[TriLUG] OT: PT One tech issue from tonight's debate

[Steve Litt]

On Sat, 20 Oct 2012 11:09:52 -0400, Brandon Van Every said:
> On Sat, Oct 20, 2012 at 4:51 AM, Joseph Mack NA3T <jmack at wm7d.net>
> wrote:

> > Chris Merrill thinks that if something is wrong you should move
> > too. This doesn't scale. You can't abandon a place because you
> > aren't prepared to fix the problems.
> 
> Sure you can.  You just have golden handcuffs.  Last month I met a

But should you? Joseph's last clause was "because you aren't prepared
to fix the problem". Where would we be if this country's founding
fathers weren't prepared to fix the problem? Hail to the King!

As far as the people you met last month, throughout this discussion,
those favoring unfettered college graduate immigration (and later we
found out they favored unfettered corporate activity too) justified
their position with personal anecdotes. Basically, "I made it work, so
anybody can", or "this guy made it work, so anybody can", thus ignoring
the fact that we all have different skillsets, families, initial
finances, health, and just plain luck. It also ignored the fact that
although it's *possible*, at least for the anecdote tellers, to fight an
uphill battle, subjecting American citizens to an uphill battle is not
necessarily good policy.

Throughout this discussion, people taking a more measured
approach emphasized Americans as a group, rather than relying on
anecdotes. Anecdotes are great when you're reading a "Chicken Soup for
the Soul" book, but they're a crappy way to run an organization, state
or nation.

And once again, at work you guys use algorithms sufficiently complex to
mesh with real, non-trivial problem domains. Why don't you do the same
thing when talking politics?

SteveT

Steve Litt                *  http://www.troubleshooters.com/
                          *  http://twitter.com/stevelitt
Troubleshooting Training  *  Human Performance