91–100 of 114 posts
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Everybody subsidizes the school system. And the productivity of educated workers subsidizes everybody. It's the bargain of the millennium.
This is a common belief with terrible support and a good case against it. https://www.econlib.org/caplan-callard-the-case-against-educ... (I can recommend the book.)
Seriously recommending his work betrays a serious lack of knowledge of the field.
This sort of ageism is bikeshedding a nothingburger. The real issue is the shunning, misery, suffering, starvation, and suicides of the elderly.
???
The current elderly have it by far the best out of any elderly generation that has lived during human civilization so far. Including the best possible health care and using up so much resources that it is likely siphoning it unsustainably from the younger generations, in the form of insolvent Social Security and other means.
In what conceivable universe are elderly a concern?
I find few things as obnoxiously childish as grown people that don't want to handle kids being around.
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We could redress that norm, though? Similarly, it used to be that a village raised the kids. We somehow shifted that so that the liability and work is to be borne by the immediate parents, and them alone.
It used to be that children were the retirement plan, now that retirements are funded with pooled financial instruments that direct link has been severed. Now the benefit of educating children is pooled but the cost is individualized, some people are figuring that they can optimize their personal gain by minimizing their own investment in their children.
Sadly, this isn't as easy as "support local bookstores." They are also value extracted, at large, by the publishing mechanisms at play.
That is to say, it is easy to blame the parents for neglecting their kids. But... it is far more complicated.
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I'm somewhat sympathetic. Especially so as I know this can range heavily in impact on folks. Such that wanting a place reserved for low noise makes sense. Educating kids on how to act in those environments is important, and can't be done by forbidding them from being there. Often you are left with adults that then don't know how to act in those places, either.
I have on rare occasion asked parents of kids to be more mindful, I received the sort of vitriol one should expect from parents who have thus far failed to instil manners into their kids. Not once has any good come from it - so I have given up. There is no education happening there and there is clearly nothing I can do about it. Parents especially seem oblivious to noise of own kids. For the cafe, instead of making j…
The easy push back is it isn't your responsibility. I'm rather uninterested in apportioning who should do what. It is in your interest to help, though. However you can.
The harder pushback will be that some parents won't like you engaging with their kids. That is an education that we somehow seriously perverted in our culture. Letting the village raise the kids takes education and engagement all around.
Here's a thought. Allow kids, but require that they have manners and are well behaved. I love kids and have no problems with them, but hate kids that have no manners and are not well behaved because the parents are not doing their job. The same is true with dogs. Both take work, but as a parent and a dog owner those are part of your job.
Just note that "noisy kid" may mean "parents are not doing their job" or "kid with ADHD" or "autistic kid" or "kid having emotional difficulties while parents undergoing divorce", etc.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have on rare occasion asked parents of kids to be more mindful, I received the sort of vitriol one should expect from parents who have thus far failed to instil manners into their kids. Not once has any good come from it - so I have given up. There is no education happening there and there is clearly nothing I can do about it. Parents especially seem oblivious to noise of own kids. For the cafe, instead of making j…
I'd argue the point is not to "ask the parents to mind their kids," but to engage with the kids. This could be as simple as saying hello for some kids, as they almost certainly haven't really registered that there are others around. It could be broadcasting good behavior. It could be all of the above. The easy push back is it isn't your responsibility. I'm rather uninterested in apportioning who should do what. It is…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd argue the point is not to "ask the parents to mind their kids," but to engage with the kids. This could be as simple as saying hello for some kids, as they almost certainly haven't really registered that there are others around. It could be broadcasting good behavior. It could be all of the above. The easy push back is it isn't your responsibility. I'm rather uninterested in apportioning who should do what. It is…
Giving the kids a direct talking to is even less productive, I don’t know what fantasifull world you preside but it bears little semblance to what I perceive to be reality. In the US you have no idea how the parents will react when acting as advocates for the kids, enough will act violently to make it a very bad idea.
Now. I also fully grant that I may be speaking from privilege. Mayhap something about me looks more approachable for whatever reason. I lament that I don't know how to spread whatever that is.
I find few things as obnoxiously childish as grown people that don't want to handle kids being around.
There is more to this than immediate comfort or being childish. On one hand is taking responsibility for your kid and ensuring they are not a nuisance for other people. You should not outsource your responsibilities. On the other hand understanding that kids are not full grown adults and that raising one is hard. It's also about understanding that if everyone stops having kids society will collapse in a couple of dec…
I certainly was too vague in my opening post. Not wanting to be around someone is, all told, fine. When I say "can't handle kids being around," I'm largely talking about the ones that have adult tantrums.
My main concern is we seem to have taken the view that parents are "outsourcing their responsibilities." But, so has society, as a whole. It isn't any individual's responsibility to make sure kids have a safe place to be kids. Both loudly and quietly. It is, ultimately, everyone's. As such, if you build a place that you don't let kids in, don't be surprised when the kids don't know how to behave in that place.
So much "public space" has been reduced to isolated pseudo private islands where people want to be out, but also want everyone else to not be there. I'm not saying we should all be one communal table, but I do hate that we all seem to always want the private booths, if you will.
You cannot understand the declining fertility rates worldwide unless you understand and internalize this graph: https://ourworldindata.org/parents-time-with-kids Being a parent today is substantially more demanding than it was in the past and this has very wide-raning consequences: 1. While the monetary demands have increased, they are not a huge factor. That's why in places with generous subsidies and cash transfers…