U.S. Religious Landscape Survey

The survey was released on Monday. Here is a link to the story where more detailed info is available.

Here are some highlights (or low lights):

• People increasingly change denominations or abandon their affiliation all together.
• 51.3 percent call themselves Protestants, but one third of Protestants either could not or would not describe their denomination.
• 25 percent of adults under 30 have no affiliation.
• Those who are "secular unaffiliated" are greater a percentage of Americans than Methodists (6.3 versus 6.2 percent).
• Oregon has the greatest percentage of population with no affiliation (27 percent).

Rural Texas Land Values

Here is a summary from the Dallas Fed. If you live in North Central or Central Texas and own land, you're sitting pretty!

What shocks me to no end is that ranch land values in several regions, including North Central and Central Texas, are actually higher than crop land values. I would bet that's due to a combination of livestock prices and residential/lifestyle farmers moving into the area. If you look at the chart on the bottom of the page you can see that dry land and ranch land values for the region briefly converged in about the second quarter of 2006 before commodity prices really took off. I wouldn't bet against crop land values overtaking ranch land values again should grain prices stay high.

Stupidest Thing I've Read So Far Today

Forrest Laws from the Delta Farm Press has this to say:

If you report more than $200,000 on the adjusted gross income line of your tax return, the Bush administration doesn’t think you should receive a commodity program payment.
If you do, that puts you in the wealthiest 2 percent of taxpayers, and you’re too affluent to be participating in commodity programs, said Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer, speaking at the National Cotton Council’s annual meeting.
Schafer’s comments started me thinking. President Bush and Vice President Cheney receive more than $200,000 a year in salary and benefits. Both probably continue to receive earnings from oil and gas company investments.

Apples and oranges Forrest. Commodity program payments are not the product of investments. They are provided at the pleasure of the government. So if the government decides to eliminate all program payments tomorrow, or double them tomorrow, there is nothing you can do about it other that cry or celebrate. An investment implies that you own the right to receive income from the asset. Those receiving commodity program payments do not own that right. (Although they may feel entitled to it.) It can be expanded or contracted at the will of the government.

Also, how about not making the case for continued commodity program payments on the basis of envy? "Bush and Cheney have this, so I should to!" Moral bankruptcy at its finest!

Basic Economics: Car Wash Edition

I am approached by an 11 year old kid at church yesterday morning offering to sell me a car wash ticket for $3. I hand him $5. He looks at that five dollar bill like he expected operating instructions. (I considered yelling at him to give me back $2, but then his Mom would have yelled at me and I'm not sure she could have figured out this daunting puzzle either. But I digress.) So I pay $5 for a car wash. This is a fixed (or sunk) cost. It no longer figures into my analysis of whether or not to go to the car wash.

So what are the variable costs of going to the car wash?

1. The car wash is 25 miles away so the round trip will take me 2 gallons of gas at $3.10 per gallon for a total of $6.20.
2. It will take a half hour to drive one way to the car wash. I will probably spend half an hour waiting for my truck to be washed. So it will cost me one and a half hours. Assuming the opportunity cost of my labor is $6 per hour (what I could earn moving dirt), the total opportunity cost of my time is $9.00.
3. There is a high probability that the car wash will not be to my satisfaction. While they will wash off the top layer of grim, I doubt that will shine my wheels and tires, scrub the bugs off the grill, and wash my windows properly. Therefore, I will have to wash my truck again when I get home. Assume it takes an hour (at an opportunity cost of $6 per hour) and I use $1 worth of supplies to wash my truck for a total of $7.00.

So the total variable costs of going to this car wash is $6.20+$9.00+$7.00 for a total of $22.20. I would be willing to pay $10 to have my truck spotless.

Needless to say, I won't be going to this car wash.

Energy Substitution

The price of oil has gone up. Therefore, people are using more wood to heat their homes. People have substituted one energy source for a relatively cheaper energy source. Who'd a thunk it?

Cult of Personality?

Why have at least six Obama supporters fainted at his rallies? I guess some of them just couldn't "Stand for Change!"

I can understand fainting at the sight of Chuck Norris or Dennis Kucinich's wife (as in "How did he get her?"), but Obama? Is it an encouraging sign when people, even a few, are soo overcome by a candidate's look and personality that they faint?

The Waco Trib gets it Close to Right

It is rare that I agree with the Trib on much of anything. I used to take their voting guides and do just the opposite of what they recommended. However, this morning they get it close to right.

The editors argue that gas taxes should not be diverted to non highway construction uses. Yes! But then they don't go far enough. They don't even question whether or not gas taxes should be used to fund school buses.

Once again: you pay for state roads via taxes whenever you pull up to the pump. When that tax revenue is diverted to other uses (schools, retirement benefits, whatever) you break that linkage between the funding source (gas taxes) and their intended use (road construction and maintenance). Bad consequences (horrible and insufficient roads) follow. If you want to increase school funding, retirement benefits, or build a 65 foot statue of a Baptist hugging a bear, get the money from somewhere besides gas taxes.