While I know
Time to revisit ways to save on cost of living
By this, I am talking about the Rip Van Winkle effect. In this famous story, a man fell asleep for twenty years and awakened to find himself out of sorts when things had significantly changed. In my case, I often experience this kind of disorientation when I am in the market for something I haven’t bought in awhile. Recently, I experienced this when I had to buy an air conditioning (HVAC) system.
To my understanding, a major reason for these sharp price increases is a federal regulation that specifies a minimum Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (SEER). Where conserving energy is laudable, there is also a point of diminishing returns.
By this, I mean that the gains from improving efficiency are far outweighed by the additional costs to achieve them. Specifically, and based on HVAC technicians I have talked to, the costs of HVAC units starts to go up dramatically once SEER ratings exceed 12. With the minimum set at 14 by law, this results in substantially less expensive possibilities being walled off from the consumer. Before you object that the greater efficiency will pay for itself, it rarely does.
Whether it’s cable, cell phones or internet, the land of the free pays substantially more than the rest of the world and receives inferior service in the bargain.
As one example, internet service in Korea is eight times faster than what we typically get stateside. At the same time, our service costs almost twice as much.
At the end of the day, the majority of these discrepancies can be chalked up to a lack of competition. And unless the relentless drive toward industry consolidation is reversed, it’s hard to see how the http://www.cheapjerseys11.com/ Pills Order Buy Order situation gets any better. By most accounts, the biggest culprit behind all this is the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Since the problems probably originate in the law, could amending this law help?
Usually, when I regale college students with tales of my youth, their eyes start to glaze over. And justifiably so! On top of the fact that the stories aren’t that interesting, what could I, being middle aged, possibly know that might have any relevance today?
Despite this generation gap, there is one fact I share that never fails to fascinate. When I was a student at Texas Tech in the 1980’s, I took a full course load and paid about $500/year in tuition and fees. That previous sentence was not a misprint. Even after factoring in inflation, tuition has skyrocketed by approximately 900 percent!
With the explosive growth in university administration, federal student aid programs that facilitate this and the sharp reductions in state funding for higher education, we have ended up with a system where crushing debt is the only option for many students. At the very least, getting a handle on why our own state largely abdicated its role in higher education could be a start toward getting tuition back in line.
Back in the day, there were practically no toll roads in Texas. If you ever visit the major metropolitan areas of our state, your wallet will realize that times have changed! Traveling on them is seriously expensive.
While charging for highway access is presented as an economic way to finance new roads, common sense and decades of data show that toll roads are inherently cost inefficient. According to studies, the administrative, collection and enforcement costs of a typical toll facility are http://salon-angelika.sk/nezaradene/buy-clonidine-over-the-counter/ almost 34 percent of the revenue generated.
Compared to an administrative cost of 1 percent for a fuel tax, the contrast is striking.
Even with electronic toll collection, the annual cost of electronic toll collection for one highway in New Jersey is almost as much as what it costs to collect federal gasoline taxes in all 50 states! Although a threshold of traffic flow must be reached for toll roads to become lucrative, I still consider it a question of time before these projects reach West Texas.
While I know that the issues raised in this article are much larger than any one person, I do believe that positive change isn’t possible unless questions start to get asked. And given that substantially better results have been achieved in other places and times, why can’t we accomplish them here and now?
With the recent significant changes in our political system, our country may possess a unique opportunity to revisit these issues and attain significantly better results. Now could be a great time to get involved.
In the meantime, I will keep writing articles to “Make America Cheap Again” in your everyday life. Don’t miss out.
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