Menu
Categories
Flotsam
August 21, 2014 Flotsam and Jetsam

Wonkblog: It’s going to take a lot more money to fill the NIH funding gap.

  • Wintercow: hold your breath, but if government is going to be spending money, the NIH is probably a pretty good place to do it. And yes, some of the grant approval process is messed up and the agency is as subject to public choice issues as any … but
  • Wintercow: even doubling the budget means a total of a mere $60 billion. And our government, at all levels, spends $6 trillion. Without a tirade today, let’s just remind folks that if they want windmills subsidized, if they want expanded health insurance payments for the middle class, if they want universities to be subsidized, if they want all of their zillions of little pet ideas funded that “people have a right to” then this is what you get.
  • Wintercow: I no longer take seriously any idea, argument or article about government that does not recognize the above, and also that doesn’t propose what to spend less on to get what is deemed to be so important.

Noticed: without naming names, at a University I am familiar with, you would be simply astounded at the man-hours and money that are chugged away at things that provide not only no educational value, but no ancillary value. And these are all hard-working, sincere people.

Question: when we examine federal and state and local government employment and spending, has anyone seen a reliable estimate of how much is spent and employed “privately” for compliance and in related operations? For example, at our private university we have a Title IX coordinator and a staff of people that do all kinds of compliance work with other rules.

Alex Tabarrok: Ferguson and the Debtor’s prison, a MUST read. Given time, he could extend that idea to more than just the criminal justice system.

TNR: Ivy League schools are over-rated.

  • Wintercow: while there is certainly something to that point, I think the generalization ends up weakening the argument.
  • Wintercow: I’ve both attended and taught at a particular Ivy League school, and without saying much about the admissions process, if you had a motivated kid, there is nothing that is not available to them at these schools – including a great ability to think critically. The points made above, I think, are endemic of a larger problem and not unique to Ivy League schools
  • Wintercow: heresy, I know, but at this moment and the landscape I see, I would NOT pay for my kids (much more than I am already paying for their grammar schooling) to attend either Ivy League schools or the types that I currently teach at. I am not sure I would want them to attend any college at all – right now the plan is to give them whatever money we have stashed away for college and have them do with it what they please when they become college age.

Here is a view of Basin Mountain, from Pyramid Peak:

IMG_6443

That cone behind is Mount Marcy, off to the right (North) you can see the nice side of Saddleback (the other side is quite cliffy). I won’t bore you with the rest.

 

"3" Comments
  1. Great picture, WC. One for your calendar.

  2. Great post. I like this format of quick comments on various questions. Please consider doing it more often.

  3. Are you taking in a non-local vacation?!

Leave a Reply to Speedmaster
*