Yellow Dog [Part 12]

Donn,

First, taxes were at their highest in 1982 under Republican Reagan. Second, I’m glad you feel that way, I wonder if you'd feel that way when they tell you they could no longer afford to pay your salary so go get a job at a private school and make less money with no retirement benefits. Of course, there'd be no unions so they'd collude to make your salary as low as they could while the people at the top would drive to work in Jags. I wonder if you'd feel that way when the roads were no longer repaired or had to pay toll at all the private roads or if the parks were no longer maintained or charged entrance fees or if the police were for hire only and if you’re poor, no crimes would be solved or if the fire department decided to haggle with you outside your burning house, don’t have the money?? Let it burn. I wonder if you'd feel that way if you were having a stroke and your wife had to strike a deal with the paramedics before they'd render any care. Would you feel that way when the economically lowest children couldn’t get an education and ended up either trapped in a life of poverty, crime or ill health because they couldn’t afford an education or health care either. The problem is, we ALL use the public commons and we should all pay our share. Public Parks are for everyone, not just those that can pay the entrance fee and people like you MAKE the case it’s not your problem but you avail yourself of these perks and YOU, personally, make your living off it. Your stance is EXTREMELY hypocritical.

Laissez Faire? You make the late 1800's early 1900's sound like a utopian paradise which it was, if YOU happened to be in the upper 1%. For the rest it was endless labor, no retirement, no healthcare. There were NO child labor laws and children worked for 12 hours a day. How many women were locked in sweatshops for 16 hours a day? How many died from fires because they locked the doors to keep them in and they were supposed to pee in a bucket in the corner? Education? Only for the wealthy that could pay for it. Low oil costs? Of course, he drove all the competitors out of business and paid his employees pennies a day with no retirement, health care or even guarantee of a job tomorrow. Carnegie? The other "Robber Barons"? You’ve got to be kidding me, I mean seriously, even with the insanely biased media, you'd be hard pressed to find someone else that would call THAT era a "utopia." Those guys gave a lot in their old age when they came to terms with their mortality and were scared shitless at the thought there might just be a hell waiting for them and ALL they were doing was trying buy themselves a spot in heaven. Bill Gates was completely unscrupulous and stole a lot from a lot of people and NEVER compensated them for their work. I know some people that worked for him. One was a designer that did a lot for him and he was fired when he had the temerity to ask for a raise. Mr. Gates isn’t doing any of THAT "giving", that’s his wife driving the charity, there was a Rolling Stone interview with the two of them a couple months ago and HE said he wouldn’t do it if his wife wasn’t the driving force.

Finally, how dare you blame this financial mess on the Democrats, do you think we don’t remember GW saying "we're gonna make this an ownership society" in 2002 as he loosened the regulations to allow this insane gambling with our monies? I remember it quite clearly and I remember the Dems telling him it would be a disaster if he continued to loosen the regulations. Regardless of how you say it, this is HIS baby, period, end of story. The Stock Market is gambling and if not regulated, they can lose ALL our monies. Thank god they didn’t let him put Social Security on the Stock Market or who knows how many elderly people would be screwed now. I have a friend, kept trying to get me to take my Florida Retirement System cash out of the system and put into the investment company he worked for, showed me all his clients portfolios, how they were making 5 times what I was. I got jittery and, in the end, told him "no". His company went under last week. I wonder if his clients have any pension left? I only gotta go 9 more years and I could retire with $3500 a month for the rest of my life, if I make it to 62? $5,600 a month till I die. I won’t be rich but I'll make it, thank god for the state. I wonder if those OTHER teachers he represented are in as good shape? Somehow, I doubt it.

Marx

Marx,
I will address each point you make in the order in which you made it. Public Schools: Education is not a right. It is a responsibility. If you wish to be competitive in the 21st Century, there are skills you must acquire. Nobody can do this for you. You think government is the best facilitator of this personal objective. The failure of the public school system is profound evidence to the contrary. Privatizing public schools would vastly improve education in this country. Nobody who wanted a primary or secondary education would be denied. All one needs to get a great education is a library card. Students could choose from a potpourri of options, from countless private schools, home schools, Socratic seminars with the neighborhood guru, charity schools funded by philanthropy, or charity vouchers to enable needy children to choose whichever private school they like... If one wishes to go further, get a bachelor’s degree, Masters, or PhD, etc., College entrance exams [created by each private institution] would be the gate keeper. Advanced degrees would be funded much like they are today: pre-paid college funds, college-funded scholarships, private scholarships, corporate grants, charity grants, low-interest loans, a rich mom and dad. Competition in every aspect of the private education business would: 1. increase the supply of educational alternatives [rather than the pathetic one-size-fits-all system we have in place today]; 2. drive down the cost of an education as schools compete for the best students and more students opt for self-education; and, 3. yeild much higher wages for great educators who could sell their scarce services to the highest bidder. Now this would be change I can believe in! If you insist on keeping the failed, publicly-funded school system we have in place today, then permit me to improve existing schools by instituting some market reforms. 1. Give principals [along with faculty, parents, and students] real power to hire and fire teachers. Every school I’ve ever worked for was staffed by people who had no business in the classroom...at least 25% of the faculty... terrible teachers. Your union works to protect their jobs...why? Because people have a right to a paycheck? I think not. In every other industry incompetent, do-nothing, know-nothings are fired. Under your rules, teachers have to commit felonies to lose their jobs! Here’s an interesting statistic for you: In 1981 the US National Education Association reported that 36% of teachers said they would probably not go into teaching if they had to decide again. A major reason was "negative student attitudes and discipline". (Wolfgang and Glickman) So why were those nearly 40% still teaching? Once failed, why didn’t they “decide again?” Why didn’t they leave the profession for one better suited to their talents? When realtors fail to sell houses, they leave the profession to find a job that pays or they starve. When actors fail to get the part audition after audition, they wait tables. When politicians lose elections they become consultants. But, when teachers fail, they stay in the classroom. These teachers do incredible damage, year after year. 2. Give school administrators a budget [like a pro football team] and let teachers negotiate their worth to the school with the stakeholders. A teacher’s worth should be determined by their value to the school, not how long they’ve been in the teaching business. This is the way things work in every other industry...why not teaching [arguably the most important industry of all]? Your precious, dead-Fat-Tornillo-like, embezzling bureaucrats won’t let it happen. They have you convinced you need them to protect your job. I’d be making so much more if not for these duce-bags [Deliberate misspelling. Don’t want to trigger filters]. The best accountability system in any industry is unfettered success for those who achieve, and un-cushioned failure for those who don’t. If failure has real consequences, fewer people will fail. People will discover their better self...achieve real self-esteem. Cynics, like you, doubt unleashed mankind is good enough to achieve great results. That’s why you always invite the nanny-state to come in and control everything and everybody. If it weren’t so sad, it would be laughable... You think politicians and bureaucrats can create and maintain a better system than private individuals pursuing their own self-interest. You think self-interest results in immoral, vile men bashing each other over the head for scarce, finite resources. You think Karl Marx was right! Capitalism invites limitless possibilities. Bill Gates’ empire was built on two things: brain matter and photons. There is no limit to the abundance of wealth that can be created...not by the few, but by the multitudes, if only they are free to make it happen. The command economy you endorse is limited to whatever possibilities a handful of politicians can come up with. Do the math: billions of unfettered minds at work trying to achieve their rational, self-esteem or a handful of powerful elite determining what’s good for everybody. Which system grows innovation and abundance? History [and to a small degree, China’s decades-old movement to the right] certifies the success of the former.