The Morality of Capitalism
Mar 15th
Capitalism is on trial in the world today. People look at the failures of the economy and they and say, “Look! It was a failure of Capitalism.” Dr. Tom Palmer in his visiting lecture at the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism contends that this finger- pointing at capitalism is wrong.
He points to factually verifiable causes that helped build the housing bubble, and later cause to the housing crisis. These causes include governmental interference in the free market, especially in giving the financial sector a strong incentive to lend money indiscriminately.
Some of this he attributes to the Federal Reserve, who actually had negative interest rates on certain loans. In essence, the national bank was paying people to take loans. Consequentially, a great deal of money was borrowed that could never be repaid. Some of these he calls “NINJA loans,” meaning that the borrower had No Income, No Job or Assets.
However, much of this wrongfully gets blamed on free market ideology and “capitalism.” Palmer lengthily defines capitalism as: “a legal, social, economic, and cultural system that embraces equality of rights, ‘careers open to talent’ (One’s career isn’t primarily determined by family social status), which relies on decentralized innovation and More >
Shooting Down Aviation
Mar 15th
We’ve all seen it—the climax in a movie where the star takes off in a small airplane. It’s fun. They fly low over the trees and are on their way when something goes wrong. The engine sputters, confusion abounds, and the airplane plunges into the terrain with pieces of aluminum hurtling everywhere. If the characters do survive, they are seriously injured, and the drama continues on. There’s only one problem: None of this scenario represents reality, yet I have only seen one movie featuring civil aviation which accurately portrayed private aviation. Ironically, it was produced by Billy Graham! Why does Hollywood portray general aviation as the dangerous hobby of country hicks, and why are the media and government blithely following suit?
Most of the general public view aviation as terribly unsafe. After all, hundreds of people die every time an airliner crashes. We constantly hear of fatal small airplane accidents, and just this month, the Department of Homeland Security warned that small airplanes could be used in terrorist attacks. Is aviation really this unsafe? Is it really that easy to wreak terror? Let’s look at the facts.
The Associated Press stated that there was no evidence of any terror plot involving small More >
Budgeting 101
Mar 15th
Budgeting is focused on a specific time period. It shows an estimate of the income and expenses that you anticipate during that time period. Budgeting is fairly easy once you get started and understand the process, but it requires discipline to stick to your budget.
The first step in creating a budget is to compile your past income and expenses. Past income would include any money that you received, including money from a job, parental support, or money from special occasions such as birthdays. For expenses, you want to compile a list of all your transactions; including money spent on debit cards, credit cards, cash, or any other expenditure that you pay out. A good place to start with gathering information on your past income is to look through bank statements, pay stubs, or deposit receipts. When attempting to gather information on your past expenditures, bank and credit card statements are a good place to start, followed by analyzing ATM cash withdraws to more accurately record where the money withdrawn was spent.
Looking back on your financials may be helpful, especially for analyzing where your money was spent, but the best practice would be to record income and expenses daily. This can More >
Clemson: Diversity for Diversity’s Sake?
Mar 15th
As a new student at Clemson, I was required to complete many introduction classes to fully “integrate” into Clemson. One of these introduction classes was the new student’s dialogue. There were a few to choose from and one that caught my eye was inter-racial dating. Having background in this area (my girlfriend is Singaporean and I am Caucasian), I decided to sign up for this dialogue.
I showed up and the discussion began. We all sat in a big circle and began by filling out identity cards, which picked our brains on our idea of who we were. The leaders of this discussion were two upperclassmen, and African American male and a Caucasian female, who were in an inter-racial relationship. Both of the leaders were very open minded, not pushing an agenda, but simply wanted to spur discussion.
The problem was not the people Clemson provided to run the discussion, but the literature we had to read at the beginning and discuss. We had to read an article by Heather Wood, which appeared in Sirens magazine. The article was a tirade on how everyone was racist; society doesn’t accept what’s different, and how we need to push the agenda of interracial dating. More >
The Other Side of Journalism: a Call for Your Action
Mar 15th
Early this semester, I faced off against a perpetual beef of mine (and quite possibly yours): liberal media bias. A newspaper opinion piece really ticked me off (especially being in the same paper with an article titled “Whatever Happened to the Unbiased Press?” I went into high gear, writing a maximum-length letter to the editor in under 15 minutes. Then, I sent it. After all, there was a big graphic down there saying “Dream of being published? Write a letter to the editor!” Then, I waited. No response. In fact, the next week, the newspaper didn’t even carry any letters to the editor!
But the story didn’t end there. In fact, two weeks later, the paper carried an editorial which essentially proclaimed “bring it on” to readers who were offended by certain features in the paper. All the while, I had been emailing the opinions editor about my languishing submission and at the continued absence of any letters to the editor. Well I am thankful to say that my article was eventually published, and reader comments on other topics seem to have fostered a change in that paper. However, the fickleness of news media begs me to question how long that More >
America the land of opportunity
Mar 15th
America was founded on the principles of Liberty and limited government. America is a place where no matter our upbringing, stature in society, or wealth, we have an opportunity to achieve our dreams. The American dream is what binds all of America together. We all have dreams, whether they are to run our own business, start a family, marry etc. Three years ago, I moved to America, and looked forward to the opportunities that this country offers. However the America that I have seen is not the one that I watched on television growing up in Canada. This America that I have seen is an entitlement society: a place where people could take advantage of others. My father is wealthy, but why should he have to pay for other people’s welfare? Why should anyone for that matter? What happened to the principle that we all should work for what we get in this life? If I work hard for my money, what right does the government have to take it from me and give it to someone who stays at home all day and collects welfare checks? That doesn’t sound like the America that I know, or the American Dream.
When More >
Regulating the Lemonade Stand
Mar 15th
I must admit to having a good chuckle at Mitt Romney’s recent comment in the South Carolina Presidential Palmetto Forum: “We don’t want to tell the world Republicans are against all regulation. Regulation is necessary to make a free market work.” While government’s role of punishing evil requires that regulation define injustice, one does have to ask: What part of “free” doesn’t Mr. Romney understand?
While we’ve been carrying on our lives, government regulations have grown out of control. Here is a regulation from the South Carolina tax code: Sales tax is collected only on 30% of the value of a porta-potty. Two questions: Why? And which 30% of the porta-potty are we specifically taxing? The Federal Communications Commission has some great rules, such as those specifying that long distance rates on land lines must be assessed in one way, while requiring a different exchange rate for wireless service. Companies which provide only land-line service are required to follow different billing procedures from those which provide both wireless and land lines.
What business is it of the federal government how telecommunications companies charge exchange rates and bill their customers? Have we so soon forgotten how the federal government also turned UPS’s air More >
From the Editor’s Desk – Wes Watt
Feb 9th
Hello Clemson! It’s been a long time comin’, but I’m glad to present to you the January issue of The Tiger Town Observer. As a publication and an organization, a lot has been going on in the last year. When our senior staff came back from studying abroad in the spring of 2011 and summer break, we wanted to take a step back and look at who we were and who we wanted to be. So, before we even started preparing a new issue, we came up with a document that will guide us from here on out. Our vision at The Tiger Town Observer is “to become a preeminent source of news and opinion in the state of South Carolina.”
That’s who we want to be. But first we had to figure out who we are. At the core, our mission statement is “to provide accurate and relevant information in order to educate the Clemson community in the political affairs of today’s world.” As an organization our desire is to make sure that the people in and around the great university of ours are aware of what’s going on in society. You cannot form a valid opinion if you haven’t looked More >
Madison’s Political Philosophy & The Necessity of Governmental Friction
Oct 10th
When I decided to change my major to Political Science, one of the main motivations for this change was a fervent thirst to understand the founding of my country’s government. I wanted to know how the American government was originally intended to operate, so that I could better understand how its operations had changed in time. In this article, I hope to give you a small peek into what I have learned, specifically what I have learned about the philosophies and influence of the American founding father that I most respect, James Madison.
James Madison was a staunch federalist. As a conservative, for the longest time, I struggled to understand the motivation behind Madison’s push for a stronger central federal government. The modern conservative is generally against bigger government. This could seem to set a modern conservative in a stance of opposition to Madison’s federalist approach to government.
To understand him, I’ve had to study Madison for a while. In fact, I have recently slightly changed some of my own political views based on what I have learned from him and his political philosophies. To understand Madison’s political philosophy, I think it is necessary to explain more about him and his religious More >
Victorian Science Fiction: Steampunk Conference Returns to the Upstate
Oct 9th
Nuclear energy never happened, electricity doesn’t work, steam power dominates locomotion, and airships fill the sky. Dapper gentlemen and elegant ladies go beyond Victorian high-fashion and wear goggles, carry makeshift rifles made of copper and tubing, and use watches that tell more than time. Static electricity, steam powered locomotives, and robots are the frontier of technology in the world of Steampunk.
The Upstate Steampunk conference returns for a second year to the Upstate this October. The three day academic conference at the Anderson Hilton Garden Inn runs from September 30th through October 2nd. Various fulfillments of the genre create a dynamic and fun event. Vendors, workshops, live music, indie films, and music videos, Victorian bathing suit pool parties, a Mr. and Ms. Upstate Steampunk Contest, a grand ball, and dueling are a few of the many features of the weekend.
Gypsey Teague created the regional conference last year “because no one else did.” Amazed at the interest in the genre, Teague and her partner put together the conference which had over 200 attendees from all over the Southeast in its inaugural year. The conference joins a cycle of similar conferences in the area including an Atlanta conference in February and a Raleigh More >