Rocky Flats Benefits Changes

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Rocky Flats retirees recently received a packet of information in an envelope with a warning in bold type, “Must Read Special Announcement: Information About Important changes to your Retiree Benefits.” The letter inside dated June 27, 2014 from Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) announces in the first paragraph, “If you and/or your spouse are age 65 or older, we want to let you know about some important changes coming in 2015 for your Rocky Flats retiree healthcare benefits. If you are not yet 65, please understand these changes will not affect you until you or your spouse reach 65.” The letter then “sprinkles saccharine” on what is coming. It says “This new coverage will allow you and your spouse to enroll in retiree healthcare coverage that’s right for each of you.” It also says the changes will allow “…added flexibility and customization.”

The meeting about the changes did not present quite as positive a spin on what is coming.  The contractor from WRPS led with the explanation that the company who won the contract to administer the benefits had to agree that they would analyze the total package and make adjustments if it provided benefits greater than 105% in comparison to sixteen other plans. The Rocky Flats benefits were found to be nearly 200%, or twice as generous as the average of the other plans. The contract therefore forced remedial action, and it was stated this was being done for the taxpayers. It‘s too early to attempt to judge or calculate the impact of the changes, because the costs for the different health care plans will not be available until later. I have no doubt I’ll be paying more for coverage that has higher deductibles. Continue reading →

Grounded

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groundedThe sub-title of this book by Robert M. Farley, “The Case for Abolishing the United States Air Force,” reveals the premise. I requested it from the library because I read that it discusses the founding of the U.S. Air Force (USAF) in 1947. Military planners had decided many more nuclear weapons were needed for Soviet targets at about that time. That led to the construction of the Rocky Flats Nuclear weapons Plant where the plutonium parts were constructed for all those weapons.  I worked at the Plant for many years beginning with the end of my U.S. Army assignment to NORAD in1969. I was therefore interested in what the military planners were thinking in the late 1940s that led to the beginning of construction at Rocky Flats in 1951. I was disappointed. There is no mention in the book that I found to mention anything about the expansion of Soviet military targets that led to the need for more nuclear weapons. All I could find was that the USAF was assigned most of the nuclear arsenal because of their long-range bombers and the Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs). I decided to post a review, although I believe the book is flawed, at least for my purposes, by what it does not describe.

The book has several discussions of how the USAF being a separate service creates conflicts in military resource allocation, training, procurement, and strategies that are counterproductive. There is no doubt air power is needed for military missions. However, it is explained the war is an extension of politics and adding the politics of competing military services simply makes the act of engaging in war less than efficient. The author even observes that “…independent air forces make war more likely.” The reasoning is that the independent USAF will argue for policies that “…increase its visibility and access to resources” (which will make the USAF commanders more eager to go to war). The service will vie for political advantage by recommending use of its capabilities, and that certainly could and probably has influenced political policy decisions. Continue reading →

The Die is Cast

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The Phrase Finder describes the meaning to be, “An irrevocable choice has been made.” The expression refers to the rolling a die as a singular of dice. “Julius Caesar is supposed to have spoken this phrase when crossing the Rubicon,” although the Phrase Finder is a bit skeptical.  The earliest citation found was a 1626 quote from Sir Thomas Hebert, “Aiijb, Is the die cast, must At this one throw all thou hast gaind be lost?”

The Rich Pay All the Taxes

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Jane Wells reported last December on CNBC that the Congressional Budget Office had issued a report analyzing the amount of taxes paid by the “five tiers of wage earners” for 2010.The report doesn’t seem to indicate that the rich are getting away without paying their fair share, although those who advocate there is income inequality will find ammunition for their argument if they read deeper into the report. The report presents the statistics on payment of taxes by the different income groups in a variety of graphs and written discussions. (The report is overly long and not written to keep your attention, but it contains thought-provoking information.) Table 3 on page 13 shows the lowest wage-earning quintile pays 0.4% of all federal taxes, the second quintile pays 3.8%, the third 9.1%, the fourth 17.6% and the top quintile pays 68.8%.

The report includes the interesting kicker that the top three quintiles pay all the taxes!  Page 11 of the report says, “Much of the progressivity of the federal tax system derives from the individual income tax. In 2010, the lowest quintile’s average rate for the individual income tax was -9.2 percent and the second income quintile’s rate was -2.3%…(A group can have a negative income tax rate if its refundable tax credits exceed the income tax otherwise owed.)…For example, although the lowest quintile’s average rate for individual income tax was about -9 percent, more than one-quarter of the households in that quintile had an average rate below -15 percent, more than one-quarter had a rate of zero or higher, and nearly half had an average rate between -15 percent and zero.” Continue reading →

Freakonomics Thinking

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FreakI quickly devoured this short book by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.  Freakonomics “relies on data rather than hunch or ideology to understand how the world works.”  This appeals to me since I try to make decisions based on evidence, and get a kick out of discovering that what I think I know ain’t always so.  Readers should not feel alone in holding mistaken assumptions; Levitt and Dubner note that many of the “experts” we hear from in the media are more noteworthy for confidence than accuracy.

Think Like a Freak offers to teach anyone how to solve problems.  “Solving problems is hard. If a given problem still exists, you can bet that a lot of people have already come along and failed to solve it.” So we need more people who can find root causes of problems.

The book is easy to read, filled with delightful examples of their method, and only occasionally bumps into controversial issues that elicit strong emotions.

They concentrate on problems that are entertaining. For example:

  • Why a kicker in World Cup level play might choose a strategy that leads to fewer goals,
  • How they blew their chance to offer a future British Prime Minister advice,
  • Why medieval trial-by-ordeal often identified the guilty, and
  • Why demanding venues provide M&Ms with the brown candies removed was a practical move on the part of a rock band.

They emphasize that conventional wisdom is often wrong and correlation does not equal causality.  This leads to a controversial issue that they have addressed in greater detail before.  Continue reading →

Eat Crow

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A friend recently made a mistake and had to decide whether to admit his error.  It reminded me of the expression, to “eat crow”.

According to Wikipedia, this “is an American colloquial idiom, meaning humiliation by admitting wrongness or having been proved wrong after taking a strong position…  crow is one of the birds listed in Leviticus chapter 11 as being unfit for eating,” perhaps because it eats carrion.  They note the expression first appeared in print in a humor piece in 1850 (reference Comments on Etymology, October 2003).  WorldWideWords also mentions a usage in 1850, where it appeared as “eating boiled crow”.  I found some references to a story of an American forced to eat a crow by a British soldier, and though the story is set during the War of 1812, it was published in 1877, according to WordWizard.

The full expression my friend’s dilemma brought to mind is something I read (and now I can’t find the source – does anyone know where this came from?): if you’re going to eat crow, it tastes better when it’s fresh