Saturday, November 15, 2014

Education to Close-up the Inequality Gap

Al Bush - "When I was poor and I complained about inequality, people said I was bitter.  Now I'm rich and I complain about inequality, now they say I'm a hypocrite.  I'm beginning to think they just don't want inequality on the agenda because it is a real problem that needs to be addressed." ~Russell Brand

Tony Cruise - Define "equal".

Al Bush - That's the debate Tony.

Muhammad Rasheed - “The extent to which there are additional costs associated with unsegregated hiring is an empirical question, and no doubt varies from place to place and time to time. However, even during the Jim Crow era in the American South, blacks were seldom paid less by an employer for doing the same job as white employees. Rather, blacks were excluded from certain higher-paying jobs that would have put them on the same plane as whites. In the South especially, the resistance of whites was not so much to physical proximity to blacks, but rather to associating with them on a plane of equality. Blacks were welcome to live in white homes as servants, even by whites who would refuse to sit down at the same table with blacks to discuss business, for the latter implied equality while the former and more intimate association did not.” ~Thomas Sowell, Race and Culture: A World View

Tony Cruise - And that's why we have, (thankfully), the Civil Rights movement.

Muhammad Rasheed - The civil rights movement helped make progress in societal equality between the races, but it didn't (couldn't?) help in equality for classism issues, which is what Brand is talking about.

I think the only way to fix that would be to throw all of our weight behind a free, high quality education for all citizens, along with special programs designed to encourage all families to instill the value of the same into their descendants. Something like that would close the class inequality gap in just a couple generations.

Tony Cruise - I like the way you're thinking Muhammad. I don't understand how we get to "free". Many people qualify for "free" college education. I find that the most difficult hurdle for socioeconomically depressed people are their family settings. Mainly, the lack of importance placed towards education. There are all kinds of programs that are designed to encourage education... Unfortunately, few people can or will attend those meetings to reinforce the importance of the principle of learning. That could be due to several factors.

Keith Bowers - Here's the rub...like Tony said, "free" isn't free.

Also, when discussing equality, please try to avoid confusing "equal" with "fair".

Michael Jordan made over $1B in his lifetime. I've made less than $1M in mine. This is not equal. However, since he's the greatest basketball player in history (and I'm not), it's totally fair.

Remember that human value and economic value are totally separate concepts, and combining them only creates resentment.

Kirk Anderson - We tend to think of inequality as lack of opportunity. That is often true. But there is also a relatively huge inherent cost to being poor. For example, if you can't afford preventative maintenance on a vehicle, the small repairs snowball into large ones. If you can't afford to insulate your home properly, you pay relatively high energy bills. If you can't afford dental insurance, your teeth are more likely to rot out. If you live in a poorer neighborhood, you are subject to more break-ins. If you cannot afford a garage, you are more subject to hail damage, hit and runs, vandalism, and car break-ins. I have watched wealthy people in restaurants cut to the top of the wait list while the rest continued to wait. It's called playing with a stacked deck and it is very real.

Muhammad Rasheed - Tony Cruise wrote: “I like the way you're thinking Muhammad. I don't understand how we get to ‘free.’”

Well, no fees and tuitions. What we pay in taxes can go towards those institutions alone. Instead of giving mega-corporations free subsidies, and contributing trillions towards the war machine, let’s give it to the colleges/universities instead and have them all transform their curriculum to that of the highest level schools in the land. And anyone can just walk in off the street and attend without paying anything extra than what they already pay in taxes.

Tony Cruise wrote: “Many people qualify for ‘free’ college education.”

And for those who perform best, give them a cash reward, or free gasoline for 10 years or whatever.

Tony Cruise wrote: “I find that the most difficult hurdle for socioeconomically depressed people are their family settings. Mainly, the lack of importance placed towards education. There are all kinds of programs that are designed to encourage education... Unfortunately, few people can or will attend those meetings to reinforce the importance of the principle of learning. That could be due to several factors.”

It IS due to several factors, with the primary one being that certain cultures traditionally don’t have “high education first!” built into their fabric. In addition to the free education, and the monetary gift for those high performers, there should also be a continuous, sustained, and SERIOUS effort to advertise the importance of high education marketed towards every citizen in the country. Monetary (or whatever of value) gifts given to any group, individual, organization, institution, film, tv show, etc., that helps push that message in their audience. The public needs to be indoctrinated with it. If your community, ethnicity, etc., doesn’t already push it in their kids, then you will be the target for this message. Math, science, technology, the arts, for EVERYONE, no exceptions.
 
Muhammad Rasheed - Keith Bowers wrote: “…when discussing equality, please try to avoid confusing ‘equal’ with ‘fair.’ Michael Jordan made over $1B in his lifetime. I've made less than $1M in mine. This is not equal. However, since he's the greatest basketball player in history (and I'm not), it's totally fair.”

The “equal” part came in on it this way: MJ became highly skilled at basketball from continuous practice to become a high performer and he entered an industry that both valued and handsomely paid for those skills. He used the money generated from his career to invest in income-producing assets that gave him his current net worth. Absolutely nothing prevented you from doing the same thing in whatever industry your natural talents laid in, and that you had a passion for. The pathway was open for both of you to do the same, therefore you are equal. It doesn’t matter whether you both capitalized on it; the fact was you both could have.

Keith Bowers wrote: “Remember that human value and economic value are totally separate concepts, and combining them only creates resentment.”

Define “human value” so I can be sure to understand your point, please.

Muhammad Rasheed - Kirk Anderson wrote: “We tend to think of inequality as lack of opportunity. That is often true. But there is also a relatively huge inherent cost to being poor. For example, if you can't afford preventative maintenance on a vehicle, the small repairs snowball into large ones. If you can't afford to insulate your home properly, you pay relatively high energy bills. If you can't afford dental insurance, your teeth are more likely to rot out. If you live in a poorer neighborhood, you are subject to more break-ins. If you cannot afford a garage, you are more subject to hail damage, hit and runs, vandalism, and car break-ins. I have watched wealthy people in restaurants cut to the top of the wait list while the rest continued to wait. It's called playing with a stacked deck and it is very real.”

All of this is true, and it can also be a big part of the message that people need to hear as far as using education as a way to escape those depressing scenarios. If you take the time to learn the skills that others are willing to pay top dollar for, you will be able to escape the impoverished lifestyle and move up the socio-economic ladder from lower class to middle class. A series of high-quality marketing campaigns that draw upon those items you’ve described that the poor are very familiar with can help to show them that they don’t have to live this way. If the gov is truly serious about helping them out of that plight, then it should absolutely make the path towards high education as easy as it possibly can. You can’t force them to learn, or take advantage of those opportunities, but you can certainly remove all other barriers that they may have to deal with, and the most important one is the extremely high costs currently associated with a top level, Ivy League education. If we all master mathematics, science, tech, and the arts on that level it will grow our middle class to unprecedented levels of success, increase business and entrepreneurship, and put the country on top of the world as the leader of the Technological Elite in innovation and progress.
 

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