What's surprising is that it took California so long. My ex-gf adopted her sister's kids, and that came with multiple things for the kids, in Texas:
1. free healthcare
2. free college education
3. supplemental income
All foster kids in California can now attend any state college for free
181–190 of 585 posts
Re: All foster kids in California can now attend any state college for free
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do reparations for slavery even make logical sense? Please cut me some slack here, by the nature of the world we live in, I have not uttered these thoughts to another human being, and they might have obvious flaws. It's tough when you can't talk about ideas out of fear of the consequences. I think nobody argues that it's a vile, morally repugnant thing to enslave another human being. But that was a long time ago, and…
It's true that enslaved people and their enslavers are no longer alive, but the legacy of slavery has left significant and enduring socio-economic disparities between descendants of enslaved people and those who are not. Inequalities in wealth, education, health, and opportunities persist, often along racial lines. These disparities aren't merely coincidental, but have been reinforced by racially discriminatory polic…
> the legacy of slavery has left significant and enduring socio-economic disparities between descendants of enslaved people and those who are not. Inequalities in wealth, education, health, and opportunities persist, often along racial lines. These disparities aren't merely coincidental, but have been reinforced by racially discriminatory policies and practices like segregation, redlining, and racial violence, all of which have historical roots in the institution of slavery.
This is a fact.
> Also the argument that descendants of slaves in America are better off than their counterparts in Africa is problematic because it assumes that the progress of African nations would have been the same without the devastating effects of the Atlantic slave trade, which significantly hindered their development.
Maybe, don't forget the slave trade enriched tribes inhabiting those regions. It was Africans enslaving other Africans and selling them (at least to my limited understanding on the subject, which may be wrong.)
> Reparations could take many forms, including investment in education, healthcare, housing, and economic opportunities for communities disproportionately affected by racial discrimination.
Why make it about race? Just make those things available to all disadvantaged individuals, period.
Re: All foster kids in California can now attend any state college for free
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree completely. Something so striking about the situation as well is that on balance, we have a staggering amount of wealth to share with the less fortunate. Yet these are children, specifically, who deserve every opportunity we can afford them by default. Not “hopeless addicts” or some other group deemed not worth saving by so many of us, but people quite literally the epitome of worth saving. These people need…
Not sure who we is, but I have 4 kids and live paycheck to paycheck and nobody helps me or my kids. We can’t spare what we don’t have.
[flagged]
Re: All foster kids in California can now attend any state college for free
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
Assuming the best intentions of those running this, there may not be enough money in the budget for it to be free for everyone.
Somehow European countries pull it off without bankrupting themselves.
>Somehow European countries pull it off without bankrupting themselves.
While providing universal health care to a similar number of folks and with a smaller aggregate economy.
Those Europeans must be cooking the books, eh? /s
US GDP[0]: $25,462,700 million
Aggregate EU GDP[1]: 15.8 trillion euros
N.B.: USD/Euro Exchange rate (23 July 2023)[2]: 0.89 Euro == 1 US Dollar.
[0[ https://countryeconomy.com/gdp/usa?year=2022
[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/279447/gross-domestic-pr...
[2] https://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?Amount=1&From=...
Re: All foster kids in California can now attend any state college for free
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
> what affirmative action should be... helping people out based on their individual situation Also, just helping them out. Nobody gets hurt. This isn't creating an allotment of seats for foster kids. The selection process, and thus odds, are the same for them and everyone else.
Generally state colleges will take any applicant who meets the pre-set bar. Where as tier 1 universities are more a zero sum game.
University of California, Washington, and Texas are hardly uncompetitive. Their admission rates are very low for the good programs.
Re: All foster kids in California can now attend any state college for free
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the United States, a lot of times the individual situation is correlated to their skin color. The condition of being descendants of slaves, or people who faced other forms of official discrimination cited in the prevention of intergenerational wealth such as redlining, blockbusting or unfavorable treatment in the GI bill, etc., is ultimately an individual situation for each individual affected. The idea that you c…
How many slaves in the family tree should someone have to qualify? Do white slaves count? How far back should we go? Would citizens whose families have immigrated to this country after the deed be also on the hook for reparations? Should reparations only be given to struggling people, or should they be given out regardless of the situation of the descendant of a slave? It's a lot easier to quantify and equalize the s…
> the best signal for poverty remains income and wealth, right here and right now.
i am having a difficult time understanding this sentence. Poverty by definition is a lack of income and wealth. Why are you saying it's a signal?
Re: All foster kids in California can now attend any state college for free
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Prisoners: our responsibility, their fault. What percentage (approximately) of prisoners in the United States would you categorize as "their fault" and not some product of their upbringing/situation?
At the end of the day, and this will be controversial it does not matter. Prisons should be a place to house people that have been deemed unable to function in society until such time they can (sometimes that is never). This is not necessarily only violence but violent offenders should be the majority, but people that simply refuse to follow the rules of a society also degrade and are a danger to the society over all…
Okay, but this logic is explicitly filtered through class in the US context. Some of the most antisocial members of our society are CEOs, politicians, and similar leaders. The damage they inflict on society often far exceeds that by individual acts of violence, fraud, thievery etc. Think about what has been wrought by Sacklers, the people running 3M, or those who led the country into war premised on lies.
Indeed, your example of how urban cores have been affected by wealth inequality and real estate speculation is a great example of this. San Francisco was a lovely city until landlords and real estate speculators turned it into a casino for gambling on housing and office space.
Re: All foster kids in California can now attend any state college for free
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
the high school era in ones' life has a lot of opportunity for personal hardship; in many ways it's the beginning of personal responsibility for a lot of people. in other words : it's less likely that an elementary school student has to juggle an unwanted pregnancy, an estranged family, and a job at McDonalds; it's not that uncommon later on.
I do get that. I knew people who had a kid, family issues, substance issues, etc and still managed to graduate. I know there are probably others who wouldn't graduate in similar situations or worse ones. It still shocks me that the dropout rate is so high.
I feel shocked too. But not surprised. The shock is more of a reminder that the world for many is so unlike the world for me. It’s so easy to assume everyone has approximately my experience. But it’s just so not true. So many are dealing with such an unfair hand to begin with.
Re: All foster kids in California can now attend any state college for free
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do reparations for slavery even make logical sense? Please cut me some slack here, by the nature of the world we live in, I have not uttered these thoughts to another human being, and they might have obvious flaws. It's tough when you can't talk about ideas out of fear of the consequences. I think nobody argues that it's a vile, morally repugnant thing to enslave another human being. But that was a long time ago, and…
So there's actually a lot of academic debate on the merits of reparations, and exactly what and how much reparations should be. A very oversimplified pro argument: if it wasn't for slavery, these families would have generational wealth and better social situations. African Americans in the US ARE disproportionately lower wealth/income and this has CLEAR historical origins. The oversimplified con argument: Okay, but i…
The overall precedence is that reparations are paid to the people who experienced the harm, and the reparations are paid by those culpable of the harm. The Japanese who experienced internment were paid reparations by the United States government that took their property. Holocaust victims that had their property stolen were paid reparations by the former Nazis.
By contrast Irish Americans could very justifiably claim that were it not for Anglo oppression, they would be far wealthier. But we wouldn't fine Anglos today to pay Irish Americans. Slavery hits a similar issue, limiting the reparations to the party that did harm is very vague when you're approaching two centuries later. Most proposals for "reparations" aren't anything remotely close to actual reparations. A recent immigrant is assigned as much liability as a descendant of plantation owners. This isn't a reparation, this is a tax assigned without regard to culpability.
Re: All foster kids in California can now attend any state college for free
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ironically affirmative action is systemic racism itself, no matter how well intentioned.
True, but many forms of discrimination are legal and good. Minimum age to drive is ageism, but I think we would all agree that it’s a good form of discrimination. You say “no matter how well intentioned” as if the intention isn’t important. But intention and outcome are both very important and determine whether a given form of discrimination is good or bad.
Harvard and other Ivy League universities got caught discriminating against Asians in their admissions. How do you justify that as a good thing?