All of your assumptions are intrinsically false. These are what add to the problem, while pretending to succor it. JJ
maslows theory of hierarchy....first and foremost..its all about stuffing your stomach... then and only then would we give a flying F**k who killed the freakin mockingbird..
My argument is that in the 21st. century developed countries should provide an education that would produce a Renaissance person. Somebody who would strive to enjoy the finer things in our civilization. Am I against teaching people how to work with their hands? No. However, I am against making them into mindless robots who only aspire to eat shitty food,watch mindless TV and salivate when talking about getting more useless stuff, which is what our society (USA) has become.
mindless robots?? what are u talking about?? teach them how to get employed thru techinical hands on training..how is that being a mindless robot?? i say that it is a great option to big pimpin ...this way they dont have to sling in the corner and or join the marines...if someojne wants to be a renaissance person they also have that option...but the majority of our kids are left with no knolwdge and no money to continue higher education once they leave high school..its easy for a person who is born with a silver spoon to think like you do...but most of us arent born into a family which can offer us higher education...then what?
Provided you leave in the argument that people should definitely learn how to work with their hands (because while you may have equal opportunity, you most definitely don't have equal outcome) what you're broaching here is the only way people will be able to climb up their own personal ladder. JJ
Interesting perspective ElCubano. While your comment about silver spoon is apt, I definitely don't need anyone to "offer me a higher education" (although there are many ways to afford one, from inexpensive state schools to taking advantage of the educational offers which one receives from a job), I just don't want them to get in my way. JJ
Like most things in life it is not just 1 thing you can point your finger to for a source of the problem. I speak from what I honestly believe is balanced point of view. I used to social work, have a degree in Sociology and have close relatives that have backgrounds in social work related fields. For the last 8 years I have been in the business world, either in outside sales or trading. One of the problems we are dumbing kids down for last few decades. Here is just one common example. One of my relatives was a teacher for 37 years. She taught mostly advanced placement math to junior high kids, with some regular math classes. When the district she worked in opened enrollment district wide she was now teaching some kids for whom English wasn't their first language. She grew up in Upstate NY, she speaks no Spanish, I speak some, growing up in So Cal. Time is a finite resource which you can't get back, we can all agree on that right? Now my relative has to spend 2-4 times as long explaining the subject to kids that don't understand English well so everyone gets less of her time. Are illegal aliens totally to blame? Of course not. Am I advocating segregation by ability, not race or genger, possibly yes. That's what the school system did when I was in school. It's called remedial classes. The do it in Europe and it works pretty well. If you aren't an academic genius they track towards a vocation, auto mechanics, wood shop, metal work and the tax dollars pay to teach you a trade that you can support yourself and society with. That way the smart kids get the best academic resources and the kids best with their hands learn trades to make the decent $$$ and support themselves. Why do ppl. have to pay thousands of $$$ to go to Sierra Auto Mechanics School? Why don't we teach this to guys and girls that aren't academically inclined? A mechanic can make $20-30 HR + or more. Why did we as a country get away from what worked. Vocational training, taught at schools, funded by our tax dollars that provide jobs for our kids. Not everyone should or wants to go to college. I don't believe in pure Capitalism or Socialism, a hybrid is the solution.
Thanks. Your points were spot on and had me thinking, because I think alot about how to turn this country around. My wife is Czech, my American friend lives in Ukraine for the last year with his American friend that owns a software company there. His friend, that owns the software company, said wages aside, the avg college educated Ukranian man is better educated that either an American or a student from India. How does he know? Because his company started in Florida, moved to India, and is now hq'd in Ukraine My my wife immigrated to America many years ago, language issues aside, she said the entry exams for college here were easy. Is this a Communist thing? No, I could do the same comparison with similar results with my German friend and his children. European ppl., as a whole, focus on traditional values. Family, free time, and little debt. In America we try to have them all and fall miserably in some of these areas. We have immigrants raise our kids, we buy 40k SUV's and if we are lucky we get a whopping 2 weeks of vacation. I am speaking in general, not trader specific. To get back to our greatness we have to get more simple IMHO. Every time I hear it's a new economy I have to laugh. It's not much different we just want to perceive it that way. Isn't it great to have a slow trading day when you can share ideas on ET.