51–59 of 59 posts
A consequence of the end of the cold war and a belief among many that a few, exceptional individuals are responsible for the bulk of the ingenuity that powers economic growth.
I mean, that belief is clearly true. Look how much Musk has given to society. PayPal / Tesla / SpaceX / OpenAI / Neuralink.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you talking about china or the US?
That doesn't stand up to scrutiny, the US is famously politically and ideologically divided. I understand the impulse to say "no, you" but we can do better than that here.
> The basic story is that during the aughts, we had a bipartisan education reform consensus that was focused on improving school quality as an attainable and important driver of social and economic progress. No Child Left Behind? It created tremendous incentives to teach to the test, and in some cases where that wasn't enough, to cheat to the test.
No Child Left Behind incentivised teaching to the level of the lowest denominator. That's a not just a problem in education. Lowest denominator thinking is endemic throughout America. Don’t be surprised if countries that seek excellence, like China, eventually have economic growth that outpaces America for this reason alone.
The lowest denominator, lowering of standards, and grade inflation I believe are all symptoms of 'education' not being about learning and skill building, but about credentialization. If only the certificate matters anymore, then rest is just theatre.
America stopped caring about poor kids' education long before smartphones. It goes back to at least the passage of Proposition 13 in California which gutted school funding from property taxes. Even growing up in a middle class Midwestern suburb in the 90s, the increasingly elderly population who had no children in the public school system voted to lower their taxes rather than continue programs that they took for gra…
The result was predictable. Nobody wants to pay higher taxes that don't go to their kids or communities. They would rather opt. This is why most affluent school districts have complex parallel funding streams that don't go through the government.
More to the point, school costs are also out of control. Average tax spend on k-12 education in California is ~25k per student, or 750k for a 30 student class.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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You're getting downvoted, but I think that's sort of the same effect that you're describing. Demonizing (or behavior on that spectrum) isn't unique to any side. It draws one side together but repels rather than converts the other side. Not demonizing creates a lot of what is considered "PC speech". Which demonizing quotes from progressives do you remember hearing/reading? Not any vague retellings of something someone…
Hell, I got downvoted for suggesting that hate was a motivator for a subset of people. I'm sadly confident in that assessment but such is life on teh interwebs.
There's very effective messaging that bends the perception of "progressive" values to be a literal attack on those who don't share those values. It's a strong disagreement and nothing more.
I would be classified as a progressive (but it's not my identity) -- I don't hate people "on the other side". I have not-positive feelings about them (puzzlement, frustration, sadness, and unfortunately, fear), but hate is not part of that equation.
One of the most frustrating things about this situation is that real dialog across the aisles is no longer possible. I could elucidate on why I think so but I don't need more angry downvotes today. Just note that the person you're commenting to will likely avoid sharing anything other than grievances.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're getting downvoted, but I think that's sort of the same effect that you're describing. Demonizing (or behavior on that spectrum) isn't unique to any side. It draws one side together but repels rather than converts the other side. Not demonizing creates a lot of what is considered "PC speech". Which demonizing quotes from progressives do you remember hearing/reading? Not any vague retellings of something someone…
Downvoting is about strongly disagreeing with the parent's point. It is not demonizing. Hell, I got downvoted for suggesting that hate was a motivator for a subset of people. I'm sadly confident in that assessment but such is life on teh interwebs. There's very effective messaging that bends the perception of "progressive" values to be a literal attack on those who don't share those values. It's a strong disagreement…
America stopped caring about poor kids' education long before smartphones. It goes back to at least the passage of Proposition 13 in California which gutted school funding from property taxes. Even growing up in a middle class Midwestern suburb in the 90s, the increasingly elderly population who had no children in the public school system voted to lower their taxes rather than continue programs that they took for gra…
Prop 13 was passed on the back of California choosing to redistribute school funding away from local communities where the taxes were paid. The result was predictable. Nobody wants to pay higher taxes that don't go to their kids or communities. They would rather opt. This is why most affluent school districts have complex parallel funding streams that don't go through the government. More to the point, school costs a…
> The result was predictable. Nobody wants to pay higher taxes that don't go to their kids or communities.
So the solution to school inequality should have been to enshrine both income inequality and real estate segregation in education funding policy?
> More to the point, school costs are also out of control. Average tax spend on k-12 education in California is ~25k per student, or 750k for a 30 student class.
It's closer to $20k (18th highest among US states)
https://www.ppic.org/publication/financing-californias-publi...
Also, FTA:
"When differences in labor costs across states are accounted for, California drops to 34th."
So California has very high labor costs, driven up by the insane housing costs, which are yet again enshrined by the provisions of Proposition 13 (and its accompanying phenomenon of NIMBYism).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Prop 13 was passed on the back of California choosing to redistribute school funding away from local communities where the taxes were paid. The result was predictable. Nobody wants to pay higher taxes that don't go to their kids or communities. They would rather opt. This is why most affluent school districts have complex parallel funding streams that don't go through the government. More to the point, school costs a…
> Prop 13 was passed on the back of California choosing to redistribute school funding away from local communities where the taxes were paid. > The result was predictable. Nobody wants to pay higher taxes that don't go to their kids or communities. So the solution to school inequality should have been to enshrine both income inequality and real estate segregation in education funding policy? > More to the point, scho…
Enshrine is a strong word, but yes, I think it basically broke the incentive structure for supporting the system. Regarding housing costs, I think they have far more to do with NIMBY and construction hostile policy.
High property tax doesn't really help housing affordability. High tax means sale prices are somewhat lower, but Mortgages would stabilize at the same value (just with a higher proportion being tax) unless you actually add more units.