“Profit is the money a business pulls in after accounting for all expenses. Whether it's a lemonade stand or a publicly-traded multinational company, the primary goal of any business is to earn money, therefore a business performance is based on profitability, in its various forms.” — What Is Profit? by Will Kenton/Investopedia Updated Nov 13, 2019
News Flash! According to a recent Pew Research Survey, most Republicans and Democrats can’t stand each other and large numbers consider the other side to be closed-minded, immoral, and dumb. This got me to thinking: if you want to better understand what people care about, ask them what they hate. And if you want to know what people hate, read the posted comments on political opinion pieces. So that’s what I did.
A bunch of studies have concluded that effective psychotherapy is almost entirely associated with factors common to all therapies but specific to none (Laska & Gurman (2014), Wampold (2015), Cuijpers, Reijnders, et al. (2019). These common factors include….
Relative to GDP, the federal debt may be nearly twice what it was 30 years ago, but it is costing the feds half as much to service - thanks to low interest rates.
…A much better of indicator of household well-being is the labor market participation rate for individuals between 25-54, which excludes early retirees, most students, and a good portion of the disabled (who skew older). And here the picture looks better…
Per the IPCC, here are a few of the “key uncertainties” (reflecting low or very low confidence) regarding the effects of climate change…Global-scale trends in drought…Changes in tropical cyclone activity…Global-scale trends in cloud cover (as well as cloud-climate feedback effects)…Global-scale ocean sub-surface temperature trends and variability…Global-scale and regional changes in precipitation levels….
Cross-cultural studies have found that people generally agree the needy deserve some sort of help (van Oorschot and Roosma, (2017). Such generosity comes with qualifications, though. For example, individuals “seen as being personally responsible for their neediness are seen as less deserving (if at all)” (van Oorschot and Roosma, (2017). How much control the needy have over their circumstances, and whether these circumstances are so bad that charitable assistance is warranted are additional considerations. In lab studies, young children would not help a distressed child if her distress appears unjustified, such as crying over something trivial. They would only help when the distress seems justified by a clear cause (Tomasello 2019).
Per “Analysis: Global coal power set for record fall in 2019” (Carbon Brief), global electricity production from coal is set to fall by around 3% in 2019, the largest drop on record. The projected drop is due to record falls in developed countries, including Germany, the EU overall, South Korea and the United States.
Who would be tempted to stop working, reduce their work hours, take longer breaks between jobs, plan gap years from work, or simply retire early if they could count on a UBI check of, say, $1000 a month? Some candidates….
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As if Trump were so bad, it’s okay to downplay the shortcoming of “anyone but Trump”. I don’t share that sentiment. So thank you FactCheck.org for combing through the Democrat debates and calling out candidates who spoke less than the truth.
Per FactCheck.org (and in their own words), here are questionable statements made by Pete Buttigieg during the Democrat debates…
Per FactCheck.org (and in their own words), here are questionable statements made by Elizabeth Warren during the Democrat debates:….
The news media tend to focus on President Trump’s exaggerations, misstatements and false claims - not a hard task, given the president’s tendency for loose talk. No such due diligence with the current crop of Democrat candidates. No ongoing catalogue of lies, ala CNN, of anyone other than Donald J. Trump. As if Trump were so bad, it’s okay to downplay the shortcoming of “anyone but Trump”. I don’t share that sentiment. So thank you FactCheck.org for combing through the Democrat debates and calling out candidates who spoke less than the truth.
FactCheck.org is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. According to its website, FactCheck.org is a nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. It monitors the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases.
The ASBI I’m proposing would cost around $567 billion a year. Unfortunately, “savings” from government programs downsized or eliminated as a result of the ASBI would not be enough to fund the entire $567 billion program. How to fund the balance? Here’s an idea…
May I propose a modest alternative: the Adult Student Basic Income (ASBI). The ASBI would provide a basic income (say, $1,000/month) up to six years total (minimum one month at a time) for adults enrolled at least part-time in postsecondary training and education programs, from ESL classes to apprenticeships to graduate school. Like the UBI, the ASBI benefit would not be means-tested, so recipients could work without jeopardizing their payments. The ASBI would also effectively combat poverty, income volatility, job instability, and lack of social mobility by subsidizing incomes while recipients increase their earning potential. Unlike the UBI, the ASBI is time-limited and would not subsidize a permanent way of life. And while the ASBI is conditional, the required adult education and training is not so onerous as to preclude working at the same time. Plus, it’s affordable.
The primary fuel reduction method used by the DOI was “vegetation treatment”, which includes thinning and timber harvest; controlled burns, chemical treatments; targeted grazing; mechanical removal; mowing or cutting; logging; and fuel breaks, or gaps in vegetation that limit fire spreading or speed of spreading. Vegetation treatment is still an method in progress.
The Pursuit of Happiness requires a bit more unpacking. The contemporary sense of happiness mixes "lots of positive emotions" with life satisfaction. That's too small, too trivial, for me. I'm looking for a sense of happiness that is less about feeling good and more about having a sense of meaning and purpose. As it turns out, my way of thinking about happiness is pretty close to that of the Founding Fathers….
So what does matter to Americans? That is, what are the essentials of their own version of the American Dream? Allowing that the American Dream means different things to different people, there are some things that most Americans care deeply about: freedom, family, and a comfortable retirement (followed by contributing to the community and then owning a home). That’s according to a survey conducted by Pew Research a couple years ago. Check it out:
This is a Reblog of “The toxic rhetoric of climate change” by Judith Curry. Posted on December 14, 2019 (link here). I highly recommend you check out the comments on original blog and to explore Judith Curry’s other posts.
Of course, not all optimism is good. Per Haynes , Perry & Stupnisky (2009), over-optimism is actually a risk factor in college. Overly optimistic college students tend to base their optimism on uncontrollable factors, such as innate ability and luck. Think of people who like to repeat self-affirmations or are prone to saying things like “I can do it!” and “I know it will all work out!”, without taking concrete steps to actually make the good thing happen. Time and again, they fall, pick themselves up, repeat their affirmations, then fall again.
Then again, the right kind of optimism is associated with academic success…