This is a brilliant point illustrated by those at the Daily Caller. It’s human nature to be selfish and to want what others have- even though you yourself have not earned it. That’s why those who stand to receive entitlements will almost always vote for those who promise to take the wealth from those who work hard, take risks, and who have earned it and redistribute it to those who have not. Therefore, many students who have not yet entered the adult world and have not yet been penalized for doing well financially do not understand this concept is wrong. If you take away incentives for hard work and replace it with penalties that remove the reward, you will simply develop a society of people who don’t feel it is worth it to even try anymore.
Usher in the situation posed by the Daily Caller:
Some of the great commanders her on FA have touched on this; John Galt, Old Trooper, Mata, Randy and Dr John all come to mind, although there are others. Most school does not seem to be conducive to success in the real world and education reform is the only way! Let’s be honest; sinking money into teachers pensions does not help students with their lifes outside of school. Classes should include constitution and capitalism. Its a good way to start.
@ Zac, The difference between Education and Indoctrination is huge. I read the Federalist Papers by campfire and was not harmed by the experience. A basic knowledge of the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Founding Fathers intent and concerns for the future of the Republic and the unique niche that the Nation held in the World can be gleaned from that time spent.
The American experience/experiment is still evolving but it still requires Leadership, Statesman/Womanship, Selfless Service to the Nation and the Election of Stewards to Congress, the Senate and the Whitehouse.
My take on the way forward:
Well, Old Trooper you post some valuable information. Perhaps we will soon have a congress that is ethical enough to make a vote for their country, instead of for their re-election. That is a great plan to reform social security!
Fixing the problems facing the world today is tougher to do than it is just being part of the problem. A few strong people, with high standards and burning convictions need to wage a strategic fight against the blatant corruption seen in our overwhelmingly big government. I think everyone understands to some degree that the system is corrupt and with that understanding; it would not be hard to capture the hearts and minds of a great majority of we the people. After eyes and ears are on the reformers; It is essential to ensure future generations enjoy the freedoms we enjoy today and I know I will see that in my lifetime. Anything else is un-American.
A grade school teacher did something similer with racism. I’m not sure which color she use first, but I will use blue. She said that the kids with blue eyes should be avoided. She did this for half the day. The rest of the day she said that the kids with the brown eyes should be avoided. The kids said they didn’t like how they were treated when they were the ones to be avoided. If she is still teaching, I hope she is still teaching that lesson.
Great ideas, OT.
@Old Trooper 2:
I have always been in favor of term limits for congresscritters. Whether it’s 12 years, or a similar number, we don’t end up with people living nearly their entire lives within the beltway of DC. The turnover in congress would bring new ideas as well, with less outside destructive influence.
I don’t know if I would completely do away with a pension type system for them, though. Maybe a system that pays 25% of their outgoing salary, annually, for life, if they make it the full 12 years, or whatever max time is chosen. And as far as healthcare, I think they should get exactly what our military gets, during their time in congress, and exactly what our VA gets, if they make it to full term limits. Our military healthcare system would be better off, with funding appropriate for what they give the nation, and our retired veterans would enjoy better healthcare as well. Right now, they are the only citizens I feel should receive my help with their healthcare. Limit congresspeople like that, and make it more of an honor to serve in DC, and I would feel the same about them.
Any way one looks at it though, today’s congressperson has become their own kind of aristocracy, and have not only piled on the overreaching of a massive federal government, but have bastardized the very idea of what congress was meant to be. There are 535 congresscritters today, and very, very few of them I’d vote back into office.
The point here is that people work hard for grades, but not for money? Maybe there are confusing people with jobs with people on government programs. I have had a few recent college grads as interns over the years. It appears that college has retarded their personal growth by 4 years or more. I didn’t agree with most of Gary Hart’s proposals, but I think it should be mandatory that all high school graduates do at least 2 years of public service after high school. Maybe they will understand issues better and be better prepared to attend higher education institutions.
@Randy:
I would almost, not quite, but almost, support a requirement that one must take a full year of classes on only the Constitution, the Federalist Papers, and the anti-Federalist Papers, to include discussions on various pertinent Supreme Court cases, before receiving the right to vote. At worst, it would expose young people to the Constitution itself, and at best, provide them with knowledge to determine why a particular piece of legislation limits their own, individual rights.
I don’t know if I’d fully support that though, as it would be a limitation on one of the rights our Constitution guarantees, that of voting, and I disagree with anything limiting one’s rights.
JG, In College I read “Das Capital” and “Mein Kampf”. Neither inspired me.
As there are over 900,000 VA Claims not adjudicated as of this date I would be content with paying the Senate, Congress, the POTUS and his Cabinet and the entire Staffing and Management of the VA 10% of their base pay until the number of unresolved claims is equal to the number that are not older than those filed in the past 90 days. Give Em gas & lunch money until they get after their Congressional Mandated Duties or Fire them All for Cause and revoke their Retirement/Pensions.
A Nation should be known by the way they treat their Veterans. those who have risked NOTHING deserve NOTHING. How about Them Apples? It was my privilege to Serve with America’s Second Greatest Generation. Their Loyalty, Sense of Duty and Courage inspired Me to never ask Them to Do anything that I wouldn’t or ask more of Them than I ask of myself. Soldiers will not follow Fools or Cowards. Their respect needed to be Earned Daily. The Nations Leadership just didn’t get the Memo or are of the other two types.
@Old Trooper 2:
That is why I would favor linking congresspeople’s healthcare to that of our current military, and those retired, or wounded, veterans who receive their care from the VA. You want those veterans to receive care consistent with what they gave to our country? What better way to better it than by making those who are responsible for it, subject to the same care.
By the way, despite My Daughter’s urging, I am NOT running for Public Office so don’t ask.
@johngalt: 10
I like that idea, but since it makes common sense, congress won’t go for it. That would bring them down to the level of the military.
@Smorgasbord:
I take exception to that. It would RAISE them up to the level of our military.
BTW, the point of view is noted. I merely note it from those I truly respect. 😉
http://www.spinninglobe.net/againstschool.htm
Mass schooling of a compulsory nature really got its teeth into the United States between 1905 and 1915, though it was conceived of much earlier and pushed for throughout most of the nineteenth century. The reason given for this enormous upheaval of family life and cultural traditions was, roughly speaking, threefold:
1) To make good people. 2) To make good citizens. 3) To make each person his or her personal best. These goals are still trotted out today on a regular basis, and most of us accept them in one form or another as a decent definition of public education’s mission, however short schools actually fall in achieving them. But we are dead wrong. Compounding our error is the fact that the national literature holds numerous and surprisingly consistent statements of compulsory schooling’s true purpose. We have, for example, the great H. L. Mencken, who wrote in The American Mercury for April 1924 that the aim of public education is not
to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence. … Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim … is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States… and that is its aim everywhere else.
@johngalt: #13
I have to agree with you. Congress has gone as low as it probably ever has, but in THERE opinion, they don’t want to be lowered to military level. The liberal members ALWAYS vote against military hardware, pay raises, etc. They could wind up next to a bed that a soldier is in because their unit didn’t have the necessary hardware to defend themselves in a firefight.
Thought this compliments the video, written over 2 years earlier. Excerpt: