Human Behavior

Womb Envy, Title Envy

by

How much of the reaction to Palin and now to Gillibrand comes because they seem to be carrying infants in many photos and carrying them as they discuss policy? Traditionally, women have been granted more power after menopause. However, a woman carrying a baby – even one she has had relatively late in life – is clearly not post-menopausal.

While some who opposed Palin argued that her only qualification was not choosing an abortion, it seemed a strange observation, especially when she’d defeated ex-governors of both parties. Of course it reveals much about those who made that charge. The children weren’t props but part of her life. One of the few television series that tried to capture the casual and ever-present impact of children on professional couples was Thirty-something..

Read more

A Change in the Social Order

by

Old Man Young Wife

A recent NY Times article highlighted the impact of the financial crisis on Ireland, a country which had previously been riding high on a property boom (and also low tax rates and generally sound economic policies).

There is a photo of a property tycoon and his lovely wife (recently married), 20 years his junior, above. From the article:

The Celtic Tiger my be dead and if the banking crisis continues I could be considered insolvent. but the one thing that I have is my wife and children – and they can’t take that away from me

No, Mr. Tycoon, THEY can’t take her away from you, but your real risk is that she’ll leave on her own.

Read more

“Uncertainty Management”

by

A discussion about the financial crisis, Wall Street, management and accountability at Neptunus Lex. The initial post is merely the starting point for some insightful comments by readers. Worth reading in full.

There seems to be a trend toward diminished accountability for top members of our political and business elites. People who should resign don’t. Leaders who should fire those people don’t. The military still seems pretty good (perhaps it’s no accident that the discussion I linked is on a blog written and frequented by military people). Accountability standards in small business and many professions, where failure tends to be immediate and personal, still seem OK. But things appear to be on the decline in big institutions and government. I don’t know if that’s because government has grown so big and intrusive that it drags down standards everywhere, or because our society has deteriorated, or both. It’s a bad trend either way.

Yer Another Reason Why Ohio is Better Than California

by

The law in Ohio gives protection to people who stop to help others in an emergency. The message is simple: average citizens can sometimes make a difference, and they shouldn’t be punished for doing their best.

I was under the impression that similar laws existed in many states, including California. But it would appear that any protection from legal consequences extends only to people rendering medical help.

Let the victims burn, let them drown, stand by while they are screaming for help. If they can’t get themselves out of trouble, then we just have to sit back and wait for the professionals to arrive. We are taking a huge chance if we do anything except bind up the wounds after the danger has passed.

Are you surprised to learn that I have no plans on moving to California?

Human Networks and Single Points of Failure

by

Ronald Cass’s column about Bernard Madoff is insightful:

The sense of common heritage, of community, also makes it less seemly to ask hard questions. Pressing a fellow parishioner or club member for hard information is like demanding receipts from your aunt — it just doesn’t feel right. Hucksters know that, they play on it, and they count on our trust to make their confidence games work.
 
The level of affinity and of trust may be especially high among Jews. The Holocaust and generations of anti-Semitic laws and practices around the world made reliance on other Jews, and care for them, a survival instinct. As a result, Jews are often an easy target both for fund-raising appeals and fraud. But affinity plays a role in many groups, making members more trusting of appeals within the group.

“Affinity groups” (to use modern marketing-speak) may be particularly vulnerable to fraud because trust works both ways. Group members tend to be more trusting of other group members than of outsiders, and this caution toward outsiders protects the group. But it also means that group members tend to let down their guard against other group members. This is OK most of the time because the extra caution about outsiders keeps predators at bay, and business people who gain admittance to the group are more likely to be trustworthy than outsiders are. However, a sociopath who penetrates the group’s defenses may wreak havoc — the single-point-of-failure problem.

Read more