economics

If the Test Were Valid…

A group of 25 people were caught forging transcripts from shuttered south Florida nursing schools. They were using the forged transcripts in a scheme to show eligibility to sit for nursing licensing exams.

I’m torn on this. If the exam were a valid measure of the knowledge and skills of the nursing profession, then why does it matter whether or not you went to a nursing school? Alternatively, if passing grades in the school were a reliable indicator of proficiency, then why have a licensing exam?

This is simply a continuation of our licensing discussion. The transcript is a certification- the school is certifying that you are proficient. With that being the case, why require an exam? Are you saying that the school’s certification isn’t reliable? Or is it the exam that isn’t reliable?

Or is this simply a money making scheme that allows colleges, testing centers, and the state to rake in thousands of dollars from each nursing candidate?

There are nursing schools that charge upwards of $50,000 for an associate’s in nursing. Many nursing programs have completion rates that are below 50 percent. That is, less than half of the nursing students who begin the program actually complete it. On top of that, less than 60 percent of those who complete nursing programs in south Florida actually pass their certification exams. That means less than a third of students who begin nursing education in south Florida wind up becoming nurses.

My own nursing school had a 45 percent completion rate and a 90 percent exam pass rate. That works out to about 40 percent, and doesn’t include those students who began the prerequisites but were never admitted to the school.

That’s why there is such a nursing shortage. For every 100 students who begin the nursing pipeline, only about 25 of them actually become nurses.

By Divemedic, ago

No Money for White People

Wells Fargo was sued in April 2022 for not loaning money to enough black people. On December 21, the bank reached a settlement agreement where they agreed to pay $3.7 billion in damages and civil penalties.

The bank has decided to take the only path that makes sense from a business standpoint. They are not going to lend any more money to white people. The noose tightens. If you are a white person with a job, you aren’t wanted in this society.

By Divemedic, ago

Market Forces

Many cities have rent control laws that prohibit landlords from raising rent on their property. So they are finding ways around it. Landlords do all that they can to catch tenants breaking the terms of their lease so they can remodel the rental property in order to avoid the property being regulated by rent control laws. One way that they are doing this is through the use of surveillance technology.

The tenant is violating the terms of the lease by subletting, throwing wild parties, or otherwise endangering the property and the landlord has a significant financial incentive to catch them. When they get caught, they are evicted. This somehow makes the landlord into the bad guy, because making a profit is no longer seen as the proper goal of owning a business.

The left is using government to force business owners to accept fixed pricing while at the same time costs such as property taxes, insurance, and other costs eat into and eventually eliminate profits. So the market is doing what the market does- it’s finding solutions.

Price controls never work.

By Divemedic, ago

Spinning Inflation

Egg prices were $1.79 a dozen in November of 2021. By November of 2022, a dozen eggs cost $3.59. As of today, eggs are now $6.17 a dozen. So they doubled in a year, now are on pace to double in three months. The powers that be are claiming that it is due to a Bird Flu pandemic amongst egg laying hens.

Poultry farmers are telling a different story. They are claiming that everything needed to produce eggs is more expensive. The price of feed is up, which would not be the case if there were fewer birds due to a pandemic. The price of egg cartons is up, having risen from 30 cents to 50 cents per carton.

No matter the cause, everything that requires eggs: from breakfast and pasta to cakes is going to be more expensive. Stand by. The price increases are going to continue.

By Divemedic, ago

Licensed Vs. Certified

We began a conversation the other day about licensure being a grift. There is a difference between licensure and certification.

A license is a permit, issued by the government, that allows a person to carry out a certain activity. In order for licensure to exist, the government must first make it illegal to perform the activity, then issue licenses that permit those possessing those licenses to perform the activity.

Certification is where an entity certifies that a person meets certain standards. The entity issuing the certification can be a private business or a government. The value of the certification lies with the reputation of the entity that issues it. A certification can be issued without license- for example, UL laboratories. The government even issues licenseless certification- high school diplomas.

The issuance of a license can involve certification by the same agency that issues it- an example of this is a driver’s license. The DMV both ensures that the applicant for the license meets certain criteria and issues the license.

Alternatively, a government may require that another, outside entity certify that the applicant meets licensing criteria prior to issuing the license. Examples of this include lawyers and nurses. Passing the Bar exam or the NCLEX is a precursor to receiving a license to practice those professions.

A license can be issued without certification at all. Fishing licenses, for example. No one cares if you know how to fish- FWC just wants your license fees.

The only real reason for licensure is so that the state can control who can and cannot perform certain activities. The state always uses safety and quality control as the reason for requiring licenses, but this is the government we are talking about here. This means that politics eventually carry more weight than competence or safety.

This becomes a problem when the certification required to obtain a license is different for one group than it is for another. Say an American doctor or nurse has to pass certain hurdles while foreign doctors and nurses have different, lower standards. The oft quoted problem of a barber requiring more hours of training than a paramedic in Florida. (it’s true- Florida requires 1,200 hours of training in order to take the exam to be a licensed barber, but 1,112 hours of training and clinical time to be a licensed Paramedic)

Nursing is a great example of colleges grifting the system. In order to sit for the registered nursing exam, you must have at least a 2 year degree. That means 72 credit hours, but 30 of those 72 hours (42%) are courses like US History, English Composition, and Humanities that have absolutely nothing to do with nursing.

The reason that this happens is the people who are already practicing in that field want to make sure that there is a restricted supply of their skillset, so that pay remains high, or in some cases it is because colleges want to make lots of money. This is why Physician assistant programs also lobby so hard to have the degree requirements increased. There are a few colleges that teach PA as a 2 year associates degree, a couple that make it a 4 years Bachelor’s degree, while most schools make it a Master’s degree. In each of the preceeding cases, the PA applicant is still eligible to sit for the licensing exam. Making it a more rigorous educational requirements doesn’t make for better PA’s, but it does make for fewer PA’s, meaning that PA’s make more money.

So yes, licensing is nearly always a grift. In fact, I can’t think of a single time when it isn’t.

By Divemedic, ago

Oil

Crude oil inventories as well as inventory in the SPR continues to fall, gasoline inventories rise, but prices rose slightly for the week to $3.14 per gallon. Look beyond the spin and see what it means. The SPR is at the lowest inventory level since 1983 at only 375 million barrels. Gasoline stocks are sitting at 220 million barrels, a 24 day supply at current consumption rates.

So what’s going on? The economy is still being sluggish. A year ago, Americans were using 9.2 million barrels a day of gasoline. Now we are using 8.6 million barrels.

By Divemedic, ago

A Couple from the NY Post

This woman is “raising free range kids,” meaning that she allows them to do anything they want: Shave their heads, eat nothing but ice cream, or simply refuse to go to school. Literally no rules. That isn’t raising kids, that isn’t being a parent. This woman is a “stay at home” mom- meaning that she has no job. The father of her children is her “domestic partner” and earns a living “reselling” (Meaning on Ebay). On other words, they are collecting welfare, which is why they aren’t married. (Single moms get more money).

What this is, is breeding children so that you can collect more welfare money. Hey, I am OK with raising kids like this, as long as you AND your kids are not eligible to vote or to collect any public money in the form of handouts. Why? Because being a part of a society means having to contribute to that society, not be a free range leech.

The second article is the New York law that is coming. It prohibits landlords from performing a criminal background check on prospective tenants. This increases potential liability and risk for landlords, which increases costs. Those increased costs will be passed on to everyone. Congratulations, you get a criminal for a next door neighbor, AND your rent is going up. Again.

By Divemedic, ago

An Open Letter to Credit Card Companies

I have a way that I save money. My wife and I have four different cashback credit cards that we use on a daily basis. Each one gives us great terms. One gives us 5% cashback on fuel and groceries. Another, 5% cashback on Amazon. A third is 5% on dining out, and the fourth is 5% on travel and hotel stays. There are other deals. All in all, we probably spend $50k a year on those cards. We pay the cards off every month. It’s like giving yourself a raise. I get money, the issuing bank for the credit card makes money, the processor makes money.

Why is this important? Because Giffords is pressuring banks to flag and prevent credit cards from being used to buy guns and ammunition. That kind of shit has been tried before. When Citibank did a similar thing back in 2018, I immediately canceled by credit card with them. The company that the card was for was Best Buy. I haven’t bought anything from them since, nor have I done any business with Citibank.

So here is my announcement: You aren’t going to stop me from buying guns and ammo. You are just going to stop yourself from making money on the deal. I won’t hesitate to cancel every credit card that I have with your company. Someone will make money on the deal, it just won’t be you, and I will still have my guns and ammo. So die on that hill, and see what happens.

I know that $50k a year doesn’t seem like a lot, but there are millions of people who buy guns every year. Now imagine that you not only lose the processing fees from those sales, but losing the fees from every purchase those people would have made. Now it’s billions of dollars in lost business. Every. Single. Year.

Go ahead, FAFO.

By Divemedic, ago

Warning Signs

A couple of alarming news pieces came to my attention. The first is that American homeowners lost more than $1.5 trillion in home equity in the past six months. The reason for this is that most people can no longer afford mortgage payments, so the buying of homes has cooled. The monthly payment on the average home, with a 20% down payment on a mortgage, is up nearly $1,000 since the start of the year.

The second major warning sign is coupled to that- borrowing. Mortgage debt rose by $1 trillion from a year ago, to $11.7 trillion. Mortgage and home-equity debt combined are up by $2 trillion since the pandemic began. In fact, the Wall Street Journal reports that Home-equity lines of credit were up 40% in the second quarter from a year earlier. Overall, Americans are carrying a record amount of debt. It isn’t just mortgages, either: Credit-card debt also increased by the most in 20 years, with balances rising by 15% from a year earlier. The surge comes as the average interest-rates on card borrowing has climbed above 19%, the highest in data going back to the mid-1980s. Auto loan balances rose by $22 billion in the third quarter and are now above $1.5 trillion, roughly double the figure a decade ago.

With all of this debt, along with declining equity, the American economy is still rolling solely because Americans are borrowing from their future retirement. People are continuing to spend and maintain a standard of living that their income no longer can support. They are doing it by borrowing more than they can repay and doing it at sky high interest rates. Sooner or later, these debts will need to be paid. Remember- all debts are always paid by someone, if not the borrower or the lender, someone will have to pay the bills.

By Divemedic, ago