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Economic Liberalism Discussion

Jesus, I left this thread alone for several days and weird stuff started happening. Damn.

The Effects of Universal Preschool in Washington, D.C.

According to the Center for American Progress, establishing universal preschool could allow a mother to participate in the labor force and moving up on the economic ladder. This could help the development of children by providing a safe and generally positive environment and learn to communicate with those who are not a part of their family at an early age.
Yeah sorry about adding to the shitshow.
 
Well, I went to preschool and I was better-ish... but that is skewed with decent teachers.

Problem, to do that you'll need a vastly larger government than what we have now. Probably at least twice as large minimum, probably three or more with the national guard ready and on call 24/7 in some cases.
Your political insights always astound me with the depth of their detail and research
 
Your political insights always astound me with the depth of their detail and research
Problem, there have been times that national guard units had been called in to pacify entire sections of cities for non-riot situations. Also, a lot of the current problems with 'red tape' isn't that there are too many bureaucrats, it's that there isn't enough of them. It also doesn't help that the GOP have gutted much of the bureaucracy and the various analytical departments as well.
 
Honestly since we're talking economics here we should also mention the value that a good education system can have:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...c70b6f98089_story.html?utm_term=.1b5a784744e1
Instead of ossifying into an autocratic force, Kerala's communists embraced electoral politics and since 1957 have been routinely voted into power. Instead of being associated with repression or failure, the party of Marx is widely associated with huge investments in education that have produced a 95 percent literacy rate, the highest in India, and a health-care system where citizens earning only a few dollars a day still qualify for free heart surgery.

This modern incarnation of communism also has produced one of the stranger paradoxes of the global economy: millions of healthy, educated workers setting off to the supercharged, capitalist economies of the Persian Gulf dreaming of riches and increasingly finding them.
Isaac estimated that the government would have to subsidize the workers' salaries for about 10 years, until they retire and their jobs most likely disappear.

He knew such subsidies were possible only because of the decidedly un-communist lives that the younger generations are pursuing. Increasingly, young workers are fleeing Kerala's low wages for the booming states of the Persian Gulf region, leaving Isaac to oversee an economy unlike anything Marx ever imagined — one fueled by global demand for Kerala's healthy, educated workforce. But even with the gulf money, Isaac is running the largest deficit of any Indian state.

As finance minister, Isaac dreams of building new highways, bridges and industrial parks that might make it easier to attract high-paying jobs to Kerala — "the best physical and social infrastructure in all of India!" he often says.

But for now, his government has more pressing priorities: expanding Kerala's four international airports — each of which offers nonstop flights to the gulf — and adding a fifth.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Kerala's migrant workers found employment building highways and skyscrapers in the gulf. These days, their better-educated successors fill jobs overseas as accountants, nurses, lawyers, doctors and mid-level civil servants. More than a third of Kerala's gross domestic product last year came from remittances.

Basically thanks to socialist welfare programs that ensured children were healthy and well educated has created a strong middle class that helps sustain decent living standards in one of the poorest communities in all of India.

Education does indeed pay for itself.
 
Problem, there have been times that national guard units had been called in to pacify entire sections of cities for non-riot situations. Also, a lot of the current problems with 'red tape' isn't that there are too many bureaucrats, it's that there isn't enough of them. It also doesn't help that the GOP have gutted much of the bureaucracy and the various analytical departments as well.
Dude it's just more preschools what are you talking about
 
Proper education is needed to produce productive citizens/employees for both the private and public sectors. In the long-term, preschool could discourage youth crime and that may save a lot of money.
It would also help fight poverty as parents can safely look for high paying work without fear of thinking about organizing your schedule around your child.
 
Dude it's just more preschools what are you talking about
I was referencing your snide comment...
Proper education is needed to produce productive citizens/employees for both the private and public sectors. In the long-term, preschool could discourage youth crime and that may save a lot of money.
Problem, you've got a very deep anti-intellectual and anti-education culture thread within the US. To quote Asimov:
quote-the-strain-of-anti-intellectualism-has-been-a-constant-thread-winding-its-way-through-isaac-asimov-60-50-76.jpg

(yeah, and Asimov has an anti-democratic stance on many of his works... as in 'been tried a few times but always failed every time' stance)
 
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I was referencing your snide comment..
my comment was made precisely because you go off on these weird tangents about nothing.
Problem, you've got a very deep anti-intellectual and anti-education culture thread within the US. To quote Asimov:
Like this for example: "the problem with education is that many are uneducated, so we shouldn't educate them"
 
It would also help fight poverty as parents can safely look for high paying work without fear of thinking about organizing your schedule around your child.
Correct. Parents would have peace of mind and work more efficiently. Heck, maybe taking off some of that weight on the shoulders of parents/legal guardians would encourage them to pursue something bigger like entrepreneurship.
Problem, you've got a very deep anti-intellectual and anti-education culture thread within the US. To quote Asimov:
quote-the-strain-of-anti-intellectualism-has-been-a-constant-thread-winding-its-way-through-isaac-asimov-60-50-76.jpg

(yeah, and Asimov has an anti-democratic stance on many of his works... as in 'been tried a few times but always failed every time' stance)
Problem is that more Americans are going for a higher education and much of the anti-intellectualism in America comes from scared old people terrified of the changes or simply aware politicians taking advantage of an ignorant demographic to get elected.
 
Like this for example: "the problem with education is that many are uneducated, so we shouldn't educate them"
Actually, the US has some of the highest literacy and graduation rates on the planet. Problem is the aforementioned strain of anti-intellectualism.
Problem is that more Americans are going for a higher education and much of the anti-intellectualism in America comes from scared old people terrified of the changes or simply aware politicians taking advantage of an ignorant demographic to get elected.
Er, not exactly. It's across the board from what I can tell... but interestingly enough mostly focused on GOP dominated areas. The old people terrified of change are likely to lead the charge though.

EDIT: For those who don't understand the context of Asimov's quote, here is the Newsweek article in PDF form.
 
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Singapore seems to have a good model where they teach tolerance and diversity to all the children by the making them interact together from an early age.
 
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Actually, the US has some of the highest literacy and graduation rates on the planet. Problem is the aforementioned strain of anti-intellectualism.

Er, not exactly. It's across the board from what I can tell... but interestingly enough mostly focused on GOP dominated areas. The old people terrified of change are likely to lead the charge though.

EDIT: For those who don't understand the context of Asimov's quote, here is the Newsweek article in PDF form.
Umm... the literacy rate in the US is awful. Most of the nations Trump bitches about sending us all those immigrants have higher rates of literacy than we do.
 
Umm... the literacy rate in the US is awful. Most of the nations Trump bitches about sending us all those immigrants have higher rates of literacy than we do.
From what I've seen and heard, the literacy rate in the US is well above average... just not to the levels that usually have Japan's situation (where students constantly commit suicide or burn out)...
 
From what I've seen and heard, the literacy rate in the US is well above average... just not to the levels that usually have Japan's situation (where students constantly commit suicide or burn out)...
We are actually below the global average. We are at roughly 84%. The average for "developed nations" is 99.2%. Global average is 86.3
 


Singapore seems to have a good model where they teach tolerance and diversity to all the children by the making them interact together from an early age.

Singapore is also a hyper capitalist hellhole that lords itself over the rest of SEA like Queen Motherfucking Victoria so let's slow our role on saying it appreciates tolerance and diversity.
 
probably three or more with the national guard ready and on call 24/7 in some cases.

Uh, no. Just no.

We are actually below the global average. We are at roughly 84%. The average for "developed nations" is 99.2%. Global average is 86.3

The global average is for their own languages, a person that speaks only chinese would not do well in the USA. So this statement:
Umm... the literacy rate in the US is awful. Most of the nations Trump bitches about sending us all those immigrants have higher rates of literacy than we do.

Is misleading as fuck.
 
Uh, no. Just no.



The global average is for their own languages, a person that speaks only chinese would not do well in the USA. So this statement:


Is misleading as fuck.
Ummm.... how is what language they can read relevant to whether they are literate?
 
Huge BART housing bill becomes law
As part of a weekend flurry of bill signings and vetoes, Governor Jerry Brown gave final approval to AB 2923, a law that makes it easier for BART to potentially develop tens of thousands of new homes on property it owns across the Bay Area.
The
According to the bill:
Board of directors shall adopt transit-oriented development (TOD) zoning standards by a majority vote at a duly noticed public meeting that establish minimum local zoning requirements for BART-owned land that is located on contiguous parcels larger than 0.25 acres, within one-half mile of an existing or planned BART station entrance, in areas having representation on the BART board of directors.

Analysis by groups like SPUR concludes that BART could create as many as 20,000 new units in the Bay Area, although this would represent a particularly high density at the locales.
Good news for Californians. Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a bill that will allow BART to construct new homes on it's property. Hopefully, this would help deal with the housing crisis going on in the Golden State.
 
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Ummm.... how is what language they can read relevant to whether they are literate?
Pretty sure he means being Chinese literate//English illiterate wouldn't help immigrants to the USA, which further drives down English literacy rate of adults in the US.

A point to quibble over.



I read that 32 percent of adults in the US can't read.
Washington Post said:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-crisis/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.bb5affca6705
The situation is just as worrisome at a national level. Approximately 32 million adults in the United States can't read, according to the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institute of Literacy.
What in the actual fuck.

Christ almighty our education system is all sorts of fucked.
 
Pretty sure he means being Chinese literate//English illiterate wouldn't help immigrants to the USA, which further drives down English literacy rate of adults in the US.

A point to quibble over.



I read that 32 percent of adults in the US can't read.

What in the actual fuck.

Christ almighty our education system is all sorts of fucked.
Our education system is one of the worst in the industrialized world. Mainly due to anti-intellectual tendencies in our culture that are encouraged by certain groups. We literally didn't put real (non-creationist) science in public schools until it was suddenly an emergency to out-science the soviets, for example. Our university system is set up to favor athletes over scholars. We have the Texas republican prty literally having a plank in their platform declaring that they will fight against children being taught critical thinking skills so as to avoid them questioning their parents' religion.
 
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