Congress Reduces Drug Sentence Gap

Hoorah.  Here’s a step forward.

A problem for sure given that nonprofits should not be compensating its leaders at exorbitant levels.

Important to note that most nonprofits are on struggle:

Large charities like the Boys & Girls Clubs and the American Cancer Society, which take in more than $100 million annually and tend to pay their leaders six-figure incomes, account for just two-tenths of 1 percent of the nation’s more than one million nonprofit groups, according to Charity Navigator.

Also something to consider: Wall Street pulled smart individuals from sciences fields because of the amount of monies that banks could offer.  I know many people who want to do good in the world, but know that they won’t be able to survive financially.  How can we incentivize these individuals monitarily, so that their passions and ideas can actualize into positive social outcomes?

GIT AT ME WITH THE ANSWER THANKS.

I appreciate the BBC’s analysis of the DSM.  The categorizations of medical conditions is a very powerful task, and far too frequently we medicalize conditions we do not yet understand (or worse, politicize certain “disorders”).

If normal behaviour is increasingly being categorised as mental illness then that creates a burden on individuals, families and on society as a whole.

Labeling illnesses has benefits (attention to real problems) and dangers (classifying things as “abnormal”).

Previous research has shown that many people enjoy having a label or a name to describe their symptoms. With diagnosis comes relief and it can also be a form of therapy in itself.

The most important thing to understand about most (if not all) medical recommendations, is that these are studied (sometimes highly, sometimes poorly) ideas.  Recommendations are flexible, fluid, and merely guidelines.

Here’s to hoping!

But the anti-education case usually relies on a combination of anecdotes and selective facts. In truth, the gap between the pay of college graduates and everyone else grew to a record last year, according to the Labor Department, and unemployment has risen far more for the less educated.

Mr. Chetty and his colleagues — one of whom, Emmanuel Saez, recently won the prize  for the top research economist under the age of 40 — estimate that a standout kindergarten teacher is worth about $320,000 a year. That’s the present value of the additional money that a full class of students can expect to earn over their careers. This estimate doesn’t take into account social gains, like better health and less crime.

Given today’s budget pressures, finding the money for any new programs will be difficult. But that’s all the more reason to focus our scarce resources on investments whose benefits won’t simply fade away.

Truth:

My view is actually that criminals face too many post-crime impediments to reintegrating themselves within the workforce.  Private incentives not to take a risk on an ex-con do not cohere with social incentives to reintegrate workers into society and thus we get too little hiring of ex-cons.  As a result, ex-cons face a low opportunity cost of recidivism.

Lord of the Rings?

Siigh.. zero sum game.  People need to stop viewing these things as terrible competition.  I mean yes, less funds for some does make it difficult to do work (take it from someone fighting a neglected disease).  But we’re better off that there are so many groups fighting for so many causes.  And we all have the same goal: improved health outcomes.  The focus needs to be on that.

This makes me feel better about spending just under $300 for this upcoming semester (and the books will likely be used next semester as well):

College students currently spend an average of $900 a year on textbooks — a number that has increased at four times the rate of inflation since 1994, according to US PIRG.

Starting early next year, parking officials will start adjusting the meter rates and time limits to gauge how that influences behavior. More than 8,000 wireless sensors will be embedded in the asphalt to monitor empty spaces and the amount of time each vehicle stays parked in one spot.

Rates will be adjusted based on demand.

The public will be able to track real-time parking availability online and with smart-phone applications starting next year. Electronic signs will also direct drivers to open spots.