US maternity leave rate is zero?

Yet another post from Dr. B: Fringe Thinking

I'm just confused on how Jackson is saying the maternity and paternity leave rate is zero, when my wife is taking 10 weeks and I am taking 2...

Actually, my wife gets 8 paid weeks, and she's taking an additional 2 unpaid. We can do this because we've planned for it and are saving accordingly.

We Kornheiser's don't produce anything...

Dr. Boudreaux shares a letter he sent to Tony Kornheiser that is in the same vein as my post yesterday.  People have a hard time with the abstract, and maybe we feel guilty if there isn't something tangible to point to when you're done with your work. My thought is any value adding work we do that gets compensated for is a good thing, be that manufacturing or producing services.

I call it "value adding work" because there are too many Keynesians out there that want to hire ditch diggers with someone to fill them.

If everything is made in China, are we Chinese?

Caught this on Facebook by way of My Morning Jacket, pretty good song, I'm a fan of Jim James especially. However, the italicized line caught my attention:

The Roots - Dear God 2.0:
They said he's busy hold the line please
Call me crazy, I thought maybe he could mind read
Who does the blind lead?
Show me a sign please
If everything is made in China, are we Chinese?

Aside from the line being a non sequitur to the rest of the verse, the premise is also way off.  Of course we're not Chinese because we buy Chinese stuff, the point he's making with a seemingly throw away line is that America doesn't produce anything.  Instead of going into a long, complicated rant about trade (quick version - it's good for everyone!), I'm simply going to point out that it is ironic that his problem is that we don't produce anything, all while he's making music.  It's intangible, yes, but he makes a living off of it, I'm not sure how well a living, but one none the less. I wonder if anyone in China will buy this record, or if the CD's their music is recorded on is made in China...

I'll apply a common example used when discussing trade to explain further.  If I like movies, and I go out to them all the time, am I Hollywood...inian, even though I'm from Virginia?  Or vice-versa, if Smokers in Hollywood smoke tobacco from Virginia, does that make them Virginian?  Of course not.

Not a perfect game...

This is a little over due, probably because I found my position wasn't as controversial as I had thought:

Russ Roberts at Cafe Hayek has a post about Detroit Tigers pitcher, Armando Galarraga, start on June 2nd where he pitched good enough to earn a perfect game. Unfortunately for him, he didn't because of, as umpire Jim Joyce has admitted, a blown call.  That, in and of itself, is why he didn't, and I'm glad to see that Bud Selig didn't cave to pressure to 'make it right'.

The way I've always heard it, a perfect game is facing the minimum - 27 up, 27 down.  No runs, no hits, no walks, no errors.  Not one batter reached base safely.  That didn't happen in that game and that's why it wasn't a perfect game.

I think the natural tendency to want to 'make this right' is because the belief is that Galarraga deserved a perfect game. He pitched a heck of a game, before and after the bad call by Joyce, but that doesn't guarantee anything, not even a win (see the rest of Dr. Roberts' post for the story of Harvey Haddix). In fact, it doesn't make sense that pitchers are credited with Wins and Losses anyway, since you can pitch terribly and give up 8 runs and still win, and pitch great and get a loss or even a no decision.

The good thing that came out of this was seeing Galarraga handle himself. He is a classy, stand-up guy, and should be a role model for good sportsmanship now and in the future.

Bastiat & The Oil Spill

Russ Roberts has a post about the oil spill, asks as question that is similar to my earlier post about Bastiat.