Tear Gas as a First Resort

I saw that the Trump administration is shooting tear gas at migrants at the Mexico border. I have not been keeping up with the story, but it does appear the president is becoming a doppleganger of some past dictators. I used to wonder how can these dictators and autocrats continue to rachet up their heinous deeds without numerous public outcries.

Now I know. The ones in power do it slowly. Each new act is barely different from the previous one. But it is different. And that difference adds up.

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Writing to Learn

I have been reading a book by the late William Zinsser called Writing to Learn. I had read a bulk of it years back, but decided to pick it up again. A major point that I am discovering (which I didn't really get before) is that to write clearly you do have to think through issues. And by thinking through issues, you do get to understand the material much better.

I should have known this because I sometimes do an exercise I learned from Dr. James Pennabaker, a professor at the Univ. of Texas, Austin. The exercise is to write for 10 minutes on a topic you've studied, and not to worry about spelling, syntax, or flow. He said this is a great way to learn material, much better than the usual method of reading material over and over again.

It's all still quite surprising to me.


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Tough Times with Trump and Friends

Lately in my job as a therapist working with Medicaid patients, I have seen more and more adults and families who are struggling to provide financially for their families. I had never given much thought to how a family, say of a single mother and three children, would survive on minimum wage. It's virtually impossible. A person working full-time making minimum wage would make about $15,000 per year.

That's why it surprised me when Larry Kudlow, President Trump's top economic adviser, said we shouldn't have a minimum wage. To me that is shocking. So, in effect, he is saying a employer can pay three or four dollars per hour and the worker--and society--should be satisfied with that.

It would be interesting to see how many economists would side with him. Not many, I think. Hell, I think even the late Milton Friedman would burst out laughing at Kudlow.

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