From the Wall Street Journal:
To sum up, Mr. Cowen believes that America is dividing itself in two. At the top will be 10% to 15% of high achievers, the “Tiger Mother” kids if you like, whose self-motivation and mastery of technology will allow them to roar away into the future. Then there will be everyone else, slouching into an underfunded future of lower economic expectations, shantytowns and an endless diet of beans. I’m not kidding about the beans.
Poor Americans, writes Mr. Cowen, will have to “reshape their tastes” and live more like Mexicans. “Don’t scoff at the beans,” he says. “With an income above the national average, I receive more pleasure from the beans, which I cook with freshly ground cumin and rehydrated, pureed chilies. Good tacos and quesadillas and tamales are cheap too, and that is one reason why they are eaten so frequently in low-income countries.”
So what am I to do to save my sons from this bean-filled future?
I realize I'm a wacko extremist, unlike all the mainstream intellectuals such as Tyler, but maybe instead of 85 or 90% of Americans living more like Mexicans, the government should try to, you know, restrict immigration?
"Beans, beans, the musical fruit."
ReplyDeleteI'll also add that the 19th-century Hegelian German philosopher Ludwig Fuhrerbach proposed that the Irish eat beans instead of potatoes, for extra "revolutionary energy".
I meant Feuerbach not Fuhrerbach.
ReplyDeletetyler doesn't care. he thinks he will stay on top.
ReplyDeletei doubt his kids will.
Cheap Chalupas, meet Bargain Beans.
ReplyDeleteA certain commenter here had the habit of comparing the expostulations of Cowen, Caplan and the rest of the harpy brood to the personification of flatulence. Perhaps he was on to something.
ReplyDeletePoor white Southerners like my parents grew up eating beans as well. Mom made the family many a dinner of cooked pinto beans, hamhocks and corn bread, even though she experienced upward mobility by marrying my pharmacist father (another other poor white Southerner who got to go to college thanks to the G.I. Bill.) In my teen years during the 1970's, we lived in middle class conditions in east Tulsa. Ironically, in recent years Mexicans have colonized that part of the home town.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, I feel no revulsion from the idea of eating beans. Tyler Cowen really should describe life in his coming, engineered Dark Age America in terms of living like Haitians.
We really should get out the pitchforks and torches in response to this deliberate effort to destroy the livable America most of us over 40 can remember. I like the idea of the free market as much as anyone, but these frauds and shills like Tyler Cowen who use free-market rhetoric to justify vandalizing our living standards don't deserve our respect. I won't buy any more of his books, I can tell you that.
Gross.
ReplyDeleteMexican food smells like body odor.
Does this guy realize how obnoxious he sounds? Does he have any awareness at all that most of the people in the world subsisting on beans don't have access to "freshly ground cumin"? Does he actually sit there grinding fresh spices and think he's showing some kind of solidarity with people in shantytowns?
ReplyDeleteI don't say this very often, but God, what an ass.
"At the top will be 10% to 15% of high achievers...whose self-motivation and mastery of technology will allow them to roar away into the future. Then there will be everyone else, slouching into an underfunded future of lower economic expectations, shantytowns..."
ReplyDeleteisn't this exactly what is happening across the entire planet? the western european and east asian nations have begun their take off into the stratosphere, while the rest of the world stagnates. the great separation has already begun on an international scale.
this should pop out at you starkly if you're a regular student of GPD per capita type material. the math is inescapable. a 2% yearly increase in 50000/year is going to run away from a 2% yearly increase in 5000/year. that gap gets wider, not smaller, as time goes on. it stacks up every year. after 10 years, the first economy now produces 60000 per person per year, the second economy now produces 6000 per person per year - a 9000 unit increase in the gap in only 10 years. the first economy added more in increases than the second economy produces IN TOTAL. by 3000.
and as the increase is technologically driven, it slowly but steadily escalates over time as well, as the tech in the top couple nations improves, while the tech in the rest of the nations does nothing, or at best, tech from the top nations trickles into the other nations in bits and pieces. certainly not creating any tech parity, and possibly even destabilizing the other nations - internet tech into the middle east hasn't produced much economic gain but it did allow the people to organize to overthrow their own governments.
the same dynamic plays out at a demographic level in the US. the western europeans and east asians accumulate wealth and hold it, and this accumulation stacks up year over year. meanwhile the other groups not only accumulate much less wealth, they don't hold it.
after a few decades of this you end up with a situation where the average household wealth of europeans is like 200000 while the same number for africans is like 20000. which is a naturally occurring result - the wealth generators and holders will have dramatically more stuff in a couple decades than the groups who generate no wealth and squander the wealth which they do come into.
And air freshener. A lot more air freshener.
ReplyDeleteIt's ok for whites to be beaners, but not ok for whites to call hispanic beaners "beaners." The mind reels at such nuance... I guess his mental agility (cf. Orwell on doublethink) is why Cowen deserves to roar away into the future. Well, as long as he goes away, ¡Vete con viento fresco! (so to speak)
ReplyDeleteby the way, i wanted to say this 10 minute interview with cowen was total garbage, and if that's the level of thinking present in his book, then nobody needs to read it. it's all common sense stuff to HBD people. most groups in the world with low brain power, who have existed for 10000 years by trading their labor for money, won't have that option in the robot future? no duh tyler.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJXGuurnZEQ
if instead he held back as much juicy detail and tasty info as he could, then maybe the book is worth reading.
Hmmm ... A tiny, well-fed, technologically advanced elite living in the sky, and masses of poor, ignorant, hopeless bean-eaters down below.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a good idea for a movie. Is Matt Damon available?
So he admits he's fully aware of the consequences of his views. He can't plead ignorance in the future. There are people who share his views but appear to be completely oblivious to their consequences and think there will be some sort of utopia in the future for everyone. Not Cowen. He makes it abundantly clear that he knows where his policies lead.
ReplyDeleteI don't think he's saying mexican or immigrants are the problem.
ReplyDeleteLet me add, at least part of this problem is the overt alliance between White women (pushed constantly in every commercial) and the multicultural and PC elite, in spoils alliance. Because the economy CANNOT grow, since in order for it to grow energy not interest rates must be cheap (oil was below $20 a barrel for much of Clinton's term) and that would require stuff that elites who abhor industry and resource extraction (not the least it presents a challenge for political/social power to them in media, law, and government) and so is a non starter. Thus women can only grow income by screwing over White guys in alliance with non-Whites.
ReplyDeleteThat's the basic spoils problem, White guys are the only ones on the outs, and answers the question of why no Harper's Ferry political violence.
My guess is that Whites will instead live Craigslist "Black economy" and emulate the drug dealing ways of nascent counter-reaction hero Walter White. For example ObamaCare deliberately has subsidy "caps" at around $62K for married couples, above that point extra income makes no sense (because immediately the couple pays full freight no subsidy for health care insurance) until around $130K or so, I forget the exact figure.
This means disclosing full income to the IRS says you cannot accumulate and increase wealth in the traditional White guy manner -- hard work over decades and frugality and career advancement with higher pay. So ... couples will go Craigslist and all cash, no money in the bank EVER, to avoid the subsidy penalty (by being over the income cap).
Basically every middle class White person has now every incentive to HATE the IRS (or HATE HATE HATE it) and lie, cheat, and do whatever to husband every amount of cash, "fundamentally transforming" America into essentially Italy or other nations of low trust, high corruption, and dissolution in slow motion.
America's future is not Mexican, but Italian. And Cowen is a fool, Machiavelli advised better to kill than make people poor. I think the popularity and acclaim of Walter White in Breaking Bad, a middle class White guy who finds fulfillment as a brutal drug killer, ought to scare the heck out of guys like Cowen.
What made White a compelling figure was that his violent brutality was not just the low impulse control urges of an underclass figure, but coupled intensely with the meaningless nature of his middle class life and approached with typical middle class discipline and foresight for the most part.
What happens if much of the middle class figures that elites like Cowen are responsible for their plight being lowered into the lower class (or worse) and decide the best revenge is simply to go Walter White? AKA Freedom being just another word for nothing left to lose?
Cowen always sounds like he's trying to out-do The Onion in terms of parody.
ReplyDeleteHe's a "gentry liberal" posing as a libertarian economist. In fairness, that's true of most so-called libertarian economists.
We've gone from 'let them eat cake' to 'let them eat beans'. That's progress all right.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a WSJ subscriber, maybe that's why the link doesn't work with me, this one does:
ReplyDeleteonline.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303342104579097482945031804
Cowen believes that 90% of his countrymen should live a 3rd world lifestyle because he wants it to be easier to find cheap ethnic food.
ReplyDeleteHe is a self-described autistic, which I think is a good way to describe America's selfish elite. They have an autistic level of selfishness, they are incapable of even minimal understanding of the experiences of people unlike themselves.
I haven't read the original, but clearly the under-story of Mr. Cowen's remarks is that "non-elite Americans will need to eat more beans just like they deserve."
ReplyDeleteAhhh, there's nothing like the smell of contempt in the morning.
ReplyDeleteSo, because Tyler Cowen is full of beans, all of us Americans must also force ourselves to be - unequally, of course - full of beans?
Don't you just love how our "betters" enjoy dictating to us that we must submit to their Import The Third World master scheme? Do you get, as I get, the distinct impression that they immensely enjoy lording their know-it-all power over us?
"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a human nose being rubbed in diversity — forever." - Steve Sailer
let them eat cake...er...beans!
ReplyDeleteBehind WSJ paywall.
ReplyDeleteFor confirmation, here's the version I had:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/joelkotkin/2013/10/11/twitter-and-the-real-economy-of-jobs/
"Let them eat beans."
ReplyDeleteThis is actually refreshing. Finally we have an economist who has dropped the pretense - which we all always knew was bullshit anyway - that immigration was going to make everyone richer and carry us into a glorious future and admitted that he thinks it will lead to 90% of the population living in shantytowns and eating canned beans for the rest of their lives.
ReplyDeleteIs Cowen trying to go to far? Does he regret becoming an agent of influence and now he secretly wants to be exposed as a lackey stooge? Or is he just this gigantic of an asshole?
ReplyDeleteNow that the president has persuaded Americans that his signature healthcare plan is really great, he needs to get out there and use his awesome likeability and charisma to sell Americans on a future of eating beans.
ReplyDeleteWe could eat beans, we could also become welfare chiselers like the Gypsy couple who bought Maria from the Bulgarians.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/greek-gypsies-fear-stigma-as-child-traffickers-after-couple-accused-of-abducting-girl/2013/10/21/8e7c0d48-3a21-11e3-b0e7-716179a2c2c7_story.html
It was all about welfare fraud. The couple gets $3500 from various agencies. Nice work. Meanwhile honest Greeks are eating from soup kitchens.
The British papers are all over this. In one article, the king of the Greek gypsies says that they bought the girl from a Bulgarian couple when she was 15 days old. In the Times article the couple says they "adopted" her from a Bulgarian couple....whatevs, the girl was acquired, adopted so that the Gypsies could collect from the state, and make a little extra cash from her begging. The Bulgarian couple gets money. Everybody wins.
Tyler Cowen: 90% of Americans will (and should) have a more bean-centric Mexican lifestyle... To sum up, Mr. Cowen believes that America is dividing itself in two. At the top will be 10% to 15% of high achievers, the “Tiger Mother” kids if you like, whose self-motivation and mastery of technology will allow them to roar away into the future...
ReplyDeleteWell, that's Neo-Feudalism in a nutshell.
Perhaps we should be grateful for his honesty?
And equally grateful that they were able to condense his vision into a single sentence?
Heck, you could easily fit that into a 30-second campaign commercial, voiced over as the cinematographer pans through scenes of cardboard shantytowns, with litter in the streets, and open sewers in the ditches.
Play that one 24x7, and I'm seeing a runaway victory for Matt Bevin over Bitch McConnell.
Yeah sure, lets eat a whole bunch of legumes so everyone can eat equally in the same country and feel great about our togetherness!
ReplyDeleteI would be willing to wager that Mr Cowen is in poor health and on the road to worse ailments if they haven't already crept in.
To sum up, Mr. Cowen believes that America is dividing itself in two. At the top will be 10% to 15% of high achievers, the “Tiger Mother” kids if you like, whose self-motivation and mastery of technology will allow them to roar away into the future. Then there will be everyone else...
ReplyDeleteWell if I know my fellow Anglosphericals we can assume no united front will ever form to resist this outcome. We people of the Anglosphere are just too selfish, individualistic and status concious to ever admit we're not part of that magical 10-15%. To be more precise, about half of us will insist that we're going to be a part of the talented tenth and the other half of us will embrace a poor but proud, ruggedly individualistic persona. So we'll have lone wolf types and cynical system loyalist types but we're almost certainly not going to display any solidarity to resist this future. That would go against the nature of Homo anglosphericus.
Cowen is the Guy Fieri of mainstream economists
ReplyDeleteI'm the Tyler Cowen of underachieving lifestylists
ReplyDeleteI haven't read "Average is Over" yet, but I don't think the effect Cowen is proposing depends on levels of immigration.
ReplyDelete"Good tacos and quesadillas and tamales are cheap too"
ReplyDeleteTyler Cowen is at the age when he will get fatty liver eating that crappy Mexican food.
What a scummy, immoral sleazeball. You might have been able to chalk it up to naivete or just plain stupidity, but now it's clear he knows exactly what will happen from the policies he promotes.
ReplyDeleteI've always thought Tyler Cowen was full of beans. Finally a confirmation.
ReplyDeleteWhat you chaps need by way of nutrition is less of the brown sugar-water, and more fish.
ReplyDeleteEverything else is detail.
tyler doesn't care. he thinks he will stay on top.
ReplyDeletei doubt his kids will.
That's the thing. He doesn't have kids. He doesn't care as long as he gets his while the gettin's still good.
It was all about welfare fraud. The couple gets $3500 from various agencies. Nice work. Meanwhile honest Greeks are eating from soup kitchens.
ReplyDeleteEverytime I read about welfare fraud by immigrants on the poor old Greeks I can't suppress a smile.
Greek immigrants absolutely pillaged the welfare system of my country (Australia) when they came here.
They specialised in workers compensation fraud. Fake bad back claims were known colloquially as 'Mediterranean back'.
Off Topic:
ReplyDeleteI'm continually amazed that the media expects the Obamacare foul up to be resolved quickly.
The Feds have been after California to adopt an automated AFDC eligibility system for decades. They had begun ten years before I arrived to work on it, I worked on it myself for about ten years, and ten years after I left it still wasn't in place. AFDC has since been replaced by a new four letter program and I haven't kept up, but I do know this entitlement computer systems get built in increments measured in decades not weeks.
Albertosaurus
If you are a middle class couple thinking of starting a family, here is how you prepare for Cowen's dire future:
ReplyDelete1. Have only one child (ideally while in your late 30's).
2. Make sure both parents work.
3. Live well below your means.
The outcome of which should be a decent nest egg for your one child to inherit, providing some cushion in the likelihood he/she ends up in the bottom 85-90%.
In a nation where there are as many firearms as people, I don't think you'll get 90% of the populace to live like Third World peasants without a LOT of unpleasantness.
ReplyDeleteGreek immigrants absolutely pillaged the welfare system of my country (Australia) when they came here. They specialised in workers compensation fraud. Fake bad back claims were known colloquially as 'Mediterranean back'.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised it wasn't called "Wog Back". In Oz, Balko-Med immigrants were commonly called "wogs" and "ragheads", no matter how Christian they were.
"...freshly ground cumin"?
ReplyDeleteTyler Cohen is the Gwyneth Paltrow of political commentary. And going to her site to find that link I see she's got a recipe for cooking beans on the front page today.
Somewhat related to this, James Baker penned an op-ed in last weekend's FT ("To Win Again, Republicans Must Be A Party Of Hope"), in which he proposed pretty much the opposite of the Sailer Strategy:
ReplyDelete"Also, the GOP must recognise that the country’s demographics are changing. Ignoring that phenomenon – or worse, fighting it – could be catastrophic. The party should reach out to Hispanics, Asians and other minorities as many of them support the Republican ideals of economic conservatism, personal freedom, hard work, religion and family values."
"In a nation where there are as many firearms as people, I don't think you'll get 90% of the populace to live like Third World peasants without a LOT of unpleasantness."
ReplyDeleteThere are lots of firearms in Mexico too. Then again, there's also a lot of unpleasantness.
As long as my chalupas stay cheap.
ReplyDeleteLike Mark Plus, I ate plenty of pinto beans growing up. I like them. But Tyler Cowen comes across as every bad stereotype of the wealthy. And to top that all off, he throws in the SWPL foodie bit, which makes me want to strand him on an island with a pot, a bag of beans and a box of matches. And specifically, NO SPICES.
ReplyDelete"Like Mark Plus, I ate plenty of pinto beans growing up. I like them. But Tyler Cowen comes across as every bad stereotype of the wealthy. And to top that all off, he throws in the SWPL foodie bit, which makes me want to strand him on an island with a pot, a bag of beans and a box of matches. And specifically, NO SPICES."
ReplyDeleteBetter yet, cans of beans. And no can opener. Let him assume one.
Maybe stop being racist, stop suggesting this is about race or immigration, and understand that Americans who need to eat cheap, regardless of immigration issues, can eat cheap and nutritious shit for cheap, instead of eating tons of corn sugar?
ReplyDeleteSure will take the fatso count down.
"I'm continually amazed that the media expects the Obamacare foul up to be resolved quickly."
ReplyDeleteIt's been that way since the beginning. When it was being debated and passed, people on both sides of the aisle seemed to be counting on the SCOTUS to fix it. You heard, "Yeah, it's unconstitutional, but those parts will get knocked down and then we'll be able to judge what's left." When that didn't happen, people started to assume it would get amended to fix some of the worst aspects. That didn't happen, but people I talk to still seem to be thinking, "Come on, this can't really be it. Someone's still gonna fix it."
So I guess when you think that way, you can think the same way about the computer mess that's come from it.
Better yet, cans of beans. And no can opener. Let him assume one.
ReplyDeleteThat would be a better fate for dumb evil jocks. I'd like to see those monsters try to tear a can open with bare hands and bare teeth. Can't get it open you weakling faggot? Then Starve!
"Maybe stop being racist"
ReplyDeleteIf you're actually going to defend this jackass's snide, elitist remarks on this, then apparently it's not possible for a leftist to say anything, even on accident, that you would find offensive. So why would anyone care what you think?
You know, sometimes one of the guys on your side says something stupid, and you should just admit it's stupid and move on instead of insisting that everyone else in the world is *ist.
I had canned refried beans -- with butter, cream cheese, and jalapenos -- for supper tonight. Not bad for a quick meal. But if I went and told some third-world shantytown dweller that my experience had any relevance to his, I hope he'd punch me in the face.
ReplyDelete"Sure will take the fatso count down."
ReplyDeleteLots of bean-eating in Mexico, and it's the fattest country in this hemisphere.
"That would be a better fate for dumb evil jocks. I'd like to see those monsters try to tear a can open with bare hands and bare teeth. Can't get it open you weakling faggot? Then Starve!"
My comment was an allusion to an old economics joke. Sorry about the wedgies you suffered in high school.
"and as the increase is technologically driven" - the increase was driven by the hydrocarbon, combined with high trust, high social capital nations capable of exploiting it. GDP is most assuredly not going to just grow forever.
ReplyDelete"There are lots of firearms in Mexico too. Then again, there's also a lot of unpleasantness. " - Mexico also has an escape valve, imagine the situation there if 20-30M+ of their people had not been allowed to come here.
You gringo peons, you're going to live in Mexico el Norte, whether you like it or not.
ReplyDeleteMwaahhahaha!
Last week, it was the "moral" case for immigration: that poor third worlders would be able to live more like middle class Americans.
ReplyDeleteThis week, after data show that's not happening: uh, well...
Tyler is an honorary Scot-Irish. Just like his buddy Caplan, he feels exactly zero connection to the vast majority of his fellow countrymen, and he is willing to do anything as long as he can parasite off them.
ReplyDeleteDisgusting! The lack of the most elementary shame in these academics is truly revolting.
That Cowen is a windbag, we knew. Now we know why!
ReplyDeleteInstead of the odor of sanctity, Cowen is surrounded by the odor of satiety.
His career will take off like he's jet-propelled.
i doubt his kids will
ReplyDeleteTyler is childless. He is married to a Russian-Jewish immigrant and he adopted his wife's only child.
The WSJ page I linked to earlier is now behind the paywall, too. Some copies:
ReplyDeletehttp://archive.is/DQmih
http://www.freedominion.ca/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=147179
>In a nation where there are as many firearms as people, I don't think you'll get 90% of the populace to live like Third World peasants without a LOT of unpleasantness.<
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think they have the NSA, the NDAA, the Utah data center, and the federally trained (sometime Israeli trained) militarized (or militarizing) local police forces? Why is the Second Amendment continually in question? Is this all to combat people living in a cave in Afghanistan (or a compound in Pakistan) whose mysterious minions are lurking under our beds?
@ Anonymous 4:06-
ReplyDeleteYeah, Eric Bana had to endure a lot of those "wog" slurs.
It was real tough on him, I tell ya.
Better yet, cans of beans. And no can opener. Let him assume one.
ReplyDeleteApplause. That was good.
Let them eat bears.
ReplyDeleteCowen's more like the Bumblebee Man of mainstream intellectuals
ReplyDeleteAnon 5:06 has been with a lot of ladies I'm sure.
ReplyDeleteIn Oz, Balko-Med immigrants were commonly called "wogs" and "ragheads", no matter how Christian they were.
ReplyDeleteYou say it like there was something wrong with that.
And no, Greeks, Italians etc were never called ragheads.
Canned beans, dash of dreshly-ground cumin...
ReplyDeleteWhat a relief! Food Network has finally found a replacement for Paula Deen! (And for Jeff Smith, at the same time!)
Sorry about the wedgies you suffered in high school.
ReplyDeleteChild abuse is so damn funny.
I meant Feuerbach not Fuhrerbach.
ReplyDeleteI always wondered, if Jews hate Germans, Slavs, and Spaniards so much, then why don't more of them change their German, Slavic, and Iberian names to Hebrew ones? Or Arabic ones, for that matter? After all Hebrew is closer related to Arabic than to German.
I wonder what INFERNO would have been like had Dante lived not in Renaissance Italy but in modern America with its bully-infested public schools?
ReplyDeleteYup.
ReplyDeleteAnd next he'll recommend compulsory *per ano* collection tubes, in order that the products of anaerobic bacterial action on indigestable leguninous sugars can be 'recycled' in a green way - powering one's I-pad, for example.
The inevitable result of beans and chili doesn't bear thinking about.
ReplyDeleteAnd no, Greeks, Italians etc were never called ragheads.
ReplyDeleteWhat about French Foreign Legionnaires?
The central belief of Calvinism is that only 10% of people - The Elect - will go to Heaven. America's puritan theocracy comes of age. Thank you John Calvin and your Willing Executioners. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
ReplyDeleteSumdood at 12:47 said: The central belief of Calvinism is that only 10% of people - The Elect - will go to Heaven. America's puritan theocracy comes of age.
ReplyDeleteHunsdon: Whiskers, is that you?
I was born in a multicultural society. When I was a kid, and heard of evolution for the first time, I thought it was a self evident theory. I just took a look at the black kid three rows behind me and examined his skull. Of course, I was right, but for the wrong reasons.
ReplyDeleteAfter being properly rehabilitated by the society, I was so unfortunate to hear about marsupials and their geographical distribution. Then, something sparked inside my brain: once upon a distant time, there were marsupial apes over there, and Mexicans had evolved from those marsupial primates.
In a true Popperian manner, I try to prove or falsify my theory, and asked my friend Conchita to show me her tummy, in order to see her pouch. I was caught in the act and, after some wailing and gnashing of teeth, was sent again to rehabilitation.
But I still suspect there was some hidden truth in my most beloved hypothesis...
Why do the elites have such contempt for us? Exactly why, I mean? Do they think we create nothing of value and thus should live no better than anyone any where? That we create stable societies doesn't count?
ReplyDeletePeople like Thomas Friedman, Tyler Cowen, the fairies who write for the Economist, and all the other boosters of neo-liberal economics, sure have changed their tune over the last twenty years. Remember how they used to talk, back in the early nineties? Their op-eds used to be full of phrases like "information economy", "retraining people for the jobs of the 21st century", "ownership society", etc. Things were just going to get better and better, as they led us into those sunlit uplands promised to us by the WSJ and The Economist. Thier line now is, in effect, "Suck it up, Peon! Eat your beans. Be grateful that you even have beans!"
ReplyDeleteCowen and Friedman ought to co-author an article entitled with one of the most famous lines from "Animal House":
"You fucked up. You trusted us."
"Remember how they used to talk, back in the early nineties? Their op-eds used to be full of phrases like "information economy", "retraining people for the jobs of the 21st century", "ownership society", etc."
ReplyDeleteGood point. They told us to prepare for jobs in the information society; now they're telling us India has that covered. They're like an employer that hires you for an internship at half of minimum wage with the understanding that a full-time job awaits, and then at the end of it tells you he's not going to need you after all -- and then he brings in another intern.
>In a nation where there are as many firearms as people, I don't think you'll get 90% of the populace to live like Third World peasants without a LOT of unpleasantness.<
ReplyDeleteOne more take on this...they're currently keen on shooting **themselves or each other**. They blame themselves, or the teacher or receptionist or meter maid. They aren't seeing that social problems are social, not individual. (Not everything is your fault, or the fault of your neighbor or co-worker.) Serious political action is the nonviolent / non-self-destructive answer.
The best way to sell immigration restrictionism is apparently to write the perfect 'alarmist' scenario, but then pretend that your position is that the change is to be welcomed as progress, not impoverishment. That gets past the progressives million affiliation filters and, who knows, actually makes them think about it. It certainly doesn't cause them to deploy the kind of silencing censorship that explains the absence of an English translation of Sarrazin's book after over three years.
ReplyDeleteIf you wrote the exact same book, but from a 'we must do something to stop the people who are doing this to us right now', it wouldn't have made it past the starting line.
We should write a series of books with exactly the same pretense. 'There's going to be a lot more litter, but that's awesome, because that means job opportunities for litter-robot technicians will explode. Hey! Average is OVER!'
>>>The central belief of Calvinism is that only 10% of people - The Elect - will go to Heaven. America's puritan theocracy comes of age. Thank you John Calvin and your Willing Executioners. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
ReplyDeleteDon't lay the blame on a Swiss man for what the Scots-Irish are doing.
The central belief of Calvinism is that only 10% of people - The Elect - will go to Heaven.
ReplyDeleteThe scary part is that nobody knows who those 10% are until too late. And they could well be Hitler, Stalin, Roosevelt, Nixon, Ceausescu, Idi Amin, my high school phys-ed teacher, ad nauseum. After all, success is a sign of Election, and what is more successful than power?
I thought James Baker was dead.
ReplyDeleteRemember how they used to talk, back in the early nineties? Their op-eds used to be full of phrases like "information economy", "retraining people for the jobs of the 21st century"
ReplyDeleteAnd why should college-age, unemployed, or under-employed, or downsized Americans invest time and money in learning these "information economy" skills when Republicans like Orrin Hatch and even Ted Cruz have decided to quintuple visas for tech workers from India?
Yes, Ted Cruz wanted to quintuple the number of H-1B visas. Orrin Hatch voted for the S. 744 amnesty on the condition that it increase immigration even more than it already did.
"Penny Al Arrabbiata said...
ReplyDeleteAnd why should college-age, unemployed, or under-employed, or downsized Americans invest time and money in learning these "information economy" skills when Republicans like Orrin Hatch and even Ted Cruz have decided to quintuple visas for tech workers from India?"
Yes, the Republicans are absolutely no better.
At least PJ O Rourke admits he wants unrestricted Third World immigration so he can afford to hire many cheap servants.
ReplyDelete[i]"Does he have any awareness at all that most of the people in the world subsisting on beans don't have access to "freshly ground cumin"?"[i]
ReplyDeleteUhh...cumin is easier to grow than beans. Hell, it can be a weed in most places that can grow beans.