PolicyMic

Christopher P. Ryan You don't think that concussion issues are linked to the bounty issue? Giving someone a concussion is probably the easiest way to knock someone out of a game, just put your helmet on theirs.

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• 2 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan Thanks for reading and commenting!

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• 3 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan I also feared that they might schedule a hearing until I skimmed AMI's white paper on the matter. It's freggin' hilarious. I suppose it's possible that they might schedule a hearing, but to do so they would need to be paying ABS...

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• 3 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan I suppose FA Hayek received his Nobel Prize by accident. Ben- see my link above for evidence that the situation is changing in a way that makes borrowing more money a scary proposition. Paul- I'm through interacting with you on this webs...

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• 3 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan The market won't be paying us to borrow once inflation hits, interest rates come back up, and the government refinances their existing debt. The government is already going to have to refinance over $5.5 trillion of debt in the next 4 years. (...

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• 3 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan Your comment about mandatory spending is a false choice. Mandatory spending should not total $2.5 trillion. In many ways, the fact that we are even having this conversation is the problem. Define as many words as you want--spending what you take ...

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• 3 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan Which of my observations are not sensible? If Paul, or you, or anyone else thinks that "The government should spend less money" is an idea that does not or should not have political or intellectual legitimacy-- I'm really not sure w...

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• 3 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan Paul-- I'm surprised and dissapointed--you've always seemed respectful on this site, until now. Should I take this comment as an example of the kind of "reality" that "grown ups" like you understand and children like ...

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• 3 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan Are you actually asserting that economists 1) ALL agree on this issue and 2) All agree with YOU on this issue??? I hope you know that's not true. Key words in your statement: The market is paying us to borrow RIGHT NOW. Putting the Fed'...

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• 3 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan Essential investments such as...? The government still hasn't managed to spend all of the last round of "essential investments" passed around 3 years ago (ARRA)! Besides, as I wrote above, recent history shows a pattern of deficit sp...

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• 3 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan And the tax increases Obama is proposing in the budget will be job creators? I don't think so. Besides, are jobs now worth laying the cost at our children's feet??

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• 3 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan Just as civil rights protect people from government oppression, they protect businesses from government too. Whether corporations should legally be considered people is really a different issue. Within the civil rights paradigm, there is no place f...

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• 4 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan Even if everything you say was/is true, and it might be, Walker's efforts to cut spending are still laudable.

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• 4 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan I think this goes without saying, but since the last post seemed to try and put words in my mouth (or something close to it), I want to be clear: "screw the public school kids" is not what I wrote or meant. I did unpaid volunteer work coach...

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• 4 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan Putting aside the fact that the article you quoted mentions nothing of collective bargaining, how closely have you looked at The Universal Declaration of Human Rights? I ask because that document proposes an ideal that, while positive and hopeful, is...

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• 4 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan C'mon man, the teachers who refused to teach made it clear that this isn't about the kids! There's nothing wrong with good public school teachers leaving their current positions for better opportunities, whether in private schools ...

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• 4 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan If the teachers are really as good as you say (and I have no doubt that many of them are), they should have no problem finding well-paying teaching positions with great benefits.

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• 4 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan Wow...thanks for posting this! The market may not be perfect, but the "invisible hand" has lots of important purposed, and usually does a pretty damn good job. Stories like this help people to remember that.

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• 4 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan Far from being irresponsible, the claim that Walker saved 1500 public jobs is from CBS News's coverage of Walker's statement announcing that he was rescinding 1500 layoff notices after the bill passed. I intended to include the source for ...

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• 4 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan I think it's worth noting that the first round of recall elections in response to the budget repair bill hardly vindicated the protesters-- the Republicans were returned to office in a majority of the recalls, and maintained their Senate majorit...

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• 4 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan Andrew- If you re-read my third to last paragraph, you'll see that I did not ignore or express support for the politically-motivated attitudes that Walker expressed in his phone conversation with the fake David Koch. The budget repair b...

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• 4 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan Excellent point. Linked to this point, I also think pride is something we have to note about this situation. I live in Maryland and know a fair number of Penn State graduates and I have to say, I can't think of any school's alumni whose p...

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• 6 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan I too was very disturbed by the rioting. Though the rioting was the product of a series of events that started with the abuse, I think we would be wrong to link the rioting to students supporting the abuse. I think if one was to ask the rioting stud...

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• 6 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan That parallel is one of the ideas I kept coming back to when I began writing. In many ways it seems like the most appropriate comparison. There's even another aspect of this that I was not able to get to--just as Catholics worldwide were o...

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• 6 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan Since scholarships defray tuition and room/board costs, they have a knowable cash value. Tuition and room/ board combined at US universities is no more than about $60K, or about half of what the report I cited says players' contributions are wo...

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• 7 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan You've hit on why I focused on football, though in the case of foreign leagues without age restrictions I have to say that I don't favor rules that force people to leave this country to use their particular skill set to make a living.

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• 8 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan I'm glad we talked this out, you're right, I should rephrase that line a bit. I think (and hope) the rest of the article makes clear what I really mean.

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• 8 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan No sir, thinking amateurism is charming does not make you disingenuous or ignorant. Defending the rules that defend this amateurism while not acknowledging that this amateurism has been disqualified by compensation is different--and is one or the ot...

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• 8 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan Can libertarian ideology not be moral??? That exploitation may be somewhat offset on the whole does very very little to offset the exploitation visited on these individuals.

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• 8 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan I'm glad you are noting that scholarships should still be on the table for those who want them--that idea is central to my article. You make an interesting observation regarding the agents, highlighting the kind of business opportunity that sho...

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• 8 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan Athletic budgets, revenues, and booster donations vary wildly as it is, and there is no broad outcry that that is unfair. They get the best coaches, facilities, trainers, and recruiters. Not much different than the pro sports model.

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• 8 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan Bill Gates didn't graduate from college because he had a skill set he could make money on already and didn't need to be there. Having him as an intern would have been a waste, and rules forcing him to be one by precluding the option for hi...

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• 8 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan Some respectful counterpoints: 1) College football is already a lower-version of the NFL on college campuses. Fans pay top dollar to fill huge stadiums, the teams are chasing profits, and players are compensated and different rates based on their ...

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• 8 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan Kids who want to accept scholarships could still take advantage of that opportunity! I imagine many would still do so even if the changes I advocate were made. College should still be free to offer and players should be free to accept any freely neg...

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• 8 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan Daniel-- I honestly hope that no one ever comes along and tells you that despite the fact that someone wants to pay you $200K to use your skills to perform a task, $100K should be enough, period. You deserve the opportunity to be paid what the mark...

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• 8 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan This article is something that has been rolling around my mind since news broke last fall that Cam Newton might have been offered $200K to attend Mississippi State, I think it was. All I kept thinking was, "So what?" If they want to offer...

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• 8 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan Sorry Phil, I didn't mean to offend you or anyone else, except for the people who are immorally exploiting these kids and leaving them in poverty. At no point did I indicate that I am the only honest and knowledgeable person on this issue, so I...

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• 8 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan I totally agree, Sal. That's why the NFL's cooperative rules are key. Like I said, no one has a right to be paid to play football. But, just as it would be wrong for someone to stand in my way of using my writing and analytical skills to ...

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• 8 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan Conservative and libertarian economists also warned how the stimulus would play out, and they predicted correctly as well. I agree that tax cuts do not have nearly the same results as government spending on job creation. Clearly we disagree. A...

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• 9 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan I didn't claim that lowering corporate income tax rates would "guarantee" anything. It is a good example of the kind of free market principles we should be returning to in light of 6 failed stimuli since since 2008. The "past r...

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• 9 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan There’s a fine line between jumping to conclusions and making a reasonable assessment based on common sense. To me, railing against CPPW is common sense. CPPW's programs seem wasteful and impractical. But out of respect for other people’s ...

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• 9 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan I totally agree. We need to carefully look at absolutely everything we are spending money on, no exceptions.

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• 9 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan Good points, Bryan. But we are paying for this when we don't know the answer to that question, and while (as you noted) a healthy and reasonable skepticism exists. Would you support an independent review of how beneficial these efforts would be ...

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• 9 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan True, those things will help. But can we expect these things to help enough to justify the expense of taxpayer money? Should the government be doing these things at all? These questions must be considered too. Claiming that I am "paid to...

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• 9 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan Wow...ok...Do you have a point Susan, other than libeling me? As a professional political commentator, shouldn't you be trying to run down facts to address my argument instead of attacking the messenger? I'm not the story here. Yes, I am ...

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• 9 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan Thanks for reading! One 30 minute walk per week as an anti-obesity measure is a joke. Even if the anti-obesity program supported meaningful goals, the hope that it would broadly impact health is just that--hope. I'm a big believer in behaviora...

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• 9 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan Yours is a fair point, Rokaya, but we can't really know how effective these programs are at prevention. I hope you would agree that one 30 minute walk a week is a woefully insufficient anti-obesity measure. The CDC itself recommends at least 5 ...

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• 10 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan I agree...this money would be better spent on almost anything. Perhaps even sadder than what I included in the article, these examples are not atypical or cherry-picked accounts of CPPW's worst failures. The Hawaii, Maine, and California examp...

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• 10 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan Thanks for reading! I agree that it is difficult to decide what amount of spending on fraud detection is optimal. If you have more information or could direct me to further readings supporting your point about market distortions I would really appr...

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• 10 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan Obviously more is better, but that’s exactly why Obama should be fiercely criticized if he does not live up to his strong rhetoric. As an example of the kind of work Obama should be doing, consider the National Invasive Species Council (NISC) from...

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• 11 months ago

Christopher P. Ryan Thanks everyone for reading! The common feeling that “it’s only $33 billion, it’s not even worth the trouble” is extremely frustrating. The problem for someone who feels the way I do is that we can’t escape that apathy, which is contagi...

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• 11 months ago