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jastev's comments:
on As We Are: Illiteracy
It would be interesting to hear your audience also address one of the root causes of adult illiteracy - child illiteracy. Why did illiterate adults not learn to read as children, and what can we do to correct that in the current generation of children?
posted 3 years, 11 months ago
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on Taxing Questions
Elimination of jobs is a fact of economic life - what about all those horse-and-buggy jobs that went away when the car was invented? The problem is not that we are consumers, it's that we've stopped producing the things that we choose to consume. Many of the products that we commonly import rely on technologies that were invented right here at home. The trick is not trying to prevent job flight or efficiency, it's in promoting innovation (a traditional American strength) and bringing new products to market. Many consumers will pay more for a superior product. But why pay more for less?
posted 3 years, 11 months ago
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on Taxing Questions
Don't get me wrong - I'm in favor of a more equitable distribution of wealth - but Capitalism is named for the capital that the wealthy invest to give the workers something to work on. It is not only the workers who create wealth; it requires initial and continuing investment as well. Those investments will not be made unless a reasonable return is offered. Investors deserve to make money on their investment of capital, just as workers deserve to make money on their investment of labor - but the two need to be proportionate.
posted 3 years, 11 months ago
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on Taxing Questions
I'm one of those who would be affected by the new tax. I don't mind paying it - in principle - if I knew that it would go to fix the long-term problems in Oregon. Unfortunately, it seems like it's being imposed only so legislators don't have to tackle the budgetary mess that has perpetuated for years. We need to clearly define which services are truly essential - education, basic healthcare, mass transit, public safety, for example - and which are discretionary. Then, tax if need be to support the essential services and cut the discretionary ones. Don't just complain that the general fund doesn't cover everything so we need more tax revenue. If you want me (and others like me) to pay more, show us that it's going to pay dividends in the long term well-being of the state.
posted 3 years, 11 months ago
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on Driven to Distraction?
This technology would, of course, also prohibit passengers in the car (or on public transport) from using their mobile phones.
posted 4 years ago
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on Driven to Distraction?
We've heard that the dramatic rise in mobile phone use over the last decade has not been accompanied by a similar rise in accidents. We also heard that when prohibitions went into effect in New York in 2001, mobile phone use by drivers went down dramatically there. Was there a corresponding decrease in accidents? As far as I can tell, there is no real evidence to support the link.
Personally, I would rather have the violations aggressively enforced, rather than the putative causes. Pull over and ticket people who are driving poorly, regardless of the reason, rather than those who are driving within the law (even if not at their best) while on a mobile phone.
posted 4 years ago
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