Shorter Matthew Yglesias:
Conservatives think people should be punished for making the wrong choices. Since the current economic climate makes such punishment operationally* true, let’s make lemonade.
Matt suggests that these punishments are meted out for things like picking the wrong major, [maybe also glue sniffing???]. No evidence that these punishments are a universal feature of the economy, though term “vast majority” is bandied.
Bonus made up shorter:
Since the economy demands petroleum engineers, the right choice would be to become a petroleum engineer. The wrong choice would be to not accept a world in which you couldn’t be happy. My choices involved attending the most prestigious schools in the country and have the means and opportunities to do so, yet my success is defined by my hard work and valuable skills. Have I mentioned that my career is blogger, invite me to your panel. We’ll always have the Olive Garden.
Mirror universe Yglesias- TWO count ‘em TWO neckbeards, plus goatee:
Credit where credit is due file, the trains do run on time
Or:
Standard of living in Ethiopia/Eritrea certainly would benefit from being brought to an Italian standard of living. It would be wise for progressives to concede this point to Mussolini.
Or:
This fact has led to a lot of recent snarking about the life choices and college majors of some recent unemployed graduates.
LIKE YOU JUST DID IN A POST ABOUT A DRAMA TEACHER WHO GOT AN MFA
MY: who remembers what I just wrote, what?
People who make smart decisions fare better in the labor market than people who make poor decisions.
of course what was a “smart” decision is only recognizable in retrospect but whatever. it’s central to MY’s point.
Like how smart is in contrast to poor. Why doesn’t he just say people who make rich decisions?
Like there is a magic odds book about how I AM SMRT just kind of works out- to the SMRTs got he spoils. This guy is like 57 sigma.
People how happen to have the right attributes of a changing employment market get jobs. People that don’t don’t.
“X senior employees were let go because they started to cost too much for Company Y. In response, Company Y awarded their CEO 178 million dollars in bonus, even though the stock has decreased in value by 50% since 2005. Also, younger cheaper employees with less experience were hired to replace the senior employees. Moral of the story, don’t get old or expensive, or better yet, choose to be CEO.”
If only I had made the smart decision to be a privilege white dude, my employment outcome would have worked out so much better
if that f*cking puppet dude had come back from his MFA to a higher paying, more prestigious public school teaching job, MY would be signing his f*ing praises about how S-M-R-T he was.
no I am not letting the puppet thing go.
When I remember how to get into the blog, your header is going up but it will be a secret header because I will reload the other 70 too. Then people will have to hunt for it.
I really think Matthew Yglesias is made out of balsa wood.
SEKRIT HEADER!!!!!!!1
if only I had been smart enough to invest in header futures when I discovered 3Bulls in 2006
it’s central to MY’s point.
That is so good.
Shorter MY:
The reason Megan McArdle, Ezra Kline, and I all have prestigious jobs as bloggers is because we majored in CEO blowjobs. You should have made the same career decisions we did.
I was busy watching the clown show and drinking.
~
Holy Cookie Jesus, I went back and read the puppet post. Yes, MFAs are worthless. That’s why TLB ditched her soul-killing corporate job in 2001 to pursue her dream of writing, only to die penniless and alone.
If only I had made the smart decision to be a privilege white dude, my employment outcome would have worked out so much better
Damn! That was where I went wrong!
I am always happy that I can read the CliffsNote version here because there is no way I could read the real stuff and have a head left. I have no patience for any of it anymore, I have no idea how you people do it.
Blog pimpin’: More on Matty, who today typed:
The urge to kill!!
I am wholly unsurprised that Yggy would end up at the double-reverse-anti-ante-contrarian Slate. Mickey Kaus’ schtick has been left unused for far too long.
(I just realized how needlessly horrifying that sentence sounds. Sorry. The point stands.)
Paul K. wants to ruin Pinko’s weekend.
~
Haha. I thought Yglesias at Slate was just a joke. Krugman will eventually figure it out.
I want to say that Yggie and Slate go together like Chocolate Skittles and Pretzel Fillers go in Trollypants’ mouth. So wrong and so right.
The Notorious P.A.T. shoots…he scores!
~
Yay! Let’s all make lemonade!
The Euro-American Econogeddon is a TEACHABLE MOMENT!
even in the middle of a steep recession, the vast majority of the people in the workforce are employed
That the vast majority of those jobs are dangling their holders within sniffing distance of the poverty line (if not trapped on the more unfriendly side of it) is apparently too trivial to merit Yglesias’ notice. So too is the ongoing socially toxic pandemic of “temp” McJobs with zero benefits, zero basic workplace rights or privileges, & zero security.
The myopia is so thick you couldn’t cut it with a chainsaw.
But it’d sure the hell be fun to try.
SEKRIT HEADER!!!!!!!1
a blank header has been popping up. WHOSE GENIUS IS THAT?
…we should be using this as a teachable moment to scare the bejesus out of today’s high school students in the hopes that they’ll make smarter choices.
Oh yeah, “WE” should totally do that, shit-talking-guy-who-is-totally-smart-because-something-something-something. Also, good choice!
“Well, the world needs ditch diggers, too.” – Judge Smails.
“Fire the ditch diggers, and get me some liberal arts majors.” – Matty Yglesias.
And Kathleen, despite my wishes, it was not The Genius.
Yglesi-yesyoush*tcan.
Heh. Just noticed that.
~
It is like a sour peanut in an M&M you find in the couch.
Your posting really stragithened me out. Thanks!