321–330 of 585 posts
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All school lunches and breakfasts should be free. It is abhorrent that any child in a country as rich as the United States should go hungry at school.
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Is the city government elected? How do you square support for democracy, and stating the city government is controlled by "the land owning elite" I am told questioning elections is a conspiracy.
"Is the city government elected?" We've had tons of voter initiatives totally steamrolled by lobbyists in Sactown and SF. We passed a law to restrict rent increases, a couple years later the corporatists got it shut down before it could become a law. doesn't matter if the citizens elect the city government when rich people and rich corporations can come in and literally bribe their way out of anything.
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> 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…
The point of prisons, which Americans consistently fail to grasp, given their penchant for cruelty and selfishness, is reform.
That's what "our responsibility" means. We need to take these broken people and try to rebuild them, because they, their parents and society failed them the first time. Not all of them can be helped, but not to try produces what we have now, which is an abomination.
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> 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. I'm confused by the pro argument. My known lineage was not enslaved, but my grandparents immigrated with 0$, and my family has no generational wealth and we don't receive…
> Isn't being freed from slavery the same as being freshly immigrated with 0$? Well, if you're immigrating, it isn't 's fault you have no money. If you've been enslaved, it's very much 's fault you have no money.
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> we have a staggering amount of wealth to share with the less fortunate Many Americans will stop you at that first word. Who is this we you speak of? If the pandemic taught me anything, it's that to all too many Americans the most important freedom is freedom from strangers' problems. They don't want to see them, they don't want to hear them, and they sure as hell don't want to pay for them. Now, if THEY happen to h…
America is the most charitable country in the world[1]. But, as evidenced by the parent's comment, there is no shortage of people willing to spend other people's money, and Americans are justifiably cautious of that. [1] https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/most-char...
Maybe double check your link next time?
> The most noticeable change was arguably the United States, which ranked first in the world in giving for the years 2009-2018 but fell to 19th in the world in 2020.
(I also seriously doubt the methodology of this confident ranking of the world's charity based on self reported charitable behavior in surveys, but this was more humorous)
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I don't think it's possible to do that, in general. Anyone can find an injustice if they look hard enough. I have some ancestors that fled religious persecution in France. Many died. The ones that fled gave up everything. Should I play the victim card and petition France to restore the land my ancestors were chased off of? History is pretty ugly, I'm sure everyone could find a justified grievance if they tried hard e…
you know the reason that we don't have those things is precisely because politicians campaigned on the narrative that black people (welfare queens, etc) would unfairly take advantage of a system like that and they won. So it seems like you understand what needs to be done but what not what the blocking issues are.
This is what affirmative action should be... helping people out based on their individual situation, not because their skin color or gender.
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In California it’s ~85% of high school students graduate on average across all demographics https://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/ad/datasummary.asp
Every time I see these numbers I'm shocked at how it's not >98%.
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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…
> 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. I'm confused by the pro argument. My known lineage was not enslaved, but my grandparents immigrated with 0$, and my family has no generational wealth and we don't receive…