Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Good news:

The U.N. Millennium Development Goals established the target of halving the rate of global poverty between 1990 and 2015; this was probably achieved by 2008, some seven years ahead of schedule. Moreover, using forecasts of per capita consumption growth, we predict that by 2015, fewer than 600 million people will remain poor. At that point, the 1990 poverty rate will have been halved and then halved again.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Maybe poverty doesn't get the whole picture:

Experimental games are wonderful tools for studying the propensity to cooperate in social interactions. The results showed that students from the highest quality neighborhoods were most likely to cooperate in an experimental game, but that median income had a negative effect. The most cooperative kids came from high quality low income neighborhoods.
The big missing point is what he means by a "high quality" neighborhood.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Most college students aren't learning very much:

The rest—most college students—start underprepared, and go to colleges that ask little of them and provide little in return. Their learning gains are minimal or nonexistent. Among them, those with a reasonable facility for getting out of bed in the morning and navigating a bureaucracy receive a credential that falsely certifies learning.
A lot of this commentary rings true. But there's always a crisis. That's how you sell books and get page views and attract attention - "Universities chugging along basically as they always have" is not a headline that gets noticed.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Too many prisoners, says Michael Gerson, not enough opportunities for them when they reenter society:

While human beings are capable of great horrors that merit justice, they do not become trash to be thrown away. Even the least sympathetic - heroin addicts and jailed criminals and gang members - remain part of the American community, the human community.