TSP and Social Security Privatization

Back in the day when reform of Social security was under discussion, Republicans were pushing the alternative of having people invest in securities. They preferred the idea of individually managed accounts, as opposed to having the government manage investments. Some Democrats (like me) were open to something like the Thrift Savings Plan--the Federal version of a 401 K for its employees as at least one element of a revised system. Republicans attacked the idea, arguing that a government managed plan would be pressured to reflect social objectives in its investments.

A test of that position is underway--some Dems have asked the TSP to divest of stocks of companies in the Sudan, of tobacco, etc. etc. So far the board has resisted the idea.
If we get a Democratic government in 2008, it will be interesting to see if they can continue to do so.

Pet Peeves--"Traditional Farmers"

Don't have a URL for this, but it's aggravated me and, if this blog serves any purpose at all, it should help relieve my aggravations. Last week I ran across an article criticizing US farm programs (which is fine, there's nothing wrong with that). But one of the criticisms was that they had the effect of undermining the traditional farmers in other countries, because they couldn't compete with the flood of food imported from the U.S. at low subsidized prices.

What aggravates me is not the cause and effect relationship, but the idea that undermining traditional farming is somehow wrong and bad. After all, China is surging its way to developed nation status by policies that undermined traditional farming, creating an urban labor force for its new industries. Ireland is the Tiger of the EU because its traditional farming has been undermined and abandoned. The U.S. is an industrial power because our traditional farming patterns have been destroyed.

Granted, destroy any traditional way of life and you cause suffering and pain, loss of the past and loss of life. And granted, the power of the market is blind. But I believe in the general proposition that life in the U.S. today, taken by and large, is better than it was 180 years ago when one of my ancestors immigrated. And that's true despite, and even because, the traditional agriculture found in 1830 America has been destroyed, even on Amish farms.

Impact of Farm Bill

The Farmgate site of the University of Illinois says extrapolations show minimal impact on agriculture from the administration's farm bill proposals. Oddly, though they credit FAPRI (Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute) for the data, I don't see it highlighted on FAPRI's website.

How the Brits Do Health and IT

This is interesting:

Britain's best-paid civil servant is to quit as the head of NHS information technology, claiming the new, accident-prone computer system is on track.

Richard Granger, the chief executive of Connecting for Health, said he would leave the post, and its £290,000-a-year salary, in October. "There is no doubt about the programme's achievability," said Mr Granger, who took up the role in October 2002. "Most of the building blocks are now in place."

Karen Jennings, the head of health at Unison, the NHS's biggest trade union, said Mr Granger's optimism was at odds with the views of the "majority of NHS staff".

She said: "Technically... things are finally coming together. But lessons must be learned from the way these over-ambitious, big-bang IT projects have been brought in late and so over-budget."

Parts of the project are two years behind schedule and it may now cost a total of £20 billion, which would put it £7 billion over budget.

Mr Granger can point to some successes. An electronic patient-booking service now arranges 20,000 appointments a day and 250 million X-ray images are now stored electronically.

Several things--the guy was the highest paid civil servant. By automating the National Health Service, Britain brings all the advantages and weaknesses of centralized IT to health care, including the problems of doing a big big project. On the other hand, while $40 billion is a bigger project than anything the US government has done, at least outside the military, they appear to have had better success than the FBI has.

Putting Up Fences and Winning the War

The NY times has an op-ed today by Owen and Bing West, Bing was in DOD (under Bush I, I think), Owen was a marine in Iraq. They contrast the ability of NYC cops to identify people and lookup history in databases, with the lack thereof in Iraq. (NYC probably has a large population of illegal immigrants.)

Meanwhile, the people opposing the immigration bill in the senate are calling for tough enforcement. Charles Krauthammer in the Post has an column pushing fences.

I read somewhere that 40 percent of those illegally present in the US arrived on visas, so fences won't be the magic bullet. It seems obvious to me that, if we say that we don't want illegal immigrants, we also are saying we agree to digital ID's, biometric databases, and tight checking of credentials. We can't have one without the other (if indeed we can have the one). As Mr. Heinlein used to say, there's no such thing as a free lunch.

Closing Offices--NRCS

This press report says four NRCS offices are recommended for closure.

Fear the Model Bureaucrat

As in all things, knowledge is power, which means one should be careful of those who excel, particularly those who have mastered the art of faking sincerity. Slightly less dangerous are model bureaucrats, such as this one in Cleveland:

Juanita Myrick got her first job with county human services as a records clerk and quickly devoted herself to the patron saint of government: paperwork. Over the next 17 years, she became the mistress of meticulous documentation -- of clients, welfare checks, case evaluations. No detail was too mundane to escape her.

Having Fun, Ken Cook and EWG

Now that EWG has the database of farm payment beneficiaries up and running (something my old co-workers at USDA couldn't get done :-) ), Ken Cook is having fun by linking the payment data to to geography--in his most recent posts he's shown the people who live in Key West and in San Francisco who benefit from farm program payments.

This is called "rabble-rousing", at least when one's opponents do it. When the good guys do it, it's called alerting the people to injustices.

EWG's Database

Both EWG and the press are pushing the availability of data on who might be benefiting from farm payments. Their old database showed whose name was on the check, the new one (the one that USDA couldn't figure out how to make available online) shows the beneficiaries (i.e., members of estates, stockholders of corporations, etc.). I haven't seen the data myself--I suspect it'd be best to wait a couple days until the initial burst of activity dies down.

If Charlie Stenholm (former blue-dog Dem Representative from Texas defeated by Mr. DeLay's redistricting scheme) is right, and EWG doesn't give the data a fair shake, one wonders why the farm state legislators didn't make sure that USDA put the data up. Maybe they didn't think that far ahead, or maybe they just didn't know technology that well.

Two Bureaucrats Marry

The (former) richest man in the world now has a bureaucrat as a son-in-law:

Brunei Sultan's daughter married a civil servant yesterday in a glittering traditional ceremony.