Most amusing flub of the week

[libertango]

Jerry Pournelle says:

"(W)e are a long way from the day when my professor of political science could argue, in class with discussion, that his tax dollar was the most productive dollar he spent."

It's moments such as these when Mr. Pournelle's profound ignorance of working in the private sector, formed from his 30-plus years since he most recently had a "real" job (and not that of a freelancer working alone), strike one as the most touchingly naive.

Comments

[daveon.livejournal.com]

Even then, has Jerry ever worked in the "real" private sector? Didn't he do a lot of work in the aerospace industry which is basically a government offshoot.

I read a blog entry this week where they were arguing that Obama's presidency was a complete failure, which struck me as a very "what has the Obama presidency done for us eh?" line. "Well, apart from the healthcare bill?", "Sure, yes, well indeed of course apart from healthcare...", "And there's the jobs - I mean the rate of loss has..."

And so on. I might not agree with what the harsh mistress of political expediency has forced, but I'm frankly astounded by how much the man is getting done.

As somebody on MSNBC said this week, the shocking thing about Obama's presidency is that his executive skills have been so strong and his PR ones so lousy.

[hal-obrien.livejournal.com]

"(T)he shocking thing about Obama's presidency is that his executive skills have been so strong and his PR ones so lousy."

You'd almost think he worked for Microsoft. {cough}

Anyway... Yes, one can make the argument the aerospace industry is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Federal govt. My uncle, who's worked for RCA, TRW, and The Aerospace Corporation most of his life, tends to get twitchy when I do, and describe him as a bureaucrat, not an engineer.

But leaving that aside, Pournelle's previous employers include Pepperdine University, where he was founding President of the Pepperdine Research Institute. Mind you, despite the name of the place, it appears to have been more geared toward political research rather than engineering or something -- two of Pournelle's proteges met there (Peter Schramm and William Barclay Allen), and founded the Claremont Institute.

Whether academia is the private sector, especially when it comes to research, given the sources of funding (where have you and I seen this thread before?), I leave as open.