Globally Rational

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McCain’s top VP prospect, Bobby Jindal, apparently believes that Intelligent Design is “the very best science.” When talking about the subject, he mentioned that “The way we’re going to have smart, intelligent kids is exposing them to the very best science and let them not only decide, but also let them contribute to that body of knowledge.”

So apparently, he seems to believe that we not only need to teach Intelligent Design in schools (as he mentioned earlier in the speech), but that kids should be able to “contribute to that body of knowledge.” I’m curious… since when are we allowed to “contribute” to Intelligent Design theories? I was always under the impression that the Bible (and other religious texts) are non-negotiable… how can kids contribute to the body of Christian knowledge?

He also mentioned that he doesn’t want “any facts of theories withheld from [his kids] because of political correctness.” Personally, I was always under the impression that we keep religion out of public schools for reasons much more important than “political correctness.” I thought that we lived in the “Land of the Free” where you could get through school without being subject to a certain mandatory religion.

Sure, we can teach our kids religion… I’m not opposed to religion as a concept. But this is the sort of education that should be restricted to personal homes. If you want to teach your kids to be Hindu or Mormon or Baptist or Muslim, it’s not my problem… but if you want to feed a certain religion to my kids, it’s suddenly a big deal. Kids go to school to learn facts based on empirical evidence, not to learn a certain prophet’s interpretation of the truth.

Are you ready to see Bobby Jindal as the next Dick Cheney?

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Sunday Rewind is a new feature where I re-publish an old post that I first put up back when nobody was actually reading.  Hopefully, there will be some actual readership this time.

I came across an interesting article today. In short, it is about a study proving that the world’s most incompetent people are typically unaware of their incompetence. On the contrary, they are usually pretty overconfident.

This is the eternal problem with most democratic societies. We have a series of ignorant people who strongly believe that their opinion is the best one. The more competent voters are usually willing to recognize that their knowledge is limited and they may change their opinion based on new facts or changes in the context. The less competent ones, however, are the ones who are hard-set in their opinions and believe that they are always right.

This issue is what leads to many major policy mistakes. Often, the people vote based on their past allegiances and their restricted worldview rather than the real issues of the day. This is what causes Pakistan, for example, to repeatedly elect not only incompetent leaders, but also known criminals (see here and here). So what is the solution?

I think we can all agree that better education will help everybody, especially in countries like Pakistan where the literacy rate is painfully low. A more educated populace will, by default, be more competent when the time comes to make a political decision. The problem is that the policymakers know that improved education will only cause them to lose their supporters. Also, increased taxes, even for the purpose of improving society by education, will never be popular.

What is the solution? Well, I will continue to do my part by disseminating these views through the blogosphere. You can do your part by spreading the word to more people. If you tell 10 people and they tell 10 people, then by the time that happens 10 times, the entire world will have heard it.

Socrates once said that “the only true wisdom is knowing that you know nothing.”

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Anybody familiar with the US medical system would completely support New Zealand’s junior doctors in their recent strike. After all, American resident physicians (our counterpart to the Australian “junior doctor”) are overworked (recently, the government limited the work week to 80 hours) and underpaid (~$40,000/year) despite the fact that they’re licensed physicians. They also get no vacation and no time to themselves. I think it’s about time that they expect more.

Here’s why you’d be wrong: Junior physicians in New Zealand make twice as much money (~$88,000/year) in much less time (50-60 hrs/week) than their American counterparts. They also get 6 weeks of vacation every year and 2 weeks off for conferences. They’re going on strike, without much regard for the 1,000 patients who will be left without medical care thanks to the already understaffed hospitals, for 48 hours. The reason is because their colleagues in Australia make a little bit more money than they do.

Here are some reasons why the resident physicians in Australia deserve more money than those in New Zealand:

• Australia’s cities have a higher cost of living than New Zealand’s.
• Australia’s per-capita GDP is 40% higher than New Zealand’s, meaning that an average Australian makes 40% more money than an average New Zealander. Why should doctors be an exception?
• It’s harder to become a doctor in Australia now, as most Australian schools are moving towards graduate medical programs rather than undergraduate programs.
• Citizens of both countries are allowed to freely travel (and work) in either of the two, so any physician in New Zealand could work in Australia if he/she was able to get a job… if they’re in New Zealand, that means one of two things:
  (1) They don’t want to go to a more expensive country just to make more money.
  (2) They can’t get a job in Australia because they didn’t do well enough in medical school.

The junior doctors in New Zealand want a 40% pay increase over the next 3 years. Apparently, they believe that they should make just as much money as people who are in a more expensive country and spent more time in school.

If that’s how things will go, then American resident physicians are the one who really deserve a raise… here, we have the highest cost of living (of the three countries), the most difficult medical admissions process (requiring a full 4-year bachelor’s degree before you can go to med school), the most demanding medical school curriculum (medical students rarely have a social life), and the longest residency work hours (70 hrs/week).

Not surprisingly, New Zealand’s medical curriculum doesn’t include a class in economics.

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In the past 100 years, the US has established a reputation as one of the world’s best places to live. The best way to gauge this is by the fact that the US is the first choice for potential migrants in India, China, and all over the world. The obvious reason is that we have a strong economy… but so does Europe. So what differentiates the US?

Well, here are some factors that I believe are responsible for the rise of the US; please feel free to chime in if you can think of any others:

• Americans value economic freedom more than most European countries. Here, the rags-to-riches story is the American Dream.
• Despite the recent (especially post-9/11) restrictions, the US has established a reputation as a nation of immigrants whose diverse experiences come together to form a great nation. Individual European countries have a reputation for being more homogeneous.
• 100 years ago, the US was relatively neutral when it comes to international politics… this allowed us to have one of the world’s strongest militaries after Europe destroyed itself during the World Wars.
• Unlike crowded European countries, we have a lot of extra land lying around. The UK, for instance, has over 8 times the population density of the US.

I can only think of one other country that is following the same pattern. It may not be to the same extent, but I think that Australia will be the next big thing in world politics. At the moment, their population is too small to be considerable… but if they can get more people to show up, then they will become progressively more powerful:

• They value economic and personal freedom at least as much as we do.
• They still have a very friendly immigration policy, and it actually favors skilled migrants (from chemists to carpenters); as US immigration becomes more difficult, I think that more and more people will choose Australia as their destination. At the moment, 25% of people in Australia were born overseas.
• They are still relatively neutral with respect to military policy, partly thanks to their isolation. They probably won’t be able to get any real international power until their population is big enough to support a large military (that day is still at least 50-60 years away), but I think they’ll be able to do it.
• They have almost as much land lying around as the US. Although much of the land is unusable, they also have a much longer coastline than the US, even if you include Alaska/Hawaii… and most of it is usable and on the same landmass, unlike the other countries on the list that I linked.

They also have universal healthcare and a much more flexible society as a whole. I think Australia will be much more attractive for immigrants in the near future. Consider the following facts (and keep in mind that Australia has 1/15 the overall population of the US):

• Australia has 6 of the world’s top 50 universities. These universities are also much cheaper than their American counterparts, and they are attracting increasing numbers of qualified international students.
• Australia ranks #3, after Iceland and Norway, on the Human Development Index, which measures the world’s best overall places to live (the US is #12).
• Australia’s 5 major cities are all in the top 32 of Mercer’s list of the world’s best cities (and they all have a relatively low cost of living). The US only has two cities in that range (Honolulu at 27, San Francisco at 29), both of which are very expensive to live in.
• Australia ranks #4 on the Index of Economic Freedom (which measures economic opportunity in a country; this is the US’s strongest point), right behind Hong Kong, Singapore, and Ireland. The US is close behind at #5.
• Australia ranks #8 on the Democracy Index, which measures a country’s level of civil liberties; the US is #17.
• Australia ranks #28 on the Press Freedom Index, while the US is #48.

And I’m not taking these rankings out of context. Most quality-of-life studies put Australia near the top of the world. The only thing they need to do now is to have a big enough population so that they can amplify these effects. If their immigration policies take care of this issue, then they will be able to take unsuccessful Indians/Chinese and turn them into successful immigrants. If all goes well, we will end up with two world powers in science and economy… and in the process, they will make the world a much better place overall.

And that’s why I’m probably moving to Australia later this year.

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I came across an interesting article today. In short, it is about a study proving that the world’s most incompetent people are typically unaware of their incompetence. On the contrary, they are usually pretty overconfident.

This is the eternal problem with most democratic societies. We have a series of ignorant people who strongly believe that their opinion is the best one. The more competent voters are usually willing to recognize that their knowledge is limited and they may change their opinion based on new facts or changes in the context. The less competent ones, however, are the ones who are hard-set in their opinions and believe that they are always right.

This issue is what leads to many major policy mistakes. Often, the people vote based on their past allegiances and their restricted worldview rather than the real issues of the day. This is what causes Pakistan, for example, to repeatedly elect not only incompetent leaders, but also known criminals (see here and here). So what is the solution?

I think we can all agree that better education will help everybody, especially in countries like Pakistan where the literacy rate is painfully low. A more educated populace will, by default, be more competent when the time comes to make a political decision. The problem is that the policymakers know that improved education will only cause them to lose their supporters. Also, increased taxes, even for the purpose of improving society by education, will never be popular.

What is the solution? Well, I will continue to do my part by disseminating these views through the blogosphere. You can do your part by spreading the word to more people. If you tell 10 people and they tell 10 people, then by the time that happens 10 times, the entire world will have heard it.

Socrates once said that “the only true wisdom is knowing that you know nothing.”

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