What are your Human Rights?

I hear all sorts of wild claims about "X is a human right".  So I thought I would compile a list of these claims, ranked by google popularity.

These results are of course highly suspect, since google's first approximation and final count can vary to the point of having no relation to each other.  For example, a search for "income is a human right" gives me an estimate of 144,000 results on the first page, and a final count of 25 (even including duplicates!) on the third page.

Among the things beating out "life" as a basic human right are internet access, abortion, and credit.  A satellite dish is a more popular human right than liberty.  Suicide ranks higher than survival.  Even flying is a human right, despite the fact that humans are not birds.

(click the read more link to see the table)

Régime change in one easy step

After all the trouble it took to overthrow régimes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, now we have the leaders of Greece and Italy voluntarily and peacefully stepping down.  It is truly amazing how much power there is in a bond's interest rate.

But what amazes me even more is how easily these changes in Greece and Italy could have been avoided, simply by not spending more than you earn!  These two powerful leaders of western countries have been taken down by their own greed, rather than months of war or protests.

Could the same thing happen in America?

Italy has a debt-to-GDP ratio of 119% and Greece is at 145%.  By comparison, the United States is at 63%, so we still have some breathing room at least.

But on the other hand Japan is at 200%. No one seems very concerned about that. Should we be watching for something to happen there soon?

Rand Paul's "Fuzzy Math"

Saw a message from Rand Paul today, where he asserts that he has a plan which is "so simple a Washington politician or journalist could even understand it."

To balance our budget, all we need to do is freeze federal spending today, then cut one percent of the budget each year for the next 7 years.

That's a simple plan, yes.  But maybe he hasn't checked how big our deficit is lately.  We are currently spending 40% more than we earn.  So, to put the issue in terms even an inexperienced ultra-conservative can understand:

7% < 40%

Sorry, Rand.  Ain't gonna work.

Ten Years of War and Terror

As the whole nation commemorates the tenth anniversary of 9/11, one question keeps coming to my mind.

How much revenge is enough?

We have started two wars and are responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of afghans and a million iraqis.  Why don't we remember all of those innocent victims of our reaction to 9/11?

But  Leon Panetta (Secretary of Defense) has answered my question.

"we will never stop fighting them" (transcript)

Economics 101

Diane Rehm normally has well-informed guests on her show, but lately I've been noticing a trend of ignorance of fundamental laws of economics. 

For example:

"Dr. John Wennberg, if I could start with you. A great deal of capital is expended on the cost of healthcare. What is driving these costs?"

"Well, looking at it over time, it seems to me that the most important driver is the continual increase in resources devoted to healthcare, the numbers of doctors we train and put into practice, the number of hospital beds we build, particularly intensive care units and the new technologies and indeed the old technologies which keep creeping in and we're using them at greater intervals."

So according to this "expert" the increase in supply is driving up the prices.

Another example:

"The military is powering ships with fuel derived from algae-running solar-powered generators and flying jets with fuel made from an oilseed plant. The military says cutting down on oil makes our troops safer. But for now those alternative fuel sources are more expensive than traditional ones. The hope is that a customer the size of the military will create demand and drive prices down."

We are expecting that increased demand will drive prices down?!

Remedial Economics

For those of you who somehow managed to avoid even the most basic of economics lessons, here is how supply and demand works: More demand allows prices to go higher, because the goods are more scarce.  More supply allows prices to go lower, because there are plenty of goods and more competition.  Also, lower prices tend to increase demand, because goods are more affordable, and higher prices tend to decrease demand, as less buyers choose to pay the increased prices.  Aside from rare exceptions, such as Irish potatoes, these laws are as universal as laws of economics can get.

In the case of medical health prices, it is not the increasing supply which is driving prices up.  It is the increased demand which is made possible because the actual costs are hidden from the consumer.  Universal affordable healthcare means greatly increased demand, which drives prices up, and the rapid buildup of healthcare facilities is simply trying to keep up with the demand.  Drug costs are particularly high because consumers pay flat rate copays instead of the actual costs.  Some people are even advised to get an expensive prescription drug if their copay is less than the cost of the equivalent over-the-counter drug.

Having the military buy renewable fuels is sure to drive the cost up, at least in the short term, as the increased demand overwhelms the suppliers.  In the long term, the hope is the suppliers will ramp up production, and there will be opportunities to lower prices due to increased efficiencies in the manufacturing process.  This could happen, but there are no guarantees that it will.  If the raw materials, not the processing, is the major portion of the cost, increasing efficiency will not help much.  And some processes are simply more expensive than pumping oil from the ground.  We can hope for a technological breakthrough, but it doesn't always happen.  After all, fusion power has been 20 years away for 70 years now.

Grimms Märchen

I had a hard time finding a copy of Grimm's Fairy Tales in German on the internet.  Project Gutenberg used to have it, because I got it there once before, but now they just have an audio book posted. 

Anyways, I found a freeware copy here (pdf or odt), and converted it to epub format.  In a small effort to give back, I have posted my conversion at archive.org.

Get it here:
http://www.archive.org/details/GrimmsMrchen