I define economist jobs pretty narrowly. Either you’re working in the private sector developing economics models for banks or a handful of private sector companies or you’re furthering the field of research in academia. I don’t consider everyone with an economics degree an economist. There’s a reason very few hold the title of ‘economist’ in the free market.
Anyways, I’m not saying there is no money to be had in the private sector, but the most financially lucrative way to make money is to be an entrepreneur to the point where you’re profitable and can ‘create jobs.’ Yes there is grey area, individual situations, but this is generally true. People are driven by the profit motive.
Anyways this is my last post on this topic since it’s massively off topic. I wasn’t expecting this to go this far.
No worries on the long response; I don’t mind as a general rule and appreciate you taking the time for it.
Never had much of an inclination to join a political choir and absolutely want to read things that will bust my chops and challenge my perspective. The problem I’ve seen in my initial foray is that there’s just so much garbage out there - for every article saying X, there’s two more saying Y, and then Z comes along and says X is outright lying and that Y is only saying that stuff because it hasn’t gotten over Z sleeping with its ex back in college without asking permission. So, your recs are definitely appreciated.
Also, your last paragraph should be mandatory reading for every first year poly sci major.
Cheers for that post, man. Definitely liked the stuff about practical experience tempering theoretical or idealistic expectations. Since I’m pretty sure I blacked out right when you started talking about regulating the banking and derivatives markets, that’s probably an indication I’ve got some work to do.
Well, if I ever start coming across as a classist, you are warmly welcomed to remind me that although I grew up in a town with an average household income of ~150k (per Googs), I was hitching rides through senior year because my folks and I couldn’t afford to park anything more than what we already had on our shared dirt driveway. To be fair, we didn’t put plastic flowers outside (though maybe we should’ve after the grubs permanently annexed our lawn after a three-season campaign of financial attrition), but then again, my big brother IS in the armed forces and recently bought his first pickup . I have no animosity towards WalMart; after all, it helped keep me fed, clothed, and with school supplies way back when.
Anyhow, to me, 'Murica has always been a label for nonspecific acts of general societal ignorance. I think having calloused hands, grease-stained overalls, a weathered face, and skin tanned through side-effect rather than objective is American; I think giving a shit about whatever Kim Kardashian does, thinks, or says is 'Murican.
Wow are these emojis obnoxiously out of proportion to the feeling intended to be expressed. We get it, the site is Dangerously Hardcore ™, but is NOTHING sacred? Y’all somehow managed to make the universal symbol for good vibes come across as oddly looming and unsettling.
Lemme guess - the next site update will automatically bold and underline any word typed in caps?
[quote=“Aragorn, post:41, topic:222723, full:true”]
The only difference is that half of them look down on us with an attempt to control us and the other half looks down on us to tell us how bad we are and bigoted or backwards.[/quote]
But the latter is just another form of control, isn’t it? I mean, these recent battle cries of racism, bigotry, sexism, GLBT-phobia, have NEVER seemed to me to be benevolent acts of edification, but ham-fisted attempts at gaining control of a situation, or person, or people, through blunt force, lowest common denominator character assassination and public shaming.
“Celebrate diversity! Promote tolerance! Embrace your differences! Rejoice in your individuality, unique beliefs, and nontraditional lifestyles! All are welcome to be who they are, so long as they remember that their individuality, beliefs, and lifestyles must ultimately goose step in time with the chanting of our narrative, because the only diversity we truly value is that which conforms to our vision.”
It’s absurb, but it also works. This got me thinking of Trump, but this post has gotten long. Anyhow, I agree with your sentiments. I wonder sometimes what it would’ve been like growing up in a city, but really I wouldn’t change those long summers of playing army in the woods, conjuring turtles and bullfrogs from muddy ponds, and watching fireflies bleed into the stars for anything… much less the favorable opinion of someone who thinks there’s anything wrong with eating tater tots.
Yes, but where does one go after their faith in the system hits rock bottom?
Don’t get me wrong - I’d rather have the heart of a cynic than the brain of a Trump or the karmic debt of a Clinton, but does it really matter if the glass if half empty or half full if it gets shoved up your ass every four years all the same?
Yep, thoroughly agree–just one more level of attempted control. The harder left has found that while someone can withstand large amounts of criticism, not many people can withstand a label if it is applied with suitably large amounts of tolerance talk.
But the latter is just another form of control, isn’t it? I mean, these recent battle cries of racism, bigotry, sexism, GLBT-phobia, have NEVER seemed to me to be benevolent acts of edification, but ham-fisted attempts at gaining control of a situation, or person, or people, through blunt force, lowest common denominator character assassination and public shaming.[/quote]
The problem is when a single aspect of an individual becomes the only relevant part.
Such as it was when being gay or black was the defining aspect of your character, and people punished you for it.
Nah, I didn’t think it was your intention at all. [quote=“anonym, post:88, topic:222723”]
Anyhow, to me, 'Murica has always been a label for nonspecific acts of general societal ignorance.
[/quote]
Yes, I assumed that’s what you meant. I think you already know I like you, and if I had your address I would send you a copy of the Haidt book just as a thank you for breaking down some of the science threads for me. Insert smaller, less creepy smiley face here. Sorry, it’s become a thing with me. Like fingernails on a chalkboard. I was talking to another mom at the park recently and she started ranting about Texas and how she would NEVER want to live there with all the conservative politics, rednecks and their guns. Seriously. I’m sure she had no idea where I’m from, and I could generally care less what she thinks, except these same people imagine themselves some bastions of tolerance, free of bigotry. Then they seem mystified at why so many “idiots” seem to want to give them the finger. See how I tied that back into the presidential race? Sorry for the tangent.
Remember when Ted Cruz got into trouble for saying (paraphrasing) that “We know the values of New Yorkers…and they are not ours…”
What do you think the people you are characterizing as so “pure” would say if you ask them to describe someone from San Francisco, Los Angeles or Chicago? Do you think names like “God-less” or “Gay-Loving” or “Baby Killing” may at some point come up in some of the descriptions?
Hate and Bigotry is not confined to certain parts of the Country or to where someone is on some arbitrary Political Spectrum.
True. We’re all blinded by our own morality to some extent. The irony is that the progressives I’m talking about imagine themselves free this, functioning on a higher plane. They have branded themselves as tolerant and caring. When you get up on a pedestal…
Sounds like you have a pretty good grasp on the situation.
How do I get my “news”? It’s pretty tough since I lost any scintilla in most media outlets. I use lots of sources. I read left and right leaning news sights. The stuff they both report on are a pretty safe bet to be accurate despite where each use placement to highlight said story’s importance. Cross check it with foreign news sites as well, see what they are reporting.
I also listen to NPR in the car since most radio stations suck and I have listened to my own stash of music to the point of making it bland if I wear it out.
In the end, lots of sources. I stay away from the lunatic fringe on both sides. That’s the best I got, try to distrust and verify, but in the end there is no way to fully vet the information. There are simply not enough hours in a day. So you take it on faith in the end.
I believe it helps to have a core set of defendable values that you have aquired by your own efforts. Understanding what truth is, will at least help you identify bullshit when you see it; at least part of the time.
The fact of the matter is everybody wants you to be just like them. They want you to think like them, be like them, believe in the same kinds of things they believe in. So all the information you get is biased in one way or another. If you don’t have a bullshit meter, you’ll fall for anything. Or as the saying goes ‘if you don’t believe in something, you will be a fool for anything’.
People think we are an embarrassment to the world with the 2 clowns we have running. I don’t think that’s true. I have been in foreign countries were they were in an election cycle, they were not much better. 3 examples, the Philippines, Venezuela and Russia. Talk about clown town, Duerte, Meduro and Putin can make us look at our candidates and go, meh.
They may be bad, but our system can and will prevent them from dictatorship. So we are not an embarrassment like some people think, we are; just unlucky. This is the twitter election…
I you and I were in charge, I could agree to not foist someone like Cruz on you. I can only imagine how President Cruz would feel to a gay liberal from SF, and I can feel some compassion for that. You could agree to not foist someone like Elizabeth Warren on me. Maybe because you can imagine how an ivy tower ideologue like her would feel to military families, or the Evangelical farmer in Ohio. We’d both agree to be a little bit unhappy with someone more moderate.
The part of this that worries me, is that the new morality from the left has me lumped in with people like the KKK in terms of “the bad guys” who aren’t getting on board with the agenda. I guess I’m in good company. I think a lot of Catholics, Evangelicals, and more conservative Jews also feel this. Even if you take people with the intellectual flexibility to see the other side of issues like abortion or gay marriage, there’s still a moral foundation there. If I have a foundation of faith, then I don’t get to decide which way the moral compass points. My faith isn’t as flexible as Hillary’s. Smiley that isn’t enormous.
. I have no animosity towards WalMart; after all, it helped keep me fed, clothed, and with school supplies way back when.