Saturday, August 22, 2015

Knowledge does not equal understanding.

http://viewpure.com/MFzDaBzBlL0?ref=bkmk

9 comments:

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    1. This is the same concept that a good motorcycle rider must master. It is the counter intuitive skill of countersteering. You lean into the turn but force the handlebars away from the turn. It can be learned but the problem with the bicycle is that you must master the skill at a very slow speed, requiring very quick and accurate reaction that is after all, counterintuitive, while trying to propel the bike forward. You could learn the skill by starting down a slope where the bike propels itself and you concentrate is on steering and not propelling.... eventually you would learn to naturally adjust left for a right turn and right for a left turn while peddling... you can prove this to yourself by playing a driving video game with the controller upside down... it is difficult if for no other reason than the controller becomes awkward to hold... but you can eventually train your motor skills to do it.

      That said, I do get your point... the path to understanding is similar to counter intuitive motor skills.. it can be done but because of bias or laziness, it is seldom attempted in any demonstrative fashion. The harms being done by so many of our social programs being a prime example.

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    2. Speaks to the inflexibility and the unwillingness to explore and to embrace other ideas in our lives.

      I often think about people and their refusal to explore cause and effect. The government handing out welfare. People take it if they can. They don't look at the long term acceptance and what it does to their ability to chose a different route. Illegal immigration. People get stuck on who will pick the produce. In reality, illegals may be picking peaches until they can move up and more illegals replace them. Today the commercial construction site is an employer of illegals as well as the surrounding home builders. The road crews are Hispanic, the landscaping crews, the fast food workers. In competition for American labor and no one cares.

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    3. “People get stuck on who will pick the produce. In reality, illegals may be picking peaches until they can move up and more illegals replace them.”
      This speaks to the poverty rates in the US. It is actually worse than it was before the implementation of the ‘Great Society’. The thing is, people who talk about the poverty rate paint a snap shot picture that everyone measured at that time will always be in poverty... the fact is, these people, as they grow in knowledge and experience move out of poverty to be replaced by someone else. This of course isn’t true for all as there is a certain segment that is, without a doubt, willing and capable of living off of the dole. The problem isn’t the poverty so much as the lack of jobs available for people to gain experience yet we kill them with things like minimum wage and regulation and of course our ‘free trade agreements’.

      People argue over the minimum wage saying that any conversation about minimum wage costing jobs is just a ‘right wing mantra’ disproven and discredited by many economists like Paul Krugman.

      I just have to ask... is it a ‘right wing mantra’ to expect a tax on carbon emissions to lower carbon emissions? Is it right wing mantra to assume that raising the price of a pack of cigarettes via taxation will cause fewer people to smoke?... how about tariffs and fewer imports or poll taxes and fewer people who vote?... Why is the effect of introducing these kinds of costs for the commodity of labor somehow different?

      Of course we then go to monopsony claim as if 99% of business has the ability to prevent others from entering a particular business and seizing the employees and excess profit of the offending employers... unless of course that employer enjoys the very protective cover of state provided privilege and support.

      Bryan Caplan in his book The Myth of the Rational Voter made this comment: ... especially when it comes to economics, most voters don't know much, know a lot that ain't so, and have zero incentive to learn. And if they are just living their own lives, none of that matters. It's only when they are given the power to select the people who make the policies that get imposed on all of us that it matters.

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  2. TS, if pure unregulated markets are the answer to everything, why bemoan that "ungrateful" American workers are getting killed by trade deals that allow an exploitation of cheap labor? I bitch about the trade deals because I'm a leftist idiot. But for those of you right of center, I don't understand why you would be unhappy that American workers are getting destroyed by these deals. I don't think they are "unfair" at all. On the contrary, they are helping the cost of labor in the US fall like a stone. Isn't this supposed to happen?

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    1. As I have always said, I am for open borders. I am for a worker being able to take their talent anywhere in the world they feel they can compete. ‘Free trade’ and immigration is not a two way street.

      If I walk across the Mexican border and get caught working without a government permit (Which they issue based on actual employer need). I go to jail(I’m not talking deported... I’m talking Mexican jail)... same with most countries. If I put a plant in almost every aspect of production cost is lower... not just because of labor but because of regulation and I bet they get to ask the hard questions when interviewing for an employee too. The fact is free trade agreements aren’t so free when labor cost is only one of many handcuffs.

      By the way, all things being equal, yes, falling prices in the labor market aren’t necessarily a bad thing... but they are hideous if you work and live in a country where the central bank distorts asset prices including housing to unaffordable levels especially if you grew up expecting to have only your immediate family living with you and not a half a dozen cousins twice removed....

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    2. If all things were equal falling labor prices would be good.

      Unfortunately the cost of living in the US is higher that Mexico, China. Americans seeking a cheaper lifestyle moving to Mexico, China is not possible as they jail trespassers. In the US they do not. Open borders don't work because American workers have to compete with cheaper foreign labor.

      The ACA isn't beneficial to business in the US as government demands more and it costs business more. Given a choice, what should business do? To remain competitive they cut expense. (People, wages)

      Government interference in the market is killing jobs. The latest, 600 workers in Chicago town are toast as Oreo's will be manufactured in Mexico and imported to the US. The reason, US pays 3x the world price for sugar, a gift from the Federal Government.

      You may think people are negative however after 7 years of demonization of many factions of society, business, additional taxes, over regulation, illegals on every corner, I am sick of government interference all in the name of oh the poor people.

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    3. I don't think people are negative, there is abundant evidence to how bitter they are. At any point in history, the same, bitching arguments have been made. And the world kept turning.

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  3. The Tea Party learned how to ride this bike in 2009.

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