Posted on 09/01/2011 7:40:15 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
NEW YORK — You might call it the cognitive divide — the split between an evidence-based worldview and one that is rooted in faith or ideology — and it is one of the most important fault lines in the United States today.
President Barack Obama called attention to the cognitive divide, and reminded us...when he chose the Princeton University economist Alan Krueger to lead his Council of Economic Advisers.
Mr. Krueger is a labor economist, and at first blush, that focus may seem the important part of his résumé......his mastery of data and his utter commitment to the truths it can be coaxed to tell.
...The president is an empiricist. He wants to do what works, not what conforms to a particular ideology or what pleases a particular constituency. His core belief is a belief in facts.
..Cass Sunstein:...“Above all, Obama’s form of pragmatism is heavily empirical; he wants to know what works.” Word crunchers found that the president’s 2009 inaugural address was the first one to use the term “data” and only the second to mention “statistics.”
....The divide between the empiricists and the believers is also the fault line between the highly educated, technologically adept super-elite and the squeezed and scared middle class. But those hoi polloi voters, who, in 2012, as they were in 2008, seem to be drawn to politicians with big ideas and strong beliefs, may also be responding to something even bigger than this cognitive divide.
We are today, as we were in 2008, living through an unprecedented crisis. The economies of the Western world are sick, and the international balance of power is shifting. To be driven by data is an admirable thing. But when you find yourself in dangerous and uncharted waters, there is no data to guide you.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Rick Perry deals with the ‘dumb’ question (no wisdom in Obama's circle of academic advisers) .........>>>Perry continued on the intellect theme, explaining why he thinks it’s a problem that many of Obama’s advisers come from academia.
"They have gone to some great schools and they are intellectually smart, but he does not have wise people around him ... He has listened to smart people but nobody who has real wisdom," Perry said.<<<
The Texas economy is growing in spite of the Obama economy.
Alan Krueger = Cash for Clunker Mastermind
Nuff said!
How is it possible to write the above?
Seriously.
How is it possible?
Obama’s pragmatism is heavily empirical??????????????? Puleeeeeeeeeeeze! This jackleg doesn’t even know what day of the week it is.
And all of this from Cass Sunstein. LOL
Earth to NYT: nice try to link intellect with Keynesian loons and labor-linked profs.
Face it...that math doesn’t work.
Never has.
Never will.
And...if you folks actually were able to pass a math course higher than simple arithmetic, you might actually learn something.
I know.
Perry’s right, they have no common sense — just degrees (my paraphrasing of his comments].
Yes, it's quite a load.
All these idiot msm sycophants can only parrot what the commie czars around Obama tell them.
They’d rather stick with a model that doesn’t work than change direction and use a real life one that does (Texas).
Makes the case for: They know exactly what they’re doing and have no intention of changing course.
It seems to me Perry is more of an empiricist than Obama. Perry lets his experience in Texas teach him what works whereas Obama sticks to his approach no matter what the evidence is that his policies aren’t working.
As usual a misdirection from the NY Times
Sure is interesting that they don’t have comments set up for that article...
Upside down universe where the guy who is heading up one of the only really working economies, (Texas), is said to be a wild-eyed dreamer and idealogue, while the guy heading up failed program after failed program is said to be a fact-based pragmatist who wants to do “what works”. This makes sense ONLY if the goal, (ie “what works”) is to crash the free enterprise system and bring down our economy entirely. But if the goal is actually to make the country prosperous then this writer makes no sense at all.
This letter is just more proof (as if we needs any) that people shouldn’t drink out of puddles.
What’s been proved is that Obamanomics is a complete and utter failure.
The Miracle of America
from
axes and hoes to high technology;
log cabins to air-conditioned condos;
horsedrawn wagons to autos, planes, and rockets;
scarcity to abundance; &
from tyrannical government rule to individual liberty
HOW DID IT ALL BEGIN?
Most of our history books don’t tell us that, in the beginning, the pilgrims established a communal economic system. Each was to produce according to his ability and contribute his production to a common storehouse from which each was to draw according to his need.
The assurance that they would be fed from the common store, regardless of their contribution to it, had a peculiarly disabling effect on the colonists. Taking property away from some and giving it to others bred discontent and retarded employment. Human nature was the same then as now, and before long, there were more consumers than there were producers, and the pilgrims were near starvation. Governor Bradford, his advisors, and the colonists agreed that in order to increase their crops, each family would be allowed to do as it pleased with whatever it produced. In other words, a free market system was established. In Governor Bradford’s own words:
“This had very good success; for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corne was planted than other waise would have bene by any means ye Governor or any other could use, and saved him a great deall of trouble, and gave farr better contente. The women now wente willingly into ye field, and tooke their little-ons with them to set corne, which before would aledg weaknes, and inabilitie; whom to have compelled would have bene though great tiranie and oppression. . . . By this time harvest was come, and instead of famine, now God gave them plenty, and the face of things was changed. . . . and some of ye abler sort and more industrious had to spare, and sell to others, so as any generall wante or famine hath not been amongst them since this day . . . .” (Wm. Bradford, “Of Plimoth Plantation,” original manuscript, Wright & Potter, Boston, 1901)
Those who, today, favor central government planning, common ownership and redistribution of the earnings of others are advocating a system that Americans tried and rejected over 350 years ago. Their wisdom gave birth to the great American miracle!
You Can Do Something About This!
(This message originally published in the mid-1980’s by Stedman Corporation’s Government Affairs & Free Enterprise Education Program – a former NC textile firm. For more essays in this series, visit www.ouragelessconstitution.com )
Note:
Although largely censored from the "public square" by so-called "progressives," some ancient advice may be relevant to today's discussion:
"Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding." - (Prov. 4:7)
...rather than what is legal and constitutional.
I seem to recall that a lot of Harvard and Wharton MBAs used “data” and “statistics” to create mortgage-backed securities, credit default swaps etc. that came within a hair of crashing the entire U.S. financial system.
I’ll take the highly-experienced over the highly-educated every time.
Very funny!!
Too bad it’s true.
There you go being brilliant.
You got that right.
I go nuts watching these “talking heads” and round table pundits DISCUSSING all this ____________ like it was something you could make sense of!
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