In which I learn something from Football

Running

Running is very pleasurable for me. Except that is, when I arrive at a corner. Being tall and not particularly light I tend to have a lot of momentum going. So I approach a corner and begin almost backpedaling. Then I do a sort of skip-step to start going in another direction, and then I have to get back up to speed, which expends a lot of energy. Running on city streets corners aren’t that easy to avoid.

I didn’t really realize how much energy this was taking until the one and only time I’ve fallen running. I tripped over some uneven pavement and I swear it took at least 30 seconds to actually hit the ground as my body flailed horizontally through space and I was painfully aware how slowly I was approaching the ground. I had a lot of time to think and not manage to right myself. You have to have a massive amount of momentum to avoid gravity for 30 seconds.

So, I occasionally watch football games and I’d noticed how a lot of quarterbacks run with the ball in one hand and their other arm stretched down or straight out to the side. It looks like they’re doing it to be cool, but it turns out that makes it really easy to change direction.

So now I approach corners full blast. Put my inside arm straight down or a little bit out and can sail around the corner at full tilt.

Thanks Football!

Bring on the Taxes

Politics

Great article from Salon on the fact that lower taxes have never been particularly good for our economy.

Though the Reagan zeitgeist created the illusion that taxes stunt economic growth, the numbers prove that higher marginal tax rates generate more resources for the job-creating, wage-generating public investments (roads, bridges, broadband, etc.) that sustain an economy. They also create economic incentives for economy-sustaining capital investment. Indeed, the easiest way wealthy business owners can avoid high-bracket tax rates is by plowing their profits back into their businesses and taking the corresponding write-off rather than simply pocketing the excess cash and paying an IRS levy.

Let’s jack them up. I had a stupidly low effective tax rate last year. And while we’re at it let’s talk about the wisdom of having a Fed that has said they’re never going to raise interest rates. How is that going to get the economy going? Telling business owners they’ll have free money available in perpetuity is going to do what? Make business owner postpone investing and hiring in perpetuity. Got to give them a reason to jump Fed!

Of course, we’re talking about religious beliefs here. You’re not going to be able to convince most people that they could have more and better roads if we raised taxes. No matter how stupidly obvious that is.

Trickle down is a myth. It doesn’t work. It hasn’t worked. The only reason it’s even pretended to work is because we had two major bubbles created by fraud that made it appear that our economy was still growing. Give up the dream.

Lance Armstrong and the Myth of America

Ramblings

We have a myth in America that anyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps and become rich, powerful, and successful. Lance Armstrong supposedly embodied that. He was just that talented. Just that dedicated. To a level no one had been before.

Then he had this season, and it brings to mind the fact that even though Armstrong is extremely athletic, the thing he has been even more is super-humanly lucky. And perhaps many of the people at the top aren’t there because of skill, but because of luck. It’s not something people like to hear. But it does explain all the equally (or more) competent people at the bottom.

Sunstroke 5k #6 – 2010

Running

Woot! Shaved a minute off this time. Which is fantastic because it was HOT! Plus there were a bunch of people unloading boats and a car driving on the trail as I was coming into the finish line so I couldn’t push it. That was a weird race.

But Stella ran a lot that day. And she’s fast. Not as fast as me yet, but I think her grandmother was a little shocked to see her a couple feet behind her at the finish line.

Race Time Min/Mile
2 26:45 8:34
6 26:44 8:34

Round Rock Freeloadin’

Public Transportation

So according to this story, Round Rock has developed an express bus service. But not any express bus service, this one takes riders from downtown Round Rock to the CapMetro park and ride facility at Tech Ridge.

For those not in the know. Round Rock has declined to be part of Capital Metro. This is why they don’t have bus service in Round Rock.

So rather than have an express ride into downtown Austin you get an express ride to pickup another express bus almost completely subsidized by Austin citizens!

They’re also talking about building rail to take their residents from downtown Round Rock to one of the Red Line stops. In other words, they get public transportation for their citizens almost completely subsidized by the citizens of neighboring cities!

This would be less obnoxious if Round Rock wasn’t ridiculously rich thanks to the tax receipts it collects for every Dell Computer sold in the state of Texas.

We don’t need a border wall in the valley. We need one along Howard and McNiel.

No. But I am.

Stella

Last night Stella, Etta, and I were eating at McDonalds. It was the one with the playground on Riverside. We’d driven the extra 5 minutes since the McDonalds around the corner from us doesn’t have a playground.

As we were eating we were having a nice conversation. Then out of the blue Stella asked, “Dad, am I dumb?”. She had the most pathetic look on her face. Immediately all sorts of thoughts ran through my head. “Who said that?” I asked. She looked at me puzzled. I thought about the fact that we’re trying not to just tell Stella she’s smart, but praise her for the things she’s actually done. Had this backfired? Did we go too far? Had we destroyed her self-confidence? Had some kid been calling her dumb because of her clothes? Did we not bathe her enough? Was it because we didn’t let her watch princess movies?

“Dad,” she asked again, “am I done?

Done.

Done. Not Dumb. Done.

“Yes Stella, you’re done. You can go play.”

Libertarianism fails again.

Ramblings

One thing that’s not being talked a lot about is the fact that the BP oil spill proves once again that Libertarianism is not a workable policy.

The classic idea in Libertarianism is that we don’t need government regulation because there is sufficient economic incentive for companies to regulate themselves. There is no need to regulate the oil companies because they realize that if there is a spill in the gulf they might not be allowed to drill there ever again.

So we’re following the classic Libertarian model here. Industry realizes public relations nightmare. Industry will toughen their self-regulation in response. But where does this leave the public? How in the Libertarian model do you get the public back on board? Do they just believe that if an industry destroys themselves through “the Jungle”-style lack of regulation that the industry is gone for good?

This is one of the places that industry regulation is great for business. There will undoubtedly be some new regulations put in place after this, and drilling will more than likely resume in the gulf in a few years. Because ultimately we do trust that the government can do a pretty good job of regulating the oil industry. But how would that trust ever be regained in a Libertarian model?

Libertarians always say that consumers should ultimately make the decisions. But what if consumers actually did and half of Houston’s economy disappeared overnight?

Economics of the Future

Ramblings

So I was somewhat shocked the other day when I saw that Dell still employs around 10k people in Austin, but only around 70k people worldwide. Which is crazy when you realize they’re number 34 in the fortune 500. FoxConn out of China who manufacturers a lot of the products for Dell, Apple, etc. has 800,000 employees. Over ten times as many employees as Dell. I just wonder about this. If you can do only the most profitable work with a small number of employees, what’s your long term business plan? What’s to keep FoxConn who can actually make things cheaply and easily from getting into the managing people who make things market?

Austin’s past beauty is a myth

Development

I found this picture in the master plan for the new Seaholm development.

old downtown austin

It’s interesting to me because it shows the Austin I remember and not the one that I always hear people waxing nostalgic about. I visited Austin in the late 80s and early 90s and moved here in 1996. I remember it as lots of empty lots that you had to drive past to get to the beautiful places. If it wasn’t developed it was a weed filled lot or someone’s ranch that had been stripped of trees. You can see that downtown is mostly just one story buildings and abandoned lots in the picture.

Has there been a lot of development in West Austin over the aquifer that has been environmentally destructive? Absolutely. But a lot of that nature dates only as far back as the 1980s and is a serious tribute to the environmental movement that emerged around that time. In the 70’s west Austin held a lot of ranch land as you can see in the pictures on this site.

There’s a lot of nostalgia in this town for a past that never was.

Sunstroke 5k #2 – 2010

Running

First Town Lake race of the year. I thought I did pretty well. Used my running mix which pushed me quite a bit, but still didn’t come out that fast. This is a little sad because I did the longhorn run which was a 10k in 53:33 for 8:39/mile a few weeks ago. I really thought I’d picked it up a bit. Of course the Longhorn run was a cool morning race, so maybe that’s part of it. I always underestimate the effect of the heat.

Race Time Min/Mile
2 26:45 8:34