The Cluelessness of a Conservative

Since it’s again fashionable to quote the Master, I offer this oldie but goodie, still very relevant in an age of crackpot libertarians, wingnuts, Randroids:

Publicly, no American politician can admit that we have anything to learn from the experiments of another society. The ritual dialogue between office seeker and electorate is one of mutual congratulation, and to suggest that perfection has another home is treasonable. But privately our more conscientious legislators do ponder other countries’ penal reforms, medical programs, educational methods. From his book and speeches I suspected [Barry] Goldwater had done little or no homework. He was firmly against socialized medicine, but he seemed to know nothing about how it worked in Scandinavia, West Germany, England.

Goldwater was honest. No, he didn’t know much about European socialism. “But I did meet this Norwegian doctor, matter of fact her name was Goldwater, which is how she happened to get in touch with me. She said the thing seemed to work all right, but that being assured of a certain income every month from the government kept her from feeling any real urge to study harder — you know, keep up at her profession. There was no incentive.” I asked him if he thought that the desire to be good was entirely economic in origin. He said of course it was. I then asked him to explain how it was that two people as different as ourselves worked hard, though in neither case money was the spur. He was startled. Then he murmured vaguely and slipped away from the subject.


From “Barry Goldwater: A Chat” in Vidal’s United States: Essays: 1952-1992, original interview published in Life magazine in 1961.

 

Comments: 15

 
 
 

And here I thought you were in this for the cash Retardo.
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That, and hitting on Marie’ Jon’

 
Notorious P.A.T.
 

Silly Mr Vidal: doesn’t he know that ignorance is a platform for leadership? If you don’t know how things are, you can proceed to recreate the world to your heart’s contentment while your opponents are busily (and wastefully) making judicious study of objective reality.

/snark

 
 

Speaking as a doc, the ones I know who are best-paid study the least, and would study not at all were it not for the Continuing Medical Education requirement for license renewal. The proof? Check out continuing medical education conferences for surgeons (the high-dollar specialties)–they hold ’em on ocean liners, in Aspen for ski season, in Palm Springs. If you have to dangle bait to get these guys to stay current, then the Free Market (TM) isn’t doing the job.

 
 

Speaking as a doc, the ones I know who are best-paid study the least, and would study not at all were it not for the Continuing Medical Education requirement for license renewal.

Frist?

 
InsaneInTheCheneyBrain
 

Medical Education Conference One offers their class in Minneapolis. MEC Two offers theirs in Aspen or perhaps Ibiza. MEC Two is more succcessful.

Yep, free market not working! Q.E.D.

The underpants gnomes are more convincing.

 
 

And yet there are conferences held in Minneapolis. Why is that? Or does the free market only function for surgeons?

People become doctors to be assured of a comfortable or high income. Past that, they rarely compete to make more money. They compete to be the best at what they do. In general, if rational calculation of improved income were the only motivator for striving for excellence, there would be no musicians.

 
 

When the fuck did Gore “BUsh JUnta !!!111” Vidal become “The Master”?

 
 

Similarly, as a tenured college professor, I have no incentive to do anything but sit on my ass and harass female students. Not.

 
 

Insane (if I may be informal)–

Yeah, the free market’s working so well that a) the docs have to be coerced into maintaining their training, and b) they have to be led along to Ibiza.

You aren’t an underpants gnome yourself, by any chance?

 
 

Admittedly my evidence is scant and anecdotal, but none of the scientists (and this includes doctors) I know who went into and continue to stay in their profession did and do so out of economic concerns…

 
 

People who just want to make cash quick without regard to quality or ethics simply go into the mortgage business. Medicine and science take actual work, which is a disincentive.

Additionally, if economics were the prime motivating factor in life, then why would men shove perfectly spendable dollar bills into strippers’ thongs? Anecdotal evidence does indicate that masturbation is more cost-effective.

 
 

People who just want to make cash quick without regard to quality or ethics simply go into the mortgage business

Hell wit’ that, MCH. A thousand dollars invested in a Meth lab with an accomplished cooker can return $60,000.00 in two weeks. It’s just a six month sprint to retirement.

Anecdotal evidence does indicate that masturbation is more cost-effective.

Certainly more cost-effective than dating…

mikey

 
 

tebbit,

Roughly, when he started publishing his work.

’nuff said.

 
 

Not to mention that scholarship addressing pay for performance plans shows mixed results on performance. In some specific cases, individual pay for performance incentives lead to higher individual performance, in some cases they lead to worse group or unit performance, and in some cases the effect is small and statistically insignificant.

In spite of the volume of research showing the potential problems with pay-for-performance, companies and especially boards of education are continuing to push individual pay-for-performance as though it’s the great silver bullet.

It pisses me off when practicing managers ignore the evidence produced by scholars. It’s even worse when politicians rely on bullshit to score political points.

 
 

Additionally, if economics were the prime motivating factor in life, then why would men shove perfectly spendable dollar bills into strippers’ thongs? Anecdotal evidence does indicate that masturbation is more cost-effective.

And reading conservatives will give you plenty of those anecdotes, too.

 
 

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