Amazon v Minimum Wage and Plastic Bags

Eli,

In 2018 about 2% of my groceries were purchased via Amazon. Year-to-date in 2019 about 10%. I'm pretty sure I'm behind the curve on this one.

Some of this change is price related, but more is due to getting exactly what I want from Amazon versus hoping my local grocery store has what I want in stock. And more due to the increasing sense of dissatisfaction I have at my local grocery store because there are fewer employees, fewer full-service check-out lines and more carts littering the parking lot.

And I can't help but wonder how much the minimum wage increases results in general increases in wages, resulting in fewer employees and fewer employee hours and a less service-intensive grocery store and me changing my shopping preference to Amazon.

Recently Connecticut abolished plastic bags, for reasons I can not comprehend. In the grand scheme of things this is a small change. However, it is a change, a greater inconvenience, an increased cost to my grocery bills. It is marginal, meaning small, but marginal in the economic sense as well, in that it is a change to equilibrium. In economics, all the action is at the margin.

And I can't help but wonder a couple of things. Did the proponents of this bill realize it will incentivize me to purchase even more of my groceries from Amazon because shopping is even more inconvenient? Did they consider my decision may be similar to the other shoppers out there and the market share of Amazon will increase and the market share of brick and mortar grocery stores will decline and this will result in fewer local jobs and reduced taxes receipts for the community.

And do the proponents realize grocery costs are a greater percent of low-income budgets than they are for well-off people? These guys, who get data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, claim food costs are 6% to 10% of the average family budget. For the well off it's lower, much lower. So when costs go up, either due to minimum wage or plastic bag bans, the costs are born disproportionately by the less well off. It's a regressive tax.

Bill

PS
Mrs. Knabe tells me the bag people are concerned about the Pacific garbage patch and biodegradability of bags. Both objections strike me as absurd, but so what. More of my purchases from Amazon results in many more cardboard boxes and plastic inside the boxes to protect the goods. I'm not convinced anything has been accomplished from an environmental perspective.

Trump v. Pelosi

Eli,

One of the valid criticisms of President Trump is his style of speaking. It's inarticulate, garbled, jumbled and often difficult to follow. The good news for his opponents is they can fairly easily mis-characterize what he has said, like the lie perpetuated regarding his "good people on both sides" comment after Charlottesville.

His recent Rose Garden statements are a pretty good example of his style.


The next video You Tube decided to show me was Nancy Pelosi and not for the first time I thought she is very similar to Trump in speaking style: Confused, jumbled, inarticulate and quite difficult to follow.

Bill

Game of Thrones v Fox News

Eli,

The Game of Thrones (boring) finale attracted 18 million or so viewers. This is far from the 106 million viewers for the season finale of MASH, or the 95 million who tuned in spontaneously for the pursuit of OJ Simpson (an oddly gripping broadcast). It does dwarf, however, the 2.4 million who view Fox News primetime, or  the 1.1 million who watched Mayor Pete on the Fox News Town Hall.

All to say, it is slightly more than ridiculous to paint Fox News, as E. Warren and others do, as the evil influence controlling opinions for half of America.

Bill

Hydraulic Fracturing

Eli,

From the EIA today:

Natural gas has about 1/2 the carbon emissions as coal and also emits few SOx andNOx. Because gas has overtaken coal carbon and other emissions from the electricity power generation sector has declined.
Also from EIA

 Before the Dems became the party of anti-semites and lunatics they supported hydraulic fracturing, the reason why natural gas has overtaken coal.

Bill

U.S. crude oil production grew 17% in 2018, surpassing the previous record in 1970

Eli,

Tom Wicker in the NY Times, March 2, 1977.

Today's article from the EIA
U.S. crude oil production grew 17% in 2018, surpassing the previous record in 1970

 " EIA projects that U.S. crude oil production will continue to grow in 2019 and 2020, averaging 12.3 million b/d and 13.0 million b/d, respectively."

Our energy policy, including climate change, is based on a fallacious premise that oil and gas will become unavailable. The opposite is true as long as prices are allowed to clear.

Bill

PS. It's all due to hydraulic fracturing, one of the demons of the Left.

Democrats Embrace Racism

Eli,

‘It Just Went Poof’: The Strange Aftermath of Virginia’s Cascade of Political Scandals, from the NY Times points out Ralph Northam is still governor of Virginia, Justin Fairfax is still Lt. Gov. and Mark Herring is still Attorney General.

Ben Tribbett Democratic strategist is quoted:

"Don’t apologize, move on, and everybody will talk about something else next week,” is how Ben Tribbett, a Democratic strategist, described it. “Maybe we’ve been doing it wrong over the last 100 years.”

Betsy Carr, a VA delegate:

Betsy Carr, a Democratic delegate, said shortly after stepping off the stage last week with Mr. Northam that voters “want to move on.” “They want positive things to happen, they’re concerned about the elections,” she said.

and from the chairman of the Prince Edward County Democratic Party.

“Winning is important,” said Taikein Cooper, the 30-year-old chairman of the Prince Edward County Democratic Party, “but we also have to have some morals.”

For a few years now the Democratic Media complex has accused anyone of supporting anything about Donald Trump as being "complicit." I've taken particular offense at this because complicit means involved in a crime. Cavalierly accusing someone of abetting a crime, without evidence, without describing what the crime is, is horrid and odious.

By that same logic anyone who still supports the Democrats now, is complicit in racism and misogyny and anti-semitism.


 Bill

Dueling Climate Narratives

Eli,

From Reuters via the NY Times:

Climate Change's Fingerprints Are on U.S. Midwest Floods: Scientists.

Also from the NY Times.

California Drought Is Made Worse by Global Warming, Scientists Say

Curious if it's the same group of scientists.

Bill