Unschoolable people in 1st world countries

[Inquartata]

Originally Posted by epeeisky

I was in New Orleans a few days ago and I went to get a burger, but it was after 6 PM and the fast food places were closed because there are not enough people to work there. There is such a need of people that you can get a $5,000 signing bonus if you agree to work for them for 6 months. Also there is a lack of people to do basic unskilled construction.

Speaking of Katrina and New Orleans, did anyone else see this story a week or two ago?

http://www.statesman.com/news/conten...tatistics.html

Now, I was pretty thoroughly excoriated for daring to question in a previous argument the media's knee-jerk conclusion that those who did not evacuate did not do so because they were poor and had no access to automobiles. There were some spirited defenses of that thesis in a thread on the subject. Here we have the beginnings of an actual analysis based not on moral indignation or class theory but on empirical data...and guess what? The dead seem to have been neither predominately poor nor without cars...

[Slim]

Originally Posted by Inquartata

There were some spirited defenses of that thesis in a thread on the subject. Here we have the beginnings of an actual analysis based not on moral indignation or class theory but on empirical data...and guess what? The dead seem to have been neither predominately poor nor without cars...

That's why you're not hearing anything about it. The actual data does not support the original arguments against your thesis.

[epeeisky]

Originally Posted by Inquartata

Now, I was pretty thoroughly excoriated for daring to question in a previous argument the media's knee-jerk conclusion that those who did not evacuate did not do so because they were poor and had no access to automobiles. There were some spirited defenses of that thesis in a thread on the subject. Here we have the beginnings of an actual analysis based not on moral indignation or class theory but on empirical data...and guess what? The dead seem to have been neither predominately poor nor without cars...

Actually those conclusions are flawed. Curently there are between 1,000 and 1,100 dead from katrina and the latest survey only includes about half those people. Also, there are about 3,500 people still unaccounted. While a large porportion of those people are probally missing and haven't/don't want to be found, that could skew the results significantly.

The three places in New Orleans that were the worst damaged were Lakeview, the lower Ninth Ward, and St. Bernard. Lakeview is a rich, affluent neighborhood. The Lower Ninth is a working poor area, and St Bernard is a working poor to middle class area. So, if equal numbers of people stayed in each area, then the deaths of the different economic classes should be about proportional to that areas population percent.

[Inquartata]

Originally Posted by epeeisky

there are about 3,500 people still unaccounted. While a large porportion of those people are probally missing and haven't/don't want to be found, that could skew the results significantly.

They could, but the sample size is large enough to suggest statistical significance, in which case adding more data points may not alter the overall results very much.

I just found it interesting that the media's immediate explanation for all the people who did not evacuate wasn't that they chose not to do so, but that they were prevented from doing so by the left's favorite bugbears: poverty and racism. That is, that individuals from certain groups seen as somehow disadvantaged are never responsible for the consequences of their own actions---they can only be victims of society, hard childhoods, or what have you. And that I was perceived to be questioning that sacred cow view prompted rather a good deal of criticism...before the evidence was even in.

[Epee_Pox]

Originally Posted by Inquartata

....that I was perceived to be questioning that sacred cow view prompted rather a good deal of criticism...before the evidence was even in.

And this surprises you?