Scott Adams on Econmics

Scott Adams lays down some more uncommonly common wisdom, this time on economics, coming up with the Lawyers-to-Engineers ratio. Though, of course, when you have an advanced economy, you can just get foreign engineers to emigrate, and Americans can study law, Shakespeare, or even draw comics.
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For any given ten-year period, luck is the biggest driver of a nation's economy. But what single factor is most predictive of, say, a nation's fifty-year economic direction? I think it's the L-to-E ratio (lawyers-to-engineers).

My hypothesis is that the best indicator of long term economic health is the number of engineers a country produces relative to the number of lawyers. A country that is cranking out more engineers than lawyers will trend up. A country that is moving toward a lawyer-heavy economy will grind to a stop.

This idea is nothing more than a wordy way of saying, "To a man who only has a hammer, everything looks like a nail." Engineers build stuff and lawyers sue people. If we assume both professions like to stay busy all the time, you need more engineers than lawyers to create net growth. And I think you'd agree that the countries with the best engineers also win wars and survive disasters the best.

I tried and failed to Google some statistics to back up my hypothesis. Anecdotally, the idea seems about right. I can't think of a country with a strong economy that isn't also known for its engineering prowess.

Some of you will argue that education in general is the biggest predictor of success. But I think you'd agree that if everyone started majoring in English, we'd all starve to death with impeccable grammar.

-- Scott Adams

Scott Adams on Econmics

Scott Adams lays down some more uncommonly common wisdom, this time on economics, coming up with the Lawyers-to-Engineers ratio. Though, of course, when you have an advanced economy, you can just get foreign engineers to emigrate, and Americans can study law, Shakespeare, or even draw comics.
_ _ _

For any given ten-year period, luck is the biggest driver of a nation's economy. But what single factor is most predictive of, say, a nation's fifty-year economic direction? I think it's the L-to-E ratio (lawyers-to-engineers).

My hypothesis is that the best indicator of long term economic health is the number of engineers a country produces relative to the number of lawyers. A country that is cranking out more engineers than lawyers will trend up. A country that is moving toward a lawyer-heavy economy will grind to a stop.

This idea is nothing more than a wordy way of saying, "To a man who only has a hammer, everything looks like a nail." Engineers build stuff and lawyers sue people. If we assume both professions like to stay busy all the time, you need more engineers than lawyers to create net growth. And I think you'd agree that the countries with the best engineers also win wars and survive disasters the best.

I tried and failed to Google some statistics to back up my hypothesis. Anecdotally, the idea seems about right. I can't think of a country with a strong economy that isn't also known for its engineering prowess.

Some of you will argue that education in general is the biggest predictor of success. But I think you'd agree that if everyone started majoring in English, we'd all starve to death with impeccable grammar.

-- Scott Adams

"Case 39"

"Case 39" is a pretty good demon movie.

I suppose there is one kind of horror movie that I like, these satanic ones.

In fact, I suppose I tend to get into Christian-themed movies in general, save for the very pious ones, though I can be happy with such piety when it is in book form. What can I say, it is a mythology that has some life in my bones. I can feel some of that mojo. It is the only sort of supernaturalism that I can begin to entertain even just for fun.

And I can appreciate the value of being able to lose oneself a little in a supernaturally touched world, especially for movies and stories. Realism and only realism can be pretty dry and gets boring after a while. The imagination is a richer playground than that. One should have some fun in science-fiction or zombie stories or the vampire mythos. The Christian universe with its angels and demons is enough for me, I guess.

"Case 39"

"Case 39" is a pretty good demon movie.

I suppose there is one kind of horror movie that I like, these satanic ones.

In fact, I suppose I tend to get into Christian-themed movies in general, save for the very pious ones, though I can be happy with such piety when it is in book form. What can I say, it is a mythology that has some life in my bones. I can feel some of that mojo. It is the only sort of supernaturalism that I can begin to entertain even just for fun.

And I can appreciate the value of being able to lose oneself a little in a supernaturally touched world, especially for movies and stories. Realism and only realism can be pretty dry and gets boring after a while. The imagination is a richer playground than that. One should have some fun in science-fiction or zombie stories or the vampire mythos. The Christian universe with its angels and demons is enough for me, I guess.

heatwave

I put on the a/c at a little before ten today, a bit early, and Pop is still here and didn't say anything.

This heatwave is ridiculous.

The headlines in The Express-News officially proclaim this a historic drought for Texas, and next year will probably break this new record, with seemingly endless strings of 100-degree days. If this is the new order of things, with climate change, I would think that a lot of people down here are seriously thinking about migrating north, some place human.

heatwave

I put on the a/c at a little before ten today, a bit early, and Pop is still here and didn't say anything.

This heatwave is ridiculous.

The headlines in The Express-News officially proclaim this a historic drought for Texas, and next year will probably break this new record, with seemingly endless strings of 100-degree days. If this is the new order of things, with climate change, I would think that a lot of people down here are seriously thinking about migrating north, some place human.

Quote of the Day

It’s strange that words are so inadequate. Yet, like the asthmatic struggling for breath, so the lover must struggle for words.

-- T. S. Eliot

Quote of the Day

It’s strange that words are so inadequate. Yet, like the asthmatic struggling for breath, so the lover must struggle for words.

-- T. S. Eliot

Obama's long-game mentality

When I read commentaries expounding on the notion that this man [Obama] is competely out of his depth, I just have to scratch my head. Given his inheritance, this has been the most substantive first term since Ronald Reagan's. And given Obama's long-game mentality, that is setting us up for a hell of a second one.

-- Andrew Sullivan

I love Sully, but sometimes he can be so full of shit! That's a real clever strategy: giving Wall Street and health insurers and the Republicans everything they want. He's got them right where they want to be! Very shrewd.

Please, when is the bubble going to burst already? Obama is not playing some chess master's game, but is hanging on for life, though he is good at looking calm and collected as he gets beaten up and washed away in the storm. It's workers and poor folk, especially blacks and latinos, who are not looking so well.

Obama's long-game mentality

When I read commentaries expounding on the notion that this man [Obama] is competely out of his depth, I just have to scratch my head. Given his inheritance, this has been the most substantive first term since Ronald Reagan's. And given Obama's long-game mentality, that is setting us up for a hell of a second one.

-- Andrew Sullivan

I love Sully, but sometimes he can be so full of shit! That's a real clever strategy: giving Wall Street and health insurers and the Republicans everything they want. He's got them right where they want to be! Very shrewd.

Please, when is the bubble going to burst already? Obama is not playing some chess master's game, but is hanging on for life, though he is good at looking calm and collected as he gets beaten up and washed away in the storm. It's workers and poor folk, especially blacks and latinos, who are not looking so well.

Tea Party or Neo-Confederates?

The Tea Party movement takes its name from the Boston Tea Party of 1773, when American patriots dumped British tea into Boston Harbor to protest British imperial power. But while New England was the center of resistance to the British empire, there are few New Englanders to be found in today's Tea Party movement. It should be called the Fort Sumter movement, after the Southern attack on the federal garrison in Fort Sumter in South Carolina on April 12-13, 1861, that began the Civil War. Today's Tea Party movement is merely the latest of a series of attacks on American democracy by the white Southern minority, which for more than two centuries has not hesitated to paralyze, sabotage or, in the case of the Civil War, destroy American democracy in order to get their way.

-- Michael Lind at Salon.com

That does explain a lot about their politics, especially as witnessed during that debt-ceiling fiasco. And it is easy to see how a black president would most awaken this vile energy and cut-throat politics, of which I fear we have just seen the beginning.

Tea Party or Neo-Confederates?

The Tea Party movement takes its name from the Boston Tea Party of 1773, when American patriots dumped British tea into Boston Harbor to protest British imperial power. But while New England was the center of resistance to the British empire, there are few New Englanders to be found in today's Tea Party movement. It should be called the Fort Sumter movement, after the Southern attack on the federal garrison in Fort Sumter in South Carolina on April 12-13, 1861, that began the Civil War. Today's Tea Party movement is merely the latest of a series of attacks on American democracy by the white Southern minority, which for more than two centuries has not hesitated to paralyze, sabotage or, in the case of the Civil War, destroy American democracy in order to get their way.

-- Michael Lind at Salon.com

That does explain a lot about their politics, especially as witnessed during that debt-ceiling fiasco. And it is easy to see how a black president would most awaken this vile energy and cut-throat politics, of which I fear we have just seen the beginning.

LiLo Snubbed

Poor LiLo gets no respect. She apparently wasn't allowed backstage to see some group called Coldplay.



A source said: “When Lindsay was told she wasn’t allowed backstage because her pass didn’t allow it, she threw a complete wobbler.
“She protested to the people running the guest list, hoping they’d change their minds but it was still a firm ‘no’.
“She got even more angry when she found out fellow actress Kate Bosworth was there mingling with Gwyneth Paltrow and the band.
“In the end she got so fed up, she stormed out.”

-- ONTD

When it comes to these LiLo stories, one apparently has to appreciate that they tend to be even more unreliable as to their veracity than celebrity gossip in general. But I suppose it doesn't matter. It's a fun story. And I just love that trampy picture.

LiLo Snubbed

Poor LiLo gets no respect. She apparently wasn't allowed backstage to see some group called Coldplay.



A source said: “When Lindsay was told she wasn’t allowed backstage because her pass didn’t allow it, she threw a complete wobbler.
“She protested to the people running the guest list, hoping they’d change their minds but it was still a firm ‘no’.
“She got even more angry when she found out fellow actress Kate Bosworth was there mingling with Gwyneth Paltrow and the band.
“In the end she got so fed up, she stormed out.”

-- ONTD

When it comes to these LiLo stories, one apparently has to appreciate that they tend to be even more unreliable as to their veracity than celebrity gossip in general. But I suppose it doesn't matter. It's a fun story. And I just love that trampy picture.