Some Briefs On Occupation & Gender And Examples Of Unintended Consequences

See Science, Engineering Studies Are Still a Hard Sell to Women: Data show women earned just 21% of undergraduate engineering degrees and fewer in computer science, a trend that could exacerbate a gender-based earnings gap by Melissa Korn of the WSJ. Excerpt:

"Nearly half of all bachelor’s degrees earned in the sciences and engineering in the 2015-2016 academic year went to women, according to new data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. That is due in large part to the popularity of psychology, biology and social-science programs. Women still earned just 21% of undergraduate engineering degrees and an even smaller share in computer science.

More than twice as many women received bachelor’s degrees in psychology last year as they did undergraduate degrees in computer science, engineering and the physical sciences combined. Women accounted for 77.6% of all bachelor’s degrees in psychology last year, and earned 57.6% of all undergraduate degrees across disciplines in the 2015-16 academic year."

Mao had a pest extermination policy turn bad. See Have a Banana. On Second Thought, Don’t. by Raj Patel in the NY Times.

"Biological battle rarely makes headlines, though when it does it’s usually a story of spectacular failure involving bad biology and worse economics. Mao Zedong commanded a 1958 war on the vermin afflicting Chinese granaries, encouraging the extermination, over a two-day period, of all fleas, flies, rats and sparrows. The government recorded “48,695.49 kilos of flies, 930,486 rats and 1,367,440 individual sparrows.” Unfortunately, tree sparrows don’t eat just grain — they also consume a range of pests. With their predators removed, the pests feasted on the harvest — crowning an economic policy that resulted in the death of millions by starvation."

What about government making water prices higher to encourage conversation? See  The Source of Life and Death by Bill Streever in the WSJ.

"There are homeowners who stop watering lawns with the hope of lowering water bills, only to watch their shade trees die and their air-conditioning bills skyrocket"