Race Survey Critique

She’s “White.”

But I want to write a note: Race and whiteness is just a concept. She had British ancestry. At some point in history, I’m sure that was a “different race” from my German/Dutch ancestry. As racially neutral as this study is attempting to be, it is actually somewhat biased. It assumes that distinctions between East Asian and Pacific Islander countries are relevant to distinguish between (Filipino vs. Vietnamese), but not between African countries. That either falls into “Black / Af. Am. / Negro” or “Some other race” (which is more derogative than “Race not listed – Print race”). Similarly, your study, at best, only works for studying racial prejudice inside “Asian” cultures in 2009. Questions 2,3,7,9, and 10 are the only ones worth keeping as truly valid, the only ones you need. #7 I’m a little iffy about trusting your interpretation; here’s hoping you’re not going to infer that people prefer people within their race as a racial preference. Because it *might just (probably) be* that people in their race do similar things and engage in similar cultural activity and that people prefer the people who they do things with (proximally) and not the race per se; you have no way of knowing which.

PS. “Negro”? Really? In this day and age? I’m not a soc. major so I don’t know, but I thought that seemed outdated / possibly offensive.

Anyway, good luck!

-Kevin V.

Filed under: Uncategorized , criticism, friend, race, survey

Do individuals have a right to bear children?

As a liberal, I believe so. Yet, the complications from the essential fact that we are bringing into being a newly conscious individual seems to complicate it. Does one have the right to bear as many children as one wants, only to have social services subsidize the bill? Are those children funded through social services beings that we, as a society in the original position, would want to encourage? (Clearly, we are interested in protecting them, should it arise, but should we endorse the idea that it can be good (for the parents themselves) to have a child to be born in a broken home that faces innumerable life difficulties including and not limited to poverty, disease, or crime?) This is a rough sketch of the less likable parts with regards to incentives of procuring the security of the less fortunate.

My question is somewhat misleading; I am more interested in asking why individuals feel that they have the right to bear children in a manner of their choosing. Why can people (1a) choose to or (1b) unintentionally have a baby, (2) not be able to adequately provide, and still (3) have subsidization by the government and (4) private ownership of the child, when the desire seems (5) selfishly motivated because raising a child is seen as fulfilling an integral part of the human experience?

Filed under: essay , children, cost-benefit, economics, government, individuals, justice, kids, morality, raising kids, Rawls, rights, society

Do jobs matter?

In the three years I’ve spent towards getting my economics degree, I’ve found that the answer is … not in themselves.

Average income distributions. Macroeconomics and studies of general equilibrium tend to focus on GDP and in particular, real GDP. Since the number of people in the labor force (L) divvy up GDP (or Y), the relevant measure in growth economics is Y/L. But that only shows the average amount of income. The Gini coefficient will suggest a measure of the degree of inequality of that income distribution, but while that combined with average income tells us how much everyone is making, it doesn’t give a sense of whether or not jobs are created.

Filed under: idea , economics, gdp, gini coefficient, hourly wage, job creation, job destruction, joblessness, jobs, programmers, unemployment

Michelle Obama’s Senior Thesis

In four parts, thanks to Politico.com:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4

Her thesis discusses racial divisiveness in America. Notably, she wrote that her time at Princeton and afterwards would only lead to “further integration and/or assimilation into a white cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society; never becoming a full participant.”

Does a similar hopelessness exist in 2009 as it did in 1985? And why?

Filed under: senior theses , michelle obama, obama, princeton, racism, senior thesis

Responsibility, Identity, and Citizenship

Can present-day citizens of a nation be morally responsible for redressing injustices committed by past generations?  If so, on what grounds?

An Exploration into the Concepts of Responsibility and Identity

            Responsibility, moral or political, depends on three particular elements: (1) identity, (2) the freedom to reasonably change the outcome, and (3) have changed the outcome. While the relationship between these is complex and perhaps impossible to disentangle, I will turn later to the issue of national responsibility and identification to illuminate both the liberal and communitarian perspectives to guide our exploration.

Who we are is a three-fold split between nature, nuture and will. More specifically, it appears that our identity (as we will loosely define here) is causally determined by the effects of (a) ante partum environmental factors such as where we are born, who we are born to, our genetic makeup – what we identify with, (b) post partum influences from interactions with other reasoning beings such as your parents, peers, and authors of literature – who we identify with, and (c) our own discretion as embodied in the willed choices and beliefs we assert.

Filed under: essay , communitarianism, ethics, identity, justice, kant, moral, responsibility

The Case against Affirmative Action

The Case against Affirmative Action will be followed by a discussion tomorrow on where racism is today, the notions of white privilege, and activism vs. tolerance, and what the role of apathy is in contemporary social life.

I. Mere Means

“For rational beings all stand under the law that each of them should treat himself and all others never merely as a means but always at the same time as an end in himself.”

There is something wrong with racism, something wrong with judging someone’s worth on the basis of their race. I begin by bringing us back to Kant, who touches upon a notion of human dignity. It is wrong to “use” someone rather than respecting their dignity. However, it may be said that affirmative action needs not merely use people as means towards the social end of racial equality (or reparations), but that it can also respect the valid capacities and potential for contribution in each student. Does it?

Filed under: essay , admissions, affirmative action, diversity, ethics, harvard, identity, kant, racism, reverse discrimination

Problems in Social Choice Theory: Sen

Sen’s Impossibility Theorem

We want, but can only have 2 of 3 of the following:

1. Pareto efficiency. The socially favored outcome is as good as or better than any alternative for the aggregated social preferences.
2. Transitivity of preferences. If I like A > B and B > C, then I like A > C.
3. Minimal liberalism. There are some preferences that fall outside of the social domain. Only I get to say whether or not I read Lady Chatterley’s Lover or paint my walls pink or white.

Why?

Filed under: essay , amartya sen, arrow, arrow's impossibility theorem, choice, economics, government, nozick, paretian liberal, sen, social choice theory, thoughts, voting

Problems in Social Choice Theory: Condorcet and Arrow

When considering democracy as a form of aggregating social preferences, there are many problems, but none as difficult as Condorcet’s paradox, Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem, and Sen’s Impossibility of the Paretian liberal. This essay considers the first two problems with voting in some detail, discussion will be held off until tomorrow’s post regarding Sen.

What do we want from a system of interpersonal comparison?

Filed under: essay , arrow, arrow's impossibility theorem, choice, condorcet, democracy, economics, interpersonal comparisons, sen, social choice theory

Library Late Fees (Paper)

Library Late Fees (pdf)

Research paper on late fines within the Harvard College Library system. Surveyed 151 semi-randomly sampled students to analyze usage on-campus to understand why individuals would return books late, and pivotally, why students might be under-utilizing online renewal. 35 pages.

The original survey can still be found online at http://tinyurl.com/ecsurvey .

Filed under: essay , behavioral economics, essay, fines, idea, junior seminar, late fees, library, paper

Reconsidering Morality: Part 3

The Naturalistic and Moralistic Fallacies

When something occurs in nature, such as how gangs of monkeys can group together and raid another group or how some birds mate for life, there is a tendency to look at the phenomenon and say, “if it occurs in nature, then that must be right.” In other words there is some correspondence between nature and moral notions of the good. “If no animals in nature have homosexual sex, then it must be wrong,” say advocates on the right. “No, but they do!,”argue those on the left. Both fail to see that whether or not something in nature occurs has no bearing on the moral legitimacy when it comes to human beings. To deny my claim (and moreover, most scientists’), is to suggest that discovering immoral behavior in nature legitimizes immoral behavior in human beings; conversely, if moral behavior exists in the wild, then it can/should/must be so for human beings. Is this the case?

Filed under: essay, post , ethics, genetics, moralistic fallacy, morality, natural morality, naturalistic fallacy