Are We Subsidizing Idleness?
Labor Squeeze
There is growing anecdotal evidence that some Americans are, shall we say, not exactly leaping into the job search effort after the sharp economic downturn in the beginning of the COVID crisis. The latest unemployment figures were worse than many observers predicted, especially given the number of available openings.
Some on the right, and I am pre-disposed to join them, believe that unprecedented levels of federal unemployment benefits have SOMETHING to do with the reticence of some to go back to work, and with the Biden Administration pushing for additional money to go to this task, questions are arising as to the need. Below is an exchange between the President’s spokesperson and a member of the press.
I DO think that the slowness of schools to open has had an impact on some people not energetically looking for work. To some extent, as long as the White House coddles the teachers unions, the requirement to fund ever increasing levels of unemployment benefits make sense. But how about this? How about teachers go back to work (science!) and we slow the drip of continuing entitlement? If only there were a competent opposition political party to make these points. The one claiming this mantle is busy defenestrating the one person in leadership who consistently told the truth about the idiotic charges of election fraud/theft.
Bill Gates and Nuclear Power
The news of Bill and Melinda Gates’ impending divorce struck me as the SECOND most important Gates news of the week, in that this was the week that I learned of Bill Gates’ interest in nuclear power. Clearly others have known this for a long time, but I am new to it, and I cannot be more pleased.
I am prepared to believe that man is contributing to climate change. I am prepared to (and do) make behavioral changes in order to trod more gently, climate-wise, to include the necessary electrical system modifications to enable a couple of electric car charging stations, as I suspect the next time I buy a vehicle, it will be at least partially electric.
That said, I continue in befuddlement at LeftAmerica, who cannot find a single problem not attributable to climate change nor a desired policy position that does not in some way mention climate change—but who cannot seem to get their minds around the fact that most of the “clean” energy solutions they tout PALE in comparison to nuclear power. The average American, who no one has gone bankrupt underestimating, may find great signaled virtue value in the ownership of an electric car—but ask them how the electricity they are using is generated? Most haven’t a clue, and worse, they don’t care. But that’s why I’m here. Over sixty percent of all power generated in the US comes from fossil fuels, with ALL FORMS of renewable energy added together comprising 20 %, and nuclear the other 20%.
Because of the cost, scale, and density of renewables, they simply aren’t a long term solution for the elimination of much of the fossil fuel load. Nuclear is, and the fact that Bill Gates gets this is encouraging. We have all sorts of room at our existing nuclear power plants to bring on additional reactors, and there are more and more ideas emerging about making reactors smaller and more power dense. You really aren’t serious about climate change or “green energy” unless you are pro-nuclear power. It is that simple.
Biden and Masking
Over the weekend, CNN’s Jake Tapper had an interesting back and forth with White House COVID Coordinator Jeffrey Zients about why the President continues to wear a mask around a group of specially controlled persons, every one of whom has been vaccinated. Watch the clip here.
Later on Twitter, I saw this little thread from Will Saletan. I think both Tapper and Saletan have it right. One of the (many) horrors of the Trump Administration was the fact that the President did not model appropriate behavior with respect to mask wearing (and general respect for the virus). His resistance empowered a number of people who continue to see masking (and vaccination) as overkill, and that for some reason their cells make them impervious to the ravages of the virus. Now we have a President—who has done a wonderful job thus far in providing leadership and in modeling good behavior—who has an opportunity to demonstrate to those who haven’t gotten the vaccination that those who have can begin to resume relatively normal lives.
The answer that “there are too many people still not vaccinated to let up on the mask wearing” is beginning to wear thin, as across the country, vaccination numbers are slowly falling, which indicates a goodly number of people holding out. Continuing to wear masks WHEN UNNECESSARY models behavior that empowers the overbearing, that “ignores the science”, and that provides LESS of an incentive to GET the shot.
Cross Country Drive
Between now and next Wednesday’s Conservative Wahoo Substack, I be taking to the road to drive daughter #1’s car across country. She got a summer job in California, but had to obtain a needed credential, the training for which would have left her without sufficient time for the drive to make the start of job. Always up for a road trip, I offered to make the drive. The last time I did a coast to coast was in late February of 2001. I was 35 years old, I was driving a little BMW Z3 Convertible, and I made the trip in 3.5 days. I am somewhat older than that now and somewhat more in charge of my own schedule destiny, to I am meandering across the country in a relatively inefficient manner, averaging 365 miles a day over nine driving days. The plan is to wake at 0600, go for a run, have a light breakfast (only two cups of coffee) and be on the road by 0715. I have already made room reservations along the way (Marriott points for the win), and I have identified a number of candidate steakhouses for the other meal I’ll eat each day. I am subscribed to numerous wonderful podcasts that will keep me company, I’ll work for a few hours each afternoon, and I’ll fly home when it is all over.