Matters in society that constitute problems for the stable operation of social institutions or populations and/or are recognized by significant groups as indicating the need for change in some parameter of social structure or process.
In recent memory at least, Americans have been uncomfortable with the idea of class. That somehow has caused a retreat to the middle. In the context of the myth of universal opportunity for mobility through achievement, it’s almost like Garrison Keeler’s Lake Woebegone, where “all the children are above average.” The “lower class” is not … More What Middle Class?
The media response to the revelations of NSA whistle blower Edward Snowden has been, well, interesting. At first, he was either vilified as a ‘traitor’ or as a fake or incompetent fool. Then, as more embarrassing information on the unconstitutional surveillance of Americans was made public, and James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, was revealed … More Sometimes a Cigar is Just a Cigar, and Sometimes a Spy is Just a Citizen
We humans are both rational and emotional beings. The mix between the two can produce some strange and amusing results. Conventional economics assumes that all human behavior is rational in the sense that everyone chooses only actions that serve their best economic interests and the result is the best overall outcome for everyone. Yet all … More Errors, Mistakes, and Stupidity: Why Magical Thinking Can Be Deadly
A lot of congressional politicians and media pundits of both Republican and Democratic persuasion are jabbering these days about “job creation.” The 2014 mid-term elections are fast approaching and nobody wants to be caught looking indifferent to the lack of jobs for an increasingly large numbers of Americans. Their approaches are different, of course. The … More The Great Jobs Myth and the Transformation of the Growth Economy, Part I
Last Hours is a scary video that presents the raw scientific facts of the impact of global warming reaching the tipping point where warming is accelerated by massive release of methane from the arctic tundra and below the sea beds, because it is melted from its frozen solid state. The result is an unstoppable positive … More Last Hours, Last Hope, Last Reality Check.
When I arrived in Santa Rosa, an hour’s drive north of San Francisco, I wasn’t thinking about the news reports I’d read about the police killing of the thirteen year old with the toy replica of an assault rifle in that town of 160,000 a few weeks before. It had been an uneventful trip and … More The Death of Andy Lopez and so Much More
Robert MacNeil Christie, Author 