Social Commentary

“Unwarranted Self Regard”

One fears for the future if these students are typical of today’s crop:

Once again, I explained how to answer the question, and once again the student was pleased. The error was just a trivial difference of opinion. “Yeah, I get it,” she said. “I was just thinking of it differently.” You say tomayto, I say tomahto.

No, I wanted to say, you weren’t thinking of it differently, you had it completely wrong; you didn’t understand it at all. But like her many compatriots, she was unlikely to acknowledge that, or admit to a mistake even when she created a version of reality never seen on a map, or in the actions of a blackbird.

Students have always deluded themselves, of course, and hope has always sprung eternal, or at least until final grades appear. And at least some in my classes really do eventually master the material. But confident placidity in the face of error seems to be on the rise.

Maybe it’s all that self-esteem this generation of students was inculcated with as youngsters, or maybe it’s the emphasis on respecting everyone else’s opinion, to the point where no answer, even a mathematical one, can be truly wrong because that might offend the one who gave it.

Social Commentary

“Unwarranted Self Regard”

One fears for the future if these students are typical of today’s crop:

Once again, I explained how to answer the question, and once again the student was pleased. The error was just a trivial difference of opinion. “Yeah, I get it,” she said. “I was just thinking of it differently.” You say tomayto, I say tomahto.

No, I wanted to say, you weren’t thinking of it differently, you had it completely wrong; you didn’t understand it at all. But like her many compatriots, she was unlikely to acknowledge that, or admit to a mistake even when she created a version of reality never seen on a map, or in the actions of a blackbird.

Students have always deluded themselves, of course, and hope has always sprung eternal, or at least until final grades appear. And at least some in my classes really do eventually master the material. But confident placidity in the face of error seems to be on the rise.

Maybe it’s all that self-esteem this generation of students was inculcated with as youngsters, or maybe it’s the emphasis on respecting everyone else’s opinion, to the point where no answer, even a mathematical one, can be truly wrong because that might offend the one who gave it.

Space

It’s Not Just Boeing

…that seems to be having problems with dodgy procurement practices. OSC may be in trouble as well.

Orbital said an investigation led by the U.S. attorney’s office in Phoenix appears to be focusing on “contracting procedures” related to “certain U.S. government launch vehicle programs.”

Space

It’s Not Just Boeing

…that seems to be having problems with dodgy procurement practices. OSC may be in trouble as well.

Orbital said an investigation led by the U.S. attorney’s office in Phoenix appears to be focusing on “contracting procedures” related to “certain U.S. government launch vehicle programs.”

Space

It’s Not Just Boeing

…that seems to be having problems with dodgy procurement practices. OSC may be in trouble as well.

Orbital said an investigation led by the U.S. attorney’s office in Phoenix appears to be focusing on “contracting procedures” related to “certain U.S. government launch vehicle programs.”

Economics

Auction H-1B Visas

The limit for H-1B visas is 65,000 this year and next down from 195,000 in 2001-2003 according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services. Since foreign technical service personnel are literally worth their weight in gold, this is detrimental to the US economy. The London fix on gold (according to WSJ–subscription required) was $418.25 per troy ounce Friday. Each troy ounce is 31.1 grams or so. The average weight of a US adult is 177.3 lbs according to CDC. That much gold can be bought for $1.08 million. A technical services worker costs about $47,000/year according to the Federal Reserve of St. Louis. If the relative prices stay the same, 23 years of work will net $1.08 million. Technical services are likely to become more valuable compared to gold over time.

In the New York Times today, John Tierney talks about Julian Simon’s research showing that war has become less lethal over the years as a leading cause of death and the trend has continued. Simon was also a big believer in the value of human capital as am I.

His argument in The Ultimate Resource 2 showed that while more births cost more at first (not counting the joy of parenthood), they resulted in more economic growth when they grew up. There is no delay associated with H-1B visas. The import of human capital will immediately speed US growth. These people were already raised overseas and represent a pure boon to the US economy.

There are individual losers, of course. US technical service workers earn less if people are imported from overseas. But protectionism always results in lower aggregate GDP than free trade. There ought to be a way to compensate US technical service workers for the wage loss they will suffer while still allowing the increase in foreign workers and have a win-win or at least a win/small loss.

My proposal is to have US citizens classify themselves into categories according to proof of training. Then the citizens can get some cash from the proceeds of an H-1 B visa auction if people are being imported in their classification. I also propose that the application process be a short form and that the only reason to reject a form would be the auction price and falsification. That is, any reason to immigrate would be fine as long as the auction price was right. The penalty for falsification would only be to make sure the auction proceeds went to the right people.

I would prefer that they just open the floodgates to a million or more immigrants per year with no evidence of need required. Just set the price so that the benefit of the marginal immigrant exceeds the cost. If Simon did the analysis, we would probably end up subsidizing immigration instead of discouraging it. We should continue to refine our tax code, regulations and improve our environment so the US is the most excellent place to live.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!