Scott Adams's Political Survey of Economists

Buffaloaf writes "Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, wanted to have unbiased information about which presidential candidate would be better for the economy, so he financed his own survey of 500 economists. He gives a bit more detail about the results in a CNN editorial, along with disclosure of his own biases and guesses as to the biases of the economists who responded."

Comments

Re:Interesting Read

[hesiod]

> It's not a black and white choice, but one of grays

That's right. Some people are trying to make this election revolve around racial issues, when in reality it should be about species. THEY'RE BOTH ALIENS! EVERYBODY PANIC!!!!

Re:Interesting Read

[hondo77]

Don't blame me. I'm voting for Kodos.

Obligatory

[RetiredMidn]

"If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion." - George Bernard Shaw

Re:Wait ....

[cat_jesus]

all our republican Presidents since the 80s have been GOP, so what difference does it make?

How observant of you. Did you also notice that all our Caucasian presidents have been white?

Re:The majority of economists are Democrats?

[Linux_ho]

Two economists are walking down the street. One says to the other, "hey -- isn't that a hundred dollar bill lying on the ground over there?" The other replies, "No, it can't be. If it was, someone would have picked it up by now."

Re:Where are the car analogies?

[Red Flayer]

Could BadAnalogyGuy or someone else please provide us with some car analogies to explain the economy, this survey, Scott Adams, what economists do, and anything else you feel could be well covered by a good solid car analogy.

I'll try to help out here, though I'm probably a poor substitute for BAG.

See, Republicans are Fords. And Democrats are Toyotas. And Scott Adams has surveyed a bunch of auto industry employees about whether the industry would do better with the CEo of Ford or the CEO of Toyota running the entire auto industry.

More Toyota employees respond to the survey than Ford employees. It turns out that most employees of Toyota say the CEO of Toyota would make the auto industry better; most employees of Ford say that the CEO of Ford would do a better job.

Wait, who am I kidding. Even the employees of Ford know that the top brass at Ford are idiots.

Let's give this another shot:

The economy is a Ford Explorer. The tires on the car (the Republican machine) all agree that the car won't go anywhere if they aren't in charge, even though they are bald and going flat. The transmission (the Democratic machine) thinks that only changing gears can save the car. The engine (the "captains of industry") knows it's really in charge, but lets the tires and transmission duke it out for symbolic control of the car. Palin is the rear spoiler and the neons, pretty but do nothing for performance. Biden is the horn, but more apt to annoy everyone when he makes noise. Nader is the cataliytic converter, and Ron Paul is the loose lugnuts on the tires.

But it doesn't matter, because there are Toyotas and Hondas and Hyundais and Nissans and tons of other cars that are out-competing us... and the truth of the matter is that we need to scrap the Explorer.

Re:The majority of economists are Democrats?

[indifferent children]

not even pretending to beleive in markets any more

(pssst, hey: this is not a good week to be slamming people for not "believing in markets". for that matter, next week doesn't look so good, either.)

Re:The majority of economists are Democrats?

[jbeach]

An economist and an accountant are walking down the street. They see a pile of dog crap. The economist says to the accountant, "I'll bet you $20 you won't eat that."

The accountant takes the bet, kneels down and eats the crap. The economist pays him $20. They start walking again.

Around the next corner, they see another pile of dog crap. The accountant says, "I'll bet you $20 you won't eat *that*." The economist thinks about it, and wants his $20 back, so he kneels down and eats it. The accountant pays him.

They continue walking. About a block later the accountant says, "Hey, wait a minute. We've both eaten dog crap, and neither of us have any more money than when we started."

The economist says, "Yes - but between us we've generated $40 for the economy!"