Lynne Kiesling
Count me among the economists who enjoyed the Wall Street Journal’s funny article about how cheap we are. But I also get a lot of pleasure out of trimming the Christmas tree, so I’m not inclined to be so stringent in following comparative advantage that I want to hire someone to do so. I do, however, agree with Justin Wolfers that hiring someone to take it down is very, very appealing. Instead, though, the KP Spouse is bribing me with pizza to do so this evening.
A Sense of Place: http://wp.me/pISTJ-2v
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Full Text: http://www.jsecjournal.com/WidmanV3I4.pdf
Authors: David R. Widman*
Department of Psychology, Juniata College
Katherine E. Corcoran
Department of Psychology, Juniata College
Rachel E. Nagy
Department of Psychology, Juniata College
Full Text: http://www.jsecjournal.com/WidmanV3I4.pdf
Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology
www.jsecjournal.com – 2009, 3(4), 281-289.
Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Meeting of the NorthEastern Evolutionary Psychology Society
Mayor Mark Funkhouser dropped something of a political and fiscal bombshell yesterday when he said that he’d be open to repealing KC’s notorious earnings tax, which levies a one percent tax against those who live and work in the friendly confines of the city. The tax has long been a source of consternation among our libertarian-minded brethren, who call it an unfair imposition on citizens who choose to live in a particular locale. There’s another pesky little matter: the tax brings in $200 million a year. And in case you hadn’t gazed upon the streets this morning, we’re not exactly swimming in cash around here.
When there’s a gap, however brief, in the provision of city services, people start to ask again exactly what we’re paying for with that collective one percent. This isn’t quite fair; snow removal is a tricky process that’s all too contingent upon temperature, and sometimes it’s just too cold to use salt. (The city’s predilection for ignoring each and every side road — at least here in Midtown — is another matter.) But it’s easy to caricature this kind of thing (e.g., “This city can’t do anything right!”) and turn the earnings tax into the fall guy for the occasional lapse in services. The larger issue, of course, is the very fairness of the tax; is it right that on top of federal, state, and property taxes people should pay an extra one percent to the city? Maybe. Maybe not. I suppose that’s for tax experts and con law experts to figure out.
What matters here is exactly what the city will do in the absence of an annual $200 million in the general fund. The threatening quotes are already emerging from downtown:
“It is not hyperbole to state that elimination of the earnings tax without replacement revenue could render the city of Kansas City unlivable,” City Hall officials said in a document submitted to the auditor’s office…
“Property taxes would need to be increased by about 500 percent,” officials wrote. “Utility taxes, which are passed through to customers, would have to more than triple. Court fines would have to increase by 1,100 percent.”
The ostensible purpose of the repeal idea would be to attract people to the idea of living in the city. One of the reasons KCMO has become an unsustainable operation is because residents of the entire metro area can take advantage of city-funded activities, at no cost to those who live, for example, in the Sunflower State. Repeal the earnings tax, the thinking goes, and people will flock to the city to live, work, create jobs, spend money in city restaurants, et cetera. A nice notion — but is that really what’s keeping people from living in the city? I’m skeptical. Ask some people in Kansas why they chose PV over KC and you’ll likely hear the same things: crime, services, streets, and schools. I’m willing to bet that no more than one in ten people would list the earnings tax as a reason.
Besides, what’s the use of attracting people to the city by eliminating the catalyst for things that make the city livable? If ten thousand new residents move in and generate economic growth, how long will they stay if the municipal service level fails to meet even the lowest expectations as a result of funding cuts? Imagine if a star football recruit was drawn to Oklahoma State by the Pickens-funded plethora of athletic resources: he’s told that if he comes to OSU, he’ll have access to the best and brightest of practice space, coaches, trainers, equipment, et al. Upon arrival, though, he’s told that the funding for those things is eliminated — but hey, welcome to State!
The underlying fairness of the tax is debatable. It’s deployment as a city living recruiting tool is pretty clear: illogical.
Kansas City has larger, more systemic problems when it comes to funding. Like many other post-industrial Midwestern cities, KC is groping for a path to the future and trying to determine how one pays for things like schools and services given the recession and an ever-shrinking tax base. How to fund Missouri-based attractions when Kansas residents use them? How to create good schools with no funding and a generation of mismanagement? How to justify continued taxpayer support of sports stadiums, especially when economic studies continue to indicate little benefit?
We’ve started some band-aid solutions: downtown redevelopment (another economically unsound idea), a new arena, and others. These are, like the welfare system, solutions that address the consequences instead of the problems. The consequence is that KC is broke; the problem is that entrenched city interests have for a few decades prevented most heterodox thinking about what this city’s future looks like.
Code Blue Training offers a variety of the American Heart Association approved adult / child / infant CPR, AED and first aid courses for both Lay-rescuers and providers of health care on weeknights and Saturday at Santa Clarita, California forex.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Log-PR (Press Release) – Jan 03, 2010 – Code Blue Training offers a variety of the American Heart Association approved adult / child / infant CPR, AED and first aid courses for both Lay-rescuers (parents, teachers, fitness trainers, etc.) and providers of health care similar (paramedics, nurses, doctors, etc.) These one-day courses (offered on weekdays or Saturday) are open to the public and include fun, learning interactive time-effective format with your very own model for more practical training workshops available.The training includes a 2-year CPR / AED and First Aid certification (OSHA / EMSA approved) issued on the spot class.Stand alone or in combination classes are available (CPR / AED only, First Aid only or CPR / AED and First Aid Combo) at prices affordable to the most cost-effective than 2 years of training in the Los Angeles area. Professionals Instruction by Fire & EMS for the highest quality, medically sound, reality-based training in industry.Classes held a Hampton Inn Hotel, 25259 The Old Road, Santa Clarita, CA 91381 on the 5 — Fwy in northern Los Angeles County (exit Lyons Ave / Pico Cyn) next to the Outback Stakehouse & In-N-Out Burger.Winter 2010 Course Schedule: January 13, January 23, Feb. 3, Feb. 20, Feb. 24, March 10 Tues, March 20 more 31For more information and to register online, please visit http://www.codeblueonline.com/classregistration.html or call 1-800-272-0785….
Source: Code Blue Medics Training Division announces 2010 CPR/AED & First Aid class schedule.
As a management student, I was looking forward to the introduction class on economics. I was hoping to learn about money there, for two reasons. One was to satisfy my intellectual curiosity on how money became such a powerful force in modern times and the second was to find out how to make lots of it. I was disappointed on both counts.
1. Economics is not about money.
2. Money is not what this is all about.
Before you start abusing my education, you might want to check it out yourself. There are several books explaining principles of economics, including a good one written by the current Fed reserve chairman of the USA, Ben Bernanke. The topic of money gets introduced only in page 616.
Economics is about scarcity and choices.
Ugh!
To be precise, it is about how we try to satisfy our endless set of needs with finite resources (skills, natural resources, time etc. ) at hand – in our role as individuals, businesses, society, countries and the 
world. We make choices. These choices have consequences.
All economic activity is a process with the goal of pursuing economic activity.
The role of money in this is mainly as a medium of exchange; something that can be used to achieve your goals. It has no intrinsic value of its own. Its value lies in the belief that it is valuable to others; otherwise it is no more than a piece of paper with good artwork of (mostly) dead people. If you do not believe this, try taking your currency note to the reserve bank and asking them for something valuable, like Gold, in exchange for it. Or ask people in Zimbabwe who have to pay 160 million Z$ to buy a bag of potatoes.
Money is neither the beginning, nor the end of economic activity.
Then, what is?
I am not trying to mock the system here, so let me pose a rebuttal to my own question.
If we do not engage in economic activity, what else would we do with our limited life time on planet earth?
The only incentive for the population of 6 and a half billion people on earth to engage in economic activity is the belief that
1. Their needs are worth pursuing endlessly
2. Their needs can be fulfilled with the finite set of resources available in the world during their lifetime
I guess the logic here is compelling!!!
It is this belief that has created skyscrapers out of glass and sand, cars with sunroofs, pills for gastric ulcers, hair dryers, mp3 players, genetically modified tomatoes, waterproof watches and multi-port USB hubs, to name a few.
We didn’t really need money to make any of these. In fact, at no point in history have we ever needed it to create or consume the things we did.
We built this city on belief.
Some say that the only to ratchet down the debt is to increase taxes. Now that’s a satisfactory solution to me. With over 50 percent of my income going to Federal, State and Local taxes, I’m really in favor of that. How about cutting spending, how about cutting programs?
Big government in its search for equality amongst the masses on the one hand, and its financial support of big business wants me to give more… Oh yeah, I am really in favor of that.
Support grows for tackling nation’s debt – washingtonpost.com.
