10:23 – I took the day off yesterday, the first in several months. I’ve come down with a cold, from what source I don’t know since I seldom leave the house.
On the plus side, everything we need to build the first batch of biology kits is either already here or on the way, with just three exceptions. I need to order some potassium dihydrogen phosphate (used in the nitrogen-free fertilizer concentrate supplied with the kit) and some sodium dodecylsulfate (used in extracting DNA). I also have 120 50mm funnels on backorder until 21 March.
Today, I’ll get those last purchase orders issued and then jump back into the rewrite of the forensics book.
11:44 – I decided to take it easy today as well. It’s hard to do what I do when annoying virus symptoms are distracting me.
I see the Greeks are rioting. I made a comment the other day about them needing to cut 1.5 million government jobs, and someone pointed out in the comments that there were “only” 800,000 government employees in Greece to start with. Actually, no one, including the Greek government, knows how many government employees there are. The commonly quoted numbers between 800,000 and 1,000,000 are almost certainly far lower than reality. The best numbers I had as of last autumn were between 1.2 million and 1.6 million, depending on how one counts them. At any rate, my suggestion was actually to get rid of all of them and start over.
Barbara and I started watching Lillyhammer, Netflix’s first co-production of original programming. It stars Steve van Zandt (familiar as Silvio Dante from the Sopranos and as a member of the E-Street Band) as a New York mafia guy who is relocated by witness protection to Lillehammer, Norway. As we watched the first episode, one of the story arcs made me think about why Europe is moribund. The gangster decides to star a bar/nightclub in Norway, and finds that he has to go through incredible hoops to do so. That’s commonplace in Europe, whereas in the US someone who wants to start a business just starts a business. Here, it’s literally pro forma–fill in a couple of forms and you’re good to go. Is it any wonder that the US is dynamic and Europe moribund? If Obama really wants to get things going, all he has to do is exempt small businesses–say, those with fewer than 100 employees, or better 1,000 employees–from all city, state, and federal regulations and taxes. Make small businesses a protected species. Unemployment would plummet, tax collections would skyrocket, and government outlays for social programs would fall off a cliff.
Potassium dihydrogen phosphate?
Thanks for the info about Lillyhammer. My grandmother went to school in Lillehammer—it sounds interesting.
Yes, phosphate rather than sulfate, thanks. Fixed.
I did repeat the evidence, hearsay, of 800,000 the other day. And then, yesterday, I saw a figure that 15,000 of the greek government wage collectors are clergy in the Greek Orthodox Church – so much for separtion of church and state.
Obama can’t exempt anyone from state and local taxes and regulations, at least until he usurps the Constitution further. Nor, for that matter from federal taxes either as it’s a statutory matter left to Congress. The various federal regulatory agencies could exempt small (however you define small) businesses, but any serious change would result in protracted litigation by the various “save the whatever” groups.
We, as a country, have wedged ourselves into a situation where only bold action, such as reducing all levels of government, in both employees and regulation, to a small fraction of what they are today. However, there are sufficient parties tied to maintaining the status quo that the required bold action cannot be undertaken.
Of course, the mathematics of increasing debt and regulation will cause the reset button to be pressed in the not distant future, but the history of revolutions in the last 200 years is mixed at best, and mostly dismal.
Starting a business can be more complicated than that depending on where you are in the US. It took one woman two years to open an ice cream parlor in California. Also in California, there is a guy who owns a restaurant and a nightclub that are next to each other. He’s spent 10 months trying to get permission to cut a doorway in the common wall that the two share.
Anything involving alcohol is likely to involve a lot of bureaucracy in this country. I am an unpaid member of the board of directors for our beach condo. There is a restaurant at the condo, which is leased to a restaurant operator. A new operator applied for a liquor license and the OLCC (Oregon Liquor Control Commission) asked all of the directors to complete a form with personal information, including my social (in)security number. I told them to pound sand as I have no interest in the restaurant.
If this were New Jersey, the operator would probably have to pay bribes to get a license. Bribes in Oregon aren’t quite that blatant.
Rick in Portland