The Decline of Hierarchy

For some reason the other day I got to thinking about cars. (Maybe it was prompted by the bankruptcy of GM.)

In the American Revolution, one of the strands was the rise of democracy and the decline of aristocracy. Where once people tipped their hats in respect to their "betters" (and elders), that sort of deference declined. John Adams was mocked for his enthusiasm for aristocratic and monarchical seeming titles. Then the great Scots-Irishman Andrew Jackson became President and the people were really rising.

But all the historical emphasis on the rise of democracy obscured the ways in which hierarchy still ruled. In my youth it was cars. GM and the others had a deliberate hierarchy--start with a Chevy then move up the ladder until the apex of the mountain was the Caddy. You could drive down the street and place people by the make and age of their cars. A new Cadillac was king of the road, a crapped-out old Chevy had to cower in the side streets.

No more. The Big Three are gone, their vehicular hierarchies are dissolved, the distinctions among cars are blurred. Now when you walk by the community swimming pool the lifeguards may be driving small foreign cars or bigger SUV's. Who knows.

I'm sure there are other hierarchies remaining or evolving, but I notice most the changes from my youth.

More About MIDAS Next Week?

A test of CIO Kundra's dashboard project, as described in this Nextgov post, is whether the MIDAS of FSA is included.

Greg Mankiw Has a Stupid Moment

Greg Mankiw is a Harvard economics professor, author of a best selling economics textbook, formerly on Bush's Council of Economic Advisors, and blogger who doesn't accept comments. His most recent post recounts his time on jury duty--he was peremptorily challenged and observes the: "The only information they had about me at the time was based on a brief questionnaire, which did not say much more than my name, address, and occupation."

Why do I say it was a stupid moment? Because IMHO Mankiw underestimates his fame, particularly in Boston, and the ability to research him. I'd guess the lawyers at least had a laptop, on which they could and would Google the members of the panel. Given his relative conservatism, I would guess the plaintiff's attorneys filed the challenge.

John Boyd Makes the Front Page

A soft piece on John Boyd, President of the National Black Farmers, in today's Post. Obamafoodorama is enthusiastic, even though the piece is implicitly critical of Obama for being slow on delivering the $50,000 for 70,000 black farmers.

I'm sorry, but it seems sloppy to me. Two quibbles, aside from the merits of the Pigford suit: the author says Boyd is a fourth generation farmer, but the National Black Farmers Association says he's third generation; and she says he's been active for 8 1/2 years, but the NBFA says it was founded by Boyd in 1995.

Sen. Proxmire Rises from the Grave

The late Senator from Wisconsin used to mock government science projects by awarding a "golden fleece" award monthly to the most useless expenditure of government money. Some of his mockery was directed at earmarks, some was earned, some was mistaken.

But I thought of him when I read this summary of research from ERS--funded by them but actually conducted by a private firm. I've bolded the bits which struck me.

"This study investigated factors that influence students’ participation in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP). The analysis used recently collected data on a large, nationally representative sample of students certified for free and reduced-price meals during the 2005–06 school year. Results show that, although eligible students are very likely to participate in the programs (i.e. pick up the meal offered that day), eligible elementary school students are more likely to participate than are middle or high school students. Likewise, students who like the taste of the meals are more likely to participate than are students who do not like the taste. In addition, if students now eligible for reduced-price lunches were instead given free lunches, they would participate more than they do now. The same was not strictly the case, however, for breakfast. Finally, the study suggests that analysts should use caution in relying on parents’ reports of a student’s participation to estimate yearly school meal participation. Parental reports of the previous day’s or previous week’s participation tend to overstate participation, which results in higher reported annual participation rates than is true according to administrative data."

I hasten to add I've not read the report and there's value in quantifying the obvious--we know parents don't know what their kids do, but what's the extent of their ignorance?

Offsets and FSA?

I've been assuming NRCS would be the lead agency within USDA if and when the Waxman-Markey bill passes with USDA involvement in handling carbon offsets within agriculture. But this article indicates it might be FSA (of course, I'm surprised when any mainstream media person knows the difference between the two agencies so this is meaningless). But just to stir the pot:

"The deal also could appease Farm Belt lawmakers by giving the U.S. Agriculture Department's Farm Service Agency greater involvement in oversight of the market for "offsets," credits for projects that cut greenhouse gases. Many of the projects would likely come from the agriculture sector, such as planting trees that absorb carbon dioxide.

Will Social Conservatives Boycott Google?

See this post on Google Operating System for a reason they might.

SAIC, FSA, and GIS But No NRCS?

This post has SAIC describing the great work they'll do on GIS for FSA. All good. But whatever happened to the idea of a service center GIS, supporting NRCS and RD as well as FSA? It seems the Bush administration let it fade away.

French Education

When I say our government is weak, this is the model I'm comparing it against, everyone in the country taking the same test at the same time.

While I had this in draft, I noticed this Kevin Drum relay of two comments on the content of a French exam, on philosophy. He wisely cautions against assuming the superiority of the system, but it impresses in some ways.

Carbon Offsets

Vilsack's testimony before House Ag is here:

"The systems we establish will need to recognize the scale of the changes needed, the capabilities of farmers and land owners involved, and the infrastructure that will be required to deliver information, manage data and resources, and maintain records and registries. In addition to bringing offsets to scale, we must also ensure that the offsets markets have high standards of environmental integrity to ensure that offsets result in real and measurable greenhouse gas reductions while bolstering efforts to conserve soil, water, and fish and wildlife resources."

The NYTimes has a post describing the concerns and back and forth between ag and EPA. One proposal, not something NRCS would like:

"Kenneth Richards, an associate professor at Indiana University, said the current bill needs language ensuring that the same project can be verified by three separate investigators. That concept, which made it into a climate bill considered briefly in the Senate last year, would cut down on inaccuracy and fraudulence surrounding measurements of carbon, he said."

I'm skeptical, but maybe there is a compromise possible, at least for policing it: Record the offsets on a GIS layer and make it publically available. Farmers get the offset payments but have to give up the secrecy now applied to their acreage uses. Because, as Professor Richards observes, NRCS isn't (at least wasn't) comfortable being a regulatory agency (witness sod/swampbuster), give FSA a role. (Cynics among you knew that was where I was headed.)