Stratus World

Must-drive SUV - Pic courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
SHUT-DOWN REDUX

Ex-senator Kay Bailey Hutchison was asked this week what she thought about the government shut-down and threat of default we just experienced. She praised the Senate for giving adult guidance in a situation fraught with childish impulses. Hutchison didn’t mention Ted Cruz by name but his name was fairly implied. I think Mr. Cruz did an act of economic vandalism on the American people by his bullying, hot-headed, ego-driven behavior. Am hoping that he is duly chastised by the GOP and I hope that the Tea Party learns to act more with dignity and restraint. Their ideas may not go away, but their strategies could stand a huge overhaul.

SPOTLIGHT ON TEXAS

This week’s TIME cover story gives praise to Texas -- it has a vibrant economy, low taxes, low unemployment and something like 5 of the 10 fastest growing cities in the nation. The author is a self-admitted Libertarian and he showered mostly praise on the free-wheeling aspects of the Lone Star state. He didn’t mention that Texas just closed all but a handful of abortion clinics, disallows gay marriage, turned down Medicaid and elected Ted Cruz as one of its senators. The author’s economic analysis was pretty accurate and credit should be given where it’s due even if a wild band of GOP wingnuts oversees it.

One interesting fact of the Texas economy is that we’re adding jobs -- at the upper and lower ends of the salary spectrum. We’re adding lots of jobs in service, construction, retail and other hourly-wage areas. We’re also adding to the list of millionaires and billionaires. What seems to be suffering are the middle class white-collar jobs that are supposed to be the backbone of a healthy, unified society. Texas is not unique here -- the middle class evaporation is everywhere; it’s more noticeable here because of our job volume.

NEW WORLD

We’re entering into a strange “Stratus” world where a large group of blue collar tradesmen bolster a small cadre of rich people. Globalization, automation and the Internet have all made it so. When I was in high school, it would’ve been unthinkable for me to turn down college. I was an honor student and tuitions were low. Nowadays there’s nearly a reversal -- young adults may opt to stay home, serve yogurt or walk dogs. And their parents hardly argue the point; they don’t want to hollow out their savings for exorbitant tuition. Even a Dean’s List graduate may face a long slog finding a job so what’s the point?

Stirring the pot even more is that we’ve fallen back into the “gotta have it” materialism of the 1950’s -- where we long for high style condos, Range Rovers, designer clothes and 5 star hotels. Our craving for material bling has oddly peaked in a period of lesser financial fitness. How might young people making $10/hour pimp and prostrate themselves to drive an Audi or wear Prada shoes? I don’t have a ready answer for that, although I see such incongruities around me. With lower interest rates, there might be a lot of credit card debt to explain it. I don't think we've fallen so far into the chasm that we sell our bodies but I wouldn't rule it out in a dystopian future.

“In my day” to sound like an old granddad, we bought our clothes at JCPenney or Beall’s. We drove Chevy Impalas and wore Timex watches. Our kitchens had formica - not granite counters. Somehow we survived and even managed to have self-esteem. I wish that the world would return to simpler objectives and less pretentious ways. It would probably smooth things a bit for our coming Stratus World where middle class values could help the newly enlarged service class -- that “swirling mass of gray and black and white” to keep their heads above water financially.

© 2013 blogSpotter

Jane's Addiction

A new phone in town - Pic by blogSpotter

by blogSpotter

THE ADDICTIVE PERSONALITY

Jane is an Apple addict with more money than sense -- that is if Jane were a 55 year old male software engineer living in Dallas. I have @ 5 iPods, an iPad, a mac mini, an iBook and an iPhone. Despite my previous blog where I dissed the iPhone 5C, I must confess that I checked it out at the Apple Store and fell in love with it. I got the bright green one, unlocked. Then I fitted it out with a black jacket -- the Green Hornet color combo. Next I went over to the AT&T store where they gave me a nano sim; they also transferred the phone number and contents from my tired old 3GS to the new 5C. What’s not to love on the 5C -- it gets LTE speed, or 4G at the slowest. It has the bright, large retina display. And it has the new iOS7. Once I restored my apps and contacts from the iCloud I was back in business. The 5C’s width is ergonomically perfect for an adult hand, unlike the Samsung Galaxy “phablets” which will give their owners a lifetime of hand cramps.

The 5C was all of my good news. Now let's turn our attention to the shut-down and healthcare.gov ...

THE SHUT-DOWN

Words cannot explain the ire I have for House Republicans who dwell in a sad land of denial. They are trying to use the budget process to circumvent not just Obamacare, but every other project they dislike. They are not behaving like adults, and the shut-down is their doing. I have no idea how this will resolve itself -- we have another debate about the debt ceiling coming right on the heels of this. It would help Obama’s case if the healthcare rollout were smooth; this brings us to the next topic..

THE HEALTHCARE.GOV FIASCO

Obama, what happened? The much-touted health care exchanges came on-line October 1, 2013. Prospective shoppers were asked to create an account even before browsing the offerings. With the crush of 5 million hits, the site was overwhelmed. The most dogged customers could never get past a screen that said in essence “Please come back later”. By day 5 (that is TODAY) it still was not fixed. The “Please Come Back” screen advised customers to call a toll free number for faster turn around. In Dallas, the only instance of people being registered was via paper forms at local hospitals.

This is completely unacceptable. The administration had 3 years to prepare this application -- wouldn’t they have hired system experts? Wouldn’t they have known that millions of people would be trying to access it? Giant-scale operations are not an impossibility by the way; Expedia and Google have had such large-scale throughput for years.

Already this is such a fiasco that IT schools will use it as a negative example of scalability. Business and policy schools will use it as a negative example on product roll-outs. There should be a thorough post-mortem of what went wrong. Who hired these consultants and what kind of oversight was there? I may become more temperate about this down the line, but blogSpotter has these recommendations:

o The consulting company that designed this system should be FIRED. They’re lucky they aren’t tarred and feathered.
o Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, should tender her resignation if it appears she oversaw this train wreck -- and it appears that she oversaw this train wreck.
o The Admin should quickly and forthwith get the ablest, best consultancy for large computer infrastructures to come repair this horrid system.

Given the snarling nostrils of Obamacare enemies, it was crucial that the roll-out be smooth and relatively painless. This utter failure we’ve had reinforces every negative stereotype of government programs. Not every government program is so fraught with incompetence -- the military can tie its shoes and chew gum at the same time. Government can do right when it has the right resources. Obama -- we’re looking at you. Make healthcare.gov a well-oiled machine. To borrow from Shakespeare, “All’s well that ends well” and maybe there could be a redemption of sorts if we come away with lessons learned and a computer system that finally works.

© 2013 blogSpotter