Today’s Lunchtime News Chum is a collection of articles, all seemingly lumped with the theme that actions have consequences:
- Money and Colleges. We’ve all been reading about tuitions are rising and budgets are being cut at California state universities. We’ve also seen how California state universities have the fastest rising college costs. So what is a poor (getting poorer) University system to do? Simple anwer: enroll more out-of-state freshmen, who pay significantly higher tuitions. Nonresidents now make up 12.3% of the new class, up from 8% in the school year just ended. UC Berkeley will have the largest proportion of such students, nearly 30% of the fall freshman class, up from 23% last fall. UC San Diego and UCLA are next, with about 18% each, also up from last year. At the bottom are UC Merced, UC Santa Cruz and UC Riverside, which will enroll the fewest nonresident freshmen, all at about 3% or less of the class. UC receives an extra $23K in tuition for each non-resident student (that makes a non-California student worth two California students). Amazingly, the cost of UC isn’t impacting admissions: the article notes that although UC campuses offered admission for the fall to about 4% fewer freshmen than the year before, 5% more — 39,989 in all — have said they plan to enroll. Personally, I think that’s just because many don’t realize private campuses, with financial aid, are likely equal in cost.
- Amazon and Sales Taxes. The news has been buzzing about how Amazon has dropped their affiliates over the California sales tax issue. I’m three of those affiliates, so I’d like to comment on this consequence of what the state did. Truthfully, I’m fine with it. Amazon is playing games to get out paying our state taxes. The software easily exists to permit them to calculate the tax based on address, so their attempts to get out of it are just attempts to exploit an unfair advantage, and to hurt a state that has probably given them a fair number of the programmers and systems that they use. I personally think that there should be a standardized Internet sales tax (reflecting a statewide average) for all internet retailers that goes to the state to which the item is shipped—if this is done at the national level, all states would benefit and all would be treated equal. Of course, in the current congressional climate, no uniform solution like that will occur.
- Wedding Season. Summer is the time for weddings; I know we’re going to one at the end of July. But did you ever think about the hidden participants: the groomsmen and bridesmaids, not only stuck with hideous fashion mementoes but with large bills. CNN has a good estimate of the costs: about $1,695 to be a bridesmid. Ouch.
- Team Players. By now, you’ve heard about the NBA locking out the players. But there is an unexpected side effect: all team players and names have been removed from NBA websites. You’ll only find pictures of cheerleaders and mascots.
- It’s A Business. Hulu is an interesting beast. I was listening to an NPR podcast about it this morning. It provides the current season’s shows, almost making a TV unecessary. Of course, the networks don’t like this, and as a result, are attempting to sell Hulu. They may have a buyer in Google. One interesting aspect of the agreements: they may include provisions that would require users to prove they’re paying cable or satellite TV subscribers before they can watch current episodes of shows one day after their initial airing. Otherwise, they would be forced to wait.
P.S.: LA City and County library card holders: you can get free legal music downloads.
