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New York State law requires that one out of every five Thomas Friedman columns make some sense. This one bags his quota for the month.

by miked 16y ago

gruseom 16y ago
Not so fast. The very first sentence is wrong: the French government's decision to raise its pension retirement age from 60 to 62 That's the early retirement age they're raising, to the same 62 as the US has. The normal retirement age is being raised from 65 to 67, 1 year later than the US at 66. Oopsies. http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/more-communications-problems-at-the-washington-post http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/more-comm..., confirmed here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retirement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retirement Despite it all, I enjoy reading Friedman. Even though his job description is apparently "be professionally wrong about everything for the New York Times", there's something cozy and comfy about his writing. His tone communicates that the world makes sense and the moustache will explain it to you. What's interesting is how nice it makes one feel, even when one knows the probability of any sentence being bullshit approaches 1. Edit: Friedman also has the merit of inspiring the greatest smackdown review of our time. There aren't nearly enough laughs of this calibre in this world: http://www.nypress.com/article-11419-flathead.html http://www.nypress.com/article-11419-flathead.html
- ljegou 16y ago
  I agree, but the first part of the first sentence is very very true. As a french university employee, i can confirm :/
  - gruseom 16y ago
    So there we have it: part of one sentence is true. It was known to be theoretically possible, of course. :) Actually, Friedman gets a bit of a bum rap because he's so fun to make fun of. As long as you ignore all the (pseudo-)facts, some of his insights are pretty good. Edit: It is interesting to consider how some of this stuff makes it past editors at a leading world newspaper, though. If people like us can google these things in our limited spare time, what the hell are they doing?
- JabavuAdams 16y ago
  Man, not so long ago early retirement meant 55 in Canada.

New York State law requires that one out of every five Thomas Friedman columns make some sense. This one bags his quota for the month.

by miked 16y ago

New York State law requires that one out of every five Thomas Friedman columns make some sense. This one bags his quota for the month.

gruseom 16y ago

Not so fast. The very first sentence is wrong: the French government's decision to raise its pension retirement age from 60 to 62 That's the early retirement age they're raising, to the same 62 as the US has. The normal retirement age is being raised from 65 to 67, 1 year later than the US at 66. Oopsies. http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/more-communications-problems-at-the-washington-post http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/more-comm..., confirmed here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retirement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retirement Despite it all, I enjoy reading Friedman. Even though his job description is apparently "be professionally wrong about everything for the New York Times", there's something cozy and comfy about his writing. His tone communicates that the world makes sense and the moustache will explain it to you. What's interesting is how nice it makes one feel, even when one knows the probability of any sentence being bullshit approaches 1. Edit: Friedman also has the merit of inspiring the greatest smackdown review of our time. There aren't nearly enough laughs of this calibre in this world: http://www.nypress.com/article-11419-flathead.html http://www.nypress.com/article-11419-flathead.html

ljegou 16y ago
I agree, but the first part of the first sentence is very very true. As a french university employee, i can confirm :/
- gruseom 16y ago
  So there we have it: part of one sentence is true. It was known to be theoretically possible, of course. :) Actually, Friedman gets a bit of a bum rap because he's so fun to make fun of. As long as you ignore all the (pseudo-)facts, some of his insights are pretty good. Edit: It is interesting to consider how some of this stuff makes it past editors at a leading world newspaper, though. If people like us can google these things in our limited spare time, what the hell are they doing?
JabavuAdams 16y ago
Man, not so long ago early retirement meant 55 in Canada.