> So now it's unfairly partisan to point out that the evidence supports one party's position but not the other's?
I come down way on the side of Hanauer in this debate, and agree with your point above, in general. But my reading of the speech was that it was a partisan fluff piece.
If you asked any number of my liberal college-educated friends to vamp for three minutes on the subject of "the wealthy as job-creators and drivers of economic growth" and then gave it a quick edit you'd get something comparable. The only difference being Hanauer makes a fallacious argument from authority (although I think his opinion is correct).
But isn't that exactly why TED didn't feature the talk? TED only wants its best talks on the web site, because the web site is its way of broadcasting interesting ideas (I know many teachers and professors that regularly share TED talks with students!). I understand their desire for a really well-curated collection of videos.
Considering some of the TED talks I've seen in the past, Hanauer's talk doesn't make the cut. I could've just as easily gone to MSNBC and heard the same thing -- although I agree with his opinion, his idea is neither unique nor substantiated by unique data.
I come down way on the side of Hanauer in this debate, and agree with your point above, in general. But my reading of the speech was that it was a partisan fluff piece.
If you asked any number of my liberal college-educated friends to vamp for three minutes on the subject of "the wealthy as job-creators and drivers of economic growth" and then gave it a quick edit you'd get something comparable. The only difference being Hanauer makes a fallacious argument from authority (although I think his opinion is correct).