*michellemalkin

The difference between poverty in New York State — having so little money that one is eligible for a rent regulated apartment — and wealth — making enough money to pay a “millionaires tax” * — is being newly quantified in Albany today, according to news reports. That number will now be  $50,000, pre-tax.

A family earning $200,000 per year will be poor enough to qualify for rent stabilized housing, while a family earning $250,000 is classified as “rich”, not just by Albany standards, but by President Obama’s measurement as well (remember that pledge? No tax increases on families making under $250,000.)

Government housing regulation advocates wanted the income threshold even higher for families to qualify for regulated housing. They had been pushing for $240,000 as the magic number, which would have reduced the gap between the need for government intervention and “millionaire” status in New York to $10,000, or about $6,000 after taxes.

New York won’t differentiate where in the state one lives, of course. A family making $251,000 and paying $35,000 in property taxes and a $5,000 mortgage in Bronxville is rich, while a Buffalo family making $199,000 and paying $1,500 in rent — with zero property taxes — qualifies for government protection.

I’ve never been a fan of the word “hypocrisy.” I find it cutting and overused. But the hypocrisy among housing advocates in New York is mind-blowing.  They throw out the term “middle class” in an attempt to blend all lines. But their rationale for government controlled housing gets weaker and weaker each year as tenants who have no business in stabilized housing make more money.

Somehow this is made to seem normal here on Planet New York. But, plainly, it is not.

*The “millionaire’s tax” bill failed.

Fathers considering a victory lap after a day of accolades may not want to read this story . I did, and I now hold my manhood cheaper than I did even this morning.

It is the tale of Dick Hoyt, the father of a severely disabled son whom, it was believed, was effectively brain dead from a birth injury.  The boy was 100% incommunicado. But at age 11, Rick Hoyt’s parents broke through to him and it turned out that a lot was going on inside Rick’s head. Rick’s first words typed with a special contraption onto a keyboard, “Go Bruins!”

Dick Hoyt began to run with his son, and one day the boy typed “Dad, when we were running, it felt like I wasn’t disabled.”  That was all Mr. Hoyt needed to hear.  By 2009, Dick and Rick had run 85 Marathons and 212 Triathlons together.

It is a truly amazing story, and one worth recalling on Father’s Day. Even if it makes the rest of us dads feel like duds.

Only 17 percent of eighth graders in the U.S. scored at the “proficient” level in a standardized test on American history this year, the National Assessment Governing Board reports.  And that’s supposed to be good news. Eighth graders were the only age group tested that actually improved its proficiency percentage in the past five years.  Fourth graders and high school seniors lost ground. A full 80% of those seniors could not identify China as North Korea’s military ally in the Korean War — in a multiple choice question with only four answers.  Throwing a dart should yield 25%.

In a US citizenship test of 1,000 random Americans issued by Newsweek last year and cited by the Boston Globe this morning, 80% of US citizens could not name the American President who served during World War I. Yikes!

I cannot help but think that the Internet — especially handheld Internet devices — may have something to do with this.  And if they do not yet, they almost certainly will. Millions of Americans now walk around with portable encyclopedias in their pockets.  I use mine to look up stuff a dozen times a day.  Whereas I used to wrack my brain trying to remember some detail from history or the name of some actress or band member, I now routinely punch the query into my computer or handheld. I hate doing it, but it’s just so damned fast and convenient. Knowing that the information is always there, squirreled up in a digital cloud somewhere, just has to relax the brain’s retention mechanism.  It just has to.

I remember when handheld calculators first came out.  Teachers and parents warned that they should only be used to double check answers.  The devices, they feared, would teach students to forget how they had learned to think.  Perhaps they were on to something.  Now, calculators are used during exams — I still cant get over that — and I wonder how long it will be before handheld Internet devices are as well. All the Presidents names and nicknames are available at the punch of a few buttons, but nothing of what they espoused or how they served the nation will be internalized.

As these gadgets proliferate, what will be the need for a formal education at all? All students will need to know is how to ask questions into IPhone microphone. One doesn’t even need to spell type, or know how.  Ah, progress.

General Motors’ new chief executive, Dan Akerson, has been floating the idea of a special $1-per-gallon federal tax on gasoline in order to make people buy more fuel efficient cars. From Ackerson’s board room viewpoint I’m sure that looks like a good idea.  American’s have shown no interest in buying his electric Chevy Volt, so maybe Washington can tax them into it. (Americans have bought millions of small, fuel efficient Japanese cars in the past decade though. How did that happen?)

Ackerson is not the first person to suggest this.  Several leading economists and environmental leaders have suggested raising the gasoline tax, too, as a way of reducing gas consumption in America.  It is the stick in the carrot-and-a-stick approach to affecting change.  If there is no incentive — see cash for clunkers — show ’em the whip.

What they and Ackerson overlook, though, is poor and middle class families.  Somehow they don’t get factored into the equations scrawled across corporate white boards.  I’m sure Akerson is right; if we were to hike the gasoline tax by a dollar — or say five dollars — it would almost certainly affect the behavior of millions of Americans: Some wouldn’t able to get to work.  Others would have to cut back on staples at the grocery store.  School supplies wouldn’t be bought. Summer camp and modest family vacations would be out, and mortgage payments, for those lucky enough to have mortgages, wouldn’t be met. Small businesses across America would almost certainly need to cut back or close.  But yes, more fuel efficient vehicles probably would be purchased. Go GM!

The Tea Party is constantly disparaged by America’s upper class for expressing anger. But ideas like this one are a perfect example why average Americans are feeling so much of it. All the bright ideas out of Washington — all the deep thinking from our  MBA’s — always seem to come at the expense of the little guy. I, for one, am rooting for him.

Milne, [A]lan [A]lexander (1882-1956) British journalist and playwright, best known for his books for children, When We Were Very Young (1926), Now We Are Six (1927), and The House at Pooh Corner (1928.)

(Christopher Milne explains how his father tactfully corrected his table manners.)

“Once, when I was quite little, he came up to the nursery while I was having my lunch. And while he was talking I paused between mouthfuls, resting my hands on the table, knife and fork pointing upwards.  ‘You oughtn’t really to sit like that,’ he said gently. ‘Why not?’ I asked, surprised. ‘Well…,’ he hunted around for a reason he could give. Because it’s considered bad manners? Because you musn’t? Because… ‘Well,’ he said, looking in the direction that my fork was pointing, ‘suppose somebody suddenly fell through the ceiling. They might land on your fork and that would be very painful.’ ‘I see,’ I said, though I didn’t really.”

Courtesy of The Little Brown Book of Anecdotes, Clifton Fadiman, Editor. (A recommended buy.)

In my haste to complain about shaving cream and Blackberry chargers this morning, I completely missed the “wood” of the day, as it’s called.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the AARP is about to issue a seismic policy shift and agree to accept reforms in the Social Security system, which even it now recognizes is on a direct path to insolvency. This is a huge development for fiscal conservatives, who may be about to get one of the largest lobbyists in the country to the bargaining table.  Huge.

The AARP, The Journal reminds us, led the fight against the Bush Social Security reforms.  It is the big Kahuna in this fight. It’s decision offers a bright glimmer of hope for us all.

* NY Daily News

The New York Post editorial page turned a tactic threatened by NY Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D) on its head today.  For months, Silver has been trying to link the effort to cap property taxes in New York State — the highest in America —  to expanding, not just extending, New York’s arcane rent regulation laws. But now that those rent regulations have officially expired, The Post is calling for no extension unless a tax cap is passed.  Bravo. It’s about time Silver felt the heat, in this case from a million well-organized rent stabilized tenants in New York City who would tear him limb from from limb if he didn’t deliver at least an extender.

If Shelly Silver were on the other side, he would hold up everything in New York State until he got what he wanted.  He has done it every year since the early 1990’s when he became Speaker.  So with Silver over a barrel now, I wouldn’t stop at a tax cap. Give him a list of bills to pass. Or let him dangle.

I’m reminded on recent mornings that it’s not just government that needs to change its ways in this country. U.S. businesses have some work to do, too, if they are going restore consumer confidence.

It comes to me when shaving. I press a button on a can of Gillette each morning and out comes a dollop of the stuff.  But it’s not really a dollop; it’s more like a splat. A big, wide pre-measured splat, large enough to shave six of my faces and I have a pretty big noggin.

I wouldn’t have noticed the palm-sized splat four years ago, or cared much about it if I did.  But these are different times; our eyes are trained for waste, and this is obvious waste.

But is it really? Gillette scientists (or accountants) calibrated the button to eject that exact amount of gel in a single squirt. Why would they make it discharge more than anyone needs, other than to make customers buy more of the stuff?  Times that by a million, as the expression goes, and we’re talking real money.

I feel that way about so many products and services today. I just assume every company is trying to rip me off where they can — I am pretty sure of it — and it’s disconcerting.
I didn’t use to feel that way.

Take Research in Motion. There has been no more devoted fan of its Blackberry phones than this guy over the years, but by changing their charging adapter — again — they have lost me (okay, I’m typing on one now, but I’ll get them eventually.)

There was no reason for RIM to create a new “micro USB” adapter other than to sell a  new line of chargers — micro USB car chargers, travel chargers, office chargers… It was functionally unnecessary; they just wanted to squeeze their customers for some extra money.  (This morning we see why.  RIM is getting hammered by its Android and Iphone competitors. But is angering loyal customers the right way out?  Probably not.) Other products, like appliances, seem to be scheduled to break. Six months after their warranties expire they self-destruct.

The worst offenders, of course, are the banks. What they have done with credit cards rates should be criminalized. I have never — except maybe 30 years ago in college — paid a credit card bill more than a week or two after receiving it, and my interest rate is so high that I am too embarrassed to state it publicly. It makes me feel like a personal failure and I haven’t done anything wrong.

A 9% credit rate can jump to a 30% with no apparent reason. One could borrow money on the street — Vinnie Goombatz Street, not Wall Street — cheaper than that. The only difference is that Vinnie will break your legs. The banks keep customers alive to suckle off them for the span of their lives.  I haven’t charged on a credit card – I use an Amex – for at least five years as a result.

My older daughters and I have taken to playing a game where we search for lies in television advertisements. I hate to make them cynical, but I don’t want them to be suckers like their step-father. They have gotten good at it.  They can listen to commercials with their eyes shut now and hear all the rhetorical obliques and downright misrepresentations.  It’s a handy skill to have today.

I am a Republican through and through, so I’m not looking for new laws to make companies behave better.  I want companies to behave honorably because it’s the right thing to do – and because it is a good long-term business strategy.  But it’s all quick buck today, and that can’t be good.

What’s the difference between politics and business today, and old boss of mine likes to  ask.  In politics it’s dog eat dog, and in business it’s just the opposite.

Whatever happened to the handshake deal?

“The mightiest military alliance in history is only 11 weeks into an operation against a poorly armed regime in a sparsely populated country, yet many allies are beginning to run short of munitions, requiring the U.S., once more, to make up the difference.” — Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Libyan Campaign. (Reuters)

*NY Mag

Did the sexual revolution somehow get misinterpreted by men on trains? Or is it just being used as an excuse to be selfish?

I am constantly amazed at how many men today pretend not to see women standing while they are sitting — not just young women, but older ladies and pregnant women as well. I am fraternally ashamed whenever I see such indignity, which is virtually every day.

But the absolute worst thing I see — like I did today — is men burying their eyes in newspapers or IPhones while women with small children are standing. It is unforgivable; any able-bodied man under the age of 65 doing that should be pulled off the train and beaten by a mob.

National debt, unfunded pension obligations, failing schools — we will survive all those things.  But not the loss of basic manners.  They are the guidebook for daily living.

It’s not patronizing to give your seat to an expecting mother. It’s a common courtesy. And it’s supposed to be automatic.  That goes for you, too — yes you reading The New York Post upside down. Have some dignity, man!