STEMing the Tide

"Critical thinking is, in the end, the only way to protect American jobs. " -- Fareed Zakaria in "Why America’s obsession with STEM education is dangerous"


STEM simply isn't enough. STEM's nice; but if we focus on STEM alone, we're not really doing ourselves any favors. We need more anthropologists, and philosophers, and historians, and the rest of liberal arts. The reason one finds lots of liberal arts degrees among CEOs isn't for lack of having anything better to do. It's because they have the well-rounded critical thinking necessary to make good decisions and to lead.

Education And The Cost Of Doing Business

What Does Progressive Versus Conservative Matter? How About Survival Of The Species?

When it gets down to brass tacks, our species lives or dies on enlightenment or the lack thereof.

We're not the fastest. Nor the strongest. Nor the toughest. We lack sharp, pointy teeth and claws. But we learn. We figure out and understand. We develop new and better means to deal with our world and ourselves for our mutual benefit. We progress. It's our shtick.

It's what we do to survive ... or fail to do and decay.

Every time we fail to challenge science denialism, our species slips closer to oblivion. ...whether at our own hands or by failing to foresee and adapt to nature.

Every time racism or sexism goes un-chastised and is allowed to fester, our collective chances of making it through the next billion years drop a little bit.

Every time destructive notions that hurt our prosperity -- like Trickle Down -- get brought up without being smacked right back down, we slide a bit closer to the dustbin of species by squandering our potential.

Cuts to education funding don't just make it harder for our businesses to find a pool of qualified labor at reasonable cost. Cuts to education funding reduce our chances of survival versus what they could be.

Cuts to research funding don't just make it harder for our researchers to move their fields forward; they make it that much more likely that we'll lack sufficient findings to adapt to each new event.

Cuts to infrastructure funding don't just make the roads harder on our cars; they decrease the efficiency of our species ... an efficiency that will at times be sorely needed.

Our art, our culture, our science, our philosophy, our history, our understanding ... these aren't just niceties to enjoy as surplus, as if they were mere fringe benefits. These are necessities. Our survival builds from enlightenment. From progress. It lives on progressiveness.

Conservatives would tear down all that progressives have built and stand in the way of further progress. Robbing us of our species' strong suits. Leaving us more vulnerable to cataclysm.

So go ahead and stand up to that conservative loudmouth. It matters.

Inflation, Deflation, and Redistribution

As Paul Krugman points out in a couple of recent articles, it's worth considering whose interests are served by high interest rates and low inflation, or as Krugman calls it, hard-money ideology.

"Basically, inflation redistributes wealth down the scale of both wealth and age, while deflation does the reverse."

See:

• Class and Monetary Policy
• More on Class and Monetary Policy

Hobbled Lobby and the Supremes

Tim Stuhldreher: Every year, we waste Spain

Tim Stuhldreher: Every year, we waste Spain: ... on the monumental accomplishment of American heatlhcare spending.

EconoSpeak: Keynes: Cultural Rebel

EconoSpeak: Keynes: Cultural Rebel