Grade Creep and the GS- System

 This GovExec piece discusses the problem of job classification in the government, using the term "grade creep", which brings back old memories. Back in the late 1970's the Personnel Management Division (now HR) did a classification review of the branch I was heading (we had directives and records management responsibilities). They down graded the analyst positions.  

As the dust was settling, I was offered a job on the program side of ASCS, which allowed me to maintain my GS-13 grade. 

The classification standards for management analysts at the time were, IMHO, developed based on work in the New Deal days.  To get the highest grade levels you had to be creating new organizations and new processes.  I could see the logic of that.  The impact of the people involved in creating the AAA back in the 1930's was more impactful than the work of people making ASCS work reasonably well in the 1970's.  That didn't mean I liked the results. 

Note: the GovExec piece argues for using computer algorithms for job classification--I have strong doubts about that.

The Poll Tax and Race

 There was a reference in the 1942 book I finished to the impact of the poll tax on white voting. I can't find a simple reference to confirm the statement, but on skimming this old article I found references to the rise in voting participation in Louisiana when Huey Long ended the poll tax. 

In the 1930's Huey Long swept into power with the aid of the neo-populist movement in the South. In 1934 he widened his base of power with the repeal of the Louisiana poll tax. The average rate of participation in senatorial primaries increased frrom 31.2 per cent to 46.5 per cent; the increase in gubernatorial primaries was from 40.2 per cent to 60.1 per cent.

 In 1936 Florida repealed its poll tax, and as noted earlier, there was a voter turnout increase corresponding to the increase in Louisiana. In four years there was an increase of 152,688 votes in the democratic primary elections or approximately 28 per cent. At this time Florida still had a white primary. The Negro registration, however, hovered around the 20,000 mark it had been before repeal until well into the 1940's.31

Upward Mobility

 Ran across a statistic about the Forbes 400 billionaires so did a search with this result:

"When we first created the self-made score [see the article for an explanation of how they scored], we went back and assigned scores for the members of  the 1984 list. Less than half of them were self-made. By 2014, 69% of the list was deemed self-made. Fast forward to the present list, and that figure has inched up to 69.5%. All but one of the 18 newcomers this year are self-made.   [Oprah Winfrey is an example of someone who's entirely self made]

I don't know how this compares to other nations.  But China is an easy case:

The pandemic has proved no match for China’s wealth juggernaut. The total wealth of the China’s 400 Richest soared to $2.11 trillion, from $1.29 trillion a year earlier. The 64% gain was due to the easing of capital-market rules and an economic rebound that enabled China to pull ahead of the world’s other large economies in recovering from the pandemic. Nearly two-thirds of the listees saw their fortunes climb in the past year. The minimum net worth needed to make the list rose to $1.55 billion, compared with $1 billion a year ago. 

While not everyone on this list is also on the overall Forbes list, we can, I think, assume that many (almost all?) of the Chinese billionaires (I still have trouble comprehending the concept when typing it) are "self-made".  Some proportion of them are likely children or grandchildren of the bigwigs of the original Chinese communist party. 

Authenticity? Hogwash?

 I keep seeing references to authenticity, most recently in this post at Prof. Fea's new website.

I bought a book on children and essentialism, The Essential Child, a few weeks ago.  The thesis intrigued me, so I went for a used copy (it's older).  As I understand the book, which I've yet to read, a stage in children's thinking is the idea that there's an essential quality to some categories, that it's part of how children learn. 

Seems there might be a relationship to the idea of "authenticity", that there's some essential "you" which you have to find and express.  That might also tie to the recent emphasis on "identity", particularly in the LGBT realm.

At least today IMHO this is all overdone.  What I've learned from my life is that human's are more flexible and adaptable than we often think.  Even people as rigid and order-loving as me can and do adapt.  Who we are is a combination of our heredity, as contained in our genes; our environment; and our experiences.  It's mistake to overemphasize one of the three. 

Testing the Vaccines

 The Times had this feature on how Pfizer  makes its covid vaccine.

It's fascinating,  What struck me most strongly was the amount of testing and retesting which was done all through the process. 

I recommend it for anyone on the fence about getting their shots.

Mays and Mantle

When I was growing up New York City had three teams: the Giants with Willie Mays as center fielder, the Dodgers with Duke Snider, and the Yankees with Mickey Mantle.  Snider got to the majors at 20, but became a regular in 1949 at 22. Mantle got to the majors at 19, becoming a regular in 1952 at 20. Mays got to the majors at 20 and became a regular in the same year, 1951.  (His career was interrupted by military service.)

There was debate over who was better.  My sister was a Dodger fan, so favored Snider.  I was a Yankee fan, so favored Mantle (even had a baseball card for him). No one in the house was a Giant fan, so Mays didn't get equal time.    

It seems clear now, on Mays' 90th birthday, that he had the best career and likely was the best player. The link has a good discussions of him. 

Owning the Road

 The Volokh Conspiracy had a series of posts on a book: The Hidden Rule of Ownership.

The posts tempted me but so far I've not gotten the book either from the library or Amazon.  It describes six bases for "ownership":

Congressional Review Act

 Politico has a piece on the Democrats use of the CRA, finally, with a discussion of why they're using it less than the Trump administration did.  If you can get the courts to kill the Trump rules, you don't need the CRA, and you don't run the risk involved in applying it--the provision that prohibits the agency from future rules to the same effect.

Anyone Remember Retreads?

 Rubber was in short supply in the early days of WWII for America, because the Japanese took control of the major producing areas. 

It's not mentioned in the book  I'm reading but I remembered "retreads". No one born in the last 50's years is likely to be familiar with them, at least according to this website.

Panics in Past and Present

 Started reading "The Year of Peril: America in 1942".  It's okay though I'm not enthusiastic--read too much on the period,  But it does remind me of how people panic when things happen, things like Pearl Harbor.  It's not a pretty story, with the mishandling of Japanese-American residents, and Italian-Americans, though not to the same extent.  Add the panics over potential or preceived Japanese attacks on the West Coast and German air attacks on the East.

I'd like to think we're more mature these days, but my memory of our reaction to the anthrax attacks which shortly followed 9/11 or to covid-19 persuades me otherwise.  And remember the scare about child-abuse in day-care centers in, I think, the 1990's. 

Sad.