Solar panels

Solar panels last about 20 to 25 years and many are ending up in land fills. There’s a cost problem in the US because it’s more expensive to recycle than it is to dump. It costs less than $1 to dump a panel in a landfill and between $12-25 to recycle it, but only $3 is paid out for recovered aluminum, copper, and glass. They don't even attempt to extract the rare earth metals that just get buried to later get into the ground water. Here is a headline from a leading environmental group. Rare earth metals pose challenge in clean energy transition.arth Minerals Pose Challenge in Clean Studies have shown the heavy metals in solar panels — namely lead and cadmium — can leach out of the cells and get into groundwater, as well as affect plants. These metals also have a record for detrimental effects on human health. Lead is commonly known to impair brain development in children, and cadmium is a carcinogen. Since there are regulations governing land fills in the US the newest targets are landfills in Africa. Ho Hum.

Border unaccompanied chiildren

One of the reasons that Biden delayed his visit to the border was to keep the national press from seeing the problems. This was avoided by cleaning up the areas where the president went leaving nothing for the press to film. People who watch Fox News are well aware of the chaos that exist along the border since Fox has a full time reporter on the scene. He has the use of drones to film the thousands coming across the border everyday. Since out of sight out of mind seems to be the thought process of the press there is no serious problem at the border. This can be backed up by Mayorkus who says the border is secure. While the sheer number of migrants represents a serious problem the other aspects are even more serious. The over one million got a ways that could include criminals, the human trafficking, the money going to the Cartels and the influx of drugs including fentanyl which is killing young people at a record rate. DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen says sexual abuse is so prevalent during immigrants' journeys to the US southern border that immigration officials now give pregnancy tests to girls as young as 10. Nearly 130,000 unaccompanied migrant children entered the U.S. shelter system in 2022, a record - CBS News.Oct 14, 2022 Are these children easy targets?

Think ahead

A federal agency is considering a ban on gas cooking stoves to improve indoor air quality. The amount of gas burned for cooking is less than one percent of the amount used to heat the home. Is this the first step in getting rid of natural gas for home heating. Will many homes then use electric power which is produced by burning coal in the local power plant. Will there be unintended consequences. The city of Minneapolis banned any future drive through restaurants because people were contaminating the air while having their engines run while waiting in line and when the Covid hit the only safe restaurants were the fast food places. Some years ago the government decreed that new toilets must used only one gallon per flush and people found out that didn't do the job so they flushed twice. The point is does anyone think ahead when making such decisions.

Income tax

Periodically the cry can be heard to do away with the IRS and replace it with a national sales tax. The arguments for this change make a lot of sense. It is simple since most states already collect a state sales tax and this would be collected at the same time and just passed on to the federal government. It encourages saving over spending and savings equals investment. The income tax system is so complicated that only the very wealthy can take advantage of all the loop holes. Many rich people pay less income tax than Joe Sixpack. The downside is so great that it will never happen. The government collects $3.5 trillion in income taxes and the consumers spend $14 trillion so to replace income tax would require a 25% national sales tax. If anyone was serious about getting rid of income tax the easiest way would be to repeal the 1943 law which made automatic withholding from pay checks. If that law were gone and people had to come up with their tax bill for the year on April 15 there would be riots in the streets. A better solution is to simplify the tax code which is currently more than 4,000 pages. Everyone is aware that you can get different answers to the same tax question depending on which agent answers the phone. It is complicated because special interest have influenced the law makers who write the law. So what else is new?

IRS auditor

I did income tax filing for ten years at the senior center. While these were mostly simple cases many involved single moms which meant understanding the earned income tax credit (EITC) and the child tax credit. It required three full days of training each years to update us on the changes in the law. I bring this up at this time because the government is going to hire 87,000 new IRS agents. The requirements for this job is a BA degree with at least 30 semester hours in accounting. In the tight labor market we are now experiencing it will be difficult to find this many prospects. The average starting salary is $75,000 and most accountants working in private industry are making more than that. Will they take a lower paying job to work for the government?

Wind blades

One of the miracles of modern chemistry is the construction of windmill blades. It is a special glass/carbon fiber that is indestructible. They last forever but are damaged in use and must be replaced. While various processes to reuse the blades are under study, the used blades are currently buried and they will be there when the rivers wash the mountains to the seas. The push for wind power has moved the production ahead of any recycle plans. Germany is leading in this area. Principal amongst the German green’s concerns is what to do with more than 90,000 turbine blades; each of which weighs up to 15 tonnes; each of which cannot be recycled; each of which has been deemed hazardous waste. Just one more example of how the new green deal has the horse before the cart. Very little thought has been placed into what happens down the road.

Meds

In the 1970's school based health centers came into existence. It wasn't long after that they started dispensing prophylactics both contraception pills and condoms. By the 1980's students were taking ADHD meds often times on the recommendation of the school nurse. The school nurse can explain to a student how to get an abortion without parental permission. Recently children have been given meds to change their gender and in some states can do so without parental knowledge. The latest thing in the news is treatment of obese children which includes meds and surgery. So far these require parents approval. In the past few years the number of children diagnosed with ADHD has increased by 30% and now effects 10% of all children. The over medication that has effected adults is now working its way down to children. Per capita spending on prescription drugs increased seven fold since 1980 from $140 to $1,073 adjusted for inflation. Coincidentally this increase occurred since advertising drugs on TV became legal in 1978. In 2020 TV ad spending on drugs accounted for 75% of the total TV ads. While this is a lot of money it is only a part of what is spent. In 2016, the pharmaceutical industry spent $29.9 billion on medical marketing in the United States, including $20.3 billion for marketing directly to health care professionals. This is money to doctors.