In Slate Headlines, Correlation Is Causation.
Ah yes, the causation must run the other way: where you go in life has a huge impact on where you were born.
There are more than two directions.
In America, Where You're Born Is Correlated With How Far You'll Go In Life
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Re: In America, Where You're Born Is Correlated With How Far You'll Go In Life
#12On planet Earth, Where You're Born Has a Huge Impact on How Far You'll Go In Life.
Re: In America, Where You're Born Is Correlated With How Far You'll Go In Life
#13In Slate Headlines, Correlation Is Causation.
Ah yes, the causation must run the other way: where you go in life has a huge impact on where you were born.
Let's recall four standard reasons for a correlation of two variables:
(1) Coincidence. One rose over some time period, and the other also rose over the same period, despite being completely unrelated. (The world murder rate has been going down, and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have been going up. This is a negative correlation.)
(2) A causes B. (Cigarette smokers display lung cancer at elevated rates)
(3) B causes A. (Cigarette smokers display lung cancer at elevated rates)
(4) Root cause. Some other phenomenon causes both A and B. (Children in homes containing books display intelligence at elevated rates)
This should be obvious, but arguing against option (2) doesn't mean arguing for option (3).
Re: In America, Where You're Born Is Correlated With How Far You'll Go In Life
#14Re: In America, Where You're Born Is Correlated With How Far You'll Go In Life
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah yes, the causation must run the other way: where you go in life has a huge impact on where you were born.
Let's recall four standard reasons for a correlation of two variables: (1) Coincidence. One rose over some time period, and the other also rose over the same period, despite being completely unrelated. (The world murder rate has been going down, and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have been going up. This is a negative correlation.) (2) A causes B. (Cigarette smokers display lung cancer at elevated rates) (3) B cau…
What's a concrete example of (4) in this context that doesn't reduce trivially to (3)?
Re: In America, Where You're Born Is Correlated With How Far You'll Go In Life
#16I think the article's headline point is true for me in one odd way. I grew up in suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota, and by chance the school district where I grew up had mandatory foreign language instruction (German) for all elementary school pupils in grades four, five, and six. (One member of the district staff was a German refugee who came over to the United States after World War II. She set up German classes deli…
few Americans begin study of a second language before secondary school
Are you sure about that? I grew up in Texas and I remember taking Spanish in elementary school.
Re: In America, Where You're Born Is Correlated With How Far You'll Go In Life
#17I'm pretty sure this rings true for the whole world and not just America. I moved from a coal mining town when I was young to washington DC and it increased our family wealth significantly and impacted my life in a very good way. If I had stayed in that coal mining town I would probably have done okay but the opportunities would have been much less.
Now I'm in NYC specifically for the opportunities. I'm here to make a great living and then one day skip town with my chest full of gold.
Re: In America, Where You're Born Is Correlated With How Far You'll Go In Life
#18I'm sure some of you saw it because it's on page two (and linked in the article)-- but the New York Times has imo a much better article on this: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/22/business/in-climbing-incom...
Thanks for linking to the NYT article, much better than the Slate one.
IMO access to efficient public transportation has an outsized impact on people's ability to move up the economic ladder.
Re: In America, Where You're Born Is Correlated With How Far You'll Go In Life
#19[deleted]
Re: In America, Where You're Born Is Correlated With How Far You'll Go In Life
#20I think the article's headline point is true for me in one odd way. I grew up in suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota, and by chance the school district where I grew up had mandatory foreign language instruction (German) for all elementary school pupils in grades four, five, and six. (One member of the district staff was a German refugee who came over to the United States after World War II. She set up German classes deli…
few Americans begin study of a second language before secondary school Are you sure about that? I grew up in Texas and I remember taking Spanish in elementary school.
I went to school in S.E. Texas. We had French and Spanish in high school, nothing else. The French class was solid, but the Spanish class was lame, all we did was crossword puzzles and word exercises. I took it for two years and did not learn the language due to the poor instruction. I knew schools in the bigger nearby cities sometimes had German, but not my school. Also, the foreign languages were not mandatory classes. There was no incentive or push to learn a second language, most adults in my area thought it was useless and that students should be focusing on agriculture and not foreign languages. As such my high school had: Agriculture, Horticulture, Cosmetology, Auto-Shop, Animal Husbandry, landscaping.. but no focus on foreign languages or science beyond the basics.