DISQUS

I don't understand the Calvin Klein/Herbert Hoover reference. Perhaps Dworkin had Calvin Coolidge in mind?

I just read Lareau's book for an Egalitarianism seminar last semester. What I found most interesting about it was the suggestion that that racial differences are nowhere near as important as class differences. That is, the middle class blacks had much more in common with the middle class whites than with other blacks. But my recollection was that this proposal has made the book quite controversial in some quarters, and naturally, there's some question about qualitative vs quantitative methodology in sociology research.

Mind you, it also reminded me of all the reasons why I'm studying philosophy instead of sociology, but it was surprisingly an interesting read. And regarding what you mention here about the joys of middle management, I wonder a problem here is simply that we don't know how creativity will be needed for jobs that don't exist yet. I have to imagine that the workplace of the future will only offer more opportunities for innovation and creativity, opportunities that we in 2006 cannot imagine anymore than someone in 1986 could imagine the demand for webmasters and folks with Dreamweaver skills.

Also, you're right to emphasize the need to hone creativity skills, but maybe more right than you realize. Though many jobs out there are mundane, it seems to me that creativity is what allows employers to separate the wheat from the chaff of their employees. The creative and innovative types are the ones who are likely to be promoted from middle management to, say, the upper echelons.

Damn it, Mike, you stole my thunder. But excellent analysis, as always, Will.

Having been exposed to Layard in two seminars now, I found that your review was excellent. It really diagnosed what's so off-putting about his project. Did you catch his beautiful attempt to wave away Nozick's Experience Machine?