Scott Crosson 🐟📈
Economist. U of Oregon PhD. Posts are my own. Miami.
- Looking at the economics of US Virgin Islands commercial fisheries. This started as a write up for my most recent data gathering down there but I am now looking at some older stuff and doing comparisons. How old? Try 1918, after our good friends at Census went down to the newly acquired territory.
-
View full threadReading old government docs can be a journey. Just reviewing a summary I wrote of "The Semi-Civilized Tribes of the Philippine Islands" from 1902.
- It’s notable that the 1918 report from Census doesn’t get into any of this. They just report the facts that they gathered. They mention the demographics of the islands , but they don’t ascribe different work ethics to the blacks and the whites the way this 1932 report does
- Apparently, President Hoover was the first US president to visit the Virgin Islands. Huh. They were NOT doing well economically, and neither were the fisheries (which is why the report was commissioned).
- Ho, this 1932 report is racist as fuck. I mean, it’s got data but Jesus Christ the commentary in it. LOTS of things in here along these lines.
- We had just acquired the islands from Denmark in 1917 and the fisherman strictly used rowboats and sailboats because fuel was so expensive. I don’t have the 1932 report yet so I don’t know what they were using but by the 60s tourism had exploded in the Caribbean and they were using outboard motors.
- Got the 1932 report! Hard copy, had to scan it in.
- They actually collected some good cost data! I also have data from the mid 1960s from our predecessor agency (Bureau of Commercial Fisheries; then at Interior) and I’m trying to get my hands on a 1932 report from the Commerce Department. We started collecting decent data -2005 on.
- I’m using a CPI deflator, which of course is a pretty imprecise tool, but I’ll eventually get around to using a GDP deflator. I love this stuff. There are obviously big differences in gear, population, tourism, and consumer demand. And of course, the ecological production.
- I wanted to see her go up and smack him with a hockey stick “ that was a STUPID question!” [WHACK 🏒]
- V excited about a “King of the Hill” reboot. It lampooned east/west coast snobbery well. It also lampooned some of the stupidity of the middle of the country while still having some sympathy. I always thought it was well done.
-
View full threadI was living in Oregon when the show debuted originally and I recall explaining to folks that yes there are people that sound exactly like Boomhauer and I have met them
- Postscript, I am from North Carolina, not Texas, but still
