tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957911.post1400455928833535559..comments2024-03-28T12:59:05.739-07:00Comments on Iron Tongue of Midnight: The Fall of Higher Education in CaliforniaLisa Hirschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14014924958428072675noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957911.post-47709714295695935552012-06-05T13:12:24.594-07:002012-06-05T13:12:24.594-07:00RIGHT ON.RIGHT ON.Lisa Hirschhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14014924958428072675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957911.post-83660909089117541522012-06-05T12:56:51.353-07:002012-06-05T12:56:51.353-07:00The people at the Howard Jarvis org are lying scum...The people at the Howard Jarvis org are lying scum and being the heretics in the auto-de-fa scene in <i>Don Carlos</i> --they're the ones tied to the stakes, of course-- is still too good for them.<br /><br />The best was Warren Buffett, after he got appointed to some position by Ahnold. He pointed this out:<br /><br /><i>The first Laguna Beach house is a property that I bought in the early 1970s. It has a current market value of about $4 million and, because of the limitations embodied in Proposition 13, carried taxes of only $2,264 in 2003 vs. $2,241 in 2002.<br /><br />The second house, located just in back of the first, is one that I purchased in the mid-1990s. It has a market value of about $2 million and, simply because I bought it later than the first, carried taxes of $12,002 in 2003 vs. $11,877 in 2002.<br /><br />I pointed out to Joe that these figures mean that the tax rate on the second house -- same neighborhood, same owner, same ability to pay -- is roughly 10 times the rate on the first house</i><br /><br />From here:<br /><br />http://www.wealthandwant.com/docs/Buffett_Prop13.html<br /><br />Of course, for daring to speak the truth about the odious Prop 13, Buffett was kicked to the curb.<br /><br /><b>REPEAL PROP 13 NOW</b>!Henry Hollandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15871451112170286316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957911.post-71341248362354604492012-06-02T11:01:42.800-07:002012-06-02T11:01:42.800-07:00A couple of things -
- There's quite a bit of...A couple of things -<br /><br />- There's quite a bit of evidence that what we think of as "intelligence" is developed by the environment you're in, and there's plenty of room to improve the environments of children in this country, who are disproportionately poor, not getting ideal intellectual stimulation, etc.<br /><br />- Given the above, I don't think we realistically know what each individual is able to achieve intellectually.<br /><br />- I agree with you that the ability to be a programmer, scientist, or financier isn't inherently more valuable than being a mechanic. I would like everyone to be paid a living wage for whatever work they're doing.Lisa Hirschhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14014924958428072675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957911.post-50173107528772918272012-06-02T10:57:44.638-07:002012-06-02T10:57:44.638-07:00Ms. Hirsch,
Look, it's hard to get a job, any...Ms. Hirsch,<br /><br /><i>Look, it's hard to get a job, any job, these days without college. And an increasingly complex world needs more, not fewer, well-educated people.</i><br /><br />I believe the national sacred cow of the four-year college education is going to be the next socioeconomic/cultural shoe to drop in the great reordering of American priorities. We’re still at the point where you can’t ask this question in polite conversation, lest you be accused of wanting to deprive someone of the American Dream. The higher-ed industry will fight this kicking and screaming of course. They’ve got a nice little mass-hypnosis racket going, and such questions run the risk of messing it all up. How we got to this point where our society believes that most people are suited to a baccalaureate program with any rigor I do not know. Traditionally and properly understood, a four-year college education teaches advanced analytic skills and information. It's been apparent for some time that raw, computational intelligence is set fairly early on in life. Today’s idea that we should all aspire to something more than physical labor and craftsmanship is a reflection of modern society's tendency to idealize intelligence as somehow more meaningful a trait than imagination or artistic talent.<br /><br />Education these days fails on two grounds: failing to achieve academically is viewed as somehow a failure as a person, rather than an indication that your strengths lie in other areas; the object of education is not for the talented to excel, but rather for everyone to achieve a base level of mediocrity. Those incapable of even mediocrity (logically, half of the populace, depending on the definition of mediocrity) will never achieve it, regardless, and those who might have been excellent with support will only achieve mediocrity. Intelligence is like any other trait - you have an underlying capacity set by the genetics that you've inherited, but if you don't work it adequately you will never achieve its potential. That's the case for an olympic sprinter, a rocket scientist or a master chef. Today so much effort goes into trying to force children who are not capable to achieve some sort of pretense of average, and children who have the capacity to excel are left to squander their potential once they've achieved the minimum requirements. The tendency is, these days, to reset the bar lower so that even mediocrity is not assured, but 100% pass rates are.<br /><br />We need to start valuing people as people, not as commodities, and not view people as merely suppliers of services. A medical Doctor is vital to a community, but so (in a different way) is a bin-man, or a car mechanic, or a check-out operator. The fact that fewer people have the underlying talent to be a Doctor than a bin-man is a market force, but people shouldn't be commodities in a work-force market place.Alekseihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11581363302791171286noreply@blogger.com