The Republicans have done it again!

Good ole Mike Bishop, our fearless leader of the Michigan House. . .

He and his cronies have deciphered the ails of our higher education system. . .

"Senate Republicans argue that higher education institutions are resorting to increasing tuition, not because of lack of funding by the state, but because higher education institutions are not adequately managing their finances and to "control their costs"

I wish I was making that up, but you can read it for yourself here. This idea kind of implies that our universities are money pits and they can't manage themselves.

Stupid universities, using money. . . OUR MONEY, to educate our residents so that we can build a brighter future for our state. TO HELL WITH THEM! I say, we take all that tax money (though the amount is growing smaller by the moment), and hand it over to the government to pay for their mismanagement of the rest of the budget. Either that, or im sure all of the people over there at the capital building could use a raise for figuring out why tuition was going up.

There is no way that tuition would go up because the schools have less money. . . . or. . . wait. . yeah. . .

I have to admit, I would normally not agree with term limits, however I think I might plan a "good riddance" party for Mr. Screw the Schools, Mike Bishop (I heard his middle name is "stick it to the poor and elderly")

In all seriousness though, it is imperitive that Michigan needs to find a new direction. The manual labor/blue collar work of the yesteryear is behind us. The states future rests in the hands of new industry, an industry that will need people with higher levels of education.

Oh, and I stumbled across some incriminating evidence against our favorite House Leader.

"Generation Q"

So here I sit in California, contemplating my generation with a couple of Anchor Steams in me (if you don't know what those are, stop buying Bud Light and look for a real domestic beer), and mind you I am of age and rarely, rarely do I indulge in a potent potable. So needless to say I am kind of loopy.

Anyway, I am technically part of Generation Q, and as "Georgia10" summarized, we are too quiet and not angry enough at our current situation.

Personally, I do not have the energy or the time to be angry and protest the situation. Am I disgusted? Hell Yes. Would I like to see a massive overhaul of our government? Yuppers.

I am sure that I am not the only one that feels that way, and as the voter turn out shows, I am not the only one that cares.

I think the problem has more to do with the fact that we have no real avenue for protest, no real place that we can make a difference. Sure we have the right to free speech, the right to assembly in protest of our government, etc. However, the massive bureaucracy that is our federal government asks us to jump through hoops to accomplish anything. Create a petition, get 3000 signatures, then MAYBE we can LOOK at what you want/need/desire.

The real only option we have is to vote, and our generation is doing that, and doing it more than previous generations.

So why are we the quiet generation? Because we aren't marching on Washington? We aren't burning bras? We aren't (enter political struggle/way to get attention here)? We have our own way of protest just as any other generation has.

So, label us quiet and uncaring. . . .

I'm rambling and I'm sleepy. . . . goodnight interweb land.

Economics of a Public Good

Well somone had to say it, and maybe then have it repeated over and over and over again: "What about the public good?" It seems that not many people are concerned with the side effects of a profit driven capitalistic society. Enter Eric Maskin, the Nobel Prize winning economists . . . economist? Concerned about the decline in public good? Well it's true, not all economists are focused solely on the creation of profits for businesses or figuring out how to save a sinking ship (one shaped like the United States Government perhaps?). It would seem that services and public goods once rendered to help the public are being overlooked these days in lieu of big business. It truely is everywhere. The environment is being bulldozed by businesses, public services once ran by the government are being sold off to the private sector, and all of it in the name of the glorious dollar (maybe the Canadian Dollar, it is worth more after all!).

So maybe Mr. Maskin, being an economist can translate this destruction of the public good into terms "Mr(s). Capitalism" can understand. Maybe there are more like him that could help the cause. . . .


Or, I hear Canada is a nice place to live O.o

Duurrrrr. . . . I r frum Mitchigen.

Well, I personally do not talk or type that way but our state's future generations could. Thankfully, it would appear as though not everyone in our state government is completely clueless.
After reading the first article about the proposed 1.75+ billion dollar tax cuts, I had to wonder how on earth Mr. Mike Bishop came to choose the areas to receive these massive cuts. I finally decided on two possibilities: 1. He has a giant dartboard with all of our state's programs on it and either has really good aim, or very poor aim mixed with bad luck. -OR- 2. He has no idea what the repercussions of cuts like this would be, or doesn't care.
Mr. Bishop should have a nice long chat with Al Widner, who based on his article , has the correct perspective when it comes to the importance of education. It's almost scary to me, to think that there are people supposedly running this state (into the ground)like Mr. Bishop.
I understand that our state is in need of a new budget. However, trying to take the money from important areas would do more damage than good. As it would seem, anyone with 5 minutes of time and a brain between their ears should be able to put together the idea that taking 1 billion dollars from our schools = BAD. Also, and maybe even more scary to me, is the precedent allowing a cut like this would set. "Well Mr. Republican, you are right we did take a bunch of money from them once and they survived, I'm sure they can handle it again."
I think the best idea, would be to either increase taxes such as sales tax, income tax, or to go through the entire budget with a fine toothed comb and see where all of our money is going. I think the money is there, we just need to find it. I happen to know where some is going, check it out here.