A correspondent observed with regard to my post on the US Senate's affection for Mormons and Jews that the crux of the matter here may be that there are tons and tons of rich people in the Senate, and Mormons and Jews are a much larger swathe of the "rich people" population subset than we are of the general population. That seems plausible.
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What It Don't Get I Can't Use
04 Feb 2008 02:42 pm
Comments (32)
Mormons are rich? News to me. Rather, there are huge Mormon populations in those weird Western states (not just Utah but Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming) with their constitutionally mandated pair of senators.
In terms of percentage, Idaho is actually more Mormon than Utah.
Re Matthew's comment "Mormons and Jews are a much larger swathe of the "rich people" population subset than we are of the general population. That seems plausible. "
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What's NOT plausible is that "we" includes people who blog for the Atlantic.
What did the Chinese say: "First generation coolie, second generation merchant, third generation blogger, fourth generation coolie."
In terms of percentage, Idaho is actually more Mormon than Utah.
I'm fairly certain that's not true. Adherents.com gives various estimates for the Mormon population of Idaho, ranging from 14-43% of the population, with the median around 28%.
For Utah, numbers range from 58-87%, with the median around 70%.
Jews and Mormons are also a higher percentage of "White Americans" than they are of "all Americans." The United States Senate runs in the same direction.
Don, Matty's a Tribesman
Eco, you missed Paul Sarbanes (Greek) and Spencer Abraham (Arab Christian).
Once again, you have the overrepresentation of the wealthy and well-educated.
That said, one would think that this would logically result in an over-representation of Asian Americans to elected office.
Tyro: Spencer Abraham is not in the Senate any more.
Historically persecuted religious minorities also seem to have a strong motive to get involved in politics as a means of protecting themselves, since they have the most to lose if religious and free speech rights are curtailed by the dominant group. Jews have a long tradition of voting in high numbers, which makes plenty of sense given how dire the consequences of various elections around the world have been for them. If who is elected or crowned ruler sometimes determines whether one's religion (or even citizenship) is legal, I would imagine one would be interested in being politically active. White mainstream Christians, on the other hand, have not had to deal with this burden in any meaningful way in recent times.
I would argue for well-above-average representation in the educated and attorney professions, rather than money per se.
well Feingold happens to be the poorest senator...
That said, one would think that this would logically result in an over-representation of Asian Americans to elected office.
There are two Eastern (Chinese, I think - but could be wrong) proverbs that explain the divergence, to the extent that immigrant communities bring some of the old world to the U.S. with them:
"The first bird in the flock gets shot" and "A nail that stands out will be hammered down."
I think Sheldon has it right, at least as far as Jews are concerned (are Mormon also more likely to be lawyers?) Why more Jews go into law is another question -- pretty clearly it's a law-oriented religion, and as such values education and legal thinking.
flippantangel: Neither is Paul Sarbanes (though his son John is in the House) or (in the specific comment I was addressing) George Mitchell.
Persecuted minorites have always invested more heavily in human capital--the cossacks can't confiscate your education at the point of a sword, and if you can read and write Pharoah might have more valuable uses for you than hauling stone. Combine that with moving around a lot and a long written historical tradition, and education is a survival tool
Matt, I recall that a couple of years ago you quoted this paragraph from the 1995 book "Jews and the New American Scene" by the prominent social scientist Seymour Martin Lipset, a Senior Scholar of the Wilstein Institute for Jewish Policy Studies, and Earl Raab, Director of the Perlmutter Institute for Jewish Advocacy at Brandeis University, where they pointed out:
"During the last three decades, Jews have made up 50% of the top two hundred intellectuals, 40 percent of American Nobel Prize Winners in science and economics, 20 percent of professors at the leading universities, 21 percent of high level civil servants, 40 percent of partners in the leading law firms in New York and Washington, 26% of the reporters, editors, and executives of the major print and broadcast media, 59 percent of the directors, writers, and producers of the fifty top-grossing motion pictures from 1965 to 1982, and 58 percent of directors, writers, and producers in two or more primetime television series." [pp 26-27]
So, Jews are relatively _underrepresented_ in the Senate in comparison to their share of the top achievers in other fields of public life.
Matt, I recall that a couple of years ago you quoted this paragraph from the 1995 book "Jews and the New American Scene" by the prominent social scientist Seymour Martin Lipset, a Senior Scholar of the Wilstein Institute for Jewish Policy Studies, and Earl Raab, Director of the Perlmutter Institute for Jewish Advocacy at Brandeis University, where they pointed out:
"During the last three decades, Jews have made up 50% of the top two hundred intellectuals, 40 percent of American Nobel Prize Winners in science and economics, 20 percent of professors at the leading universities, 21 percent of high level civil servants, 40 percent of partners in the leading law firms in New York and Washington, 26% of the reporters, editors, and executives of the major print and broadcast media, 59 percent of the directors, writers, and producers of the fifty top-grossing motion pictures from 1965 to 1982, and 58 percent of directors, writers, and producers in two or more primetime television series." [pp 26-27]
So, Jews are relatively _underrepresented_ in the Senate in comparison to their share of the top achievers in other fields of public life.
Matt, I recall that a couple of years ago you quoted this paragraph from the 1995 book "Jews and the New American Scene" by the prominent social scientist Seymour Martin Lipset, a Senior Scholar of the Wilstein Institute for Jewish Policy Studies, and Earl Raab, Director of the Perlmutter Institute for Jewish Advocacy at Brandeis University, where they pointed out:
"During the last three decades, Jews have made up 50% of the top two hundred intellectuals, 40 percent of American Nobel Prize Winners in science and economics, 20 percent of professors at the leading universities, 21 percent of high level civil servants, 40 percent of partners in the leading law firms in New York and Washington, 26% of the reporters, editors, and executives of the major print and broadcast media, 59 percent of the directors, writers, and producers of the fifty top-grossing motion pictures from 1965 to 1982, and 58 percent of directors, writers, and producers in two or more primetime television series." [pp 26-27]
So, Jews are relatively _underrepresented_ in the Senate in comparison to their share of the top achievers in other fields of public life.
Matt, I recall that a couple of years ago you quoted this paragraph from the 1995 book "Jews and the New American Scene" by the prominent social scientist Seymour Martin Lipset, a Senior Scholar of the Wilstein Institute for Jewish Policy Studies, and Earl Raab, Director of the Perlmutter Institute for Jewish Advocacy at Brandeis University, where they pointed out:
"During the last three decades, Jews have made up 50% of the top two hundred intellectuals, 40 percent of American Nobel Prize Winners in science and economics, 20 percent of professors at the leading universities, 21 percent of high level civil servants, 40 percent of partners in the leading law firms in New York and Washington, 26% of the reporters, editors, and executives of the major print and broadcast media, 59 percent of the directors, writers, and producers of the fifty top-grossing motion pictures from 1965 to 1982, and 58 percent of directors, writers, and producers in two or more primetime television series." [pp 26-27]
So, Jews are relatively _underrepresented_ in the Senate in comparison to their share of the top achievers in other fields of public life.
yeah, they're _underrepresented_ four separate times.
yeah, they're _underrepresented_ four separate times.
Remember everybody -- multiple postings are a sure sign of severely subnormal intelligence.
Remember, everybody -- multiple postings are a sure sign of below-average intelligence.
... or possibly a software glitch.
I don't think it's a software glitch. People just hit the "Post" button twice, thrice...
Posting has been very slow lately.
There is no technical explanation for multiple posts.
Matt, I recall that a couple of years ago you quoted this paragraph from the 1995 book "Jews and the New American Scene" by the prominent social scientist Seymour Martin Lipset, a Senior Scholar of the Wilstein Institute for Jewish Policy Studies, and Earl Raab, Director of the Perlmutter Institute for Jewish Advocacy at Brandeis University, where they pointed out:
"During the last three decades, Jews have made up 50% of the top two hundred intellectuals, 40 percent of American Nobel Prize Winners in science and economics, 20 percent of professors at the leading universities, 21 percent of high level civil servants, 40 percent of partners in the leading law firms in New York and Washington, 26% of the reporters, editors, and executives of the major print and broadcast media, 59 percent of the directors, writers, and producers of the fifty top-grossing motion pictures from 1965 to 1982, and 58 percent of directors, writers, and producers in two or more primetime television series." [pp 26-27]
So, Jews are relatively _underrepresented_ in the Senate in comparison to their share of the top achievers in other fields of public life.
Matt, I recall that a couple of years ago you quoted this paragraph from the 1995 book "Jews and the New American Scene" by the prominent social scientist Seymour Martin Lipset, a Senior Scholar of the Wilstein Institute for Jewish Policy Studies, and Earl Raab, Director of the Perlmutter Institute for Jewish Advocacy at Brandeis University, where they pointed out:
"During the last three decades, Jews have made up 50% of the top two hundred intellectuals, 40 percent of American Nobel Prize Winners in science and economics, 20 percent of professors at the leading universities, 21 percent of high level civil servants, 40 percent of partners in the leading law firms in New York and Washington, 26% of the reporters, editors, and executives of the major print and broadcast media, 59 percent of the directors, writers, and producers of the fifty top-grossing motion pictures from 1965 to 1982, and 58 percent of directors, writers, and producers in two or more primetime television series." [pp 26-27]
So, Jews are relatively _underrepresented_ in the Senate in comparison to their share of the top achievers in other fields of public life.
My apologies for all the multiple posts. My computer usually just sits there for a minute twiddling its thumbs after submitting a comment, but this time it started giving me messages that it couldn't connect and would I like to try again?
In general, though, why does it always take so long to post a comment on this blog?
Don: "First generation coolie, second generation merchant, third generation blogger, fourth generation coolie."
Don gets best post - particularly since he only posted it once.
As for why is it long to post on this blog: because the Atlantic's IT guys are less competent than even me - OR Atlantic's budget manager skimps on server speed, the right blogging software, or bandwidth - probably server speed.
Or they're running Windows instead of Linux. Morons.
Or it's configured wrong, which puts it back on the IT guys.
In other words, the Atlantic doesn't give a shit about these blogs - and definitely not about the comments to these blogs.
I might add that given the general over-representation of Jews in all areas of achievement, it makes it pretty silly to be anti-Semitic - even if you think they all help each other in some sort of "conspiracy" to be successful while locking everybody else out - for which there is no evidence.
I'm sure Winona Ryder and Natalie Portman and Rachel Weisz think their success is totally based on being Jewish.
Of course, Josh Marshall still thinks I "despise Jews"...despite my wanting to bang all three of those babes.
I should introduce Josh to the Federal inmate I used to call (out of earshot to avoid a fight) "Rabbi Rick". This was a classic anti-Semite. Believed all Jews were conspiring against everybody else. If you're in business, you'll go out of business because the Jews will shut you down. They control absolutely everything in politics, business, crime, entertainment. everything. And so on, ad nauseum. "All Jews All the Time", that was Rabbi Rick.
Josh would love him. Might teach him what a real anti-Semite looks like as opposed to a critic of Israel.
Maybe I'll get lucky and when Rabbi Rick gets out, he'll move in next door to SLC.
So Don Williams is poor and proud of it? Besides, I don't think Atlantic bloggers qualify as rich by any standard of the word.
beyond obvious beauty and sexual prowess?
Comments closed February 18, 2008.
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Heads in the Sand
There is also an overepresentation of Arab/Eastern Mediterranean-Americans in the Senate: Sununu, George Mitchell and Snowe and some other I may have missed.
Posted by Eco | February 4, 2008 2:54 PM