The New Strategy

Believe it or not, prof bug hasn't fallen off the face of the earth and ended up in some godforsaken limbo in outer space with no means of accessing the Internet, never mind the buggy site.  On the contrary, he's been busy posting at various other web sites . . . all economic ones, and mainly libertarian ones to boot. 

Not that they have always welcomed his non-libertarian take on their posts --- among which disgruntled happened to be one called EconLog, run by two professors of economics at George Mason University.  Nothing wrong with their posts there.  The two profs are pretty bright . . . only, well to put it mildly, they're fairly narrowly specialized and it was easy for the buggy prof to bug them: meaning, more precisely, to show up the limits of their knowledge and theoretical arbiter dicta.   They obviously grew piqued.  Who could blame them?. 

Not that they banned prof bug from their web site directly.  No,no; that would contradict their libertarian values, right?  So they did it indirectly --- by the intermediary of their web manager, a fellow who insisted that prof bug not post any arguments longer than 500 words . . . a limit, alas, that hardly adds up to most of prof bug's wind-up prefatory comments. 

Buggy Purgatory

Today's Buggy Topic Continues The ...

... same prof bug stuff that the previous buggy article dealt with . . . Chile's remarkable economic and political record since returning to democracy in 1990 after 27 years under military dictatorship, that return --- reflected in General Pinochet's holding free elections (thanks to American pressure), then losing and stepping down.   You'll find the two buggy posts if you click here.

Today's Buggy Topic Seems . . .

. . . Odd at first sight, no?  Still, it's accurate enough, and three long buggy posts deal with it in a thread at Economist's View.   Click here for the prof bug stuff.

Oh, almost forgot.  I bang out those lengthy comments left at Economist's View at breakneck speed and pause only for a search for data.   No time for review, let alone revisions,  and most of the time, I suppose, it doesn't matter.  Alas, in one of those posts in the thread just linked to,  you'll find some sloppy syntax for which I apologize.

Today's Buggy Topic

The topic, dealt with by three lengthy buggy posts left in a thread at Economist's View, ranges more widely than the subject-title above suggests.  Most buggy followers will likely find the long buggy analysis of the debate about American median-household income-growth since the late 1970s the most interesting parts of the buggy posts, though anyone interested in the social sciences --- and above all, what we can legitimately expect them to do compared to the natural sciences --- will, let us hope, find all three buggy posts informative . . . along with the exchanges there with other posters.

Click here for the buggy stuff.

Today's Buggy Topic

It continues the prof bug analysis of entrepreneurship on the two sides of the Atlantic in a thread at Economist's View, where a lengthy bugged-out post appeared two days ago, much to the horror of some chronic, true-believing left-wing posters.  In reply to them, the buggy prof has added a couple of more posts that dealt with Sweden.

For today's prof bug stuff, click here.  For earlier systematic comparisons between the various advantages of the USA and the EU --- the notion that one country could do everything better than others is an absurdity --- click here and here.

Today's Buggy Topic Digs . . .

... Deeper into the subject in the title above, a continuation in the same thread at Economist's View where prof bug posted a lengthy comment yesterday, followed by two more today.  Note that one of the posts uses the pseudnymn of Dr. Kool-Aid Quacksaver.   Enjoy, along with lots of hard data and comparisons between the USA and, on the other side, Japan and the EU-15 when it comes to "high-expectations" entrepreneurship.

Click here for the buggy stuff.

Today's Buggy Topic May ...

...Look familiar, a repetition of earlier buggy posts in two previous threads on the subject at Economist View.  Don't let appearences deceive.  Fact is, Prof bug added two lengthy posts with new material and more solid documentation, with the first post using a new pseudonym --- Dr. Kool-Aid Quacksaver . . . a continuation of another post left under the same name in a different thread. 

For the latest buggy posts, click here.  For the earlier Dr. Kool-Aid Quacksaver --- a distinguished psychiatrist at the Systematic Study of Special-Needs Sufferers of Quasi-Normal Quack-Quack Weirdos (Dr. B.B. Buggy, M.D., founder and CEO of the Institute) --- click here.

Today's Buggy Topic,

... Strange as it sounds in the subject-title above, is pretty accurate.  There are several buggy posts that deal with the EU, the Greek economic and financial crisis in the eurozone of 16 countries --- in West Europe, Britain and Denmark and Sweden not using the euro, while most of the East European new EU members don't qualify, along with discussions about the US-led coalition of 49 countries in the Afghan war.  Click here for the buggy posts.

More Ideologically Motivated Fatuities at Economist's View On . . .

the topic set out above, more or less a continuation in a new thread there of the earlier one about which populations, Americans or West Europeans, were happier over a long period of time before the current world-wide economic and financial meltdown.

Follow a few threads there on income inequality, GDP growth, per capita income growth, educational opportunities and performance at all levels of schooling, and social problems like violent crime, underground economy tax-evasion, and even longevity (hardly below Sweden's, with its 9 million population of unusually homogeneous people except for Swedish citizens from Finland and a small but rapidly growing and alienated Muslim population . . . follow those threads where the chronic and compulsive posters seem to think the American working classes are living in condition similar to those Dickens described in his evocative and vivid novels of the early- and mid-19th century, and you'd think it's not only a disaster here, but also that West Europeans living in more advanced welfare-states are happier, more prosperous, and less prone to suffering major social problems,.

Both These Assumptions: About the US Population and The Equivalents in West Europe Are . . .

. . . wrong, as prof bug has shown in numerous earlier threads with hard evidence, and as he shows in the latest thread where he posted a few times. Click here  for all the luminous stuff, plus lots of manic, half-crazed screwball hilarity . . . all unintended, of course, by the vexed ideological furiosos.   

None of This Means That West Europeans on the Continent or Canadians Don't

do some things better than us.  To claim that the USA or any country does everything better is to state something absurd.  We would be better off if we had the regulated insurance healthcare systems --- no government involvement whatsoever, except regulating basic prices and subsidizing the poor so they can also buy insurance --- of Holland, Germany, and Switzerland.  They generally have better public transportation systems; German and Japanese cars have been the pace-setters traditionally in improving the quality of vehicles; Japanese electronic firms, now joined by South Korea's (and in cars), have also been the pace-setters in productivity, quality, and lowering prices; land management is, at any rate, better in some European countries than here.   There are other things we'd be better off if we could import and adapt them to our society and institutional structures.

As for Education,

Remember . . .    even in grammar and high schools, US Europeans outperform all West European countries in PISA exams, given every four years, to 15 year-old students in science, math, and literacy, except for tiny Finland (4 million) and small Holland (18 million, but only a tad higher in rankings: Finland first, then Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Holland (with the US European-Americans slightly above South Korea; and way above most EU countries.   Here are the results that might surprise you.  Note that even if you include all American 15 year-old students, we still ranked higher than 7 other EU countries.

Finland 563
Canada 534
Japan 531
New Zealand 530
Australia 527
Netherlands 525
(USA European-Americans) 523
Korea 522
Germany 515
United Kingdom 515
Czech Rep 513
Switzerland 512
Austria 511
Belgium 510
Ireland 508
Hungary 504
Sweden 503

....................

OECD Average: 500

.....................

Asian-Americans 499

Poland 498   
Denmark 496
France 495
Iceland 491

United States (all students)  489

Slovak Republic 488
Spain 488
Norway 487
Luxembourg 486
Italy 475
Portugal 474
Greece 473

Hispanic-American students 439
Turkey 424

African-American students 409
Mexico 410

Can the Gaps in the USA Be Narrowed?

Though I'm not outrightly pessimistic, I'm no longer optimistic.  More specifically, I have no clear and convincing suggestions for doing differently what we have done in the last 50 years since segregated schooling was outlawed in the  South. 

Integration was a moral imperative, period.  Then came busing for two decades before it ended, with no gap closed.   We tried then self-esteem building; then tried teaching students in groups, to combat so-called excessive individualism;  then administered general state-level and federal-mandated exams; spent continued increases in education --- the percentage of combined public and private educational expenditures of USA GDP  adding up to 7.5%, roughly fifty percent higher than the West European average. 

Others, of course, may come up with new policy ideas that might work better.  Who knows? 

Today's Buggy Topic Actually . . .

. . . Ranges more widely than the subject-title might indicate.  And naturally the hard-evidence of who's happier on the two sides of the Atlantic, at any rate down until the latest recession that started in the US at the end of 2007 (and later in the EU), bristled and vexed the left-wing habitués at Economist's View, where you'll find for the time being two lengthy buggy commentaries.  Click here for the bugged out stuff