If I Were President...

If I were president, I would make it mandatory for those wanting to invest their money to take a course teaching them basic economics. I understand that almost every high school student has to take an economics class, but most people don't recall those classes apparently. I also understand that this might privilege those who are smarter in the process of yielding higher returns in the stock market, being able to identify wise property investments, etc. YES! Duh! That's the point.

Seems to me that a large reason why the stock market (and the housing market, and the credit markets, and every other market) has been on the downturn is because people freak out and think they have to sell off all their investments, when in actuality, holding onto those invesments will make them better off in the long run.

Some of it is common sense, and that's not teachable. But much of it isn't common sense, and people shouldn't be expected to intuitively know things about large-scale economies. Towards those ends, I think there should be some system in place teaching people these things before they're given the privilege to invest in these economies.

Republicans Making News...

Interesting week to be a Republican. Earlier in the week, Arlen Specter (R-PA) announced he'd leave the party to become a democrat (now if only we can get the Minnesota shenanigans worked out). Then, a couple days ago, David Souter announced he would retire at the end of his term in June (exciting to see who Obama will try to appoint). Finally, today, former GOP Vice Presidential candidate Jack Kemp (Bob Dole's running make in '96) died of cancer.

I don't know why, but it's interesting that all these things are happening to the Republicans.

That's all.

Swine Flu

I wish I were some sort of Health Comm person, because I'd already have a dissertation topic playing around with this one. The media's treatment of the swine flu pandemic has been out of control. I understand that this swine flu thing is scary and could get out of hand, but let's keep in mind a few things:

• Since the whole outbreak started, 10 people have died from Swine Flu. About 30 times that amount have died from regular flu.
• Swine flu can be treated with Tamiflu or other regular-flu-killing drugs. I understand those drugs are in short supply, but that's only because everyone on the planet has been stockpiling.
• Just like you can take precautions to prevent regular flu, so too can you take precautions to prevent swine flu. Wash your hands, don't touch your eyes, don't make out with people who have it. In other words, common sense.
• This is not the first time there's been a swine flu outbreak. And, just like there has been bird flu, foot-in-mouth, mad cow, etc., never do these things get as crazy as the media wants us to think.
• There's a difference between a pandemic and an epidemic. It's kinda like the difference between a tornado watch and a tornado warning. One means there's a tornado in your back yard, the other means conditions are favorable for a tornado at some point in time in some expansive geographic area. Same thing with swine flu -- not everyone has it. Instead, some people could get it. It's not that big a deal.

Don't get me wrong...if it got out of hand, it would really suck. But we're not there yet and it's unlikely that we will be. We only think that's true because people have freaked out about it. I also don't mean to downplay it's seriousness for those who have contracted it -- my condolences go to those who have lost loved ones. At the end of the day, though, the media has made this into a much bigger deal than needed, and we should recognize that so as to stop being afraid.