Resolutions for the new semester, by the economics
At the start of each year we collectively reflect upon the previous year’s achievements — or, too often, failures — and project our thoughts on the year ahead. On a wide scale, newspapers summarize the previous year’s news, give pop quizzes on the best gossip and make predictions on what key events will happen. As individuals, though, we have a certain degree of control over our future and so not only make predictions but resolutions about our future.
Corrections
In last Wednesday’s article about the Bad Ideas Competition, the sub-head incorrectly characterized an event as “frosh dog sledding.” The dog sledding event was open to all participants, and students from all classes participated.
In schools, effectiveness does not equal experience
Much to my delight, education reform has once again taken the national stage over the course of last year. Due to the publicly hyped Race to the Top program, the documentary Waiting for Superman, and the release of the latest Programme for International Student Assessment report, which yet again placed the U.S. in the middle of the pack in education, the public is demanding changes to our education system. Terms like merit-based pay, teacher tenure, and high-stakes testing have become more and more pervasive in American conversations over the last year. Yet even after a year of talk, public opinion has yet to converge on what should be done.
Can we make government more efficient?
As the U.S. Congress (belatedly) hammers out this year’s federal budget, our politicians and pundits have focused their attention on three questions. First, how important are the activities that government performs relative to the private enterprise that it supplants? Second, how redistributionary should our system of taxes and spending be, both in terms of how much we take from the rich to give to the poor, as well as how much we take from future generations to give to the present? And finally, which presents the greater risk: a failure to provide Keynesian stimulus today, or a potential debt crisis tomorrow?
MIT students on military engagements
Last November, The Tech published some of the results of a campus-wide political survey. We asked graduate and undergraduate students about their views on today’s most important social, political, and economic issues, and 2,145 people — 20 percent of campus — responded. Here, we present your responses to military engagement questions, particularly concerning the United States’ role in the Middle East.
Comedy against conformity
Iranian born American comedian Maz Jobrani has gained international recognition for his work in film, television, and stand-up comedy. A founding member of the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour, Jobrani has travelled throughout North America, the Middle East, Europe, and Australia using his comedic talents to talk about life as a Middle Eastern American — particularly, anecdotes from his family and from observations of his own ethnic group.
Republicans need a fresh candidate to do well in 2012
Intrade.com is an online prediction market that tracks, among other things, U.S. politics. In the aftermath of a bruising defeat of Congressional Democrats, Intrade predicts more of the same in 2012. The market currently gives Republicans a 3 in 5 chance of retaining control of their newly acquired House, and roughly a 2 in 3 chance of taking or tying the Senate.
The next great American crisis
The recent collapse of the financial sector was only felt by most after it happened. Today, we face yet another financial crisis that is quietly creeping up on us. And I’m not talking about a double-dip recession or a renewed threat from Wall Street. I’m talking about college loans, especially when combined with the current 9.8 percent unemployment rate. Like mortgages, the financial product that played a large role in the more recent collapse, college loans are widespread. Approximately two thirds of all college students graduate with college loans, and in 2008, The Project on Student Debt estimates that 206,000 students graduated with debts of $40,000 or greater. And the situation is not improving; total student loan debt in the United States is increasing at a rate of about $2,853.88 every second.
Ms. Hockfield, tear down this wall
The past few years are not a fluke: a four-year MIT education is in high demand. From 2004 to 2010, the number of applicants to MIT’s undergraduate program has gone up 48.5 percent, from 10,549 to 15,663, and early application numbers suggest this year will reveal a further 7-8 percent increase. This is not merely a matter of students applying to more colleges — the matriculation rate of admitted students has gone up, not down, from 58.7 percent to 64.6 percent.
MIT’s Libertarians
Last October, The Tech surveyed the undergraduate and graduate population about their political views, and 2,145, or 20 percent of the total student population, responded. We promised to provide follow-up analysis after our original overview in the November 2, 2010 issue of The Tech. Some readers wrote in and requested a breakdown of specific survey questions. Here, we take a look at how students responded when asked if they consider themselves libertarians.
Add India to a revamped Security Council
On Nov. 8, on the final day of his visit to India, President Obama gave an address to a joint session of the Indian parliament that included this gem: “In the years ahead, I look forward to a reformed United Nations Security Council that includes India as a permanent member.”
Letters to the Editor
We were incredibly excited to read in The Tech a few weeks ago that MIT is planning to create an official plan for undergraduate computational biology education. Having graduated from MIT last spring and spent three years in UROPs (with one of us continuing as an MEng) in the Berger Computation and Biology Group, we appreciate the need for increased guidance for undergraduates who are interested in computational biology. When we first came to MIT, we remember many people wondering why we, as math and computer science majors, were taking biology classes and attending biology-related talks. We often felt unsure of which classes to take and how to best prepare ourselves for careers in interdisciplinary research, and without the guidance that we were fortunate to receive from faculty and graduate students, we may not have found our way. The enthusiasm that both Professor Grimson and Professor Kaiser expressed about guiding undergraduates interested in computational biology was wonderful to hear.
Wise up about Wikileaks
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called the latest Wikileaks/Bradley Manning revelations “very irresponsible, thoughtless acts that put at risk the lives of innocent people all over the world.” Mike Huckabee stated that anything less than execution is too kind a penalty. Sarah Palin said of Julian Assange, the front-man of the Wikileaks ensemble, “He is an anti-American operative with blood on his hands ... Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders?”
Being liberal doesn’t work — to remain relevant, Democrats must revise their agenda
There’s an interesting fairy tale that Democrats (and Mr. Veldman) have been telling themselves for more than a decade. “If we were simply better at getting out our message, we’d win more elections.” This is an incredibly facile analysis — it is akin to saying that the U.S. Army would win more wars if its soldiers shot more enemies and got shot less themselves. Even if it had the power to explain why Democrats win in some years and lose in others (which it doesn’t), it’s less than worthless as a form of strategic advice. The “voters are stupid, why else wouldn’t they vote for us” meme has been rampant on the left for quite some time — if it really had insights to offer, surely these lessons would have been capitalized upon by now.
UA Update and Answers
At last week’s Exec meeting, there was a short discussion on dining at Simmons, but not many residents showed up to express their opinions. It transitioned into a discussion on FinBoard reforms. Changes have been made to split the Spring allocation period into two periods, and there was further discussion on changes to policy and funding, as well as the creation of a committee to revise FinBoard policies over IAP.
Who is out of touch, you say? Republicans regularly and unashamedly disregard the wishes of the American people
Penn Jillette once observed that the Republican Party was essentially the “party of fear” and the Democratic Party the “party of hate.” During the Bush era (when he made the remarks) these designations hit the nail on the head. Republicans used the awful specters of Islamic terrorism, the Radical Gay Agenda, abortion and — gasp! — taxes to bully voters into thinking there was only one way they would make it through the next decade with their churches, families, money, or guns safe. Democrats, conversely, used George Bush as a symbol for everything that was wrong with Republicans. He, and by extension the Republican Party, wasn’t just incompetent, he was greedy and racist and ever eager to encroach on our rights — he took from the poor to give to the rich, he turned a cold shoulder to the victims of Katrina, and he routinely disregarded the constraints of the Constitution.