Call for evidence-based policy

[arcticpenguin]

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2003/09/30/2003069872


By Joseph Stiglitz

Tuesday, Sep 30, 2003,Page 9

For three years, America's president has pursued a unilateralist agenda, ignoring all evidence that contradicts his positions, and putting aside basic and longstanding American principles.
This Op/Ed piece in the Taipei Times is interesting for it's language - it's the language of skepticism. He keeps on about evidence.

[arcticpenguin]

Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics, is professor of economics at Columbia University and was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to former president Bill Clinton and chief economist and senior vice president at the World Bank.
OK, so you could question the objectivity. My point was not the content, but the language used.

[Chaos]

On the other hand, that he worked for Clinton doesn´t mean that anything he says against Bush is automatically wrong.

[arcticpenguin]

Originally posted by Chaos
On the other hand, that he worked for Clinton doesn´t mean that anything he says against Bush is automatically wrong.
I agree with most of what he says, however I do not wish that to be the topic of this thread.

The language he uses sounds a lot like what you'll find on this board, day after day: show me the evidence.

[patnray]

Bush himself often cites "lack of evidence" for not persuing policies he is against (such as the Kyoto Protocol). But he seems willing to ignore evidence that does not support his policies and to persue policies even when there is no evidence to support them (such as class size reduction). Go figure....