{"id":600,"date":"2009-11-19T11:37:58","date_gmt":"2009-11-19T16:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/?p=600"},"modified":"2009-11-19T11:37:58","modified_gmt":"2009-11-19T16:37:58","slug":"superfreakonomics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/?p=600","title":{"rendered":"Superfreakonomics"},"content":{"rendered":"

So I’m almost finished reading Superfreakonomics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Everyone is already talking about the climate change thing<\/a>, so I won’t.<\/p>\n

The book has interesting bits, but they also seem to be stretching a lot in order to say shocking things. And I find myself arguing with them a lot. “But,” I say, “that doesn’t take into account,” I retort, “what about,” I ask.<\/p>\n

The worst example so far is when they talk about the Prius. Now, I own a 2001 Prius, so I take these things to heart. They say driving a Prius reduces emissions over driving a regular car, but then that benefit may get canceled out when the driver buys meat from the grocery store.<\/p>\n

[Yes, this is climate-changey, but it’s not what everyone else is screaming about.]<\/p>\n

The point is simply that cows produce a lot of methane, so buying beef helps to contribute to greenhouse gases. Ok. But to say it “cancels out” anything is really silly, if not consciously misleading.<\/p>\n

An economist should compare two people who eat beef. One drives a Prius and one drives a typical car. Well, the person driving the Prius is responsible for fewer emissions. Nothing is canceled out.<\/p>\n

“Hey, it’s great that you turn off the lights when you leave a room, but that gets canceled out when you eat beef.”<\/p>\n

“Nice job turning off the running tap, but that gets canceled out when you buy plastic.”<\/p>\n

Stupid.<\/p>\n

I think this is all part of the thing where people attack anyone who might seem “smug” or “self-righteous.” If you’re a vegetarian<\/a> or drive a Prius, then you must be a preachy jerk, so let’s find a way to lambast you. Even in nonsensical ways, if we can’t find meaningful ways.<\/p>\n

It’s stupid and unproductive, and anyway, I’m not smug or preachy. I’m just better than you and you should try to be like me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So I’m almost finished reading Superfreakonomics. Everyone is already talking about the climate change thing, so I won’t. The book has interesting bits, but they also seem to be stretching a lot in order to say shocking things. And I find myself arguing with them a lot. “But,” I say, “that doesn’t take into account,” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-languagelit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}