What is the question?

This post is one of Robert's deep ruminations. Carolyn is much too practical to waste her time on such stuff.

I have been thinking about the "world today ' and have come to several observations.

(1) Most of the mysteries of nature are gone. The only thing left is "Is there life on other planets?" That is an interesting question but not a serious one, because there are no real answers other than hot air speculation that serves only the media. When scientists speak of "life" they are talking about bacteria, not someone with whom you can have a beer.

(2) Climate change is a small mystery, but the climate has been changing long before farting cows and cars. Much of the earth was at one time covered in ice, and the "why" has been accounted for by location of the orbits of the earth and sun. Anyway, the time scale for such conclusions would put you in the same category as a person traveling across the country to buy a lottery ticket everywhere, believing that it will improve their chance of winning.

(3) Beyond the certainty of death, we already know what will kill us and how long it will take. There are no mysteries here.

(4) We know, or believe we know, about other places on the globe and about the people who live in those places. Much of what we know comes from the media shows (why do they do it?) but it does little more than create a context for believing that we are "open" to other cultures and other peoples.
But, what does that mean?

(5) What is left? The impact of the Internet on people and human societies, is still an unknown, and the speculation about impact is in the realm of science fiction, but still interesting. This is the one area where there may be new mysteries, but I doubt that it will ever go beyond "How many friends do I have Facebook?"

Where are the politcal Luddites today?

In the early 1800s, English workers in the cotton mills who were fearful of losing their jobs destroyed their production machinery. They became known as Luddites, and the term is used more generally today to describe those who oppose technological change.

The August 26th issue of The Economist contains an article on the advances in automated and robotized production in the apparel industry. Machines operating without human intervention are now producing rectangular goods (towels, rugs, pillows) without human intervention. Automated production is headed toward apparel with the mass production of T-shirts and other simple apparel items. Nowhere in this article is there any mention of the number of unskilled workers and skilled tailors who will be displaced by automated production. Nowhere in this article is there any mention of labor leaders and politicians who should be the "political Luddites" who are monitoring this development and protecting the interests of workers.

Student Debt--Tell us more.

I find myself being increasingly annoyed with the discussion of student debt--how much it is and how long it will take to pay off. There is debt, and there is student debt. The latter should be viewed as an investment made by a student against future earnings, but it is always presented as some drag on the economy or some indicator of unfairness in the game of life. But I need to know more before I can decide about whether or not student debt is a "problem." Questions: (1) What are the majors of students who leave college with debt? Are they in the potentially high-paying professional programs like medicine, law, and some STEM degrees. Or are they headed toward modest entry-level jobs, or modest paying professions in elementary school teaching, or social work.  (2) What are the socio-economic backgrounds of the debtors, especially parental income. Do they have parents who are professionals with high incomes, or are their parents in occupations with modest incomes?

In short, the student debt syndrome is used to hide important differences among college graduates, and to float proposals such as "make college free" that will great for privileged class students heading to elite schools with high tuitions.

So before we are stampeded by the fear of "student debt " the agencies that collect such data should tell us more and then maybe we can shape proposals that will help those with greatest need.