Marginal Utility

by Tom Bozzo

Why are there so many fireworks stores in the middle of nowhere? How do they stay in business (that is, their parking lots appear to be plowed despite the absence of customers)?

Apart from pesky dangerous-product-retailing considerations, the pattern of demand — one big week followed by just enough business to keep the Brat and Punk divisions of police departments from Lake Windsor to Menominee occupied — would seem to make the optimal fireworks-selling arrangement a mall kiosk or transactions out of the back of a fly-by-night trailer. Granted, these businesses aren't located in high-cost areas of the state, but there is such a thing as opportunity cost; the adult novelties stores among others appear to be doing brisk businesses.

Labels: Modern Retailing, Wisconsin

by Tom Bozzo

Inadvertent truth-telling from Tommy G. Thompson:

In an interview with The Capital Times, Thompson said the contract awarded to Logistics Health, Inc. in September was done properly and had nothing to do with the La Crosse-based firm hiring Dr. William Winkenwerder, former assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. Winkenwerder was hired as a director and consultant for Logistics Health on June 1, three months after he left his Pentagon post.

"There was no conflict of interest," Thompson said. "Logistics Health Inc. is so ethical it's beyond the pale."

[link added; reference]

Labels: Utter Stupidity, Wingnut Welfare, Wisconsin

by Tom Bozzo

There are a lot of people who don't believe in a college education.

-Mike Mikalsen, professional outraged guy and research assistant to professional outraged guy and University of Wisconsin System critic Rep. Steve Nass, explaining why his boss is not so concerned with getting Wisconsin high schoolers ready for college.

Isthmus story via Barry Orton. Read the rest as you care to see a very angry Republican couple couple of Republicans in action. Maybe if their party allowed them to get married, or something?

On Rep. Nass's reported F in a class at Whitewater, Barry says, "'Dad, I got a bad grade because I was defending your conservative values and the professor is a Commie.'" Heh indeedy. I got the one and only F of my life on the Fascism midterm in "Communism, Fascism, and Democracy" class (poli sci). I didn't particularly like the professor, but when I went to discuss the results, he made a persuasive case that what I'd written wasn't totally wrong but was non-responsive. Remarkably, the solution to passing the class was harder work on my part, rather than agreeing or disagreeing with the prof.

Labels: Utter Stupidity, Wingnuttia, Wisconsin

by Tom Bozzo

Speaking of area Republicans who are embarassments to their districts, it would be remiss to fail to mention perennial University of Wisconsin system critic Rep. Steve Nass. He discovered that a couple of UW-Madison professors were studying fantasy sports leagues — can't they just stand around the water cooler like everyone else? — and the Pol-O-Matic 2000 (R edition) spat out (via the Cap Times):

"On the same day that system leaders are trying to convey a message of doom and gloom over a 3 percent increase in state funding, the folks over at UW-Madison promote the concept of sifting and winnowing' by announcing research into one of the greatest dilemmas of our time -- fantasy baseball," Nass said in a written statement.

"The people running the UW System really ought to consider taking some of this material and piloting a television sitcom."

Tuition and taxes should not be raised to fund "intellectual farces," Nass added.

That's telling 'em, Steve. Uh, wait, HQ asks what actual researcher Eric Halverson says:

Noting the state legislator's criticism, Halverson pointed out that the fantasy league research is not funded by taxpayers. It is financed with part of a $1.8 million grant from the prestigious MacArthur Foundation for a group of UW-Madison digital literacy researchers organized through the UW System's Academic Advanced Distributed Learning Co-Lab.

Oh, so that's the kind of "intellectual farce" that brings big chunks of non-taxpayer money into the university system to (partly) offset funding cuts pushed by punk-ass Republicans! In fact, it turns out that you can learn from fantasy sports leagues:

"My son learned about sample size and statistical formulas, but did not know how to apply that outside statistics class. With fantasy baseball, he had to calculate the impact of any given player on a team's performance. A guy could have really good statistics, but if he doesn't play that much, he is not that valuable," Halverson said.

Yeah, but surely spending valuable class time on fantasy football is stoopid, eh? (*)

The researchers don't want kids to play fantasy sports in school, he stressed, but they do want to help transfer the same type of engagement and interaction that happens in the leagues to math classes in middle school, high school and college nationally.

"The commitment you see in these virtual spaces is noticeably absent from most middle schools," Halverson commented.

Well, never mind.

This would all be funnier if the Republican-controlled state Assembly weren't advancing the backdoor privatization of the UW system. Dave Zweifel opens:

I hope the Republicans who control the state Assembly were just playing silly political games last week when they voted to slash a host of state programs for the most vulnerable among us and then lopped off a crippling $120 million from the University of Wisconsin budget.

Well, some of them probably are serious, since the likes of Nass who get half of their votes from famously wingnutty Waukesha County (**) have safe seats until they tell someone that collecting taxes may be justified for some public purposes and get drubbed out of the service from the right. Still, Zweifel is right on in pointing out, on a level even George W. Bush (or, rather, his advisors) would be smart enough to at least pay lip-service to, that a healthy university system is good for the business climate.

Don't these Republican representatives read newspapers or listen to the news? Don't they know that the University of Wisconsin is one of the state's biggest economic engines? Are they oblivious to the Madison campus positioning itself to be a national center of the biotech industry? Can't they see that, as a result of the UW's activities, more businesses are being started that promise to bring more tax revenue and higher salaried workers to Wisconsin? Don't they know that to cut vital funding at this time will deliver a body blow to all of that?

Zweifel suggests the answer is no, but the better question is, "Do they care?" If we're no dumber than Minnesotans, maybe they should.

Also: Paul Soglin explains why employers maybe shouldn't be so quick to say "get back to work" to their fantasy sports leaguers. (Though a back-door Excel training argument wouldn't cut it in our shop.) Thanks to Barry in the comments.


(*) Though there may have been a missed opportunity to brand this research in a manner that exploits local Packers fandom for a more positive reaction.

(**) And hey, the new Madison Apple Store means one less reason to drive through y'all's exurban hell-on-earth.

Labels: externalities, Utter Stupidity, Wingnuttia, Wisconsin

by Tom Bozzo

Paul Soglin picks up an LA Times story about Wisconsin Rep. Sheryl Albers's (R-50th district) effort to provide for pet custody in state divorce law. Paul, alas, misses the best part of the story, which is that the legislation was inspired by the pet custody issue that Rep. Albers's (new) husband had thanks to a "messy" divorce in 2003. Here's family values for you:

Albers said her husband and his ex-wife bitterly fought over who should care for the family's Labrador, Sammi. The kids wanted to keep Sammi, who was aging and incontinent. Neither parent, however, was clamoring to house the dog full time, Albers said. (*)

According to Albers and Dane County Circuit Court documents, a judge ordered that as the three children split their time between Mom and Dad, so too should Sammi.

"The dog did not travel well. It shed. It would get sick in the car," said Albers, an attorney. "It was not easy dealing with that dog."

So what happens when the parents aren't "clamoring"? Sorry, kids, here's the relevant part of proposed section 767.49(2) of the Wisconsin Code:

PLACEMENT OF PET IF NO STIPULATION. If a party to an annulment, divorce, or legal separation action requests the court to determine placement of a pet of the parties and the parties are unable to stipulate as to the pet’s placement or sub. (4) (a) applies, the court may order placement with one of the parties or may order that the pet be surrendered to a local humane society or other similar animal care facility designated by the court.

In other words, bye bye Sammi (**). I'll tell ya, ol' Mitt doesn't have anything on Rep. Albers. Meanwhile, we see that the good kind of judicial activism for some Republicans is that which uses statutory discretion to get rid of unwanted family pets.

Meanwhile the LAT publishes a picture of Rep. Albers in a fractionally more fashionable haircut and considerably more fashionable glasses than are shown on the 50th district home page (***) and points out her history of "spearheading unusual legislation" — including the designation of the Wisconsin State Ballad in 2001. (****) That is "Oh Wisconsin, Land of My Dreams" and you can here it right here (MP3) if after the above you dare. If I could remember the tune, I might need to get it out of my head, but instead I think we should just find a legislative sponsor for the Wisconsin State Power Ballad. Sweet Child Badger O' Mine, anyone? (*****)


(*) Which is to say, they fought over who would have to take care of Sammi.

(**) Who actually died of non-legislative causes at age 17.

(***) I am outraged that my tax money is being used to support that typography!

(****) The same legislation also designated the State Waltz. Or, "don't say nothing got done during the Scott McCallum administration (motto: 'Tommy G. Thompsonism without the evil genius')".

(*****) I didn't check Dan's criteria to see if this would count as a proper power ballad.

Labels: Utter Stupidity, Wingnuttia, Wisconsin

by Ken Houghton

On a more positive Madison note than my last post, the NYT reports that the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well there in at least one area—selling your own home.

The conclusion, in a study to be released today based on home-sales data from 1998 to 2004 in Madison, Wis., is that people in that city who sold their homes through real estate agents typically did not get a higher sale price than people who sold their homes themselves. When the agent’s commission is factored in, the for-sale-by-owner people came out ahead financially.

The full study is here (PDF). More later.


Tom adds: The temptation was to post about Big Media Us first thing, but I figured I should look at the paper first.

I am not surprised by the headline result. How it might generalize is an interesting and technically open question.

Some of the factors that facilitate the study arguably explain its results. In addition to cooperation from FSBOMadison.com and the South Central Wisconsin MLS, the study authors credit the information available from the City of Madison assessor. The availability of on-line access to city assessment data was roughly contemporary with the ascent of the FSBOMadison website. As a result, technologically sophisticated buyers and sellers of city properties have had good information on comparable sales — arguably, the key pricing information — for some time.

We've been in on a pure-FSBO transaction (purchase of the "old" house), a semi-FSBO (purchase of the "new" house, where we employed an agent), and a pure agent-assisted sale (sale of the "old" house). My overall impression is that real estate agents should be paid on a fee-for-service or maybe cost-plus-incentive-fee basis. This is not even factoring in the experience with the agent who rear-ended my beloved '98 M3 — whose ability to complete the core paperwork, moreover, did not exceed my own.

In short, the basis for our selection into a conventional listing had a lot to do with the factoid that I was very busy, we had one toddler in the house, and Julia was along the way. Our sample experience was that we sold for exactly the price we'd have sought via FSBO.

Labels: Economics, Housing Bubble, Madison, Wisconsin

by Anonymous

...a story about Tom's favorite Wisconsonian. (Wisconsonite?).

Via the Daily Kos. I had to check twice to make sure someone hadn't slipped in a link to The Onion.

Labels: Politics, Weird News, Wisconsin

by Tom Bozzo

Huzzah, a statewide ban on smoking in public places has been introduced in the legislature with bipartisan (and geographically diverse) sponsorship and support of the Wisconsin Restaurant Association, various state tourism associations, and the usual groups who actually care about peoples' health. Among groups that don't, the Appleton Post-Crescent notes that the Restuarant Association's move leaves the staunchly opposed Tavern League of Wisconsin holding the bag. Shucks. No comment there or in the Cap Times from the other perennial candidate for Least Public-Spirited Lobby, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, though their "strategies for a tobacco-free workplace" page would not seem to offer much hope to the TLW.

Meanwhile, a smoke-free fish fry in Poynette might happen in our lifetimes...

Labels: Smoking, Wisconsin