Bowling Alone and Kids

Awhile ago Robert Putnam got lots of attention for his book "Bowling Alone", in which he argued there'd been a decrease in associations in American life over the years, with a concomitant decrease in social capital.

I wonder, whether there's not been an increase in associations centered around kids: the notorious soccer moms who spend their time chauffeuring kids from one activity to another, meaning they coordinate with other parents.  So there might be a decrease in associations like the Elks or bowling leagues which are with peers, and increase in associations with parents.  That would mean a division in society.

Bureaucrat Started as GS-5?

The article "Master of Bureaucracy" doesn't say, but it's likely Bob Gates started as either as GS-5 or 7.  Government Executive runs a long interview with him:

• when he became Sec. of Defense, he didn't bring any assistants with him.  (That's amazing for anyone who's seen a transition at the top of a cabinet department.)
• kept quiet in meetings
• gave others credit
• fired people
• says DOD plans for war, isn't good at waging war, so had to go to task forces to accomplish things.

Recommended

Liberals Are Cheap

Kevin Drum admits he's an idiot and his commenters chime in noting how they drive cheap old cars.

Mankiw and I: CEO/Worker Compensation Ratios

Greg Mankiw, Harvard economics professor and adviser to Mitt Romney, posts a chart on his blog showing the ratio between the pay of a worker and the pay/compensation of the CEO's at top 350 firms.  (I assume the workers are the workers at the same firms, but whether it's mean or median or what, it's not clear--Prof Mankiw gets a "C" for copying the graph and failing to specify in his post.)

The professor seems must struck by the recent drop in CEO compensation--the ratio in 2000 was twice that in 2011.  I'm more struck though by the increase, the ratio has increased 10 times between 1965 and 2011. In the good old days just after George Romney had left his CEO job at American Motors CEO's got roughly 20 times the compensation of their employees, say $100,000 to $5,000; in the bad new days when his son is running for President CEO's in big companies make 209 times the compensation of employees. 

Cocoa Pops Is the Answer

What is the question: how did Baratunde Thurston climb his way up?

India Sets a Record

This article reports India has set a new record for production of wheat, rice, and cotton.

India will have a all-time high foodgrain production of over 252 million tonne in FY12 with a record output of wheat, rice and cotton, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said today.
Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour in Rajya Sabha, he said the record foodgrain production of 252.56 million tonne would be higher than the 235.88 million tonne output in FY11.

Political Advertising in the Colonies

Boston 1775 has a guest blogger discussing "milestones"; no, not as in project planning but as in physical stones which mark the miles from a given point, in this case in Boston. An excerpt to explain the title:

Rather, most of the stones in the immediate Boston area were erected by prominent political figures, such as Samuel Sewall, Jonathan Belcher, and Paul Dudley. I’m guessing that those men saw the milestones partly as a public service, and partly as a billboard advertising their beneficence—just as we see signs near highway construction projects that give the names of government officials today.

 

The Life of Chinese Workers

Via Ann Althouse, a series of photos of the walled city of Kowloon,

Where Are All the Prairie Potholes?

I've blogged before on the prairie potholes, most recently here.  EWG has a set of maps which outline the pothole region, as well as where grassland and wetland have been converted to active cropland recently.

Note my use of "active"--that's because by definition every acre in the Conservation Reserve Program once was cropped/considered by FSA/ASCS to be cropland.

We're a Rich Country

I don't know why, but the idea of retirement homes for urban chickens past their egg-laying days strikes me as ridiculous, while the idea of retirement homes for former thoroughbred race horses doesn't, particularly.

Maybe because I liked our horses but disliked our chickens.