Go, Brooksie

David Brooks, recently revealed as a former paramour of Barbara Walters, writes today about education versus globalization.  Its good in the sense that it is interesting (Mission Accomplished for a Times columnist!).  Reaction welcome.

A snippet:

Globalization is real and important. It’s just not the central force driving economic change. Some Americans have seen their jobs shipped overseas, but global competition has accounted for a small share of job creation and destruction over the past few decades. Capital does indeed flow around the world. But as Pankaj Ghemawat of the Harvard Business School has observed, 90 percent of fixed investment around the world is domestic...

...

The chief force reshaping manufacturing is technological change (hastened by competition with other companies in Canada, Germany or down the street). Thanks to innovation, manufacturing productivity has doubled over two decades...

The central process driving this is not globalization. It’s the skills revolution. We’re moving into a more demanding cognitive age. In order to thrive, people are compelled to become better at absorbing, processing and combining information. This is happening in localized and globalized sectors, and it would be happening even if you tore up every free trade deal ever inked.

...The globalization paradigm leads people to see economic development as a form of foreign policy, as a grand competition between nations and civilizations. These abstractions, called “the Chinese” or “the Indians,” are doing this or that. But the cognitive age paradigm emphasizes psychology, culture and pedagogy — the specific processes that foster learning. It emphasizes that different societies are being stressed in similar ways by increased demands on human capital. If you understand that you are living at the beginning of a cognitive age, you’re focusing on the real source of prosperity and understand that your anxiety is not being caused by a foreigner.

OK, that was a long snippet.

Comments

[kim]

Well, duh.
====

[kim]

The mouth never closes on the English tongue.
=============================

[RSF]

That's a joke about Barbara Walters, right?

[Sue]

David Brooks, recently revealed as a former paramour of Barbara Walters,

??????????? Joke? For real?

[clarice]

I think he's absolutely right thoug very few seem to grasp this.I read yesterday that INDIA is suffering through a labor shortage. Can you imagine! Development is proceeding so quickly there that there is a shortage of even unskilled construction workers.
If you really want to understand what is happening you have to do something like take a long slow ride through Rajasthan.
A trip years ago to Hong Kong made me understand Hayek. A more recent drive through Rajasthan made me understand what we are in a cognitive age--each village had a place for IT access where farmers could figure out what to charge for their products. The village rugmakers had cell phones and permission to take VISa charges so they were no longer at the whim of middlemen..and were for the first time ever living quite well.
Of course, left brain clappers will be left out of this..

[clarice]

Sue,RSF--Different Brooks--Walters writes she once had an affair with then-Senator Brooks. (Who didn't?) Interesting only in that Hill's speech at her Wesley graduation attacked Brooks.

[Sue]

(Who didn't?)

Apparently Geraldo, though not for lack of trying. I know which Brooks she was referring to, but I don't get Tom's post. A joke?

[Jane]

It was Edmund Brooks, former black republican senator from MA - who I actually remember.

[clarice]

Interesting juxtaposition. On the left top of Drudge headers announcing signs of an improved economy--and increased optimism on Wall Street. At center stage, indications that the supers are breaking for Obama and Clinton is toast. Any connection or just coincidence? I think WS is starting to notice that it'll be Obama and he'll be beat.

[clarice]

Yes, Sue, believe it or not Beloved Leader (aka TM) frequently is joking.

[Sue]

Clarice,

I don't get the joke.

[Gmax]

Edward Brooke was a black Republican senator long before that was cool.

[sbw]

The common sense extension of this may not be palatable to those unwilling to face reality. The wise thing for America to do for the continued benefit of its citizens is to export the processes that have made America great.

Rather than extend imperialism -- which illiberals erroneously believe we do -- Americans' interests lie in letting others discover for themselves why what we have works to our benefit, and that it is open for them to try as well. It's not a culture war.

Then, if the American economic engine eventually winds down it will not matter, because people are not promised a job doing what they want to do, where they want to do it. They have an opportunity to do what needs to be done, where such jobs are available.

Preserving America has nothing to do with territory. It means making ideas available to the world, and celebrating when they work.

[Gmax]

Job loss for April announced this AM was 20,000. Economists consensus had been around 80,000 jobs lost, so the report was startling. Unemployment rate actually declined to 5.0%. Market up strong on the fact that economy did not go negative, job losses very moderate and most stimulus impact of rate reductions and federal stimulus still to be felt.

Stock market up big this morning, on the heels of a very good day yesterday. Might be a good time to buy, lots of value still at these levels, Dow has been over 14,000 and at just over 13,000 today.

[Pofarmer]

Yes, the economy is so bad locally that some school bus routes are running 30-45 minutes late because of a lack of drivers. Construction industry has slowed down some, but it sure seems like other areas are taking up the slack.

[Pofarmer]

Economists consensus

I wanna know who the hell these economists are.

It should also tell us something about global warming. Unlike the weather, the economy is ALL man made, and they still can't get it right.

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

Getting to know you...

"And the game counts on that," she said. "It counts on the fact that there's no way that all these people are really going to know who Barack Obama is, so let me paint a different picture really quickly, which hopefully will stick and will distract people from what they're really asking for anyway."

Princeton? Well, maybe it is possible she sat through twenty years of sermons and didn't get what Wright was all about.

[Danube of Thought]

My anti-spam protection is a Symantec product. On three occasions I have had to call their customer service number for assistance. All three times I ended up talking to someone in India. Even with a bit of a language problem, they were all three wonderfully polite, magnificently capable and professional. Purely anecdotal, but I was most impressed, and I followed up by notifying their supervisors of my complete satisfaction.

[Gmax]

Pofarmer

Once upon a time I was econ major. Sitting in class in the time of Jimmy Carter, the prof droned on and on about this curve and how it described the relationship between unemployment and inflation. One up other down and vice versa. Problem was we had high both. I raise my hand, and question why we are learning something that is demonstrably false. Prof look sheepish and mumbles about the theories not having caught up to reality.

Major changed that day to Accounting, at least the accountants knew the difference between a debit and a credit.

[Gmax]

OT

Anyone see the Ras daily tracking poll today? McCain up over Obama +6. It was +3 yesterday. WHOA.

[ben]

Best scenario...Clinton wins all the remaining primaries but still behind in delegates, so goes to the convention. Democrats are forced to nominate what is now their second choice, because he has more delegates, but sparks fly at convention. Clinton backers irritated and frustrated some don't vote, other back McCain or Nader. If this is what Operation Chaos hoped would happen, Rush Limbaugh is a stupendous bastard.

[Menlo Bob]

Babs Walters has had a long rumored association with the country duo Brooks and Dunn.

[Rick Ballard]

"Reaction welcome."

He begins with an unfounded cliche; "American manufacturing is in decline.", which he then autocontradicts within the space of five paragraphs:

Instead of fleeing to Asia, U.S. manufacturing output is up over recent decades. As Thomas Duesterberg of Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI, a research firm, has pointed out, the U.S.’s share of global manufacturing output has actually increased slightly since 1980.

Manufacturing actually rose by 27% between 2001 and 2006.

He does get around to acknowledging that "manufacturing productivity has doubled over two decades" but his prescription that "In order to thrive, people are compelled to become better at absorbing, processing and combining information." is going to run into the "IQ problem" pretty quickly.

Running an airwrench or an electric screwdriver all day long for forty years was only a "good job" in the sense that the UAW or the Machinists were able to effectively extort a wage higher than warranted from suppliers of capital due to assembly plants being relatively (and only relatively) difficult to move. Henry Ford's decision to vertically integrate at the River Rouge Plant can be described as a "visionary disaster" that sealed the death of Michigan's economy - after sixty years of extracting somewhat more than "fair value" from American consumers.

When Brooks states that "We’re moving into a more demanding cognitive age.", what I understand is that wages are going to more accurately reflect differences in intelligence. I doubt that will cheer up a Muddle that has been suckling at the egalitarian teat since birth while imagining themselves to have been born and raised in Lake Woebegone.

IOW - the Dem Panderfest would be successful were it not for the fact that BHO and especially RW engender a vomit reflex within such a large portion of the electorate.

[ajacksonian]

This is where two critical works that help define the modern world come together and into conflict: Wealth of Nations and Law of Nations. While the shift in both economics and views of Nations seem to come into conflict only lately, this has been an ongoing concern for some time and our ability to balance perceived prosperty, on the one hand, with security of nations, on the other, have led to some strange concepts in trade and international relations.

Trade is an inestimable good, that we know from Adam Smith. Yet each nation is to have its own means to secure its needs in manufacture, that we know from Emmerich de Vattel. Together these worked well, while the rate of transport was relatively slow and the rate of advancement likewise slow. Gains in either tended to be minor, but were self-reinforcing: new production techniques for steel led to better ships and faster trade which increased economic productivity between nations.

As nations are to have their own cultural outlook and to secure their own destinies, however, not all nations have had the same ordering of the value of trade and the value of human labor, plus national self-sufficiency in the same balance. Over time this leads to comparitive poverty, while only the worst governed of nations face absolute destitution. That delta between differing goals and outcome has led to harsh political and economic differences over time. Those nations that invest in their own human capital and that is at liberty to invest as it chooses have prospered for material gain. When we see these gains as *good* we must also use our sophistication and advanced views to see that not all nations hold out to that same set of goals and that trade can actually be a harm to poor societies where meager human capital investment is outstripped by automation and high productivity.

If WoN fails anywhere it is in the understanding that agriculture could and would shift due to increased economic capability. In less than a century agriculture, for industrialized nations, moved from pure human based labor to the first animal drawn combines that did picking, sorting and containment of end goods in one shot. That shifted the value of agriculture to be one of an investment in active capital (not just houses and drainage, but farming equipment) that put pure labor based farming at a disadvantage. Agriculture is critical as it not only has a trade function (commodities) but it has a human value function (food). Those on poor farms may have no other way to invest in themselves beyond farming and, for poor nations, there is no government help beyond figuring out trade to ensure that a path out of poverty remains. The differential between human or early human assisted farming and modern GPS Combine based agribusiness is stark as all of the major food crops of corn, wheat, barley and rice are amenable to automation of this type. When lofty trade agreements are pushed that overlook such things, the result is social upheaval and shift in the poorer nation as agriculture is cut from its people as a means of improving their lot in life. The food may be *cheaper* but they have nothing to buy it with save their bodies.

No matter how *good* we think trade is, it must be moderated by nations for their people to ensure the best result of that trade for all involved. That often means that 'free trade' is not the best solution for all nations, and if we cannot recoginize that, then we are far too educated for our own good. And if we can't use trade to help those seeking the greatest liberty and freedom, and who have befriended our nation for generations, then just what is so splendid about it?

[Gmax]

Michigan is a closed shop State, not a right to work State you must join the union if one exists.

The UAW and the Democrat party, coupled with the 67 riots and the busing orders in the mid 60s, are are a toxic cocktail that has created the mess that is Detroit.

Robocop was only a slight exageration of the lawlessness and futility in certain sector of Detroit.

The west side of Michigan, in particular Grand Rapids has done very well even fighting the current that drags on everything in Michigan.

I left as a young man, and have never regretted that decision.

Lets watch and see if Kwame Kilpatrick's antics are not the last straw and voters in Macomb and Oakland counties finally say enough is enough and vote out Democrats there.

[Pofarmer]

Agriculture is critical as it not only has a trade function (commodities) but it has a human value function (food). Those on poor farms may have no other way to invest in themselves beyond farming and, for poor nations, there is no government help beyond figuring out trade to ensure that a path out of poverty remains. The differential between human or early human assisted farming and modern GPS Combine based agribusiness is stark as all of the major food crops of corn, wheat, barley and rice are amenable to automation of this type. When lofty trade agreements are pushed that overlook such things, the result is social upheaval and shift in the poorer nation as agriculture is cut from its people as a means of improving their lot in life. The food may be *cheaper* but they have nothing to buy it with save their bodies.

For years we were told that efficient mechanized agriculture and low prices were killing poor third world farmers. Now we're being told that high food prices are killing third world farmers.

Which is it? I wanna know.

Then you take a country like Rhodesia(Zimbabwe) that was a major wheat exporter, that now is distributing horse drawn implements to it's new found "farmers" while grocery shelves sit empty.

Or, there's cases of Peace corps volunteers going over to show the Africans how to raise crops with fertilizers and modern methods. At the end of the year the Africans beleive the "gods smiled on the White man."

There's more involved here than simple economics.

[clarice]

"Once upon a time I was econ major. Sitting in class in the time of Jimmy Carter, the prof droned on and on about this curve and how it described the relationship between unemployment and inflation. One up other down and vice versa. Problem was we had high both."

Well, aside from the fact that a lot of economists are just plain stupid, many of them base their models on out of date information. I expect that when a large part of the population was engaged in factory production work under union contracts,the inflation to unemployment ratio was a great deal different than it is now.
Big box retailers and the infusion of cheap goods from overseas and the decreased number of unionized employees have kept inflation down--and now it is largely a factor of energy costs directly (high oil prices) or indirectly (high food costs because of ehtanol, higher oil costs).
Nevertheless, one wonders where all these financial reporters spend their free time. I just returned from a quick trip to my local grocery store and when I think how many choices there are and how cheap most of the food is compared to the costs in Europe or the cost around the world relative to local incomes, I remain in awe of America's economy.
And if I weren't so lazy and shopped more at the Korean grocery store I'd be a gadzillionaire by now.
I expect that a lot of the bitching about food costs really don't consider how much in that basket is expensive processed stuff (the largest amount of aisle space is taken up with pricey condiments and marinades which you can make yourself in minutes for pennies) and overpriced cleaning supplies which hardly do a better job than vinegar, baking soda and borax do.
Just saying....

[Anon1]

That is an interesting point, clarice. My parents are immigrants and what is so interesting to me is that they know how to stretch a dollar beautifully - well, they had to learn that, of course. And we kids didn't suffer for it. As a kid I wanted to eat American food (which I interpreted as store bought and processed, although most of my friends ate simple home cooked things which were not processed) and not the simple, home made things my mom cooked. Very cheap and nutritious. I mean, how expensive are lentils, rice and a few tomatoes? Rice and dal and a little salad on the side with spices from the local Indian store. Yummy. Well, I think that now but as a kid I thought that food was boring and horrible. Anyway, it seems the talent for stretching a dollar is just hard for some (I'm not talking about people with real money problems, I'm talking about middle class complainers, like, well, me for instance). Such complaining from people able to buy coffee at Starbucks! Oh I'm quite the complainer and I hate that, but I seem to be in plenty of company. What is going on these days that perfectly well off people think life is so very hard? Does it only take one generation to become so soft? :)

[clarice]

Anon--I like to cook and spend time in the many ethnic grocery stores around the DC area. I can fill up at the Vietnamese,Indian and Korean stores with the best produce, grains , fish,Asian condiments and and meat for a pittance , come home and cook up a storm and feast on the most healthful foods for virtually nothing.
There's a reason that all the modest cars in the parking lot have top school decals on them--the parents of these kids are (a) smart(b)able to plan and budget (c)are not lazy bums , and (d) care about their kids health and well-being.

[cathyf]

Major changed that day to Accounting, at least the accountants knew the difference between a debit and a credit.

Hrumph... Yeah, right. Like all of those accountants and their fabulous "cost-cutting" plans -- where revenues followed costs right down. As long as you understand that "cost-cutting" is a method for going partially out of business in an orderly manner while somewhat protecting the value of the remaining business, then things work fine. But believing that "cost-cutting" is "free money" (a belief shared by oh so many accountants whose backs I have rolled my eyes at) is a recipe for disappointment, not to mention anemic returns.

[Gmax]

Accountants are the guys who come on the battlefield after the fight and tally up the casualties to tell you if you won or lost. They dont make the strategic decisions like your strawman of cost cutting, they implement strategy but mainly just keep score.

[ben]

"When lofty trade agreements are pushed that overlook such things, the result is social upheaval and shift in the poorer nation as agriculture is cut from its people as a means of improving their lot in life. The food may be *cheaper* but they have nothing to buy it with save their bodies."

This line of economic BS disguised as some sort of profound statement is being sold by big labor and protectionist Democrats and the anti-globalization zealots. I have yet to see a free trade agreement that has caused any social upheaval in poor countries. Certain sectors could affected negatively but the net sum is always positive.
This reasoning is akin to the "burkhas and wife beating are a cultural part of Afghanistan and therefore should be preserved" attitude. The theory is people in poor countries somehow want to preserve their "culture of poverty". This is of course utter nonsense, there is a saying only intellectuals enjoy poverty, poor people want to get rich.
Free trade, amazingly, means free trade. It does not mean government engineered social experimentation, it does not mean "using trade to help those seeking liberty and freedom", although that could be a consequence.

"trade can actually be a harm to poor societies where meager human capital investment is outstripped by automation and high productivity."

Baloney....automation means machines have to be bought and sold and maintained. People have to operate them. They need fuel and spare parts and other consumables. Profits from automated farms or industries are invested in other businesses and goods. Higher yields mean more food, cheaper prices, more export opportunities. Maybe "ajacksonian" should ask people starving and eking out a living subsistence agriculture if they want him/her to decide what's good for them.

[sbw]

Ajacksonian: No matter how *good* we think trade is, it must be moderated by nations for their people to ensure the best result of that trade for all involved.

"it must be moderated..." by whom? In what way? By what criteria?

You are, my friend, just the person Adam Smith felt obliged to assist. Adam did not trust anyone, least of all those in governments who presumed to know what's best for us.

For example, the Dem's posture is to make Columbian goods more expensive for American workers because someone in Columbia is killing labor leaders. Of course, this is a position that hurts the rest of Columbian workers who would benefit from lower trade barriers with the United States.

Ah, yes. "It must be moderated" is that awful statement that brooks no responsibility. Read O'Rourke's book on Smith. Please.

[Porchlight]

What is going on these days that perfectly well off people think life is so very hard? Does it only take one generation to become so soft? :)

I think about this a lot, Anon1. I think people have become accustomed to a certain amount of luxury and are loath to give it up. Also, laziness. It's just easier and faster to eat out, or to get takeout, or to buy convenience foods, than to make it all from scratch.

Working moms have a lot do with it, too. When you're home all day you have a lot more time to make the slow-cooking foods that are healthy and cost so little to prepare. Harder to do when everyone gets home hungry and cranky at 5:30 and you have to get dinner on the table fast.

Regarding the cost of food, you know how you can tell that food is cheaper today than it once was? Because modern dishes are bigger. I'm a vintage hound and a few years ago I bought a set of Russel Wright melamine dinnerware, circa mid-1950s. When it arrived I was surprised by how tiny the bowls and plates were. The tumblers were the size of modern coffee cups. In comparison, the dinnerware you can buy at Target or Crate and Barrel these days is simply enormous. Flatware is much larger, too, as are coffee mugs and glasses.

So anyway, my parents happened to be visiting at the time and I asked my dad (born in 1940) why the dishes were so much smaller back then and he said, "well, because food was more expensive." Hence all the budget-stretching recipes in the cookbooks of the day - salmon croquettes, noodle casseroles, meatloaves all extended with breadcrumbs, eggs, potatoes and other cheap fillers. Not only that, said casserole in an 8 x 8 pan was supposed to serve 6! Even my mom's recipes from the 60s and 70s that fed our family of 5 seem tiny to me when I make them now.

Nowadays modern cookbooks (even the middle market ones) have few of these economical dishes and instead assume that anyone can afford 2 lbs of boneless chicken breasts and (dare I say it) 3 large bunches of arugula for a weeknight dinner. And almost every recipe is very generously portioned for 4 people.

Bigger families AND more expensive food used to be the norm. Things have definitely changed a lot.

Anyway, sorry for the length. But yes, I agree, it doesn't take more than a generation or two of relative prosperity to "go soft."

[MayBee]

Hence all the budget-stretching recipes in the cookbooks of the day - salmon croquettes, noodle casseroles, meatloaves all extended with breadcrumbs, eggs, potatoes and other cheap fillers.

That is such a great observation.
I have the original Betty Crocker cookbook, and it is heart-tugging in its way. I imagine that housewife, forming the ground beef, egg, and breadcrumb mixture around a carrot stick to make a mock T-bone steak dinner for her family. I want to hug her.

What is going on these days that perfectly well off people think life is so very hard?
I think part of it is guilt.
A large part of it is politics, though, and the perpetual election process we are going through. Every 2 years now, we are told how bad things are so someone can be elected to make our lives better. It's always 2 minutes to midnight somewhere, right?

[Porchlight]

I imagine that housewife, forming the ground beef, egg, and breadcrumb mixture around a carrot stick to make a mock T-bone steak dinner for her family. I want to hug her.

Oh, MayBee, what a sweet image! Thank you for that. I have a collection of vintage cookbooks I love to pore over (including my grandmother's Joy of Cooking, which she always referred to as "Mrs. Rombauer's book") and from now on when I read them I will always think of your housewife, bless her heart.

[JB]

Brooks is right on the money.

We're in a dawn of the new economy. Click my URL.

[clarice]

Busyness is one thing,but another thing is people just don't have the skills or the organizational ability. There are pressure cookers which allow you to get a good curry or stew on the table in one-half hour and slow cookers that work when you're away working.
And quit rushing thru dinner so you can "help" the kids with their homework. You did the third grade already. Now it's their turn.

Imagine whining about the increase in the price of carry out food and the gas it takes to pick it up when you can fill your pantry and tummy with food that still costs less in comparison to income than all the generations which went before you ever knew.
(A generation of whiners for sure. I keep hearing young professionals whining about the high cost of housing when they'll only look at rentals in Dupont Circle and Adams Morgan when two subway stops away they can rent a bigger apt for much less. Pheh! How do they suppose their parents and grandparents ever saved enough money to buy their homes?)

[Rick Ballard]

Perhaps Brooks might comment on this phenomenon at some point (should he ever recognize that improving cognitive ability isn't going to happen anytime soon).

What are the main economic differences between right-to-work states and forced-union states (see map above)?

Not much really, except that compared to forced-union states, right-to-work states have had faster economic growth, lower unemployment rates, greater employment growth, higher state real GDP growth, greater growth in personal income, higher population growth, and greater home price appreciation. That's all.

[Jane]

I think there is a weird generation these days, the kids I didn't have. These are the same kids that decided they could buy a $400,000 house on $30k of income. I believe the real difference is that so many of these kids were not brought up with a work ethic - because all the ones who were, are not having the same problems and not voicing the same complaints. Of course they are probably too busy working to complain.

[Porchlight]

I think you're right, Jane. That's my generation. I believe many work hard at their jobs, but think the rest should be easy, because it *seemed* so easy for their parents. What they don't realize is how many sacrifices their parents made to get to that level of spending power.

[Porchlight]

Somewhat OT - fun stuff from Rasmussen:

58% say Obama denounced Wright for political convenience, not outrage

Friday, May 02, 2008

A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that just 30% of the nation’s Likely Voters believe Barack Obama denounced his former Pastor, Jeremiah Wright, because he was outraged. Most—58%--say he denounced the Pastor for political convenience. The survey was conducted on Wednesday and Thursday night. Obama made his statements about Wright on Tuesday.

More at the link...

[Rick Ballard]

Jane,

There is a factor of "distance from a time of need" that is definitely coming into play now. Our folks knew what need was from first hand observation. My mom was born in '30 and grew up just a tad hungry - and very wary of debt. She transmitted that wariness to me but I did not transmit at anywhere near the same level to my kids and my grandkids just give me funny looks if I talk about the possibility that a job might be hard to come by at some point. Factor in a bunch of "buy it now for only $X per month" marketing (along with its "this thing will make you happy" corollary) and the number of young people with debt problems becomes easier to understand. Sort of.

[Gmax]

2 to 1 say Obama lied. That is stunning. So the Democrats can picked from the seasoned and stunning liar or the up and coming audacious liar. Wow. I bet Edwards is combing his hair and kicking himself at this moment, he could have forced a brokered convention with a few hundred votes and become the compromise candidate after several ballots.

[Danube of Thought]

I am fully on board with Anon1 and Porchlight. I have become very much annoyed with the whining of such a large share of the populace of this breathtakingly wealthy country--people who are materially better off than 99.9 percent of all the human beings who have ever lived.

When people in a democracy continue to elect representatives who impose such stringent environmental and other restrictions that it is impossible to build a nuclear power plant or oil refinery, and against the law to drill for the huge deposits of oil in ANWR and on both continental shelves and the Gulf of Mexico, then they can damn sure shut their pieholes when it comes to the price of gasonline.

The latter is one of my principal beefs against the lout O'Reilly: he blames the price of gasoline on "the oil companes," without knowing one goddam thing about how gasoline prices get to be what they are. The term "price-gouging" is one that in most case reflects nothing but economic illiteracy, and I am sick of hearing it.

So there.

[Jane]

There is a factor of "distance from a time of need" that is definitely coming into play now.

I agree but I see one difference, mostly from Amy who is now approaching 40. She grew up in an affluent household, but had to work, and work and then work some more. That was expected in her family, regardless of their resources. When I hired her she was so head and shoulders above any employee I'd ever had, I moved my office to shorten her commute when she started having kids.

So I don't think it's just scarcity, I think it's that parents don't recognize how far a great work ethic can carry you and they don't bother to emphasize it.

[MayBee]

So I don't think it's just scarcity, I think it's that parents don't recognize how far a great work ethic can carry you and they don't bother to emphasize it.

I think it's that you can get away without having a great work ethic now, in a way you couldn't in previous generations.

The worst influence was the 90's. Our slightly younger cousins would just quit a good job if they didn't like the project they were assigned, just because they assumed they could find another. Now it's been 10 years, and the people that were young in the workforce *then* think that's how things are supposed to be. Comparatively, these are bad days.

[sbw]

JB, the Soros article is so much noise that doesn't contribute to a solution.

What we've got is a feedback cycle without a great deal of time between the stimulus, the response, and the relaxation phase. Deal with it.

If Soros had really been on the ball, he would have said, yeah, I was one of the lucky and benefited from it, but I've become wise enough not to try to take too much advantage of that. So from now on I'm going to sit down and shut up.

Pardon! I got lost daydreaming.

[Jane]

I think it's that you can get away without having a great work ethic now, in a way you couldn't in previous generations.

Yeah probably, but ultimately the results are exactly the same, just on a different scale. For the most part, you have to work to make it in this world, and to really make it, you have to work hard.

[Ralph L]

I'm still thinking about all that skin flapping around with Baba Walters knocking boots with, say, the boys of 60 Minutes. Have I ruined someone else's dinner?

[Barry Dauphin]

Just One Minute
Almost a Paramour of Barbara Walters!

[kim]

These boots are made for knockin',
And that's just what they'll do.
One of these day trips, oh Byeaut,
Baba all over you.
=====================

[Greg Toombs]

Not a mere snippet, Mr. McGuire.

A snip in full.

[daddy]

For What It's Worth--- The UK's Telegraph has been running a series on the top 50 most influential Pundits in the US. Brooks comes in at number 9, but at number 2, just behind the winner Karl Rove, is Chrissy Matthews of Hard Ball, so I'd take their list with a grain of salt the size of Lotts Wife. If Matthews is number 2, no wonder their view of the States is so skewed. Congratulations UK'ers on todays election house-cleaning.

[clarice]

BTW there were 2 letters to the editors at the WaPo on their dire economy story I noted yesterday--Both said the paper was full of it, that the markets were full of cheap, wholesome food and that we weren't about to cry for folks whose demonstrated hardships consisted of foregoing bottled water and single service juice packs. Good, I'm not the only sane person in this big metropolis.

[M. Simon]

Speaking of American Ideas. We have a pretty good one coming down the pike:

Fusion Report 02 May 008

[M. Simon]

ajacksonian | May 02, 2008 at 11:15 AM,

America went through this in the Grapes of Wrath period. Our only advantage is that it is behind us.

All nations will be going through this and it will be wrenching. Life is tough and then you die.