (small business owners, self-employed, other individuals) are effectively discriminated against because they are forced to purchase the same goods and services (especially health insurance) at often much higher prices than those same goods or services that members of large groups would have to pay (even when factoring in the employers share of the bill).
Tax Only Active Economic Activity
It is too easy to shift money around from one investment to another capitalizing on small price moves to skim off the profits. Such behavior often result in market price moves that are unnecessarily quick or large due to reflexive or irrational responses to news, or due to the cascading effect of technical indicators being tripped in succession. A rational way to impose some constructive resistance to such unnecessary, unhelpful volatility is to impose a standard sales tax on every transaction of a stock, commodity and any other financial instrument that is traded (bought and sold). This would have two immediate effects. First, it would encourage people to only invest in things they really believe in, and do so for the long(er) term. Second, people would not engage as much in short-term trading for the purpose of skimming profits off of small price moves. Yes, the valuable element of liquidity would drop as would volatility. However, I would argue that this kind of liquidity is an artificial element that should have never been allowed to develop. Stock and other financial instrument traders do not produce anything of real, intrinsic value other than liquidity. This means that the rest of the population that does earn money by producing things of value must work harder in order to sustain society. Pensioners and other who earn money through the yields generated by financial instruments (including banks) are, in a sense, leeching the economy by gaining income but not producing anything of real, intrinsic value.
2013 February 14
In Alabama, A Model for Obama’s Push to Expand Preschool
‘Primary’ & ‘Secondary’ School Redefinitions
Kindergarten should be mandatory and preschool should be more universal and perhaps even mandatory, as well. It is imperative that children at these young ages gain the correct social habits that would allow them to be take better care of themselves, especially hygienically. Learning to follow directions, and learning basic reading and writing elements in preschool would also help them be much better prepared for kindergarten, enabling a much greater efficiency of learning during some of the most productive learning phase of a child’s life.
Higher levels of government should have the right to impose any restriction on a lower level merely because it is a higher level of government. The higher level mandate should not have to be funded in order for the lower level to comply with it. The lower level of government should have the right to raise taxes in order to fund the mandate. Of course, there needs to be appropriate checks and balances (still to be determined) to keep legislators in check.
2013 February 13
House Resolution to Test Support for Immigration Reform
Illegal Immigration Enforcement
The main reason there are so many people supporting illegal immigrants is largely because of the huge base of people who have originally come here illegally, who are the descendants of illegal immigrants, or who are friends and family of the illegal immigrants. We must thoroughly enforce the border as the very first step of the ultimate long-term solution.
2013 February 12
U.N. Condemns North Korea Nuclear Test, Promises Action
This proposal contains a mechanism so that a majority vote by the member states would impose an immediate embargo, with the requirement that military action be planned and executed within about two years to change the unacceptable behavior of another state, whether it is a member or not.
2013 February 11
Report: Obama to Propose Deep Nuclear Arms Cuts
Having an international military organization with teeth would relieve individual nations from bearing the burden of a comprehensive military defense. Other member countries would also be free from the fear that is associated with the possibility that a single nation would decide to use their military force for whatever reason. An international military organization would provide more manpower and firepower than any individual country would be able because of the pooling of resources. Yes, coordination is a potentially large obstacle, but a functional and efficient regulatory structure could be devised, perhaps using the model presented in this proposal.
2013 February 10
LAPD: Fugitive Ex-Cop a ‘Domestic Terrorist’
If this Informants proposal were to have been implemented for at least a few years, it would have been widespread knowledge to virtually every citizen that whenever any new information about any crime (that helps lead police to the criminal) is made known to police or any other law enforcement agency, that a reward equal to about 10% of the total criminal penalty imposed upon the criminal could be expected as payment to the informant. This is the best way to incentivize the public’s help in solving crimes. Special reward announcements, such as the one made the LAPD for Christopher Dorner, should not need to be advertised as much if it were a common practice to rewards all first informants who provide useful information.
Audio/Video Recording of Interaction Between Law Enforcement and Public
Law enforcement should be held to a higher standard. Any allegations of misconduct should be able to be proved or disproved through the use of video or at least audio recordings of the events which gave rise to the complaints. Recording equipment has come down in price and size so much that it should not be too difficult to record all interactions between law enforcement and the public. It should be easy to see that the widespread use of this technology would have the effect of improving the interactions between law enforcement and the public.
Widespread Use of Video Cameras in Public
Cameras should be plentiful everywhere in order to increase the chances that valuable information would be captured. Thus, potentially less reliance on individual testimonies (which are either tainted by conscious and unconscious biases) could be achieved.
2013 February 9
Sperm Smuggling Alleged At Terror Prison
People who have been convicted of murder should not be allowed to procreate, ether directly or indirectly. Such genes should be removed from the global population. However, the situation in Israel is slightly different. Prisoners there often have extremely long wait times for their court dates and for their eventual verdict. So as a result of this extended period of effectively being classified as ‘neutral’, some modifications to the rule banning conjugal visits need to be made. In addition, many so-called terrorists have actually targeted valid military targets (i.e., elements of the state’s framework of support for rule in the disputed area) and have tried to minimize collateral damage to civilian people or infrastructures. It is only these people, if any, should be considered to have conjugal visits. Having said this, most terrorists in the middle east seem to actually try to target civilians or have an unacceptably high tolerance for innocent collateral damage.
Victims Get Compensated Immediately
If victims were to get compensated immediately after the verdict was read, then the government would have an incentive to recoup their money. The government would likely then try to wrap up cases more quickly by trying to find the perpetrators responsible so they could start paying back the government. The bottom line is that the demand for smuggled sperm is likely to decline significantly under such a policy.
Informants are likely to be the best way to get accurate information about the criminals. Incentivising the public is the best way to get them to yield valuable information. This incentive program for informants is probably the best single strategy to reduce the massive prison wait times before court proceedings are begun.
If the Palestinians had their own homeland, they would not be so fervently trying to create one. Yes, they have Jordan which is similar enough in terms of demographic, cultural, and economic characteristics to the Palestinian people, but this division has existed for so long, that it is now acceptable to classify them as a distinct people group.
2013 February 8
Blizzard Wallops US, Closes Roads
Mass Transportation System Infrastructure Design
Had a mature, fully developed mass transportation system bases on an elevated monorail design constructed on columns been in existence during this storm, far fewer people would have been unable to travel. This is because snow cannot build up to inoperable levels on monorail rails and because snow drifts (unless they are over 15 feet tall) would not be able to significantly interfere with train operations on the tracks. Now electrical power going out during the storm could have disrupted service on this hypothetical monorail system, but auxiliary power supplies could easily be envisioned.
Although a complete monorail system would not eliminate vehicular traffic on conventional roadways, the reduced number of vehicles on such roadways would naturally result in fewer pileup.
So many flights would not have needed to have been cancelled because so many flights would normally not have occurred. More people would have chosen to ride on a comprehensive, long-distance mass transportation system if one were to have existed.
A potential additional benefit would be that fewer roadways or at least fewer lanes would have been needed to have been snow plowed because there would not have been the need to provide cleared roads to accommodate such high traffic demands.
End users having at least some method of generating their own power, either through photovoltaics (solar cells), geothermal, wind turbines, batteries, etc., would have reduced the degree of inconvenience suffered by blackouts.
Emergency Fund Maintenance Formula for Political Jurisdictions
Flooding was a concern during this storm, especially after more of the snow begins to melt. Many of the areas hit hard by flooding during superstorm Sandy are expected to experience some low level flooding during this event. If political jurisdictions keep track of their disaster expenses and if they are actually required to compile and keep a certain amount of money on reserve to pay for such disaster, it is much more likely that certain steps would be taken to mitigate the potential for future damage as a result of known risks. Either proper preventive measures could be suggested on a voluntary or mandatory basis, or outright bans on certain land uses could be enforced to defend against potential future losses.
2013 February 7
Split of red snapper harvest between recreational and commercial anglers hot topic at Gulf Council meeting
Raise the Price of a Resource to Conserve It
There should be a price/tax per fish caught in the wild. If such a tax were set correctly (input from scientists, government, community, etc. would be needed), then the natural market forces of supply and demand could be harnessed effectively to solve this problem. A tax high enough for commercial fisherman would result in their reducing their harvests due to the reduced market demand resulting from higher prices. Recreational fisherman would also reduce their take because they may not be as interested in catching these fish because of this tax.
There shouldn’t be any fixed quotas or fixed number of days in a harvest season, because that is too arbitrary a restriction. The same goals of reducing the entire take and dividing up the take between commercial and recreational fisherman could be achieved by a simple tax. Everyone would pay a tax for each red snapper they harvest. Perhaps catchers would be able to report and even pay their tax at the time that they dock. People who are caught cheating should be given penalties that make them wish they didn’t cheat.
This tax should be justifiable in light of the simple goal it is trying to achieve. But if that’s not enough, another justification could be that the harvesting of a natural resource on public property or that requires a larger functional ecosystem to produce should be taxed in order to compensate the government/public for its management and ownership of such properties.
2013 February 6
NZ ready to help Solomons after devastating tsunami
Emergency Fund Maintenance Formula for Political Jurisdictions
Had the Solomon Islands maintained a fund for such disasters, it would have both have reduced the potential amount of infrastructures exposed to damaging tsunami surges and have had the necessary funding for an immediate response.
Aid for Poor, Undeveloped Countries
Some of the richer countries of the world, especially the UK, as its former colonizer, could probably help best by imposing one way trade tariffs on products from the UK but zero tariffs on exports from the islands to the UK. In the current climate of free trade spreading like wildfire across the world, imposing tariffs would not benefit the Solomon Islands. However, this one way tariff proposal would be a very powerful incentive for the local economy to get on its feet before such agreements expire.
2013 February 5
No Evidence of U.S. Manufacturing Revival
Trade Across Political Boundaries
A tax on all goods and services that cross a political boundary, especially an international boundary, would naturally result in strengthening the tendency for domestic production within that political jurisdiction. It is easily possible for domestic U.S. production to be stabilized or even increase with a proper application of this tax.
Buyer’s & Seller’s Sales Tax Charged On All Transactions
This tax would also effectively create a tendency for local production, however it may be logistically harder to implement internationally than it would within a country because of fundamentally different tax calculations and nomenclatures.
Require Inspection of All Vehicles Before Entry Into US
This requirement would result in an effective increase in the prices of all imports. Domestic production would then be favored.
2013 February 4
U.S. Accuses S. & P. of Fraud in Suit on Loan Bundles
Under a proper monetary policy as described in this proposal, people would tend to save money prior to purchasing property. Therefore, there would be fewer loans outstanding, thus fewer debt-based securities floating around for creditors to trade and sell. The potential for an occurrence of such a large economic crisis as we have experienced would have been reduced had a proper monetary policy framework formed the foundation for this economy.
Tax Only Active Economic Activity
A sales tax levied on real estate sales (even through government revenue were to remain the same) will likely slow such transactions to a significant extent, reducing the amount of real estate debt outstanding, thus less debt-securities to trade.
2013 February 3
NAEMT to lead work on passage of Field EMS Bill
Having a well funded and well trained emergency response force with enough excess capacity to handle the expected moderate increases in demand for serviced after a local disaster (e.g., moderate earthquake, terrorist attack, plane crash into apartment buildings, etc.) is essential for stability during a disaster. Extra help could be brought in to help with enormous disasters like major earthquakes. Just like police and fire protection services, emergency medical services need to be brought up to the same level of importance.
Maybe ambulatory stations should be set up just like fire stations are today–scattered throughout neighborhoods to the same degree. They would respond faster to medical emergencies and full fire truck wouldn’t need to come for what are only medical emergencies. These could serve as local walk-in clinics for simple medical problems during times of non-emergencies when personnel are available for service. This would relieve a lot of pressure on standard hospitals.
2013 February 2
Woman Loses Control of Her Vehicle, Slams Into Tree, Randolph Cops Say
Widespread Use of Video Camers
The placement of video cameras everywhere in public, especially on public roadways, would have provided a great deal of information about what exactly happened.
Mass Transportation System Infrastructure Design
If we had a mature mass transportation infrastructure, perhaps this accident would not have happened because the chances would have been higher that the driver would have utilized a mass transportation vehicle instead.
Video Cameras Recording Roadway
Video cameras inside vehicles recording the roadway in front of them would have provided a great deal of information as well about what happened, potentially yielding information about how to prevent such accidents in the future.
Perhaps the best information about what happened and how to prevent future occurrences would have been provided by the vehicles ‘black box’.
2013 February 1
Hackers in China Attacked the Times for Last 4 Months
Unauthorized Internet Information Access
It should naturally be illegal for any person/entity to access any information, whether on the Internet or anywhere else, which is locked away behind some kinds of security system or which otherwise is reasonably assumed to be private. Especially in the 1990’s, news reports seemed to abound where hackers were caught but then had to be released because it was found that they actually didn’t break any laws on the books. How frustrating! There should be a fine for each instance of privacy violations. For example, each email break-in should be fined a certain amount. Each password theft should be fined another amount.
Costs for this crime should include the costs that the victims (the Times Mirror Co.) had to endure to strengthen its internet defenses including the costs associated with detecting and monitoring the criminal activities.
The intruders were found to originate in China. It should be impossible for such people to conceal their physical location and/or other identifying information about where the criminal data packets came from and even what route they took to get to the victims. All this stuff should be traceable to allow law enforcement to track down the criminals and end this type of behavior.