Iowa Faces Surplus Of Jobs

People across the country who are worried about layoffs leading to them and a looming recession can take solace in

"As rising unemployment and layoffs beset workers around the country, Iowa faces a different problem: a surplus of jobs. Or to put it another way: a shortage of workers. A survey of companies by Iowa Workforce Development, a state agency, found as many as 48,000 job vacancies, in industries including financial services — Des Moines trails only Hartford as the nation’s insurance capital — health care and skilled manufacturing. One estimate projects the job surplus to reach 198,000 by 2014, with vacancies increasingly in professional positions. Greater Des Moines alone faces a shortfall of 60,000 workers in the next decade," according to the New York Times.

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Parents Of China Earthquake Victims Being Allowed More Than One Child

China is a nation full of only children who are doted upon by their parents. The nation adopted a one-child policy in 1979 in an effort to keep overpopulation at bay. The notion of eliminating the one-child policy has been discussed (for more on that, see my previous post China May Eliminate One-Child Policy).

But now, in the wake of the May 12 earthquake in which thousands of children died, the one-child policy has been lifted--partially.

"Thousands of parents have openly challenged the government over why so many schools collapsed during the earthquake," according to the New York Times.

Parents of children who were killed or seriously injured in the earthquake are now exempt from the one-child policy, and can apply for legal permission to have another child, according to the Associated Press.

"The committee announced Monday that if a couple’s legally born child was killed in the earthquake, an illegal child under 18 years could be registered as a legal replacement. If the dead child was illegal, it said the family would no longer be responsible for outstanding fines, although parents would not be reimbursed for penalties already paid," according to the New York Times.

"Zhongxin Sun, a sociology professor at Fudan University in Shanghai, said some mothers may be too old to conceive; others may have undergone sterilization. 'To lose a child is to lose everything for Chinese parents,' said Professor Sun, who is a visiting scholar at Yale University Law School. 'A child is their only hope,'" according to the New York Times.

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Economic Stimulus Package Taxes Teenagers

Many Americans have been eagerly anticipating their economic stimulus checks, the first of which were distributed in early May. But, as teenagers are so often told, money doesn't grow on trees. The money being distributed now has to come from somewhere.

Because the U.S. government does not intend to "alter its spending plans, these tax holidays will be funded by government borrowing, borrowing that must eventually be repaid. That will require taxes to go up in the future or not to fall when they otherwise might," according to Tim Harford of Slate.

The government, Harford pointed out, is handing its "citizens cash that was borrowed—and the citizens themselves are liable for the debt. If my bank manager arranged a surprise loan in my name and handed me the cash, I might feel pampered or put-upon, depending on whether I was planning to take out the loan myself anyway. Either way, doubt I would feel any richer."

Though it is impossible to tell exactly when and how taxes will be raised in the future, Harford predicts that teenagers, "very few of whom pay income tax today but most of whom will pay income tax in the next few years", will take the financial fall.

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