The Mart

The Mart in Atlanta.  The largest shopping mall you are not allowed into.

We are in Brevard, North Carolina, which is sort of a tourist town.  Strike that, it IS a tourist town.  You can tell a tourist town by a number of factors.  One is that it has a lot of people from out-of-State visiting there, and two, there are a number of locals grousing about “all those tourists” even as they earn their living from the tourist trade, directly or indirectly.

And of course the smiling local Real Estate Agent, with her perfect hair, will sell you a vacation home here – or a permanent one, so you can become a “local” (vesting period, two weeks) and then grouse about all the “tourists” as well.

These sorts of towns require some sort of festival of sorts, and here it is the “White Squirrel Festival” based on the prevalence of white squirrels in the local arboreal population.  Apparently this is considered quite unusual, although I remember at Syracuse University we had these black squirrels on the quad, that were small and had shiny black fur, and very thin tails.  Come to think of it, they could have been rats.  I am not sure.

So, everything has a white squirrel theme, and we are all very amused by it, or at least supposed to be.  We’ve decided to play along.

Another thing a tourist town needs is an “anchor”.  Just as a cheesy shopping mall from the 1970’s needed an “anchor” store, such as a Sears or Dey Brothers (department store), these tourist towns need some sort of anchoring event or institution to start the whole ball of wax going.  And here it is the Brevard Music Center, which is pretty well-known and worthwhile coming to see.  There are performances of opera, classical music, plays, the like, by both professional and student performers.

But getting back to Main Street, you see the other de rigeur aspect of the tourist town – the shopping district.  These are the sort of areas that men generally avoid and women love.  And the local activities guide lists “shopping” as an “activity”.

Now, you know already without even me saying, what they sell in these stores – cute stuff, potpourri, scented candles, pocketbooks, jewelry, and of course, the t-shirt that says you’ve been there.   And it goes without saying, that each boutique and shop makes generous use of MAN-AWAY™ Spray (see my posting on that subject).

And you might very well wonder where they get all this crap.  After all, it all seems alike, right?  Do they get it out of a catalog, or what?

Well, you are right, it is all alike, no matter which tourist town you are in, because the owners of these little shops all get their stuff from the same source.

And I’ll let you in on the secret, as I have been to the Mecca, not once, but three times so far.  The shopping Allah would be pleased.

I am talking about the Mart, of course.  Or more specifically, “America’s Mart” which is located in downtown Atlanta.  The original was in Chicago, and I am sure there are others around the country. 

It is huge.  Imagine about six or seven large downtown office buildings interconnected with flying bridges and underground walkways.  This is not some fly-by-night convention, but a permanent installation.  Most wholesalers have permanent showrooms here.  Others rent space for the semiannual wholesale shopping orgies, often simply known as “The Mart.”

If you want to sell jewelry, scented candles, or Christmas ornaments, this is the place to go to meet the people who wholesale them.  You can place your bulk order and even cash-and-carry some items.  Purses, leather goods, watches, furniture, stained glass, sculptures, pottery – you-name-it, they have it.

And once you’ve been to the Mart, well, you can’t go into a gift shop within a 300-mile radius and not see the same merchandise.  And you give the shopkeeper that knowing smile, as you know that those kicky bracelets by the cash register are marked-up 150% from wholesale.

Can just anyone go to the Mart?  No, of course, you have to be in “the trade”.  But that doesn’t stop some folks from sneaking in.  Some ladies we met had badges (you have to have a badge to get in, of course, and there is a hefty entrance fee!) and on their badge is their name and the name of the company they work for.  Maybe I am jaded, but I doubt that “American HVAC Contractors” is buying jewelry for resale.   Rather, these ladies are using their husband’s business as a cover for a little wholesale shopping spree.

They have tried to cut down on this a bit, by limiting the “cash and carry” trade.  At the end of the Mart, many wholesalers sell off their display inventory to the trade, which was always a chance for retailers to pick up some merchandise to take back, and perhaps a little bling for themselves.  But the sneakers who came in under cover were using this as an opportunity for a little personal shopping at wholesale prices.

So, unfortunately, the cash-and-carry business is limited to the “temporaries” for the most part, and not the permanent showrooms.

But you can’t blame those die-hard shoppers for wanting a good deal, right?  And this illustrates how retailing – particularly gift shops – rely on impulse purchases.   They buy stuff for cheap, mark it up a factor of 2 or 3 and hope that you wander into their shop (in the tourist destination) and say, “Gee, I just have to have this!”

And that illustrates why shopping is so hazardous to your pocketbook.  Buying things without carefully thinking over the purchase and comparing prices is, to say the least, reckless.  And unfortunately, the “must have” item at the boutique is likely to be found at another boutique down the road, in the same tourist town or at another one very much like it.

Thanks to the Internet, of course, you might be able to find the same item online.  And who knows?  By the time you get home and think about it, you may decide you don’t really need another piece of tchotchke cluttering up your living room.

Brevard is a nice place, I guess.  But as a tourist town, it does take itself a little too seriously (there are more whackjobs here than in Ithaca, NY, and that is saying a lot).  And we realized that we really don’t want to live in a tourist town, even if we sort of already do (albeit on a much smaller scale).

And no, by dint of having lived there for a few years, I don’t consider myself to be a “local”.

Shopping Phone and Internet Plans....Again

Shopping your phone plan is a PITA, but worthwhile to do, now and then.

I am having trouble with my AT&T landline again.  I pay extra every month for call-forwarding-busy/don't answer, and in the last three month, someone at AT&T keeps resetting my call-forwarding number so that my calls don't forward.  This is frustrating, as customers call and if I don't answer or I am busy, they get a recording saying the number is not in service.   This is not good for business.

Are there alternatives to AT&T landlines?  Yes, oddly enough, and one of them is AT&T fiber optic.

Shopping phone plans, as well as cable, internet, and wireless, is hard to do, as the actual cost is obfuscated and pricing is anything but transparent.  If you go onto any service provider website, there are alarmingly low prices proffered, such as $29.99 a month!!! (with exclamation points).   But the catch is, of course, that (a) that is a six-month or 12-month promotional price, and (b) there are taxes and user fees added on, and of course, they can't tell you how much that will be.

Funny thing, but the airline industry tried that second tactic for years.  Finally, the government stepped in and said "prices are prices - POST YOUR ACTUAL PRICE!"    I just bought four round-trip tickets to Spain, and let me tell you, it was refreshing to be able to compare ACTUAL PRICES for a change and when I clicked on BUY NOW, the amount charged to my card was the amount on the screen.


Still think government regulation is a bad idea?   Some airlines, such as Spirit, Southwest, and Allegiant, thought so, and sued.  They Lost.   I suggest you boycott those airlines, as they likely are not providing really good deals anyway, if they have to resort to trickery to get you to buy a ticket (U.S. Airways seems to have the lowest prices of all the major carriers, consistently).

(of course, the air carriers did not sit on their hands.  There are now "a la carte" charges for everything from checking bags, to carry ons, to the "free" drinks, to even using a barf bag.  Pretty soon there will be a fee for having to breath other people's farts on the plane.   Classic marketing - take a flaw in a product and sell it as an add-on extra price "feature".)

So shopping and cross-shopping these plans is more nightmarish than going to a car dealer and saying "how much is this car?"   The price is an irrational number, and no two people seem to pay the same price, it seems.

I called Comcast, and the young lady answering the phone was actually helpful.  It took some prodding to get her out of her script.   The script says to sell the promotional pricing and that "we can't calculate the taxes and other fees".    The latter is, of course, bullshit, as their computers calculate these fees, every month, when they send out a bill to you.  The idea that they can't tell you the taxes and fees up-front is ridiculous.


On their website, they offer a number of "bundles" of services, including telephone, cable TV, and internet access, starting at $99 a month, but only for the first 12 months.  And these bundles do not include the various access charges, fees and taxes.   So, in other words, it will cost more - a whole lot more - to have these services.

How much more?  The regular price, for Cable TV, Landline Phone, and Internet Access, would be $155 a month, with  a $90 installation fee the first month.  This is including all the taxes and fees, which the operator was able to calculate for me.

I told her I didn't want cable, and she recalculated this to $110.90 a month.   This is about $30 more a month I am paying for twisted pair copper POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) and DSL modem (which runs about $83 a month).  However, it would be a feature upgrade for the phone and a dramatic speed increase for the modem (although we currently are happy with our current speed, which will stream movies on Netflix).

(Incidentally, comparing network speeds for DSL, Cable, and fiber optic is problematic.  Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Cable can be 5 times faster than DSL, provided your neighbors are not on it.  Cable is more like a party line, not a switched circuit, so you "share" bandwidth sometimes.  And of course, for all such services, the actual data rate is usually less than the posted numbers.  e.g., 3.0 Mbps works out to about 2.8 Mbps.  Still enough to stream movies, though.)

Comcast was an interesting option, but costing more is costing more, and $90 to install and $30 every month, adds up to $450 the first year, and $360 every year thereafter.  Now, again, this is the regular pricing, not the come-on "bundle" price that is only good for one year.

Also, the basic cable modem has no router or wireless, so I would have to take my old Cisco out of retirement and configure that.  A combined Modem/router is $100 extra on the install.

Again, you have to disregard the "bundle" pricing, as while it is a discount, it is only a temporal discount.   They are playing the classic game of getting you to think in terms of monthly costs, and not overall costs, and to think short-term and not long-term.   And unless you want to switch service providers every year (which may be one way of playing the game, I suppose) the savings are not real for the long-term.

AT&T has two options, traditional "twisted pair" regulated utility landline phone service, that is the same phone service you grandparents had.  They are also offering, in some areas, AT&T "Uverse" fiber-optic-to-pole service, which we have here on the island.  The fiber optic service, apparently not being part of a regulated utility, is not taxed the same as the land-line (according to the sales rep, consider the source).  Currently I pay about $69 a month for phone and DSL, which with taxes morphs into $83 every month, like clockwork.

Could I save on this Uverse thing?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  Again, the fellow (who, ironically, was from the repair center - they must be on commission) tries to sell me on the "bundle discount pricing" and won't talk about how much the taxes and fees are, other than they are "less" than the fees and taxes for the regular phone line.

The prices are startling low on the bundles.  He is telling me $59.95 a month for six months or a year.  Yea, yea, yea,  what is the REAL price?   He claims it is $78 plus the unknown taxes.  Their website offers startlingly low prices of $29.95 (yea, right).  So, I figure I'd better call the sales office.

The problem with AT&T is compartmentalization.  Every department has a keyhole view of the world, and people you talk to cannot tell you anything about anything outside their narrow world view (wireless, internet, landline, uverse, long distance, calling card, repair, sales, main office, GoPhone, whatever).  And each has a separate 1-800 number to call, and you usually get transferred to a number of different people, several times, and are put on musical hold, several times.  It is frustrating.

So, after talking to a robot, going through a DTMF tree and being put on hold several times and listening to musical hold, I get through to an operator.   (You cannot get real pricing on the Internet and thus you have to call to get any real pricing information.)  AT&T Customer service is very poor.  Not that the people who answer the phone are bad (well, some are) but that you cannot get ahold of anyone without being on hold for so long that by the time you talk to someone, you are at wits end.

I finally get a nice young man from South Florida, named Tristian, who says he can switch me to Uverse service for $83 a month, including taxes.  He claims the phone service, which includes unlimited long distance in the USA and Canada, call forwarding and voicemail, is a flat $35 a month plus sales taxes, with no FCC fees.  The 6 Mbps fiber optic service is $43 a month as well.  These are the actual prices, not the "bundle" prices.  Total, with taxes, is about $83 a month, which is, oddly enough, what I am paying now.  Installation charges are waived and the $100 modem/router has a $100 rebate.

I ask him about the come-on pricing.  He says that as an existing AT&T customer, I do not qualify for the "bundle" pricing, but only the regular price.  The "bundles" are only for "conquest" customers only.

I mentioned to him that it would make sense, therefore, to switch to Comcast for a year, use their "bundle" pricing, and then switch back to AT&T as a "conquest" customer and do this switch every year.   He mentioned that a lot of people actually do that.   Sounds to me like the telcos are chasing their tales here - their bundle discounts encourage account churn.

When I return from vacation, I will investigate this further.  I would be interested to hear from others as to how they work this.  And please, no gushing endorsements about "$59.95 a month bundle plans!"   If you are going to post a comment, drop your drawers, get out a measuring stick, and let us know the real deal - the ACTUAL COST, with taxes, tags, and title.

Frankly, I think a similar regulation to the airline industry is needed in the telcom industry.  People should be able to shop on cost, without jumping through a lot of hoops.  It makes no sense, other than to marketers, to have prices that are obtuse, opaque, and impossible to determine - until you get the bill.

It this important?  Yes, it is.  Paying $100 a month for telecommunications is an obscene amount, and something that "bugs me" every month when I pay the bill.   Most people pay more - far more - for bundles of cable, phone, internet, and wireless - $200 a month or more.   The minute you stop letting stuff like this piss you off is the minute you start to slide toward inevitable bankruptcy.

And most people lie to themselves and others about the actual cost.  When it comes to things like gas mileage, penis size, or your cable or wireless bill, most people lie through their teeth.  I am not sure why, as they are only lying to themselves.

* * *

I am not sure that obfuscating prices really saves the telcos and cable companies money.  When you have to "call for price" it is a sign of a bad deal, usually.  And those calls cost them money as they have to pay operators to tell people what the real price actually would be.

A regulation would actually help these companies, as they could publish real prices online.  When your competitor snags half your customers with a come-on "bundle" price (because consumers are stupid) then your only choice in life is to do the same - put up fake prices and screw your own customer base.

Sometimes, a marketplace cries out for regulations - a neat and easily enforceable set of rules that everyone plays by, to compete on the merits, not trickery.

Horatio Alger Stories

Horatio Alger Stories were characterized as "rags to riches" stories.  Some folks claim they are a myth - that you can't leave the social strata you are born in.  Is this true, and is it true today?

Horatio Alger wrote a number of stories for young men, around the turn of the last Century.  The plots of the stories, varied, but inevitably, the protagonist, usually a young man ("Ragged Dick" being the first of the lot) ends up, by virtue of thrift, hard work, and clean living, to get ahead in the world.

Many folks laugh at these stories today, and argue that they sold a false set of expectations - that it was impossible back then - and even today - to move up from ones social class or caste, by mere hard work or thrift.

But of course, this is not true, on a number of levels.  First of all, many, if not all, of the Alger stories were not "rags to riches" stories, but more "rags to middle-class" stories, where young men, though hard work and thrift, end up doing well in life, if not exactly living like Montgomery Burns.

The popular stereotype of the Alger story exaggerates the outcome, in an attempt, I think, to discredit it.  By making the stories sound ludicrous or improbable, they can be more easily dismissed.  You can't become the next Bill Gates merely by working hard and saving money, they argue, so you might as well not bother even trying.  This is, of course, flawed thinking - weak thinking - at its worst.

Moreover, some of the stories really were not about working hard and saving money, but were more along the lines of Dickens' Great Expectations, where young Pip succeeds by virtue of a mysterious benefactor.   Actually, if you read Dickens' stories, they are all pretty creepy.  Young boys go off to London and end up being aided by the help of wealthier, older men.   Oliver Twist falls along these lines, for example.    Creepy.

But getting back to Alger, were his stories unrealistic back then - or even today?  I think not, and let me tell you why.

As I have noted time and again, the point of this blog is not how to get-rich-quick, or even get "rich" at all, but how to become comfortably middle-class (which ain't so bad) in an era where the middle-class has seem to have lost its way - drowning in a sea of debt to have cars, smart phones, cable TV, and granite counter-tops.

It is possible to improve your lot in life, no matter what level of the social and economic strata you come from, if you use a little hard work and thrift.

On the other hand, just saying, "fuck it, why bother trying?" and then smoking pot or crack and taking out payday loans, is one sure way to race to the bottom - again at any social level.   For middle-class people, the road to the poorhouse is paved with new-car payments, cable TV bills, and smart-phone plans.

Failing to save is the first way to fall down the economic ladder.  The next rung is debt, following closely by owning things and subscription services.  Spending more than you make - or most all of what you make - to have "stuff" and electronic subscriptions, ends up making you a little poorer all the time.

On the other hand, if you can figure out what you really want out of life - and live with less of these things - you can accumulate wealth and become wealthier.

And this is not an option for the middle-class today.   We have to save for our retirement through a 401(k) plan.  And in order to have a $40,000 income from our 401(k) we would need to save a million dollars by retirement.   And yet, few have.   Most middle-class people I know are living for today, have not saved for tomorrow, and look down their noses at me because I don't have cable TV, a new smart phone, or a leased Acura.

They are making a choice that ordinarily, or at least in the past, only people in the poor ghettos made - living for today, without thinking of tomorrow.   The very poor tend to do this - squander money on drugs and alcohol, and spend very unwisely (using check-cashing stores, for example).   This is to be expected of the poor - that is why they are poor.  It is disturbing when "live for today" becomes the mantra of the middle class.

But there is another reason the Horatio Alger story is not a myth.  And that reason is simple:  There are people, who, through thrift, hard work, and dedication, have improved their status and stature in life, far beyond that of their parents and ancestors.   And chances are, you may know some of these people, and in fact, they may be in your family.

For example, I wrote before about my Grandfather, Platt Kissam Wiggins.  His Father, according to my Mother, had killed himself, which was quite a scandal back in turn-of-the-Century America.  His family came from Brooklyn, when it was originally farm land.   The family homestead had been sold off and the family fell on hard times.   His Mother, now a widow, struggled to support the family by cleverly buying and selling second mortgages.  She survived and was able to put her children through college.

Platt went to City College and then to Law School.  He got a job with a Brooklyn firm (still in existence today, albeit a Real Estate Firm) that represented The National City Bank of New York (today, Citibank).  He rose rapidly in the firm, and moved to Larchmont, New York, and was later elected Mayor of that City - and became Partner in the firm shortly thereafter.  A long-time Democrat and New-Dealer, he was also head of the banking section of the New York State Bar and was involved in establishing many of the banking regulations that were promulgated during the Great Depression (laws which were repealed about a decade ago, with predictable consequences).  Oddly enough, a former Citibank head now calls for these laws to be reinstated.

So, right there in my family, in the not-too-recent past, is an example of a "rags to middle-class" story.  And I don't have to look too much further to find another.  My Father, for example, came from a fairly lower-middle-class family in New Jersey.    His Mother's family started out as servants on the Steinway Estate on Long Island, and saved up enough to buy a farm in Little Silver.   The next generation, however, was content to sell off this land for building lots and live off the proceeds.   His Father's family had a vague background, the family roots being lost in the fog of the Irish and Scotch immigration of the 1800's.

His Dad was an alcoholic and by all accounts a cruel man.  What little money he came into, he spent lavishly - living for the moment.  He was partnered with his brothers in a Buick dealership (no relation to the present-day one by the same name) and they apparently threw him out.  He re-entered the Army, having no other job offers.  He died of lung cancer in his 50's, nearly penniless, leaving his widow to eke out a living for the next 40 years as a school teacher (back when school teachers made bubkis).

But he wanted my Dad to go on to better things, and Dad went to college, which was interrupted by the war, and eventually graduated from MIT.  He had a bit of a shaky start, but managed to get some good jobs in management, and, over the years, work his way up the corporate ladder, albeit with the occasional setback.   While he never "struck it rich" as I think he hoped to do (his dream, he once told me, was to be President of a company and have a Lincoln Continental) he ended up not doing too badly (V.P. and a Mercury Marquis).  He retired comfortably middle-class, unlike his Dad.  Social mobility is possible.

Of course, there are others in my family - from the present generation to generations back, who were socially mobile in the other direction, often squandering educations and money, due to alcoholism and drug use - or simple laziness or the desire to "have it all, now!"  It is tempting, and we all are prone to this tendency now and then - the desire to spend, rather than save, and the willingness to engage in weak thinking now and again.

But outside my family, I also know examples of other folks who did the "rags to middle class" deal - sometimes upper-middle-class.  The professions have always been a good vehicle for this, although in recent years, being a Doctor or a Lawyer isn't as good-paying a job as it used to be.  But many of my bosses in the legal profession came from very poor backgrounds and yet rose to the top of their firms.

One boss of mine, a nice Italian fellow and an excellent lawyer, grew up in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, as I did.  While I was the son of a young executive who took the train into the city every day to work, he lived over his parents' Italian grocery store.  Needless to say, we were in different social castes and classes.  But again, he applied himself and went to college in law school, and 30 years later, the son of Italian immigrants is a partner in his own law firm.  Social Mobility is possible.

In fact, not only is social mobility possible it is inevitable.  As I have alluded to in other posts, many of my friends from "rich" families ended up being downwardly mobile rather than upwardly.  And much of this has to do with being raised with money (being given it, instead of earning it) and also simple mathematics. 

For example, Andrew Carnegie makes millions of dollars.  He gives a big chunk to his family, who builds ludicrous mansions on an abandoned island off the coast of Georgia.  Their children each inherit fractional shares of this money.  Their children receive even smaller shares.  Within a few generations, a family fortune fizzles and dies out.  Maybe, somewhere along the line a young scion picks up the torch of his forebearers and uses some of the remaining dough to start back up again.   But not often.

So, if so many of the very wealthy end up falling down the economic ladder over time - who takes up the slack?   Well, new people come along and become the new generation of wealth in this country.  And wealth is very dynamic in this country, over time.  Each generation has its own share of the wealthy social set.  And in a generation or two, that set is pretty much gone.

The old Dutch families from New York, that Louis Auchincloss wrote about, were already losing their wealth (but not yet their social position) by the turn of the 19th Century.   By the 20th, new wealth, in the form of industrialists.  The Magnificent Ambersons is another example of a story that follows this social development.

But since then, even that wealth has moved on.  There are no Steel Barons anymore, except in Ayn Rand books.  And while Joseph Kennedy may have made billions in the stock market, no one really gives a rat's ass about the Kennedy family, since Teddy died.  The remaining relatives and hangers-on are a pathetic shadow of the original dynasty.  Within another generation, they will be all but forgettable.  ("Really, you are related to John F. Kennedy?  How fascinating!  Yawn!").

Wealth in this country is more Dynamic than Dynastic, which is one reason I don't spend too much time worrying about the very wealthy (although I have little sympathy for them, either) and concentrate on my own business.

And that is the problem, again.  That weak thinking bugaboo.  People hear that Mitt Romney makes $22 million a year and think, "shit, I'd be lucky to save up one million in my lifetime" and just give up on trying, or call for "redistributing the wealth" as an answer to their personal problems.  A better approach is, I think, to realize which candidate is best aligned with your goals and needs, and to me, a guy like Romney really doesn't "connect" with the median American making $51,000 a year.

But again, the fact that a small few make so very much is no reason to simply give up.  You can improve your lot in life, but it does take hard work, thrift, and a little luck, to get ahead.  Horatio Alger was not wrong - but the parodied and exaggerated version of Horatio Alger perhaps is. 

No, you won't be the next Bill Gates by saving money in your 401(k).  But trust me when I say that when you turn 60, you'll be glad you put money into that account.   You can "get ahead" in our society, but it does require some work, and some sacrifices.

Many folks choose not to sacrifice.  They prefer to spend $150 a month on Cable TV or a smart phone.  They prefer to lease new cars and eat out in restaurants five nights a week.  They prefer to buy things on credit cards - and not worry about "carrying a balance".

These are choices - and choices that a lot of people make, perhaps most.  The protagonists in the Horatio Alger stories get ahead simply by making different choices.   And that is as true today as it was back then.

Another Day, another Mass Shooting

The media loves tragedy stories.  And mass-shootings are big business for the media.

People like to beat up America.  And nothing gives them ample opportunity than when some nut-job goes off and shoots a bunch of people. Our European friends lecture us on our "gun culture" and "culture of violence" even as they lap up our explosion movies.

But America has not cornered the market in nut-jobs, although we seem to do a good job of creating them.  Europe and even Japan, have had their share of people going nuts and killing folks. It is just that, among other things, those countries are smaller and thus the number of nut-jobs is proportionally smaller as well.

You remember the Norwegian nutjob who, very recently, gunned down 77 kids at a summer camp on an island.  He had that same creepy smile as the guy they just caught in Denver.  What is it with these people?  Do they go to the same photographer for their creepy head shots?

(Actually, if you look at these folks, they all do seem to have the same disturbing look on their face.  I wonder if some facial recognition software could be programmed to pick out psychopaths in a crowd.  I'll have to Patent that!)

Even our British friends, who claim to own no guns at all, have had a School Shooter, who mercilessly gunned down little kids.

So craziness is not something we have Patented.  Granted, our level of crazy per capita is arguably higher - and it certainly is easier to get guns in this country.  But as the examples in Norway and the U.K., illustrate, crazy people seem to be able to find guns, even when they live in countries with gun control.  And as the Japanese example illustrates, determined deranged people will kill, no matter what.

And of course, with some fertilizer and diesel fuel, you create an awful lot of carnage.

It is sobering to read the Wikipedia list of rampage killings - which is broken out by continent, and also shooting type (grade school, high school, college, workplace, etc.).   The list is rather extensive, multi-cultural, and spans a large period of time.  School shootings, in particular, date back to the 1800's.

But, as you read the list, one thing stands out as the common denominator: Crazy.  The people who do these things are unhinged.  And maybe, if we can't enact gun-control laws, we can enact unhinged-people laws (which would likely round up all the gun owners, predictably).

The media will (and is) engaging in a lot of hand-wringing right now, and in a few days, when the story starts to die down, they will start working the political angles.  And in about a decade, we might actually know what really happened.

Like with the Columbine massacre or Hurricane Katrina, the information you get right after the event is often wrong and often dramatically so.  And no, the nightly nooze never bothers to correct the record.

So even today, there are people who believe that bodies were "stacked up like cordwood" in the "meat lockers" beneath the Superdome.   And no one bothers to ask why the Superdome would have meat lockers underneath it.   The reality is, of course, that never happened.   But the media never bothered to correct it.

Or the "mass euthanasia" case, from Hurricane Katrina - which turned out to be made-up.

Or the "Trenchcoat Mafia" from Columbine - which turned out not to exist.

I am certain the media will come up with some other specious story to "explain" this event as well.  People like explanations - short, simple, and sweet.  We want to be able to pigeonhole these things and reassure ourselves that they are rare events and not likely to happen again.  And our European neighbors will shake their heads and say, "Thank God that sort of thing doesn't happen here!"

But it does of course. And if you want the simple, pat explanation why, well, schizophrenia is probably it.  But that is not a compelling news story, is it?

Schizophrenia sets in, in late adolescence and early adulthood. Most of these mass shooters are of that age. They go off the rails, get guns, and shoot people.  Not a very glamorous explanation, granted.  But it is the basic truth.

And what is disturbing about the explanation is that it does not pigeonhole these cases, but makes it painfully clear that they are quite common and almost to be expected, periodically, in our society, where mentally ill people are deinstitutionalized and sent off on their own with a bottle of pills and a promise to take them.  And of course, there are others who are never diagnosed, even though the warning signs were there all along.

People sigh and say "what can be done?" and others build memorials and talk about "forgiving the killer".  But maybe there is more we can do.  Maybe we can intervene earlier in these scenarios, long before they occur.  Because a pattern emerges in most of these cases - people losing jobs, flunking out of school, stalking co-workers, whatever. And this pattern is usually accompanied by sudden and large purchases of powerful firearms and ammunition.

It seems rather stupid to me to say, "We can't do anything about this" when we clearly could do something.

Is Four Years of Partying Worth $100,000?

Is this worth a hundred grand?  I don't think so.

In a recent report on Marketplace on public radio, they discuss how many colleges and universities are trying to attract students with nicer amenities.  Rock climbing walls, fancy swimming pools, and athletic centers that are more like upscale health clubs are cited as part of this trend.

Colleges and Universities are abandoning any pretense of education at this point - and just pandering to whatever students want (hint:  If you really want to bring up enrollment, a medical marijuana dispensary on campus is a sure winner).

Why are colleges and universities just blatantly pandering to students these days?  The simple answer is demographics.  As I noted in an earlier posting, the number of college-aged students out there is dwindling.  And schools have to compete to put butts in the seats.

The larger schools are attracting more students, as they can offer more "amenities" and 18-year-olds don't think in terms of what education is best for them, but what looks like a swell time.

The mythology exists that any college degree - even one in rock-climbing - will lead to a lucrative career.   And this exchange between the interviewer and one student is, frankly, scary:

"Then again, those fees aren’t exactly coming out of his pocket.

Gaied: I rely on loans. So why not, as far as I’m concerned?

Scott: How much are you borrowing to go to college, do you know?

Gaied: A lot. A lot. It’s like a life tax. You know, like, if you, if you want a job, and you want to, like, go about your life and your business, it’s just something you have to pay. Like a car payment."

A life tax - for four years of partying and rock climbing, you spend forty paying it off.  This makes no sense.  And a car payment?  Cars get paid off, in three or four years.

(Hint to grads:  Saying "you know, like," at a job interview is a sure-fire way to get spiked).

And I think employers are catching on to this as well, which is why the unemployment rate among recent college grads is so high.   People spend four years smoking pot and rock climbing and putting fart-mufflers on their cars behind the fraternity house, and well, no one wants to hire them.  They are not educated at all, but rather overgrown infants.

The marketplace is voting - and what it is saying is that worthless educations are worth less - or worth nothing at all, in terms of increased income or job prospects.

Statisticians like to tout that on average a college grad makes X% more in life than a non-college grad.  But there are two things wrong with that statistic, actually three.  First, it is a backwards-looking statistic.  You cannot figure out lifetime earnings until people die.  So by necessity, this statistic deals with outcomes of your parents' generation, not yours.

Second is the fact that averages are deceiving.  Yes, a Doctor or a Lawyer or an Engineer may make more money than the guy who mows your lawn - a lot more.  But the guy mowing your lawn may have a degree in Philosophy.   Averages are deceiving, as for every person making ten times more than average, there may be others making average - or less.  And worthless degrees  - degrees that sentence you to a life of low-wage service jobs - are not enhancing your income, no matter what statisticians say.

(Actually, if you think about it, these college statistics are meaningless.  A person who graduates from college isn't likely to make less than a non-college grad.   At worst, he will make the same.   So you average in him with all the doctors, lawyers, and professionals to make boatloads more, and you come up with this specious statistic.   If you factor in the cost of college into the equation, many on the lower end are coming out behind non-college grads.   Not everyone who goes to college will make more money than those who do not).

The third thing of course, is that you are not a statistic and your personal choices, actions, inaction, motivation, and plain luck have more influence on your life than statistics.

Colleges and Universities are chasing smaller and smaller Freshman classes - and yet at the same time need larger classes to put warm butts in the seats to pay their ever-increasing costs.  So they have to offer free ponies to the kids to get them to come to their University.  If they can make college seem like fun and not too much hard work, they can attract more students.

But beware.  The multi-million dollar athletic center with the rock wall and whirlpool baths is a trap, just as the fancy new dorms, student center, and other trinkets they throw at you are all traps.  They have little or nothing to do with a real education - and employers know this.

When I was studying Engineering, we had a gym - a dusty old weight room with some half-broken exercise machines, and an old tile pool that had seen better days.  I don't recall spending time in much.  And in Law School, I don't recall going to the "student athletic center" more than once or twice.

Why?  Engineering was hard. So was the law.  I had to spend all my free time studying to get good grades.

But doing the hard thing pays off in the long run, whether it is studying hard, working hard, or saving hard.  Difficult pays, easy costs.

What comes easy is often the worst thing for us.  And a school that sells a climbing wall as an attraction to students, is, well, selling easy.