Cities across the country are clamoring to pay tribute to Barack Obama by renaming school, streets and building after the new president.
Yes we can: Schools, streets renamed for Barack Obama
Good morning, Barack Obama Elementary School!” That is what children attending the former Ludlum Elementary in Hempstead, New York have been hearing ever since the local school district board voted unanimously to change the name to honor the United States’ first black president.Barack Obama took office barely 10 days ago, but already schools and streets are being renamed. In the Hempstead case they didn’t even wait until Inauguration Day, re-christening the school back in November — the first in the nation to do so.
…
Does Mack expect more re-namings early in the administration? “Oh yes, there’ll be more, that wouldn’t surprise me.”
…
But while young students spurring community change is impressive, Syracuse’s Thompson eyes a worrying trend.
“The idea of naming a school after a political leader still in office should always make us nervous,” he said.
“It implies the … endorsement of that political leader” in an institution that is “presumably a place where children are educated and learn to think for themselves.”
The phrase my title alludes to (”The beatings will continue until morale improves“) has been used to illustrate the economic myth that just won’t die – the “broken window fallacy.” The broken window fallacy says that some destruction is benefits a local economy because it results in work to repair what was destroyed. Such as paying someone to fix a broken window. To illustrate the fallacy of that idea, do you think it would be a good idea if the government randomly bulldozed houses so that people would invest in new ones? The point is that people are simply redirecting their funds to fix the window or rebuild the house instead of spending that money on some other good or service that they would rather have if they didn’t have to fix the broken window.
Anyway, back to the re-namings.
To help stimulate my personal economy, I’m renaming Baxter, my dog, Barackster in honor of Obama (how about Barackster Odogma?).
