{"id":12340,"date":"2014-03-11T01:13:24","date_gmt":"2014-03-11T08:13:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=12340"},"modified":"2014-03-11T01:13:24","modified_gmt":"2014-03-11T08:13:24","slug":"open-thread3112014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2014\/03\/11\/open-thread3112014\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–3\/11\/2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writing for tomorrow, and I\u2019m feeling a bit out of time from Springing ahead.  Falling back is a wonderful gift from the Democrats, redistributing sleep to the people, but Springing ahead is a Republican abomination!  What we ought to do here is to forget Springing ahead and to Fall back twice a year! ;-)  This is all there is for tomorrow, because I have lots to do in preparation for a volunteer day in prison tomorrow.  Please expect little on Wednesday too.<\/font><\/p>\n

Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s took me 3:08 (average 4:34).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

Short Takes<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

From NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>Most people, if pressed on the subject, would probably agree that extreme income inequality is a bad thing, although a fair number of conservatives believe that the whole subject of income distribution should be banned from public discourse. (Rick Santorum, the former senator and presidential candidate, wants to ban the term \u201cmiddle class,\u201d<\/a> which he says is \u201cclass-envy, leftist language.\u201d Who knew?) But what can be done about it?<\/p>\n

The standard answer in American politics is, \u201cNot much.\u201d Almost 40 years ago Arthur Okun, chief economic adviser to President Lyndon Johnson, published a classic book titled \u201cEquality and Efficiency: The Big Tradeoff<\/a>,\u201d arguing that redistributing income from the rich to the poor takes a toll on economic growth. Okun\u2019s book set the terms for almost all the debate that followed: liberals might argue that the efficiency costs of redistribution were small, while conservatives argued that they were large, but everybody knew that doing anything to reduce inequality would have at least some negative impact on G.D.P.<\/p>\n

But it appears that what everyone knew isn\u2019t true. Taking action to reduce the extreme inequality of 21st-century America would probably increase, not reduce, economic growth. <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with the evidence.<\/p>\n

Paul Krugman does an uncommon job at documenting how the common wisdom is wrong. Click through for an excellent editorial.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Upworthy<\/a>: <\/font>Back in "simpler times", Americans often Anglicized (made more English-sounding) the names of Mexican children. A little boy named Juan would have his name changed to John, for example. <\/p>\n

Ram\u00f3n "Chunky" Sanchez recounts a time his teachers had a little trouble renaming the new kid.<\/p>\n