cynicism risk
can’t believe numbers, do we
believe anything?

Adapted from the New York Times Opinion piece, What to Do When the President Acts Like a Five-Year-Old?, by By George A. Akerlof, a Nobel-winning economist where Mr. Akerlof writes:

When a government fires the umpire, we all have reason to wonder: What game are we playing? One danger certainly is that a future Bureau of Labor Statistics head might feel political pressure to fudge a jobs report. The deeper risk is cynicism, the quiet corrosion of faith in institutions. If we can’t believe the numbers, how do we believe anything?

Sadly, Mr. Akerlof doesn’t follow through and answer the question, What to Do When the President Acts Like a Five-Year-Old?

He does point out the that President should follow the rules.

He writes: Past presidents respected this boundary. Ronald Reagan didn’t fire the head of the agency when it reported double-digit unemployment during his first term.

But what should we do?

As already quoted, Mr. Akerlof says If we can’t believe the numbers, how do we believe anything?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

All the the deeper risk is cynicism?

Deeper risk?

I was schooled in the school there are lies, damn lies … and Government Statistics.

I was schooled that during World War 2, unemployment figures were at their lowest levels ever. That they country couldn’t show Full Employment however, was due to way the figures were added up.

I always thought that I could get rid of the US Debt by telling the Government to use the long scale Billion where a billion is a million million, not a 1000 million as the US debt is now counted.

Over night, the debt would fall from $36.7 Trillion dollars to a much more realizable $37.6 Billion.

And you could believe the numbers!

Here’s how that conversion works:

Standard U.S. system (short scale):

• 1 trillion = 1,000 billion
• 1 billion = 1,000 million
  So, 1 trillion = 1,000,000 million (one million million).

Therefore:

• $36.7 trillion = 36.7 million million dollars
  (in other words, $36,700,000,000,000).

So if you’re counting a billion as a million million (which is the long scale used historically in some parts of Europe), then:

Long scale conversion:

• 1 billion (long scale) = 1 million million (i.e., 1,000,000,000,000 or 1 trillion short scale).

So in long scale, $36.7 trillion (short scale) = 36.7 billion (long scale).

Summary:

• Short scale (used in the U.S.): $36.7 trillion = 36.7 million million.
• Long scale: $36.7 trillion = 36.7 billion (long scale definition of billion).

I am reminded of the old TV Show, Yes, Minister, where the local authorities are not sending in their reports on time.

The exchange between Sir Humphrey, Hacker and Bernard goes:

Sir Humphrey: If local authorities don’t send us statistics, Government figures will be a nonsense.
Hacker: Why?
Sir Humphrey: They’ll be incomplete.
Hacker: Government figures are a nonsense, anyway.
Bernard: I think Sir Humphrey wants to ensure they’re a complete nonsense.

To repeat again, If we can’t believe the numbers, how do we believe anything?

Folks, if we have to believe the numbers … well …

As Sonny Corleone said about Luca, [ If Luca sold out,] … we’re in a lot of trouble, believe me. A lot of trouble.

But I don’t want to sound cynical.

whence do we come? what …
… are we? where are we going?”
I’m going outside!

Quo vadis?

Where are we going?

Whence do we come?

What are we?

Great questions for these troubled times!

Has there ever been a better response?

I came from my room!

I’m a kid with big plans!

I am going outside!

See ya later!

Kinda sums it up for me.

And I even know who Paul Gauguin is!

I am going outside.

See ya later!

if feels unhelpful
completely at liberty
to stop at any point

In the UK and elsewhere, bibliotherapy – which also includes recommendations for non-fiction and self-help literature – has been soaring in popularity as a means of improving people’s wellbeing, help navigate tough life decisions, and even to treat specific mental health conditions.

For people wanting to try out bibliotherapy for themselves, Carney recommends trying to find a club for group discussions. Jolly recommends public libraries, where you can try lots of books for free – and if a book isn’t resonating with you, pick up another one instead, try something shorter, or a different genre like poetry. And if reading isn’t for you, Poerio adds, maybe there are other ways to improve wellbeing, like music or visual art. “If you feel it’s helping you, if you’re feeling the benefit… you’ll want to carry on,” Schuman says. “But if it feels unhelpful or intrusive, then [you] should feel completely at liberty to stop at any point.”

From the article, ‘It opened up something in me’: Why people are turning to bibliotherapy by Katarina Zimmer in BBC Books.

The idea or concept sounds good – improving people’s wellbeing, help navigate tough life decisions, and even to treat specific mental health conditions by reading.

BUT anything that needs the caveat … But if it feels unhelpful or intrusive, then [you] should feel completely at liberty to stop at any point …

Really?

I mean if I find something unhelpful or intrusive, something kicks in that makes want to finish everything in the bowl anyway.

Well, no that’s not true.

The truth of the matter, I go into any enterprise looking for any reason to bail out.

But what to do with that … And if reading isn’t for you.

Gosh.

Heard of those folks.

Glad its a complaint I have avoided all my life.

Of the many things I have written about, I am not so sure that the line, if reading isn’t for you, if it feels unhelpful or intrusive, then feel completely at liberty to stop at any point.

Boy Howdy but that sounds sad.

Don’t get me wrong on one part of that.

I have long felt that mature reader is someone who can pick up a book and after investing in a few chapters – pages – paragraphs – lines can feel that the book unhelpful or intrusive … or just a bad book and I feel completely at liberty to stop at any point.

Nothing makes me drop a book or a show quicker that a historical story told incorrectly or incompletely.

One feller I can think of wrote about the greatest College to NBA basketball transition of all time (the Ervin Johnson/Larry Bird era) and claimed to have grown up in East Lansing and knew most of the people in the book but couldn’t kept confusing Jay and Sam Vincent.

I found that book to be unhelpful or intrusive and into the bottom desk drawer.

Maybe one of the worst examples I came across was a book about Theodore Roosevelt where the author repeated a lot of writings and speeches AND CORRECT THE SPELLING of words like lite, thru and laf WITHOUT seemingly to know that Mr. Roosevelt embraced the concept of Simplified Spelling … oh well.

I digress.

I love to read.

I often find therapy thru what I read.

I hope you do it.

You can find a book and read about it.

have no incentive
to continue to do so …
desegregation

Students and teachers working in school districts today might be decades removed from the people who led the push for desegregation in their districts, but they still benefit from the protections that were long ago put in place. Without court oversight, school districts that were already begrudgingly complying might have no incentive to continue to do so.

From the article, Consent decrees force schools to desegregate. The Trump administration is striking them down by Adria R Walker.

Someone help me out.

What year is this again?