Comments on: Time off

by: Obbop

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 04:18:25 +0000

H1-B visa

Do a Web search.

Note collusion between Congress and corporations.

Years of study (3 college degrees, whatever that’s worth and applicability to topic unknown) indicates to me the USA is in the throes of class warfare.

In the later 1970s and early 1980s worked the fields with migrant laborers, doing the work Bush and others babble Americans will not do. Well, saw planty of Anglo-Americans out there in the broiling sun. Kids eight years old to old folks in their 70s.

Yah’ know. Part of my hopes those working poor folks barely scraping by just sit down and quit working.

Let those grocery store shelves empty. Only around a 2-week food supply in the warehouses and supply line.

The lowest of the low could bring this country to its knees, disrupt society….. the cities would eventual erupt in rioting and carnage.

The underclass is growing along with the anger.

Too few of you understand.

The elite’s brainwashing has been far too effective.

I hope reality strikes some day.

by: Uisgea

Sat, 20 Jan 2007 11:44:22 +0000

I read a CNN.com article today about a young woman who stole another young woman’s identity and used to it to apply–successfully–to Columbia and to some other Ivy League school (I forget which).

The thieving young woman applied as a high school dropout with so-so GED performance and marginal SAT scores, but was accepted by both Ivy League schools.

I suppose that this can only mean that she managed to steal the identity of someone with a good credit rating.

by: restless

Tue, 02 Jan 2007 16:46:03 +0000

Noting the recent thread of responses centering on education and health care, I’ll post 2 articles in the next week on both. However, just so you know, California education in the 60s was quite a bit like you say Ireland is now — until Ronald Reagan was elected Governor. One of the big things he did then was to raise tuition to the University of California campuses. I entered UC Berkeley before his election and was paying less than $1,000 for a year. That quickly changed under his watch. After that, it got more and more costly year by year until now we have college students as the more rapidly growing class of debtors in the US.

by: Lynn

Tue, 02 Jan 2007 15:40:07 +0000

Just a interesting note on how education can be done right: In Ireland, education is completely free. And yes, I mean completely. Primary schools (ages 5 - 12) and secondary schools (ages 13 - 18) are all considered of equally high standard (private schools are rare as a result) and all are free. On top of that, all university and third-level colleges are free (funded by the government) so that any child, from any socio-economic background can achieve the highest possible levels of education. And the Irish education system is considered to be among the best in the world.
And not only do the Irish become better educated as a result of this system but it means that when they finish their education they do so with a clean slate and not a huge student loan hanging over them. Thus giving them the freedom not to have to rush into the workforce, to maybe take a year off travelling the world (someting that is not uncommon) or maybe follow with some post-graduate course. Obviously this makes for a lot more well-rounded individuals!

by: Uisgea

Wed, 27 Dec 2006 08:35:50 +0000

Here’s a wee tidbit I just remembered:

When I lived in Vermont, the State Secretary of Education made a PSA in which she said–and I quote–”Did you know that one out every ten Vermonters are illiterate?”

And that’s all I’m going to say about that.

by: Uisgea

Wed, 27 Dec 2006 08:26:14 +0000

It’s a fact, Jack, that the ordinary student’s reading and writing skills deteriorate precipitously after exiting Freshman Comp. Why? Because no one beyond Freshman Comp makes the ordinary student read or write, or has any real and ongoing expectation of their being able to do them well.

Can anyone explain to me how there can be so many college graduates–in high positions, no less–who can’t even knock together a proper sentence?

Wait! I just remembered–look at our role models.

Parents should stop worrying about living beyond their means, and start worrying about the role models their children have.

It’s better to be poor while trying to be good than to be rich and having nothing.

by: Patrick

Sun, 24 Dec 2006 16:38:33 +0000

I agree with Uisgea…the education system is in the crapper in the U.S. I experienced the dilemma of forcing myself to truly learn the material presented in class. Most students in my class earned the same or better grades than I did, but they could not recite one bit of relevant information a year later. I remember being one of the few “white kids” in the library on xmas break with all the Asian students. The reason for my hiring was actually based on my experience working in a hazardous environment and my certifications…very little had to do with my degree other than a informational base from which to draw. Long story short, we’re handing education to our kids without making them work for it.

by: Uisgea

Sat, 23 Dec 2006 06:43:45 +0000

I wish very much that I could get paid to sit here with my laptop and expound all day and night, but that ain’t happening, and it probably ain’t ever going to happen.

Simple fact is: I have to get up in three hours and bake, so that people who (unlike me) can afford to go out to eat will have their yummy buttermilk biscuits, and take them with ham and gravy, and take them for granted.

I am a firm believer in the idea of the MITLAMP Problem–a confederacy of dunces with a snappy acronym, representing the military, industrial, technological, legal, academic, medical, and political segments of the US. They drive the economy, and that isn’t good.

A hundred years ago, the average US family put 80% of its income toward food, and about 12% toward rent/mortgage. Now it’s completely flip-flopped. No one cares about having food in the cupboard any more; it’s more important to have a house you can’t afford and a Jet-Ski in the driveway, for all the neighbors to see.

One could actually blame the phenomenon of birth control–but that’s not a phenomenon I’m willing to tackle right now.

It is, of course, true that there are a lot of very rich people in China. There are also a lot of obscenely wealthy Mexicans. The knowledge that some of their neighbors may be wealthy, however, does not prevent innumerable Mexicans from trying to cross the border into the US every day (and, sadly, sometimes dying in the attempt) any more than it prevents many Chinese from resenting the socioeconomic “imperatives” imposed on them.

Being poor, I am no great fan of capitalism. At the same time, I am certainly no fan at all of socialism. The ideal, I think, lies somewhere in between–well within that nebulous gray area we keep speaking of.

Rattling on about political and social theory is fun, but, at some point, one must confront political and social reality, and that’s not so much fun.

I am afraid that things have to get much, much worse before they even begin to get better–and getting better will take a long, long time.

by: Porter Venn

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 18:21:44 +0000

“It all revives in me my childhood fantasy of starting my own country somewhere. “

How about you’re own island with other like minded souls?

http://www.floatingman.org/

by: Uisgea

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 08:39:07 +0000

I have a master’s degree, too. Does that make me an automatic candidate for a six-figure gig? Not bloody likely. Once upon a time, having a degree–not to mention an advanced degree–actually meant something. Now, any mulyak within spitting distance of one of the innumerable dumbed-down community colleges in this country can come away with sheepskin. Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I’ve always had the idea that a diploma was a hard-earned reward for years of rigorous academics and demonstration of smarts, and not a ticket to the caviar lifestyle. When did education become just a way to make more money? I’m not quarreling with patrick at all–he didn’t say anything that got my goat. But what he said did remind me of what I think is a profound US crisis: the worthlessness of the education system–which is a very broad statement, I know, and I don’t mean to overtake patrick’s admirable accomplishments with it. It’s just that he brought up education, and that subject invariably gets me steamed. The US education system sucks, maybe irretrievably, I’m sorry to say. And the only solution that I can see for my kids is to emigrate, but guess what–emigrating to countries worth emigrating to is practically impossible, unless you’re wealthy (as other people here have already pointed out). It all revives in me my childhood fantasy of starting my own country somewhere.

by: patrick

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 05:16:01 +0000

bs you can’t work your way up in the U.S. My family is dirt poor and I worked my way through college by insulating on commercial and industrial jobs…the janitorial job of the construction industry. Go to class, insulate all day, come home and study, repeat. Just received my master’s in occupational safety and health and i’m going to work for 6 digits starting. I didn’t get there by taking 7 weeks of vacation a year.

by: Fiend

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 03:29:13 +0000

Funny how we think Japan is the hardest working nation in the world, their economy owns ours even with more vacation time. Also people in this country are worried about health pandemics like smoking, sugars, trans fats, and pass laws to limit and regulate these “freedoms” yet the poor bastard that dies of a heart attack from on the job stress is overlooked because his work is necessary for corporations to thrive and pay more taxes for the same pay while risking the health hes paying to protect, hypocrisy at it’s best. Garbage in garabage out. Even best buys corporate offices have learned a thing or two about flexibilty by allowing execs to work the shifts and hours they want as long as their work gets done, and have seen amazing results. Happy, healthy, workers equate to more profits, less down time, and overall success, the alternatives are high turnover, lost profit from sick leave, or perhaps we could use china as a model for success theres a goal to strive for. And before anyone starts flinging around socialist this and communist that, I’m a hardcore conservative.

by: seachnasaigh

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 00:51:19 +0000

Voltaire — nice, but no cigar. The same can be said of nearly every society from Han China to Rome to Bourbon France to Georgian England. History has shown us that nearly every society will have its elites, and largely will be run by them. The point really is not to concentrate on that … it’s rather like complaining about gravity … but to focus on what can be done for the quality of life of those of us not so blessed as to have been to the manor born. We have an unprecedented opportunity in this century to raise the standard for the bulk of us in the middle classes, and to angle for a quality of life that is both human and humane. The “rising tide lifts all boats” philosophy is not entirely bankrupt, though it has been somewhat prostituted in the rhetoric of some politicians. With global communication, easy access to the democratic process, and largely free and open societies, we can effect some reasonable changes that will set a better standard for most of humankind. We’d be criminally negligent to ignore that opportunity and focus instead on the fact that some folks always have it easier.
mrnobody — I do agree, somewhat. We should all be better off if we’d focus a little more on life and a little less on entertainment. A wise man (a comedian, I believe) once said that television is an entertainment medium, and by definition, everything on it is judged by its value as entertainment. One only has to watch the evening news to see the truth of this. It would be sad if we let the internet, which is largely an information medium, degenerate the same way and become only a source of entertainment. It’s headed that way, but I think there’s still time to turn it into something useful. Time will tell.

by: cap'n Capri

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 00:48:28 +0000

While it is true much of the world seeks the American dream, they mostly come from economically depressed countries. I don’t see a steady stream of Western Europeans heading to the US. Canadians aren’t hopping fences in the dead of night. The “American Dream” is not exclusive to America. It is attainable in many other countries. And many of those countries treat workers better than in the US. Why is taking time off seen as a weakness in your country? You’d be even more productive if you weren’t tired and stressed all the time. And when was the last time the President of the United States of America was not a millionaire? Does your boss deserve 35 times the income that you earn? Anyone can work hard and attain great heights. Yeah, you cling to that. Stupid F’n Republicans.

by: Voltaire

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 00:07:40 +0000

The key to becoming wealthy in the modern United States of America:

Choose your parents carefully.

America is a corporate aristocracy ruled by a few wealthy families. Anyone who believes otherwise is delusional, but they shouldn’t feel bad. Your educaitonal system, corporate media and economic system have been deliberately designed to make sure you are deluded in precisely this manner. And for as long as that remains the case, the ever-diminishing masochists who comprise the American middle class will continue to lap it up and worship at the feet of their feudal overlords. Enjoy.