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The Needs of the Many Outweigh the Needs of the Few

Let's say tariffs cause the price of washing machines to go from $1,000 to $1,100.  We buy about 6 million per year and so it will cost an extra $600 million per year, or about $2 per person per year in the US.  Let's also say, it causes a new plant to open in the US, which makes 1 million units per year and employs 3,000 US workers.  If they make $100 thousand per year, this is $300 million.  So, as a nation, we are $300 million poorer than we were before.  

This is the basic economics argument for free trade.

There's a tired old leftist talking-point, which goes something like, I don't mind paying more tax if it allows the poor to live in dignity.  By dignity, they mean some form of welfare.  Let me rebut their argument with, I don't mind paying an extra $100 every ten or fifteen years, so that an extra 3,000 American workers can have a decent life in the United States.

Real dignity isn't having a roof over your head and plenty to eat.  Real dignity is working and providing a roof and providing plenty to eat.

For my leftist friends.  If it makes you happy, just consider tariffs as a national sales tax on imported goods.  It's a tax, you love taxes!

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What's It All About?

My wife is away visiting our daughter and so I'm left with a conundrum:  What to watch.  I can't watch episodes of series that we're watching together--which is most of what I care about.  So, I end-up watching random movies that have a low probability of being good--if they look too promising, I would want to bookmark it and watch together when she's back.

I landed on I Am Woman.  I remember Helen Reddy from when I was a kid in the 70s.  She had a lot of hits on the radio and had a TV variety show, etc.  I know that biopics tend to play fast and loose with accuracy, but still, why not find out more about her, maybe hear some songs I've heard before but don't remember now, etc.

I had already known that her, I Am Woman had been a feminist anthem and a decent song, on purely musical merits.  I'm not sure if I had known that she was Australian, or what, if any, songs she had written, or really any personal information on her life.

In the movie, the song that got my mind a-thinking, was I Don't Know How To Love Him.

The line that nailed me is at the end of this verse:

Should I bring him down?
Should I scream and shout?
Should I speak of love?
Let my feelings out?
I never thought I'd come to this
What's it all about?

The first 4 lines are sung forcefully and at a rapid tempo, the fifth slows down and the 6th conveys a kind of, I'm tired of this shit, vibe.

So, I wondered, was "What's it all about" kind of a 1970's catchphrase and asked Chat GPT about it and it reminded me of two very germane facts:

The original song was from Jesus Christ Superstar and the same phrase is the opening line from the song "Alfie".

In the original song, I Don't Know How to Love Him, the singer is Mary Madeline and the object of her affection is Jesus of Nazareth.  He's the ultimate unobtainable man!  He is God!  He is about to die! and he most certainly didn't lead her on.  In this setting, What's it all about? is heartbreaking and tragic. When Reddy sang it, it conveyed the confusion of maybe falling in love with the wrong man, who may have kind-of-wanted her to fall in love with her. It conveys sadness and frustration, but also a kind of resigned strength and an awareness of the comic absurdity of it all.  

In Alfie, which came a few years prior, being the opening line, it tells us to prepare for some quiet introspection. I don't think it's used as powerfully or emotionally in that setting, but it was first.

*She may not have known this and it's kind of doubly tragic since he appeared to her first, after being resurrected, but then immediately dashed her hopes by indicating he would soon be ascending into heaven. 

"Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" 

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Small Scale, Yes

 But singlehandedly ratioing a fool is worth every wasted second.

It's getting worse...

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Why 3?

Nowadays, having 3 kids is a lot, but some people have far more--most couples have one or two.  If you want to have a large family, 3 is a pretty natural stopping point:

Homes with 4 bedrooms* are not the most common, but they're common enough that they're not hard to find.  Once you get above 4 bedrooms, those are rare.

Most cars seat 5 people.  Minivans and SUVs that hold more than 5 are available, but owning two of them means that every commute is done with a low mileage vehicle and every two-car garage will feel tight.

*Our oldest, who is closing in on her Ph.D. once asked us, when she was very young, if we were poor.  I replied that we were fairly well-off, though not rich and asked why she thought we might be poor.  She answered, "How come you and mommy have to share a bedroom"?

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Possible Accidental Humor

 Post:

Okay, show more...

Fine, translate post...

The expanded view.

The Proposed Congressional Map of Louisiana.

 This is what a gerrymander looks like:  

The 6th is a long thin diagonal line, which also distorts the 4th and the 5th. The 4th has two big parts and then a narrow isthmus that wraps around the top of the 6th. The 5th is the same, with a narrow part where Alabama juts into the western border of Louisiana between the two large parts of the 5th.

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