State of the Planet

March 24, 2008

Which two countries are more similar to one another?

East Germany and West Germany

OR

Ceylon and Nepal

67%

Which two countries are more similar to one another?

East Germany and West Germany

OR

Ceylon and Nepal

Which two countries are more dissimilar to one another?East Germany and West Germany

ORCeylon and Nepal

(70%)

(67%)

Could you comfortably save 20% of your household’s annual income at this

point in your life?

Yes = 51%

Northwestern Mutual survey of 2,731 household financial decision makers (all bachelor’s degree or higher) earning at least $75,000. Survey conducted September 2003, with sample balanced and weighted according to U.S. Census averages

Could you comfortably live on 80%of yourhousehold’s annual income at this point

in your life?

Yes = 77%

75% Lean 25% Fat

Washing Clothes

The procedure is quite simple. First you arrange things into different groups. Of course, one pile may be sufficient, depending on how much there is to do. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities, that is the next step; otherwise you are pretty well set.

J FKFB INAT OUP SNA SAI RS

JFK FBI NATO UPS NASA IRS

“The understanding can intuit nothing, the senses can think

nothing. Only through their union can knowledge arise.”

— Immanuel Kant

“The world as we know it is a construction, a finished

product, almost—one might say—a manufacturedarticle, to which the mind contributes as much by itsmoulding forms as the thing contributes by its stimuli.”

— Will Durant

9.7

Please rate how attractive the bet below is on the following 21-point scale:

0 = not attractive at all 20 = extremely attractive

7/37 chance of winning $929/36 chance of winning nothing

12.6

What about this bet?

7/37 chance of winning $929/36 chance of losing $.05

Cooperate

Defect

Cooperate

$3, $3 0, $8

Defect $8, 0 $1, $1

The “Prisoner’s Dilemma” Game

Player 2’s Choice

Player 1’sChoice

Cooperate

Defect

Cooperate

$3, $3 0, $8

Defect $8, 0 $1, $1

Your Partner’s Choice

YourChoice

Imagine that you are randomly paired with another member of this class. You play the PDG one time, anonymously. What would you choose?

a) cooperate

b) defect

Percent Cooperating in PDGLiberman, Samuels, & Ross (2002)

75% Lean 25% Fat

Percent Indicating that Large Income Differences Are Necessary to:

From Jost et al (2003)

% agreeing that “government is run for the benefit of all”

“I really do believe we will be greeted as liberators”

— Dick Cheney“...[the war] could last six days, six weeks. I doubt

six months”

— Donald Rumsfeld“The American part of this will be $1.7 billion. We have noplans for any further-on funding for this...”

— Andrew Natsios“...[Iraq is} a country that can finance its own reconstruction,and relatively soon.”

— Paul Wolfowitz

George W. Bush’s Harvard BusinessSchool classmate, Thomas Foley, saidupon arrival in Iraq that he planned to privatize all of Iraq’s state-ownedenterprises within 30 days.

When told that international law forbids the sale of assets by anoccuping government, Foley responded,

“I don’t give a shit about international law. I made a commitmentto the President that I’d privatize Iraq’s businesses.”

Peter McPhersonPresident, MSUFormer head of USAIDFormer Senior Vice President of BofA

“I thought the privatization that occurs sortof naturally when somebody took over theirstate vehicle, or began to drive a truck that thestate used to own, was just fine.”

“We were so busy trying to build a capitalist economy thatwe neglected the big picture. We squandered an enormous opportunity, and we didn’t realize it until everything blew upin our faces.”

-- Aide to CPA head Paul Bremer

"Because nature is wild, we [humans] were given the authority to subdue it for life's necessities.”

- Nina Hacker, Concerned Women for America's Family Voice

“God put human beings on the earth to ‘subdue it’ and to ‘have dominion’ over the animals (Gen. 1:28)... . The Bible does not view ‘untouched nature’ as the ideal state of the earth, but expects human beings to develop and use the earth's resources wisely for mankind's needs (Gen. 1:28; 2:15; 9:3; 1 Tim. 4:4). - Focus on the Family

“The Christian knows that the potential in God is unlimited and that there is no shortage of resources in God's earth.”

- America’s Providential History

“Christians know that God has made the earth sufficiently large with plenty of resources to accommodate all the people.”

- America’s Providential History

“We support the abolition of ... the Bureau of Tobacco and Firearms, the position of Surgeon General, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Departments of Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, Education, Commerce and Labor. We also call for the de-funding or abolition of the National Endowment for the Arts, and Public Broadcasting System.”

- 2004 Texas Republican Party Platform, p. 19

“The final reunion of church and state will take place at the end of time, when Christ will claim definitive political power of all creation, inaugurating an entirely new society based on the supernatural.”

- James Leon Holmes, appointed by President Bush to the Federal Judiciary in 2004

The separation of church and state

“A lie…” “a distortion foisted on us over the past few years byleft-wingers” - Pat Robertson

“A fable…” - Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore

“The phoniest argument there is.” - Sen. James Inhofe, Oklahoma

“Christianity is the most perverted system that evershone on man.” —Thomas Jefferson

“This would be the best of all possible worlds, if therewere no religion in it.” — John Adams

“Lighthouses are more useful than churches.”—

Benjamin Franklin“During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution”

— James Madison

The Founding Fathers on Religion

Martin Luther on Reason“Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but more frequently than not struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God.”

“Whoever wants to be a Christian should tear the eyes out of his reason”

“Reason should be destroyed in all Christians.”

How else to explain existence?

Why else behave morally?

How else to experience (or explain) transcendence?

How else to promote community?

Arguments for Organized Religion