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Reagan hasn't been president for close to 40 years and died more than 20 years ago. At what point do we accept responsibility for this instead of blaming dead p

Reagan hasn't been president for close to 40 years and died more than 20 years ago. At what point do we accept responsibility for this instead of blaming dead presidents?

nz 4mo ago
You might be surprised just how durable the effects of 40-year-old decisions are. You can actually see changes to the very degree completion-rates, when partitioned by field of study. Particularly, education and physics fields (as classified by NCES), have absolutely cratered from the mid 70s to the mid 80s, while business fields became dominant. And if you need data, I actually published an entire (and entirely too long) essay, analyzing the NCES data from 1970 to 2011 (a sequel post for 2011 to present is planned), yesterday[0][1]. Healthcare tends to boom and bust[2] in cycles, and those cycles are _inversely_ correlated with engineering, informatics (the most elegant term for what we call "computer and information sciences"), and business. [0]: https://galacticbeyond.com/two-percent-programmer/ https://galacticbeyond.com/two-percent-programmer/ [1]: https://web.archive.org/web/20260620162923/https://galacticbeyond.com/two-percent-programmer/ https://web.archive.org/web/20260620162923/https://galacticb... [2]: In both the economic sense, and in the completion-rate sense, because those two things are correlated. And they have been correlated since the 1980s, because a lot of the healthcare industry became de-regulated and more profitable as a result, since at least 1978 (when hospitals were de-forbidden from making profits).
fnordpiglet 3mo ago
Reagan didn’t do it alone, and the philosophy that created this monstrosity inexplicably keeps marching along as if all it needs is more patches and it’s the fault of the demand side and supply side for their philosophical view that “free markets are magic” under every scenario, trundling through the wreckage holding hope as a strategy. As the only country with this problem, maybe the philosophy is wrong. I blamed Reagan because he managed to effect the philosophy in law and regulation, and therefore create the inertia. I can blame him for his role until the end of time, just as I can blame Julius Caesar for ending the Roman republic long after his death (even that happened shortly after his actions!) But it’s ok - the current slow motion disaster unfolding will make the hellscape of reaganomics look like a brilliant insight as we play out early stage idiocracy.

Reagan hasn't been president for close to 40 years and died more than 20 years ago. At what point do we accept responsibility for this instead of blaming dead presidents?

nz 4mo ago

You might be surprised just how durable the effects of 40-year-old decisions are. You can actually see changes to the very degree completion-rates, when partitioned by field of study. Particularly, education and physics fields (as classified by NCES), have absolutely cratered from the mid 70s to the mid 80s, while business fields became dominant. And if you need data, I actually published an entire (and entirely too long) essay, analyzing the NCES data from 1970 to 2011 (a sequel post for 2011 to present is planned), yesterday[0][1]. Healthcare tends to boom and bust[2] in cycles, and those cycles are _inversely_ correlated with engineering, informatics (the most elegant term for what we call "computer and information sciences"), and business. [0]: https://galacticbeyond.com/two-percent-programmer/ https://galacticbeyond.com/two-percent-programmer/ [1]: https://web.archive.org/web/20260620162923/https://galacticbeyond.com/two-percent-programmer/ https://web.archive.org/web/20260620162923/https://galacticb... [2]: In both the economic sense, and in the completion-rate sense, because those two things are correlated. And they have been correlated since the 1980s, because a lot of the healthcare industry became de-regulated and more profitable as a result, since at least 1978 (when hospitals were de-forbidden from making profits).

fnordpiglet 3mo ago

Reagan didn’t do it alone, and the philosophy that created this monstrosity inexplicably keeps marching along as if all it needs is more patches and it’s the fault of the demand side and supply side for their philosophical view that “free markets are magic” under every scenario, trundling through the wreckage holding hope as a strategy. As the only country with this problem, maybe the philosophy is wrong. I blamed Reagan because he managed to effect the philosophy in law and regulation, and therefore create the inertia. I can blame him for his role until the end of time, just as I can blame Julius Caesar for ending the Roman republic long after his death (even that happened shortly after his actions!) But it’s ok - the current slow motion disaster unfolding will make the hellscape of reaganomics look like a brilliant insight as we play out early stage idiocracy.