epiphiny43
Posts: 688
Joined: 10/20/2006
Status: offline
|
The problems aren't welfare class people, it's the middle class being hollowed out by the divergence of income and education along strict economic/inheritance lines. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20154358
China solves the problem differently, with an education system that assumes ALL students are capable of mastering all the basic material and the rest of the society expects that. China is already publishing more science papers than the US, (Lower sophistication level, but rising fast) with a basically Third World economy because they Invest in Education as a national goal.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17585201
From the article:
On a recent trip to a poor province in China, he says he saw that schools were often the most impressive buildings.
He says in the West, it is more likely to be a shopping centre.
"You get an image of a society that is investing in its future, rather than in current consumption."
There were also major cultural differences when teenagers were asked about why people succeeded at school.
"North Americans tell you typically it's all luck. 'I'm born talented in mathematics, or I'm born less talented so I'll study something else.'
"In Europe, it's all about social heritage: 'My father was a plumber so I'm going to be a plumber'.
"In China, more than nine out of 10 children tell you: 'It depends on the effort I invest and I can succeed if I study hard.'
"They take on responsibility. They can overcome obstacles and say 'I'm the owner of my own success', rather than blaming it on the system."
This is a Cultural view that comes from many sources and isn't sabotaged by the mass media/TV/Hollywood and the constant ads to consume more. Most of Chinese citizens are satisfied with their government because they believe it is working for a better future for all. Most Americans are not satisfied though the malaise is not simply focused. We get what happens when smart business people decide national goals on the basis of their personal and corporate incomes during the immediately foreseeable future, particularly as they affect the stock markets. People feel the effects that are eating our economy, but don't make the necessary connections to a wealthy Senate and bought and paid for legislature selling our future to the highest bidders.
The most obvious of goals are disrespected, such as dissinvesting in higher education in future dependent disciplines. As the first link discusses, a whole generation is not seeing college as a way to a good life or even a stable income. And their 'vision' is clear. A letter to that article discusses in more stark terms what is actually a war by the upper income classes against the middle and working classes. They are winning, the US is losing it's future from this. That so many working people in the US buy the propaganda of the party representing the corporate and investment groups who are gutting the national economy is astounding. And Very depressing. Many countries much poorer than the US are educating their lower and middle school kids far better than the US and most industrialized nations have a better % of the population actually achieving a graduate level and Working in the area. Chinese education in the rural and poor areas would be the envy of most any 1st world country and far surpasses ours.
The US has the most economically stratified access to college and achievement in higher education of industrialized countries. The promise of 'opportunity' is for exceptional and lucky individuals and is no longer being delivered to the majority of Americans. The Wharton School graduates are getting rich. Most come from families with huge incomes already. As has been the history of the actual ruling elite in the NE urban areas for centuries. The mass education of the 20th century and the GI Bill are endangered and disappearing. Only in America is a mortgage available at 3% and college loans cost 7.9%. Then there is the privatization of colleges, far more now being run by for-profit corporations. People with BAs and MAs are working for minimum wage and glad to get that. No hope of digging out from under crushing college loans. College costs skyrocket every year and the available wages have been stagnant for over a generation. Pay for the top of all institutions has more than outpaced inflation or any reasonable increase in group efficiency.
Yahoo News today: Sen. Marco Rubio just finished paying off student loan debt. Senator Rubio was previously Speaker of the House for FL, not my idea of a hardship job.
|
RE: Welfare benefit scroungers - the evidence just does... - 
Profile
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread