Does College Broaden One?

I read this the other day:

A university is a place where minds should be opened, not closed; where perspectives should be broadened, not narrowed; where biases should be challenged, not confirmed. It would appear that many of our universities are failing at this critically important role.

It started me thinking.  When I went to college that was true.  But then I was coming from a mostly rural area and background, living in a time when my knowledge of the world was mostly limited to reading magazines and the Binghamton Press newspaper, short news broadcasts on NBC, and the books available at home and in the school library..  So encountering the variety of people and courses at college was definitely broadening, particularly socially, since I was already leaning liberal and agnostic.  College opened a world of choices to me, or at least made more real the choices I had vague glimpses of when in high school.

Would that be true today? I don't think so, at least for me.  If I were growing up today, I'd have had access through the internet to more information than all of my professors had in 1959, not to mention movies, videos, social media, porn, from across the  world.  If I wished, which I think I would have, I could have explored a multitude of careers and livestyles in great detail.

The "university" by its name has always been a place to encounter the universe of knowledge, but it no longer has a monopoly; it has to share its special position with the web. I think the change must affect the role of college as a rite of passage, marking a big change in one's life, and therefore collegiate culture. How can college be a liberating, a broadening experience when the incoming student has already experienced the variety of social media?  It can't, and students, at least enough students to make a fuss, want something different.

When I went to college activists were still protesting against "in loco parentis" rules, curfews, etc.,  We thought we were adults, and wanted recognition accordingly, using that as fuel for our rebellion against our elders. We wanted college to be a place of freedom.  These days the activists, both liberal and conservative, want school to be a refuge, a safe place for their identities.

The National Map and National Broadband

 GAO has a report on the problems FCC faces in providing national broadband.There's a new law:

To identify areas that need broadband access, the Universal Service Fund relies on maps of internet accessibility based on data collected from broadband providers. However, this data is not always accurate. For example, some rural areas with low populations are lumped together, and may appear to have access when they do not. This is because providers may report the entire area as having broadband even if only one location has service. The result of this mapping error is that resources to improve internet access do not always match the need.

To get more precise assessments, Congress approved the Broadband DATA Act in 2020. This required FCC to create a better map starting with getting more granular data on the precise locations of homes, businesses, and other places that could make use of broadband. Once this location map is complete, FCC will overlay broadband providers’ service area data to show which locations are served and which are not.

GAO notes the problems in combining available databases, like USPS, Census, and DOT address data.  Many of the problems mentioned were familiar from back in the day when we were trying to achieve consistency across counties and across agencies. 

What struck me was the lack of any mention of USGS.   So I went to their site, I'd not been in 10 or more years, and found the National Map. It's more impressive than it used to be, but obviously doesn't serve as the base for governmental action.  Took a look at Rural Utilities, which GAO also discussed, but they don't seem to have used GIS in their broadband efforts. 

I wonder whether other countries have been more successful in coordinating the rollout of broadband to their rural areas.

COBOL and Our Government

 Interesting paper via Marginal Revolution--a scholar found that inefficiencies and delay in  states still using COBOL to run their unemployment insurance systems hurt GDP.  

I calculate that the failure to invest in updating UI benefit systems in COBOL states caused U.S. real GDP to fall by an extra $181 billion (in 2012 dollars) during this time period. Three primary mechanisms account for the effect I find: COBOL states could be characterized by (1) longer delays in processing claims, (2) longer delays in filing claims, or (3) a larger share of discouraged filers: individuals who do not file because they do not believe that they will be successful in receiving benefits if they file or individuals that believe that the cost to file is too high. 

I've good memories of COBOL; for one thing that's how I met my wife, in a COBOL class.  

While I understand why states haven't redone their unemployment insurance systems, I won't lose the chance to ponticate on the subject.  In an ideal world we'd have a national unemployment insurance program, not 50+ individual state ones.  In an ideal world we'd find the resources to redo software systems more often than every 50 years.  In an ideal world we wouldn't leave money (GDP) growth on the table. 

Rational Consumers and Personal Histories

 Anthony Downs died recently--he was an economist who argued that people assess their choices rationally, particularly their political choices, which often leads to them not voting. 

A recent paper here argues for the importance of personal experience in shaping choices.  A recent article on inflation in the Post got a number of comments--I was struck by the number who recounted their history, or their parents history, with high mortgage rates back in the 1980s.  As for myself, when I bought in 1976, I ended up buying from Gulf Reston, choosing a new townhouse, although one of the last remaining in a 220 unit townhouse development.  Part of the factor for my choice was the 8 percent rate for the mortgage, as Gulf still had access to financing at that rate, although the going rate was IIRC closer to 9.  Rates cited in the comments on the Post piece were double digits.

That personal history makes me more sensitive to the dangers of inflation returning than most of my fellow liberals, who seem these days to believe it can't happen again. 

This isn't inconsistent with Downs theory, but it does fit the NBER paper.

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Identities: Race and Religion

 Two of the more idiosyncratic bloggers I follow are University Diaries, written by Margaret Sotan, a GWU English professor, and The Daily Howler, written by Bob Somerby, a retired schoolteacher and Harvard grad. Both have, as my mother might have said, bees in their bonnet. I say Prof. Soltan's are guns, corruption in colleges, and Haridim. Mr. Somerby's are liberal media (particularly on education and statistics) and philosophy.  

Soltan has a post on an article from Mosaic, an online Jewish magazine, describing education in the Haridim schools in New York City.  There seems not to be much education occurring within the schools.  She calls it a cult, and questions its acceptance within American culture.  

Somerby has posts yesterday and today on a NYTimes Magazine piece on Rebecca Hall and an upcoming movie.  He questions whether an individual belongs to a race, and the nature of the linkage. Is it the one-blood rule, is it the context within which the person grows up, or something else? Is there any reality to race?

Seems to me both bloggers are dealing with issues of belonging and identity. If you view, as I do, the bonds between individual and nation as rather rubbery, stretching and contracting depending on the individual and the circumstances, under what circumstances do the links break.  I've no problem with the Amish Americans, even though they end education early and get some special treatment. But Haridi Americans (is that a term) stretch the bonds more, perhaps simply because they have the history here than the Amish do. But for both the Amish and the Haridi the bond between individual and group are voluntary, though as long as one is a member you're subject to group pressure.

Somerby's subject relates to involuntary bonds--you can't choose your grandparents or the cultural context you grow up in.  At least, they used to be involuntary, entirely determined by the community.  It turns out there is choice: first for those whose color is ambiguous, they can "pass", and now for many who can choose which parts of their history they accept.  (Somerby has some fun with the words "Allen whose great great grandfather...", pointing out she had several  great grandfathers (16 to be specific). 

Great Bureaucrats--Dwight Ink

 It will be interesting to see if the Times or Post run an obit on Dwight Ink.  GovExec is out with this tribute.

Cowen and McChrystal

 Cowen's interview with McChrystal--what struck me:

• he supports a draft, to get away from restricted recruiting from South and Midweat and military children, including women.
• big concern about getting the right people into the military for drones, surveillance, etc. 
• he supports a period of affirmative action (thinking about the history of women in the military) which means accepting the fact that some of the beneficiaries of AA will not be as good as their competitors.
• he still eats only one meal a day.

Other interesting bits there. 

When Did the Holocaust Happen?

I remember reading Dwight Eisenhower's "Crusade in Europe" (now a politically incorrect title) after it came out in 1948.  He describes his reaction to the death camps, including pictures of the survivors.  Then in the 1950's there was the "Diary of Anne Frank". 

But the "holocaust" didn't really occur, it didn't take shape as a narrative with a name and an accepted history until later, as shown in this Google ngram.

 

Buy Yourself a Hair Dryer? No--a Hay Dryer!

 As farmers in the Northeast were reminded this summer, lots of rain means poor or no hay.  It's difficult to make good hay, if you're dodging rain storms to cut the hay and then let it dry in the field (IIRC we'd usually mow one day, rake the next, and bale the third). I remember how dispiriting it was to spend a day cutting a good crop of hay, raking it into nice rows, and then see it rain for days, with dry spells just long enough to get your hopes up and turn the wet rows over to dry out, only to rain again.

Believe or not, and I'm not sure I do, they've invented and are selling a "hay dryer". The post says it's a staple in Europe, but dairymen in the US have only bought a few.  The Europeans argue that high quality hay reduces disease (i.e., listeria) and improves taste of cheese, and also feeds into the EU focus on natural food.  The EU subsidies for farmers may also help in financing. 

How the Sausage Is Made

 Does anyone remember the deals which Nebraska, Louisiana, and Arkansas got, IIRC, when the Dems tried to pass ACA? I don't remember whether the final legislation included the deals; I'm thinking not, but there was a lot of wheeling and dealing during the run up.  That's what I see today.