Daley's two ticket proposal (house, budget, cities)

[PokerPlayer1]

Originally Posted by hsw

Unfortunately, by time most people realize which career/family choices make most sense vs their skills/interests, it's too late in life....

This is absolutely, 100% true. One of the largest leg-up's a person can get is to figure out what they want to do early in life, and then do it. I'm saying this as someone who is presently learning this lesson the hard way.

More school (no matter how supposedly prestigious) often means little in terms of career/financial success....many/most centimillionaire or billionaire hedge fund founders or executives are <45yo guys who "just" have undergrad degrees (though usually earned in an accelerated 2-3 yrs, not 4yrs, from Wharton or Harvard); for past ~15yrs, almost no one intelligent in finance has bothered getting a silly MBA

Many <45yo tech centimillionaires or billionaires are college dropouts or dropouts from Stanford's ElectricalEngineering/ComputerScience PhD program....

Any kid today seeking to properly value an "education" can easily examine the careers of a generation of >50yo college dropouts who are clearly rather smart guys who accomplished much in their careers while in their 20s-30s....e.g., Gates, Jobs, Ellison, etc etc

This, I disagree with.
You said that education "often means little" in terms of practical success and then proceeded to cite people who are huge statistical outliers, like the ones making big money in finance, a handful of innovative entrepreneurs, etc. Those people just aren't accurate barometers for what's required for ordinary people to do well for themselves.

I remember a professor of mine... He used to interrupt students who were talking during class by saying "So, do you want to sit here quietly and learn this stuff, or would you like to go out there in the real world and hope you invent the pet rock?"

That always stuck with me. Yes, it's possible that one can achieve a freakish degree of success without any kind of formal education, but as much as certain people like to delude themselves into believing that great success is simply an entitlement attached to "hard work", the fact is, there's an enormous component of chance in life, too.

Maybe it's being in the right place at the right time, maybe it's meeting the right people, maybe it's making one seemingly benign correct decision that ultimately sets off a loolapolooza type chain-reaction of disproportionately favorable events.

All I know is that for every one success without a college degree, there are four with a college degree. Outliers always exist, but the statistical anomaly doesn't negate the broader picture. College is a very, very wise hedge to the big wager that is your life. It opens doors, it can have practical utility, it broadens your outlook and rounds you as a person. It definitely increases your chances of 'hitting it big'.

[nJohn]

Originally Posted by hsw

More school (no matter how supposedly prestigious) often means little in terms of career/financial success....many/most centimillionaire or billionaire hedge fund founders or executives are <45yo guys who "just" have undergrad degrees (though usually earned in an accelerated 2-3 yrs, not 4yrs, from Wharton or Harvard); for past ~15yrs, almost no one intelligent in finance has bothered getting a silly MBA

That's silly. It depends on whether or not that MBA will help your career. If the cons outweigh the pros then it's not worth it.

Any kid today seeking to properly value an "education" can easily examine the careers of a generation of >50yo college dropouts who are clearly rather smart guys who accomplished much in their careers while in their 20s-30s....e.g., Gates, Jobs, Ellison, etc etc

HA! They're the exception not the rule. All those that you mentioned are icons or major factors in their respective fields; they were bound for success before they even stepped foot on campus.

BOTTOM LINE: Higher education is important. It doesn't work for everyone. And skipping or dropping out of college isn't for everyone also.

[ChiMack]

ouch..

More than 1,100 city workers to be laid off :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: City Hall (http://www.suntimes.com/news/cityhall/1565155,CST-NWS-heat09web.article - broken link)

[oakparkdude]

Now if we can only get reductions in county government.

[coldwine]

"Nobody wants to see anybody lose their jobs. But, we can't go through this drill every quarter. We have to put some stability into their lives," Gannon said.

Because god forbid they have to face the same instability everyone else has to face in this quarter. I had to move several thousand miles to another continent, to a third world nation just to keep my job and make my mortgage payments. But the unions, they deserve special treatment above and beyond the outrageous benefits they already receive in comparison to every other sector of the economy.

And then this little gem:

"This is a much more serious recession that people don't realize. It's not gonna just flip back. This is gonna be very slow getting out of. ... We're trying to get this set. We're gonna be trying to work it. But, if I said, 'I guarantee you everything'--it's very, very difficult."

You know what, Daley? It isn't hard. In fact I'm very certain I could turn the budget deficit into a budget surplus if given three hours. I wouldn't even cut city services or touch those precious unions. I'd start with every family member hired by an elected official in the past three years, eliminate city pensions, enact severe restrictions on city-paid perks currently taken advantage of by elected officials, eliminate all expense accounts and sell the rights to beat a city council member with a baseball bat.

[NearWestSider]

Originally Posted by coldwine

I'd start with every family member hired by an elected official in the past three years, eliminate city pensions, enact severe restrictions on city-paid perks currently taken advantage of by elected officials, eliminate all expense accounts and sell the rights to beat a city council member with a baseball bat.

And after that, you'd strike oil on Northerly Island, heal the sick, make the blind see, decree prosperity for all that seek it (and wisdom for those that do not), and hit a hole in one.

[PokerPlayer1]

Over the past few years, I've bought a few modest parcels of land in different regions of the country. There are reasons for this- when I retire, I want to travel the US extensively and this allows me for a series of "home bases" plus there are tax advantages, as far as being able to write off travel expenses up to a certain amount, as I traverse from one to the other.

In buying these parcels of land and through the course of due diligence work, I've dealt with more clerks, registrars, tax collectors, zoning officials, mapping/planning departments and assorted board officials than a person should ever have to endure in one lifetime.

The one thing that never ceases to boggle the mind is how in every town, in every county, in every state in the US- without exception- there are big government buildings filled with many people on government payrolls, none of whom know anything, or, in spite of their titles, are able to provide any sort of relevant service with an immediately apparent value. I'm convinced that these people only exist to complete a nightmarish circle of government subsidized buck-passing, the more of them that are on the payroll to accept the pass-off's from other departments, the less work everyone else has to do....

I hate- *HATE* with the burning passion of a million suns- bureaucracy. Whenever I hear "city workers laid off", I smile inside. I hope it isn't trashmen or firemen; I pray to god it's the paper shuffling morons in cubicles who are tasked with "jobs" that no one has yet to figure out exactly what they do.

[coldwine]

Originally Posted by NearWestSider

And after that, you'd strike oil on Northerly Island, heal the sick, make the blind see, decree prosperity for all that seek it (and wisdom for those that do not), and hit a hole in one.

I hit a hole in one on the course just this morning ^_^

[Steve-o]

I hope Daley volunteered himself, miserable bastard.

[Chicago 360]

Seems to me one of the biggest problems is management. Why is it that, every year, or every few months, there is more and more of a budget issue, yet we can afford the Olympics in 2016??? Services, atleast where I am at, is becoming worse. We donot have enough police officers, we cannot afford to move the snow on the side streets in the winter, etc... Yet, we can afford to pay millions for a shiny bean? And what about Block 37? Which alot of people don't knwo about, but look at how many millions the city has wasted there? And it's still not finished. Block 37 has been a thorn in the city's budget since Harold was in office.

Also, the revenue from all the assets sold. Skyway, Parking meters, etc... rainy day fund? Really, it's not raing to you yet? What kind of storm are you waiting for? Alderman with their expense funs just because?

Now, don't get me wrong, sure the unions and some of the city workers need to take some of the blame, but let's not let the mayor try to make it look like he is not at fault when, after all, he is the boss. He should know alot more than he apparently does. Again, I think, IMO, the biger issue is management as a whole, and that they should be looked at to fix some of the changes. And again, some of the workers need to be looked at too, but let's not make it seems like they are the only ones at fault here.

I think if more people did their research, they would see a lot more of what's going on.