I just saw a commercial for gubernatorial candidate Mike Cox which convinced me that politics has taken a severe turn for the worse. It would appear that the republican party is now pandering towards the demographic that has little to no understanding of basic economic concepts nor any idea of how the political process works. It was supposed to be a smear ad against Pete Hoekstra - also republican candidate - ridiculing him for supporting the bailout and for voting to increase spending in the recession. Does this mean Mike Cox is pro-depression and anti-economic growth and recovery? (side note - ban smear campaigns. Don't tell me why that guy is bad - tell me why you are better) What's worse is that this plays into the hands of the ignorant voter rather than educating people as to why those actions were necessary. Mike Cox's campaign is betting that there are more ignorant people than intelligent people and is putting real economic recovery at risk in favor of political power. NOT COOL!!
This doesn't mean that it's the responsibility of every voter to fully understand political and economic processes; that's why we have politicians, they are people whose job is to know stuff so the regular Joe doesn't have to. I don't need to understand the nuances of medicine or chemistry to trust my doctor or pharmacist; that's their jobs. Somehow as a society we've gotten to a point where we seem to want politicians to be "regular people." I think it may go back farther than the McCain-Palin campaign against elitism but regardless, elitism is not a bad thing to demand of a person making decisions for a large population. Our political representatives should be "better" than a regular Joe, that's what makes them worthy of being a leader. They shouldn't have to explain and justify every little decision to people who don't understand the processes. It should be good enough to say "because that's the best option."
However, this whole idea is heavily based on trust and something has happened to completely erode people's trust in leaders. While some of the loss of trust is well-deserved from the actions of assholes; there are bad people everywhere and there are a lot of good people in politics as well. Much of the degradation of trust seems as though it could be attributed to partisan bickering (always trying to make the other guy the "bad guy"), constant "scapegoating," and a barrage of media hyperbole as news entities seek to make memorable stories. The result is a country that is rapidly polarizing; everyone must be a conservative or liberal and there's no middle ground. This lack of middle ground and refusal to work together towards a common goal (for fear of appearing "weak" which puts re-electability at risk) ultimately will lead this country in a position where there's a complete an inability to get anything done at the expense of real growth and development - everyone loses! Meanwhile we have legions of armchair politicians who have a vague understanding of the political process - not enough to help in any meaningful way but enough to do some serious damage to the stability of a system. Politicians on both sides are now catering to this crap; nothing good can come from this race to the bottom.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
That other guy is a puppy-kicker, hates grandma, and thinks you are fat!
It's getting to be campaign season again! Oh boy! I can't wait, all these commercials that deify candidate A while demonizing candidate B. A few years back, a man named Jason Allen was running for state senate and his campaign was running a bunch of ridiculous ads. I don't remember exactly but they all had a dramatic voice saying something like "Jason Allen formed a committee that prevented the extinction of the wood duck." While, I appreciate that they weren't smear ads and were focusing on his accomplishments, unless Mr. Allen is a superhero of some sort there was a little bit of exaggeration involved. Maybe it was the dramatic way they were said or the intensity of the announcers voice, but the similarity between the ads and the Chuck Norris meme did not escape my two young sons. Soon the commercial would come on and one of them would say "Jason Allen invented scotch tape but let someone else take credit because he didn't need the money" or "Jason Allen worked with the Babylonians on the development of zero" or "Jason Allen advised Alexander the Great on strategies to consolidate his empire" (*side note - I have strange but intelligent children) and many many others.
I'd still take a campaign like that over a smear campaign any day. Towards the end of the last presidential race I was waiting for the McCain-Palin camp to break out "Sarah Palin may be a woman but at least she's white" or something like that. I do recall seeing one run on election day during The Price Is Right that showed a weird cardboard-cut-out-looking Obama in a rowboat in the middle of a stormy sea saying something along the lines of "Obama's policies would sink our nation and we'll all die horrible deaths at the hands of terrorists" -not exactly that but similar enough to be shocking.
I predict this campaign season will see some of the most ridiculous hyperbole to date. "That other guy is the devil incarnate! He wants to defile your firstborn sons and eat your dogs." "The other candidate is a closet zombie. He will cut funding to medicare so he can eat Grandma's brain!" "My opponent uses baby seals as clubs to beat baby whales!" "Candidate B wants to sleep with your spouse and has supported legislation that would require all toasters to only have one setting - burn everything!"
I fear it will be far more nefarious and dangerous than that..."My opponent believes responsible use of fiscal and monetary policy can ease the economy out of a recession and prevent a depression! That's a lie! Good ol' American ingenuity is what will save our economy. Let banks fail! If people lose their life savings, it's their own fault for putting it in a risky bank! I support trade reduction and tariffs as a way to boost internal production! We need to have fixed exchange rates to show the world our dollar is better! We need to spend more money proving our military dominance to the world and less money on research and development of unnecessary new technologies! We already have good ol' American technology, why would we need new ones? 'Green' Technologies are for hippies, we'll never run out of oil! We're number one, we're perfect as we are, it's everyone else that needs to change!"
I'd still take a campaign like that over a smear campaign any day. Towards the end of the last presidential race I was waiting for the McCain-Palin camp to break out "Sarah Palin may be a woman but at least she's white" or something like that. I do recall seeing one run on election day during The Price Is Right that showed a weird cardboard-cut-out-looking Obama in a rowboat in the middle of a stormy sea saying something along the lines of "Obama's policies would sink our nation and we'll all die horrible deaths at the hands of terrorists" -not exactly that but similar enough to be shocking.
I predict this campaign season will see some of the most ridiculous hyperbole to date. "That other guy is the devil incarnate! He wants to defile your firstborn sons and eat your dogs." "The other candidate is a closet zombie. He will cut funding to medicare so he can eat Grandma's brain!" "My opponent uses baby seals as clubs to beat baby whales!" "Candidate B wants to sleep with your spouse and has supported legislation that would require all toasters to only have one setting - burn everything!"
I fear it will be far more nefarious and dangerous than that..."My opponent believes responsible use of fiscal and monetary policy can ease the economy out of a recession and prevent a depression! That's a lie! Good ol' American ingenuity is what will save our economy. Let banks fail! If people lose their life savings, it's their own fault for putting it in a risky bank! I support trade reduction and tariffs as a way to boost internal production! We need to have fixed exchange rates to show the world our dollar is better! We need to spend more money proving our military dominance to the world and less money on research and development of unnecessary new technologies! We already have good ol' American technology, why would we need new ones? 'Green' Technologies are for hippies, we'll never run out of oil! We're number one, we're perfect as we are, it's everyone else that needs to change!"
Monday, May 3, 2010
Archival Edition
I've been asked several times to repost the comics I used to do. I can't remember where I used to host them and it was under an email address I no longer have because the company is completely gone. Here are the ones I still have (except for two, I'll save those for another day - for mystery!).
The first set was done in MS Paint
11-20-06
11-23-06
11-24-06
12-21-06 Exam week, what can you do.
12-23-06 This really happened!
12-30-06 I still feel this way about the schwans man
01-03-07 The haircut is different but the Dave is the same. His ability to catastrophically lose things he had like ten seconds ago is adorable and entertaining.
01-14-07 Even if you'd been there, I can't guarantee this would be funny. I laughed so at least one of us did.
01-13-07 The McDonalds near the college I did my undergrad at was notorious for not giving dipping sauce, napkins, straws, or anything that could be considered an "extra" but they'd still get your hopes up...
01-15-07 I had this guy as a teacher once, to his credit it was January and it probably helped keep his lip warm but a mustache would have been more socially acceptable. I mean, c'mon, he was shaving his upper lip, he had the razor right there - so close, but so far away.
01-29-07 Who thought this video game was a good idea (because it was an AWESOME idea)
02-05-07 This is still pretty accurate, too. From this I infer my jokes are timeless.
02-07-07 First foray into using Gimp instead of MS Paint. Three years later, I'm still a video game widow. I think this should have been "the new elder scrolls" and I'm pretty sure I updated the comic page but didn't save it to the ol' archive.
02-21-07 This had a hilarious backstory, too. I wish I could remember what it was. BJ knows! (as in DJ BJ G)
02-23-07 This is the last comic in the archive. I had a few more but who knows what happened to them. Then, life hit the fan, and so it goes. Here I am. I still have this green shirt, too. Got it at value village back in '96 or something like that. Another video game inspired post. What a nerd.
The first set was done in MS Paint
11-20-06
11-23-06
11-24-06
12-21-06 Exam week, what can you do.
12-23-06 This really happened!
12-30-06 I still feel this way about the schwans man
01-03-07 The haircut is different but the Dave is the same. His ability to catastrophically lose things he had like ten seconds ago is adorable and entertaining.
01-14-07 Even if you'd been there, I can't guarantee this would be funny. I laughed so at least one of us did.
01-13-07 The McDonalds near the college I did my undergrad at was notorious for not giving dipping sauce, napkins, straws, or anything that could be considered an "extra" but they'd still get your hopes up...
01-15-07 I had this guy as a teacher once, to his credit it was January and it probably helped keep his lip warm but a mustache would have been more socially acceptable. I mean, c'mon, he was shaving his upper lip, he had the razor right there - so close, but so far away.
01-29-07 Who thought this video game was a good idea (because it was an AWESOME idea)
02-05-07 This is still pretty accurate, too. From this I infer my jokes are timeless.
02-07-07 First foray into using Gimp instead of MS Paint. Three years later, I'm still a video game widow. I think this should have been "the new elder scrolls" and I'm pretty sure I updated the comic page but didn't save it to the ol' archive.
02-21-07 This had a hilarious backstory, too. I wish I could remember what it was. BJ knows! (as in DJ BJ G)
02-23-07 This is the last comic in the archive. I had a few more but who knows what happened to them. Then, life hit the fan, and so it goes. Here I am. I still have this green shirt, too. Got it at value village back in '96 or something like that. Another video game inspired post. What a nerd.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Why economics is broken
I don't hate economics (which would suck if I did since it's, y'know, my career) in it's uncorrupted form I love it. It's like a direly ill friend, I can't just walk away. I want to save and it purify it from the people, who in their desire to understand it better or "harness its power" or just generally look like scholarly smarter-than-you people, have managed to convolute and obfuscate it to the point that no one agrees how anything works anymore. Now it's all about "reputations" and "science" rather than what it was at its core - the study of choice. It's a philosophy people! I'm not saying math has no place, it is very useful for determining how one thing affects another thing (among lots of other things). It's just they keep sticking math into everything where it doesn't belong like some sort of crazy math-panacea (like the people who think duct tape can fix EVERYTHING). I really do feel bad for all the math nerds a few decades ago who couldn't find jobs in their field, I just wish they would have stayed away from economics because they broke it and now it doesn't work right anymore.
These "models" we are continually creating are no more representative of reality than runway models are representative of the female stock in any given wal-mart. When basic assumptions are flawed and not connected to the real world, we can't expect any findings based on the model to actually apply to reality either. Economics can make models that are snapshots, they show a still image of how something works at that given second. Which would be great if nothing ever changed but life isn't static - it is dynamic. Everything changes constantly, and there are way too many forces at work to ever come back to some arbitrary-chosen equilibrium. Far too many models are so simplified that they leave out anything that can't be specifically quantified, which in the unfortunate area I've fallen into means that most of the things that have an effect are ignored in favor of effects that are negligible but measurable.
Why are economists so obsessed with equilibrium? Because it's easier to work with (or they all have OCD, with which I can totally sympathize). In that respect it follows a pattern set by life in general, that of balance (go Taoism!), and maybe that's what I love most about economics. A sine wave is a perfect "model" for life. Everything in life is in a dynamic state of being acted on by opposite forces - happy/sad, good/bad etc. Life is a rollercoaster, right, and in the long run it averages out (aka equilibrium). Too many economists seem to have forgotten that; equilibrium has become the destination, not the ride.
Remember what Keynes said, "in the long run, we're all dead."
BONUS QUOTE: To support my point that math is useful but tends hyper-focus so much on one tiny piece of a problem that it ends up missing the overall point, I relay what my younger son said to his older brother who would not shut up about various Pokemon stats when all I wanted to do was make a groudon sing "Reflections" and a rayquaza sing "Bang A Gong" - "SHUT UP! NOBODY CARES ABOUT YOUR SCIENCE!"
These "models" we are continually creating are no more representative of reality than runway models are representative of the female stock in any given wal-mart. When basic assumptions are flawed and not connected to the real world, we can't expect any findings based on the model to actually apply to reality either. Economics can make models that are snapshots, they show a still image of how something works at that given second. Which would be great if nothing ever changed but life isn't static - it is dynamic. Everything changes constantly, and there are way too many forces at work to ever come back to some arbitrary-chosen equilibrium. Far too many models are so simplified that they leave out anything that can't be specifically quantified, which in the unfortunate area I've fallen into means that most of the things that have an effect are ignored in favor of effects that are negligible but measurable.
Why are economists so obsessed with equilibrium? Because it's easier to work with (or they all have OCD, with which I can totally sympathize). In that respect it follows a pattern set by life in general, that of balance (go Taoism!), and maybe that's what I love most about economics. A sine wave is a perfect "model" for life. Everything in life is in a dynamic state of being acted on by opposite forces - happy/sad, good/bad etc. Life is a rollercoaster, right, and in the long run it averages out (aka equilibrium). Too many economists seem to have forgotten that; equilibrium has become the destination, not the ride.
Remember what Keynes said, "in the long run, we're all dead."
BONUS QUOTE: To support my point that math is useful but tends hyper-focus so much on one tiny piece of a problem that it ends up missing the overall point, I relay what my younger son said to his older brother who would not shut up about various Pokemon stats when all I wanted to do was make a groudon sing "Reflections" and a rayquaza sing "Bang A Gong" - "SHUT UP! NOBODY CARES ABOUT YOUR SCIENCE!"
Why is it so hard to stay focu-hey! sparkles!
I desperately need to get work on the (several) papers I have due soon. I don't understand why I can't just do it. Yesterday I had a decent excuse after playing "Who wants a concussion?" with the shower and losing but today I should be able to just typety-type and whip up some economic lit-review gold. Yet I stare at it. I think it's because of the strong aversion I have to doing anything that I have to do. Maybe it's why I picked economics instead of history for a MA. Having to write about history would just ruin it.
On a vaguely related note, how cool would it be if you could transfer allergies to things you didn't like in the first place; like how I can't (but still do) eat tomatoes. What if I could just switch it to broccoli instead? Bam - instant better excuse to avoid something I hate, hello spaghetti-os...
On a vaguely related note, how cool would it be if you could transfer allergies to things you didn't like in the first place; like how I can't (but still do) eat tomatoes. What if I could just switch it to broccoli instead? Bam - instant better excuse to avoid something I hate, hello spaghetti-os...
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Erudite Hick is Erudite
Long awaited, heavily anticipated, nonsensical ravings of me are returning to the internets. I know I have done this before, I build up a small following and then I stop updating and lose the log-in information but this time is different! I have much greater responsibilities to shirk (and ADD medicine, and a more stable email address).
Why write about things I have to write when I could write about the random fun crap that's cluttering up my brain? Really, who wants to read about math-y, ol' economics when they can read about underpants gnomes and liquor-inspired adventures or whatever? There is no "Journal of Exciting Adventures and Underpants Gnomes." PLUS scholarly journals usually frown on profanity, which is unfortunate because economics would be a lot cooler with more profanity (and probably make a lot more sense).
Example-"we have seen a small quarterly increase in domestic production but it is anticipated that unemployment rates will probably remain stable for several more quarters while interest rates are expected to..." BLA BLA BLA (TLDL)*
People hear that and say "OMFG?!?! that's so many words and they all sound BAD! Everybody PANIC!!!!!!"
*but* Translated into not-boring: "Shit was fucked, but it's not as fucked as it was, give it a little bit and it should stop sucking completely"
Then people would say "Yay, things are getting better, let's celebrate with malt liquor!"
*sigh* when I am Empress-of-all-that-doesn't-suck....but that is a post for another day.
*TLDL similar to TLDR - too long, didn't read also the newly invented TLGDSTAT&G - too long, got distracted, started thinking about triangles and goats
Why write about things I have to write when I could write about the random fun crap that's cluttering up my brain? Really, who wants to read about math-y, ol' economics when they can read about underpants gnomes and liquor-inspired adventures or whatever? There is no "Journal of Exciting Adventures and Underpants Gnomes." PLUS scholarly journals usually frown on profanity, which is unfortunate because economics would be a lot cooler with more profanity (and probably make a lot more sense).
Example-"we have seen a small quarterly increase in domestic production but it is anticipated that unemployment rates will probably remain stable for several more quarters while interest rates are expected to..." BLA BLA BLA (TLDL)*
People hear that and say "OMFG?!?! that's so many words and they all sound BAD! Everybody PANIC!!!!!!"
*but* Translated into not-boring: "Shit was fucked, but it's not as fucked as it was, give it a little bit and it should stop sucking completely"
Then people would say "Yay, things are getting better, let's celebrate with malt liquor!"
*sigh* when I am Empress-of-all-that-doesn't-suck....but that is a post for another day.
*TLDL similar to TLDR - too long, didn't read also the newly invented TLGDSTAT&G - too long, got distracted, started thinking about triangles and goats
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