Context to a Businesskid On A Cloud:
FREE YOURSELF FROM MENTAL SLAVERY. Or follow this blog to do so.
I'm a bald head Samsonite Rastafari with a liking for politics, media, sociology, psychology, economics, ganja and other topics.
What you'll read here are usually posts analyzing the world around me through a Gestalt lens. The picture is clearer when you look at the whole thing, rather than just the flower in the foreground. Join(t) me and read about a world of interconnected problems and possible solutions! And of course, random rantings and weed.
Makes more than enough sense when you recognize how much teacher discrimination and self-esteem play a role in student academic success.
John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka win the Nobel Peace Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work on reprogramming stem cells so they can develop into tissues of all parts of the body.
Rantings (and hopefully insight) of a student of social science.
Why ya’ll need to STFU and remember what a U.S. Democracy is.
For real though, we need a refresher. Some people fell asleep for a good chunk of Civics class and only remember the portion of our nation that involves Democracy. Apparently I’m one of the few that was conscious for the last part of my teacher’s sentence where he said “Republic.” Democratic Republics do two things. Serve the needs of the majority and protect the interests of the minority. Serve the majority. Protect the minority. This means give the majority what they want as long as it’s not at the expense of the minority’s rights or equality. For example, you can encourage people to move into historically poor neighborhoods. As long as it’s not at the expense of forcing poor people out. Or as a majority you can disagree with same sex marriage all you want, but unless it happening is somehow at your expense you can’t reasonably expect it banned. Likewise, economics may tell us that gov’t spending on Public Housing isn’t as free market as tax cuts, but would the latter be at the expense of the minority? Especially the minority that has already been deemed and treated historically as expendable. What I really love about the U.S. is that there was a genuine attempt at making a balanced society where everyone could do virtually whatever they wanted as long as it was at no one’s expense. What we need to remember is that legislation that protects or equals out the life of the minority is not a danger to the majority. Shared power is a Democratic Republic. Shared power is the foundation of the U.S.A.
Although it gets a bit conspiracy theory in the last paragraph, the facts are still there and the results are still true: an education filtered through corporate (and therefore ultimately political interests) is just as bad as political interference into a curriculum. There needs to be independent, informed oversight on education standards. Laziness is not an excuse to continue using information provided by essentially for-profit-and-incentive-driven resources.
“They’ve worked bloody hard to get where they’ve gotten. And if they want to [buy influence] then good on them. I’m definitely pro-billionaire — I wish I was one.” These are the words of blind hopefuls that can’t see that they live in a system built in such a way that it lifts a few into unbelievable, almost unattainable success while driving others to make unbelievable sacrifices in hope of getting to the same position. Few seem to realize more fruit would come from accepting the all too often pointed out realization that success and equality is attained by pointing out and fighting against lost balance in economics. Praying to become as super rich as Bill Gates is like hailing cabs at 42nd street looking for the famed “Cash Cab.” While this might work for some in the middle that are less likely to lose out in the economics of daily life, and more likely (although marginally) to reach the financial success of Mitt Romney and Bill Gates, this policy of “if hope is good enough for us, it’s good enough for all” deals a toxic hand to the truly poor and struggling.
Often the excuses used against the desire for higher taxation and socially-aware fiscal accountability from the wealthy is that they are “job creators.” The idea that creating co-beneficial jobs that are growing more and more highly specialized, therefore marginalizing the under-educated or unspecialized that really are in need of job opportunities, outweighs the importance of fair taxation in economics is absurd.
And don’t get me started on this far fetched concept that all these billionaires did their “hard work” and give their “fair share.” Bill Gates, as philanthropic as he is, had golden parachutes for his golden parachutes in case dropping out of college failed. Mitt Romney’s money is older than the portraits on each of his greenbacks. And although some of these wealth owners are generous with the needy, a good majority abide by the economics and morality of hoarding.
At least one person grasped that a billion dollars should be more than what any one person needs for a lifetime, and that it may not be unreasonable to expect someone in ownership of more than that to pay a higher tax rate than the rest of society: “Besides which, have you noticed how unhappy most of those billionaires look. Overweight, unhealthy — I wouldn’t want any of them deciding what’s best for all of us.”
What? Library Sciences isn’t a paying field?
