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Jul. 4th, 2019
Fucking Moron (tm), the soybean edition
Jul. 4th, 2019 10:36 amIt's not about manufacturing any more:
Instead of US farmers making money by selling their goods abroad, the US government gives them a subsidy of $28B to offset its protectionist trade policies.
Brazil, which overtook the U.S. as the world’s biggest soybean exporter several years ago, stands to gain ground. The U.S. share of world soybean exports is expected to drop to 31% this season, the lowest on record, while Brazil’s portion is forecast to swell to 52%, which would be its largest ever.
At an agricultural forum in Beijing last fall, according to Mr. Schickler, China’s deputy agriculture minister said China would not easily forget the current standoff, and China is building alternatives for soybean imports so it will never again be so dependent on a single source.
According to Mr. Sutter, the CEO of the Soybean Export Council, Chinese companies are working to develop soybean production in Russia, where soybeans haven’t yet become a major crop.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/farmers-built-a-soybean-export-empire-around-china-now-theyre-fighting-to-save-it-11562260248
Instead of US farmers making money by selling their goods abroad, the US government gives them a subsidy of $28B to offset its protectionist trade policies.
Happy 4th of July!
Jul. 4th, 2019 04:51 pmAs a true patriot, I spent a portion of the holiday writing a letter to the IRS. Over the last two years, this fine organization couldn't manage to transfer my prepaid money between two different tax forms. After multiple phone calls to their central office and assurances from their staff that it should not be a problem, nothing got done and last month they sent the case to a Revenue Officer.
So I talked to the officer and he explained the debacle to me by a "computer glitch." Listen to this: because the amount I paid on one form is greater than the amount I owe on another form, the computer cannot credit my account. A supervisor has to do it manually upon special request. In short, the IRS owes me money but because their system is screwed up they keep wasting my and their own time on a non-issue. It's really unpleasant to deal with the whole thing. Hopefully, the revenue officer can take care of it now.
One thing that scares me the most about a potential nationalized healthcare system is the low quality of American federal bureaucracy. If we could staff the system by bureaucrats from any northern European country, or from Singapore, or even from Japan, I'd be fine with the setup. But as it stands right now, US federal agencies I had to deal with over the decades of my life in the country don't inspire confidence at all.
Otherwise, we have a great country. Happy Independence Day!
So I talked to the officer and he explained the debacle to me by a "computer glitch." Listen to this: because the amount I paid on one form is greater than the amount I owe on another form, the computer cannot credit my account. A supervisor has to do it manually upon special request. In short, the IRS owes me money but because their system is screwed up they keep wasting my and their own time on a non-issue. It's really unpleasant to deal with the whole thing. Hopefully, the revenue officer can take care of it now.
One thing that scares me the most about a potential nationalized healthcare system is the low quality of American federal bureaucracy. If we could staff the system by bureaucrats from any northern European country, or from Singapore, or even from Japan, I'd be fine with the setup. But as it stands right now, US federal agencies I had to deal with over the decades of my life in the country don't inspire confidence at all.
Otherwise, we have a great country. Happy Independence Day!
Kantian meditation
Jul. 4th, 2019 11:58 pmOr suppose some one
recommends you a man
as steward,
as a man to whom
you can blindly trust
all your affairs;
and, in order to inspire you
with confidence,
extols him as a prudent man
who thoroughly understands
his own interest,
and is so indefatigably active
that he lets slip no opportunity
of advancing it;
...while as to the means
(which, of course, derive all their value
from the end),
he is not particular,
and is ready to use
other people’s money
for the purpose
as if it were his own,
provided only he knows
that he can do so safely,
and without discovery;
you would either believe that the recommender was mocking you, or that he had lost his senses.
--- Immanuel Kant “The Critique of Practical Reason.”
recommends you a man
as steward,
as a man to whom
you can blindly trust
all your affairs;
and, in order to inspire you
with confidence,
extols him as a prudent man
who thoroughly understands
his own interest,
and is so indefatigably active
that he lets slip no opportunity
of advancing it;
...while as to the means
(which, of course, derive all their value
from the end),
he is not particular,
and is ready to use
other people’s money
for the purpose
as if it were his own,
provided only he knows
that he can do so safely,
and without discovery;
you would either believe that the recommender was mocking you, or that he had lost his senses.
--- Immanuel Kant “The Critique of Practical Reason.”