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I was a teacher for 17 years, but couldn't read or write

bbc.co.uk

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Re: I was a teacher for 17 years, but couldn't read or write

#111

Post by beckman466 »

telesilla wrote: post #100
yesenadam wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But there are actually people who like to rent I've never met any. Have you? I guess maybe rich people who could afford to buy but choose not to, like to rent. I live in Sydney, don't know anyone who owns their house or even dreams of it one day. Saying there are people who like renting, sounds to me like saying there are people who like pain, or a terminal illness, or a death sentence. But hey, at least our money…

I've lived in many countries and while I own a home in my original country to retire to (should that happen), I need places to rent when I don't want to be there. And my home is rented at those times, sometimes for years.

> while I own a home in my original country to retire to

You’re proving their point...?

From OP:

> I guess maybe rich people who could afford to buy but choose not to, like to rent.

> at least our money is going every week to people who already own more than one house

Re: I was a teacher for 17 years, but couldn't read or write

#114

Post by beckman466 »

CryptoPunk wrote: post #108
beckman466 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The highest rental rates in the world are in the city with the most ownership controls to prevents developers and landlords from profiting: San Francisco. Correlation is not causation. The reason rents are high in San Francisco is because it's where the 'owners' of a bunch of high-tech Intellectual Property live. Labor aristocrats have to move there to be able to work on that tech. That is what has driven up the re…

>>Correlation is not causation. The reason rents are high in San Francisco is because it's where the 'owners' of a bunch of high-tech Intellectual Property live. San Francisco does not have the highest average incomes in the world. What puts SF at the top of the rent rankings is the combination of high average incomes, and the most restrictive housing market in the US. I recommend you read the article I provided on r…

> San Francisco does not have the highest average incomes in the world.

Are you joking? I seriously can't tell.

Focusing just on worker's wages, when there are billionaire property owners (specifically owners of IP) living around the corner from you, is just ignorant and disingenuous if this really is your argument.

Steve Jobs famously paid himself $1 a year, remember? I mean, that's probably why he wore those hippy sandals right? He just couldn't afford more because of his measly wage? A few tech CEO's will pull down the average if they all pull off this wonderful tax trick.

Honestly I don't understand why you use these arguments and sources, they seem to me to be completely incompatible with reality.

> I recommend you read the article I provided on rent control.

You keep mentioning rent-control, but I have never said that it's the measure I am for. You do realize rent-control is not the only policy that a city or government can use and enforce right?

I think this 2019 documentary called Push (by Fredrik Gertten) does a great job of showing what is happening to the working classes and their lack of options for affordable housing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWSVG9nsRa4

Re: I was a teacher for 17 years, but couldn't read or write

#115

Post by telesilla »

beckman466 wrote: post #111
telesilla wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've lived in many countries and while I own a home in my original country to retire to (should that happen), I need places to rent when I don't want to be there. And my home is rented at those times, sometimes for years.

> while I own a home in my original country to retire to You’re proving their point...? From OP: > I guess maybe rich people who could afford to buy but choose not to, like to rent. > at least our money is going every week to people who already own more than one house

Where would I, or some other temporary migrant, live if not in someone's house who rented it to me? My owning a home is irrelevant.

Re: I was a teacher for 17 years, but couldn't read or write

#116

Post by code_duck »

ghoshbishakh wrote: post #16

I still don't get it. How is it possible that he managed to go through the system.

His success at gaming the system has plenty of applicability to modern issues with coordinated cheating, purchasing papers, plagarism and so forth. Sports stars who somehow go through school without learning anything academic is a serious issue in the modern day as well. That higher view of the issue like a more interesting topic than the sensational extent to which he fit the bill by falling short of even literacy.

As for him, he was apparently resourceful and charismatic, good at sports, had adequate innate math skills and was dedicated to gaming the system.

"So I was going to be a teacher's pet and do everything necessary to pass that system. I wanted to be an athlete - I had athletic skills, and I had maths skills"

"I ran around with college kids, I dated the valedictorian - the student with the highest grades who gives a speech at the graduation ceremony, I was the homecoming king"

Re: I was a teacher for 17 years, but couldn't read or write

#117

Post by rubyn00bie »

kzrdude wrote: post #90
rubyn00bie wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re surprised someone didn’t find it inspiring? Really? C’mon it’s a story about a guy who committed fraud, screwed up kids education, and then got an applause for it? This is a picture perfect case of white privilege. I’m not at all surprised at the comments like yours on HN. This is a place dominated by white people and they don’t like to be uncomfortable.

Maybe it could be called fraud when he was adult. But this story starts with a child who can't read and is ashamed to admit it, and it's nothing strange, it is human.

You’re excusing 17 years of fraud bu saying we’re all human. It’s pretty gross that you’re willing to excuse this because he was ashamed. Loads of people live with shame, loads of people don’t commit 17 years of fraud and get applause for it.

This whole thread wreaks of white privilege. I for once am actually enjoying the downvotes because each one is a little tear from a racist I’m enjoying. Mmmm. Nothing like making all white bros on HN feel a modicum of anything besides comfort.

Re: I was a teacher for 17 years, but couldn't read or write

#119

Post by sampo »

tuukkah wrote: post #36
sampo wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Finnish has only 3 words, all loanwords that didn't drop the h: thai (+ thai food, thai boxing etc), theeta (name of the Greek letter) and thorax (medical term, common word is rintakehä). https://www.kielitoimistonsanakirja.fi/#/th?searchMode=all

That's surprising to me, perhaps because "th" appears in inflected words such as "ovathan", dialectal words such as "vasthaan", compound words such as "oluthana" and names such as "Elisabeth" or "Porthania". Also, I wonder what's the share of the pronounciations "t", "th" and "θ" in the word "theremin". (You can download a list of word forms encountered in some selected written texts here: https://kaino.kotus.fi/sana…

I only searched for 'th' in the beginning of the word. We can add these to the previous result:

triathlon, smoothie, maybe also apartheid

Also the dictionary finds huithapeli, häthätää, rustholli, but I don't think these have 'th' as a phoneme.

https://www.kielitoimistonsanakirja.fi/#/*th*?searchMode=onl...

Re: I was a teacher for 17 years, but couldn't read or write

#120

Post by CryptoPunk »

beckman466 wrote: post #114
CryptoPunk wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>Correlation is not causation. The reason rents are high in San Francisco is because it's where the 'owners' of a bunch of high-tech Intellectual Property live. San Francisco does not have the highest average incomes in the world. What puts SF at the top of the rent rankings is the combination of high average incomes, and the most restrictive housing market in the US. I recommend you read the article I provided on r…

> San Francisco does not have the highest average incomes in the world. Are you joking? I seriously can't tell. Focusing just on worker's wages, when there are billionaire property owners (specifically owners of IP) living around the corner from you, is just ignorant and disingenuous if this really is your argument. Steve Jobs famously paid himself $1 a year, remember? I mean, that's probably why he wore those hippy…

>>Focusing just on worker's wages, when there are billionaire property owners (specifically owners of IP) living around the corner from you, is just ignorant and disingenuous if this really is your argument.

Average incomes within the city are the overwhelming determinant of the demand side of housing supply and demand.

A dozen billionaires are not going to materially affect the availability of housing, even if they all buy huge estates. Average income determines what the vast majority of the city's renters are able to afford to pay for rent.

In any case, San Francisco is not even in the top 10 for number of billionaires among cities:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_number_of_bi...

>>Honestly I don't understand why you use these arguments and sources, they seem to me to be completely incompatible with reality.

I suggest you actually read the article I linked to. It describes what economists at large think of rent control, and what studies on the effects of rent control have found.

>>You keep mentioning rent-control, but I have never said that it's the measure I am for. You do realize rent-control is not the only policy that a city or government can use and enforce right?

I brought up rent control because you wrote the following, which implies cities with rent control have had a positive experience with it:

>>I’d expect the opposite, as you see in countries that have rent and ownership controls.

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