I hired in at age 50 and quicky worked up to project management at the corporate level where I stayed untill I retired. I could have gone back in to the same job at the same desk the next day as a contract worker for nearly 50% more, but no bennies. They had a few chemists in that situation who were in their late 70s. As long as I could continue to make them happy, I believe I could have stayed. Thing is, I retired to go play. I did my time, enjoyed it, had a great run, and now I'm ready to play.
Project management was a change because you no longer worked with the details, but had to look at the entire project in a holistic approach. You assigned teams to take care of the details. Course your survival depeded on getting people who did know the details, but you still need to know what's going on.
It's no longer the same place to work, but if it's to their advantage to keep you, they will regardless of age.
There are times when we should relieve suffering, not prolong it.
Intentional suicide is not the same. It is legal for doctors to not prolong life when suffering is the only outcome and those decisions have to be made, IF the patient left a living will the decisions are already made, or some one has the legal authority to do so. If no one has the legal authority, given by the patient in writting, they are required to keep the patient alive no matter what..
Not long ago my Father went in for surgery. The Dr came out and said, "it's all through him! I'd like your permission not to perform any heroics or life prolonging methods should something go wrong". It was a qurstion and decision I was not expecting, but I had the power and I knew his wishes, so much as I didn't want to, I told the Dr, that would be my father's wishes. He survived the operation and we talked about it later. He thanked me for upholding his wishes despite emotions. He lasted about 6 months after that.
I don't know what happened in Adam's case. To say they shouldn't happen seems trite, but all too often Living wills are not made out, giving someone who cares the ability to make those decisions or informing the Drs and hospital ahead of time.. This would not have, or should not have had anything to do with assisted suicide. It appears to have been about prolonging life beyond reasonable limits. They simply do not use life prolonging methods if legally told not to. They do not assist in suicide. These are two entirely different issues. If the patient has a living will, the doctors have been shown it (preferably ahead of time) they know who to ask and that person has sole authority as to whether life prolonging techniques are used or not.
My wif'e's dad was failing, but still in possesion of all his faculties. He made known his wishes ahead of time in a legal document, so no one else had a say.. The only thing they did was keep him comfortable until the end.
Far too often, people and the press confuse the living will with assisted suicide.
Everyone should have an up-to-date, living will if you don't want to have every cent of your estate spent keeping you in pain and as a vegatable.
If I left my phone on in my own plane, the phone would show now servive, usually above 5000. At 10,000 and above, it was a lost cause.
OTOH How'd you like to be on one of those cattle cars with half the passengers using cell phones?
In our area of Michigan (Saginaw valley) much of solar is restricted and the roof installations are still expensive. Panel Price is down, but installation is up. 5 years ago, it was over 50,000 to go off grid. I could probably do it for 35,000 to 40,000 now. That still come out to about 3X the commercial rate. Grid tied installations have been limited since day one. My farm, about 30 miles from where I live is part of a wind farm coop. They are still running over 93 or 94 utilization. Gratiot County has a uniform zoning favorable to wind farms making the regs uniform across the entire county instead of by township. There are already 3 farm and frowing. Wind speeds are ideal and consistant with very few calm days. Just googl;e Gratiot County Wind Farm.
AFAIK the farm was built with private capital.
Most of the people see how much is being paid out per acre whether you have a turbine on it or not and welcome the wind farm. Turnin sites and access roads par around a thousand per quarter each. The sites make very little noise.
The neighboring county to the east (Saginaw County) has people fighting the installation of any towers.
To me, that pretty much would include almost anyone with a degree in CS. Does that mean if you have a degree in CS they can raiod your house at any time?
How about a competent team led by a competent project manager. Say what its going to do, and then do it, with no additions or deletions once the design is settled on, before they write one line of code.
It sounds like it'd be faster to start from scratch than to fix the mess.
The American Dream was to work hard for success in what ever line you choose, or in other words, any one has the opportunity to succeed with determination and hard work. Unfortunately there is a growing segment of our society that frowns on success created by hard work and believes the successful owe them even though they didn't have the ambition to try on their own, but look for excuses and someone to blame.
Unfortunately you were exposed to the darker side which exists particularly in the NE and on the West coast. Had you been closer to the center of the country, you would have found a different world...Except for Chicago.
That it works for one government and not another is nothing new. A government may remain neutral, work for education, or push its own doctrine. The US was based/created on the free market principle, yet the government is pushing doctrine into the schools that is far from the constitution. As has been mentioned before, students are being taught "to toe the line" and original thinking is being destroyed. They are taught to the least common denominator so the "not so smart" won't feel bad, yet the smart students are taught the same, killing any incentive to excel. To excel, or stand out is frowned on by schools and peer groups. After generations of this, to find that adults are not as smart in sciences shows those who thought this was a discovery are an excellent example of the systems failures.
Many teachers are there as just a job. With their unions the outstanding can not be promoted and the failures can not be fired,
We do have good teachers, but their hands are tied. There is a reason that there is such a push for charter schools. One in Ca turned around a minority group from a group of failures to All being well above average students. It was such an embarrassment, the unions managed to get it closed because the principal used his own money to expand the school.
It's not just questionable content, but directly aimed at "Amateur Authors" . Yes some have snuck in what would be called pornography, but the response is to ban all self published authors which is not only censorship, but discrimination.
It's sad that cleaning up things is being done by painting all Amateur Authors with such a wide brush.
I find the actions of these firms as disgusting as the books mentioned.
The Kernel "appears to be some old guy with an over developed sense of propriety" or an old maid masquerading as one. But anyone can be anyone on the internet
Actually SS doesn't work that way. It is simply a trust fund that earns nothing. So on one hand the Trust Fund loses value due to inflation and in theory would be little better than money under the mattress, SS was designed to be supported by those working and would be able to pay benefits to retirees for the rest of their lives. Two things happened that will cause this to fail. It may be a Trust Fund, but the government raided it, using money for other purposes and the work force is getting smaller even with out the so called recession. So, even with out the government raiding it, SS is paying out much more than it's taking in. The workforce is shrinking while the number taking money out of SS is growing rapidly. This means that those entering the work force, or who have even been in there for a generation are going to pay more, wait longer, to get less. SS is anything but a secure investment and that guaranteed return is looking less sure all the time. Many younger workers don't ever expect to see a dime from SS and although I believe they will be served they will pay more and wait longer for less. There are only two ways to save SS. Support it with taxes which will hurt, or go to the Capitol Accumulation Plan approach which in the long run is much safer. It earns money with "low risk" investments. About the only way it would fail is if the economy tanks and at that point, SS would be broke as well. If inflation goes to the point where it was in the early 80s SS will be of little value. I had CDs that paid close to 20% back then. If I'd have been smart, I'd have settled at 16% for 30 years.
20% doubles your money every 3.8 years, but conversely that high inflation makes what you have worth much less.
There are better investments, with guaranteed returns that earn money. Like any investment, the less the risk, the less the return, but they keep up with inflation, or outpace it a bit and unlike SS are not hostage to the idea that the work force is always increasing and is guaranteed to lose value to inflation which is far higher than the official figures that do not include food and fuel.
So, no, I can't look at SS as a safe investment, let alone, extremely safe. The government tells us that within the next 10 to 20 years it is going to take extreme measures to save SS. That does not build confidence. I have far more faith in the capitalistic approach than the way SS works. We have a name for how SS is supported and private industry is not allowed to use that approach because it always fails.
We will never completely eliminate poverty under any system.
I was taught many decades ago to never judge a person by their race, but rather by what they do.
I don't care what color or sex the president is. I don't like Obama because, he lied to us, promised lots, delivered none, made Bush look good by taking his faults and making them far worse. He's a master of blaming others for his failures and taking credit for others successes. He manipulates things so it is always appears to be the "other guys fault" He is the epitome of the Chicago politician. Ask his teaching colleagues what kind of person he was (when they could find him). Check his voting record (when he did rarely show up) and stances when a Senator.
I don't like him because he is the epitome of a corrupt politician who does not want the best for the country. His apparent goal "Dreams From My Father" and "The Amateur" are to lower us to the level of third world countries. Should we default on the debt the US dollar is likely to loose its place as the currency standard. If that happens things will really get expensive. We'll be paying 7 an 8 dollars a gallon for gas like they do in Europe and that will directly affect the cost of food and travel. Actually, it'll affect the cost of just about everything.
So much for "hope and change". What it meant was Obama hoped the populace didn't find out what he planned for change. He's now down to a 37% approval rating. I wonder what other presidents have gotten that low?
That we need government, laws, and regulations is a given, but we don't need big government nor do we need more than a tiny fraction of the laws and regulations thrust upon us. This administration is working to eliminate the freedom given to us by the Constitution and Bill of Rights starting with open attacks on the first and second.
They are working to make it illegal for someone to tell us when the government breaks the law and doesn't follow the constitution, so they can do as they wish, "behind the curtain". Promised an open and transparent administration. It's amazing that there are enough that have yet to see the truth for him to have anywhere near 37%.
Violent crime has dropped some 30% over the last 3 or 4 decades even though poverty and the number of poor has risen substantially with rampant unemployment. True unemployment is far greater than the government figures which don't include those who have given up. With 43 million on food stamps which is by far the highest figure ever. Still violent crime is going down. It has risen in a few locations where the police force has been reduced to a number making them ineffective.
The same is true for the cost of living which includes neither food nor fuel, the two largest expenditures for a middle class family..
You should try it from this side of the pond It's just more frustrating. As a GA I taught 5 classes for a total of just shy of 200 kids. About a quarter to half of them didn't even belong in college. One Einstein stole a girls disk of home work, turned it in as his own and never even changed the names on the projects. It was a hot day, no air conditioning, and he sat between me and the prof questioning him. I've never seen a kid sweat so much, but he never cracked. All we could do was doc his grade instead of expelling him. BTW I was 50 when I earned my degree and started on my masters.as a GA.. At that age I found the University easier than I had on my first try, some 3 decades earlier.
2 or 3 generations of school kids do poorly and it's a surprise that adults are now doing poorly. The researchers and reporters that are surprised are the ones to receive a failing grade.
Schools used the "feel good about yourself whether you did well or not approach. Colleges have made fortunes teaching and granting useless degrees. Students don't study science because it's too hard, many thousands of kids who were not suited for college were encouraged to go for those useless degrees as they'd never pass science courses which they don't want to take anyway because they are "too hard". Then they are given easy credit with no accountability to run up massive debt earning those useless degrees. Then they think the successful who made a good living owe them part of what they made because they were too lazy to apply themselves through high school. Most students, with the proper approach, ambition and determination can get good grades. However it means they have to apply themselves early in life, because starting to apply yourself when you get in college is way too late. Much, or most of that learning desire comes from the home environment with parents taking time to read to their kids very early.
If kids don't have good grades in high school, the odds of even making it in college are very slim. Poor grades in high school? Save your money and get a job instead of running up a big debt for a useless degree. There is no surprise that after 2 or 3 generations of kids doing poor, as adults they still do poorly.
It costs so much because of the regulations that allow companies to carge much more fo drugs here than they do in other countries. Then add liability. Tort reform would get rid of frivolous lawsuits, not valid ones. A Dr in private practice pays more for liability insurance than most people make. The independent family Dr probably makes little more than many of us in the computer industry. The specialists OTOH are the "deep pockets" the lawyers target. As juries are selected based on how little the individuals know about the subject, or law. Want out of jury duty? Have an immediate family member who is a lawyer, nurse, or doctor. You might get called as a witness. How's it work? Two lawyers in the breast implant case years back made several times what the entire group claimants received and it was all based on junk science. Certainly, any time you stick a foreign substance in the human body a small percent will have a negative reaction, but no where that many.
I was a project manager installing Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS). We had to go through FDA validation. That meant for the operation we had to prove every single operation the system could do. Log in? Print screen, leave acc and pw blank, hit enter, print screen. enter valid name and pw, print screen, press enter, print screen, enter valid name and PW + one character, print screen, enter valid name + 1 character and a valid pw, print screen, hit enter, print screen and so add en nauseum., We started with a stack of entries less than 1" thick. The results formed a pile of print outs over 4' tall. Everything had to have a records trail, from monitors to routers, to switches, to coax. It was a royal, expensive, time consuming, PITA. It'd take pages to describe how complex it was and much of it would not affect the data integrity. It is extremely expensive to develop a drug or medical appliance in the US
Replace the words Tea Party with Obama and Reid and that's the way I see it. Obama is a master of putting the blame on some one else, or engineering the situation so it appears that way, plus the mainstream media serve as Obama's cheerleaders. The only print news favorable to him or unfavorable to those who oppose him. The Republican party is actually larger than the Democrats, but they have a voter base that is all or nothing. If the Republicans put up a candidate against Obama and if he/she doesn't favor every issue a voter wants, they just stay home not smart enough, or too stubborn to admit a vote not cast for their side is a vote for the other side. So essentially every Republican who stayed home cast a vote for Obama. Historically the Republicans have a low voter turn out. It's not that they have poor candidates all the time, but their party is their worst enemy.
As far as the Tea Party wing, I don't know much about them, but it appears they are no more stubborn than Obama and certainly not as vengeful, like attempting to close the entire Tampa bay. or throwing the elderly out of their homes on lake Mead, or closing privately supported and run parks on Federal land. The government spent zero on these parks, now they are paying many thousands each to barricade them and add policing to make sure no one enters. This administration is doing all they can to make the shutdown as uncomfortable for the public as they can. Obama is like a little kid throwing a tantrum because he didn't get his way.
I see this quite differently. Programs like SS and Medicare have caused a great many ( millions) to become dependent on the government. Think about it. How many elderly could get along without Social Security and Medicare? We have over 45 million on food stamps. Over the years I've had many thousands of dollars taken out of my pay check. I'm an active, small investor. Had I invested that money with the same success as my other investments I would be a multimillionaire. So in my eyes, the government stole that money from me, (course they stole it from the the program and used it for other things) but as it is, I have to depend on SS to keep a decent standard of living. I did plan ahead for retirement, but like most of the young I didn't start soon enough, yet my investments have allowed me to do many things since retiring and I still have as much as when I started.
I blame Liberals and conservatives pretty much equally, but I blame Obama and his administration more than both together. He took the disaster that was Bush and made Bush look good and that is truly an accomplishment.
One of the core courses taught at least in high school should be money management along with practical decision making. Credit Cards and credit should always be kept paid off or used for emergencies. Their use can easily double the cost of items. Learn how to invest in relatively low risk items. Gain is less but more secure. Get a good financial adviser who gains nothing from your investments. I would guess that most slash dotters have at least a Bachelors degree in a useful field, yet many, maybe the majority, earn useless degrees while piling up debt to get that degree that isn't capable of paying off those loans. AS a GA I taught a simple class (intro to computer science). I had 5 classes for a total of just shy of 200 students. Most were business majors, but less than 10% could type and about half of them did not appear to be suited for college. Students not suited for college, useless degrees, and a large debt load are a formula for a very unhappy life. If they don't have what it takes to earn a useful degree, they should save their money and time to be much farther ahead.
Unlike a high percentage of slash dotters I'm a firm believer in Capitalism and rewarding effort. I earned a degree in science that paid well and my grades were good enough to earn a graduate assistant-ship.
These are facilities that cost the government nothing. Anonymous coward has it correct, this has nothing to do with money authorized. Many of these parks require no money from the government for either their operation, maintenance, or even existence, but the addition of the guards to patrol does.
Much is not what is required. Adding policing of coastal waters to prevent fishing which would normally be permitted, putting up barricades at boat landing that were never manned to begin with. Closing Privately funded and manned parks on federal land that cost the government. It's more a case of the administration making the shutdown as painful as possible because they didn't get their way.
I Skype about once a week with my daughter, but she works in Chile.
I think 4 years is a bit young to start depending technology/ cell phones, let alone, smart phones.
Slashdot Mirror
I hired in at age 50 and quicky worked up to project management at the corporate level where I stayed untill I retired. I could have gone back in to the same job at the same desk the next day as a contract worker for nearly 50% more, but no bennies. They had a few chemists in that situation who were in their late 70s. As long as I could continue to make them happy, I believe I could have stayed. Thing is, I retired to go play. I did my time, enjoyed it, had a great run, and now I'm ready to play. Project management was a change because you no longer worked with the details, but had to look at the entire project in a holistic approach. You assigned teams to take care of the details. Course your survival depeded on getting people who did know the details, but you still need to know what's going on. It's no longer the same place to work, but if it's to their advantage to keep you, they will regardless of age.
There are times when we should relieve suffering, not prolong it. Intentional suicide is not the same. It is legal for doctors to not prolong life when suffering is the only outcome and those decisions have to be made, IF the patient left a living will the decisions are already made, or some one has the legal authority to do so. If no one has the legal authority, given by the patient in writting, they are required to keep the patient alive no matter what.. Not long ago my Father went in for surgery. The Dr came out and said, "it's all through him! I'd like your permission not to perform any heroics or life prolonging methods should something go wrong". It was a qurstion and decision I was not expecting, but I had the power and I knew his wishes, so much as I didn't want to, I told the Dr, that would be my father's wishes. He survived the operation and we talked about it later. He thanked me for upholding his wishes despite emotions. He lasted about 6 months after that. I don't know what happened in Adam's case. To say they shouldn't happen seems trite, but all too often Living wills are not made out, giving someone who cares the ability to make those decisions or informing the Drs and hospital ahead of time.. This would not have, or should not have had anything to do with assisted suicide. It appears to have been about prolonging life beyond reasonable limits. They simply do not use life prolonging methods if legally told not to. They do not assist in suicide. These are two entirely different issues. If the patient has a living will, the doctors have been shown it (preferably ahead of time) they know who to ask and that person has sole authority as to whether life prolonging techniques are used or not. My wif'e's dad was failing, but still in possesion of all his faculties. He made known his wishes ahead of time in a legal document, so no one else had a say.. The only thing they did was keep him comfortable until the end. Far too often, people and the press confuse the living will with assisted suicide. Everyone should have an up-to-date, living will if you don't want to have every cent of your estate spent keeping you in pain and as a vegatable.
You can relax in todays packed, cattle car environment with little room to move, no leg room, and some fat guy taking up half your seat?
If I left my phone on in my own plane, the phone would show now servive, usually above 5000. At 10,000 and above, it was a lost cause. OTOH How'd you like to be on one of those cattle cars with half the passengers using cell phones?
In our area of Michigan (Saginaw valley) much of solar is restricted and the roof installations are still expensive. Panel Price is down, but installation is up. 5 years ago, it was over 50,000 to go off grid. I could probably do it for 35,000 to 40,000 now. That still come out to about 3X the commercial rate. Grid tied installations have been limited since day one. My farm, about 30 miles from where I live is part of a wind farm coop. They are still running over 93 or 94 utilization. Gratiot County has a uniform zoning favorable to wind farms making the regs uniform across the entire county instead of by township. There are already 3 farm and frowing. Wind speeds are ideal and consistant with very few calm days. Just googl;e Gratiot County Wind Farm. AFAIK the farm was built with private capital. Most of the people see how much is being paid out per acre whether you have a turbine on it or not and welcome the wind farm. Turnin sites and access roads par around a thousand per quarter each. The sites make very little noise. The neighboring county to the east (Saginaw County) has people fighting the installation of any towers.
To me, that pretty much would include almost anyone with a degree in CS. Does that mean if you have a degree in CS they can raiod your house at any time?
How about a competent team led by a competent project manager. Say what its going to do, and then do it, with no additions or deletions once the design is settled on, before they write one line of code. It sounds like it'd be faster to start from scratch than to fix the mess.
The American Dream was to work hard for success in what ever line you choose, or in other words, any one has the opportunity to succeed with determination and hard work. Unfortunately there is a growing segment of our society that frowns on success created by hard work and believes the successful owe them even though they didn't have the ambition to try on their own, but look for excuses and someone to blame.
Unfortunately you were exposed to the darker side which exists particularly in the NE and on the West coast. Had you been closer to the center of the country, you would have found a different world...Except for Chicago.
That it works for one government and not another is nothing new. A government may remain neutral, work for education, or push its own doctrine. The US was based/created on the free market principle, yet the government is pushing doctrine into the schools that is far from the constitution. As has been mentioned before, students are being taught "to toe the line" and original thinking is being destroyed. They are taught to the least common denominator so the "not so smart" won't feel bad, yet the smart students are taught the same, killing any incentive to excel. To excel, or stand out is frowned on by schools and peer groups. After generations of this, to find that adults are not as smart in sciences shows those who thought this was a discovery are an excellent example of the systems failures. Many teachers are there as just a job. With their unions the outstanding can not be promoted and the failures can not be fired, We do have good teachers, but their hands are tied. There is a reason that there is such a push for charter schools. One in Ca turned around a minority group from a group of failures to All being well above average students. It was such an embarrassment, the unions managed to get it closed because the principal used his own money to expand the school.
It's not just questionable content, but directly aimed at "Amateur Authors" . Yes some have snuck in what would be called pornography, but the response is to ban all self published authors which is not only censorship, but discrimination. It's sad that cleaning up things is being done by painting all Amateur Authors with such a wide brush. I find the actions of these firms as disgusting as the books mentioned. The Kernel "appears to be some old guy with an over developed sense of propriety" or an old maid masquerading as one. But anyone can be anyone on the internet
Actually SS doesn't work that way. It is simply a trust fund that earns nothing. So on one hand the Trust Fund loses value due to inflation and in theory would be little better than money under the mattress, SS was designed to be supported by those working and would be able to pay benefits to retirees for the rest of their lives. Two things happened that will cause this to fail. It may be a Trust Fund, but the government raided it, using money for other purposes and the work force is getting smaller even with out the so called recession. So, even with out the government raiding it, SS is paying out much more than it's taking in. The workforce is shrinking while the number taking money out of SS is growing rapidly. This means that those entering the work force, or who have even been in there for a generation are going to pay more, wait longer, to get less. SS is anything but a secure investment and that guaranteed return is looking less sure all the time. Many younger workers don't ever expect to see a dime from SS and although I believe they will be served they will pay more and wait longer for less. There are only two ways to save SS. Support it with taxes which will hurt, or go to the Capitol Accumulation Plan approach which in the long run is much safer. It earns money with "low risk" investments. About the only way it would fail is if the economy tanks and at that point, SS would be broke as well. If inflation goes to the point where it was in the early 80s SS will be of little value. I had CDs that paid close to 20% back then. If I'd have been smart, I'd have settled at 16% for 30 years. 20% doubles your money every 3.8 years, but conversely that high inflation makes what you have worth much less. There are better investments, with guaranteed returns that earn money. Like any investment, the less the risk, the less the return, but they keep up with inflation, or outpace it a bit and unlike SS are not hostage to the idea that the work force is always increasing and is guaranteed to lose value to inflation which is far higher than the official figures that do not include food and fuel. So, no, I can't look at SS as a safe investment, let alone, extremely safe. The government tells us that within the next 10 to 20 years it is going to take extreme measures to save SS. That does not build confidence. I have far more faith in the capitalistic approach than the way SS works. We have a name for how SS is supported and private industry is not allowed to use that approach because it always fails. We will never completely eliminate poverty under any system.
No a White one would have not won and we'd be far better off.
I was taught many decades ago to never judge a person by their race, but rather by what they do. I don't care what color or sex the president is. I don't like Obama because, he lied to us, promised lots, delivered none, made Bush look good by taking his faults and making them far worse. He's a master of blaming others for his failures and taking credit for others successes. He manipulates things so it is always appears to be the "other guys fault" He is the epitome of the Chicago politician. Ask his teaching colleagues what kind of person he was (when they could find him). Check his voting record (when he did rarely show up) and stances when a Senator. I don't like him because he is the epitome of a corrupt politician who does not want the best for the country. His apparent goal "Dreams From My Father" and "The Amateur" are to lower us to the level of third world countries. Should we default on the debt the US dollar is likely to loose its place as the currency standard. If that happens things will really get expensive. We'll be paying 7 an 8 dollars a gallon for gas like they do in Europe and that will directly affect the cost of food and travel. Actually, it'll affect the cost of just about everything.
So much for "hope and change". What it meant was Obama hoped the populace didn't find out what he planned for change. He's now down to a 37% approval rating. I wonder what other presidents have gotten that low? That we need government, laws, and regulations is a given, but we don't need big government nor do we need more than a tiny fraction of the laws and regulations thrust upon us. This administration is working to eliminate the freedom given to us by the Constitution and Bill of Rights starting with open attacks on the first and second. They are working to make it illegal for someone to tell us when the government breaks the law and doesn't follow the constitution, so they can do as they wish, "behind the curtain". Promised an open and transparent administration. It's amazing that there are enough that have yet to see the truth for him to have anywhere near 37%.
Sorry, wrong country. The article clearly states that it was in the UK
Violent crime has dropped some 30% over the last 3 or 4 decades even though poverty and the number of poor has risen substantially with rampant unemployment. True unemployment is far greater than the government figures which don't include those who have given up. With 43 million on food stamps which is by far the highest figure ever. Still violent crime is going down. It has risen in a few locations where the police force has been reduced to a number making them ineffective. The same is true for the cost of living which includes neither food nor fuel, the two largest expenditures for a middle class family..
You should try it from this side of the pond It's just more frustrating. As a GA I taught 5 classes for a total of just shy of 200 kids. About a quarter to half of them didn't even belong in college. One Einstein stole a girls disk of home work, turned it in as his own and never even changed the names on the projects. It was a hot day, no air conditioning, and he sat between me and the prof questioning him. I've never seen a kid sweat so much, but he never cracked. All we could do was doc his grade instead of expelling him. BTW I was 50 when I earned my degree and started on my masters.as a GA.. At that age I found the University easier than I had on my first try, some 3 decades earlier.
2 or 3 generations of school kids do poorly and it's a surprise that adults are now doing poorly. The researchers and reporters that are surprised are the ones to receive a failing grade. Schools used the "feel good about yourself whether you did well or not approach. Colleges have made fortunes teaching and granting useless degrees. Students don't study science because it's too hard, many thousands of kids who were not suited for college were encouraged to go for those useless degrees as they'd never pass science courses which they don't want to take anyway because they are "too hard". Then they are given easy credit with no accountability to run up massive debt earning those useless degrees. Then they think the successful who made a good living owe them part of what they made because they were too lazy to apply themselves through high school. Most students, with the proper approach, ambition and determination can get good grades. However it means they have to apply themselves early in life, because starting to apply yourself when you get in college is way too late. Much, or most of that learning desire comes from the home environment with parents taking time to read to their kids very early. If kids don't have good grades in high school, the odds of even making it in college are very slim. Poor grades in high school? Save your money and get a job instead of running up a big debt for a useless degree. There is no surprise that after 2 or 3 generations of kids doing poor, as adults they still do poorly.
It costs so much because of the regulations that allow companies to carge much more fo drugs here than they do in other countries. Then add liability. Tort reform would get rid of frivolous lawsuits, not valid ones. A Dr in private practice pays more for liability insurance than most people make. The independent family Dr probably makes little more than many of us in the computer industry. The specialists OTOH are the "deep pockets" the lawyers target. As juries are selected based on how little the individuals know about the subject, or law. Want out of jury duty? Have an immediate family member who is a lawyer, nurse, or doctor. You might get called as a witness. How's it work? Two lawyers in the breast implant case years back made several times what the entire group claimants received and it was all based on junk science. Certainly, any time you stick a foreign substance in the human body a small percent will have a negative reaction, but no where that many. I was a project manager installing Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS). We had to go through FDA validation. That meant for the operation we had to prove every single operation the system could do. Log in? Print screen, leave acc and pw blank, hit enter, print screen. enter valid name and pw, print screen, press enter, print screen, enter valid name and PW + one character, print screen, enter valid name + 1 character and a valid pw, print screen, hit enter, print screen and so add en nauseum., We started with a stack of entries less than 1" thick. The results formed a pile of print outs over 4' tall. Everything had to have a records trail, from monitors to routers, to switches, to coax. It was a royal, expensive, time consuming, PITA. It'd take pages to describe how complex it was and much of it would not affect the data integrity. It is extremely expensive to develop a drug or medical appliance in the US
Replace the words Tea Party with Obama and Reid and that's the way I see it. Obama is a master of putting the blame on some one else, or engineering the situation so it appears that way, plus the mainstream media serve as Obama's cheerleaders. The only print news favorable to him or unfavorable to those who oppose him. The Republican party is actually larger than the Democrats, but they have a voter base that is all or nothing. If the Republicans put up a candidate against Obama and if he/she doesn't favor every issue a voter wants, they just stay home not smart enough, or too stubborn to admit a vote not cast for their side is a vote for the other side. So essentially every Republican who stayed home cast a vote for Obama. Historically the Republicans have a low voter turn out. It's not that they have poor candidates all the time, but their party is their worst enemy. As far as the Tea Party wing, I don't know much about them, but it appears they are no more stubborn than Obama and certainly not as vengeful, like attempting to close the entire Tampa bay. or throwing the elderly out of their homes on lake Mead, or closing privately supported and run parks on Federal land. The government spent zero on these parks, now they are paying many thousands each to barricade them and add policing to make sure no one enters. This administration is doing all they can to make the shutdown as uncomfortable for the public as they can. Obama is like a little kid throwing a tantrum because he didn't get his way.
I see this quite differently. Programs like SS and Medicare have caused a great many ( millions) to become dependent on the government. Think about it. How many elderly could get along without Social Security and Medicare? We have over 45 million on food stamps. Over the years I've had many thousands of dollars taken out of my pay check. I'm an active, small investor. Had I invested that money with the same success as my other investments I would be a multimillionaire. So in my eyes, the government stole that money from me, (course they stole it from the the program and used it for other things) but as it is, I have to depend on SS to keep a decent standard of living. I did plan ahead for retirement, but like most of the young I didn't start soon enough, yet my investments have allowed me to do many things since retiring and I still have as much as when I started. I blame Liberals and conservatives pretty much equally, but I blame Obama and his administration more than both together. He took the disaster that was Bush and made Bush look good and that is truly an accomplishment. One of the core courses taught at least in high school should be money management along with practical decision making. Credit Cards and credit should always be kept paid off or used for emergencies. Their use can easily double the cost of items. Learn how to invest in relatively low risk items. Gain is less but more secure. Get a good financial adviser who gains nothing from your investments. I would guess that most slash dotters have at least a Bachelors degree in a useful field, yet many, maybe the majority, earn useless degrees while piling up debt to get that degree that isn't capable of paying off those loans. AS a GA I taught a simple class (intro to computer science). I had 5 classes for a total of just shy of 200 students. Most were business majors, but less than 10% could type and about half of them did not appear to be suited for college. Students not suited for college, useless degrees, and a large debt load are a formula for a very unhappy life. If they don't have what it takes to earn a useful degree, they should save their money and time to be much farther ahead. Unlike a high percentage of slash dotters I'm a firm believer in Capitalism and rewarding effort. I earned a degree in science that paid well and my grades were good enough to earn a graduate assistant-ship.
These are facilities that cost the government nothing. Anonymous coward has it correct, this has nothing to do with money authorized. Many of these parks require no money from the government for either their operation, maintenance, or even existence, but the addition of the guards to patrol does.
Much is not what is required. Adding policing of coastal waters to prevent fishing which would normally be permitted, putting up barricades at boat landing that were never manned to begin with. Closing Privately funded and manned parks on federal land that cost the government. It's more a case of the administration making the shutdown as painful as possible because they didn't get their way.
I Skype about once a week with my daughter, but she works in Chile. I think 4 years is a bit young to start depending technology/ cell phones, let alone, smart phones.