The Globe and Mail squares up to the fact that young people are in big trouble as far as the whole “prosperity” thing goes. Not too much of a surprise really, though I couldn’t have said it better.
I found two comments interesting.
First (reason: self explanatory):
You can bail yourself out all you want now, but when it comes to write the cheques in 15 years or so, me and my cohort will simply bail ourselves out by puting you into homes or icebergs.
Icebergs seem a lot cheaper, although global warming might pose a problem.
Second comment:
…. yes, they will surely demand more of their leaders. Like all youth, when they get really frustrated, about their prospects in life, they don’t go quietly into that good night. Bet on it. They will not lobby and protest in a ‘nice’ way. The street is their forum.
Sounds like either a deluded student government type or someone born in the 60s. Don’t they know it’s much easier to sit at home and watch TV than do anything about it. And more effective. Given voter turnouts and the general gray-hair-to-peach-fuzz ratio, it would take a pretty organized bunch of people to get something done. And we youth aren’t known for our organization.
Among the comments from Gao Xiginq, who runs the China Investment Corporation during an interview with James Fallows:
About Wall Street jobs, wealth, and the cultural distortion of America:
I have to say it: you have to do something about pay in the financial system. People in this field have way too much money. And this is not right.
When I graduated from Duke [in 1986], as a first-year lawyer, I got $60,000. I thought it was astronomical! I was making somewhere a bit more than $80,000 when I came back to China in 1988. And that first month’s salary I got in China, on a little slip of paper, was 59 yuan. A few dollars! With a few yuan deducted for my rent and my water bill. I laughed when I saw it: 59 yuan!
The thing is, we are working as hard as, if not harder than, those people. And we’re not stupid. Today those people fresh out of law school would get $130,000, or $150,000. It doesn’t sound right.
Individually, everyone needs to be compensated. But collectively, this directs the resources of the country. It distorts the talents of the country. The best and brightest minds go to lawyering, go to M.B.A.s. And that affects our country, too! Many of the brightest youngsters come to me and say, “Okay, I want to go to the U.S. and get into business school, or law school.” I say, “Why? Why not science and engineering?” They say, “Look at some of my primary-school classmates. Their IQ is half of mine, but they’re in finance and now they’re making all this money.” So you have all these clever people going into financial engineering, where they come up with all these complicated products to sell to people.
Before Sunday’s basketball game, Coach Yogi Woods gathered the junior varsity at Lambuth University. Watch out for 73 on the other team, he said. He did not mean the player’s number. He meant his age.
The visitors, Roane State Community College, had a septuagenarian guard, Ken Mink, college basketball’s oldest player, who has started a second career after his first ended a half century ago with a mysterious shaving-cream incident.
If the 6-foot Mink was good enough to play, he was good enough to be guarded, Woods told the Lambuth players. Then he turned to the freshman Kendrick Coleman and said: “If he goes in for a layup, don’t let him have it. If he scores on you, we will never let you forget it.”
Perhaps you’ve enjoyed the recent run of advertising duels between some of America’s biggest brands — Mac v. PC, Dunkin’ Donuts v. Starbucks. Burger King v. McWorld.
And now, coming to the broad side of a bus near you, God vs. No God.
How will you respond if Obama puts through the tax increase he has promised, particularly with respect to the capital gains tax increase he has promised?
President-elect Obama appears to be leaning toward a delay in his tax increases for the wealthiest 5 percent to pay for his promised tax cuts for the remaining 95 percent. History has shown that raising taxes in a recession tends to worsen the situation. We would encourage him to delay his proposed increases and implement his proposed tax cuts. We ascribe to the theory that tax cuts boost the economy — and therefore increase total tax receipts — no matter which portion of the tax-paying public receives the tax cuts.
A theory, though, is something that holds true across a range of variables. But, and you don’t have to be a genius to see this, you can only cut taxes so far. To zero, to be exact. And at that point, total tax receipts do not rise, they fall to zero as well. Even at one-per-cent tax, the economy would need to be a lot better than forty times that of today for tax receipts to keep rising. So his whole point is wrong. Unfortunately, it’s a widely held belief.
Then read this story, which gives one a broader overview of the current situation in Poland.
The author’s observation of Warsaw as being dotted with cranes holds true a few months later, altough I’ve been told the building boom the city has experienced in recent years is starting to cool.
Oh, I haven’t personally seen this commercial yet, and my ears would definitely have perked up had I heard someone speaking English.
Soon, when I speak to a credit card rep over the phone and he or she asks me for my home address, I’ll actually be able to answer truthfully. That’s right, in a month I will no longer be homeless.
After a fitful search we finally found a place a couple metro stops away from downtown Warsaw. The price is about the same as we’d be paying in Vernon and a few hundred less than in a city of considerable size and influence in Canada.
Indeed our search here revealed just how much more affluent Canadians are than Poles, at least when it boils down to comparing dollars to zloty. In Lodz, the second largest city in Poland, you can rent a three-bedroom apartment for around $450. Go to the grocery store and a chicken breast will cost you the equivalent of $1.50 CDN.
The reason is simple. Poles can’t afford to pay the prices most Canadians are used to. When it comes to purchasing power, Canadians can, on average, buy nearly two and a half times more of your basic cart of goods than Poles. Canadians’ GDP per capita at purchasing power parity is more than twice as much as Poles’. Canada’s was $38,600 compared to Poland’s $16,200. But, Warsaw’s PPP is around $23,000, making it much more expensive, although still comparable to a smaller city in Canada like Vernon.
I guess we’ll put this uninspiring post down as one to consult later for my own purposes.
