Here you go! I did it again. No other comments.
Reminders in advance of Pres. Obama’s State of the Union Address:
“Investment” refers to money, or other resources, expanded in reasonable expectation of a positive return. So, if I buy a shovel to replace my soup-spoon to dig dirt and my productivity goes from $6/hr to $8/hr, as a result, I have made an investment.
The word has come to be used elastically. Education in general is a fairly good investment, good studies show. Yet, spending $80,000 to earn a BS in Psychology from a mediocre college is such a bad investment that I don’t think it should be called an “investment” at all. That’s because anyone in his right mind and with a little info could predict it’s not going to return more than any one of a large number of alternative uses to which the money could be put.
Blowing cocaine up one’s nose is not an investment by any measure.
So, when you listen to the president talk about (national) investments tomorrow ask yourself if he is talking shovel, Psychology degree, or cocaine.
The president is probably going to continue promoting “civility: because he feels he is on a roll.
Here are some examples of what’s not civility:
If someone is developing before you an argument that is illogical, or contrary to fact, or based on imaginary pseudo-facts, and you tell him, ” You could phrase the argument differently,” you are not acting civil. Instead, you are demonstrating stupidity or cowardice.
Clear discourse requires vigorous expression. The polite word for “wrong” is “wrong.”
