Author Archives: Jon Lowder

Collapse of the Authority-Media Complex

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Eric Garland has written a thought-provoking piece about why the celebrity "big-thinkers" are starting to be called on the carpet:

It would be positively idiotic to somehow blame Messieurs Lehrer, Gladwell, Zakaria, Ferguson and others like them for the hot mess of American leadership over the last couple decades. However, their brand of “thought leadership,” it must be said, did wonderfully in a world of authority for its own sake. People still needed to feel as if they were talking to somebody who knew what was going on, lest they sink into a horrific depression realizing that nearly all sectors of American leadership failed catastrophically all at once. Media properties were looking for towering figures who could stand up across a wide variety of platforms, as billions of dollars of content sales were now concentrated into the hands of a few companies: Disney, Time Warner, News Corp, CBS, and others who owned publishers, TV, radio and more. Speaking agencies had to fill keynote spots for the billions of dollars of conferences held every year, and having superstars is a way easier sale than actually finding the right speaker for each occasion. (You want to talk international security? Great, here’s Thomas Friedman. You want to talk international business competition? Great, here’s Thomas Friedman. You want to talk about renewing American potential? Have you heard of Thomas Friedman? He’s very influential, you know. Only $50,000, too.)

If you notice the career arcs of those who attained success against the teeth-gritting backdrop of constant leadership failures, you’ll notice that none of these high-minded intellectuals tend to rock the boat too much. Gladwell, for example, has been pre-eminent in the world of publishing for more than a decade, a period of time covering all of the collapse of character and values I have described above. Can you name a single controversial opinion the man has taken? Has he ever gotten up in the grill of anyone who might hesitate before shelling out his $75,000 speaking fee? I actually think Gladwell is a good writer, but as far as the paragon of intellectual virtue in the Western world for the last decade, shouldn’t some part of the last decade’s clusterfuck have struck him as worthy of spending a little built-up credibility and inspired him to call some people out on the carpet? I don’t mean a Network/Howard Beale cri-de-coeur, I mean maybe some minor article recognizing the dramatic drop in results from our leadership, something in tune with the times. Lord knows he could have always regained some ground with a nice book on how people get successful. Fear of starvation was not holding him back.

The piece is pretty extensive and Garland does a great job of looking back at the last 30-ish years to explain how we came to this point in our culture where we are being led by folks who really don't know what they're talking about, much less what they're doing.

The Incredible Shrinking Middle

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One of the underexplored aspects of the current unemployment situation in North Carolina is the movement of people from adequate paying jobs to under paying jobs. A study by the NC Justice Center makes it vividly clear:

The nonprofit group determined there were 356,000 more working-age adults employed in the state in 2001 than in 2010, with manufacturing taking the brunt of the job decline.

The state lost 380,000 jobs in that period, with about 75 percent concentrated in industries with average hourly wages that enabled individuals and families to stay above the living income standard. A family of four needed to earn at least $23.47 an hour in 2010 to have enough money to meet basic expenses, according to N.C. state government standards.

The state's manufacturing workforce, which paid an average of $25.30 an hour, fell by 38 percent during the 10-year period. Manufacturing accounted for 72 percent of the state's job losses…

Where North Carolina did have job growth, it mostly came in low-wage industry sectors, the group said. About 83 percent of the job growth came with average wages of less than the $23.47-an-hour living income standard for a family of four.

For example, 15 percent of the state's job growth from 2001 to 2010 came in the food-services and accommodation sectors, which paid $7.15 an hour.

The state's median household income dropped 9.4 percent during the decade, or from $47,823 in 2001 to $43,326 in 2010.

The center found the number of North Carolinians living in poverty – $22,314 annual income for a family of four – rose by 24.1 percent during the decade.

In a nutshell the middle class is shrinking, and not from upward mobility. You would think that would lead to an outcry against the "corporate class," but outside of a little wrist-slapping at the height of the economic meltdown it just hasn't happened. That's what makes this interview of Mike Lofgren by Bill Moyers so easy to believe (h/t Fec for the link). For those of you expecting an anti-Republican screed you'll be disappointed – he basically argues that both parties have been captured by the corporate class. Enjoy:

Charlotte During DNC Sounds Like the Triad During Furniture Market

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In the months before moving with my family to Lewisville, NC in 2004 I decided to take a couple of road trips down from Washington to check out the business environment in the Piedmont Triad. I'd never had trouble getting a room before so I didn't think to make a reservation, which was a huge mistake the time I made the trip the same week that the Furniture Market was in full swing in High Point. Let's just say I ended up staying in a motel where I suspect I was the only person who didn't pay by the hour.

Apparently finding a room in Charlotte during the Democratic National Convention is a similar experience:

All these political reporters have been complaining about the boring staged political conventions for weeks, but when presented with the opportunity to talk to a real live victim of the "Obama economy" — a hooker — they run away screaming. The National Review's John Fund explains that one of their political reporters was forced to request a hotel change after the Democratic National Convention assigned the reporter to a seedy Charlotte hotel that might have had a hooker working in the parking lot. Fund quotes his colleague anonymously:

The Knights Inn was the worst hotel I have ever seen, and I’ve stayed in many bad motels in my life. Two guys were dealing drugs in the room next to me, and a prostitute was working out of the parking lot. And this was in the early afternoon. The room itself was dirty, full of other people’s stuff, etc.

I have never requested a hotel change in 3 years at NR. This was the first time I felt absolutely compelled.

 

We Can’t Handle the Truth

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Here's a tasty little tidbit from a post titled Why Fact Checkers Fail:

So here's what we did — what I did — and what others have certainly done as well: I downplayed Republican dishonesty while judging Democratic failings with an unfairly harsh bias. I applied this to assignments, to the tone and presentation of stories, and to the various gimmicks we invented to try to evaluate claims. The results didn't reflect the true scale of the dishonesty gap, but they at least demonstrated that a gap existed. At least, they had the potential to demonstrate the gap, but only to very careful readers with a knack for drawing subtle inference. Because we could never come out and tell you what we all knew in the newsroom: Yes, "all politicians lie" (a cynical dodge if ever there was one), but the modern Republican Party is based on a set of counter-factual and faith-based beliefs, and has been for years. Not only has that foundation consistently put the party on the wrong side of fact-checkers, it has led us to where we stand today, with Mitt Romney running a campaign that has abandoned even the pretense of fact.

There has to be some middle ground between partisan media hacks and spineless media hacks but it seems to be unpopulated at the moment.

Who Pays for Health Care?

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An interesting piece at the Atlantic Wire shows the change in who pays for health care services (hospital care, physician and clinical services, prescription drugs, etc.) from 1960 to 2010. In 1960 a far higher percentage of the payments were out-of-pocket and a lower percentage came from private insurance, Medicare and Medicaid. In 2010 a much smaller percentage was paid out-of-pocket and, with the exception of dental services and "other medical products", the vast majority was paid by private insurance, Medicare and Medicaid. 

That's interesting in and of itself, but what's downright unbelievable is the change in the amount spent on health care each year that's shown in the article. In 1960 the total amount spent was $23.4 billion and in 2010 it was $2,186 billion or a 93.4-fold increase. Of course there are more people in America in 2010 so a good question would be, "What's the per-capita increase in health care spending?"

The answer is that in 1960 the per capita spending was $147 and in 2010 it was $8,402 – a 57-fold increase. To give you an idea of how big a jump that is you need only note that the buying power of $1 in 1960 was the same as $7.35 in 2010. In other words health care spending literally exploded; if it had been even roughly analogous to inflation the per capita spending would be more like $1,080 than $8,402.

Some thoughts to ponder as you digest this information:

  • Would spending be lower if end consumers had to pay more out of pocket?
  • Would pricing transparency be greater without insurers playing middle man?
  • How much of the cost is due to the inefficiencies of the health care system? 
  • How much less would the spending be if doctors didn't have to employ multiple people simply to handle billing insurers?
  • If you added in the cost of health insurance that doesn't get directly applied to paying for health care services – many years we pay more in premiums than get spent on health care services – what would the annual spending be? 
  • It's interesting to note that where the money was spent – the percentage spent on hospital care, physician and clinical service, prescription drugs – is almost exactly identical in 2010 to where it was in 1960. Doesn't that seem to indicate that the entire system is screwed up, not just hospitals or pharmaceuticals?

The health care industry is facing some signicant changes thanks to "Obamacare," but it remains to be seen whether or not those changes will rein in costs. It's hard to imagine the health care system getting any less efficient, but then again in 1960 it was hard to imagine a man walking on the moon within a decade. 

The Problem with the Internet

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In an interview with Mother Jones author Michael Chabon describes the problem with the internet:

MC: Well, no. It's because I love the internet and it has been incredibly useful and I have made discoveries that have been immeasurably crucial to my work—things I don't know how I ever would have found out otherwise, that are perfect, just what I need for whatever I'm doing. And with that very truth is the pretext for all the bad stuff. Because I have gotten so much out of it that I can always justify or rationalize it to myself. I'll think, "Oh I'm just going to take three minutes to find out who made the spark plugs that were used in Mustang airplanes that they used during World War II." Two hours later, I'm, you know, looking at the Partridge Family fan site or something like that, and listening to "I Think I Love You."

MJ: [Laughs.] It's called procrastination.

MC: It's more insidious, because you're being incited to it. Procrastination is something you doyourself. You know: "I gotta sharpen these pencils before I start. I got 20 pencils, they're looking kinda dull." Well, the pencils aren't calling you and alluring you and inviting you and offering you anything. They're just sitting there. You're the one who's procrastinating. The internet is actively trying to get you to stop working.

Look! Sparkly things!

LiFless

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After an extended period of periodic posting Esbee is pulling the plug on Life in Forsyth. (That's an intentionally terrible sentence written specifically in honor of Esbee's impatience with sub-par writing).  I for one am grateful for the free entertainment and information she provided through the years and I'm also thankful she let us go gently over the last year or two.

She's moving on to far more important things and she's going to be fabulous at them all.

Memory

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Scott Adams, he of Dilbert fame, writes about his terrible memory and it sounds oh so hauntingly familiar:

In school, I could force myself to remember topics for tests, but it only lasted as long as the test. At home, we have a lot of conversations about what I might have heard or said at some specified time in the past and it almost never sounds vaguely familiar. Sometimes it feels as if someone else lived my life until this very moment and now I'm taking over.

The way I perceive the act of creativity while it happens in me is as a process of forgetting, not a process of creating. The mind is not capable of having zero thoughts, so when you flush whatever is in your head at the moment it creates a sort of vacuum that sucks in a new thought. In my case, that process of forgetting and then sucking in a new thought happens continuously. My memory isn't "sticky," so what comes in slides right back out in a nanosecond. Sometimes a new thought is worth writing down, which I either do right away or lose it forever. Usually the new idea is random garbage and it passes quickly, making room for the next idea. My mind feels like a slot machine that I can't stop pulling. Sometimes the diamonds line up, but not often.