In case you’ve never heard me complain about it before, the state of California has decided that despite requiring a Bachelor’s Degree and a Credential to teach (6 years of schooling), they also think beginning teachers need extra “support” that their 6 years of college didn’t provide. This used to be completed by taking college courses but has since been replaced by a district led program. For the last two years I have suffered through mounds of paperwork and extra meetings, but as of today that is finally over! The only positives of the program are that I will get college credit at cheap prices which push me over on the pay scale, and I got to do the program with some other great teachers, but overall the whole program is a waste. It’s a waste of everyone’s time, and it’s a huge waste of money. This is a prime example of government organizations creating unnecessary bureaucracies.

Second I’d like to complain about people that complain about gas prices. Is gas more expensive than it used to be? Yes, but please don’t blame it on oil companies. For all the people that don’t know how to think critically and think oil companies are somehow manipulating prices, please read this article. If you’re too lazy to read it, here is my favorite part:

ExxonMobil, the nation’s largest oil company, profited 10 cents for every dollar it brought in revenue in 2007. That puts its profit margin in the middle of other Fortune 500 companies, including Bank of America (18-percent profit margin) (NYSE: BAC), AT&T (11.8 percent) (NYSE: T) and Proctor & Gamble (13.1 percent).

Just because oil companies make a lot of profits, their profit margins are nothing out of the ordinary. Not to mention that an American company making money is a GOOD thing! It’s not like there is one guy sitting around in a gold bath tub drinking margaritas and taking all the money. Companies like Exxon are corporations, and when they do well their investors are rewarded. Instead of complaining about the amount of profits that oil companies make, maybe people should buy some Exxon stock instead.