andrew_gelman_stats andrew_gelman_stats-2013 andrew_gelman_stats-2013-1789 knowledge-graph by maker-knowledge-mining
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Introduction: Speaking of Tyler Cowen, I’m puzzled by this paragraph of his: Guns, like alcohol, have many legitimate uses, and they are enjoyed by many people in a responsible manner. In both cases, there is an elite which has absolutely no problems handling the institution in question, but still there is the question of whether the nation really can have such bifurcated social norms, namely one set of standards for the elite and another set for everybody else. I don’t know anything about guns so I’ll set that part aside. My bafflement is with the claim that “there is an elite which has absolutely no problem handling [alcohol].” Is he kidding? Unless Cowen is circularly defining “an elite” as the subset of elites who don’t have an alcohol problem, I don’t buy this claim. And I actually think it’s a serious problem, that various “elites” are so sure that they have “absolutely no problem” that they do dangerous, dangerous things. Consider the notorious incident when Dick Cheney shot a
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1 In both cases, there is an elite which has absolutely no problems handling the institution in question, but still there is the question of whether the nation really can have such bifurcated social norms, namely one set of standards for the elite and another set for everybody else. [sent-2, score-0.702]
2 My bafflement is with the claim that “there is an elite which has absolutely no problem handling [alcohol]. [sent-4, score-0.506]
3 Unless Cowen is circularly defining “an elite” as the subset of elites who don’t have an alcohol problem, I don’t buy this claim. [sent-6, score-0.681]
4 Although Kenedy County Sheriff’s Office documents support the official story by Cheney and his party, re-creations of the incident produced by George Gongora and John Metz of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times indicated that the actual shooting distance was closer than the 30 yards claimed. [sent-12, score-0.232]
5 The fact that it’s considered a joke, maybe that’s because of an attitude that “there is an elite which has absolutely no problem handling” guns or drugs. [sent-15, score-0.495]
6 I assume one reason for the unblemished record was that his driver’s license and car hadn’t been taken away, all the other times he’d been driving drunk. [sent-22, score-0.276]
7 Driven home by his wife on May 7, Cheever never drank alcohol again. [sent-41, score-0.528]
8 Sure, that was then, this is now, but alcohol abuse definitely occurs among the elites. [sent-42, score-0.557]
9 Just for example, Katherine Keyes and Deborah Hasin discuss the reasons why “DSM-IV-diagnosed alcohol abuse is associated positively with higher SES, e. [sent-43, score-0.557]
10 ” They attribute this correlation to the fact that alcohol abuse is easier to detect among drivers (for example, they’ve had their license revoked), and lower-income people are less likely to drive a car. [sent-46, score-0.764]
11 But even if the correlation between alcohol problems and income is zero or slightly negative, this still leaves lots of high-SES Americans—”elites,” in Cowen’s words—who are seriously impaired by alcoholism. [sent-47, score-0.581]
12 Cowen seems to have an image in which low-income alcoholics are ruining their lives, while heavy-drinking elites can handle their drink. [sent-48, score-0.283]
13 But the idea that elites can handle it, I don’t think so. [sent-52, score-0.283]
14 Cowen also writes, Our car crash problem – which kills many thousands of Americans each year — is also in significant part an alcohol problem. [sent-54, score-0.727]
15 So, to the extent that alcohol is killing thousands of people via car crashes, this is actually is a problem with heavy-drinking elites who in fact have serious problems handling their alcohol. [sent-56, score-1.053]
16 Police told DNAinfo that the driver, 48, “accidentally” hit the accelerator instead of the brake as she approached a red light at Utica and Church: “As she swerved to avoid colliding with the traffic around her, the vehicle jumped onto the sidewalk, hitting up to nine pedestrians, police said. [sent-65, score-0.245]
17 That she jumped a curb and hit multiple people with a vehicle is not in dispute. [sent-70, score-0.238]
18 ” This does not contradict Cowen’s point about the interaction between alcohol consumption and dangerous driving, but it does suggest to me that a focus on alcohol (rather than the dangerous behavior that is exacerbated by alcohol) has the problem that it lets a lot of killers off the hook. [sent-76, score-1.298]
19 With one known prosecution, Charles Hynes led all NYC district attorneys in charging sober drivers for taking a life. [sent-83, score-0.223]
20 Elites who think they have “absolutely no problems handling the institution in question” are not exempt. [sent-85, score-0.257]
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