Apt. 11D

Two Incomes = Family Income

Thanks to Jen for referring me to Elizabeth Warren's response to the sunny days article in the Times about home affordability. Warren writes:

The central problem is that most of the NYT discussion of housing affordability is theoretical, not real.  So, for example, the article talks about the purchase price of a new home relative to household income.  The problem is that a fully-employed male today makes (in inflation-adjusted dollars) about $800 less than his counterpart thirty years ago.  But the difference in median income for families has shot up dramatically in the intervening years because the typical married couple now sends two people into the workforce.  In other words, it now takes two earners to pay a mortgage rather than one.  A generation ago, a typical wage-earner could buy a typical house; today, it takes two incomes to buy an average home in fully 75 percent of America's cities.  And that means housing is just as affordable as it used to be?

She also points out that the Times compared today's numbers with the early 1980s, which was a low point in the real estate market. It would have been better to compare today's figures with the early 1970s.

As much as we should cheer the growing opportunities of women in the workforce, we should also recognize that business has also cheered this development. They have been able to hold the costs down on salaries as Americans adjusted to the two income family.

One income should support one family.

The Times article suggests that that there is less pressure on families in the heartland than in the Northeast and CA. I assume that they are adjusting for the differing salaries across the country. I would like to see Warren respond that claim.

Link and Run

I did a lot of griping last year about the cost of real estate and how property ownership was slipping away from the middle class. But maybe that's just my Northeast perspective. In the rest of the country, homes are more affordable than they were in the past.

Gov. Blanco wasn't a bad leader during Katrina, because she cried. She was a bad leader, because she didn't get relief into New Orleans fast enough, relied too heavily on local leaders, and didn't advocate for her state with Washington. Just had to clear that up.

There's a fun meme making the rounds. Alexandra from All Things Beautiful asks who are the worst 10 Americans (via Ampersand, whose blog is also having a minidown about separate feminist threads).

How to be happy? Darrin M. McMahon says don't try. He quotes JS Mill:

"Those only are happy," he came to believe, "who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness; on the happiness of others, on the improvement of mankind, even on some art or pursuit, followed not as a means, but as itself an ideal end. Aiming thus at something else, they find happiness by the way." For our own culture, steeped as it is in the relentless pursuit of personal pleasure and endless cheer, that message is worth heeding.

So in these last days of 2005 I say to you, "Don't have a happy new year!" Have dinner with your family or walk in the park with friends. If you're so inclined, put in some good hours at the office or at your favorite charity, temple or church. Work on your jump shot or your child's model trains. With luck, you'll find happiness by the by. If not, your time won't be wasted. You may even bring a little joy to the world.

Checking In

Steve just walked in the door and has relieved me from my own personal hell of parenting with a hangover.

I had no patience for armpit farts and vegetable pickiness today. I really wanted to bury myself behind the Times with a cold glass of orange juice and will shortly, but I wanted to check in for a moment.

Bring Back The Caveman!

Damn you, Steinbrenner. He was so much cuter before the haircut.

Merry Christmas and Holidays and Hannukah and Days Off From Work

I'm out of here. Feverishly packing up gifts for the kids' teachers and therapists. Last minute errands -- wool socks for the husband from the camping store, word search books for the 6 year old, and a pointy bra at Victoria Secret. Last minute decision -- the 3 year old with issues about crowded places probably couldn't handle a packed train and a crowded office party, so he'll stay home with me, while the 6 year old goes into New York City with his dad. Kisses for the boy with the faulty wiring.

My hopes for the holidays. That the holidays are full of pretty dresses and twelve fish. That the boys with play with their new puzzles and books and CDs and leave me alone to read Zadie Smith for an entire day. That we will have a chance to go to the Botanical Gardens to check out the train show.

I hope everyone has fun plans for the next week. Please let me know what you'll be doing and where you'll be.

I'll be back again sometime next week.

Wage and Benefit Referendum

I peered into the boys' room at 8:30 to check to see if Ian was dead. Breathing. He was still sleeping, because we made him holler for half the night. On Monday night, we watched Nanny 911 lecture a family for letting their kids sleep with them. Nanny 911 shamed us, so we decided to stop the bed sharing. And, I'm cranky as hell today.

Instead of being a responsible person and finishing off the damn Christmas cards, I am devouring stories about the strike. I see no good guys. The MTA hides from all accountability through its semi-public and semi-private status. The Republican leaders ain't smelling like roses either. Strikes are a good thing, and I fully support union action when it is deserved.

Does the union have a leg to stand on? This about more than the 3% percent raise that they are asked for. It's about kicking in for medical and about early retirement. I'm fascinated by public reaction to their demands. Most jobs don't enjoy those benefits. My brother the journalist gets paid less than a transit worker, kicks in for his medical, and doesn't get a pension. I don't think he has a 401K plan set up yet. (Tammy, would you make him take care of that?)

This strike is a giant referendum about fair wages and compensation. It is a referendum about the benefits of a union job. I am most interested to see how all this turns out.

UPDATE: The Times says that this strike is unnecessary.

The pension numbers. The pension proposal that would have saved the transit authority less than $20 million over the next three years, $160 million in the first 10 years, and more than $80 million a year after 20 years. Steve Greenhouse from the Times says that those numbers are still relatively small considering that the city is losing hundreds of millions per day due to the strike.

UPDATE: Posts from Megan McArdle.

In the New Republic Online, Joel Kotkin and Harry Siegel write that public sector unions have excessive power and that urban Democrats are in bed with them. (Thanks, Dr. Manhattan.) For more on Democratic mayor and the teachers unions, read Black Mayors and School Politics: The Failure of Reform in Detroit, Gary, and Newark.

Sharing Space With Evil

For all of us who love the Internet and technology, we must occasionally take a break from cheering on the democracy and the community building that exists in this virtual world and acknowledge that we share space with slime. We're sitting right down the subway car from more than a few tin foil weirdoes, as well some deranged sickos and dangerous terrorists.

Today, Kristof writes about how terrorists have used the Internet to broadcast pictures of decapitations and enlist supporters.

Yet the jihadis themselves release these "beheading videos" on the Internet as part of their booming propaganda machine, and they are wrenching not only for their brutality but also because they underscore the insurgents' increasing technological edge. If there's any area where we should have the supreme advantage fighting terrorism, it's the Internet - yet Islamic extremists sometimes run rings around us in cyberspace, using it to recruit and train terrorists and to communicate with each other in amazingly sophisticated ways.....

The jihadis also use the Internet for communications. They know that the American intelligence community uses sophisticated computer programs that scan e-mail messages, so some of them share a single e-mail account, and the person writing the message doesn't send it but saves it as a draft. Then the recipient logs in and reads the draft without it ever actually being transmitted.

Likewise, the jihadis have communicated on gaming forums and even once on a bike forum. Sometimes they use the "live chat" function on Japanese gaming sites, where the only eavesdroppers are teeny-boppers.

Also in our cramped, little subway car are the pervs, who keep bumping against us at every sharp turn. A friend recently pointed out to me how the Internet has helped out pedophiles. The Times reported on how one boy was lured into Internet pornography by adults who showed him how to use webcams and paypal accounts.

We're elbow to elbow with scum, and we may never be able to rid of them. They love the anonymity and secret corners of the web, while we love the open conversation. There's not much that can be done about it, other than supporting legal means of monitoring their activity and perhaps just spitting in their general direction.

Shocked and Not Shocked

On September 15, after classes had resumed in the city, I babbled on in front of the class for at least a half an hour worrying about a degeneration of civil liberties. One little smarty pants came up to me after class and said that I shouldn't such a bummer and that I should be making the students feel better instead. Me. Red face angry. Told the kid to grow up and not to expect any handholding from me. Mr. Smarty-Pants promptly dropped the class.

Even though I knew that we would end up here, I didn't expect that there would be debate about it. There are actually people talking about the benefits of torture and the legality of wire taps. Their arguments are so insane that I don't have a ready response other than a mouth gaped open. I guess I have to collect myself and get in attack position. This debate has gone on for too long. No handholding from me.

Scott Lemieux knows his stuff on con. law. Read him on the illegality of the wiretaps.

Strike!

Everything has stopped in New York City. No buses. No trains. And it's freaky cold out here.

It all came down to the pension. It will be interesting to see how all this pans out.

UPDATE: God, I hate being in New Jersey and missing out on all the craziness. I love chaos. Read some NYC bloggers talk about this business.

UPDATe: Scott Lemieux

The Blue Screen Trap

I finally got around to seeing Star Wars, Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (Widescreen Edition). I'm a pretty hard core geek, but George Lucas has already let me down in Episodes I and II. I was in no hurry to rush out to see this one.

This movie sucked for so many reasons -- the acting, the two dimension characters -- but the original Star Wars also had those problems. I'll still watch Star Wars, if I find it while surfing around on lazy Sunday afternoons. But I'll click on by the more recent episodes without pausing.

The last three Star Wars episodes have suffered from excessive blue screen action. Too much with the computer animation. The actors either look disoriented or trapped. Padme barely budges from her sofa lest she distract from the fantastic scene outside her picture window. The biggest problem is that it's just boring.

In the openings scenes of the original Star Wars, Luke flies around in a flying equivilent of a Dodge Dart. It's actually filmed on location, so you see the desert winds whipping around Mark Hamill's 70s hairdo. Atmosphere is a key thing in a movie. When Luke and Obi-Wan go into the bar to meet Harrison Ford, it's very familiar. Sure, there's a guy dressed up with an elephant nose at the bar, but it feels normal, because of the smoke, the snotty bartender, and the fact that the actors can acutally press up against the elephant nosed guy at the bar. And then there's the Millenium Falcon -- it's a piece of crap that has actual parts that pop out and require a hard punch to get moving. Thump. There's real muck in the trash compactor scene. Splish.

The trouble with the new Star Wars movies is that there is no thump, splish, bump, or swish.
There is nothing familiar to hold on to as we attempt to care about these wooden actors and their woes. If the Star Wars franchise is going to carry on, someone should cut their computer budget and make them construct a space ship out of vacuum tubes and old sheet metal. Then maybe I'll go to the theater.

David Denby also thinks that computerization interfered with the new Kong movie.