My Income

I'm excited to finally be able to settle down in Crossville, TN once again and begin doing what I love doing more than anything- Teach and Coach. I teach economics now and that is the subject that usually disagrees with the establishment thought. Being that I have a degree in the subject I disagree with some of the notions that my fellow colleagues have despite my love of working with them.

It rarely takes too long for the subject of teacher pay to come up when there is a room full of teachers meeting. Sometimes only one teacher is needed. A couple weeks ago I went out with a friend of mine from Knoxville named Brittany. She had a friend that she introduced me to and the first thing he said after meeting me and finding out I was a teacher was something along the lines of "Man, I love you public servants. I am one of the biggest supporters of teachers getting more pay for what they do. Your job is way too important to make so little."

I then told him I make roughly $25/ hour and he looked surprised. But its true. I work roughly 190 days only each year. I understand there is preparation that teachers have to put into their jobs but the same is true of many other professions that work all year. I have so much vacation time during the summer, a week in the spring, a week in the fall, a few weeks during Christmas, and all weekends and other holidays in between. As a first year teacher with only a B.S. I make roughly $25 dollars per hour. This does not include coaching pay (which is far far less)

His last line was that teachers should get more pay because their job is so important. It might be true that developing the minds of the future citizens of our society is more important than some occupations. But pay is not and should not be based on what I or any one other person believes is of great importance. In a free society, pay is based on a market that involves both supply and demand. This is because a "price-coordinated" economy, like ours is when government isn't involved, prices allocate scarce resources which have alternative uses. Put differently prices is what transfers goods to where they are most desired and needed and in some cases in low supply.

As a teacher I have chosen a worthy occupation and career that hundreds of thousands or millions of others have also chosen. Millions cannot choose to become surgeons because most people in America do not have the capability much less the determination and commitment to become a surgeon when more than ten years of training and extensive and high level education is required for such an occupation. Teaching is a somewhat easy degree to earn as it is a Social Science with far easier course work and far fewer years of training required.

We do have a shortage of qualified math and science teachers because within the teaching profession it is a tougher subject to teach and earn a degree in. Thus as an economist I believe those teachers should be paid more than I or a PE teacher where we have a surplus of qualified teachers to work in these areas. If this was ever allowed to happen, we would never have a problem finding math and science teachers. More would choose to earn their degree in those areas where they can earn more pay. That is how the market works. I know most teachers get into the profession for reasons aside from pay. But some teachers choose subject material that is easier than math and science because they know they will be paid the same despite it being easier. So no one can tell me that pay has nothing to do with our motivations. And there is nothing immoral or wrong with this either. That is why American prosperity and other Capitalistic price-coordinated economies have prospered so much. Prices coordinate resources to where they are most needed not where we believe the occupation is morally more important or valuable.

I love my job and my pay is sufficient. Not because I don't value what we teachers do. But because I value our economic system and the prosperity of our nation as a whole. And this prosperity has come about because scarce resources which have alternative uses are allocated more efficiently when goods go where they are in least supply and highest demand, instead of where good intentions might lead those resources.

Tuly Greedy

If you watch the news and listen to politicians you will occasionally and actually with much repetition hear them talk about the "greed" of capitalists such as the banks and wall street investors. It is true that banks and wall street want to make as much money as they possible can. It is also true that we as individuals do as well. We can call this "greed" or we can call it human instinct. But greed is not what led to the housing crisis and thus economic recession. Regulations, government pressured loans, and terrible incentives generated by the promise of bail outs is what led to the bubble and since crash of the housing market leading us into a long and tough recession and now tough times. Recently the unemployment rate dropped to I believe 9.5%. That is good news until you read that it dropped because many people stopped looking for full time jobs and became "discouraged" workers. These individuals are then taken out of the labor market which makes the unemployment statistic improve. Without this statistical jargon, the unemployment would be just over 10%. What can be done?

In reality the quickest and best way to fix the current problems would be to stop the entitlement spending that our federal government does and overhaul the tax code. America has the toughest tax code to understand and the current tax code disincentives investment and expansion. People would be more willing to invest and create businesses if they knew that they could keep most of the money they worked hard to make. But in our system if a person wants to expand their business they must first know they are not just going to benefit a little from doing so but they must benefit enough to pay for the extra taxes, regulations, and oversight, before being willing to invest into that.

Why not overhaul the tax code? I like the Fair Tax which is a national sales tax that would then eliminate all other taxes that businesses and individuals pay. In other words you only pay federal taxes when you buy something and you don't even pay taxes on food at that. You also bring home your entire check from work and the acronym FICA becomes non-existent. This would generate many new businesses and jobs for the American People. There is one large problem with this. This eliminates the need for lobbyists to try and sugar up the politicians to get tax benefits for themselves. Businesses would strive under this fair tax but some businesses would not like this because of the added competition that it would bring. (competition benefits us as consumers though). Politicians benefit with donations to their reelection bids and perks by helping businesses get around certain tax laws. Politicians in other words have much more power under the current complicated tax code. Who is greedy? I say the politicians that refuse to let go of their power despite knowing full well America would benefit.

Happy Independence Day!!

You have made enough money!!

Recently the President of the United States Barack Obama made a resounding statement in which he said: "I do think at a certain point you've made enough money." That statement while appealing to a certain sector of the population, is a rare and scary statement made by a man of such power. In fact it is a dangerous way of thinking. During a time where making money is hard to come by I definitely do not want to encourage those people who employ American Citizens that they should probably stop what they are doing, because "at a certain point you've made enough money."

Big Business owners and CEO's and those who have sold their companies to shareholders are those that the president are referring to. This is amazing to me. If you look back in history of our nation at when people like Gates and Buffett made most of their money, I bet you will find a correlation between that and employment in the United States. It is the richest in America that have ran successful businesses that employ Americans who need to work and work most of their lives until they retire late in life. If these rich Americans quit what they did these middle class Americans would be in major trouble. If these rich smart Americans gave up their jobs and let others do those jobs, those others might not be as good. Decisions that lead to layoffs could be made which will hurt those who are much poorer and working hard for a living on the floor level.

What is sad is that there are a lot of people in America who don't care and don't understand why this statement is dangerous for our nation's economy. Those some Americans probably support many of his anti-business policies. Those same Americans will be hurt by a policy that would have successful people to stop making money. And those same Americans might be so ignorant that they will not be able to look back and connect the dots. But they will love it when our welfare system is expanded even more to help them out.

Rich people, keep making money!

Books to read

I love reading! Now that might not seem crazy to you but to know me growing up it would sound a bit off edge. I never read growing up. I would read a newspaper article about my schools sporting events but rarely anything else. In fact I am embarrassed to say that I rarely read the required reading from high school classes. But now that I am a smarter or more intelligent person, I will let you know that I love reading. Here are some books that you should consider reading if you like or somewhat are interested in where I get many of my ideas and joy of our great country.

For starters lets begin with interesting readings that might contradict ideas we believe to be common sense.

More Liberty Means Less Government- Walter Williams
-This book is one of if not my favorites.
Liberty Versus the Tyranny of Socialism- Walter Williams
-This is much like the first book
-Both these books are a collection of his articles so there are plenty of places to stop reading and pick back up when most convenient.
Economic Facts and Fallacies- Thomas Sowell
-This is a very interesting book by a great writer.


After reading those books which should be interesting reads you might be open and would love to learn a bit about economics. Especially for you young people who are still considering a degree. Economics is needed and a great background for a future lawyers who might want to get into politics at some point.

Basic Economics- Thomas Sowell
Applied Economics-Thomas Sowell

You will learn all you have to know about economics from these two books. You won't be an economist but you will know whether you want to pursue further education. These books also do the best job of explaining a subject that most people believe is very confusing


For you who love history and want to learn more about our history and specifically an overview of our nation. These two books will go through our complete history and be like a survey of American History.

America: The Last Best Hope Volume I and II- William Bennett

For you who love specific history and more details of certain people or events read anything by the author David Macullough

Crazy Ideas

Keep in mind that some crazy ideas did not seem so crazy at one point in our history and some ideas that people had years ago would be deemed to be crazy today. In fact it was crazy to imagine a world without slavery just over 150 years ago. But we know today that with the cheapest of labor the southern states were still worse off than the northern states who mostly did not use slaves. Today we would think it crazy to think the U.S. should bring slavery back.

There is no guaranteed right to vote even though there is an amendment that gives women the right to vote. Early in our history it was crazy to think that women or that men without ownership of land should be allowed to vote. Today many believe it would be crazy to say that some should vote and not others. I don't know about that. Our founding fathers were very scared of the idea of democracy. George Washington, John Adams, and the founder of the Federalist Party, Alexander Hamilton all feared democracy because they doubted the intelligence of all the masses of American people. Of course we know this was the thinking while they were losing power to the Republicans lead by Thomas Jefferson who loved Democracy. But lets think about it today. Should a Middle school basketball coach and substitute teacher's vote count the same as Bill Gates' vote? I would argue probably not. And that is using me as an example much less the hundreds of thousands of drug addicts and alcoholics that can vote. Would it be a crazy idea to limit who can and cannot vote? Just a thought.

Finally, it could be considered crazy to revamp our education system and allow parents to take their children anywhere they want for school. I mean you would have schools doing everything they could to get those kids there and coaches would recruit athletes from other high schools and schools would recruit good students to their school so the school could get more money. It would be like a feeding frenzy! Crazy! And yet that would be much like our colleges today. You know the colleges that are ranked in the top of the world while our secondary education system is not even close to there. Crazy!!!

Are You Serious? Its a Commercial!!

Recently I keep hearing this debate over the controversy of a pro-life commercial that is being produced by Focus on the Family. Tim Tebow and his story of nearly being aborted is the message of the commercial. Only in the United States of hope I don't offend a liberal American is this a story. Yes once again liberal advocacy groups are trying everything they can to not have this commercial shown. Its against my freedom to choose. What freedom to choose? There is nothing in the Constitution about that. There isn't anything in the Constitution about freedom of speech being tampered with either EXCEPT for by congress. The Constitution limits congress' ability to restrict your speech and since the government has absolutely nothing to do with this commercial, only a ignorant historian or Constitutionalists would even bring that up.

CBS can show any commercial they want. I don't remember Focus on the Family coming out and complaining about alcohol commercials. And if A Christian advocacy group did come out about something like that, Outside the Lines and other news sources would not be covering the story. But since liberals feel offended I seriously have to hear about this "controversy".

Sometimes it makes you think that if our nation truly had an open discussion about Abortion that more people might be persuaded to be against it. Maybe these liberals are afraid of that.

Dwight Lewis and Racism

Most of you do not know who Dwight Lewis is and I did not either until 5 minutes ago. He is a writer in The Tennessean newspaper. He recently wrote an article saying that a black person still can not get a job coaching at the University of Tennessee. To be honest it is understandable that people would have these opinions due to the years of government supported racism and prejudice in our country (such as all other countries have experienced at one point). But why can we just not look at the situation itself and put previous feelings aside.

The University of Tennessee has had very few coaches in previous years. Johnny Majors, Philip Fulmer, Lane Kiffin, and now Derek Dooley. Tennessee thus can not be said to have a history of passing over blacks to be their coaches since they have only hired two people outside the Tennessee family in the past 30 some years or more. Most people will say that Mike Hamilton's Athletic Department Director position is on the line with this hiring. Do you think Mike Hamilton cares so little about his job that he would pass over a more highly qualified coach just because he was black when his job is on the line? I would assume he would hire the best possible candidate. Besides reports say he offered Lovie Smith the job. Last time I checked he was black. And he is far more qualified than Derek Dooley or Kippy Brown. But Dooley is more qualified than Brown.

We can accept the fact that Blacks play sports more than whites at the highest of levels. And I have written before about the reasons why. Many blacks pursue individual achievement due to family structures growing up more often than white people. They are not more selfish but they feel better about following individual accomplishment and not depending on others because they have had to do it all their life more often than white people (Divorce Rates, premarital birth rates, etc). Thus they pursue art (music) and basketball/football and they spend far more time working at it. They often play basketball till dark in the playground while whites are playing video games. I don't think the NBA or NFL or NCAA is racist. I think they understand how to run a business and thus recruit the better athletes. More times than not that is a black person. Whites choose occupations more often than not that allow people to work together and pursue occupations that are group oriented such as education, etc. Thus more are prepared to coach. In fact many white people are not as athletic and thus have to use coaching mentalities more often in order to have success against more athletic players. Thus their life prepares them for coaching and they don't even realize it.

Lets stop with the racism thing everytime a white person gets picked over a black person for a coaching job. It might have everything to do with performance and not color. Especially when the decision makers job is on the line. I would assume they would do everything they could to make the right choice.