The Tavern

[EquALLity]

Try going back over those questions, and answer the quiz again thinking in terms of what makes a better experiment to gather data, try to remove the rhetoric and ideology and stick with the facts, and you'll get something closer to my answers.

Or you can just link me, and I won't have to guess.

Oh, did you not feel the need to save the link when you took the quiz, so you don't have it?

Liberals who blindly carry on about raising the minimum wage like it's the best idea ever

I don't think Bernie is doing it blindly. He was talking about that stuff with jobs and raising the minimum wage here, where he makes good points: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Sy37D73_oQ

My state of Vermont has, I believe, the third highest minimum wage in the country. It's eight dollars and sixty cents an hour (now nine fifteen)... We have the fourth lowest unemployment rate in this country.

But then, when you look at some of the other states and compare...
http://www.bankrate.com/finance/jobs-ca ... age-5.aspx
http://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and- ... pdate.aspx

I'll check out that Wikipedia article and that other link.

I think Sanders is an idiot (or he's lying and he's just pandering to his base, which is par for the course for a politician), but the rest of them are even more idiot (or pandering even harder, it's difficult to tell the difference), so I'll go with the least of idiots.

I think Bernie Sanders is more authentic than the average politician. If he was a liar who just panders to the left, I don't think he'd be against common core, for one thing.

Why do you think that he's an idiot?

[Cirion Spellbinder]

I'm going to ask a sort of related question: Is it possible to be an authentic politician or is it just a necessary part of politics to be elusive and unauthentic? (Or something in between? I apologize for the black and white wording of the question.)

[brimstoneSalad]

Oh, did you not feel the need to save the link when you took the quiz, so you don't have it?

Correct.

My state of Vermont has, I believe, the third highest minimum wage in the country. It's eight dollars and sixty cents an hour (now nine fifteen)... We have the fourth lowest unemployment rate in this country.

There are many reasons Vermont may have low unemployment rates. That's pretty much the definition of lack of controls, which is why Sanders is not anything remotely resembling a scientist. Correlation does not mean causation.
Meanwhile, it's pretty much consensus among actual economists that raising the minimum wage costs jobs -- that part isn't even controversial.

But then, when you look at some of the other states and compare...
http://www.bankrate.com/finance/jobs-ca ... age-5.aspx
http://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and- ... pdate.aspx

Right, it's more useful to look at scatter plots. Search "state minimum wage vs unemployment plot" or something like that.

http://i39.tinypic.com/6eeohv.png
http://econbrowser.com/wp-content/uploa ... feb_13.gif

Which is really just the demonstrate that Sanders is an idiot if he thinks that's some kind of defense of raising the minimum wage.

I think Bernie Sanders is more authentic than the average politician. If he was a liar who just panders to the left, I don't think he'd be against common core, for one thing.

Could be. Maybe just dumb.

Why do you think that he's an idiot?

See above. Economics isn't rocket science. He's making terrible arguments based on ideology, not reason.

I hate to say that the Republicans actually make more sense on some of those topics (although they're even bigger idiots for other reasons).

[brimstoneSalad]

I'm going to ask a sort of related question: Is it possible to be an authentic politician or is it just a necessary part of politics to be elusive and unauthentic? (Or something in between? I apologize for the black and white wording of the question.)

Well, you can be authentic if you're a complete moron, and accidentally happen to believe all of the "right" things which will appeal to the voters.

It's more of an intelligence vs honesty issue. If you're smart you have to lie, if you're a moron you can be honest.
Which is why we can't have politicians who are both intelligent and honest (unfortunately).

[EquALLity]

Correct.

Oh. Is taking it again out of the question? I'm not going to be able to guess a lot of important issues.

Well, I suppose you would have done that already.

It doesn't really matter that much.

What do the dots in those links represent, and how do we know if they're reliable? Anyone can upload to tinypic.
I guess that I could make my own using the data.

Which is really just the demonstrate that Sanders is an idiot if he thinks that's some kind of defense of raising the minimum wage.

Could be. Maybe just dumb.

What about hit and miss ratios? He's an idiot because of this one issue?

I hate to say that the Republicans actually make more sense on some of those topics (although they're even bigger idiots for other reasons).

Which other things do they make sense on in particular? Maybe I should look into them more.

[brimstoneSalad]

What about hit and miss ratios? He's an idiot because of this one issue?

Yes, because this is his full time job to know these things; they're his positions, and should be more thought out and better supported than a comedian's.

If a mathematician insisted that division by zero equaled infinity, but was otherwise correct on algebra, he or she would be an idiot because it's his or her job to know better.
Whereas a barista suggesting the same thing would just be mistaken, and may not be an idiot for making that mistake.

Which other things do they make sense on in particular? Maybe I should look into them more.

Some fiscal issues. Not many. And it's more of the same, that the answer is not as clear as either suggests it is.

[Cirion Spellbinder]

How do you feel about this? (It's a video about rhino conservation) It seems like it will have an overall "good" impact, but it makes me uneasy for some reason. Tell me what you think.
http://youtu.be/wdCQAWzM8jg

[EquALLity]

^Why does it make you uneasy?

[Cirion Spellbinder]

^The idea of attaching technology to animals has always made me feel a bit uncomfortable. It's more of an irrational distaste that anything.

[EquALLity]