We have three dogs. Two alphas and one whatever-is-farthest-from-alpha. Time was, we had just the two dogs, the dominant one and the follower, and that worked out okay. Then we got the puppy, the second alpha.
Now the follower won't even eat her breakfast. She won't go near the bowl until after the other two are done eating. And, since we put a little cheese on top of their kibble, this means she never gets any cheese. That ain't right.
So I started feeding her the cheese by hand, a few feet from the other dogs. But then she gave up the idea of eating altogether and now she goes into the living room. So I've been giving her a little cheese in the living room, then putting her bowl down where we feed the dogs and they can work out the rest themselves.
Okay.
Now the first dog, the old alpha, he sees what's going on, and he decides the follower is getting some kind of special treatment. So now he won't come to the bowl, either. Now I have to feed the both of them their cheese by hand.
People are like that alpha, I think. Everybody wants special treatment.
5 comments:
Very true.
There is something else too illustrated by a cartoon my son told me he was sent talking about the difference between dogs and cats.
In the cartoon they show a dog looking at his owner and he is thinking " This guy feeds me, plays with me, keeps me warm when its cold ........ HE must be GOD!!"
The next picture has a cat saying " This guy feeds me, plays with me, keeps me warm when its cold.....
I must be GOD!"
I think we are like the cat
BTW Art, there is an outstanding discussion of MMT by a non MMT economist over here;
http://www.interfluidity.com/v2/1357.html
Steve Waldmann is one of my favorite writers on the web. I think he does a great job of putting the MMT paradigm in perspective.
The discussion section is getting over 200 comments but it would be worth your time I think to peruse it.
Waldmann also has a lecture here at a recent conference. You can find it in session 2 (the one by Wray is worth listening to too)
The real message is how good the dogs are at training you.
Cheers!
JzB
We don't need no stinking pets. We have grandchildren
From Waldman at Greg's link.
MMT is not “true”, but then no theory is “true”. We ultimately judge theories by how useful they are, both in making sense of “the data” we already know and in offering guidance for policy going forward.
A brief Anti-Absolutist Manifesto.
Cheers!
JzB
Greetings Jazz
Waldmanns statement is quite true and under the conditions he gives I think MMT holds up pretty well as an explanatory model.
Cheers
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