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SciObserver's comments:
on Total Tax Makeover
Because the poor have no representative on this program.
posted 4 years, 1 month ago
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on Total Tax Makeover
Bravo! Right now, state services are used most by the corporations and individuals who pay the least in taxes. The system is completely lopsided.
posted 4 years, 1 month ago
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on Total Tax Makeover
What about restoring the "unitary tax"?
That is a tax on multinational corporations in which the portion of their business which is done in Oregon is subject to tax. Oregon's unitary tax was repealed during Vic Atiyeh's administration, with Atiyeh leading the charge. The logic then (as trumpeted by multinational corporations) was that it would encourage more companies to establish factories et al. in Oregon. That did NOT happen. And subsequent studies by economists show that the "creative accounting" practices of multinationals always ensures that they pay no taxes at all.
The real consequence of repealing the unitary tax was to shift the corporate tax portion onto individuals.
Measures 5 and 49 had the same effect. They were very badly written and had the effect of saving corporations lots of money and increasing the tax burden on individuals, most of whom make less than $50K per year.
Without the unitary tax, the unfair burden of taxes is more unfair than ever -- taxing the lowest earners at 9% is extremely onerous on low income/minimum wage earners. Raising the amount that is taxed on wealthy people and on corporations is essential to restore fairness to the tax structure.
And as for slowing the growth of government, people and corporations demand services. For example, corporations have complained mightily about the reduction in court dates -- because corporations make the greatest use of the court system -- yet they pay the least portion of taxes!
Mr. McIntyre fails to understand that services in Oregon are INADEQUATE. Our school system is INADEQUATE. In order to bring our school system up to proper standards (reduce drop out rate, improve talented and gifted programs, etc.), we do have to raise government spending and increase government taxation. Those are facts.
posted 4 years, 1 month ago
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on Rethinking Schools
Bravo! You're absolutely right. Our main focus for "educational" reform should be to reform parent behavior.
posted 4 years, 2 months ago
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on Rethinking Schools
In my opinion, the biggest problem with schools is the society from which the children come. Parents are not doing what needs to be done to develop their children's intellects and behavioral skills.
The children are coming from a tv-watching (f not tv-saturated) toddlerhood which does not develop attention spans, does not develop creative thinking, does not develop social skills (taking turns, sitting without talking, listening, sharing), and actually changes the structure of their little brains (proven in research).
Interestingly enough, the kids who come from structured preschools and whose tv time was limited when they were toddlers are much better prepared for "real" school.
I volunteered in my grandson's classroom (in Corvallis! but please don't mention on air), and what I observed is that a large percentage (as much as 50%) of kids are not prepared for school by their parents. They are hyperactive, jumping on tables, climbing on each other's backs, yelling when the teacher is trying to get their attention, throwing pencils at each other. What I observed is that this very good and dedicated teacher had 24 students, 12 of whom were out of control before they ever started kindergarten.
As a grandparent and not a teacher, my problem with teacher merit pay (especially based on test scores) is that teachers would have to bear all the responsibility for the children's intellectual development and parents none. Teachers can only teach if parents do the proper child-rearing before the kids start school.
What I observed is that the teachers are incredibly dedicated, talented and eager for their students to do well. However, they get an enormous range of children -- from those who have never had a book read to them and never had to sit still for a game of Candyland (learning to take turns) to those are reading before they start kindergarten and need all sorts of advanced enrichment and stimulation (because their parents have done their preschool job well).
It isn't fashionable, but I really believe that kids should be split into classes based on their completion levels. My grandson, who is very intelligent and was allowed to watch only particular television programs, was in a classroom where 50% of the other students had tv-induced hyperactivity. It was very hard on him and in the end, we schooled him at home for two-thirds of the school year.
posted 4 years, 2 months ago
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on Music for the Soul
Another Verdi opera that is overwhelming -- Don Carlos.
There are so many operas, and they cover all the human emotions -- for joy and fun, The Merry Wives of Windsor by Nicolai.
Also, classical sacred music == Bach's St Matthew Passion and B Minor Mass, Vivaldi's many sacred works, Requiems by Mozart, Verdi, Brahms -- and Schubert's Masses -- all of them.
And another work that has profound meaning for me -- Beethoven's Violin Concerto #3.
posted 4 years, 4 months ago
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on Weighty Issue
A book just published documents how substitute foods are sold to the public -- Swindled: The Dark History of Food Fraud (by Bee Wilson, ISBN 978-0-691-13820-6). Ms. Wilson documents how food consumers have been lulled by the existence of the FDA and the US Dept. of Agriculture into thinking that their food is safe. In fact, consumers assume that if something is sold in a supermarket or manufactured by a well-known company, it can't be bad for them. The problem is that much processed food, while not strictly speaking unsafe, is so nutritionally deficient that people can eat LOTS of it but still be undernourished.
One thing we must address is the need for better quality food, for food that contains more natural vitamins and minerals, for food that is grown in good soils under the proper conditions, for animals that are raised without artificial growth stimulants -- when food quality is low and food is nutritionally deficient, our bodies respond by craving more food. We eat a great many high-calorie foods that are nevertheless inadequate to supply our bodies' needs for micronutrients. I believe that one could argue convincingly that when people have food that is fulfilling their nutritional needs (not just for calories, but for minerals and vitamins as well) they eat less than if they are trying to compensate for nutritionally deficient foods.
There is a direct connection between the industrialization of the food supply (and high-fructose corn syrup again is the posterchild for this), the decline in the nutritional quality of food, and the overconsumption of food. The author of Supersize Me showed just how a fast food diet can cause obesity. He received a superabundance of calories, but his health actually declined because he was undernourished! Many of our children are in this exact same situation -- eating a lot, but not getting the nutrients they need. Calories are not the only nutritional aspect of food. We need to pay more attention to getting the best quality of food to feed to our children. That means turning away from industrialized and pre-processed foods, eating more raw foods, eating organic vegetables (because the use of manufactured fertilizers depletes soils in micro-nutrients), and avoiding meat of animals raised in feed lots where they are fed corn, antibiotics and growth hormones!
As a reviewer of non-fiction science books, I read and review 50-75 such books a year, but Ms. Wilson's is the first book that completely changed my behavior. The first time I went to shop for groceries after finishing Swindled, I took twice as long because I was reading so many labels, and found myself rejecting formerly habitual purchases in favor of unprocessed whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and locally-grown meats.
Yes, exercise is important, getting kids away from televisions and computers is important, engaging kids in outdoor activities is important -- but equally important is ensuring that what we feed our children actually nourishes them -- that they are actually satisfied by eating real food, prepared at home without fake ingredients.
posted 4 years, 6 months ago
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