Self-Described Economists Wonder Whether Today's Young People Really Are Worse Off Than Their Parents →

The leading minds of of the r/AskEconomics subreddit wring their hands about whether it’s true that young people today are worse-off financially than older generations. Their conclusion? It’s just too complex an issue to say. I don’t know if this is a logical fallacy so much as a basic will-to-ignorance. Now… are these people actual economists? The fact that you have to ask ought to tell you something about today’s economists. My favorite response is the “top-rated” one below.

Source, r/AskEconomics, May 29, 2021.

David Leonhardt Wonders Whether Biden Was the Only Democrat Who Could Have Beaten Trump →

The day after Joe Biden’s hair-raising near-loss to Donald Trump, The New York Times’ David Leonhardt innocently wonders whether Biden—who was supposed to have won in a landslide victory after Trump horrifically mismanaged the Covid response—was the only Democrat who could have won the Presidency. The fallacy here is obvious:

1. Accept at face-value the Republican claim that America is a red country, and that only the most conservative candidates can win.

2. Since Biden was among the most conservative candidates, assume his skin-of-the-teeth victory means that no one to the Left of him had any chance at all.

David Leonhardt, you are a credit to your profession… I just don’t know whether that’s propagandist or Looney Toon.

Source: The New York Times Morning Briefing, November 9, 2020.

---