Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
Yeah, why didn’t we think of this before?
[New York City Mayor Mike] Bloomberg says that after years of fighting poverty, the government has little to show for its efforts. Now it’s time to try something new. Why not offer incentives to poor people to do things that can benefit them, such as attend school, get a library card or go to the doctor?
:
Bloomberg points to the incentives the government already offers to the rich. For instance, there are subsidies to farmers to stop planting corn or energy companies to drill — or not drill — in certain places.“You can argue that a lot of the things Congress subsidizes, people should do anyway,” he says in an interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep. “But the truth … is, when you have a bonus, you tend to work harder and do more.”
Bloomberg, a billionaire, says New York City will try the incentives as an experiment using private money, including some of his own.
It’s a funny thing about the nanny-state. Whenever a “bold” new idea is proposed, like this, both sides of the argument cite precedent. The protagonists point backward, the antagonists, forward.
Those who are supportive say things like, heck, we already do (such-and-such). Notice the nod back to Roosevelt’s Agricultural Adjustment Administration and the paying of farmers not to grow corn, to slaughter cattle, to pour cream into ditches, etc.
And the antagonists pose the rhetorical question: What’s next? I could ask this. Hey, I make some pretty smart decisions. Where’s my handout from Bloomberg’s personal treasure chest?
Aren’t all nanny-state initiatives, the conventional as well as the more adventurous — just like this? To make them look like great ideas you have to say 1) we’re simply following through on earlier precedent, and 2) it STOPS here. Which is essentially arguing against the scientific principle of inertia.
One thing I do find encouraging here is that the program is being sold on the strength of some of the money…just some…coming from Bloomberg’s personal checkbook, at least in the experimental phases. If he could guarantee that the program would stay this way, I could support that. Not that I would predict success, but I would at least hope for it, and I’d support the rights of persons wishing to join him, throwing their own money into the hat. Mistake? Probably. But I’d support the right to make it.
Of course that would be a “foundation,” and government wouldn’t have a single thing to do with it. So for the city government to get involved, something is going to have to go beyond volunteerism. Government is not about selection, it is about force. Opting-in to and opting-out of things, that’s what the private sector is for.
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