KPC Guide to the 2016 Prez Race: Elect-ageddon!

Rather than give actual information about candidates, which would violate our basic tenet ("Don't vote, it just encourages the bastards!"), I want to propose a fieldwork version of the "Grand Game."

The Grand Game is where you read a linked article, or piece in the media, and compete to find the most absurd quote, or compete to ask the most devastating question.  It's...well...Grand!

So, readers, go out into the world and observe the behavior (mating and otherwise) of the wild creatures called candidates, and report back.  My email is mcmunger (at) gmail [dot] com.  Just send in your entries.

And here is the judging criteria, from the incomparable H.L. Mencken.  Find the words and actions of candidates that best embody the wisdom of this quote:

The state — or, to make matters more concrete, the government — consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can’t get, and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time it is made good by looting ‘A’ to satisfy ‘B’. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is a sort of advanced auction on stolen goods. (Notes on Democracy, 1926).

 It was "men" in his time, of course, but Ms. Pelosi and Ms. Clinton are better men--in the above sense--than most men in Mencken's time.

Of course, Mencken also said that "Democracy....is the worship of jackals by jack asses."  That'll get 'er done, too.

Go forth, readers, and report back!  I'll post everything you find for the next 15 months, until "Elect-ageddon 2016!"

(Lagniappe:  Hilariously, Sheldon had the same "voter guide" thought, and used the same Mencken quote.  It's a MOVEMENT, people!)

Wind-Fall Profits? Grand Game!

From J.S.:

A star project management consultant proposes a means to prevent contractors from getting wind-fall profits, and seems to deny learning the lesson that incentives matter after hundreds of millions in cost overruns, and not even the slightest hint of irony that there may be wind-fall profits in his 300K+ per year salary.

Blog Entry 
Class Syllabus
Article on LA's Light Rail Fiasco 

Lots of great Grand Game stuff there, folks!

ACA Penalty is Really a form of "Minimum Wage"? Grand Game

I'm not sure this fellow could be more confused.  For one thing, he parrots the bizarre canard that the minimum wage has fallen, withered, etc.  But that's only because he selects a purely strategic point of comparison.  He says:

The minimum wage has been allowed to erode substantially. I earned $1.25 an hour while in high school in the mid-1960s; if that amount had grown at the same rate as per capita personal income, high school kids and others would now be earning $20 instead of $7.25.

Now, check this out:

In 2005$, the minimum wage is up more than 50% since 1947 (it has doubled since it was established).  Now, that's fine, because productivity is up.  But it's just nonsense to claim that overall the minimum wage has "eroded," just because you want to pick the highest historical point as a comparison.  The minimum wage is MUCH higher than it was, in real terms, over the post-WWII era.

More importantly, he actually claims that the ACA penalty on employers who do not pay for insurance is a "minimum wage."  Seriously?  That would only be true if you think that the worker should not receive the pay, and it should go to the state instead.  Oh....wait...I guess he does believe that.  What matters is that those evil corporations have to PAY more.  He doesn't actually care if the workers RECEIVE the money.  Calling that a "minimum wage" seems...confused.

Nod to Kevin Lewis.

Grand Game: $15 edition

Just delightful.  Many unintentional self-parody moments.

Enjoy them all.

Nod to @rbcaples

Grand Game: Remarkably Dumb Economics Edition

"Discredited marginal productivity economics"?  Seriously?  One can say that there are problems with banks (barriers to entry, overly friendly regulation, etc.) without deciding to just make up your own personal theories of economics, pumpkin.

Enjoy?

Grand Game: Really Dumb Stats Edition

Oh my sweet heavens above.  This is awesome.  Gives that whole "baby-killing conservatives" new vitality!

Grand Game: Outsourcing

This may be one of the most bizarre misapplications of logic and facts I have ever seen outside of the New York Times.

Please discuss.

Grand Game: LARB version

An article by James Harkin.  A delightful GG setting.  Extravagantly, profoundly, confused.  Confused in a way that makes you wonder how the poor author types, or is allowed to be near big shiny electrical things like toasters.

A discussion by Henry Farrell (himself not really a fanboy of Public Choice), at Crooked Timber, to get things started. I have to admit, Henry had me giggling and saying, "Oh, my goodness," or something like that.

With a nod to Kindred.

UPDATE:  Danny D catches the wave--Karl Marx is the new Dumbo Gets Mad, for hipsters.

Broken Windows and Giving Away Money

Grand Game!

Apparently, it doesn't matter how much we tax, as long as give the money away.  Because the people who receive the money will be made better off.

You can read it yourself!

A nod to EM

Not the Onion?

I really thought this had to be a hoax.  A tribe of sanctimonious Germans who believe that their unwillingness to behave responsibly creates obligations for others to take care of them.  Okay, wait, that is basically ALL Greeks, I understand.

But in this case it's Germans, and it's literally true.  These folks say they are "on strike."  From consuming.

The cool part is that they do in fact consume.  They are just "on strike" when it comes to paying for what they consume.

Oh, and while they refuse to WORK, they are happy to take--and USE--the "free" money that the government gives to them.

There's more!  Please do share your favorite quote, GG style.

with a grateful nod to Tal, who sent it to  J.C.  J.C. thought I would like it.  I like it.

Grand Game: Academic "Honor" Edition

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UPDATE:  Okay, so don't even read my post.  It is lame and ad hoc.  GR answers all the questions, way better than I did.  Just read what he said.  Seriously.

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So, this piece, based on this book, says that there is a giant conspiracy of "honor" in academic political science.

I'll admit that perhaps academic rank of PhD institution is more important than it "should" be (and I'm not sure what that means, but I'll admit it).  But if admissions processes are based on grades, recommendations, and GRE scores, and if the top ten PS departments* choose the 150 best applicants each year, wouldn't it be amazing if those departments did NOT dominate the job market?  Let's assume that the admissions criteria are only 50% predictive of later success.  Still, year after year, 75 of the best young political scientists in the country are going to the top ten departments. 

Sure, that means that there may be no value added in "top" PhD programs.  But if the admissions process selects based on traits that are actually correlated with ability, this is just sorting.   To put it another way, the admissions processes at top ten poli sci departments would have to be pretty dumb for anything other than dominance to occur.

Anyway, see if you agree with me, and pick out some of the logical howlers in this piece.

(*Based on this ranking, which the researchers used, Duke is 9th, so perhaps I'm just biased? Or drunk on all that "honor"?)

And, since @lordsutch linked it in the first place, apparently (?) approvingly...what say you, Lord Sutch?  You called it "in-breeding."  Why isn't it just probabilistic sorting?

Wow! A Grand Game From Heaven!

I have always claimed that it is impossible to make a "national defense" argument for trade protection for U.S. sugar producers.  But this guy does just that.  And his argument....I pause with a sense of enormous respect for his courage.... his argument is that without trade protection for U.S. sugar producers, the price of sugar would be....too high!  Because there would be an OSEC (Organization of Sugar Exporting Countries, modeled after OPEC).  Seriously.  He says that.

You have got to read this for yourself.  A brilliant piece of work.  Grand Game, people!

A Conservative Case for Sugar Tariffs.

Grand Game: Road Kill Time!

A disclaimer at the outset:  This is "satire."  It's WV, so it could be real.  On the other hand, I had no idea that it was illegal to eat stuff you ran over in the first place.  Yes, you can't take deer that way (though I've been tempted!), but if you hit a squirrel and want ya some stew, what's the problem?  It's fresh, and already tenderized, so you can put away that mallet.

But apparently the legislature of WV wanted to make honest women (and men) out of its citizens, and validate the already widespread (?) practice of taking those little delicacies home to the fam.

This is a KPC GG opportunity, though, because of the description, and quotes.  They attached "ryders"?  Really?  Big rental trucks, to make sure no wildlife survives that frantic scurry or waddle across the highway?  Wow.

Special bonus (LMM:  Do not watch this):  A roadkill cartoon.

UPDATE:  Is VA reacting to WV?  By using this "don't tread on me!" metaphor?  So, something like "don't run me over and then put me in the trunk to eat later?"  Why else would VA rip off this South Carolina symbol?

Grand Game: Western Politcal Science Association

I actually thought this was a spoof.  No one could seriously mean this, as an invite to participate in a political science conference (the Westerns).  To be clear:  it's not a meeting of lefty nuts, it's a meeting of professional political scientologists.

Since the passage of the Taft Hartley Act in 1947, the US has seen steady erosion in [protections for workers]. Workers in the US and Europe bear a greater and greater burden for the social goods provided by their society and receive fewer and fewer benefits while those who have benefitted most from the triumph of capitalism have begun to knock down the reforms achieved in the 20th Century. Hopes of spreading the improved human condition to the global south have foundered on a reconstructed mercantilist and neo-colonial international trade regime that has resulted in exploitation of workers in lesser-developed nations and vast environmental degradation.

Is democracy up to this challenge? Can the free-market global economy again be brought into line with the goals of improving the conditions of humanity? Are our institutions, nation-states, international compacts, and ways of thinking up to this challenge, or will the latter part of the 21st Century more closely resemble the late 19th than the late 20th? While the WPSA welcomes proposals on all political and governmental questions of interest to the discipline, in 2013, we would like to pay particular attention to domestic and international inequality, its causes and its consequences, and whether democratic institutions are up to the task of addressing either.

But it appears to be serious.  Wow. 

Enjoy.

With a nod to the Bishop.

Reality Transcends Irony: Solar Failure is Sign of Maturity

Grand Game, Grand Game, whatcha gonna do?

Here is an article from the Seattle Times, on solar power.  It contains several nuggets of comedy gold.

But the best, IMHO, is the following claim:

" The report's authors said the demise of companies such as Solyndra, Evergreen Solar, SpectraWatt, Solar Millenium and Solon was a sign that the solar industry is maturing."

Look, we have been spending hundreds of billions of $ for 30+ years.  And there is no viable solar power industry.  Even the buggy whip industry had a some good years, before getting all "mature" and going bankrupt.

Nod to the Ward Boss, who knows things.

Grand Game: San Francisco Edition

A truly remarkable cavalcade of idiots, ideologues, and squishy thinkers. A parade of sports and horribles. Hard to believe they are serious, but then lefties are always serious. Wrong, but serious.

I won't spoil it for you. But don't miss the consequence where the company can't even bid on government contracts because now their costs are too high. Presumably we will soon have a set aside to assure that the halt and the lame of SF get their "fair chance" at being the high bidder yet still winning the contract.

Discuss.

(And nod to Anonyman)

Grand Game: Madison Wisconsin ID Edition

I actually can't believe this is true. Which calls out for the Grand Game.

Bars are not allowed to demand valid ID in deciding whether you are of drinking age in Madision, WI.

This is not like voting rights. Even there, I'm not sure that asking for ID is wrong. But at least that is some kind of fundamental right.

There is NOT a fundamental right to drink in a private bar. And the idea that bars would try to discriminate to keep paying customers out, in WISCONSIN, is pretty nuts.

Nod to the Blonde, who at this point is desperately hoping someone will card her...

Private investment is irrelevant for growth....who knew?

Grand Game time, folks! James Livingston, "economic historian" at Rutgers, goes off in the Obama Admin Daily Newsletter:

As an economic historian who has been studying American capitalism for 35 years, I'm going to let you in on the best-kept secret of the last century: private investment - that is, using business profits to increase productivity and output - doesn't actually drive economic growth. Consumer debt and government spending do. Private investment isn't even necessary to promote growth...A big part of the problem is that we doubt the moral worth of consumer culture...Consumer spending is not only the key to economic recovery in the short term; it's also necessary for balanced growth in the long term. If our goal is to repair our damaged economy, we should bank on consumer culture - and that entails a redistribution of income away from profits toward wages, enabled by tax policy and enforced by government spending.

I wonder if he wrote that on his government-invented iPad? F*****g idiot. He apparently thinks that if you write about stuff you don't understand, that makes you an "economic" historian. Yes, sure, I'm a snob. But the guy has a PhD in History from Northern Illinois U. A two-time loser.*

Please do share your thoughts....

(Nod to Kevin Lewis, who as always is in no way complicit with my surly "analysis"; he just sent the link)

*A clarification:  Northern Illinois has a number of quite good departments, including econ.  But the history department is a doctrinaire marxist ideological chop shop.

I'm Sure I Think I'm Sure This is a Joke

Dutch Boy sends this, from the Kinston paper.

Not sure how to describe it. I'm sure I think it is a joke, I think.

But this may be the first time an article has engaged in self-grandgame. Impressive. I think.

“I’m no prude,” says Paulette Burroughs, 39, of La Grange. “But something I saw in that store was way over the line.”

Burroughs said she made the discovery Monday afternoon while planning a “Dancing with the Stars” viewing party at her home.

“We had a real good time, except for when old Nancy Grace decided to turn one of her sweater puppies loose,” Burroughs said. “That thing looked like it’d been eatin’ lemons all day.”

Combo Meal! Not the Onion Meets the Grand Game!

This story is tremendous. It's not the Onion, and yet it could be.

Let's go with the Grand Game thing, though.

1. If there is ANY place that should have really big tables, it is White Castle.
2. "I'm not humongous..." Sir, if you weigh 290 lbs and you cannot wedge your giant ass into a table at a fast food restaurant, you are, in fact, humongous.
3. He is outraged because "the cheese was extra!"
4. He is so mad at White Castle that he is boycotting! By which he means... he sends his wife to go get the burgers! Nice boycott.

There's lots more. Enjoy.

(Nod to David Skarbek, who eats like a freakin' girl)