We shouldn't be looking at the population of 300 million in the nation, but the skew (far left, I suppose) subset of that distribution that lives, works, socializes, inter-marries, and retires in the capital metro area. Some 6.5 million people. The statistical population of interest, in which the "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" game is played, actually is 40 to 50 times smaller than you intuitively expect.
As always with statistics: "It's worse than we thought." Because about 40% of the six million or so are impoverished and a super-majority of the six million are black, the pool from which any two rich, white, newsworthy people might be randomly selected is VERY small. Rough estimate, but say more like 600 thousand instead of 300 million. Finding two people who are NOT connected by politics, marriage, employment history, or appearance on the same TV news programs is going to be difficult.
One way to make these sorts of authorities "look like America" is to move the agencies (and all their employees and families) from D.C. to regions they primarily regulate. The previous president made a start on that project. The current one has reversed the effort.
Just a point of rhetoric, next time a discussion ensues about "structural racism", I'd like to ask " How does one distinguish between that and "structural NEPOTISM?"
The question was somewhat rhetorical. We have a large number of judges in this country, even Federal judges; these cases could be heard far from the capital. But the class you describe prefers to judge itself.
4 comments:
Qabal. Satan. Hydra vs Hercules. Light exposes the ddarkness. Darkest tunnel. Darkest before the Dawn.
Kill Evil, or become Soddom.
We are running out of patience, for humanity's days are numbered.
How is it that in a nation of 300,000,000 people the same few names turn up?
Well, you got your basic base rate error going on there.
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2476:_Base_Rate
We shouldn't be looking at the population of 300 million in the nation, but the skew (far left, I suppose) subset of that distribution that lives, works, socializes, inter-marries, and retires in the capital metro area. Some 6.5 million people. The statistical population of interest, in which the "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" game is played, actually is 40 to 50 times smaller than you intuitively expect.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_metropolitan_area
As always with statistics: "It's worse than we thought." Because about 40% of the six million or so are impoverished and a super-majority of the six million are black, the pool from which any two rich, white, newsworthy people might be randomly selected is VERY small. Rough estimate, but say more like 600 thousand instead of 300 million. Finding two people who are NOT connected by politics, marriage, employment history, or appearance on the same TV news programs is going to be difficult.
One way to make these sorts of authorities "look like America" is to move the agencies (and all their employees and families) from D.C. to regions they primarily regulate. The previous president made a start on that project. The current one has reversed the effort.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-administration-move-public-lands-agency-back-washington-colorado-2021-09-17/
Just a point of rhetoric, next time a discussion ensues about "structural racism", I'd like to ask " How does one distinguish between that and "structural NEPOTISM?"
The question was somewhat rhetorical. We have a large number of judges in this country, even Federal judges; these cases could be heard far from the capital. But the class you describe prefers to judge itself.
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