Kruse Kronicle

The Poor Getting Richer?

Carpe Diem: The Rich Are Getting Richer and the Poor Are Getting Richer; The Good Old Days Are Now

Steve Horwitz at the Austrian Economists blog has a good post based on Census Bureau data that were recently released on "Living Conditions in the United States, 2005." The chart above (click to enlarge) shows the percentage of all U.S. households owning various household appliances in 1971 and 2005, and the percentage of poor households (below the official poverty line) owning those appliances in 2005. The data show a significant improvement in living standards between 1971 and 2005, as the percentage of households with clothes dryers increased from 44.5% to 81.2%, the percentage of households with dishwashers increased from 18.8% to 64%, and the percent of household with air conditioners increased from 31.8% to 85.7%.

Related data from the Department of Energy (based on Census Data) in the chart show that the percentage of households owning two or more vehicles increased from 34.8% in 1970 to 57% in 2000, and has likely increased since then.

What's most impressive though is the comparison of the living standards of households living below the poverty line in 2005 to all U.S. households in 1971. ...

Land Rush in Africa

Business Week: Land Rush in Africa

Agribusiness and global investors are scooping up farmland. Are corporate farmers the new colonialists? 

Farmland in developing countries has become an unlikely object of investor fascination. Goldman Sachs (GS), and Morgan Stanley (MS) are each raising hundreds of millions of dollars for agriculture funds aimed at Africa and Latin America. Agribusinesses in the U.S. are leasing vast tracts of African land from which they expect to export crops and glean healthy returns. Arab oil countries, meanwhile, are vying for fertile acreage for fear their homelands are running out of water.

The executives leading this hunt for farmland say they are boosting poor economies. Dominion Farms, based in Guthrie, Okla., leases 17,000 acres in Kenya near the village where President Barack Obama's grandmother lives. Dominion President Calvin Burgess boasts that his company provides employment for hundreds of local residents. "This area was a malaria-infested swamp before we got here," he says. Once Dominion is fully in gear, it plans to sell rice to African governments and export farm-raised fish to Europe.

But in Kenya, foreign land investors are beginning to stir resentment. Subsistence farmers and cattle herders complain that they are being displaced without compensation. In the Siaya District of southwest Kenya, families say Dominion hasn't offered as many jobs as it claims in the six years since it arrived. Villagers accuse it of polluting water and sickening farm animals—allegations the company denies.

Tensions are rising. ...

Fighting poverty in emerging markets

Economist: Fighting poverty in emerging markets

Lessons from Brazil, China and India

... Between them, Brazil, China and India account for half the world’s poorest people and an even bigger share of those who have escaped poverty. In 1981, 84% of China’s population was below the poverty line of $1.25 a day (in 2005 prices); in 2005 the share was just 16% (see chart). This amounted to a 6.6% proportionate annual rate of poverty reduction—the difference between the growth rates of the number of poor and the total population.

Nobody did as well as China. Brazil’s share of those in poverty fell by half from 17% to 8%, an annual reduction of 3.2%. India did least well, cutting the share below the poverty line from 60% to 42% between 1981 and 2005. This implies an annual reduction of 1.5% a year, though there are problems with Indian statistics; using different consumption figures yields an annual reduction of 3%, comparable to Brazil’s.

As Mr Ravallion points out, these figures do not mirror growth rates. Brazil cut poverty by more than India despite much lower growth, just over 1% a year in 1993-2005, compared with India’s 5%. If you calculate the rate of poverty reduction for each unit of GDP growth per person, Brazil did even better than China: the ratio is 4.3 for Brazil, 0.8 for China and 0.4 for India (0.8 if you use the adjusted consumption figures). Per unit of growth, Brazil reduced its proportional poverty rate five times more than China or India did.

How did it do so well? The main explanation has to do with inequality. This (as measured by the Gini index, also marked on the chart) has fallen sharply in Brazil since 1993, while it has soared in China and risen in India. Greater inequality dampens the poverty-reducing effect of growth.

Government policy played a big role in reducing inequality. Brazil’s main cash-transfer programme, called Bolsa Familia, provides help to 11m families, or 60% of all those in the poorest tenth. In contrast, social security in China is still provided largely through the enterprise system (ie, companies), so it tends to bypass those not in work. And government interventions in India are extraordinarily perverse. People in the poorest fifth are the least likely to have any kind of ration card (the key to public handouts), whereas the richest fifth are the most likely to.

Mr Ravallion concludes with some useful lessons. In all three countries, economic stability made a big difference for the better. China cut poverty the most, but did best early on, when agriculture was growing fastest. As growth shifted towards the cities and manufacturing, inequality rose. It might have done even better with Brazilian-style “progressive” policies. India had both growth and social policies, yet did worst because its policies in fact did rather little to help the poor. With its caste system, and bad state schools, India may be a more unequal society than the numbers alone suggest. Both Asian countries could learn some lessons from Brazil. But Brazil, in turn, will not be able to match China’s record in reducing the number of poor people without higher growth.

What if Everything Worked Like Health Care?

Watch the video.

Medieval Warm Period?

One of the frequent claims made by anthropogenic global warming theorists is that temperatures are warmer than they have ever been for at least the past couple of millennia.  Critics raise the Medieval Warm Period of the 12th and 13th centuries but proponents say that was a localized phenomenon, not a global reality. The IPCC report a few years ago abandoned using a graph present in its first two or three reports that should the earlier warming for the now famous and controversial "hockey stick" graph of which Al Gore has made so much:

Medieval Warm Period Graph

Hockey Stick Graph

Below is an interesting graph from an article, written in German and translated by Google, Unprecedented warming or unprecedented data manipulation? Scroll the graph below in the article to see an interactive map of the evidence that there was indeed a global Medieval Warm Period.

 

Men and women 'respond differently to danger'

BBC: Men and women 'respond differently to danger'

Men and women may respond differently to danger, a brain scan study suggests.

A team from Krakow, in Poland, used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to assess brain activity when 40 volunteers were shown various images.

Men showed activity in areas which dealt with what action they should take to avoid or confront danger.

But the study, presented to the Radiological Society of North America, found more activity in the emotional centres of women's brains.

The researchers, from Jagiellonian University Hospital in Krakow, carried out scans on 21 men and 19 women.

Brain activity was monitored while the volunteers were shown images of objects and images from ordinary life designed to evoke different emotional states.

Fight or flight response

The images were displayed in two runs. For the first run, only negative pictures were shown. For the second run, only positive pictures were shown.

While viewing the negative images, women showed stronger and more extensive activity in the left thalamus.

This is an area which relays sensory information to the pain and pleasure centres of the brain.

Men showed more activity in an area of the brain called the left insula, which plays a key role in controlling involuntary functions, including respiration, heart rate and digestion.

In essence, activity in this area primes the body to either run from danger, or confront it head on - the so-called "fight or flight response". ...

Interesting. When my dad was a science professor he used to take his students on an annual camping/canoe trip in the Ozarks. He used to tell ghost stories around the campfire. One time, the group was seated on logs arranged in semi-circle around the fire. At a critical moment in one of his stories he leapt across the fire, shrieking at the top of his lungs. He said what astonished him was that every one of the women dropped to the ground or fell off their seats. Everyone of the men sprang to his feet and ran four or five steps before regaining composure.

This article seems to correspond well with what I've read elsewhere that women (in the aggregate) tend to process the world more holistically while men tend to process the world in more compartmentalized ways.

(I always read the articles with caution. The comparison between any individual woman and man may not match the aggregate but there does seem to be aggregate differences.)

Generation Gap Narrows: Parents, Kids See Eye-to-Eye on More Things

Marketing Charts: Generation Gap Narrows: Parents, Kids See Eye-to-Eye on More Things

New cultural attitudes, the expanding role of technology and the current economic climate are narrowing the generation gap and drawing today’s American families closer together, changing how parents raise and regard their children compared with how their parents raised them, according to a recent study commissioned by Nickelodeon and conducted by Harris Interactive.

The study, entitled “The Family GPS,” found that - as Millennials become parents and Baby Boomers become grandparents -  today’s increasingly multi-generational and diverse American families are rapidly becoming united by an expanding set of values and converging tastes.

Generation Gap Ends, Family Fusion Begins

Today’s families are increasingly multi-generational - with kids, parents and grandparents living together in one household or in close proximity - and closer knit, often sharing the same interests and tastes. As a result, the study found that it is a top priority to seek and create opportunities to spend more time together, preferably in the home, which serves as the main hub for free time as well as family life.

Study findings about family time: ...

Medical School Graduates

Carpe Diem: Medical School Graduates

Do academic scientists share information with their colleagues? Not necessarily

Vox: Do academic scientists share information with their colleagues? Not necessarily

Sharing of information is critical to scientific progress, but scientists have private incentive to avoid disclosing research. This column analyses the benefits and costs of sharing, both one-to-one and with the general scientific community, and assesses how government funding and scholarly competition shape sharing decisions.

... Conclusion

These results suggest that increased government research funding is likely to promote information sharing. However, our analysis shows that this is only true to the extent that increased research funding relaxes competition. Increased funding makes it more likely that individual scientists working on a problem will receive funding, but it is also likely to draw more scientists to work on the problem.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all the Kronicle readers!

In College Football, Home Field Advantage Often Overestimated

Physorg.com: In College Football, Home Field Advantage Often Overestimated

This year, many of college football's biggest rivalry games take place over Thanksgiving weekend. A win earns bragging rights for the year. Visiting teams are often thought to be at a considerable disadvantage, especially in the disruptive environment of a rival's home stadium. In terms of points, however, that disadvantage is probably less than they think. Recent research claims that commonly accepted figures overestimate the home field advantage in major college football. ...

... Over all 100 rivalries, the advantage of playing at home tended to cluster around 2.3 points. Kros found a similar result when calculating the median (the mid-point of an ordered list from worst loss to largest margin of victory) instead of the average for each situation.

"Something's showing up, I can tell you that," said Kros. "It's definitively different from zero."

Attempting to find a universal number for home field advantage is difficult for a variety of reasons, including the yearly turnover of players and coaches, the differences in team quality and the structure of the schedule.

Should dads be in the delivery room?

BBC: Should dads be in the delivery room?

It was once imparted to the father over the phone, yet now it's men themselves who often tell their exhausted partner the sex of the child she has just delivered. But could men be more of a hindrance than a help in the delivery room?

French obstetrician Michel Odent says yes, and even blames fathers for an increasing rate of births by Caesarean section.

At a debate hosted this week by the Royal College of Midwives, Mr Odent will argue against what he dubs "the masculinisation of the birth environment".

The presence of an anxious male partner in the labour room makes the woman tense and slows her production of the hormone oxytocin, which aids the process of labour, so the French doctor contends.

This, he says, makes her much more likely to end up on the operating table having an emergency Caesarean section.

"Having been involved for more than 50 years in childbirths in homes and hospitals in France, England and Africa, the best environment I know for an easy birth is when there is nobody around the woman in labour apart from a silent, low-profile and experienced midwife," he says.

"Oxytocin is the love drug which helps the woman give birth and bond with her baby. But it is also a shy hormone and it does not come out when she is surrounded by people and technology. This is what we need to start understanding."

He will be debated by Duncan Fisher, a leading advocate for fathers, who, while pressing for more preparation for fathers, argues they are there because women want them to be - "and we should trust mothers' instincts". ...

The Market is Moral

Growthology: The Market is Moral

Nobel laureate Edmund Phelps (also a Kauffman grantee) published this stellar essay last month, which I belatedly read today:

The definition of economics with which most textbooks begin—“the study of the allocation of scarce resources”—is accurate but misleading, for it leaves out the most interesting part of the problem.

In truth, we are forever innovating to stretch our resources. Transportation was one of the scarcest goods during the first half of America’s nineteenth century, but by the end of the century the railroads had made it so abundant that the face of America changed irreversibly. That could be said today about information. Innovation makes scarce goods abundant. This quest to do better, to go farther, to extend our reach is part of what makes us human. There is more to economics than the desire to consume and to avoid risk.

Which brings us a step closer to connecting morality and economics. Morality, after all, is more than obedience to the rules of social conduct; to be moral is to foster the betterment of humankind. If we place innovation at the center of economics, then we in effect make a sweeping assertion about human nature—for we claim, at some level, that man is an innovator.

Amen!

How to Survive in an Unhappy Workplace

Harvard Business Publishing: How to Survive in an Unhappy Workplace

When you don't like your job, going to work every day can be a challenge. Your problem might be with a bad manager, that you constantly feel stretched to the breaking point, or that you are resentful about taking a pay cut. Or, the whole environment may just feel toxic. You might need to stay in your job because it provides health benefits, or maybe you're only staying while you look for another position. Whatever your reasons for being unhappy, you need to maintain your professionalism and prevent a bad attitude from sabotaging you.

What the Experts Say

Timothy Butler, Senior Fellow and Director of Career Development Programs at Harvard Business School and author of Getting Unstuck: How Dead Ends Become New Paths, believes there's something elemental about the statement 'I'm unhappy at work.'" Butler, whose research focuses on personality structure and work satisfaction, says that to understand your unhappiness, you need to turn towards that feeling of unhappiness, experience it in a deep way, and not try to solve things too quickly. He suggests observing the feelings and not expecting anything. You may just find yourself at a frontier, considering what you're going to do next. "The existential nature of unhappiness is a wake-up call," Butler says. "There's some part of the self that is not being heard, that wants your attention, and that's the issue."

Similarly, Joe Mosca, an associate professor in the Leon Hess Business School at Monmouth University, who specializes in human resources management and organizational behavior, agrees that looking within is the first step. "That may be hard for some people to hear," he suggests, because while it's true that sometimes people just don't match well with their jobs, employees tend to rationalize their job dissatisfaction rather than consider that they may be part of the problem. But if you are part of the problem, you may be part of the solution, too. ...

Wealth of Opportunity: Microfinance in Person

Unitus: Wealth of Opportunity: Microfinance in Person

"We are pleased to present  the complete 15-minute film, Wealth of Opportunity: Microfinance in Person. The production, completed in the fall of 2009, features African and Indian borrowers whose lives and futures have been transformed through microfinance. The project is a co-production by Unitus and NonFiction Media."

Wealth of Opportunity: Microfinance in Person from Unitus on Vimeo.

Changes in Share of World GDP

Mark Perry

Global Warming With the Lid Off

Wall Street Journal: Global Warming With the Lid Off

The emails that reveal an effort to hide the truth about climate science.

... However, we do now have hundreds of emails that give every appearance of testifying to concerted and coordinated efforts by leading climatologists to fit the data to their conclusions while attempting to silence and discredit their critics. In the department of inconvenient truths, this one surely deserves a closer look by the media, the U.S. Congress and other investigative bodies.

For an accompanying article that gives the text of some emails, Climate Science and Candor. So much for the objective apolitical presenation of the truth about climate change by the worlds leading climate scientists.

NT Wright on Blogging

NT Wright on Blogging/Social Media from Bill Kinnon on Vimeo.

Darwin debate rages on 150 years after "Origin"

Reuters: Darwin debate rages on 150 years after "Origin"

PARIS/LONDON (Reuters) - Even 150 years after it first appeared in print, Charles Darwin's "On The Origin of Species" still fuels clashes between scientists convinced of its truth and critics who reject its view of life without a creator.

This "Darwin Year" -- so named because February 12 was the 200th anniversary of the British naturalist's birth and November 24 the 150th anniversary of his book -- has seen a flood of books, articles and conferences debating his theory of evolution.

While many covered well-trodden ground, some have taken new paths. But no consensus is in sight, probably because Darwinian evolution is both a powerful scientific theory describing how life forms develop through natural selection and a basis for philosophies and social views that often include atheism.

"People are encountering and rejecting evolution not so much as a science but as a philosophy," Nick Spencer, director of studies at the public theology think-tank Theos in London, told Reuters.

"Today's most eloquent Darwinians often associate evolution with atheism ... amorality (and) the idea there is no design or purpose in the universe."

He said many people had embraced anti-evolution views in the United States and Britain in recent decades "not so much because they are rejecting evolution as a science, although that is often how that sentiment is articulated, but because they're rejecting it as a philosophy about life."

"It's quite possible to be an evolutionist and not to hold that philosophy about life, to be an evolutionist and still believe in God and purpose and design," he said. ...

Religion and Capitalism

James R. Otteson: Religion and Capitalism

In a recent Boston Globe article, Michael Fitzgerald reports on a study done by two Harvard researchers into some of the factors affecting economic success. One strongly influential factor the researchers found was religion--specifically, religious belief that includes a robust belief in hell.

Apparently, simple belief in God has little positive or negative correlation with economic growth; belief in heaven correlates positively, and belief in hell correlates with even bigger economic growth. The effect is apparently strongest among developing countries.

Researchers are not quite sure why this is. ...

How to lose an argument online

Seth Godin: How to lose an argument online

1. Have an argument. Once you start an argument, not a discussion, you've already lost. Think about it: have you ever changed your mind because someone online started yelling at you? They might get you to shut up, but it's unlikely they've actually changed your opinion.
2. Forget the pitfalls of Godwin's law. Any time you mention Hitler or even Communist China or Bill O'Reilly, you've lost.
3. Use faulty analogies. If someone is trying to make a point about, say, health care, try to make an analogy to something conceptually unrelated, like the space shuttle program, and you've lost.
4. Question motives. The best way to get someone annoyed and then have them ignore you is to bypass any thoughtful discussion of facts and instead question what's in it for the person on the other end. Make assumptions about their motivations and lose their respect.
5. Act anonymously. What are the chances that heckled comments from the bleachers will have an impact?
6. Threaten to take action in another venue. Insist that this will come back to haunt the other person. Guarantee you will spread the word or stop purchasing.
7. Bring up the slippery slope. Actually, the slope isn't that slippery. People don't end up marrying dogs, becoming cannibals or harvesting organs because of changes in organization, technology or law.
8. Go to the edges. This is a variant of the slippery slope, in which you bring up extremes at either end of whatever spectrum is being discussed.

So, what works?

Earn a reputation. Have a conversation. Ask questions. Describe possible outcomes of a point of view. Make connections. Give the other person the benefit of the doubt. Align objectives then describe a better outcome. Show up. Smile.

I think #4 is one of the most common. It is the converse of assuming positive intent. As much as possible assume a person meant well even when a comment seems abrasive. Humor can also be useful in greasing the wheels of good conversation. Most of the time the overall best advice is lighten up. My biggest challenge is following my own advice. :-)

Theologians and Economists: Parable of the Talents (2)

[Series Index]

In the previous post we looked at the cultural and Scriptural context for the Parable of the Talents, Matthew 25:14-30. What are we to make of this parable?

The first thing I would draw attention to is the relationship of the wealthy man to his servants/slaves. One talent was equivalent to about twenty years of wages for a day laborer. These were large sums the master was entrusting to his servants (also meaning the master was a very wealthy man.) This was not a guy saying “Here is $100. Go invest it.” These were servants in whom the master was placing considerable trust.

Second, when the first two servants report to back to the master it is important to note what the master commends. He does not commend their profit or success. He commends their trustworthiness/faithfulness … they followed through on their mission.

Albert Harrill adds an important nuance to the role of slaves that may be lost on us today. Roman slaveholders didn’t just expect their slaves to follow instructions … especially those entrusted with this kind of responsibility. Slaves were expected to take on the very mind of their master, acting as his proxy with regard to transactions made in his absence. Faithfulness wasn’t just following commands but rather in becoming a clone of the master. The first two slaves demonstrated that they had “cloned” their master’s mindset and mission.

Third, there is the interaction between the third slave and the master. Note that we have here a master … likely presiding over a vast estate … who likely considers himself to have acquired his wealth justly and to be proud of his estate management. Now note how the third servant justifies his actions:

24 …'Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.'

In other words, he already knows he is in trouble but justifies his behavior saying, “Boss, I know you are disreputable crook, so I hid the goods.” How does this servant think insulting the master is going to appease the master? Is it possible that the servant mistakenly thinks he is actually glorifying the master?

I mentioned in the previous post that two types of characters tended to fit the “big man” model of the culture. One was the wealthy estate owner and the other was the bandits who were known for raiding and taking what they wanted. Kenneth Bailey (Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes) quotes Cicero in The Republic, “The Gauls think it disgraceful to grow grain by manual labor; and consequently they go forth armed and reap other men’s fields.” (404) Similar views were held of Bedowin chieftains and their raiding bands who swooped and reaped what they did not sow. The characterization of master by the third slave would have been flattery to such a bandit or Bedowin chieftain.

Bailey’s point would be that the third servant his thoroughly misapprehended the status and character of his master. Thus, the master response back, “'You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? …” is a statement of incredulity. But even if the slave had correctly perceived the status of his master, he didn’t act appropriately according to what he did know.

This third servant’s lack of discernment and faithfulness seems to parallel the message found in the stories immediately surrounding it in the narrative. Matthew 24 ends with a similar story of a man who leaves a slave in charge and returns unexpectedly to find the slave acting contrary to his master’s will. The Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids features women who correctly discern the nature of events and act faithfully and those who don’t. It precedes the Parable of the Talents. The succeeding story is of the sheep and the goats, where the sheep demonstrate they have the mind of the King guiding their actions. Meanwhile the goats, who think they correctly discerned their mission, demonstrate by their actions they have not understood. Embedded in the middle of these stories is the Parable of the Talents where two servants demonstrate they have correctly discerned the master’s will and have been faithful while the third mistakenly thinks he has discerned his master’s character and is led astray accordingly.

Fourth, these stories are the climax of Jesus’ Mount of Olives discourse, which he began with a prophecy about the destruction of the Temple and then warns them not to be deceived by what is about to unfold. These stories seem to me to be illustrating this exhortation to vigilant faithfulness. (On an additional note, I’ll also add that the time Jesus has in mind here is the time from his departure until his return in conjunction with the destruction of the Temple, which he perceives as the climactic end of the story. This was as far as the Father had permitted him to see in his prophecy. The Temple was indeed destroyed within a generation as Jesus foretold but his return was not to be in conjunction with his vindication by this event.)

So that brings us to the implications of this parable. Is the Parable of the Talents an affirmation of wealthy landholders expanding their wealth through hardnosed business? Is this a parable in praise of business? I seriously doubt it. I don’t think Jesus or his hearers would have been particularly warm to these practices. The intent was not for his audience to esteem wealthy landowners or to lift up the virtues of business. The intent was to teach what vigilant faithfulness looks like from examples common to peasant culture.

I know I haven’t touch on every nuance that is involved in this story. I’ll I have more to say in couple of posts. But first I want to turn to the Parable of the Minas in Luke 19, which has some parallels with this parable but also significant differences. Then we will do some review.

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On Twitter and in the Workplace, It's Power to the Connectors

Harvard Business Review: On Twitter and in the Workplace, It's Power to the Connectors

In the World According to Twitter, giving away access to information rewards the giver by building followers. The more followers, the more information comes to the giver to distribute, which in turn builds more followers. The process cannot be commanded or controlled; followers opt in and out as they choose. The results are transparent and purely quantitative; network size is all that matters. Networks of this sort are self-organizing and democratic but without any collective interaction.

The significance of Twitter is yet to be determined; it is a simple, impersonal, and transient application of technology. But very real network effects are a new source of power in and around organizations.

America in the 20th century was called a "society of organizations." Formal hierarchies with clear reporting relationships gave people their position and their power. In the 21st century, America is rapidly becoming a society of networks, even within organizations. Maintenance of organizations as structures is less important than assembling resources to get results, even if the assemblage itself is loose and perishable.  ...

Poverty measurement in the US: Income transfers alone won't eradicate poverty

Science Centric: Poverty measurement in the US: Income transfers alone won't eradicate poverty

(HT: Poverty News Blog)

... Almost all Americans already live far above subsistence poverty, most because of their earnings, and the rest because of government transfer programs. This decline in material poverty is obscured by weaknesses in how the official U.S. poverty measure counts income. Based on the official U.S. poverty measure, in 2007, the poverty rate for American families was 12.5 percent, about the same as it was in 1968.

What is now called poverty is really 'income inequality.' Many families earning too much to be considered victims of poverty but who lack the 'human capital,' education, training, and family support systems to provide a stable economic future for their children. In an effort to properly measure poverty levels and brainstorm long-term solutions to the issue, three socioeconomic experts and researchers joined in a call and response format debate in a recent issue of Policy Studies Journal.

In their article, 'Income Transfers Alone Won't Eradicate Poverty,' Douglas J. Besharov J.D. and Douglas M. Call of the University of Maryland, claim that government-issued cash transfers to families in need do little in the long-term to help lift people out of poverty. Besharov and Call claim that although government intervention is often required to reduce income inequality and provide social assistance, it cannot be accomplished through income transfers alone. The authors argue that, although income transfers have a role to play in lessening the impact of material deprivation, real progress in raising incomes will require building the human capital of the economically disadvantaged. This means both increasing the earnings capacity of lower-income workers and reducing the number of female-headed families.

In his response to Besharov's and Call's article on income transfers, 'Measuring Poverty and Assessing the Role of Income Transfers in Contemporary Anti-Poverty Policy: Comments on Besharov and Call,' Robert D. Plotnick analyses the current economic and political trade-offs among different types of income support programs. Plotnick, says, 'The current poverty measurement approach in the U.S. has shortcomings that give us a misleading view of the level and trend in poverty, but absolute poverty statistics still provide useful, relevant information.' He focuses on the central theme to the debate: how best to reduce poverty among working age families with children. ...

E-community connects mission-minded Presbyterians

Presbyterian News Service: E-community connects mission-minded Presbyterians 

‘Mission Crossroads’ offers ideas, resources and coordination.

LOUISVILLE — Mission Crossroads, “a Web-based wisdom community for Presbyterians passionate about mission,” is growing in membership and content, according to Lis Valle, the site’s creator.

“More than 750 people have joined since we launched the site last April,” said Valle, Presbyterian World Mission’s associate director for equipping the church for mission involvement. “It’s a place to share ideas about mission, coordinate efforts and form groups around particular interests.”

The site contains links to online resources as well as information about books and other print publications. Mission trip leaders, mission committee chairs, mission network members, mission personnel, World Mission staff, and members and leaders of various Presbyterian-related mission groups are among those who have joined Mission Crossroads.

Currently 44 groups have been formed through the site, ranging from those centered around longstanding mission networks to those focused on a particular aspect of mission such as short-term mission trips or internet evangelism.

Valle said Mission Crossroads is for those who are longtime participants in mission and those who are just beginning their involvement. For example, “If you are a youth pastor planning your first mission trip, this is a good place to get started,” she said. “Mission Crossroads is about finding people who are doing similar things and finding ways to do them better.”

A monthly podcast titled “God’s Mission Matters” will be launched on the site on Jan. 15. “This is one more resource to help Presbyterians be more faithful and effective in their mission participation,” Valle said. “Listeners will be able to learn from mission personnel, global partners and mission initiators and will be able to post their own stories related to the podcasts in Mission Crossroads.”

What Makes a Nation Rich? One Economist's Big Answer

Esquire: What Makes a Nation Rich? One Economist's Big Answer

We are the rich, the haves, the developed. And most of the rest — in Africa, South Asia, and South America, the Somalias and Bolivias and Bangladeshes of the world — are the nots. It's always been this way, a globe divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine, though the extent of inequality across nations today is unprecedented: The average citizen of the United States is ten times as prosperous as the average Guatemalan, more than twenty times as prosperous as the average North Korean, and more than forty times as prosperous as those living in Mali, Ethiopia, Congo, or Sierra Leone.

The question social scientists have unsuccessfully wrestled with for centuries is, Why? But the question they should have been asking is, How? Because inequality is not predetermined. Nations are not like children — they are not born rich or poor. Their governments make them that way. ...

... And yet while Sachs and Diamond offer good insight into certain aspects of poverty, they share something in common with Montesquieu and others who followed: They ignore incentives. People need incentives to invest and prosper; they need to know that if they work hard, they can make money and actually keep that money. And the key to ensuring those incentives is sound institutions — the rule of law and security and a governing system that offers opportunities to achieve and innovate. That's what determines the haves from the have-nots — not geography or weather or technology or disease or ethnicity.

Put simply: Fix incentives and you will fix poverty. And if you wish to fix institutions, you have to fix governments. ...

I think there is oversimplification in such a brief article but in general I agree. I think the single biggest determinant of material prosperity is social institutions and values.

Theologians & Economists: Parable of the Talents (1)

[Series Index]

(After a month long hiatus, we pick up this series again.)

In the previous post I noted the problem of reading New Testament stories out of context and unwittingly inserting our economic context into the stories. The Parable of the Talents is one that is frequently used in support of stewardship and investing our resources wisely. There is one version in Matt 25:14-30 and another in Luke 19:12-28. Today we begin by looking at the Matthew version.

Cultural Context

First Century Palestine was not a capitalist market economy. It was an agricultural society where the idyllic vision of peasant life was having enough land to be self-sufficient. Trade, via barter, was to supplement certain aspects of life but trade played a subsidiary role.

This way of life was slowly disappearing in Jesus’ day. Urbanization had been building and this meant someone had to grow the food for those who lived in the cities. Transporting crops and basic commodities from outlying areas into cities, as well as shipments of commodities between regions, became an increasingly important business. Agricultural demand was transforming subsistence farming into cash-crop farming, undermining the peasant view of the ideal life.

The Romans levied taxes and fees on agricultural production. As much as 50% of produce could be collected in taxes. Justo Gonzalez writes in Faith and Wealth:

During the republic and the early years of the empire, most of these taxes were collected by tax farmers known as “publicans.” Since substantial capital was required, most publican entrepreneurs were rich members of equestrian class, who often joined in veritable holding companies. They contracted with the government to raise the taxes of a particular area and to collect a fee for this service. The fee, however, was only part of the profit. Since many agricultural taxes were collected in kind, publicans made large profits by reselling the goods collected or by hoarding them until the price rose. They also served the central government as its financial agents in the provinces, employing the goods and funds that they held in order to cover such expenses as salaries and supplies for the legions. Since all this was done by means of paper transactions, it saved much of the costly and dangerous transport of goods and money.

Little government bureaucracy was in place, and therefore publicans also served as government agents in managing public works and providing some postal service. Naturally, for this also they charged a fee. When a farmer could not pay his taxes, publicans would offer to lend him money and 12 to 48 percent. Such loans grew rapidly as interest and new tax liabilities accumulated, and eventually the land was confiscated by the publicans. Beyond these various legal means of profit, some publicans would also take advantage of the ignorance and powerlessness of taxpayers, assessing them more than they should or undervaluing their contributions. Thus the negative image of publicans in the Gospels was probably shared by much of the populace of the Roman provinces. (38)

Most peasants were in precarious situations. Paying all the taxes and fees might leave many without enough to survive. There was an endless came of hide and seek with peasants trying to conceal their actual production to minimize taxes. A couple of years of bad crops or other hardships and a peasant might have to sell his land to the large landholders and become a sharecropper or an indentured servant. The courts were thoroughly controlled by the elite and usually were uncompromising in their enforcement of debt contracts.

Some peasants left their land and turned to banditry. K. C. Hanson and Douglas Oakman (Palestine in the Time of Jesus) suggest that most of these bands came and went within a couple of years. A few organized into long running organizations, usually with a notable leader. They tended to operate near their place of origin and were frequently aided and supported by local peasants.

Kenneth Bailey notes that their tended to be two types of “the big man” in these communities. One was the nobleman of the plains who ran large agricultural operations. He was noted for his dignified status and great power. Concerning the estates of the wealthy landowners Albert Harrill writes in Slaves in the New Testament:

“Especially in rural areas, apprehended runaway slaves and freeborn victims of kidnapping often found themselves thrown into the private slave prisons (ergastula) on the estates of wealthy landowners, never to be heard from again.” (12)

Harrill notes that the private prisons were dark and desperate places where the torture of slaves produced weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth.

The other big man was the bandit leader who would swoop in out of the hills and raid the agricultural estates. In folklore, the bandits were revered for their ruthless tactics and considerable bravado, taking what they what they wanted impunity.

Scriptural Context

This parable in Matthew comes in Jesus’ final discourse on eschatology at the Mount of Olives. In Chapter 24, Jesus warns that the end is coming. He exhorts his hearers to be watchful and faithful until the end. At the end of the chapter he tells of a slave left in charge of his master’s household, who after his master leaves, begins to behave in a disreputable manner. When the master returns by surprise the slave is discovered and suffers the consequences.

Chapter 25 contains three teachings. First there is the Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids. Five correctly anticipate and prepare for their Groom’s arrival and five do not. Second comes the Parable of the Talents. Third comes the climactic “Sheep and Goats” judgment of the nations where some errantly believe they are in God’s good graces while others who were not aware they are in God’s good graces find out they are because they have lived out what God desires.

Questions

So here are a few questions as we reflect on how Jesus’ peasant audience might have heard this story.

The master in the story is a “big man.” Note that he has large sums of money to invest. What is his character and status?

How are the slaves investing the money? In addition to funding short term cash flow problems in commerce, the primary purposes for lending were to finance the trade in commodities … in support of the cash-crop economy … and to lend to the poor, often in hopes of trapping them in debt and taking their land. How did the peasants likely view this source of income?

Note how the third slave describes his master’s character. Does this characterization match a nobleman or a bandit? How does the slaves characterization square with the rest of the evidence we have about who the master is?

Matt 25:14-30

"For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; 15 to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16 The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. 17 In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. 18 But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. 19 After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. 20 Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, 'Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.' 21 His master said to him, 'Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.' 22 And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, 'Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.' 23 His master said to him, 'Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.' 24 Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, 'Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.' 26 But his master replied, 'You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? 27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. 29 For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. 30 As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' (NRSV)

So what do you think? I’ll offer my thoughts in the next post.

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How to feed the world

Economist: How to feed the world

IN 1974 Henry Kissinger, then America’s secretary of state, told the first world food conference in Rome that no child would go to bed hungry within ten years. Just over 35 years later, in the week of another United Nations food summit in Rome, 1 billion people will go to bed hungry.

This failure, already dreadful, may soon get worse. None of the underlying agricultural problems which produced a spike in food prices in 2007-08 and increased the number of hungry people has gone away. Between now and 2050 the world’s population will rise by a third, but demand for agricultural goods will rise by 70% and demand for meat will double. These increases are in a sense good news in that they are a result of rising wealth in poor and middle-income countries. But they will have to happen without farmers clearing large amounts of new land (there is some scope for expansion, but not much) or using up lots more water (in parts of the world, water supplies are stretched to their limit or beyond). Moreover, they will take place while farmers also wrestle with the consequences of climate change, which, on balance, will do more harm than good to farmland round the world.

It may be too late to avoid another bout of price rises. Despite a global recession and the largest grain harvest on record in 2008, food prices are heading up again. Still, countries have a brief window of opportunity in which to set long-term policy goals without being distracted by panic measures. They need to do two things: invest in the productive capacity of agriculture and improve the operation of food markets.

Governments have done one but not the other. Over the past year investment has risen faster than anyone expected. But distrust of markets and a reaction against farm trade are growing. Unless governments restrain those impulses, they will undermine the gains from rising investment. ...

The surprising spread of "Idol" TV

"Cynthia Schneider looks at two international "American Idol"-style shows -- one in Afghanistan, and one in the United Arab Emirates -- and shows the surprising effect that these reality-TV competitions are creating in their societies." Fascinating stuff! She argues that far from Americanizing these cultures it is leading to revival of culture.

Are EVs Risking or Saving the Planet?

Business Week: Are EVs Risking or Saving the Planet?

A new report states that EVs could potentially speed climate change rather than reduce it.

"Electric cars should be rewarded for their energy efficiency, not for moving emissions from exhaust pipes to powerstation chimneys" says the UK's Environmental Transport Association (ETA). In a report titled "How to avoid an electric shock—Electric cars: from hype to reality", the ETA has taken a close look at electric-powered vehicles (EVs) and their associated technologies. In what could be a shock to some commuters—and governments—the report states that EVs could potentially speed climate change, rather than reduce it, and might not be as good for the planet as some of the spin suggests. Simply put, it's not necessarily the cars themselves that will cause the damage, but the way the electricity is generated to power them and how often we drive them. For instance, EVs powered by "green energy"—wind or solar—are obviously superior, but if the electricity comes from coal, hybrids perform better.

Director at the ETA, Andrew Davis, said: "Whilst the report is not intended to dampen enthusiasm for electric vehicles, their introduction should not be viewed as a panacea; significant changes to the way we produce and tax power are needed before we will reap any benefits." ...

Solution: Electric cars and nuclear power plants. Nuclear is the new green. :-)

Tests loom for record solar plane

BBC: Tests loom for record solar plane

The prototype of a solar-powered plane destined for a record round-the-world journey will make its first trip across a runway on Thursday and Friday.

This week saw the Solar Impulse plane outside its hangar for the first time, with tests of its engines and computer.

The plane's maiden flight is scheduled for February, and a final version will attempt to cross the Atlantic in 2012.

As wide as a jumbo jet but weighing just 1,500 kg, it will be piloted by Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard.

"It's very exciting, we are moving now toward a very concrete phase," said Solar Impulse chief executive Andre Borschberg.

"You have to realise this airplane is quite special and you cannot just put it on the runway, apply full power and go in the air - it has to be done really step-by-step," he told BBC News. ...

Adam Smith in 10 Minutes

University of Glasgow: Adam Smith in 10 Minutes (Gavin Kennedy of Adam Smith's Lost Legacy gives the video clip high praise.)

Chris Berry, Professor of Political Theory at University of Glasgow is a leading expert on the life and work of one of the University of Glasgow's most famous academics, Adam Smith.

In this 10 minute talk, Professor Berry describes the making of the man, the global significance of his writing and explains why Smith's work still resonates with us today.   

ADAM SMITH IN 10 MINUTES   

Adam Smith was born in Kirkcaldy in 1723. He entered Glasgow University at the early - but for the time not unusual - age of fourteen. ...

This quote was particularly interesting:

...If Smith of popular repute is the ‘father of capitalism’, the advocate of ‘market forces’, the enemy of government regulation and believer in something called the ‘invisible hand’ to produce optimum economic outcomes then he would be a disappointed parent....

Watch the video. It's very informative.

Self-Interest is Not Selfishness

Adam Smith's Lost Legacy: Self-Interest is Not Selfishness

... “Greg Baldwin said...

Thanks for the comment. Secretly I want to believe that self interest and selfishness can be neatly distinguished, but I'll confess quotes like this from our friend Mr. Smith have not helped me to find the clear distinction:

"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages."

`Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations’

I'm not sure I fully understand everything Smith is trying to say here, but self-love + self interest do seem to be at least the basic ingredients for selfishness...no?

What am I missing?"

To which I replied: ...

Expectations, meet reality (PCUSA)

Presbyterian News Service: Expectations, meet reality

Theological educators grapple with leadership needs in changing times.

SAN ANSELMO, Calif. — More than 100 leaders of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) theological education institutions gathered on the campus of San Francisco Theological Seminary Nov. 16 to discuss emerging leadership needs in the church and how seminaries might concentrate dwindling resources to meet those needs.

The “fishbowl” exercise — four participants providing initial comments with others weighing in in response — took place during the semi-annual meeting of the PC(USA)’s Committee on Theological Education (COTE) as part of the ongoing work of the Joint Committee on Leadership Needs, sponsored by the Office of the General Assembly and the General Assembly Mission Council.

“Our charge is to study the pastoral and leadership needs of the church and recommend policies and strategies to address those needs,” said the Rev. Landon Whitsett, pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Liberty, Mo., and a COTE representative to the joint committee. “We’re starting with questions like: What is the identity and function of a church leader? Who are they? Who are we missing? What [leadership] gifts are we missing? How can we nurture leaders now for future leadership ...?”

The traditional norm of a seminary-trained pastor serving one congregation full time is gone, said the Rev. Marcia Myers, director of vocation for the denomination.

“More than half our congregations are not served that way,” she said.

The Rev. Jeffrey Bullock, president of the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, agreed.

“It’s important to understand not what we want the situation to be but what it actually is,” he said. “I’m concerned that two-thirds of churches in my presbytery are no longer able to afford full-time [pastoral] ministry.

But there is also opportunity there, Bullock said, noting growing programs to train Commissioned Lay Pastors and distance learning, a non-residential educational approach that’s having considerable success at Dubuque. ...

The Effect of Children on Happiness: The Latest from the Research Frontier

Library of Economics and Liberty: The Effect of Children on Happiness: The Latest from the Research Frontier

... A recent paper in the Journal of Happiness Research  ("Children and Life Satisfaction" by Luis Angeles) suggests that I'm overly pessimistic.  Contrary to most of the literature, it finds that kids often increase overall life satisfaction.  I was tempted to dismiss this as a typical academic "man bites dog" result, but I was pleasantly surprised when I carefully read the piece.

The article begins by replicating the standard patterns in a big British data set, the British household panel survey (BHPS): If you run a multiple regression with typical controls, kids slightly reduce happiness.   But then the paper takes advantage of a key feature of the BHPS: It follows the same people over time, so you can re-run the standard equations with fixed effects.  In English, this means that you can see whether individuals' happiness changes when their number of kids changes.

This simple and intuitive adjustment wipes out the standard results.  The data set is so massive (almost 89k observations) that it should be possible to detect even microscopic effects of kids on happiness.  None detected.

To get from this non-result to the "kids increase happiness" punchline, the author makes one last eminently sensible adjustment: It allows the effect of children on happiness to vary by marital status.  This makes a lot of sense - it's a lot easier for a married coupled to raise a child than a single mom.  When you re-run the results this way, you find that as long as they're married, having children makes people happier than they were before.  And contrary to one of my earlier mea culpas, moms gain more than dads.

I have to admit: Based on personal experience, I'm skeptical.  When I run optical fixed effects regressions (="I check whether the people I know seem more or less happy after they have kids"), people almost always seem less happy once they become parents.  But Angeles' paper suggests one way to reconcile research with first-hand experience: Even when kids raise overall life satisfaction, they reduce area-specific satisfaction - particularly for socializing and leisure.  Now consider: Where do I get the chance to observe others' happiness?  In social and leisure situations, naturally! ...

Saving the World By Lowering Your Expectations

Philanthropy Action: Saving the World By Lowering Your Expectations

I’m not an “impatient optimist” like Bill and Melinda Gates. When it comes to making the world a better place, I think impatient optimists are quite possibly a part of the problem, not part of the solution.

Led by some terrific organizations, the nonprofit and social entrepreneurship sector is generating solid evidence on the effectiveness of programs aimed at alleviating poverty, combating homelessness, preserving natural resources, and the like. The Obama administration has embraced this emphasis on rigorous evidence—and caused many in the sector to raise the specter of “epistemological nihilism” or paralysis due to demands for proof that is too hard and expensive to generate.

The real problem, and the real fear, among nonprofits and social entrepreneurs is not the difficulty and expense of finding evidence, however—it’s that the changes realized are often small ones. Indeed, sociologist Peter Rossi has gone so far as to coin the Stainless Steel Law of Evaluation: “The better designed the impact assessment of a social program, the more likely is the resulting estimate of net impact to be zero.”

There’s good reason for this, and it’s not a flaw of evaluation. It’s that human beings, political systems, economic systems and the social problems they create are complex. ...

...What’s the solution? Patient optimism—a view that combines the belief that change is possible with the belief that any significant transformation takes a great deal of time and effort. It recognizes that programs that produce small or marginal benefits even for a small portion of aid recipients are good programs. It funds continued experimentation to find ways to achieve a little bit more with each dollar. It doesn’t believe in silver bullets but is willing to place small bets on risky innovations with potentially high returns. ...

... Impatient optimists are like investors in subprime mortgages in 2007. They can be so blinded by the upside that they fail to do their due diligence. In the end, their impatience and pursuit of outsize returns fuels waste and disappointment. Patient optimists, by contrast, have lowered their expectations of any particular program or intervention, but not their belief in a better world over the long term. If we’re going to succeed in making the world a better place, we need to convince more people to lower their expectations, too. Then we can get about the work of trying, failing, learning, improving—and truly making the world a better place.

I like the label "patient optimism." Back when I was blogging on the John Stackhouse's Christian Realism in Making the Best of It: Following Christ in the Real World, I noted the paradox of seeking the Kingdom of God in a world. We are called to seek the greatest shalom possible in a world that can not fully know God's shalom until the consummation of the new creation. I agree that there are many de facto accomodationists in the Church ... people who simply uncritically adapt to the status quo. But I also reject the idealism of the Cultural Transfomrationist (right and left) who believe it is in their power to change the world overnight if everyone just became true believers in their cause. I see "patient optimism" as closely tied to the Christian Realism Stackhouse writes about and I strongly identify with it.

How Italy Beat the World to a Smarter Grid

Business Week: How Italy Beat the World to a Smarter Grid

An aggressive rollout of intelligent electrical meters is saving Italy's Enel $750 million per year—and cutting customers' bills.

After several false starts, 2010 finally could be the year when smart meters go global. The technology, which lets energy companies and consumers more closely monitor their electricity consumption, has many champions. The U.S. government has earmarked $4.5 billion from the stimulus package to subsidize the rollout of smart meters nationwide. European Union politicians are pushing hard to connect 80% of the region's homes and businesses to smart meters by 2020. Even emerging giants like India and China aim to install the technology in new buildings.

But with billions of dollars on the line, policymakers don't want to make costly mistakes. Many of them are thus eyeing the remarkable experience of Italy, which in less than a decade has become the surprising world leader in the development of a smarter electrical grid. Some 85% of Italian homes are now outfitted with smart meters—the highest percentage in the world and more such devices than exist in the whole of the U.S. Utilities worldwide, such as San Francisco's PG&E (PCG) and Florida's FPL Group (FPL), are eager to learn how Enel pulled off its smart meter revolution.

Back in 2001, Enel (ENEI.MI)—the country's dominant utility—started a five-year program to install smart meters across its customer base of 40 million homes and businesses. "We wanted to improve efficiency, create higher margins, and help customers reduce their energy bills," says Livio Gallo, Enel's director of infrastructure and networks, who oversaw the smart meter rollout. Another motivation, according to outside experts, was to throttle rampant power theft and other forms of fraud. ...

Birth of New Species Witnessed by Scientists

Wired: Birth of New Species Witnessed by Scientists

On one of the Galapagos islands whose finches shaped the theories of a young Charles Darwin, biologists have witnessed that elusive moment when a single species splits in two.

In many ways, the split followed predictable patterns, requiring a hybrid newcomer who’d already taken baby steps down a new evolutionary path. But playing an unexpected part was chance, and the newcomer singing his own special song.

This miniature evolutionary saga is described in a paper published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It’s authored by Peter and Rosemary Grant, a husband-and-wife team who have spent much of the last 36 years studying a group of bird species known collectively as Darwin’s finches. ...

How to Profit off the Poor… and Keep Your Soul

Tech Crunch: How to Profit off the Poor… and Keep Your Soul

DELHI, INDIA–“I’ll take you! I live there!” a small boy with a blue shirt and a perfect toothy grin said as he ran ahead of me. His quiet friend in yellow jogged beside him smiling shyly, his jet-black Elvis curl bobbing on his forehead. The boy in blue stopped a few yards in front of me turned around, beaming and added in Hindi, “I know computers quite well.”

These weren’t middle class kids on the well-trod, parent-driven Indian path to seats at IIT. These were Delhi slum kids, whose families likely live on less than $2 a day. And yet, for the last five years, they’ve spent several hours of their free time every day playing games and learning English, Math and Science on computers.

So how have they bridged the much-agonized-about digital divide without a hand out from a chip company, computer company or wealthy philanthropist? A for-profit Indian company called NIIT.

It started back in 1999 when Sugata Mitra, NIIT’s chief scientist, noticed his kid could learn how to use gadgets like a mobile phone far faster than tech-savvy adults could. At this time, most computer “labs” in Indian schools were one or two computers that were only to be used under the strict supervision of a teacher. The reasoning was computers were expensive and required training and supervision. As a result many kids only got to look at them from afar in the classroom.

Instead Mitra wondered what would happen if he left a computer out in the open for a group of children to discover. So he literally knocked a hole in the office wall to the slum on the other side.  He shoved a computer in the hole and set up a camera on a tree limb to record what happened. A 13-year-old, illiterate kid who’d never seen a computer wandered over tentatively, and soon realized he could move the cursor by moving a finger across the touch pad. Within four hours, a small group of kids had gathered. They had figured out how to open Internet Explorer and were playing a game on Disney’s Web site. “All of us were absolutely shocked watching that,” says Abhishek Gupta who heads the program now. Some expected the kids to break or even try to steal the computer.

A pilot project with the World Bank followed, and 22 of these “Hole in the Wall” kiosks were set up around the country from 2001 to 2005. The organization studied the results closely. The most obvious take-away was that kids left on their own will learn computers. The project also helped develop team-building and social skills—with 200 kids sometimes huddled around one screen. Whether the computers lead to more general academic improvement was less clear, but in many cases it was up measurably, Gupta says.

But interestingly when that partnership was over, NIIT didn’t take the project down the non-profit route. It’s not because the company is adverse to such things—it’s also opening a new high-end university that is run as a non-profit. But there’s a unique attitude in India that believes the way to eradicate poverty is to turn India’s scrappiest, free-market entrepreneurs on the problem, not to increase handouts. ...

Abortion Politics and its Discontents

New Yorker: Abortion Politics and its Discontents

Last weekend, the House of Representatives passed a health-care-reform bill with an amendment sponsored by Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak restricting any of the new government-supported health-care options from covering abortion. Sixty-four Democrats joined Republicans in voting for the amendment. I spoke to Jon Shields, an assistant professor at Claremont McKenna College and the author of “The Democratic Virtues of the Christian Right,” about the history of the organized opposition to abortion and its evolving relationship with American politics.

How did a Congress controlled by a large Democratic majority end up passing a bill with these restrictions on abortion?

The ban on abortion funding extended the logic of the pro-choice case for abortion rights. Pro-choice advocates, after all, have long argued that we need to respect the private moral choices of American citizens. Public funding of abortion, by this logic, would not respect our moral differences because it would force pro-life citizens to subsidize the practice of abortion. A ban on funding, therefore, is consistent with what is essentially a libertarian case for abortion rights. This is partly why many Americans who are otherwise sympathetic to abortion access nonetheless believe the state should not treat abortion as a welfare right. In addition, the success of health-care reform ultimately depends on the coöperation of Democrats from districts with strong Catholic constituencies.

According to the logic of the Stupak compromise, should pacifists not be forced to pay taxes because their money funds the Defense Department?

Well, again, I wanted to underscore the claim that pro-choice laws respect individual differences, including the views of pro-life Americans. We usually don’t make this claim about the military. Instead, the military is defended as a positive, collective good that we all benefit from. Pacifists are dismissed as an irrational and small minority. If the pro-choice movement made this sort of claim—that the point of abortion rights is to advance a public good rather than respect America’s pluralism—then, yes, it would follow that we should all reject the Stupak compromise. ...

... Why, in a rapidly liberalizing culture, has opposition to abortion basically stayed the same? What political steps did the pro-life movement take to shift public sentiment after Roe v. Wade? ...

... The liberalism at the heart of the pro-life campaign, however, is constantly distorted by a generation of scholars who have insisted the right-to-life movement is really about the preservation of traditional gender roles or male control over female sexuality. Such interpretations tend to ignore that the right to life movement regards itself as today’s civil-rights movement. The failure to grasp this reality renders the passion and dedication of the pro-life movement almost impossible to comprehend.

I believe that many scholars of abortion have resisted this conclusion because they find it difficult to entertain the possibility that these conservatives might be agents in progressive history. In their view, conservatives are by definition reactionaries to the civil-rights movement, not its heirs. ...

Is Facebook Getting Uncool for 18-24s?

Adweek: Is Facebook Getting Uncool for 18-24s?

In its early days, social-networking site Facebook was propelled to popularity by a college-age crowd that sought it out as an exclusive sanctuary in which to connect with their peers. For that market, it was an attractive alternative to sites deemed to have lost their cool -- like MySpace, which had become a haven for pre-teens and high schoolers.

Now, it seems, Facebook might be suffering a similar migration. According to comScore, as it has gained a broader audience, the older teens and twentysomethings that drove Facebook's initial popularity are using it less. And research by WPP Group's Mindshare suggests that group is reevaluating the site's worth as a tool for developing friendships. Others believe Facebook's cool factor among younger users is waning. "When you start getting friended by your grandmother, I think that's when it starts to lose its cool," said Huw Griffiths, evp and global director of marketing accountability and research at Interpublic Group's Universal McCann.

The numbers have fueled a debate among agencies about the implications for marketers. For some, it has raised a warning flag that if the trend continues, clients may have to revise their social-network marketing strategies. Others believe Facebook's broader growth outweighs any declining usage by the college-age crowd. And still others aren't convinced that younger users on the whole are less enthralled with Facebook, and believe some may be accessing the site via mobile devices that don't show up in the comScore numbers. ...

Did the Church Play a Role in the Economic Crash?

The Atlantic just published a provocative article, Did Christianity Cause the Crash?

America’s mainstream religious denominations used to teach the faithful that they would be rewarded in the afterlife. But over the past generation, a different strain of Christian faith has proliferated—one that promises to make believers rich in the here and now. Known as the prosperity gospel, and claiming tens of millions of adherents, it fosters risk-taking and intense material optimism. It pumped air into the housing bubble. And one year into the worst downturn since the Depression, it’s still going strong. ...

This is an interesting analysis and I think her take has a lot of merit. But I would take this a bit deeper. It isn't just the prosperity gospel that is the problem. It is the failure of Mainliners and other churches to give a proper theological context for our daily work lives. The prosperity gospel is a symptom of this larger problem.

Two years ago, Paul Gifford wrote an article in Christian Century, Expecting miracles: The prosperity gospel in Africa. While Gifford does not endorse the prosperity gospel he does note something very important about its emergence: It gives hope and legitimizes the expectation that poverty and despair ought not be. People ought not surrender to fatalism and should hope for a better world. Reflecting on Gifford's article, Richard Mouw writes:

... It’s tempting to trash that kind of [prosperity] theology, but the Century writer rightly holds back from doing so. He is obviously concerned about the sort of preaching that he has witnessed there [Africa]. But for all of that, he reminds us, there is something to be said for telling desperately needy people “that you matter, that you belong on top, that you will have what you desire.” Marginalized groups of people do need to hear encouraging words that “provide incentives in circumstances in which it is all too easy to give up.”

What I would add to this wise counsel is that we need to do the theological homework that will address these concerns more effectively. For me, the case was put in a challenging manner by my former colleague, the late Paul Hiebert, who published an important essay, “The Flaw of the Excluded Middle,” in the early 1980s in the journal Missiology. Hiebert recounted his experience as a missionary anthropologist with recent converts to Christianity in a village culture in India. When these folks would face difficult challenges relating to fertility, family crises, or economic threats, they would often turn to the shaman for help. Hiebert realized that he did not have the theological resources to address their practical concerns. He had a “high” theology of God, salvation, and human destiny. He also had a scientific grasp of empirical reality. But he was lost when dealing with a middle range of issues: How can I avoid accidents? How can I win my husband back? Who can help me deal with my child’s illness? How can I find enough food for our next meal?

This is the theological “excluded middle” that my own theology does not know how to address. Yet for many people in the world, those are the most important issues in their lives. Much of what goes into “prosperity preaching” makes me nervous theologically. But until the rest of us learn how better to address “the middle range,” I for one will refrain from attacking.

I think Mouw has nailed it. The response by so many of our Mainline leaders and structures has been to denounce the prosperity gospel but offer no "middle range." We get platitudes about living in abundance and exhortations to avoid greed but where is the instruction that guides me in my daily economic life. Consequently, Christians pick up whatever they can from whoever they can get it ... our equivalent of shamans ... to make sense of their economic existence. They sure don't get it from the the church. The prosperity gospel fills a vacuum created by Mainline leaders. So, yes, the prosperity gospel contributed to the crash but the rise the prosperity gospel is a consquence of silence from Mainliners and other Christian communities.

New Fame for the Everyday Donor

New York Times: New Fame for the Everyday Donor

AFTER years in the shadows, the everyday donor is emerging as philanthropy’s newest hero, the driver of a more down-to-earth approach to charity. Sure, Bill and Melinda Gates, Warren Buffett, Bono and other celebrity mega-donors still have their place, but now high-profile charities are homing in on smaller donations, while new charities are being organized around the principle of modest giving.

“This is one of those all-hands-on-deck moments where we absolutely need to engage everyone, whether they are able to give 50 cents or $50 million,” said David Saltzman, executive director of the Robin Hood Foundation, famous for annual benefits where billionaires routinely hand over $20 million.

Americans have always been generous givers, and small donations have always played their part. After a tsunami devastated parts of southeast Asia in 2004, individuals in the United States donated $2.78 billion of the $6.2 billion raised for relief efforts — and the median gift was $50, the average gift $135. Yet multimillion gifts and lavish campaigns and events often commandeered the spotlight and the press coverage.

“We are deluded by the attention paid to the large contributors in our country,” said Wendy Smith, author of “Give A Little: How Your Small Donations Can Transform the World.”

“Small checks coming through the mail are the bread and butter for most organizations.” ...

Controversial new climate change results

University of Bristol: Controversial new climate change results

New data show that the balance between the airborne and the absorbed fraction of carbon dioxide has stayed approximately constant since 1850, despite emissions of carbon dioxide having risen from about 2 billion tons a year in 1850 to 35 billion tons a year now.

The results run contrary to a significant body of recent research which expects that the capacity of terrestrial ecosystems and the oceans to absorb CO2 should start to diminish as CO2 emissions increase, letting greenhouse gas levels skyrocket. Dr Wolfgang Knorr at the University of Bristol found that in fact the trend in the airborne fraction since 1850 has only been 0.7 ± 1.4% per decade, which is essentially zero.

The strength of the new study, published online in Geophysical Research Letters, is that it rests solely on measurements and statistical data, including historical records extracted from Antarctic ice, and does not rely on computations with complex climate models.

This work is extremely important for climate change policy, because emission targets to be negotiated at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen early next month have been based on projections that have a carbon free sink of already factored in. Some researchers have cautioned against this approach, pointing at evidence that suggests the sink has already started to decrease.

So is this good news for climate negotiations in Copenhagen? “Not necessarily”, says Knorr. “Like all studies of this kind, there are uncertainties in the data, so rather than relying on Nature to provide a free service, soaking up our waste carbon, we need to ascertain why the proportion being absorbed has not changed”.

Another result of the study is that emissions from deforestation might have been overestimated by between 18 and 75 per cent. This would agree with results published last week in Nature Geoscience by a team led by Guido van der Werf from VU University Amsterdam. They re-visited deforestation data and concluded that emissions have been overestimated by at least a factor of two.

The Poverty Trap

Greg Mankiw's Blog: The Poverty Trap

Chapter 20 of my favorite textbook has a section on antipoverty programs and work incentives. One basic point is that when multiple income-based programs are piled on top on one another, the implicit marginal tax rate can reach or even exceed 100 percent.

The chart above (source, via Kling) illustrates this phenomenon. It shows income after taxes and transfers as a function of earned income. Notice that as earned income rises from about $15,000 to $30,000, income after taxes and transfers is roughly flat. Indeed, it could even fall. The bottom line: If you are poor, the government is inadvertently ensuring that you have little incentive to try to improve your condition.

Request to CBO: Can you please make and disseminate charts like the one above? ...

Economics at the Jesus Creed: Michael Kruse 10

My tenth and final post on economics is up at Jesus Creed. Stop by and join the conversation. Economics at the Jesus Creed: Michael Kruse 10

Another reason to cover your cough: pets at risk

Reuters: Another reason to cover your cough: pets at risk

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - People who think they may have H1N1 flu need to stay away from work, avoid sneezing on their spouses and children and now, they have someone else to worry about infecting too -- their pets.

U.S. vets reported this week that a pet cat had been infected with the pandemic swine flu virus, apparently by its owners, who had reported flu-like illness in the days before.

Two pet ferrets also caught flu, again apparently from their owners, and several herds of pigs around the world have been reported infected. ...

Isaac, my tabby, pointed this aritcle out to me this morning as he was searching the web. He is now asleep on the bed wearing a surgical mask.

Rise of French evangelicals puts secularism in a spin

The Age: Rise of French evangelicals puts secularism in a spin

Belief in the gospel truth is spreading.

AS THE piano strikes up, the congregation sways, fists in the air, murmurs of hallelujah punctuating the music. Pastor Franck Lefillatre, bathed in the spotlight on his podium, intones into a microphone.

''Let out the words that are in your heart,'' he urges. His whispers crescendo to booming rhetoric. Behind him, emblazoned in gold lettering, are the words: ''Jesus Christ: the same yesterday, today, eternally.''

As evangelical services go, this gathering on a rainy Sunday is nothing unusual. In countless churches across the US and many countries, it would be a staple means of Christian worship.

But this is not the American Bible Belt. It is the Church of Paris-Bastille, and this congregation is one of a growing number of evangelical communities spreading through France and prospering in spite of its secular - and Catholic - traditions.

From a postwar population of about 50,000, French evangelicals are now estimated to number 450,000 to 500,000. According to the Evangelical Federation of France, the number of churches has risen from 800 in 1970 to more than 2200 today. ...

Presbyterian Foundation Board Names The Reverend Thomas F. Taylor as President

Presbyterian Foundation: Presbyterian Foundation Board Names The Reverend Thomas F. Taylor as President 

JEFFERSONVILLE, IN, November 9, 2009 - Reverend Tom Taylor has been called to serve as president and chief executive officer of the Presbyterian Foundation effective January 15, 2009 announced Marcia Porter, chair of the Presbyterian Foundation Board of Trustees.  Taylor will succeed Robert E.Leech who served as the Foundation's president for nine years, retiring in June 2009.

Elinor Hite, chair of the Search Committee and former chair of the Board of Trustees said, "The CEO Search Committee and I feel that Tom Taylor has that unusual combination of informed and energetic leadership ability wrapped in a pastor's heart.  His commitment to mission guides his decision making and management direction and we look forward to his wise leadership as CEO of the Presbyterian Foundation."

During the interim period the Foundation has been blessed with the leadership of attorney Richard H.C.Clay, a former trustee of the Board and a partner with Dinsmore & Shohl, LLP.  Porter stated, "In recent years, the Presbyterian Foundation benefitted from the integrity and leadership of Robert E. Leech.  Since his retirement, Dick Clay has been a wonderful and diligent steward of the Foundation as Interim CEO.  Dick has brought his intelligence, eloquence, and wise counsel to address challenges; he has dedicated much of his time to successfully enhancing Foundation relationships with other agencies of the Church." She added, "The Board of the Presbyterian Foundation is grateful for the dedicated work of the CEO Search Committee, under the capable leadership of Elinor Hite, which has brought to the Foundation both Dick Clay and now our new CEO, Thomas F. Taylor."

Taylor has most recently served as the Deputy Executive Director for Mission at the General Assembly Mission Council (GAMC), a position newly created in 2007 as part of a restructuring of the General Assembly Mission Council staff.  Prior to joining the GAMC, he served as senior pastor at Glenkirk Presbyterian Church, a 1450 member congregation in Glendora, California and senior pastor at Church of the Valley, a 900 member congregation in Apple Valley, California.  He has taught at Fuller Theological Seminary, Azusa Pacific University, Salt Lake Seminary and was a visiting lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana.  Taylor practiced law with Snell,Wilmer & Snow, and Christensen & Martineau, both in Salt Lake City, Utah.

"In a challenging time of changing demographics and visions of mission in the Church, the Presbyterian Foundation has called Tom Taylor to be CEO to provide leadership for the future," said Porter.  "Because of his experience with the General Assembly Mission Council, Tom is in a unique position to appreciate the long-term stewardship of donors' gifts and make the case between investment and return, because he has seen how gifts of previous donors have supported mission for generations.  Tom has a broad perspective on the mission work of the PC (USA) and an understanding that the Presbyterian Foundation has a central role in working in partnership with the whole Church to identify, secure, and manage resources to fund their respective missions.  He brings many gifts to the position that will allow him to provide effective leadership within the Foundation and also to communicate to individuals and institutions on how the Presbyterian Foundation can support them in their mission initiatives."

Commenting on the appointment, Dick Clay said, "This is a blockbuster selection.  Tom Taylor has a strong mind, a great spirit, and a complete understanding of the Church.  I think he is the right person for the job at this stage in the Foundation's 200-plus year history.  I look forward to working with him over the years, and I hope that my service as interim President may have been useful in paving the way."

Linda B. Valentine, Executive Director of the General Assembly Mission Council, stated, "Tom Taylor is an outstanding choice as President and CEO of the Foundation. Tom has a deep love of Christ and commitment to the Church. He has tremendous gifts of intelligence, communication, vision and integrity which he has demonstrated in his leadership in the General Assembly Mission Council. I have been blessed to have Tom as partner in ministry, as have my staff and elected colleagues in the GAMC. We will miss Tom greatly in our midst but are encouraged that he will continue as colleague in our sister agency, the Presbyterian Foundation, where we will continue to collaborate as partners in God's mission and in building up the body of Christ."

Taylor was ordained in 1995 and is a member in good standing - Presbytery of San Gabriel. He earned his Ph.D. from Fuller Theological Seminary in Intercultural Studies; a law degree from the University of Illinois College of Law; M.Div. from Yale University Divinity School; and his undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois.

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The Presbyterian Foundation Group offers a wide range of products and services to individuals and institutions.  The gift vehicles, investment management services, faith-based mutual funds, financial planning and other services and products reflect the principles of faithful stewardship shared by all Presbyterians.  The Presbyterian Foundation Group is committed to working with donors and clients according to their needs and circumstances in an effort to help build, grow, preserve and provide financial resources in ways that maximize impact on their chosen mission or ministry.

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I'm happy for the Foundation. I'm happy for Tom. I happy for what this means for the future work of the GAMC and the Foundation. I' m sad to lose Tom's leadership at the GAMC.

Best wishes and God's grace in this new call Tom!

Happy 20th Anniversary Germany

Twenty years ago today the Berlin Wall burst open. I count the event as one of the biggest events that has happened during my lifetime ... bigger than 9/11. It symbolized the collapse of the Soviet Empire and it happened in such a surreal way it is still hard to believe.

Below are two videos I found at YouTube.  The first is a moving tribute to the wall itself. The second is about the moment folks actually burst through the wall. What videos or stories have you seen that mark the event?