20 Things I Wish I Knew About Home Improvements When I Was 20
Over the past few decades, I’ve lived in more than a dozen places, bought and sold homes, and remodeled/renovated more places than I care to recall. Along the way, I learned a lot – sometimes at great expense and at other times through trial and error. Looking back, I wish I had a quick guide to alert me to issues so I compiled the following list: Read more 
Executive Compensation at Columbia (2023)
Columbia University (Columbia) reported a very different year in 2023: after coming off a record year in 2022 when revenue reached an all time high ($7.1 billion) with expenses of $5.9 billion (including $300 million of depreciation), Columbia reported total revenue of $6.7 billion and expenses of $6.4 billion (including $300 million in depreciation) in 2023. However, Columbia increased net assets from $18.4 billion to $18.7 billion in 2023 by adding unspent revenue and nearly $150 million in unrealized gains on investments (offset by a negative $80 million adjustment to net assets for “other non-operating adjustments”) to the general fund.
In terms of compensation, 40,081 employees (up by 3,000 since 2022) were compensated $3.9 billion, which equates to an average compensation of $97,000. The 22 most highly compensated individuals (listed below) received $42 million which equates to an average compensation package of nearly $2 million: Read more
What Kind of Person Does That To A Kid? A Baby? An Animal?
No abuser’s ignorance or era or condition excuses her behavior any more than her treatment of us gives us license to abuse other people. ~Eamon Dolan
Fourteen years ago, I severed communication with my mother after she called to wish me a happy birthday and then proceeded to ask me if I wanted her to send the hateful letters written about me when I was 10 years old as a school monitor – seems the gestapo-like behaviors I learned from my mother didn’t positively affect the younger school children and they expressed their feelings in letters addressed to me, which my mother kept for some unknown reason. I declined and called her out for her cruelty (why would anyone want to read a letter professing hate for the reader?). Phone calls and e-mails from my siblings, aunts, and even a sister-in-law in the subsequent months revealed my mother called them in tears claiming she was so upset and didn’t mean to hurt me (my mother found the letters humorous) only confirmed my decision that of course, my mother would make herself the victim in his scenario instead of realizing she was the aggressor and the bully whose abusive behavior would no longer be tolerated. Read more
How Tuition and Revenue are Spent at Liberty University (2023)
Liberty University (Liberty) – a private evangelical Christian university based in Lynchburg, Virginia – has been in the news quite a bit over the past few years. Seems the US Department of Education has been investigating Liberty for violations related to the public reporting of campus crime. Faced with a large fine ($14 million), Liberty was also in the hot seat again (the Jerry Falwell, Jr sexual misconduct saga that resulted in Falwell’s resignation as President of the university hit the public forum in 2020), although $14 million is a drop in the bucket for Liberty who has nearly $4 billion in net assets. Read more
How Hillsdale College Spends Revenue (2022)
Conservative movements to reform education are often defined by what they’re against.
~Emma Green
Hillsdale College, a small private liberal arts college with 1,400 students in southern Michigan (Hillsdale) is the college virtually no one heard of 20 years ago. Founded by abolitionist, Free Will Baptist preachers nearly 200 years ago in 1844, Hillsdale until recently maintained a small word of mouth following among conservatives attracting students (and conservative parents of smart (avg ACT 30-33, mid-range SAT 1350-1490 – 89-96 percentile, mid-range GPA 3.9-4.0) young people) who want a conservative liberal arts education, which is kind of an oxymoron. Tuition, room, board, and fees are about $46,000 annually. Read more
How the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) Spends Revenue (2022)
JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) claims to be the “leading global organization funding Type 1 diabetes research” which would appear to mean that JDRF is either awarding most revenue raised to research grants or conducting the research themselves, neither of which seems to be the case.
So, if you donated $100 to JDRF in 2022, how were those dollars spent? The short answer is that that only $30 was awarded in grants and $2 in outreach fees, about $36 was used to compensate employees, pay office expenses, fees and advertising and promotion costs, and about $32 was allocated to the general fund (think savings account as JDRF appears to be more focused on growing their endowment than allocating funds to research). Read more
A Blemish on McKinsey
When I was in business school, I remember first hearing about McKinsey & Company – a management consulting firm – that charges a lot of money to solve problems for corporations, government, and non-profits (surprisingly many non-profits – especially in healthcare and eduction – can afford McKinsey).
Back then – about 35 years ago – I didn’t understand why major companies (engaged in financial services, media, asset management, telecommunications, technology, healthcare, energy, consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, insurance, and more) whose executives are paid millions would pay McKinsey millions to solve problems that their executives were paid to solve. It never made sense to me even though the McKinsey employees were reputed to be the best and the brightest (McKinsey had the reputation of recruiting the top 1 or 2 male students from the top business schools back then. I’m guessing they still recruit the top students but don’t know how close they have come to gender parity) but the executives in these multinational corporations are also the best and brightest in their field. Read more
The Open Secret Colleges and Universities Don’t Want You To Know
In 1984, the average tuition, room and board was about $4,600, which equates to $14,000 in 2024, taking into consideration the inflation rate, which means todays price of tuition, room and board should be about 300% higher than in 1984. But, we all know that isn’t the case.
The average tuition, room and board at a college or university (and it varies depending on whether the school is private or public) in 2024 is about $42,000 – about 900% more than in 1984. Most private schools cost $80,000 – $100,000 annually which makes people – and especially parents – wonder why have the costs of educating our kids increased so dramatically? Read more
Alice Waters: Put Your Menu Where Your Mouth Is
Recently, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) printed a piece on food and specifically the food of the south of France. Underlying the story is a question: Why are we so hungry for the food of the South of France right now? In trying to answer that question, Alice Waters, the 79-year old founder of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California said
We need to make our diets healthy by eating more fruit and vegetables and less meat, and we need to respond to climate change with farming methods that protect and renew the earth…which is what they’ve been doing in the south of France for centuries.
Executive Compensation at Advent Health (2022)
AdventHealth (formerly known as Adventist Health System until 2019 when the 501 (c) (3) “rebranded” itself) is one of the largest non-profit health care providers in the United States with more than 50 hospitals and hundreds of care sites in 9 states. Based in Altamonte Springs, Florida, AdventHealth is a very large system with dozens of separate tax-exempt non-profit and for-profit organizations.
This post looks at the executive compensation at Adventist Health System Sunbelt Healthcare Corporation (AHSSHC), the tax-exempt, non profit organization that provides management, leadership, and oversight to the affiliates. It is important to note there are dozens of other related and affiliated non-profits and for profit organizations related to AdventHealth that are not covered in this post. Read more
Paddock Post 