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Yeah, I was really well informed once

8/16/2020

3 Comments

 
Picture
​I was waxing philosophical the other day, explaining how I would solve all of the world’s problems with my superior intellect and unrivaled wisdom, when it occurred to me that I don’t know what’s what.

A friend and I were discussing the cost of government and the added cost of working with labor unions and, suddenly, I realized I was arguing on the basis of 30-year-old data. Maybe it was 40 years old, or worse. Didn’t matter. I was applying outdated insights to a current situation and I was probably wrong in my assertions.

What, for example, are the current stats on labor unions? I know many, many people who believe unions are the reason for pretty much every malady in the economy. Government bloat? It’s the unions’ fault. Foreign company cost advantages? It’s the unions’ fault. Underperforming schools? No question, it’s the teachers’ unions. But was any of that ever true, and is any of it true today?
 
The world is a complicated place, much more complicated than memes and bots would lead us to believe. There’s almost never a single cause of any major trend; rather, the trends flow from multiple sources acting over time.

We can find an anecdote to “prove” any point we want to make, of course, but I started to realize that I do not have a fact-based grasp of some seriously critical issues. I knew, overall, that the percentage of Americans in labor unions has declined along with manufacturing jobs and that public employee unions are a larger part of the total unionized work force than was the case when I was a kid. Beyond that, my grasp of the facts was pitiful. Has education improved in right-to-work states? Have manufacturing jobs increased as union wages and benefits diminished? I knew the slogans, but I realized that I don’t know the facts.

The same awareness hit me when we were talking about welfare programs, immigration, pollution levels, and other issues that I am uniquely qualified to resolve as soon as I am Michael the First, emperor of the United States. I read newspapers and news sites regularly, but I’m reading characterizations, mostly. I’ll read a fact that is inserted into an op-ed to make a point, but I won’t know if that fact is a true indicator of the overall trend or status quo.

Is there still a “marriage penalty” in the tax code? Do Medicare recipients still deal with “The Doughnut?”
​
It’s relatively simple to check out the data, even though it means spending more time looking at my phone when I should be engaging with other people. Fortunately, everyone else is staring at their phones all day, so I will fit right in with the cool kids.
 
 
 
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3 Comments
Bob McLennan
8/16/2020 01:03:25 pm

In my opinion, part of the problem Mike is describing is how difficult it is to get unbiased, fact based information. Old fashioned journalism has been replaced by point of view media.

Reply
Carlo
8/17/2020 08:32:37 am

I'll add one to Michael's list that always amaze me when I hear people passionately argue this "slogan." "Government regulation stifles growth and hinders business innovation and potential."

When the facts show The US nominal GDP in 1980 was $2.9T and is forecasted to grow to $22.2T during 2020* with all those overbearing regulations.

I guess it comes down to that age old question of capitalism and market economy. How much growth is enough growth and at what cost? Oh and BTW who needs all that clean air & water, food safety, product safety, etc., etc..

*Data Source: International Monetary Fund (IMF) World Economic Outlook (WEO) database, April 2019 edition.

Reply
Bruce Bloom
8/23/2020 01:09:16 pm

As someone who is planning to get remarried net year, I actually checked. At least in out situation, there is now a "marriage benefit" for us filing together as a married couple versus what we would have been taxed had we filed individually.

Reply



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