Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - new study on inequality of wealth in the us...

roachboy · 05-18-2010, 02:00 PM

how strange...there's data in the op that makes a strong case that holds regardless of whether you like it or not...the arguments against the study would have to center on either (a) problems of methodology or (b) problems of data. for (a) to work it'd have to be based on an interpretation of the study. going "la la la i don't believe this and that's my opinion man" is not an interpretation of the study. the difference between "la la la i dont like this" and an interpretation centers on actually engaging with the study.

but instead what seems to be getting started is a repetition of conservative received wisdom of the past 30 years: poverty is the fault of the poor; sociological and historical factors don't matter when thinking about an issue like poverty, which following the blame-the-poor model isn't a social matter in conservative-world: it's a "moral" issue.
but what's funny is that the folk who have a Problem with sociology or a Problem with the fact that there is a society or that there is a social world won't argue against sociology. instead they try to switch the terrain onto their own well-worn "moral" or "individual" terrain and when confronted will either lather repeat or go "la la la i can't hear you."

but in this case, the data is at the start of the thread, so it hardly matters if it's your "opinion" that poverty in the united states does not disproportionately impact upon african-americans---this doesn't mean that for other social groups it's "yay poverty"---it's that the african-american community is REALLY impacted by conservative-style social policies one characteristic of which is this illusion that racism and its history is irrelevant for thinking about the contemporary social realities in the united states.

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dogzilla: it is a bit annoying that the whole report wasn't released on the website along with the shorter versions.
mortgage rate differences have been tracked correlating lending information with zip codes. the empirical stuff is out there---somewhere i have a couple articles on this that were done comparing before and after 2002 trends. i'll look around, see if i can find them.

05-18-2010, 02:00 PM	#21 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	how strange...there's data in the op that makes a strong case that holds regardless of whether you like it or not...the arguments against the study would have to center on either (a) problems of methodology or (b) problems of data. for (a) to work it'd have to be based on an interpretation of the study. going "la la la i don't believe this and that's my opinion man" is not an interpretation of the study. the difference between "la la la i dont like this" and an interpretation centers on actually engaging with the study. but instead what seems to be getting started is a repetition of conservative received wisdom of the past 30 years: poverty is the fault of the poor; sociological and historical factors don't matter when thinking about an issue like poverty, which following the blame-the-poor model isn't a social matter in conservative-world: it's a "moral" issue. but what's funny is that the folk who have a Problem with sociology or a Problem with the fact that there is a society or that there is a social world won't argue against sociology. instead they try to switch the terrain onto their own well-worn "moral" or "individual" terrain and when confronted will either lather repeat or go "la la la i can't hear you." but in this case, the data is at the start of the thread, so it hardly matters if it's your "opinion" that poverty in the united states does not disproportionately impact upon african-americans---this doesn't mean that for other social groups it's "yay poverty"---it's that the african-american community is REALLY impacted by conservative-style social policies one characteristic of which is this illusion that racism and its history is irrelevant for thinking about the contemporary social realities in the united states. === dogzilla: it is a bit annoying that the whole report wasn't released on the website along with the shorter versions. mortgage rate differences have been tracked correlating lending information with zip codes. the empirical stuff is out there---somewhere i have a couple articles on this that were done comparing before and after 2002 trends. i'll look around, see if i can find them. __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite Last edited by roachboy; 05-18-2010 at 02:03 PM..