Israel is a country but in many ways it is also a symbol.
It is the ancient land that we know from the bible and a modern country situated in a dangerous part of the world with neighbors who would prefer it did not exist.
Historically that whole area was overrun during various periods in history but was effectively recreated after World War 2 by the occupying country.
This was partly in reaction to the atrocities committed against the Jewish people during that war and partially in response to the politics of the time.
It has had to fight for its survival ever since and it has done so successfully but in doing so it has also expanded its original borders and restricted the rights to some extent of the Palestinians.
I was in Israel in the early 80s and I'm sure it has continued to progress since then. I would like to clarify that being Israeli and being Jewish are not the same things.
Further Israelis in general have internal politics and a wide range of beliefs, although they almost universally accept that they have the right to exist.
They face a number of thorny issues including what to do with the West Bank, the essence of Israel as a Jewish State and the treatment of Palestinians.
Many Jews around the world support Israel both financially and politically. It is viewed by many as a homeland and a holy land.
Still, criticizing Israel or even arguing that pressure to support Israel in this country isn't anti-Semitic on the face of it.
It may be based on anti-Semitism, but it may simply be that you disagree with the policies of the country.
Further to argue that the other party is influenced by campaign donations is simply politics as usual.
This is the world we now live in, where comments made on social media are used to press an advantage, even where there really is nothing there.
Thursday, March 7, 2019
Wednesday, March 6, 2019
Our World
We all live on this planet and while many of us now lead lives that aren't all that connected to the natural world, we certainly are very dependent on it to survive.
The air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat are all dependent on it.
Of course most of the animals who live free are very dependent on the changes in climate.
We see habitats destroyed and species going extinct, and many of us don't seem to care.
Some of this is due to ignorance and some of it is due to arrogance.
We have been told that we were created to rule the world.
That God loves us and all things are part of his/her plan.
Others feel that there is a conspiracy of elite people trying to keep them down.
The logic of that is hard to understand, but its along the lines of the people who have everything don't want competition from regular people.
Usually these elite are framed as people who somehow profit off our troubles and control the media and the Government from behind the scenes.
So for some reason they are selling us on climate change because, well this is where the theory suffers. They want to control us but the reason is generally vague.
You can't trust the Government or media because some other guy tells you not to. Well since bad things happen to you from time to time he must be right.
It is much easier to believe that those things aren't your fault, that the world is controlled by others who make them happen.
Of course, as the water rises, and the weather deteriorates, it may eventually dawn on everyone that we are all in this together.
Lets hope its not too late.
The air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat are all dependent on it.
Of course most of the animals who live free are very dependent on the changes in climate.
We see habitats destroyed and species going extinct, and many of us don't seem to care.
Some of this is due to ignorance and some of it is due to arrogance.
We have been told that we were created to rule the world.
That God loves us and all things are part of his/her plan.
Others feel that there is a conspiracy of elite people trying to keep them down.
The logic of that is hard to understand, but its along the lines of the people who have everything don't want competition from regular people.
Usually these elite are framed as people who somehow profit off our troubles and control the media and the Government from behind the scenes.
So for some reason they are selling us on climate change because, well this is where the theory suffers. They want to control us but the reason is generally vague.
You can't trust the Government or media because some other guy tells you not to. Well since bad things happen to you from time to time he must be right.
It is much easier to believe that those things aren't your fault, that the world is controlled by others who make them happen.
Of course, as the water rises, and the weather deteriorates, it may eventually dawn on everyone that we are all in this together.
Lets hope its not too late.
Tuesday, March 5, 2019
Wage Stagnation
One of the things that seems mystifying to many economists is that while we have seen an economic expansion of sorts since 2010 (the end of the great recession) we have not seen significant wage growth or increased inflation.
The following chart shows workforce participation percentages since 1950. The climb in the early pare of the graph represents the increased participation of women. However since its peak around 2000 we see about a 5 point drop in participation that continues.
source: tradingeconomics.com
To a large extent these are discouraged workers, people who lost "good" jobs and now exist on things like Government benefits (disability etc.) or have joined the underground economy managing to get by.
Many of them could, or would return to the workforce under the right conditions. Those conditions include better paying jobs. In effect they create a pool of available applicants primarily for low skill opportunities.
Our economic models rely primarily on data based on the industrial era of America. In that era, expansion meant more workers as the vast majority of work was in fact performed by them. As we enter the post industrial era, we see a change, not fully recognized in most models.
Much of the work is now automated and expansion does not necessarily lead to additional high paying industrial jobs. We do however see job creation and there is upward pressure on many skill positions. What we do not account for is the creation of low skill service jobs that are being created.
These jobs are generally fairly easy to fill and consequently low paying.
Replacing a high paying industrial job with a lower paying service job may help the unemployment rate, but it doesn't exert a lot of wage pressure. Further, we have those non-participating workers who effectively increase the number of available candidates while not being reflected in unemployment statistics.
The following chart shows workforce participation percentages since 1950. The climb in the early pare of the graph represents the increased participation of women. However since its peak around 2000 we see about a 5 point drop in participation that continues.
source: tradingeconomics.com
To a large extent these are discouraged workers, people who lost "good" jobs and now exist on things like Government benefits (disability etc.) or have joined the underground economy managing to get by.
Many of them could, or would return to the workforce under the right conditions. Those conditions include better paying jobs. In effect they create a pool of available applicants primarily for low skill opportunities.
Our economic models rely primarily on data based on the industrial era of America. In that era, expansion meant more workers as the vast majority of work was in fact performed by them. As we enter the post industrial era, we see a change, not fully recognized in most models.
Much of the work is now automated and expansion does not necessarily lead to additional high paying industrial jobs. We do however see job creation and there is upward pressure on many skill positions. What we do not account for is the creation of low skill service jobs that are being created.
These jobs are generally fairly easy to fill and consequently low paying.
Replacing a high paying industrial job with a lower paying service job may help the unemployment rate, but it doesn't exert a lot of wage pressure. Further, we have those non-participating workers who effectively increase the number of available candidates while not being reflected in unemployment statistics.
Monday, March 4, 2019
CPAC?
There was a time when CPAC was dominated by literate, intelligent people who argued the rightness of their conservative philosophy citing the constitution and the founding fathers.
It is now more of a joke.
We have the chief clown coming out and hugging the American flag as is he loves it.
He didn't love it enough to serve in a war.
As a con man he like to play to the crowd and as a snake oil salesman he simply lies about how great his product (in this case him) is.
What is interesting is that the principled conservatives have descended into a crowd of true believers, believing things that they argued against for many years.
Free trade was one of their core principles, when they had some.
Massive deficits and debt were never something they supported.
Cozying up to dictators was never one of their core values.
I don't know if the audience is different now or if the attendees have just decided to enjoy the circus while it lasts.
It is now more of a joke.
We have the chief clown coming out and hugging the American flag as is he loves it.
He didn't love it enough to serve in a war.
As a con man he like to play to the crowd and as a snake oil salesman he simply lies about how great his product (in this case him) is.
What is interesting is that the principled conservatives have descended into a crowd of true believers, believing things that they argued against for many years.
Free trade was one of their core principles, when they had some.
Massive deficits and debt were never something they supported.
Cozying up to dictators was never one of their core values.
I don't know if the audience is different now or if the attendees have just decided to enjoy the circus while it lasts.
Sunday, March 3, 2019
Too Many Labels
I had a discussion with my wife about what we call a person who identifies with their birth sex. It is cisgender. Its not that easy to keep track of and the following link is helpful.
gender identifier terms
Not too long ago we just used men, women, boys, girls.
While respecting the rights of people to identify however they want there are things in the terminology that are a bit odd. In a lot of it they talk about the sex assigned at birth. Since I'm pretty sure they are not talking about God this is obviously the sex that would be indicated by the eternal genitalia they possess at birth. At least I'm not aware that we are assigning sex at that time on any other basis.
I guess in some instances, certain parents decide not to assign a sex at that time.
Still, there is still a big trend about having sex reveal parties also going on.
I have to say that I sometimes think we have created a situation in which many people are almost encouraged to have sexual identity anxiety.
There have always been those who felt uncomfortable in the sex they were born into. Sometimes this was expressed as a sexual desire for the same sex and other times it was related to a desire to act like the other sex.
For most of human history these types of behavior were considered unnatural or even sinful, something that needed to be hidden and something that could lead to punishment. Hopefully we now allow people to be who they are, although I'm sure there is still some discrimination.
Still for those who, and this is the great majority of people I know, having a label for identifying as the sex I was born with seems a bit too much. I'm also not sure that having to broadcast whether I am who I am or if I am now someone else is helpful to treating everyone the way they currently identify.
gender identifier terms
Not too long ago we just used men, women, boys, girls.
While respecting the rights of people to identify however they want there are things in the terminology that are a bit odd. In a lot of it they talk about the sex assigned at birth. Since I'm pretty sure they are not talking about God this is obviously the sex that would be indicated by the eternal genitalia they possess at birth. At least I'm not aware that we are assigning sex at that time on any other basis.
I guess in some instances, certain parents decide not to assign a sex at that time.
Still, there is still a big trend about having sex reveal parties also going on.
I have to say that I sometimes think we have created a situation in which many people are almost encouraged to have sexual identity anxiety.
There have always been those who felt uncomfortable in the sex they were born into. Sometimes this was expressed as a sexual desire for the same sex and other times it was related to a desire to act like the other sex.
For most of human history these types of behavior were considered unnatural or even sinful, something that needed to be hidden and something that could lead to punishment. Hopefully we now allow people to be who they are, although I'm sure there is still some discrimination.
Still for those who, and this is the great majority of people I know, having a label for identifying as the sex I was born with seems a bit too much. I'm also not sure that having to broadcast whether I am who I am or if I am now someone else is helpful to treating everyone the way they currently identify.
Saturday, March 2, 2019
They Can't Stop Lying
The problem with all the lies we are told by the administration is that over time they are revealed for what they are.
It seems like they prefer telling a lie over being honest.
If he had helped his son-in-law get a security clearance, who would really care?
He obviously did, but then he had to lie about it.
Why?
He just seems prone to lie for no real reason.
Yes there would have been a brief moment of criticism but it would have just passed.
The lie however, gives the story legs.
Lie after lie.
The question of whether there was collusion with the Russians is still unanswered. However a lot of the people involved felt compelled to lie. They have pled guilty or face a trial.
If there was no collusion, why are they lying?
It just seems to be a way of life in that group.
It seems like they prefer telling a lie over being honest.
If he had helped his son-in-law get a security clearance, who would really care?
He obviously did, but then he had to lie about it.
Why?
He just seems prone to lie for no real reason.
Yes there would have been a brief moment of criticism but it would have just passed.
The lie however, gives the story legs.
Lie after lie.
The question of whether there was collusion with the Russians is still unanswered. However a lot of the people involved felt compelled to lie. They have pled guilty or face a trial.
If there was no collusion, why are they lying?
It just seems to be a way of life in that group.
Friday, March 1, 2019
Electoral Racism
The ex Republican governor of Maine just praised the electoral college for keeping white people in power. This is of course a common republican position, but seldom discussed publicly.
This idea that there is something inherently better about white people is the essence of racism, and it is very common among Republicans and some Democrats.
The reason for the electoral college was rooted in a number of things, one of which was that very purpose. However, there is also the promise to lower population states that they will have some voice in how things are decided.
However, that is encapsulated in the way we elect the Senate where each state gets equal representation. Should this concept also apply to the way we elect the President?
Democracy promises that each person has an equal vote. The electoral college gives people in lower population states more of an impact than those in higher population state. That is why in the last election the popular vote winner ended up losing.
However, the situation is unlikely to change since the States that benefit would have to agree to the change.
Many of the checks and balances in our system is designed to protect the rights of certain minorities. Interesting that now they are protecting the rights of the majority.
This idea that there is something inherently better about white people is the essence of racism, and it is very common among Republicans and some Democrats.
The reason for the electoral college was rooted in a number of things, one of which was that very purpose. However, there is also the promise to lower population states that they will have some voice in how things are decided.
However, that is encapsulated in the way we elect the Senate where each state gets equal representation. Should this concept also apply to the way we elect the President?
Democracy promises that each person has an equal vote. The electoral college gives people in lower population states more of an impact than those in higher population state. That is why in the last election the popular vote winner ended up losing.
However, the situation is unlikely to change since the States that benefit would have to agree to the change.
Many of the checks and balances in our system is designed to protect the rights of certain minorities. Interesting that now they are protecting the rights of the majority.
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