Link reblogged from jakke with 13 notes
I don’t know how it works in other countries, but in Canada welfare cheques are disbursed on the last Wednesday of the month. Why do we do things this way? It creates a sudden rush of customers at businesses which cater to low-income people (e.g. pay-by-the-minute cellphone services) and lengthy…
In the states it’s the first (obv., I guess). That is, it’s mostly the same. Actually I’ve seen reports of Wal-Marts getting hit up at 12am, literally as the money is transferred on to the card. In particular, we watched this video about a town in Idaho for my urban economics course last semester.
But as for the question; No, there is no good reason.
As for your comment
- I’m wondering if the random choice to spread would be the best choice. Would this be too arbitrary (I suppose it’s equally arbitrary anyways)? Also, would there be a better way to match it to other income schedules?
- Would be necessarily worse to do a two times a month system as to spread out consumption? -though this is probably towing a line on how paternal these systems are.
Random selection might be too arbitrary, sure. I don’t really care about how the days are allocated. However I’d argue there are sound arguments against weekends and Fridays, in case recipients don’t get the opportunity to spend the money during business hours and have to wait until Mondays (especially in smaller communities).
Spreading things out to twice a month might drastically limit recipients’ ability to purchase necessary big-ticket items (e.g. kitchen appliances or vehicle repairs) which improve one’s life but which are difficult to save up for. Many welfare recipients do not have access to bank services (especially in the US where big banks can charge fees for customers falling below a minimum account balance) and even if they do there will always be social pressure to spend that money (e.g. by helping out family members or attending social gatherings). This kind of social pressure is commonly observed with cash transfer schemes and shouldn’t be seen as some kind of ~*~moral failing~*~ or whatever but rather as a real cost to building social support networks when one is perceived to have disposable income.
A bit late to this, but that’s what I get for being an East-coaster.
Your point about social pressure to help people out could be an argument for the single day system. I could see a scenario where Monday or Tuesday recipients see less benefit from their payments on net because they’re pressured to give short-term loans to Wednesday/Thursday recipients, some of whom might not fully pay it back.
Source: jakke
Audio post reblogged from punkrockneophyte with 1 note - Played 0 times
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]A.F.U. - “High On The Hog”
I couldn’t find anything on the band except that they’re from Oxnard, Ca., a coastal town almost exactly between L.A. and Santa Barbara, and which apparently had enough of a punk scene that they have their own comp for sale on Amazon.
The song starts with a small instrumental before going with a full-front assault on the senses. For a song that clocks in at only 1:05, it packs a hell of a punch, to the point where it almost feels a lot longer. I could imagine a crowd going all-out to this.
In many ways, this is a pretty good starting point for this project. Straight and to the point.
My friend Sam, who’s a legit journalist and thus to be respected, is starting a new tumblr going through a big ol’ compilation of old school American hardcore one song at a time. I’ve had this collection sitting in my downloads folder for far too long, so I’m looking forward to following along. You should, too.
Today’s track is A.F.U.’s “High on the Hog.” I dig it. It’s exactly what you want from a less-than-two-minute hardcore song. You quickly identify the parts you might shout while jumping around in a tiny, crowded venue. (In this case, predictably, “High! On! The! Hog!”)
Kind of wish I knew what A.F.U. stood for. All Fucked Up? A Fervent Unitarianism?
Anyway, as I’d yet to listen to anything more intense than “Surfing in Tofino” all day today, Sam has saved me from being an irredeemable softie for the day.
Source: punkrockneophyte
Upon hearing that Americans Elect had actually managed to get themselves onto a decent number of state ballots for 2012, I decided I might as well sign up so I could have a modicum of a say in who their eventual nominee was. Little did I know, their rules allow you to support as many candidates as you like, and each member can propose another candidate of their choice. Fun!
Now, I wouldn’t say I’ve been trolling (except in the title of this post), but I have not exactly been discriminating in my support of:
For the record, I used my committee-starting allowance on TNC. It was a toss-up between him, Ackerman, and Schumer. But I decided that my loyalty to the Golden Horde trumped all.
In any case, my favorite part of this campaign is the fact that so far not even their most popular candidates seem to be on track to clear their basic requirements for admission to the next selection step. (Candidates with experience similar to previous Presidents must get at least 1,000 supporters in each of 10 states.) I can’t wait to see them furiously backpedal when Ron Paul is the only one who qualifies.
Even given the standards of the Italian Navy, military observers are surprised that a tiny fishing vessel incapable of taking to the high seas could have been mistaken to be a Somalian pirate vessel. There were 11 fishermen on board, nine of whom were sleeping on deck when the other two were shot and killed by the marines. While it’s theoretically possible that a pirate crew would be asleep just before launching an attack on a target a thousand times its size, this seems improbable. As for weapons on board the fishing boat, there were none, which made nonsense of claims that there was sustained firing before the Italians retaliated in kind.
Post reblogged from Y files with 1 note
Is obviously a lame holiday. At the same time, the country badly needs a three-day weekend to facilitate the playing of the Super Bowl. The NFL should tweak its schedule to bring the playing of the Big Game into mid-February and the day should be renamed Get As Drunk As You Want While Watching Football Day.
I never imagined that there could be an idea I agreed with this much.
Source: yfiles
Here’s the new plan. I realized that the weakest part of my foreign service exam was the written section. I knew my shit on the multiple choice, but kind of fell apart when it came to writing. So I want to write something every day.
The plan is to write about whatever item strikes me on any given day. Most days it’ll be a blog post or news item. Except maybe weekends. We’ll work on that. Also, Wednesdays are likely to be about comics. Nobody’s perfect.
In any case, if I drop the ball, I expect you folks to be scathing. Bring it on.
Post with 1 note
I’d just like to let you all know that I was on track to write a really great post tonight about India or Iran or something until my roomie pulled me into her contest to come up with more euphemisms for marijuana than whoever she was texting with at the time.
So that post isn’t going to happen. But it’s been a while since I did anything here, so I guess you folks deserve an update. Here are some bullet points:
-I’m doing pretty darn well learning Hindi. I can tell you that my husband, who lives in New Delhi, wants to drink coffee. And that said coffee costs 15 rupees.
-The whiskey I’m currently drinking is as old as my brother. I can’t say 1983 in Hindi, but if I could I would.
-I just took the Foreign Service Exam again, so it’s probably for the best that I don’t publicly express any opinions for a while. I’d like to take this opportunity to point out that I’ve never publicly discussed any WikiLeaks documents. Except maybe that really awesome one about the Dagestani wedding. Don’t look it up. Because doing so would be illegal.
-Continuing on the “trying to land a gov’t job” theme, my brother is once again settled at his base in Oahu, and I’m saving up to go crash on his couch. Go Navy.
-I have plenty of couch-crashing experience, given that I currently reside in my friends’ living room. I am the 16.2%*.
*Best stat I could find for underemployment. Seems like something that would be very hard to measure.
Link reblogged from jakke with 3 notes
As soon as the World Bank confirmed Wednesday that Robert Zoellick will step down as president this summer, the tussle over who should succeed him began.
The Obama administration, abiding by a decades-long custom, says it expects to name the replacement. That custom has outlived any semblance of propriety. The White House should think again.
For seven decades it was accepted that a U.S.-nominated American would lead the World Bank and a European backed by Europe’s main powers would head the International Monetary Fund. This cozy arrangement, always lacking in legitimacy, was once defensible as a practical matter.
It’s telling that nobody any longer even attempts such a defense. The arrangement is rightly seen as an affront to Brazil, China, India and the other fast-growing developing economies. It’s also inimical to the very idea of international cooperation on terms of mutual respect - and not just for the countries excluded from any say in the matter.
Truth. For an institution that gallivants around the world fretting about secretive and tradition-bound and cronyist governance practices, the fact that tradition still dictates that the World Bank is run by whomever the US President unilaterally appoints is patently ridiculous. I’d love to see someone smart and capable from outside the OECD running things for once.
Agreed. I’m all about America, don’t get me wrong. But I think attempting to run the world single-handedly does nothing but undermine us. International institutions should reflect the fact that not everybody thinks like Americans do. It can only boost the credibility of the international liberal order to show that it’s actually international.
Source: jakke
Link reblogged from MURK AVENUE with 14,336 notes
CLUE 1:
“went to short dogs house,
they was watching Yo MTV
RAPS”
Yo MTV RAPS first aired:
Aug 6th 1988
CLUE 2:
Ice Cubes single “today was a good day” released on:
Feb 23 1993
CLUE 3:
”The Lakers beat the Super
Sonics”
Dates between Yo MTV Raps air date AUGUST 6 1988 and the release…
Source: murkavenue
Apparently the Republicans have determined that if they can raise the membership of the New York State Senate from 62 to 63, they stand a better chance of maintaining their majority. So that’s what they’ve opted to do.
And, if their math is correct, it would seem that they’re legally justified in doing so. Which I guess is on the up and up. Except that the basis for that math is stupid.
Apparently, the Democrats are arguing that the Senate should remain at 62 members based on the overall population of the state. While the Republicans call for 63 based on the relative populations of the districts defined for determining Senate size back in 1894. So yeah, legally they’ve got a point. But why on Earth are Richmond County (Staten Island, part of New York City) and Suffolk County (Eastern Long Island, not a part of New York City) thrown together as one district? Makes no sense.
If Cuomo’s idea of a non-partisan redistricting commission (or my 3rd-party redistricting idea, which seems to have gotten deleted) were implemented, it might not seem so bad. But when the people who are getting elected can determine not only what the districts are, but how many there are, it looks a bit shady.
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