Elsewhere (154)
Daniel Hannan on stats and cover stories:
“The rich are richer and the poor are poorer,” says the left-of-centre British newspaper, The Independent, on its front page. That phrase is so common, so facile, so glib, that it is almost a truism. Except that it’s not true… On almost every measure of absolute wealth, the poor are getting richer. Because this fact seems counterintuitive, some people scrabble around for data that seem to contradict it. The Independent’s rather tendentious use of savings as its main measure of wealth is typical… The same partiality explains why leftists clutch so determinedly at their bizarre definition of poverty as having a household income less than 60 per cent of the mean – a measure which gives Britain a greater rate of poverty than Bangladesh.
And Natalie Solent on minimum wage laws and the subsequent, inevitable, dancing around the obvious:
I came across this article asking “Why are so many Seattle restaurants closing lately?” The writer, Sara Jones, goes through the possible answers to this question at some length. Ownership changes. “Concept switches,” whatever they might be. Premises too big. Ingredients too pricey. Menus too esoteric. Too loud. Too quiet. Managers who do too much. Managers who do too little. Many and various are the potentialities diligently listed by Ms Jones. It is a little hard to see why a plague of Managers Doing Too Much should suddenly descend on so many of Seattle’s eateries all at once, though. Could there be something else behind it, some really strange and frightening phenomenon whose name no one in Seattle dare speak? […] In fairness to the author, she does discuss the effect of the minimum wage hike eventually, after having exhausted all other options. She’s doing better than many.
As Anthony Anton of the Washington Restaurant Association puts it, “It’s not a political problem; it’s a math problem.” And I was rather taken by this comment here, spotted by Sam Duncan and offered in reply to a typically pious and self-flattering leftist:
No you don’t get to get away with that. You don’t get to advocate policies [i.e., higher minimum wage laws] which allow you to use force to deprive people of their jobs and their opportunities, and then claim that those who would have provided the jobs are the heartless ones. You don’t get to trot out the insipid, mindless, tendentious talking points about how you are morally or intellectually superior when every “solution” you proffer is destructive and is based upon forcing others to do your bidding. You don’t get to decide whose job is worth preserving and whose isn’t and still claim the moral high ground.
As yet the leftist in question has not seen fit to respond. Feel free to share your own links and snippets in the comments below.
The “pious and self-flattering leftist” (GlobalYogi) said:
“This thread and discussion has been hijacked by thoer [sic] who believe greed is a virtue. Those are the same sociopaths and trolls that are uncapable [sic] of having a [sic] intelligent discussion about community or society, the same unintelligent trolls who think socialism and communism as the same thing, the same people who think Obama is a American hating Muslim. You made my my [sic] point. See ya.”
Upthread I mostly saw people talking about tiny profit margins and numbers that don’t add up.
Maths is scary.
Maths is scary.
Well, I don’t think he, GlobalYogi, was there to engage in good faith with any of the points being made in the article or by other commenters. He didn’t seem interested in anything beyond his own self-flattering conceit. He was there, I think, to let everyone know how superior he is. That he cares more than they do, and is therefore right regardless of any facts or practical consequences.
Which made the riposte quoted above all the more pointed.
This comment at Samizdata, by Tim Newman, also seems relevant:
Which is why, on the rare occasions I visit a restaurant, I generally leave a tip.
Hannan is right, of course, just as he’s indispensable. However, the argument that’s maybe, possibly, remotely going to sink in on the left is the argument that recognizes that the left’s one-note strategy about “wealth” is Robin Hoodesque: Force as the mover of goodness is a faulty premise.
The left’s notorious use of force and aggression – handmaidens of their eternal rage and ignobility – is morally wrong. It violates non-aggression as a principle. Envy and covetousness are wrong.
The left may be deranged but here it is morally repugnant and it needs to deal with that in public.
Arguing numbers, facts, and figures will never work; the left is not obligated to observe or honor reality as a matter of course. Hit them where they may, just may, feel it. Force them to see that they’re wrong. They might just break under the load.
I was recently dealing with a relative–a union member with a very good job and income–who was waxing moral about increasing minimum wage to “help the poor.” I listed for awhile before finally piping up:
“The reason you support a doubling of the minimum wage is because you contract, as well as every union contract, is based upon it. If Congress increases the minimum wage by $7.00 per hour, every union worker will get that amount of a raise, as well.”
Imagine what that would do to the economy.
Of course, it’s easier to put on a facade of altruism, when you’re talking about other people’s money.
Somewhat related to this crop of stories …
I was listening to the BBC’s ‘Moral Maze’ this week, which was on the subject of Social Inclusion and as a consequence, I overheard one of the guests answer the question “Do you think we can really improve integration through geography and architecture?” like this:
Um, well, I’ve, I’ve always lived on council estates.
Yes, because that’s obviously the clearest way to answer that question. The guest goes on:
Um, and I’ve always known that architecture has been important to us even though perhaps architects have never really cared much about our communities or, um, the people that live in them [ …] The level of class prejudice and snobbery in Britain today is incredible.
… and on, though still not actually answering the question:
Well, I’m, erm, I’m erm, obviously I’m a, you know, I’m a class warrior. What I want to see is an equal society. You know, I don’t want to see social mobility [sic] I want to see our class rising together […]
The guest is also keen to let us know that details of her biography alone entitle her to unassailable opinions on society:
I don’t know anything about rich people […] What I’m saying, I have no experience of rich people. I’m a working class person and I know about working class people [… ] I’m not sure if I could have a class hatred what I’ve done, my experience, is from being a working class woman growing up on a council estate [ …] I’m questioning the value of the wealthy, of the values they have.
And just who is this fearless class warrior and working class woman from the council estates?
She is Dr Lisa Mckenzie – yes, you read that right, she does have a Phd – and she is currently
a Research Fellow at the London School of Economics.
Just let that sink in for a moment.
A research fellow.
At the LSE.
And perhaps while that’s sinking in, perhaps take a look at this video in which Mckenzie repeatedly pronounces the word ‘mural’ incorrectly as a ‘Muriel’. And perhaps also take in her buffoonish performance on the original BBC discussion here, from about the 10:40 mark.
Of course, it’s easier to put on a facade of altruism when you’re talking about other people’s money.
Absolutely.
And it’s much easier to advocate raising the minimum wage to X, and then waiting to be applauded, if you don’t have to think about all the practicalities that bear upon the employers whose businesses you’re talking about. And it’s not uncommon for such advocates and activists to themselves be employed in the public sector, where very different considerations and a very different ethos are often in play.
It’s also worth noting that the Seattle City Council is currently boasting that it “unanimously approved the adoption of a $15 per hour minimum wage, making Seattle the first major city in America to take such an action to address income inequality.” Meanwhile, dozens of low-wage workers – the very people the Council claims to be helping – are being made redundant, with many more to follow.
Just let that sink in for a moment.
A research fellow.
At the LSE.
[ Gasps, splutters. ] How dare you question Dr Mckenzie’s competence? She’s an academic, damn you, an ethnographer, no less. She’s even embedded. Which, she says, means she’s “not trying to find out something.” Instead, her self-declared purpose is to “challenge.” Hence, presumably, the garish hair. And so she’s “challenging” the “negative stereotypes” of rough council house neighbourhoods, and she’s doing this while proudly showing us graffiti – sorry, “muriels” – that actually confirm all of those “negative stereotypes” about litter, vandalism, gangs, car theft and, as she puts it, “young people who have died on the estate.”
And while a police helicopter rumbles overhead.
And they say academic standards have fallen. Why, the very idea.
And while a police helicopter rumbles overhead.
That was like a comedy sketch.
That was like a comedy sketch.
It’s the Clown Quarter of academia, where anything is possible. Except of course realism.
‘Equality’ and ‘social justice’ are the cries of the hopelessly incompetent and envious. It is also the hollow bleating of the hopelessly stupid who hear the pagan chants of the alleged 99% as voices in their heads that must be obeyed.
Then there is their leadership at all levels … who exercise their greed at the public trough.
R. Sherman…
If Congress increases the minimum wage by $7.00 per hour, every union worker will get that amount of a raise, as well.”
Well, perhaps every union worker until that company itself starts to lose business due to increased labor costs that must be absorbed somewhere, either by raising costs, increasing automation (and thus reducing the demand for labor), etc. Some organizations can plod on for a while but the Gods of the Copybook Headings ultimately demand their due. And thus, 21st century Detroit.
heh…that of course should read “…by raising prices…” not “costs”. obviously…
And while a police helicopter rumbles overhead.
Start the week with a laugh, I say.
Start the week with a laugh, I say.
Bear in mind the University of Nottingham thought that clip suitable for advertising its sociology department and “centre for advanced studies.” Those are the standards they expect.
Just let that sink in for a moment.
A research fellow.
At the LSE.
From Yes Minister:
Cabinet Secretary: “Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes”, as they say. But Sir Humphrey would quote it in English, roughly translated as “Beware Greeks bringing gifts”; as Hacker (with a slight sneer) was at the LSE.
Hacker’s Special Political Advisor*: (offended) So was I.
Cabinet Secretary: Oh, (and with forceful emphasis) I am so sorry.
* Fondly known as Mr Weasel IIRC.
“The Independent’s rather tendentious use of savings as its main measure of wealth is typical”
“Look! Our deliberate manipulation of the economy to increase current spending at the expense of savings has resulted in people having fewer savings. We must have the power to manipulate it even further!”
“I’m questioning the value of the wealthy, of the values they have.”
In the same breath as admitting you “don’t know anything about” them.
There isn’t even any point in saying “They must think we’re stupid” any more. It’s obvious.
She’s an academic, damn you …
Ha! I actually burst out laughing when I read that, which drew a few quizzical looks.
Bear in mind the University of Nottingham thought that clip suitable for advertising …
To my untrained eye, the video looks to have been produced by competent professionals – which begs the question – why did no one behind the camera think to tell her it’s a mural, not a Muriel, and simply retake the shot?
I guess it’s possible that she really is that dense and the crew were simply too embarrassed to point out her error, but I think it more likely that it was a piece of affectation that she was deliberately using to provoke people into correcting her – you, know, ‘Go on I dare you to tell me I’m pronouncing it wrong!’
As you point out, anyone who starts by telling you working class people are thoroughly stigmatised for being too violent before then implying as heavily as possible the lives of the very same people are cut short by gang violence and (it’s hinted) TWOCing a car and getting wrapped around a lamppost is as stupid as it is thoroughly dishonest.
She sounds like nothing more than a charlatan exploiting her ‘genuine’ working class bona fides, playing on their timidity and embarrassment in front more thoroughly middle class socialists.
Except that’s the biggest bullshit of all – for her, to hold a doctorate degree and to be a research fellow at LSE – and yet to still play at being the ragamuffin is a profound slap in the face to anyone still on the estates who doesn’t have her opportunities and can’t extend those opportunities and life chances to their children.
Sociology – what a pathetic joke of a discipline that’s allowed itself to become.
And oh my goodness, I just remembered – the good doctor has decided to throw her hat into the political ring as a candidate for the Class War party.
… why did no one behind the camera think to tell her it’s a mural, not a Muriel, and simply retake the shot?
This immediately comes to mind:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pBM6qhMnsw
This: “I’m sorry, but exactly how does one misinterpret a punch to the face?”
The class war party are fielding candidates in a bourgeois democratic election? Pussies.
Except that’s the biggest bullshit of all – for her, to hold a doctorate degree and to be a research fellow at LSE – and yet to still play at being the ragamuffin is a profound slap in the face to any thinking being.
FIFY.
This woman is NOT an anomaly. This sort of “thinking” runs throughout the academic world, not just the clown quarter. Unless we include (as I suppose we should) economics, political science, and philosophy. OK, philosophy has probably always been clown quarter to some extent. Basically anything non-STEM. This is a very deep problem and we are fooling ourselves to think otherwise. What really scares me is how the words one needs to use to fight this madness have been appropriated and re-purposed both to support the leftist agenda and to denigrate ideas and institutions that have served western civilization so well.
‘Sociology – what a pathetic joke of a discipline that’s allowed itself to be.’
I am embarrassed to admit that I had to look up what an
ethnographer actually does.
How many more of these mindless ‘disciplines’ are there to still be foisted upon us?
Oh, and what wtp said.
“…a profound slap in the face to anyone still on the estates who doesn’t have her opportunities…”
Splitting hairs, I know, but for most people I don’t think it’s a lack of opportunity so much as an excess of honesty. Postgraduate degrees in sociology can be “earned” by pretty much anyone with the stomach to turn up and make the right (or should that be Left?) noises. People like Mckenzie still, thankfully, represent a minority in that they manage to sustain a hatred of reality while having absolutely no curiosity about it. Hence her astonishing, straight-faced admission that she’s “not trying to find out something.”
I wonder whether she’ll ever try to find out where her salary comes from.
Do NOT look under the hood, for the love of God. Don’t you now how many Important People will have be proved wrong?
We Can’t Have That.
I’m sure you understand…
Basically anything non-STEM
And climate science.
I do apologise if someone else has already brought this to your attention, but this really is the ne plus ultra of grotesque subsidised art:
http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/whalesale/
Still waiting for someone to answer Rush’s question from years ago. Let me update it:
“If higher minimum wage doesn’t cost jobs nor harm the economy, then why $15 – why not $25 ? or $50 ?”
THE RICH WHITE HAVE MORE BECAUSE THEY DESERVE MORE!
…how does one misinterpret a punch to the face?
I’m sorry, I thought we weren’t going to talk about Jeremy Clarkson?
this really is the ne plus ultra of grotesque subsidised art:
Am I the only one who feels uncomfortable looking at all those… er… nose?
“It’s not a political problem; it’s a math problem.”
It’s not just restaurants.
http://money.cnn.com/2015/02/23/smallbusiness/minimum-wage-bookstore/index.html?section=money_smbusiness
There isn’t even any point in saying “They must think we’re stupid” any more. It’s obvious.
Well, you do have to marvel at a supposed intellectual, one employed by statusful academic institutions, who happily describes her job as “not trying to find out something,” and who sees her role as that of an activist, of “challenging” values that she doesn’t specify and of which she admits to being totally ignorant. Someone who claims to be fighting “negative stereotypes” while obliviously confirming them.
Evidently, ability wasn’t a decisive factor in her getting the job. Perhaps her political views were felt to be more important.
If higher minimum wage doesn’t cost jobs nor harm the economy, then why $15 – why not $25 ? or $50 ?
Last year, Scotland’s own Council of People’s Commissars attempted to pass legislation to enforce a minimum wage of £7.65 per hour within any firm bidding for a public sector contract.
It was voted down – but not for the obvious reasons that it was authoritarian and economically bonkers.
It failed because they thought it might displease the European Union. And when you have to rely on the EU to put the brakes on madcap socialist capers, you know there’s a serious problem.
This comment at Samizdata, by Tim Newman, also seems relevant:
So does this article by Mike Rowe (he of Dirty Jobs fame). I read this a week or so before posting my comment here.
If higher minimum wage doesn’t cost jobs nor harm the economy, then why $15 – why not $25 ? or $50 ?
The argument I like to make is that, as an engineer I’m all for it. Make it $25/hr at least. Many jobs be created. The jobs will be for software, hardware, systems, etc. engineers designing and building automation machines and robots and such at the cost of jobs for most low-end wage workers at McD’s, etc. Things then get real quiet. Which is something that happens with more and more frequency when I speak up about something.
Perhaps a new thread: The IRONIES of the Left:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/03/16/two-students-barred-from-meeting-at-ryerson-university-because-they-were-not-racialised/
Also re Tim Newton, I also saw that Mike Rowe column (a bit of a fan). At the end he references:
At the end of the story at that link we find:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/18/socialist-13-hour_n_6008432.html
Note who is “hypocritical”. What I said above about the words needed to fight this madness being re-purposed.
Sorry…Tim Newman. Newman
The police helicopter rumbling overhead was, in fact, just the arrival of more Oppression of the Workers. Nothing to do with law and order, though it could have been the Pronunciation Authorities hunting down the odd Muriel.
I am embarrassed to admit that I had to look up what an ethnographer actually does.
Is it not there in the name?
Well, maybe not if you went to the LSE, I suppose.
Please forgive my over-posting, but at the HuffPo article I link above (originating from the Mike Rowe article referenced by Tim Newman), I found this blessed comment from and “educator”:
A man whose short bio you can amuse yourself with here:
http://frontdoor.valenciacollege.edu/faculty.cfm?uid=jraskin1&CFID=4749739&CFTOKEN=abde6ca263ab638b-9231B487-9A63-3660-67FF574E70E4F84D&jsessionid=F2E6067C399E74299A470C3C6FDEB64F.cfusion
This is the problem. It is wide and it is deep. Yes he’s a humanities professor with a PhD in philosophy and thus “clown quarter”, but this is also a small community college outside of Orlando, not Berkeley or Duke or Cornell. Why are even our community colleges rife with this idiocy?
The Jay Raskins among us have rejected the world of objective reality and substituted a fantasy of their own making. And yet, these self-righteous credentialed morons are convinced the rest of us are idiots.
@ wtp
Just read his bio:
I am not ready to make a narrative of my life.
I’m almost tempted to use his email address to ask him what that means.
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/video-woman-arrested-at-mia-after-yelling-about-war-on-venezuela-smoking-on-plane-7541984
Karen Halnon, a 52-year-old Pennsylvania resident, was arrested at Miami International Airport over the weekend after going on a two-hour rant about how the United States had declared war on Venezuela.
….
Halnon is an associate professor of sociology at Penn State-Abington and is the author of the books The Consumption of Inequality: Weapons of Mass Distraction and Webbing Vicissitudes of Forgiveness.
Halnon is an associate professor of sociology
Heh. Punchline.
more on the prof of lunacy.
http://www.phillymag.com/news/2015/03/17/karen-halnon-penn-state-abington-smoking-on-plane-venezuela/
ac1,
For reasons that escape me, the spam filter has taken exception to you. If anything else gets snagged in the filter, email me and I’ll shake it free.
Tim Newman is spot on. But, apart from costing jobs, raising the minimum wage also (a) reduces the payment of in-work benefits (by which the welfare state subsidises certain employers) and (b) increases productivity, in part from incentivising automation where appropriate. Hence, France has high unemployment but high productivity per worker, the latter being a result of excluding the least productive 10% from the workforce.
“She asked them if they had been marginalized or racialized, and when they both responded ‘no,’ that’s when she said the meeting was only for those who felt they had been,” said Anne McNeilly, an associate professor at the Ryerson School of Journalism.
Ms. Knope and Mr. Hewitt, who are both visibly white…
So.
Blackface it is.
Why are even our community colleges rife with this idiocy?
Because the faculty factories are.
Higher-education faculty is extremely incestuous. All those Humanities graduate students have to find employment somewhere, regardless of the prestige of the institution.
Universities are left-wing seminaries that crank out left-wing activists as their primary output. On purpose.
Long march through the institutions and all that.
Let us not forget the original purpose of the minimum wage in the U.S., from a comment in the Seattle Mag thread:
MinWage is SUPPOSED to inhibit employment and lookie lookie, that’s what it does.
Also, “wage slave” is an oxymoron.
Because the faculty factories are.
Not entirely. Mostly because we are suckers for (again with the misnomers) “higher education”. We can’t begin to stop this madness until we cut the funding. We can’t cut the funding so long as we permit the idiocy to go unchallenged.
And an aside (sorry to regurgitate a sore subject), we can’t challenge the idiocy so long as the politicians in the best position to challenge the “higher education” priesthood are beholden, or are perceived to be beholden, to a priesthood of their own. IYKWIMAITTYD.
Halnon is an associate professor of sociology
From the update: “Listen, the point is, I am a sociologist, and I live in an intellectual world.”
We can’t begin to stop this madness until we cut the funding.
Which funding: Guaranteed student loans? Pell grants? Donations? Endowments?
If you follow Instapundit, you know one of his favorite topics is the higher-education bubble (written a book about it he has).
The idiot system will collapse under its own weight when (more) people realize that the tuition isn’t anywhere near worth the investment/debt.
Then watch for academics to howl about society’s anti-intellectualism and materialism.
More than they do now, I mean.
In the process of emptying out our insane asylums, we appear to have fully staff sociology departments near and far.
The idiot system will collapse under its own weight when (more) people realize that the tuition isn’t anywhere near worth the investment/debt.
You mean like what happened with the real estate market? Without political pressure, the system will simply go looking for “new revenue”. College education is being pushed as a new “right”. In the mean time, the problem continues to perpetuate itself, creating more and more minions who view access to the new religion as a new right. If the investment isn’t worth the return, the blame will go to the evil rich who got theirs, etc. etc. etc. according to the ingrained mythology we have seen presented over and over again. And we schmucks who support the whole mess continue to get fleeced. Even if it does collapse, it will be quite a ways down the road. Ultimately who gets left holding the bag?
Cut government funding to non-STEM. Shine the light on the numerous mini-Ward Churchills. Obviously you don’t cut donations and endowments. That’s just plain wrong, not to mention impossible and cultural suicide, and thus a strawman excuse for doing nothing.
And just to be perfectly clear, I have absolutely no problem with institutions employing nutjob professors who are funded by private donations and endowments. Much like a bar, such institutions need a few such characters around to give the joint “atmosphere”.
She asked them if they had been marginalized or racialized, and when they both responded ‘no,’ that’s when she said the meeting was only for those who felt they had been
at which point they should have been welcome.
@ bgates
Yes. But now you’re bringing logic into it.
And that will never do.
and thus a strawman excuse for doing nothing.
As if I were in a position to do something in the first place.
Halnon is an associate professor of sociology
Incidentally, Dr Halnon’s professional interests include “marijuana,” “Marxist theory” and “women and madness.”
In the Clown Quarter of academia, the jokes just write themselves.
Another feminist intellectual roars at the stars:
Ms Davoran “hates sexism and prejudice,” and wants to “have honest conversations with people, especially those who misunderstand the issues.”
[ Added: ]
Note Ms Davoran’s attempt to sidestep the contradictions of her worldview by redefining words in ways that are absurdly tendentious or simply question-begging. And so racism is only racism when white people do it, and sexism is only sexism when men do it. How incredibly convenient. And this isn’t some random idiocy. It’s been taught. By people who get paid to blunt the minds of anyone sufficient young and credulous.
“Ms. Knope and Mr. Hewitt, who are both visibly white…”
As opposed to invisibly white, which may be one of the greater unseen crimes against humanity.
Ms Davoran “hates sexism and prejudice,” and wants to “have honest conversations with people, especially those who misunderstand the issues.”
Why do first year students think they’re in a position to educate everyone else?
Why do first year students think they’re in a position to educate everyone else?
Assuming your question isn’t rhetorical, my guess would be vanity. And few are so vain – or so eager to assert their status, even delusional status – as people who regard themselves as progressive warriors. But then I’m terribly sceptical. Wickedly so, in fact.
Why do first year students think they’re in a position to educate everyone else?
Simply, because they don’t yet know enough to know how much they don’t know.
T’was ever thus with youth.
The only difference is that that state used to be seen as something to educate them out of.
The Monbiot fatuity continues.
Furious George is appealing to Oxford alumni to renounce their degrees if the Uni doesn’t divest from the exploitation of fossil fuels.
https://twitter.com/GeorgeMonbiot/status/577469336526311424
I seem to recall that last year he was backing the ‘Yes’ vote for an independent Scotland; which (at least according to the SNP) was going to fund itself with the proceeds from North Sea oil and natural gas.
Furious George is appealing to Oxford alumni to renounce their degrees if the Uni doesn’t divest from the exploitation of fossil fuels.
It’s arrogant and fatuous all the way down.
‘It’s arrogant and fatuous all the way down’.
As ‘Casmilus’ puts it on the Twitter thread:
‘@GeorgeMonbiot please follow-up by quitting as a Guardian columnist, George, as you won’t be qualified anymore’.
Why do first year students think they’re in a position to educate everyone else?
As Terry Pratchett explains:
Students arrive at university knowing everything and leave knowing virtually nothing. The surplus knowledge is carefully dried and stored, and that’s why universities are called repositories of knowledge.
RIP
I meant to post on this thread not last weeks…sheesh. Confessions of the left. (HT Rod Dreher).
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/the-sacred-beliefs-of-the-left/
Thought I’d posted this one yesterday, so here goes again . . .
Scott Adams—yes, that Scott Adams—has a report and commentary on My Verdict on Gender Bias in the Workplace