Profit is the evidence that an organization has succeeded in delivering a product or service that people want at a price that they are able and willing to pay.
Month: May 2020
The ninety percent and the ten percent
It is one thing to say that the ninety percent of the people who are not poor have a moral obligation to share a part of their good fortune with neighbors who lack the necessities of life. It is another thing entirely to claim that the ninety percent of the people who are not rich…
The party of no says yes!
We want to undo some programs so that we can put in place better programs. We do not want to block the road. We want to open new roads. Fifty years ago, many Americans worked to end racial segregation. They knew what they were against. To the defenders of segregation, they said no. Perhaps the…
Where will we find the next generation of professors?
The cost of qualifying for an appointment on a university’s or college’s faculty is very high. It is high even for those students who win the most generous fellowships because of the opportunity cost (wages foregone during years of study) and risk of not finding positions that make use of highly specialized training. Is there…
Why do we bother teaching statistics?
The keynote speaker at the conference that I attended referred to the unusually high temperatures of recent days. That, he told us, should convince those who do not “believe” in climate change that they are wrong. A quick search on the Web with the words “February record temperature” produced headlines from 2017 that described record…
The steps to an academic career
The steps to an academic career include four years of undergraduate study, five to ten years of graduate study, and often a succession of post-doctoral, visiting, and adjunct appointments before the aspiring professor lands at a university that offers the prospect of continuing employment. The training and apprenticeship can last most of twenty years. During…
Arguments for and against tenure
One argument for tenure: Without the protection of tenure, professors would be afraid to explore controversial themes and reluctant to make unpopular arguments, and so education and research would suffer. Two arguments against tenure: Before obtaining tenure, a professor must complete a decade long apprenticeship (at least several years in graduate school and five or…
Lessons learned?
The history of the twentieth century is largely stories of one failed experiment with socialism after another. Why would we want to repeat the experience in this century?
Aufhören
I was reading German on the Web. I encountered this paragraph: Wladimir Klitschko ist ein sehr bekannter Boxer. Er ist viele Jahre Welt-Meister gewesen. Jetzt hat er gesagt: Ich höre auf. Klitschko ist 41 Jahre alt. I wanted to make sure that I understood the meaning of “aufhören.” I found an article that provided this…
Wenn die Sonne der Kultur niedrig steht
“Wenn die Sonne der Kultur niedrig steht, werfen selbst Zwergeeinen langen Schatten.” — Karl Kraus Roughly: “When the sun hangs low in the sky, even dwarves cast long shadows.” An Austrian, Kraus criticized the political culture of the 1920s and 1930s.