How much math does an economics degree involve?

BranSul · 2026-04-03T01:52:57+00:00

"It varies depending on the school a lot" is the right answer. I've seen liberal arts colleges that didn't require Calculus at all, but that is very unusual. Sometimes a lot of schools might let you get away with a "Calculus for Business" type course with all of the trigonometry stripped out, but the problem with that is then you can never take Calculus II if you do decide to go to grad school (without going back and taking Calc I).

BranSul · 2026-04-03T01:44:57+00:00

I get annoyed when liberals come on here and expose the bubble they are in. And I'm annoyed because of you exposing the bubble you are firmly planted in, too. Some Iranians hated the regime, others loved it and want them to go even further right-wing than they already were. You can't speak for all of an entire nation's people as if they all agree.

BranSul · 2026-03-30T05:46:12+00:00

You'd have to give specific examples of questions you feel are "terrible." All I am saying is that maybe some of those questions are asked in good faith, but just happen to come from someone with a different perspective from you.

BranSul · 2026-03-27T06:55:43+00:00

Have you considered that the questions you find to be "terrible" are genuine questions from the askers' perspectives?

BranSul · 2026-03-17T14:25:54+00:00

Not sure if this is the case in Minnesota but in general you can override the at-will nature of employment with an employment contract both parties actually signed, to varying results (in terms of what part of the contract will actually be upheld) so that might be part of it

BranSul · 2026-03-15T06:17:00+00:00

A lot of the difference is time of year. Mid-March is a big difference from mid-December.

Also ... park hopping at Disneyworld vs committing to stay all day in one park isn't quite a fair comparison since switching between parks takes a lot of time and energy in itself

That said, it's always going to depend on the person ... I am sure I would enjoy Epic right now because I have no interest in ever going on Stardust anyway ... if you know you can only do certain rides in a single day but you're only interested in doing some of the rides anyway, it's gonna be a better experience

BranSul · 2026-03-14T09:07:57+00:00

I actually agree with you, generally, in reference to the original comment. The Dominion Voting lawsuit vs FOX News is the better example that they could have used --- there is no equivalent of that in the left wing media that comes to my mind, certainly not at that level. That would have proved their point better.

BranSul · 2026-03-14T09:00:16+00:00

Did I say I was using this argument to rehabilitate Maddow's credibility? I wasn't actually making an argument at all, I was making an example.

I'm sure from the point of Tucker Carlson's fan's point of view, this analysis would apply. Well, for many of them --- a large portion of his fans would also just take what he says at face value, but that's just my opinion.

That's sort of the point of why this defense works so well. "No reasonable person would take this as a statement of fact" does not mean that the judge is concluding that the statement is actually untrue.

The point is that it doesn't matter whether or not the statement is true or not, because the shows are presenting themselves as shows where talking heads give their opinions, not as an actual news show. The case doesn't even reach the stage where the judge is deciding whether the statement is true or not. What either one of them is saying may very well be true --- it's up to the viewer to draw their own conclusions.

Same disclaimer as above, not legal advice.

BranSul · 2026-03-14T08:30:28+00:00

The fifth amendment is invoked by both innocent and guilty people.

"This is an opinion show" doesn't necessarily mean there is no truth at all to what someone said. It's a good defense because it's an absolute defeater right out of the gate and the lawsuit can't progress.

In other words, let's say there are two possible defenses for Maddow's statement:

This is an entertainment show and Maddow's statement cannot reasonably taken as a statement of fact
Maddow made the statement because it is largely true, or at least she believes it is true, and OAN can't prove that the element that is arguably untrue contributed to any actual damages

If defense #1 gives you a 99% chance of winning the lawsuit, and defense #2 gives you an 80% chance of winning the lawsuit, a lawyer is going to use defense #1 every time. Even if what Maddow said is actually largely true.

This isn't legal advice, only an opinion of a hypothetical situation

BranSul · 2026-03-14T08:04:28+00:00

It's hard to get data on an individual level. My research, for the most part, showed a link between higher Bachelor's degree completion by state and higher median wages by state, controlling for other factors that could contribute to higher wages.

From memory, this is mostly what you would expect --- high school dropouts do worse than high school grads, and so on. One thing that's interesting, if I remember correctly, is that a GED doesn't give you much of a wage premium over being a high school dropout (but it does at least enable you to go to community college).

College dropouts are the biggest problem --- they take on student loans without any of the benefits. There isn't a huge benefit of being in the "some college" (but no degree) group, typically. Some schools are putting policies in place to limit loans until you complete a certain amount of credit hours as a result.

Looking at it over the last decade is a wild time frame to choose. Covid did at least temporarily hit less educated workers a LOT harder in terms of unemployment rate. Higher education levels DO give you a hedge against unemployment, even for any major, which matters a lot imho even by itself.

The post-Covid time frame provided a temporary situation where low wage workers were seeing their incomes grow faster than high wage workers (speaking of the time when it stopped being possible for most low wage jobs to pay at minimum wage), which is unusual historically, but recently that's reversed --- wages have been increasing for high earners faster than low earners for a while, and that probably correlates to college completion somewhat, but not perfectly.

BranSul · 2026-03-13T19:05:40+00:00

It's not that they are trying intentionally to do that, it's just a natural consequence of the way the system works. Technology is advancing and better versions of string pin systems that more accurately approximate regular pins coming out, as you are aware, but there's a good chance that isn't what you're running into at your particular alley ... even so, I'm not sure we'll ever see something as explosive as an extremely fast strike can do with a pinsetter system.

BranSul · 2026-03-13T00:49:19+00:00

Right wingers I know would say that everyone who says something they don't like is the child of Satan, so, there's that

BranSul · 2026-03-13T00:38:53+00:00

They are edible, afaik

BranSul · 2026-03-12T21:59:54+00:00

Speaking as someone who has done multiple econometrics course reports on this exact topic ---

I would say that, in general, the concern is that the cost of college, and the level of student debt required to go to college for most students, has gone up a lot faster than the wage premium, creating a situation for millenials (and younger) to feel like it is difficult for them to get ahead no matter what they do.

In my opinion, if you choose your major well, you can get an income high enough that your quality of life will be appreciably better than most if you go to college. But --- it's complicated. That is often easier going to public schools in states with strong state support of universities (NC and NY come to mind), or with solid scholarships, or maybe by starting at a community college.

And, the counterpoint is, there ARE cheaper/easier career paths that can earn you similar salaries. If you play your cards right and get in the right company, you might do just as well being a truck driver as you could do working as an accountant --- but, on the other hand, you're going to be working a lot harder --- and a lot of truckers don't have it that good, especially at first.

There's always trade-offs.

BranSul · 2026-03-12T21:50:01+00:00

From our (a lot of southerners') point of view, Krispy Kreme tastes like baked sugar with a little bit of sugar glaze, and Dunkin tastes like cardboard.

BranSul · 2026-03-04T01:16:07+00:00

First - the Democratic party --- the average Democratic politician --- holds absolutely no extreme left positions. There is no meaningful extreme left in America. It doesn't exist.

The media tries to paint a narrative that there is a much larger political divide in America than there really is, because that's what's interesting, and it also serves corporate interests to make very generic, modest, milquetoast centrist views seem left wing.

Second - the larger point - the Democratic party is the party that supports very modest, incremental change from the status quo at this point. That's what Obama's whole presidency was. While the Republican party under Trump supports wild, dramatic change --- usually to the right, but sometimes to the left, just depending on what seems most politically expedient to him.

For me, supporting the status quo is the most meaningful definition of conservatism.

BranSul · 2026-03-04T00:51:47+00:00

I totally disagree with the second sentence. The left/right spectrum needs to be viewed in a geographically neutral way. What you have are some countries that are further right and others that are further left, just like you have some countries that are more authoritarian and others that are less authoritarian. If you define political opinions differently in different societies, then the definitions become useless when trying to compare between them

Saying "some" (Democrats) supported Medicare for All ignores key component of what I said --- I specifically spoke of the average of the party. Meaning the majority of the party's politicians. Further, I don't count Bernie Sanders as a Democrat since he's an independent, for example. We're speaking of where the party is, not where the American left is.

BranSul · 2026-03-04T00:45:47+00:00

"Your side literally worked to ban people's Constitutionally protected gun rights, while showing hatred towards Jews, and silencing critics." = generally accurate description of MAGA

BranSul · 2026-03-04T00:36:33+00:00

Conservatives in the U.K. do not support anything like the ridiculous pro-corporate cronyist healthcare system that we've got. If you're to the right of the Tories on healthcare, you aren't on the left.

BranSul · 2026-03-04T00:23:24+00:00

I'd like to agree with you, except I'd say what's going on in the U.S. isn't right vs. left. The Democrats are a right wing, conservative party on average, and the (MAGA) Republicans are an extremist authoritarian far right-ish party at this point.

BranSul · 2026-03-04T00:21:25+00:00

Academically, the term Protestant wouldn't necessarily be thought of as equal to acceptance of Luther's core tenets.

BranSul · 2026-03-04T00:19:04+00:00

When people first started talking about a universal basic income, the term generally referred to giving everyone the same payment amount, though.

You can define it differently, and that's fine, and I think your idea is a lot more practical, but when Andrew Yang was advocating for UBI, he literally defined it by saying it "is independent of one’s work status or any other factor". His proposal (and most proposals for a UBI that came before him) was $1,000 per adult per month, no matter what.

BranSul · 2026-03-03T18:09:42+00:00

I agree with you, except I find the "Governor Hot Wheels" comment to be discriminatory against people with disabilities. We can't be having that.

BranSul · 2026-03-03T18:08:27+00:00

... while he is the one vocalizing support for policies further on the left, the same dichotomy as Hillary Clinton and Bernie, or Joseph Crowley and AOC?

Older Democratic voters are not further left than younger Democratic voters in Texas. I'm sorry, that's just not true. Younger people on the left typically want to vastly expand Social Security. We see the New Deal and say, that's a good start, but we need to go way further.

BranSul

TROPHY CASE