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Via Scott Alexander:

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel goes up to the counter and gives a tremendously long custom order in German, specifying exactly how much of each sort of syrup he wants, various espresso shots, cream in exactly the right pattern, and a bunch of toppings, all added in a specific order at a specific temperature. The barista can’t follow him, so just gives up and hands him a small plain coffee. He walks away. The people behind him in line are very impressed with his apparent expertise, and they all order the same thing Hegel got. The barista gives each of them a small plain coffee, and they all remark on how delicious it tastes and what a remarkable coffee connoisseur that Hegel is. “The Hegel” becomes a new Starbucks special and is wildly popular for the next seventy years.

I especially liked this one:

Pierre Proudhon goes up to the counter and orders a Tazo Green Tea with toffee nut syrup, two espresso shots, and pumpkin spice mixed in. The barista warns him that this will taste terrible. “Pfah!” scoffs Proudhon. “Proper tea is theft!”

And elsewhere, this sort of disrupts popular narrative, so will be summarily ignored of course:

Lastly, we document a strong and positive relation between within-country variation in firm growth and rising wage inequality for a broad set of developed countries.  In fact, our results suggest that part of what may be perceived as a global trend toward more wage inequality may be driven by an increase in employment by the largest firms in the economy.

And this week’s edition of economic dog bites man:

The Impact of Unemployment Benefit Extensions on Employment: The 2014 Employment Miracle?
by Marcus Hagedorn, Iourii Manovskii, Kurt Mitman 

We measure the effect of unemployment benefit duration on employment. …  We find that a 1% drop in benefit duration leads to a statistically significant increase of employment by 0.0161 log points.  In levels, 1.8 million additional jobs were created in 2014 due to the benefit cut.  Almost 1 million of these jobs were filled by workers from out of the labor force who would not have participated in the labor market had benefit extensions been reauthorized.

3 Responses to “Hegel Walks into a Coffee Bar”

  1. Harry says:

    Where else does one go to find Hegel jokes?

    A rabbit and David Hume walk into a bar, and the rabbit orders two bloody Mary’s…

    Thinking about the other thing you raised, why is income inequality anathema to any of your students? Do they wish for a raise, ever, when they start their first job, assuming that their first job is not what they wish to do all their lives?

  2. Harry says:

    BTW, I wonder whether people in Rochester and Buffalo are wondering how people in New England will survive all that snow.

  3. Scott says:

    Great reading, thanks for the post!

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