[PRCo] Re: infographic from 1941!
Fred Schneider
fwschneider at comcast.net
Thu Feb 9 14:00:06 EST 2012
No, I don't have the figures. I would have to go to a library and pull up census data. At one time the states published agricultural jobs as a line-item but that was dropped about 1970. It only ran for any areas from about 1950 to about 1970. To get anything meaningful, you would have to go to the census and look for people who said their primary work was farming ... that doesn't jobs, it simply gives people employed.
We know that farm employment has dropped drastically over the last two centuries as the industrial revolution attracted people to the cities and the products they made made farming easier. Farming is a great example of improved efficiency. Unfortunately, it caused many small towns across the United States to totally vanish. If you drive through Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas, etc., you see the foundations of many towns that simply disappeared because the people who once depended on them for rakes, hoes, clothing, groceries (for those didn't farm), moved to the cities. Why ... think agribusiness. It's not a appreciated term in those states. Even many of those towns that are still there are missing banks, have boarded up Kentucky Fried Chicken stores, etc.
Unfortunately, while computers have revolutionized what we do, they don't always eliminate dumb. Yes, as you suggested, it takes a lot less time to work up a spreadsheet by imbedding formulae in it than doing every single calculation on a mechanical Marchant calculating machine. But the f*****g computer doesn't hunt the mistakes in the logic. It doesn't detect when a corporation gave you flawed date that is screwing your sample. Man still has to do that and I continue to see evidence that man (or woman) is ignoring the issues. It is much easier to ignore the problems and simply not release data than do the job right and put out good data.
I suspect you saw something at PennDOT, John, before you retired. I was told on Monday by a former employee of mine who went to Education because she could not get a promotion in Labor and Industry that she was last person hired in the statistics division in Education. Ever since then, it has become policy to farm the work out to consultants. You see, it is not necessarily cheaper but if you pay XYZ Corporation to the work, you can also make it a condition of the contract that XYZ Corporation gives some money back to your reelection campaign.
Our state has been telling the media just how much they have reduced state jobs. They haven't reduced the work load. Education is just one example. They've been giving the work away to private contractors.
And if a state worker needs to go somewhere on business ... the state only pays 19 cents a mile now as reimbursement instead of the 50 + rate the IRS sanctions. Why? To get you to rent a car to keep the private sector happy. They will willing pay Hertz or Avis the 50 cents a mile plus the rental fee to keep them happy ... but not give anything reasonable to a state worker.
Grumble grumble grumble.
I think we need the Illinois system ... limit our politicians to two terms ... one in office, one in prison.
On Feb 9, 2012, at 8:46 AM, John Swindler wrote:
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> Or maybe the perception of inflation comes from the devaluation of the currancy.
>
> There has been a tremendous increase in productivity over past century. You have the figures, Fred. What percentage of population was required for farming a hundred years ago vs. today?? And what about your productivity at L&I using pencil and paper some 40 years ago vs. productivity with computers when you retired?? Electricity has revolutionized the work environment.
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>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: infographic from 1941!
>> From: fwschneider at comcast.net
>> Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2012 22:52:31 -0500
>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementix.org; dwightlong at verizon.net
>>
>> Did you mean to write it that way. Inflation comes from an increase in productivity? That would cause deflation.
>>
>> I think you meant to say inflation was caused by a decrease in productivity.
>>
>> Problem with restoring the gold standard is that we don't have enough gold to divide among 320,000,000 people. Of course we can inflate the value of the gold and we have. It used to be $35 an ounce. Now it is somewhere around $1700 an ounce.
>>
>> Do you remember having to read a story called the Modest Proposal? Johnathan Swift wrote that in order to prevent the poor people of Ireland from being a burdon on their parents or their nation, they could be beneficial. He suggested that the poor people could sell their children as food to the rich.
>>
>> Maybe Ron Paul could suggest eating politicians and their staff in order to reduce the burden on society. That might at least reduce the population by quite a few thousand and then we would need less money in circulation. Considering they have about ten times what the average American has, maybe we could reduce the dollars in circulation by a few hundred thousand for every politician we devour. :<)
>>
>> As I look at the
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Feb 8, 2012, at 10:15 PM, Dwight Long wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Fred
>>>
>>> It is not proper to blame unions for inflation. Absent anything else, all
>>> union-achieved wage increases do is to divide the whole pie a different way.
>>>
>>> Inflation can come, and usually has in the USA, WITH an increase in
>>> productivity.
>>>
>>> Inflation is primarily caused by the government allowing an increase in
>>> money over and above that required to service growth in the economy
>>> (assuming there is any REAL growth). Gresham's Law applies. No money from
>>> the era when money was backed by treasure exists in circulation today--it is
>>> all in the hands of collectors or hoarders.
>>>
>>> Why do you think Ron Paul wants to restore the Gold Standard? (William
>>> Jennings Bryan would not approve. I do not know what William Jennings Bryan
>>> Gwinn would think of this mess!).
>>>
>>> Dwight
>>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
>>> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementix.org>
>>> Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2012 9:24 PM
>>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: infographic from 1941!
>>>
>>>
>>>> Who are the bastards? Remember the line in the Pogo cartoon? "We have
>>>> met the enemy and he is us?"
>>>>
>>>> Inflation is simply nothing more than increased prices without any
>>>> increase in productivity.
>>>>
>>>> It would be very difficult to say who was the most guilty of causing
>>>> inflation. Management would blame it on the unions. Of course in the
>>>> most recent years, it's hard not to blame insurance and banking
>>>> speculators who think they are worth outlandish salaries. I remember my
>>>> father-in-law talking about a man he very much revered who was the CEO of
>>>> a local bank. That man spent a lifetime getting his salary up to the
>>>> point where he could live in a home that today might sell for $500,000.
>>>> He was very offended in the 1970s when the young kids wanted immediately
>>>> what he spent a lifetime earning.
>>>>
>>>> I know the man's son ... went to school with him. Jim said his father
>>>> always worried about whether his decisions were properly protecting the
>>>> assets of his depositors.
>>>>
>>>> Amazing isn't it? A banker who worried about his depositors!
>>>>
>>>> ______________________________________________________________________________________________________
>>>>
>>>> I used 1958, Dwight because I have seen a picture of a Pittsburgh PCC
>>>> passing a gas station with the advertising sign for regular at 29.9 a
>>>> gallon. Well that would have been about $2.999 (or $3.00) in 2008 and go
>>>> up about 3% a year since then ... would put it around $3.37 now. It's a
>>>> little higher but the difference isn't, in this area, is not much more
>>>> than the chap who was off by a penny in 1958.
>>>>
>>>> Considering how the American public mortgages their groceries on VISA and
>>>> Master Card, and how that stupidity hurt them the last time gas went to
>>>> $4.00 a gallon because they had no cushions in their budgets .... Shall we
>>>> speculate on what happens if it goes to $10 a gallon in todays greenbacks?
>>>> Or $15?
>>>>
>>>> Can you imagine what would happen if we were to float up with the rest of
>>>> the world? The most recent Nationmaster chart of all the world's
>>>> countries ... done in 1999 ... shows us with the 101st cheapest gas in the
>>>> world out of 141 countries. We were paying around 77 cents a liter ...
>>>> the second worst was Great Britain at 1.92. German was $1.49.
>>>>
>>>> http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ene_gas_pri-energy-gasoline-prices
>>>>
>>>> Multiply the liter prices by 3.96 to get gallon prices .... .77 x 3.96 is
>>>> $3.04 in the USA. In England ... 1.92 x 3.96 = $7.60.
>>>>
>>>> Since then it went up drastically. We went into a global recession and
>>>> the price of petroleum crashed. It's a little higher today.
>>>>
>>>> But Europe always had higher taxes.
>>>>
>>>> You want something more current?
>>>>
>>>> http://www.drive-alive.co.uk/fuel_prices_europe.html
>>>>
>>>> Multiply the numbers times 3.96 to get gallons and then times $1.35 to get
>>>> dollars back in December:
>>>>
>>>> England 1.58 x 3.96 x 1.35 = US$ 8.45 a gallon
>>>>
>>>> Germany 1.47 x 3.96 x 1.35 = US$ 7.86 a gallon
>>>>
>>>> Could you imagine our people squealing if they had to actually pay the
>>>> kind of road taxes they pay imbedded in the gasoline in Europe to drive?
>>>> In Germany, for example, it is about $2.51 a gallon. Helps to keep some
>>>> of the people on the street cars, trains, busses and eliminate the
>>>> suburban sprawl.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Feb 8, 2012, at 8:22 PM, Dwight Long wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Fred
>>>>>
>>>>> Use 1962. That way you can apply your 50 year rule and just move the
>>>>> decimal point without having to do burdensome interpolation.
>>>>>
>>>>> At any rate, the result is the same. Shows what the bastards have done
>>>>> with
>>>>> the value ???? of our money.
>>>>>
>>>>> Dwight
>>>>>
>>>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>>> From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
>>>>> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementix.org>
>>>>> Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2012 4:56 PM
>>>>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: infographic from 1941!
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> $4 in constant dollars, not in inflated dollars. If you mean $4 in
>>>>>> 1941
>>>>>> dollars, I would love to see that. We are no where near that. Right
>>>>>> now, for example, gas is just a tad more expensive than 1958 at normal
>>>>>> inflation.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Feb 8, 2012, at 4:21 PM, BobDietrich wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Then again in 2012/2013 when gas prices hit $4.00 or so.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>>>> From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementix.org
>>>>>>> [mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementix.org] On Behalf Of
>>>>>>> Fred
>>>>>>> Schneider
>>>>>>> Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2012 2:06 PM
>>>>>>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementix.org
>>>>>>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: infographic from 1941!
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Wouldn't you love to see the same item in 1944 at the height of the war
>>>>>>> with
>>>>>>> gas rationing and then again in 2011?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Feb 8, 2012, at 12:01 PM, Derrick Brashear wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Pittsburgh Regional Planning Association noted how people got downtown
>>>>>>>> in
>>>>>>> 1941:
>>>>>>>> http://nullspace2.blogspot.com/2012/02/traffic-then-traffic-now.html
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>> Derrick
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
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