Welcome to Sad Salvation. Day by day by day by day ... this is my attempt to make sense of the world.

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Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Taxing the Poor

I watched the latest episode of Now on PBS yesterday. It seemed like the right thing to watch on Tax day. They talked about taxing the poor more than taxing the rich. It was a good show. I think it did good job explaining the issue that Alabama is having with state taxes.

There is one thing that upset me. I was told I could find more information on the website. The show said that there would be state by state information. I was happy to find out how equitable my states policy is. When I got to the site I did not find anything about how equitable my state tax policy was. What I could find is state by state Income Inequality.

I feel this is a bit of a bait and switch. I want to know about my state's tax policy. I want to know what my state is doing poorly. I cannot show my friends something about income inequality. We all work in Silicon Valley, we expect that income inequality is a fact of life. What they do not expect is that the tax policy they enjoy is bad for the poor. It will disarm a lot of there liberal ideas.

In other tax ideas, people should listen to the KQED Forum interview with David Cay Johnston about his book Free Lunch. I think this highlights a lot of tax problems we are having right now. I think it says a lot about how the system needs to be changed.

Labels: KQED, Now, PBS, tag overload, taxes

- Rich, 6:56 AM |

Friday, March 07, 2008

The Future of Newspapers

I was listening to the California Report today on KQED. They did a story about news papers dying. They story was mostly about the LA Times. The story seemed to be something right out of The Wire. They are talking about the death of newspapers. It sounds really bad to hear this.

When I hear the reporters talk, it is like they have the right to be in that business. It is like Newspapers do not need to make money. The problem is that just selling ad innovatory is no longer going to work. Newspapers got fat on not having competition for the type of ads they could sell. This made newspapers lazy and they are paying the price now.

I am sorry to hear this story. In 20 years I think we are going to look back at the Tribune company purchase and see one of the great missed chances of the 21 century. I do not think newspapers are really going away, but they are going to change a lot. If I was Sam Zell I would be pushing to make all the the Tribune Newspapers into a single national news paper. I think we are going to see more national newspapers in the future. The Internet is making place less important. I think the Tribune Papers are in a great place to take advantage of this.

Sadly I do not see this happening. I do not see Sam Zell or anyone else having the foresight to pull this off. Instead I see him gutting the papers until they are a shell of what they are right now. Making newspapers less important will lead to their downfall.

Labels: California Report, KQED, LA Times, newspaper, NPR

- Rich, 11:08 PM |

Sunday, September 10, 2006

In Perspective

In the Mercury News today there is a commentary by Ted Galen Carpenter titled Keeping the Al-Qaida Threat in perspective. (the website has a different title for it). Lately the Bush Administration has been comparing "Islamic Fasists" to Nazis and the Cold War. The administration has received some heat for this, but few people have put together good arguments for why the administration is wrong.

I think that Ted Galen Carpenter makes some good points. During World War 2 Germany was the Second biggest economic power in the world. During the Cold War the Soviets were the Second biggest military power. I am not sure how you can determine Al-Qaida's power, but they are not that powerful. Even if they took over the whole Middle East, they would not be this powerful.

I heard Louise Richardson speak about the September 11th attacks on KQED Forum. She wants to remind everyone that every year six times as many people die from drunk drivers every year than died in the September 11th attacks. The number I found for 2002 was 17,419. People do not talk about outlawing drinking. I do not think people see it that way.

Labels: Al-Qaida, Bush, Cold War, KQED, mercnews, Soviets, war, war on terror

- Rich, 6:45 PM |

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

We have met the enemy and it is us

I was listening to the publishers of Bitch Magazine on KQED Forum this morning. I did not catch the whole show. They talked about fashion magazines and TV shows. They were talking about how important pop culture is. The idea that the O.C. is more important to high school kids than the evening news is a powerful idea.

I have read Bitch in the past, but it has been a few years. I am not a huge fan of Feminist Cultural Criticism in general. Like many disciplines it can let agenda and dogma get in the way of what is really happening in the world. The last time I picked up Bitch I did not find it to be different.

I listened to how they railed against pop culture. I wanted to call the show and pull out the old into The old Pogo quote "We have met the enemy... and he is us". The reason that fashion magazines make women feel bad about themselves is because it seems to work. The reason that sitcoms do not have deep female characters is because they do not have deep characters at all. The reason we sell a culture of celebrity of to our kids is because we do not have the discipline to keep it away from ourselves.

Don't get me wrong, I do not like fashion magazines either. I find them to be repugnant for the most part. I think it feeds many of the ills of society. I find magazines like Maxim and Stuff to be much worse that porno mags. Maxim and Stuff are selling a whole lifestyle of sexism and shallowness.

I cannot say I am proud of what the media presents to us. Like any other business the people in the media want to make the most money for their investment. Many times this comes down to appalling the the least common denominator, using ideas that have already been shown as safe, and showing people things they have already seen.

I think the media is just a mirror of who we are. It is a distorted mirror, but a mirror we are happy to look into. If we stopped watching it would go away. They talked about a few woman's magazines that did not make women feel bad about themselves, but those magazines always go out of business. I guess there is not a market there. We might not feel this way, but the people have the power when it comes to the media. It really is our fault for what the media shows us.

Maybe I should give Bitch another try. I might not agree what they say but I should be happy that someone is saying something.

Labels: Bitch Magazine, fashion, KQED, Maxim, media, NPR, Pogo. quote, pop culture

- Rich, 5:31 PM |

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