Philip Greenspun’s Weblog

I visited a daycare/preschool last month and was introduced to the teacher of the oldest children. She’d retired from the local public school after 35 years of teaching kindergarten and, despite earning a comfortable pension, had chosen to continue teaching 5-year-olds.

A few days later I spent time with two women who’d earned Harvard Law School degrees and jobs at excellent firms. Neither of them had worked at any waged job for 20 years. Another woman at the same event had a Harvard Business School degree. She hadn’t worked for at least 8 years, the age of her single child.

I’m wondering if “career quit rate” would be a useful statistic to compile for young people. If people continue to do a job despite not desperately needing the paycheck, we can infer that it is a satisfying job, right? If people quit despite high potential pay, we can infer that it is not a great career from an emotional point of view.

“Why Women Are Leaving the Workforce in Record Numbers” says that “only 35 percent of women who have earned MBAs after getting a bachelor’s degree from a top school are working full time, compared to 66 percent from second-tier schools.” This is consistent with anecdotes from friends who attended the MIT Sloan School and Harvard Business School. Most of their female classmates have children and no longer work (see Real World Divorce for which states make this a viable long-term personal financial strategy).

Medical doctors may scale back, but not quit entirely (see “Don’t Quit This Day Job” (nytimes) for “nearly 4 in 10 female doctors between the ages of 35 and 44 reporting in 2010 that they worked part time”). Either it is easier to be a part-time MD than it is to be a part-time business manager or being an MD is more satisfying.

I can’t find any good statistics on what percentage of trained and qualified people, organized by field, drop out of the workforce, but I think gathering data would be valuable.

Readers: Know of any good sources for a working/trained ratio by vocation?

Related:

• Book Review: The Redistribution Recession (government paying people to drop out of the workforce)

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Conversation between a(n immigrant) friend and a 10-year-old child:

• I don’t want to go to the fencing competition! I am always the youngest and the smallest! I have no chance!!!
• I know you can do it. Just focus and do your best! I believe in you!
• Papa, you are now trying to talk like Americans do: “You can do it! You are amazing! You can totally win!” This sucks and is not going to work on me. Please be yourself.

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My Facebook friends are outraged that Donald Trump is trying to reverse a decision by Barack Obama to accept a bunch of immigrants from prison islands run by Australians. My dumb question for today: if the Australians don’t want these folks as residents/citizens, why do we?

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If you want a great argument for the printed book, or maybe just want to crush some ice by dropping a book onto a Zip-loc bag, Treasured Lands is your solution. Is anyone crazy enough to lug a 5×7 view camera to every U.S. national park, including the one in Samoa? Yes! Q. T. Luong.

I have recommended it to all of my photographer friends. Here’s a response from one of them, a former National Geographic photographer who has also done a bunch of books:

I have his book already. It really is beautiful. It was given to me by the designer of the book I shot for [client] that is being printed right now.

The book answers the question “What if you had skill, a good camera, a lot of stamina for hiking, and the patience and time to be in each park at the right place, during the right season, at the right time for the light, and under the right weather?”

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This story is front-page news here in Kona: “Hawaii Bill Would Legalize Prostitution Industry” (Associated Press via ABC):

Hawaii lawmakers are considering decriminalizing prostitution in the state after the speaker of the House introduced a bill that would also legalize buying sex and acting as a pimp.

The proposal also would end a state law that says police officers cannot have sex with prostitutes in the course of investigations.

Transgender activist Tracy Ryan said she is trying to convince state lawmakers to pass the bill because transgender women are overrepresented in the sex trade and therefore disproportionately affected by criminalization laws.

…

The bill and another to decriminalize marijuana may be part of a push to reduce the prison population, House Majority Leader Scott Saiki said.

Related:

• child support profits available in Hawaii
• Where New York Times readers don’t want to follow Europe: Legalized prostitution

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“I Abstained From Sex for a Year to Donate Blood” (nytimes) shows that at least some people think it is newsworthy when a gay guy doesn’t have sex for a while. I decided to check out whether or not a heterosexual marriage could have made the news via a similar achievement. This 2014 study says that roughly 5-percent of non-elderly married Americans could write the same article, perhaps minus the “donate blood” part. Marriage per se can’t be blamed, if we are to believe data from 1994 in which married people of the same age were less likely to be “sexually inactive.”

What changed from 1994 to 2014? My vote goes to high-speed Internet. One person is in bed streaming Netflix. The other person is in the den catching up on those last emails or embroiled in a multi-player game.

See also “Millennials are having less sex than any generation in 60 years.” (LA Times)

Readers: favorite explanation?

[Related: a sexless marriage need not be profitless. See Real World Divorce for which states make it pay…]

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What do three helicopter pilots do when they have a free night in Las Vegas? If the decision is made under a “one-woman, one-vote” system, they go to see Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.

Even if you’re not a pop music fan you’ll be amazed at how many popular songs were created by Carole King (composer) and her husband Gerry Goffin (lyricist). The musical shows them working 24/7 through the 1960s to provide hits for various groups. It made me wonder if we’ve lost something with the singer-songwriter idea. If there is a team of experts creating songs and a second team of experts performing them, won’t the results be better than if there is just one team trying to do both?

Readers: What do you think? Are pop songs better or worse than they were in the 1960s?

[Separately, the musical shows that husband Gerry had a good relationship with two daughters but a poor relationship with Carole, not least due to the fact that he was having sex with at least two other women. Carole King responded to the situation by suing her husband and moving to Los Angeles with the girls, plainly ending their relationship with the father in that age of expensive airline tickets. Instead of relying on Goffin to write lyrics she would write them herself. Women in the audience went nuts at this point in the show, cheering with delight. There was no part of the show that evoked a stronger or more favorable response among the mostly-female audience. The program included an advertisement for a group of divorce litigators. (But see Real World Divorce: Nevada for how a plaintiff might be a lot better off by moving to California, New York, or Massachusetts before suing!)]

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Child support plaintiff Angelina Jolie is scolding American Deplorables for their irrational fear that immigrants will harm Americans: “Angelina Jolie: Refugee Policy Should Be Based on Facts, Not Fear”

[I showed a friend here in Hawaii the “As the mother of six children, who were all born in foreign lands and are proud American citizens,” part and he said “Of course she is in court trying to get someone else to pay for them.”]

Milton Friedman said that we wouldn’t be able to have a welfare state and open borders. Why is it obvious that the current political disagreement is about “fear”? Could it be that the disagreement is instead simply evidence that Friedman was correct?

Residents of the U.S. with no income or low income are entitled to free housing (means-tested public housing), free food (via food stamps), free health care (Medicaid), a free cell phone, etc. Some families have gone for generations without anyone having to work. Why do we need “fear” to account for the fact that some taxpayers don’t want to invite millions more to join the taxpayer-funded party?

I wonder if it would be worth polling American Deplorables to ask “Would you be more open to immigration if immigrants and their descendants were not eligible for taxpayer-funded housing, food, health care, and telecommunications?” Maybe it will turn out that the Deplorables are mostly tightwads rather than xenophobes, racists, anti-Islamic, etc. Has this poll been tried?

[People still might oppose immigration for non-racist/non-xenophobic reasons, even if they were okay with adding to America’s welfare society. I had dinner last night here in Hawaii with a guy who grew up in West Seattle. When he started his working career it was a 10-minute drive from West Seattle to downtown, a 20-minute round-trip commute. When he retired it was a 40-minute drive each way, thus wasting an additional hour each day. Population growth has also led to spectacular inflation in housing costs.]

Related;

• Financial support for a plaintiff worth $200 million (Angelina Jolie is also an alimony plaintiff)

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Back in July I wrote What happens when the vulnerable try to live among the Millionaires for Obama. I recently caught up with a member of the town’s Planning Board. He said that the Zoning Board had refused to allow the hospital to use the house on the ground that it wasn’t an “educational” use, which would have enabled them to avail themselves of the Dover Amendment. At least for now the vulnerable will be helped only at a distance by Social Justice Village residents.

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A right-thinking friend posted a Facebook status with “There are still good people in this world!” over a photo of a sign that said, in Spanish, English, and Arabic: “No matter where you are from, we’re glad you’re our neighbor.” The sign was in a rich person’s front yard in Northwest Washington, D.C.

I replied with

Suppose that a family from west Texas moved next door, hung big “Trump” and “NRA” banners from the 2nd floor windows, put a sign reading “Pro-Life” on the front lawn, and held a bbq to celebrate conservative Christian values? Would the folks with this sign be glad to have that family as a next-door neighbor?

It turned out that the answer was “Not if they were bigots … People here don’t like racists.”

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