Tyler Cowen Article on differences

[bmags]

http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevo...-democrats.html

 

It's pretty hard to excerpt a defining paragraph, I think much of this board will find it interesting.

[StrangeSox]

There are some interesting thoughts in there, but he seems to be over-pathologizing and the basis for some of his statements/conclusions seem pretty questionable.

 

Academics are one of the interest groups courted by Democrats. Academics want to appear high status and reasonable, and Democrats offer academics some of those features in the affiliation, including the option to feel they are better than Republicans. [...]

Academics shouldn’t feel too good about this bargain. They are being “used” as all party interest groups are, and how much reasonableness they can consume in the Democratic coalition will ebb and flow with objective conditions. In the 1970s and 1980s, for instance, it was common for Democrats to be more delusional than Republicans, and those days may someday return, though not this year. - See

 

This seems to leave "academics" as a group without agency and with no political concerns beyond some narcissistic desires. Also, I'm left wondering what exactly that last sentence is referring to. What were Democrats delusional about in the 70's and 80's?

 

At the state and local level, the governments controlled by Republicans tend to be better run, sometimes much better run, than those controlled by the Democrats (oops).

 

The support for this is a link to a blaze.com article about a survey from www.247wallst.com from 5 1/2 years ago. You can find their latest survey fairly easily here. As they note in their explanations, this is a very difficult thing to even measure, and not everything is directly driven by governmental policy choices (North Dakota has been leading their surveys for several years, but that's entirely thanks to the oil extraction boom). For example, California was 49th in the 2012 survey linked by Cowen; it was 21st in the 2015 survey. California was one of the most heavily impacted states from the housing market collapse, and so you see a larger swing. In the most recent survey, 4 out of the top ten states as ranked by www.247wallst.com are run by Democrats compared to 2 of 10 in the dated survey Cowen linked.

 

He also ends by declaring a push for a $15 minimum wage to be signs of delusion, so

 

edit: I used to read MR off and on, but for whatever reason there's a pretty strong "race realist" contingent there in the comments section. Really off-putting.

Edited March 2, 2016 by StrangeSox

[bmags]

There are some interesting thoughts in there, but he seems to be over-pathologizing and the basis for some of his statements/conclusions seem pretty questionable.

 

 

 

This seems to leave "academics" as a group without agency and with no political concerns beyond some narcissistic desires. Also, I'm left wondering what exactly that last sentence is referring to. What were Democrats delusional about in the 70's and 80's?

 

 

 

The support for this is a link to a blaze.com article about a survey from www.247wallst.com from 5 1/2 years ago. You can find their latest survey fairly easily here. As they note in their explanations, this is a very difficult thing to even measure, and not everything is directly driven by governmental policy choices (North Dakota has been leading their surveys for several years, but that's entirely thanks to the oil extraction boom). For example, California was 49th in the 2012 survey linked by Cowen; it was 21st in the 2015 survey. California was one of the most heavily impacted states from the housing market collapse, and so you see a larger swing. In the most recent survey, 4 out of the top ten states as ranked by www.247wallst.com are run by Democrats compared to 2 of 10 in the dated survey Cowen linked.

 

He also ends by declaring a push for a $15 minimum wage to be signs of delusion, so

 

edit: I used to read MR off and on, but for whatever reason there's a pretty strong "race realist" contingent there in the comments section. Really off-putting.

 

It's difficult to measure, especially when talking about the quagmire democratic states are largely rustbelt states that are losing population/jobs. But then you have Minnesota.

 

I think it hits on the point though of how could the Dems be so strong nationally and so weak currently at state level, and that would be the "elevation" of a status group within the coalition at a state level. Easy for people to think of well run Republican states and think of Texas/Utah, but the gulf states/lower midwest are there too. Massachusetts/MN have high outcomes.

 

However, it helps explain how these states that are so blue that are getting killed at governor elections.

 

[bmags]

There are some interesting thoughts in there, but he seems to be over-pathologizing and the basis for some of his statements/conclusions seem pretty questionable.

 

 

 

This seems to leave "academics" as a group without agency and with no political concerns beyond some narcissistic desires. Also, I'm left wondering what exactly that last sentence is referring to. What were Democrats delusional about in the 70's and 80's?

 

 

 

The support for this is a link to a blaze.com article about a survey from www.247wallst.com from 5 1/2 years ago. You can find their latest survey fairly easily here. As they note in their explanations, this is a very difficult thing to even measure, and not everything is directly driven by governmental policy choices (North Dakota has been leading their surveys for several years, but that's entirely thanks to the oil extraction boom). For example, California was 49th in the 2012 survey linked by Cowen; it was 21st in the 2015 survey. California was one of the most heavily impacted states from the housing market collapse, and so you see a larger swing. In the most recent survey, 4 out of the top ten states as ranked by www.247wallst.com are run by Democrats compared to 2 of 10 in the dated survey Cowen linked.

 

He also ends by declaring a push for a $15 minimum wage to be signs of delusion, so

 

edit: I used to read MR off and on, but for whatever reason there's a pretty strong "race realist" contingent there in the comments section. Really off-putting.

 

Yes, the comments are horrible, but I haven't seen a good comment section since Ta-Nehisi coates blog, which obviously was so difficult to manage it basically ended the blog.