College Majors Versus Earning Potential

The Democrats' chant of Free College just keeps getting louder. Bernie Sanders claims that free college would be the "driver of a new era of American Prosperity". But let's look at how well that's working today. An analysis by Georgetown University demonstrates that that there is no correlation at all between what a career pays and how many people choose to pursue it in college study. Few are opting for majors like engineering and pharmacy and finance that pay the most. More are opting for psychology and "fine arts" that pay the least. It's not clear how Free College churning out more "fine arts" majors is going to create prosperity. Maybe an economics course or two might help?

Also, a short quiz for Mr. Sanders and Mrs. Clinton. If you succeed in greatly increasing the number of college graduates with your Free Tuition scheme, what do you think will happen to the salaries for those with the degrees? Here, again, a course on basic economics might be helpful.

Bernie Sanders is Right. Our Economy IS Designed By the Wealthy

Bernie Sanders is running around the country braying that our economy is “designed by the wealthiest people in this country to benefit the wealthiest people in this country at the expense of everybody else.” If he'd left off the last six words, he's be absolutely right. Our economy is designed to reward those who are extraordinary economic producers. That's pretty much how you become really wealthy. Doing things that others find quite valuable -- whether designing great smartphones or hitting .325. The last six words are where he goes (intentionally, I'm sure) wrong. If the economy is "designed" by the successful to reward only the successful, they sure screwed it up. Darn,

Middle Class Incomes Declining?

The constant drum beat from the left: The Middle Class is disappearing. The number of people with middle class incomes is declining. Well, yes. The percentage of households earning less than $100,000 is, in fact, declining because more and more of those households are now earning greater than $100,000. How could that possibly be a bad thing? Unless you're a demagogue running for President.

Uber Expands The Ride Market

Bloomberg Business shows the effect that Uber and other ride services have had on the car-for-hire market. The Portland city government initially did what many incumbent-controlled city governments have done -- fight the innovation and the competition it brings to established markets. Finally in late April of 2015, they agreed to a 120 day "trial", which has since been extended. Not surprisingly, Uber and Lyft took market share from established taxi services. What they also did was expand the market in total. Portlanders took 100,000 more rides in August than they did in May. By introducing competition and making it easier for riders to hail a ride, Uber and Lyft have grown the total market. Just like the airlines grew the travel market while simultaneously taking share away form the railroads.

Pope Francis Should Look at What More Capitalism Might Have Done For Argentina

Pope Francis has been rather critical of capitalism. Perhaps he needs to review what has happened to the economic well-being of his fellow Argentinians relative to people in the United States.  I wonder if maybe Argentinians might wish they had experienced a little more capitalism in the last century?