Perfect clarity: Piggy-backing off of the quotation comprising most of the initial sentence above- it would actually profit presidential candidates to know how many homes or properties they own. Likewise, the voter’s will is damaged with incessantly-aired attack ads approved by U.S. senators of a mid-western state that concern how delinquent a democrat has been in paying his taxes in multiple states and in turn, how little the republican pays for room and board for a dwelling in Washington- (see the Norm Coleman and Al Franken ads). Sirs, maybe you should mix in some thoughtful, fruitful discussions on the topics of health care and education and approve those messages. It is clear that plenty of voters do not approve of your methods senate candidates, but not enough of them will escape from their sheepdom to vote for extended party candidate Dean Barkley.
Youth sports: Recently, I paid for and attended, with my son, a weekly city childhood sports participation class. The intent was to teach the young Olympians and hall-of-famers to be, how to kick, catch, throw, and hit various types and sizes of balls with the objective being to prepare them for subsequent sports. My son, who is three-and-a-half, participated about as much as the flies that had been living off the scum at a nearby pond. This lack of participation is expected from a little guy who can lose focus every now and again. The price of the class was $115 for 7- 45 minute sessions. Previous to committing to trying to corral my young lad during these sessions I had been interested in signing him up for a basketball class, for which the price was the same. I said to my wife- "I don’t know if I would pay that much money if James Naismith were teaching the class." Note: Naismith is credited with having invented basketball. If I had not consented to get him enrolled at something at or near that $115 price, he may have passed his entire youth languishing in sports charlatanry, being unable to impress the ladies with his knowledge and abilities at barbecues from now until the end of his days. No one wants that. That ability has served me so well- or not.
Good luck: I found that the city’s early childhood education pamphlet is littered with various programs, from sports classes, ballet, dance, arts and crafts and classes like ‘thumb-sucking avoidance techniques.’ That last one does not currently exist, but if anyone can successfully work with my son on how to avoid the thumb-sucking, there might be $115 in it for you. This approach may be less expensive than my accumulated orthodontist bill several years down the road- just a hunch. Paying for those classes is the obligation and joy of any parent who wants to involve their children in some of the things this world, country and locality have to offer- to introduce them to things that could become their life-long loves, which could help them stay healthy and active. These types of classes are necessary to socialize them with other kids and to teach them sportsmanship, among other things. I could start teaching my daughter to talk to fish while she practices for her international competitive eating contests, but she is nearly two and it may be too late to begin the training. The Chinese start grabbing little boys and girls for gymnastics at three who show any ability to tumble. And clearly mastering the art of eating 50 hot dogs in 12 minutes is something a normal little girl would already be showing a proficiency in. She can barely get half of a Scooby-Doo turkey dog down at this point. I had such high hopes for my little Kobayashi. Yep, I am still talking about education, its costs and the benefits weighed against those costs. A sports education falls under that broad heading.
Perfect segway: Writing about competitive eating as it relates to the sub-topic of education and Alexis de Tocqueville will be my next event . . . er- task. Sorry, watching Michael Phelps make his way through the fortuitous waters (given the number of gold medals and world records) of the Water Cube in Beijing was dizzying. At any rate, education, I would remind people that are only reading the bold text at this point, is the preeminent necessary cost. I first mentioned this in part 8 and put it exactly like this- A college education is the necessary cost that will most determine how obtainable all of the other necessary costs will be. Hard to dispute that, or this: “The data [in an Education Pays 2006 survey] showed a big earnings gap between high school and college graduates. Women, aged 25-34, with bachelor’s degrees “earned 70 percent more than those with high school diplomas . . . [and] that gap was 63 percent, up from 37 percent in 1985” for men. (Key in the Google search “Average College Cost Breaks $30,000” and it will take you to the CNN.com article from October 27, 2006, written by Rob Kelley.) “Full-time workers aged 25-34 with college degrees” Kelley writes, “make an average of $14,000 a year more than those with high school diplomas.”
More from this article:
1) first, the title of the article is misleading- the title only refers to the average private college tuition- not the baseline I am looking for to objectively consider how difficult future generations of middle class kids are going to have it. I don’t need that kind of help to approach a reasonable man’s proof requirements;
2) “as they have for the past 11 years, average college costs rose faster than inflation”
3) “The good news is that the rate of increase at four-year public colleges slowed slightly for the third year in a row – 6.3 percent from a 7.1 percent jump last year (that is such good news- and to think- the average cost of a college degree is only 2.3% more than my cost of living last year instead of 3.1%- and I got one whale of an excellent cost of living bump according to my supervisor). Keep in mind- people actually have more to pay for in terms of necessary costs than just education- like gas, clothes, food, transportation, etc. Consider this- a rickets-ridden savvy ravenous wolverine who has contended that there are mass quantities of vitamin C in your toes tells you that instead of biting off a whole toe this year, for the 11th year in-a-row, he is only going to nibble off a portion of a toe you already no longer have- super news!;
4) “With room and board, four-year public colleges average $12,796 for in-state residents”;
5) Kelley writes about a punk-goth rogue monkey wearing T-shirts in libraries that read “The day you die is the day I smile” and how the monkey was able to give the Tokyo police the slip. Actually, Kelley did not write that article- just making sure you were paying attention. This is a combination of two stories. This one: “Monkey Eludes Net-Wielding Tokyo Police,” an August 20, 2008 Reuters story- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26306410; and this one- I was in the library the other day where some punk-goth young adult, who was apparently still traumatized that because he was holding at a weight that was not conducive to skateboarding, decided to send away for his and hers all-knowing T-shirts (for his pudgy girl buddy had a matching blouse). My first thought after reading the shirt- how omniscient (how will he know). Punk-goth defined- I mentioned the skateboarding thing, but his haircut made him look like he got out of the chair before the woman was done snipping; he wore all black, must have been a janitor somewhere, given his chain of keys; the residual effect of years of excessive makeup applications was also apparent. I see that stuff and sometimes can understand why politicians wouldn’t want to make colleges and universities spend more of their endowment money.
6) “Over the past decade, total student aid, including grants, loan, work-study and tax benefits, increased by 95 percent, adjusted for inflation . . . loans have grown to become a bigger part of aid packages, while grant aid has shrunken . . . loans constitute 51 percent of total aid to graduate and undergraduate students, while grants made up 44 percent.” (Not much funny about that- but these are always included in the litany of facts that go largely undisputed. It is the deductive conclusions I am making with which people are having a problem. Apparently logic is not a course they did well in in college.)
It is a matter of degrees: from an article titled “How to Earn a Degree Without Going Broke” by Mark Silver, October 27, 2006 (just one day after Kelley’s average cost article I refer to above)- Silver provides essentially the same assessment, but extrapolates upon the reason for an education costing so much. Don't forget about the cost of books. I was informed that a young man's books cost him in the neighborhood of $700 for one semester. Those who discount my theory about the dispiriting affect this can have on the middle class, you little David Hume(s) you, making the opposite conclusion- your opinion is a shim in the structure of reason. Get back to me when you have a better foundation not predicated on your hope that all is well. (Note: the price of books is dependent on the type of degree being sought. I was an English major and paid for Bantam publishing classic novels that haven't been altered in hundreds of years. The person I have in mind who paid the amount of $700 is in a bio-medical engineering program where the subject matter is constantly being updated, and in theory- according to the professors, requires that new editions are needed to keep the students up to date.)
Degree investment I: The article- “College Degree Still Worth Investment, Economists Say” by Mike Meyers of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, from June 21, 2006 is far more enlightening and speaks more to my point. Meyers writes that “Lifetime incomes of college grads in today’s dollars average nearly $300,000 more than high school graduates over a 40-year career. And that’s the net benefit, after deducting an average cost of more than $100,000 in tuition, room and board and potential income lost while attending college.” At least the guy said something about “net” benefit- something too many of the expert economists ignore (see part 4). A Princeton University economist cites two factors that back up the claim that the initial reported cost of a college education is not actually what students (or parents of students) pay for an education. This economist states that because of aid, (the article only lists income tax credits as aid) students are paying significantly less. How do they define the word “significantly” at Princeton? Those people at Princeton are at least one spork shy of a successful picnic lunch; aren’t there any practical application folks at Princeton? (see part 24, #9 about taxpaying immigrants).
Degree investment II (the payoff): My wife and I just completed paying off her student loan that has been a $200-a-month bill. We received a Student Loan Interest deduction of $313 on our 2007 tax return. I would not call that “significant.”* Is it worth paying a lot for college now in order to reap the financial benefits later on? Yes, and it would seem to be a number of years, based on the rather large gap in expected earnings of a college graduate and his high school graduating counterpart, before it won’t make economic sense to go to college. However, I would not just focus on the expected earnings of college and high school graduates as the touchstone for determining the overall value of a college degree. If you look at the increasing population and the types of jobs that will be available over the next 50 years, it becomes clear, in my opinion, that for a vast number of them, no college degree will be required.** Aside from nurses, doctors, dentists, electrical engineers, computer software designers, lion tamers and sacrificial virgins with bronchitis in their knees, I don’t know of a lot of jobs that would pay a lot for a college graduate’s services, considering how flooded the marketplace of prospective employees will be. Have you looked at the population numbers lately? Done any math in the area of instructors per 100 students? Come to any conclusions about how many service industry people will be needed as compared to professions that could actually require four year college graduates? In 20 years, if you have a college degree it better be specialized in a market crying out in need for capable employees or a student ready to take on the world will drown in debt. However, I have been told by a number of informed citizens that there will be plenty of occupations that will require a college degree, and reasonably so. I will defer to that quite reasonable opinion and simply watch the percentage of jobs that require a degree in relation to those that don't over the course of the next twenty years.
Dobbs on jobs: On page 112 of “War on the Middle Class” Dobbs writes that in the next decade the greatest demand for workers will be in these areas- waiters and waitresses, janitors, food preparers, cashiers, customer service representatives, retail salespeople. There are only four professions on that list where a college degree would be required and those professions do not completely match the list I buried in the preceding paragraph. I don’t imagine that Dobbs just made up this list without the assistance of at least one expert. So, it makes perfect sense, given that we’ll need so many workers in those areas, to allow in massive numbers of immigrants to fill them when immigrants, in large part, are why we need those jobs filled to begin with. This frustration is the real reason a 56-year-old Milwaukee guy shot his own lawnmower last month. Either that or he had heard that the bottle nose dolphin show was cancelled at the zoo, or that speed-lawnmowing was turned down as a potential future Olympic sport tentatively slated for its inaugural showing at the 2012 London games. (See this- http://edition.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/07/25/mower.madness.ap/index.html. The man, if convicted, could be sentenced to serve 6 years and 3 months in prison, in addition to paying an $11,000 fine. Cripes, we have politicians charged with lewd conduct in airport restrooms treating the legal system like a game of Go Fish and possibly housing disorderly conduct type thoughts in their minds about the butter sculptures at state fairs across the nation. The guy shot his own lawnmower. But let us continue to reform all child rapists. Maybe we aren’t as educated as we think. Sometimes I think the IQ of the kitchen curtains has us beat.
Dobbs on education and its affordability: “The cost of education has outpaced almost every other economic benchmark for more than a generation. (pg. 158 of WMC) Unfortunately, this rising cost of education is paid regardless of a student’s ability to demonstrate knowledge acquired based on that expenditure. I had seen the problems as they equated to the education system for years before having read Dobbs’ book and had seen what peril middle class kids would be in concerning the future of their earnings being tied to their level of education given the likelihood of affording the latter. Here, Dobbs quotes another non-expert, “ ‘We are cheating our low-income and working-class kids. And we’ll have a society where the very well off, the children of the very well off become highly educated, and then the rest of us don’t have those same opportunities.’ Seventy-four percent of all kids in college come from the top one-quarter income group.” With everything trending higher, the cost of education, the number of immigrants, the cost of financing a wedding, the cost of books, of health care, of military entanglements, of Welfare, of pet jackrabbits with a lower sex drive, you can still argue the point that the next generations of middle class kids are not in an economic pickle? We can’t fix all of the issues at once- and neither can all of the geese in the phone booth spread their wings at the same time.
Dobbs’ education basics: Dobbs writes about many of the problem areas in primary education- math and science deficiencies, where America ranks among the most educated countries in the world, the number of high school seniors not qualified to take college level algebra; no child left behind axes to grind; questionable teacher qualifications and barely adequate subsistence teacher wages; estimated graduate and high school dropout rates; those responsible for a school full of students who are misrepresenting their student’s scholastic performances; how much is spent, on average, on students, and how much that cost has gone up over the past three decades; the greater and greater competition from around the world among the educated, for which our American officials allow the sub-contracting of a foreigner’s skills to the detriment of an American student. That portion after the comma in the last clause is my editorial enhancement, not Dobbs’. While I am busy teaching my daughter not to touch her hair after having used it as a spoon to get yogurt in her mouth, I am again reading, on page 163, about California, twenty-fifth in education funding, but “forty-ninth when it comes to student achievement.” Dobbs writes that one Los Angeles high school “has over thirty-eight hundred students, more than double its size in the 1980s. There are more than four times as many students per acre at this school than the state recommends.” If, white and black people are having fewer children (see part 26- it has been reported that whites will be a minority as soon as 2040) who do you think is responsible for the drastic student numbers? Not immigrants per chance? I could quote from any number of pages from this chapter, but I don’t know that the direness would soak in. I have a better chance of keeping my son from attempting to pet a wild coyote that wanders into our yard than of meaningfully delivering Dobbs’ message, courtesy of experts he has had on his show, to people whose ears are as broken as my son’s. My son is 3 ½ and a number of 3 ½ year old boys have broken ears. This is preferable to dealing with adults whose minds are just as broken. (Dobbs has all kinds of facts, dollar amounts and disgust to offer the curious looking for more information; see his chapter on “A Generation of Failure” from WMC pgs. 157-172.)
What have legislators done to help?: Dobbs writes, “The House and Senate cut $12 billion from the Federal Student Loan Program when the Deficit Reduction Act was signed into law on February 8, 2006. They did this even as our middle-class students fall further behind the rest of the world in educational excellence. The law will prevent students from consolidating college loans, while raising the maximum cap on student-loan interest rates to 8.5 percent, further squeezing families faced with rising tuition costs. It’s the largest cut in the history of the Federal Student Loan Program, one of the primary sources of financing for middle-class and working-class kids in this country who want to go to college.” No amount of elaboration or mocking of those who continue to ignore the exigency as I continue to outline it and give it form will do at this point.
An innocent lobbyist group: The teachers unions. Liberals tend to forget that in all of the reams of complaints about powerful interest groups traditionally attributed to conservatives like lobbyist groups for oil, big business and the free market, financial corporations, banks and mortgage companies that promote the corporate welfare agendas we all love,*** there are the equivalent liberal unions serving the same purpose to just as crippling an affect. In the Pantheon of liberal lobbyist groups there is the Sierra Club, many other environmentalist groups, AFL-CIO, Rainbow/Push and dozens of others the average voter wouldn't even think of, and not to be outdone- teacher’s unions. Dobbs writes, “The National Education Association (NEA) represents 2.7 million teachers, and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) represents another 1.3 million. These unions spend millions of dollars lobbying Washington on behalf of their members.” Dobbs elaborates on the extraordinary amount of money both of those teachers unions spent on lobbying efforts, which never seem to get newer teachers merit-based pay, but rather seem to ensure that the good old boys, the tenured professors continue to milk the system. I have had classes under the direction of professors in college who were barely able to spell Shakespeare anymore; they reminded me of the middle-distance runner at the Olympics who keeps running long after finishing sixth in order to cool down and relax the muscles that never got them anywhere to begin with. The teachers unions are considered some of the strongest in the nation, but I would be shocked if any teacher with less than five years of experience would have much positive to say about their union before it sucks the life out of them, leaves their mind calloused and jaded, which gets them to their tenth year where they can exact revenge upon the hardships they made it through when they were just as ignorant of the system. Would it frustrate anyone to know that in this way- it is just like the climate of a typical legislative community? The young elected representatives come in with their idealistic ways and are fed to the old guard who have been waiting for years to shove their own cash cows through the system and to hell with any greenhorn that gets in the way. Dobbs also expands upon the idea of education money wasted on immigrants who need to be taught English or teachers that need to be taught Spanish; who can keep it all straight? I am busy trying to teach my son not to spit milk all over the floor. (I say again, just read Dobbs’ book, which will be far shorter than reading mine.)
Degrees rising: The article “Price of a University Degree Rises” by Jonathan D. Glater of The New York Times, October 25, 2006, contains similar information as those I have already referenced, but sometimes it is worth knocking someone over the head with the facts. Glater writes- “tuition and feels at public institutions rose more than at any other time in the past 30 years.” Glater quotes the president of the College Board (an expert you might say) that “ ‘Neither student aid funds nor family incomes are keeping pace with college prices.’ ” Another set of words that won’t mean much to those who would continue to deny the existing and increasing problem of how future generations of middle class kids are going to afford a college education- “Although many students do not pay the sticker price, the cost of attending public and private universities has consistently outstripped the rate of inflation. Last year, [2005] the consumer price index, a standard of measure of changes in the cost of goods and services in the United States, rose 3.4 percent. Tuition, fees, room and board have increased this year by more than 5.5 percent at both public and private four-year institutions.” I am looking forward to checking into the Consumer Price Index material when I tackle the economy as a sub-topic. I have an idea that that material will further support my overall point.
Higher degree: Along those same lines- “Because of cost increases, students and their families are increasingly turning to loans. Private loans, which are not guaranteed by the U.S. government, generally have less favorable terms than government loans, but are the fastest-growing option for financing higher education.” And I am sure that those who are in the non-governmental loan business can advertise their types of loans to the masses by stating how popular they’ve become. Ah, they’ve become popular because there aren’t many other choices. The minnows at the bait shop don’t have much of a choice but to be pinned to the hook at the end of a fishing line and to be held captive there until they are eaten, escape, or otherwise show such little life in them that they are set free after they have already died. At this time, you are to consider how lifeless subsequent generations of middle class kids will be after assuming upwards of $20,000 in debt upon graduation, some of whom may not have a reliable vehicle that might get them to a job that will not pay them what is necessary for them to make their way in life.
It’s getting hot in here: “At the same time,” Glater writes, “the average Pell Grant, the U.S. government’s grant to the neediest students, declined last year for the first time in 10 years.” Anyone doubt that trend will continue? “Robert Shireman, executive director of the Project on Student Debt, [another non-expert] said ‘Grant aid has failed to keep pace with the posted tuition charges [and] Income for most American families has stagnated, leaving students and their parents with little choice but to turn to loans.’ ”
Heat wave: Sandy Baum, senior policy analyst at the College Board and a professor of economics, was asked to project changes in tuition, Baum said- “ ‘We predict that it will go up, not down.’ ” But any deductive reasoning should be discontinued at this point in our schedule because we don’t know that for sure- we should seize up and stop thinking about a future that hasn't happened yet, we can worry about that later- when it will still be too late. All is well according to president Bush, who responded that "America doesn't have any problems" when asked by Bob Costas in an NBC studio segment at the Olympics. The president and those of his ilk are like a myopic panda that dies because it never instinctively cared for the taste of bamboo shoots. Mr. President, thousands of homes are being foreclosed upon every month; our student's math and reading skills are faltering in primary schools; sir, you ok’d a $162 billion war fund bill, health care costs will go up again this winter by at least 3-5%, there is no wall built along our southern border; the Sierra Club successfully delays the tearing down and reconstruction of new bridges because an owl species fancies the nostalgic girders and decaying foundations; the airline industry is in shambles; we have a national debt that has climbed well over $9 trillion and you still look like a puppy dog that is hiding its cerebral palsy very well. Sir, it is time for you to leave the office- we have plenty of new hopeful caretakers to blame for our collective predicaments.
As the sub-topic of education is a two part post I will move onto the more historical portion of this sub-topic in order to give it more context. Tolkien did pretty much the same thing in his second novel in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy- first telling the story of one half of its characters before turning his attention to the other half.
Alexis de Tocqueville
It occurred to me that I have written about 200 single-spaced 10 pt.-sized pages of text on this overall theme, most of it on topic, and have yet to quote a French guy who visited here for nine months taking notes on our societal, economic and political culture. This man conducted a larger scale reconnaissance mission into the ways and means of our Americanness than did Thoreau when he stayed for a couple years at Walden Pond. I am referring to Alexis de Tocqueville. I read “Democracy in America” about ten years ago and found it to be a decent summation of things as they may have been in the 1830s, I’ll have to take his words for it. He wrote a number of passages that might still be applicable today (see below). “Democracy in America” is a socio-political history narrative written rather well by an outsider whose assessments on the tenor of democracy are only slightly more important than his views on the colonization of Algeria and his affiliation with the July monarchy, which actually lasted for 18 years worth of Julys.****
Literally, one of America’s most famous students . . . was a Frenchmen. He was a student of our country. If a black point guard who trains in California can play his Olympic basketball for the Russians, one of America’s most famous students can be French. de Tocqueville wrote “Democracy in America” a 700 page socio-political tome after returning to France in 1833 (published in two volumes in 1835 and 1840); he came here to study the country’s prisons and ended up immersing himself in the signs of the times. But before I romanticize his contributions to the nostalgia of America’s political history, I cannot forget that he either got quite a bit wrong back then, or quite a few things he got right have changed enough to make it look like he never knew what the hell he was writing about to begin with. I am sure he studied our James Madison and perhaps at one time glossed over The Federalist No. 55 wherein Madison wrote: “In all very numerous assemblies, of whatever characters composed, passion never fails to wrest the sceptre from reason. Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates; every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.” (pg. 281) And it would have been so whether it was composed of rich or poor men.
French man off the mark:
“ . . . the people directly nominate their representatives and generally choose them annually so as to hold them more completely dependent. So direction really comes from the people, and though the form of government is representative, it is clear that the opinions, prejudices, interests, and even passions of the people can find no lasting obstacles preventing them from being manifest in the daily conduct of society.” (source: Harper Perennial, Edited by J.P. Mayer; Translated by George Lawrence, pg. 173) This is one of de Tocqueville’s trite conclusions that is deeply flawed as we look at it today. It may once actually have been true, but only those dragon-butterflies (candidates) who have borrowed honey from the lips of bees in order to call out like sirens to the voting masses could pretend to consider its merit, for it serves them to play pretend with the truth. Well, that isn’t even true. I have volunteered as an election judge and have been told that Minnesota has nearly 78% of the eligible voting public show up to cast their votes in the general election and at least 90% of those voting will vote for a democrat or republican, so the great majority of voters must believe it to be true as well. I heard from a head election judge that buses of people appeared at a polling location after having been told to vote for a certain candidate. You can't resemble a sheep any more than that unless you have trouble shearing off your own back hair and require help.
Et tu de Tocqueville:
We know that Alexander Hamilton pretended that rich men’s vices were to be preferred over the vices of poor men, perhaps even over poor men’s virtues. We also know that one of Madison’s major goals was to significantly and detrimentally redistribute wealth among the various economic classes. Each of their causes were unsound, and again, I must reiterate the logical resolution lies somewhere between. de Tocqueville fell into a similar problem in considering the import of American politics as it equated to money. I wonder, if de Tocqueville had lived this entire time from his visit here in 1830 until the present day, when he might have considered that the rich were able to wrest with passion the sceptre from the hands of the not as rich.***** Surely he could not contend that the poor still rule this nation today.
I digress . . . go figure:
Since: “Democracy in America” is commonly assigned reading for undergraduates majoring in political or social science (according to Wikipedia), my overall topic is politics, the present sub-topic is education, the theme being studied- the economic future of the middle class (which has to do with money) and de Tocqueville delivered a fair number of somewhat well-phrased thoughts on the subject proper, I thought I might attempt to enrich this post to some degree. What, are jokes about far-sighted cloud rats with desires of fondling women from a distance of 15 meters already too much for you? Heathenish sycophants! Using words on loan from the Frenchman’s famous work, we’ll play a game. If I had the computer skills or software to display the answers following this exercise upside down I would do so, but I imagine this approach will be just as compelling if I reveal my answers right after the assertion- kind of like an open book quiz- quite apropos considering the subject matter. (Ok, this approach would only be compelling to a cricket scientist who has spent his summer conducting research for a National arthropod breast sweat study- just humor me.)
Quote #1:
“Nowadays one may say that the wealthy classes in the United States are almost entirely outside politics and that wealth, so far from being an advantage there, is a real cause of disfavor and an obstacle to gaining power.” (pg. 179) FALSE-may once have been true. I don’t know if I would use the word obstacle . . . since the Olympics are in full swing- let us say- hurdle. Perhaps you have seen with how little effort those who are rich in athletic talent have overcome them, running 400 meters and over ten hurdles in just over 47 seconds?
Quote #2:
“Corruption and incapacity are not common interests capable of linking men in any permanent fashion.” (pg. 233) TRUE-still true. This one just makes me laugh. Of course “permanent” is the operative word. Besides, why would the joining of men together for the purposes of corruption and incapacity in any permanent fashion be so fearful when those types of men can do so much damage at an accelerated pace with a relatively brief connection- say in the course of a four-year term? No elected official serves one term for longer than 6 years; however, plenty of business can be transacted in that time.
Quote #3:
“In the United States, where public officials have no class interest to promote, the general and continuous course of the government is beneficial, although the rulers are often inept and sometimes contemptible.” (pg. 234) FALSE. FALSE. TRUE. Three answers to this one: 1) public officials have always had a class interest to promote; 2) "the general and continuous course of the government" is plenty inexpedient; and 3) plenty of the rulers are inept and contemptible, but so are many of our nation's citizens. Hamilton pretended not know the definition of the word aristocracy (see part 28) and wanted fewer rich men “representing” entire states of poor men. If you are conscious, you can see how much of a class interest public officials promote, albeit this is easier to see the more closely the politicians are affiliated with dealings in our nation's capital. The collection of presidential candidates spent how many hundreds of millions trying to get elected? And the one who is elected will most certainly serve to reimburse those who helped put him in office. For this one, I would actually spank de Tocqueville . . . it would bring up the numbers of white students punished in such a manner so we could say “yeah . . . but” to a story like this- “Study: Minorities More Likely to be Paddled- While Corporal Punishment in Schools is declining, racial disparity persists.” Associated Press, August 19, 2008- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26297991.
Quote #4:
“In the United States, where the poor man rules, the rich have always some fear that he may abuse his power against them.”
“This state of mind among the wealthy may produce a silent discontent, but it creates no violent trouble for society, for the same reason which prevents the rich man from trusting the lawgiver also prevents him from defying his commands. Because he is rich he does not make the law, and because of his wealth he does not dare to break it. Among civilized nations it is generally only those with nothing to lose who revolt.” (pg. 241). FALSE- never true. Firstly, I would state, that no man would buy that the rich have no authority to make laws, nor the gumption to break them, and de Tocqueville should be posthumously embarrassed for that absurdity; secondly, sometimes revolt is the only option remaining after all others have been tried. Among any kind of nation, civilized or barbarian, those who revolt are often those with nothing to lose- de Tocqueville’s hackneyed expression is a waste of words. If a bunch of rich cavemen kept stealing the sabretooth shawls that their middle class brethren had made after hours of tracking the beast in the mud and slaying it with the twentieth thrust of his spear, I imagine the put upon caveman would revolt and I would hardly call him civilized. Civilization has nothing to do with it. It might be said- beware of the man who has just enough to lose- for his actions are difficult to predict. The rich cavemen should suffer the same fate as mid-afternoon mailbox thieves- not a spanking.
The True phrases:
“There is reason for criticizing the elective system, when applied to the head of state, in that it offers so great an attraction to private ambition and so inflames passions in the pursuit of power that often legal means do not suffice them, and men appeal to force when they do not have right on their side.” (pg. 127) Worse than appealing to force, they resort to complicity, the passive-aggressive’s approach. This approach puts the honus on the citizen to prove the politician’s furtive demerits, even should he post some 30-40 times.
“His silence is the most useful service an indifferent speaker can render to the common good.” (pg. 498) Yes, yes, yes, I long ago abdicated the throne of silence to those who look to be offended twice as often as they seek to be objective. If I had been indifferent, you would not have the pleasure of cross-referencing my subject matter, nor of questioning my deductions. Apathy is not my friend.
The False phrases:
“. . . small parties are generally without political faith. As they are not elevated and sustained by lofty purposes, the selfishness of their character is openly displayed in all their actions. They glow with a factitious zeal; their language is violent, but their progress is timid and uncertain. The means they employ are as disreputable as the aim sought.” (pg. 175) “political faith.” Seriously, he went with political faith? He who has political faith is a candidate who always supposes that $1,000 for a plate at a fundraiser is too little a charge for those he’s already wooed into sheepdom. The word- "faith" is nearly synonymous with religion. If ever two more FUBAR(ed) institutions belonged together it is politics and religion. The two combined, if ever truly wed in the legal and spiritual sense, would breed a family of sinners, the likes of which the world has never known. They would be easy to spot- blind, toothless, hypocritical, sanctimonious whores selling your soul for their candidate.
“If ever freedom is lost in America, that will be due to the omnipotence of the majority driving the minorities to desperation and forcing them to appeal to physical force. We may then see anarchy, but it will have come as the result of despotism.” (pg. 260) Which of course is to be preferred over despotism that has come as the result of anarchy; I would be more concerned about the resorting of the majority to a state of passion because of despotism.
The True and False phrases:
“In America most rich men began by being poor; almost all men of leisure were busy in their youth; as a result, at the age when one might have a taste for study, one has not the time; and when time is available, the taste has gone.” (pg. 55) Now, I have not the time, but it is rather a hunger for study than a taste; because it is a hunger, I make the time. Why else would I poor over the pages of de Tocqueville if I didn’t have the time. If “Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom”****** and “Loud Bar Music Makes You Drink More” – http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25741296 then imagine what gifted writers can do to a mind not likely to be satiated by even the best prose, whether it is fact or fiction, and even for translated prose written by a foreigner with half the inventiveness of Dickens, Faulkner, Jung, Rousseau or Madison. (Special note: I began by being neither rich nor poor, if it were so, the whole of this diatribe may have been unavailable for your perusal. Lucky you.)
“The people, men say, do not know how themselves to rule but always sincerely desire the good of the state, and their instinct unfailingly tells them who are filled with the same desire and most capable of wielding power . . . When I arrived in the United States I discovered with astonishment that good qualities were common among the governed but rare among the rulers.” (pg. 197) Among some of the governed and plenty of the rulers, I concur. And seeing as this is state fair time- concurring in the form of sarcasm-on-a-stick is my preferred method. Can some dope writing a blog column that is instantly dismissed due to its length, its collage style of writing, its allusions, its delusions, its cross-referencing and its conjecture be considered vigilant? No. Circumspect- yes, but not vigilant. That word is reserved more for people like slaves, people not granted the right to vote, hostages, soldiers, or poor people financially struggling to gain economic independence, such as Will Smith’s character from “The Pursuit of Happyness” a movie I alluded to in part two of this topic.
Remember that- “To deny, to believe, and to doubt well are to a man as the race is to a horse.”- Pascal. Education remains the preeminent dropped baton of issues, (despite what the 4x100 men's and women's American relay teams might say)******* for it has been a problem which separates the haves from the have-nots far longer than has the issue of immigration. The two issues in concert (the unaffordable education and the wave of unchecked immigration) will continue to serve that function in the coming decades . . . even a moron can see that!
______________________________________________________
* I will admit that we have been reimbursed by her employer for $130 of that $200 bill each month in the way of a tuition reimbursement allocation. She is a nurse, a profession for which there is a constant demand. I don’t know that 10% of the professions have a similar arrangement. And as I never began this blog epic with making sure I was better provided for than I already am, based on my own work ethic, this admission is fairly unimportant. I simply like all the cards to be on the table. Also, my wife informs me that the hospital which employs her no longer provides this tuition reimbursement benefit. I am learning new things all of the time. Prior to the Olympics, I would have thought that the uneven bars were a dessert you cut into squares and eat with your hands that contained an excessive amount of coconut proportional to the amount of chocolate.
** In perhaps the longest footnote of my less than prodigious writing career (excepting this topic)- To be fair- I ran across a written account of a speech by president Bush on the occasion of his signing the “College Cost Reduction and Access Act [which] expands one of America’s most important and successful education initiatives—the Federal Pell Grant Program.” Keep in mind- a Federal Pell Grant assists those who can demonstrate financial need, according to the government. It would not assist a middle class kid who, along with his parents, according to the government, is fully capable of paying his way through college. Just like one of my former immediate supervisors, the government is not infallible in the old judgment department; both my former supervisor and the government can micro-manage with the best of them. In this same speech by Bush, who, it might be pointed out, is sans a complete handle on reality, says this- “According to one study, 80 percent of the fastest-growing jobs in America require some sort of education after high school.” The key words are “some sort”. I have an English major which would barely qualify me to manage a Cinnabon. Virtually nothing I learned in college has transferred into my present occupation. College teaches you to think, how to think, and sometimes, unfortunately, what to think, but its overall affect on the aborted adult who leaves with a degree is continually vastly overstated. I am not saying that a degree is overrated for someone entering the workforce, but rather that an employer is the one who overrates it. My wife is an excellent obstetrics nurse and told me that very little of what she learned in school prepared her for her work. The second result of a Google search for “number of jobs requiring a college degree” returns this- “Librarian Aong Top Colorado Jobs Requiring Master’s Degree.” I am sure being a librarian is not as easy as it seems, but give me a few months on the job and I think I could do a more than serviceable job. Of all the words I’ve written on this overall topic and number of opinions and conclusions I have reached to this date, I may very well be more off base on the above stated opinion (about the decreasing number of jobs NEEDING a college degree) than on anything else, but when you consider the need for service industry jobs, customer support, repairmen, delivery people, food handlers, packing industry employees, retail salespeople, cashiers, food preparers, waiters, janitors and hotel room cleaners- I just don’t see it. I can see a greater competition for jobs above the level of those I just listed. That is why the government is allowing in so many immigrants. The government can protect businesses and assist them in managing the most expensive outlay most companies have- controllable costs/employee salaries. Second generation illegal immigrants will have a far greater impact on the life of the average middle class citizen than the current crop. I am pretty confident of that. (For Bush’s Pell Grant speech see- “President Bush Signs College Cost Reduction and Access Act” from September 27, 2007. For the reason the signing of that Pell Grant bill was necessary- see “Pell Grant Reduction Affects Aid” December 3, 2004, by Julie Geng- http://cornellsun.com/node/22639.)
*** Dobbs also included a chapter on these proprietary bastards in his WMC book- see “The Best Government Money Can Buy” (pgs. 37-64). And you would think that former politicians would have to wait at least two years before becoming what they always were- corporate shills. Consider this: “There are an estimated 2,390 former public officials working as lobbyists . . . Some 240 congressmen became lobbyists after their faithful service to their constituents, whom they all but ignored while in office. Political appointees, agency heads, and well-placed government bureaucrats also find new careers as lobbyists. At present, [as of 2006] half a dozen former officials of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission are working at oil companies, or lobbying for them.” Jeez, and cockfighting is illegal. Not sure, but that seems like a giant political incest ring to me. There isn’t a better training ground in all the world for crimes against the populace, not even in prison for expected recidivists, than there is in the connection between politicians who wrap themselves in the cocoon of wrong and evolve into the dragon of butterflies- the lobbyist. Course, my son teaching his younger sister how to spit for distance is also rather high up on the list.
The True phrases:
“There is reason for criticizing the elective system, when applied to the head of state, in that it offers so great an attraction to private ambition and so inflames passions in the pursuit of power that often legal means do not suffice them, and men appeal to force when they do not have right on their side.” (pg. 127) Worse than appealing to force, they resort to complicity, the passive-aggressive’s approach. This approach puts the honus on the citizen to prove the politician’s furtive demerits, even should he post some 30-40 times.
“His silence is the most useful service an indifferent speaker can render to the common good.” (pg. 498) Yes, yes, yes, I long ago abdicated the throne of silence to those who look to be offended twice as often as they seek to be objective. If I had been indifferent, you would not have the pleasure of cross-referencing my subject matter, nor of questioning my deductions. Apathy is not my friend.
The False phrases:
“. . . small parties are generally without political faith. As they are not elevated and sustained by lofty purposes, the selfishness of their character is openly displayed in all their actions. They glow with a factitious zeal; their language is violent, but their progress is timid and uncertain. The means they employ are as disreputable as the aim sought.” (pg. 175) “political faith.” Seriously, he went with political faith? He who has political faith is a candidate who always supposes that $1,000 for a plate at a fundraiser is too little a charge for those he’s already wooed into sheepdom. The word- "faith" is nearly synonymous with religion. If ever two more FUBAR(ed) institutions belonged together it is politics and religion. The two combined, if ever truly wed in the legal and spiritual sense, would breed a family of sinners, the likes of which the world has never known. They would be easy to spot- blind, toothless, hypocritical, sanctimonious whores selling your soul for their candidate.
“If ever freedom is lost in America, that will be due to the omnipotence of the majority driving the minorities to desperation and forcing them to appeal to physical force. We may then see anarchy, but it will have come as the result of despotism.” (pg. 260) Which of course is to be preferred over despotism that has come as the result of anarchy; I would be more concerned about the resorting of the majority to a state of passion because of despotism.
The True and False phrases:
“In America most rich men began by being poor; almost all men of leisure were busy in their youth; as a result, at the age when one might have a taste for study, one has not the time; and when time is available, the taste has gone.” (pg. 55) Now, I have not the time, but it is rather a hunger for study than a taste; because it is a hunger, I make the time. Why else would I poor over the pages of de Tocqueville if I didn’t have the time. If “Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom”****** and “Loud Bar Music Makes You Drink More” – http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25741296 then imagine what gifted writers can do to a mind not likely to be satiated by even the best prose, whether it is fact or fiction, and even for translated prose written by a foreigner with half the inventiveness of Dickens, Faulkner, Jung, Rousseau or Madison. (Special note: I began by being neither rich nor poor, if it were so, the whole of this diatribe may have been unavailable for your perusal. Lucky you.)
“The people, men say, do not know how themselves to rule but always sincerely desire the good of the state, and their instinct unfailingly tells them who are filled with the same desire and most capable of wielding power . . . When I arrived in the United States I discovered with astonishment that good qualities were common among the governed but rare among the rulers.” (pg. 197) Among some of the governed and plenty of the rulers, I concur. And seeing as this is state fair time- concurring in the form of sarcasm-on-a-stick is my preferred method. Can some dope writing a blog column that is instantly dismissed due to its length, its collage style of writing, its allusions, its delusions, its cross-referencing and its conjecture be considered vigilant? No. Circumspect- yes, but not vigilant. That word is reserved more for people like slaves, people not granted the right to vote, hostages, soldiers, or poor people financially struggling to gain economic independence, such as Will Smith’s character from “The Pursuit of Happyness” a movie I alluded to in part two of this topic.
Remember that- “To deny, to believe, and to doubt well are to a man as the race is to a horse.”- Pascal. Education remains the preeminent dropped baton of issues, (despite what the 4x100 men's and women's American relay teams might say)******* for it has been a problem which separates the haves from the have-nots far longer than has the issue of immigration. The two issues in concert (the unaffordable education and the wave of unchecked immigration) will continue to serve that function in the coming decades . . . even a moron can see that!
______________________________________________________
* I will admit that we have been reimbursed by her employer for $130 of that $200 bill each month in the way of a tuition reimbursement allocation. She is a nurse, a profession for which there is a constant demand. I don’t know that 10% of the professions have a similar arrangement. And as I never began this blog epic with making sure I was better provided for than I already am, based on my own work ethic, this admission is fairly unimportant. I simply like all the cards to be on the table. Also, my wife informs me that the hospital which employs her no longer provides this tuition reimbursement benefit. I am learning new things all of the time. Prior to the Olympics, I would have thought that the uneven bars were a dessert you cut into squares and eat with your hands that contained an excessive amount of coconut proportional to the amount of chocolate.
** In perhaps the longest footnote of my less than prodigious writing career (excepting this topic)- To be fair- I ran across a written account of a speech by president Bush on the occasion of his signing the “College Cost Reduction and Access Act [which] expands one of America’s most important and successful education initiatives—the Federal Pell Grant Program.” Keep in mind- a Federal Pell Grant assists those who can demonstrate financial need, according to the government. It would not assist a middle class kid who, along with his parents, according to the government, is fully capable of paying his way through college. Just like one of my former immediate supervisors, the government is not infallible in the old judgment department; both my former supervisor and the government can micro-manage with the best of them. In this same speech by Bush, who, it might be pointed out, is sans a complete handle on reality, says this- “According to one study, 80 percent of the fastest-growing jobs in America require some sort of education after high school.” The key words are “some sort”. I have an English major which would barely qualify me to manage a Cinnabon. Virtually nothing I learned in college has transferred into my present occupation. College teaches you to think, how to think, and sometimes, unfortunately, what to think, but its overall affect on the aborted adult who leaves with a degree is continually vastly overstated. I am not saying that a degree is overrated for someone entering the workforce, but rather that an employer is the one who overrates it. My wife is an excellent obstetrics nurse and told me that very little of what she learned in school prepared her for her work. The second result of a Google search for “number of jobs requiring a college degree” returns this- “Librarian Aong Top Colorado Jobs Requiring Master’s Degree.” I am sure being a librarian is not as easy as it seems, but give me a few months on the job and I think I could do a more than serviceable job. Of all the words I’ve written on this overall topic and number of opinions and conclusions I have reached to this date, I may very well be more off base on the above stated opinion (about the decreasing number of jobs NEEDING a college degree) than on anything else, but when you consider the need for service industry jobs, customer support, repairmen, delivery people, food handlers, packing industry employees, retail salespeople, cashiers, food preparers, waiters, janitors and hotel room cleaners- I just don’t see it. I can see a greater competition for jobs above the level of those I just listed. That is why the government is allowing in so many immigrants. The government can protect businesses and assist them in managing the most expensive outlay most companies have- controllable costs/employee salaries. Second generation illegal immigrants will have a far greater impact on the life of the average middle class citizen than the current crop. I am pretty confident of that. (For Bush’s Pell Grant speech see- “President Bush Signs College Cost Reduction and Access Act” from September 27, 2007. For the reason the signing of that Pell Grant bill was necessary- see “Pell Grant Reduction Affects Aid” December 3, 2004, by Julie Geng- http://cornellsun.com/node/22639.)
*** Dobbs also included a chapter on these proprietary bastards in his WMC book- see “The Best Government Money Can Buy” (pgs. 37-64). And you would think that former politicians would have to wait at least two years before becoming what they always were- corporate shills. Consider this: “There are an estimated 2,390 former public officials working as lobbyists . . . Some 240 congressmen became lobbyists after their faithful service to their constituents, whom they all but ignored while in office. Political appointees, agency heads, and well-placed government bureaucrats also find new careers as lobbyists. At present, [as of 2006] half a dozen former officials of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission are working at oil companies, or lobbying for them.” Jeez, and cockfighting is illegal. Not sure, but that seems like a giant political incest ring to me. There isn’t a better training ground in all the world for crimes against the populace, not even in prison for expected recidivists, than there is in the connection between politicians who wrap themselves in the cocoon of wrong and evolve into the dragon of butterflies- the lobbyist. Course, my son teaching his younger sister how to spit for distance is also rather high up on the list.
**** De Tocqueville, not quite as great a French visitor as Lafayette. His involvement with the July monarchy, not appropriately named, made me curious about another rather strangely named famous event- The Hundred Years’ War (Guerre de Cent Ans). According to Wikipedia, this was a “prolonged conflict lasting from 1337 to 1453 between two royal houses for the French throne” . . . French soldiers fought on both sides, both for the Capetian line of French kings (House of Valois) and the English kings, descended from the House of Plantagenet/House of Anjou. Strangely, the conflict lasted 116 years- huh? But with several periods of brief or prolonged peace and the application of principles centered around new math, the war actually took place over the course of 81 years. Huh? Anyway you slice it, French people just aren’t good with naming things, as the 100 years war lasted either 81 or 116 years. French descendents should definitely steer clear of Rush Limbaugh’s book- “See, I Told Ya So” should they hope to avoid the pitfalls their forbears fell into- that of the mis-naming of marginally famous world events. Limbaugh includes an entire definitional chapter called “Words Mean Things” and fails to provide the meaning to the word “hypocrite.” Here, I agree with Rush- words do mean things. Nothing wrong with naming something the Eighty One Year War. Given the national pride the French might feel toward their famous explorers (Jacques Cartier, Jacques Marquette and Samuel de Champlain) who have travelled the world in search of things- you would think that finding the meaning to certain words or groups of words would be important to them. Perhaps finding the meaning of the word “ally” would have ranked much more highly on their list of things to explore.
***** My first guess would have been 1913, when the Federal Reserve act was passed. I’ll get to that in part 36.
****** Attributed to Wendell Philips, American abolitionist.
******* Both relay teams dropped the baton at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
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