The Curmudgeon Speaks

I must say I am glad I am retired given the present situation in higher education. There seems a perfect storm of factors converging to make the future for the kind of institution I worked at quite bleak. I see this as unfortunate for the role of higher education in society and particularly the value of higher education for less affluent families. I am concerned that higher education has always been an easy target for local politicians due to the lack of understanding of the general public as to how universities work and assumptions that the short-term thinking that might work in businesses would work at state institutions of higher as well.

Higher education in North Dakota was struggling before the pandemic. Budgets had been slashed for several years because of poor economic conditions in the state. Higher education has little to do with fracking or crop commodity prices, but the contributions from the state budget are an easy target. Understand that state government can influence both the contributions from taxpayers and also influence the tuition charged to students. People were encouraged to retire early, more individuals were hired into nontenure track positions which is not the best way to attract the highest quality candidates, supported graduate student positions were cut again with consequences for the quality of candidates and reducing the opportunities to obtain grants and produce research, and administrative positions were increased in number (this seems a trend with no logical explanation). The increase in administrative positions is puzzling. Perhaps it relates to the need for more planning or more controls and oversight. Now the pandemic.

Some things most citizens wouldn’t consider.

Certain research fields are based on access to human subjects. Some might survive by trying to do “online” forms of research and questionnaires, but this limits the type of research that can be accomplished. This creates some internal challenges when evaluating faculty members and program contributions.

Graduate students trying to finish thesis and dissertations often have not been able to complete their projects. Committees might be forgiving, but if quality research is not completed publications are unlikely and job opportunities in a constricting market become even more unapproachable.

Faculty members are in the same situations in some programs. There are implications for tenure and promotion and again even if local committees are understanding publication are necessary for successful grant applications and a productive research program is necessary to attract graduate students.

The competitive gap between well endowed programs and state supported institutions with declining support will widen. Funding agencies want to be able to trust that the resources they provide will be used productively. This is not charity.  Money and successes attract money and successes and students.

Don’t be put off by the mention of multiple research issues. Research is a component of what academics do and students at all levels are involved in this research. This is the way students develop skills. Think of the connection between research and teaching as one of apprenticeship.

The uncertainty of the type of instruction institutions will be able to provide creates a dilemma for potential students. Do they wait a year to see if campus-based programs will return? What kind of revenue will be possible through online instruction? Many students at present want their money back? I see online instruction if done well as being more labor intensive. This means that the revenue generated declines relative to the resources invested. Will institutions begin to compete on price creating a downward spiral in tuition income? With common course agreements within statements guaranteeing that credits earned at any institution will transfer to any other institution, how will a survival mentality at smaller institutions affect the budgets at universities who must offset the high cost of graduate and upperclass specialized courses with revenues from entry level courses?

I was interested in income inequality before the pandemic. It made little sense that with what was supposed to be the best of times, at least as judged by the stock market, a booming economy seemed to offer little benefit to those at the bottom of the ladder and even to those in the middle. This is a basic mathematical reality that can be displayed in many different ways – charts, the proportion of the income captured by the top 400 people versus everyone else, etc. I had long understood that trickle down economics was a fiction and had I constructed a personal understanding of why things worked this way. Why this was a fascination is hard to explain, but I think it had to do with my life as an educator and the assumptions educators often make about All having opportunities if they worked hard and improved their personal capabilities. It just didn’t seem to actually work the way it was supposed to work.

The pandemic has only increased my concern. Those making the least are the same folks forced into the most dangerous work if they can find work at all. No online opportunities for those who work in packing plants and hair salons. 

My reaction to problems is to try to understand why things work the way they do as a starting point to see if anything can be changed. So, I have been reading a variety of sources looking for explanations that make sense. I have just completed Robert Reich’s Saving Capitalism: For the many not the few. While not exactly pleasure reading, the issues explained are approachable and the type of thing more folks need to consider.

I would describe Reich’s starting point as disputing the popular position that the U.S. is divided over the argument for free markets (Conservative) versus an activist government (Liberal) as an approach to the economy. Reich argues this is a convenient fiction used to distract citizens from the actual issue which is who makes the rules by which the economy operates. When it comes to the economy, politics is about the increasing influence of large corporations and wealthy individuals. Who is able to get elected as a politician or appointed as judges and what influences the decisions made by those in these positions The book is then divided into two main goals; why do large corporations and the very wealthy have increasing influence in political decision making and what political decisions have been made that increasingly advantage large corporations and the very wealthy. The interaction between these two sources explain the widening gap between the have and the have nots.

Issues involved in influence (a sample):

• Failure of campaign finance reform

• Citizen’s United decision and the increased influence of corporations versus individual citizens

• Politicians becoming lobbyists

• Cost of running for office

Political decisions influencing wealth (a sample):

• Patent and copyright durations and ease of renewel

• Monopolization of many sectors of the economy 

• Immense salaries to CEOs based on stock valuations which encourage a focus on profit margins returned to stockholders, stock buybacks, etc.

• Limited government commitment to enforcement of corporate violations of responsibilities and minimal penalties when violations are identified

• Low estate tax allowing massive fortunes to be passed on to those who did not in any way earn them.

These are examples from the two areas of emphasis. Reich’s point is that decisions made to address the second group of issues are influenced by the issues identified in the first group of issues. 

Reich argues that this system will eventually fail as capitalism requires consumption by all and as more and more of the population are limited in their ability to make more than minimal purposes the system will fall apart. 

It is Earth Day. The environmental message of this day and the significance of observing this day for 50 years has been lost because of the pandemic. However, as any of us shelter at home, I have noticed that several of my acquaintances have decided this is the year to garden. Several have posted pictures of the seedlings they are starting in their basements.

I have an interesting personal history with gardening. I grew up on a farm working the large family garden with my siblings. I was actually more interested in the chores of weeding, hoeing, and picking than my brothers and sisters because I saw myself eventually teaching biology. This led to some personal projects that resulted in little food for the family, but were still tolerated by my parents. I remember taking a corner of the garden and trying to grow bentgrass for a putting green. Starting grass is not easy because you have to control weeds and like many of my “projects” that green never reached the stage at which it was useable.

My gardening interests also have an interesting tech connection. In the late 1990s, I became interested in the educational outreach of North Dakota Game and Fish. I implemented several projects for them (clipart collection) that explored technology for what at the time was an organization with no efforts in this area. Game and Fish purchased my first server to support an effort to encourage collaboration among schools that had been funded to create OWLS (Outdoor Wildlife Learning Sites). These sites were not vegetable gardens by gardens focused on native grasses, forbs, and trees as a way to encourage student awareness and appreciation of the outdoors.

School gardens are a thing particularly as a way to acquaint city kids with the origins of the food they eat and as a focus on healthy food. While often encouraged for this purpose, even those kids who now grow up on farms probably are not familiar with the cultivation of many of the fruits and vegetables they consume.

Back to gardens. I have kept some type of garden most of my adult life. I have not started my own plants the past few years, but I decided this year with time to kill I would get back into growing rather than purchasing plants. I now grow vegetables in raised beds and I have 10 beds that surround my back yard. We are still probably three weeks away from putting much in the ground.

TED talk from Margrethe Vestager explains the efforts of the European Commission for Competition. She explains the concept of competition on the merits and how it has been applied to big tech. There are insights here for capitalists who resist the role of government oversight. Who else can assure competition on the merits?

I was thinking about the issue of how important perspective is in interpreting situations. Take for example the new oil cartel made up of Russia, Saudi Arabia, and the U.S.. First, leaders in the U.S. ignore the cheap gas available to those citizens who are still able to travel because of the damage done to the profits of energy companies possibly impacting company employees. These leaders act to raise the price of gas. This is one example of a difference in perspective – your random citizen vs. workers in the oil/gas industry.

Because a deal is worked out among three energy producing countries limiting production somewhat and as a result raising the price of a barrel of crude, the market shifts. I assume this is a collective benefit to these oil producing countries somehow offsetting the higher price for gas that citizens of these countries will pay. However, consider a different perspective. What do you think citizens of Japan think of this manipulation of the oil market? The Japanese citizens pay more and no component of their economy benefits to offset these higher prices.

Is it possible concerns we have when we think businesses and governments in other countries are treating us unfairly are pretty much what citizens in Japan think of the manipulation of what they pay for gas?

This is another of those obvious positions some will twist themselves into pretzels trying to generate a counter-argument. The Republican faction on the Supreme Court was able to twist the law into a pretzel. They required Wisconsinites to vote at polling locations drastically reduced in number partly because the old folks who usually staff these locations were too afraid to show up. Hours standing in line. Just to be clear the argument given that “we have to do it like we said we would” is laughable given the adjustments made to how the vote was carried out. The experience was nothing even close to the experience that was planned.

You know I have a home in Wisconsin and the Governors of both Minnesota and Wisconsin strongly encourage us not to travel across state lines. Citizen groups in “cabin country” despite the loss in revenue were sending the same message to those in homeowner associations. Don’t show up until the situation improves. Since I can stay at my home in Minnesota, this makes my travel to what I consider my other residence nonessential. Home to home. No need to get out of the car until I get there. Still, the concern for my safety and others I could infect if I happen to be infected results in the don’t travel position by governors of both states. Beware of having the wrong license plate on your car when you cross a border.

Still, the Republicans in Wisconsin and on the Supreme Court expected folks my age who spend a couple more months a year in Wisconsin than I do show up to vote on the date originally designated. Other states found a way. Why not Wisconsin?

Newsweek on the Wisconsin voting decision.

I have been a supporter of the Brave browser and more importantly the Brave effort to compensate content creators without ads that rely on the collection and sale of personal information for some time now.

As I look at the mission of this service, I am interested in a couple of indicators of progress. The first, which is difficult to assess for lack of company information sharing, is the proportion of Brave users who are willing to use the money they earn viewing Brave ads or money they contribute directly to Brave to compensate content creators for their work and creativity. The ad avoidance and personal data collection avoidance goals aside, the logic of a fair Internet falls apart unless there is a way to compensate content creators if you expect to be able to consume content. You can’t just be against ads without considering the impact that ad blocking has on those who want to be compensated for their work.

A variable that easier to detect as a content consumer is the participation of content creators. You have to register your sites with Brave if you are open to having your ads blocked and want to receive compensation through the Brave system. This is easy enough to determine as Brave displays an indicator each time you visit a site as to whether that site has registered to receive compensation.

I was pleased to see that the TWIT podcast network has registered with Brave. I have enclosed the indicator in a red square to show where the mark of participation appears. Yes, you might see this same mark when visiting my sites.

It is easy to focus on the Coronavirus in the U.S. and forget about places in the world with far fewer advantages. We had the opportunity to recently spend time in southern Africa and had the opportunity to visit the township of Soweto, I think of a township as a suburb in this case of Johannesburg. The historical characteristics of such townships is not positive as they were part of the apartheid practice of separating blacks South Africans. The political situation has changed, but this does not necessarily result in an immediate change in living conditions. Changes in the law do not change the circumstances from which people have limited opportunities to escape.

Here are a couple of pictures from our trip. Johannesburg is very much a modern city, but the past hangs on and poverty persists.

I was thinking about distancing and having things we need delivered to our front steps and wondering how this would work among the poor of Soweto. I remember seeing lines of men walking by the side of the highway in the mornings to get to their work. What happens when there is no work and you live under such primitive conditions.

Thinking about this I sent an email to our friend who spends some part of each year in South Africa. He responded in short order via video chat and we had a great conversation. He is sheltering very much as we are, but with more stringent conditions. You can leave your home to either get food or to seek medical care. That is it. I expect this extreme isolation was part of the reason for our quick opportunity to interact. He obviously felt isolated. He reported that he spends some time playing bridge online.

When asked about Soweto, he admitted that he did not know what those living in poor townships could do. He suggested that they were not adhering to the expectations because it was simply not practical.

This is likely one of those situations in which everyone must be supported. The desperation of some creates danger of all and yet there seems to be no way to change the world as it is.

So we may now be asked to wear masks when outside our homes and the real masks must be reserved for medical professionals. Americans are supposed to use their creativity. I don’t sew, but people do say I have a different way of thinking about things. Tech guy that I am, I thought I would try some AI to search for options that would not occur to your average mortal. I searched my Google Photos collection of thousands of images to find masks and I did find some possibilities.

The full snorkel look is a little much for your casual walk. My buff should work, but it would be better if I had a color that did not make me look like I am roaming the neighborhood trying to steal purses from old ladies. They are far quicker than you would think and many now use those walking sticks as weapons. The gangsta look just gets you in trouble.

I will keep looking.

So, you are sequestered in your home avoiding people and unable to visit other places. I can’t say this makes me anxious unless I think about why I am sequestered avoiding people and unable to visit other places. So, don’t try to dwell on the problem. Be part of the solution. Find things to do.

Here is an idea. Virtual everything is in so why not visit other places virtually. I found this way to be virtually in Times Square. It is kind of interesting for maybe 5 minutes. I guess maybe others have used up their five minutes because there were only 4 other people virtually visiting with me. I will have to come up with something else tomorrow.

Here is another kind of fun thing to do. If you are old (like me) and have been many places AND store images you have taken with your phone in Google Photos, search for Times Square and see what you can find. Plenty to choose from here. I think I will call this activity – where in the world WAS Mark. I found some photos from 2014 and 2008. I am guessing I not did have a phone with geolocation before then.