Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jaret on May 25, 2012 at 3:05pm

Well they dont only sell books to people born in rich neighborhoods nor does intelligent information on the internet have a block when someone from a poor neighborhood tries to access it. 

Also, college grants are only given to the poor. Try getting financial aid as a caucasian middle class male. There are not any grants available. Besides, formal education is not necessary. I do not have any real formal education, but I read a lot and I am doing quite well for myself, better than 90% of my friends with college degrees. 

We have equal opportunity in this country. In the information age no one can make an excuse for not being properly educated on their own. 

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Permalink Reply by Zac Kimmer on May 26, 2012 at 2:45am

Sadly it does matter where they sell books if you can afford them and the same goes for computers. Sure, there are computers in school and libraries, but there are a limited number and most likely they are awful computers. 

Though, congratulations, you are an exception when it comes to formal education but spend ten minutes looking at wealth vs education graph and it will be clear that you are an exception. We can not expect everyone to be exceptions. You must of worked very hard but you also got very lucky.

The easiest way to show that America is not a equal society is to look at school funding. If America was an equal society then logically the funding for public schools would also be equal, so everyone get a equal education. Though it very from state to state overall this is not even slightly true. Most public schools are funded by property taxes of the surrounding area. In poorer areas, the taxes tend to be higher and also generate less money then lower taxes in the rich areas. If America were equal then the money would be divided equally.

This is also ignoring race issues, and class issues.

If you want an example of an equal society look at countries in Europe they are a lot closer then we are.

America is not an equal society. 

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Permalink Reply by kOrsan on May 25, 2012 at 9:55am

Consider this, we live in the age of information. Our intelligence is now more important than our physical capabilities. Societies and corporations are not ruled by the guy who's most buff, but by the smart people, most of whom probably couldn't climb a rope, but come up with new angles to problems. Hawking wouldn't even be able to beat a toddler at arm wrestling, but he is nontheless a figure who stood out in the world of science. In a society were we let people die, he too would have died. People who are crippled for whatever reason can still hold much more value than most healthy adults, due to their intellectual work. How do you envision a future utopia? I think it's more likely for us to evolve into flying brains rather than strong titans.

What we really need less of are not physically disabled people, but idiots. People with low intelligence and weak psychology. If there's one thing I'll discriminate against it's stupidity. We should just stop putting safety labels on things. Stop making it mandatory to wear a helmet or fasten your seat belt when driving vehicles. You know, let the problem solve itself. Take those "Capchas" on every website and turn them into full fledged IQ tests, and anything below 100 doesn't get posted (YouTube will be a wasteland). Come up with math/logic/sudoku/anything tests and determine jobs' paychecks based on the average grades of the inhabitants. Base the tuition fee of schools on the grade of the individual children. If your kid is stupid you should should be paying a lot more for him because the teachers will have to put up with his dumb ass. Also if you're religious, "spiritual", believe in astrology or any of that stupid bullshit you get an automatic 50 points deduction. And to compensate for this deduction every afflicted person will receive a coupon for a FREE vasectomy. I'm also sick and tired of hearing stupid teenagers pride themselves with supposed mental disorders, as if it were something great. "Yeah I was diagnosed as depressed because my mom is an heroin addict and my dads an alcoholic.. yea.. my life is so woeful and unique. I also have insomnia.. sometimes I cut myself." Great, you know what that means? You get to stand at the end of every line from now on, and also no more food at the school cafeteria for you.

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Permalink Reply by Tom Holm on May 25, 2012 at 10:10am

Ok the part about the stupid kid is a little too much I was with you until then. Some kids have a harder time processing information than other kids, which in turn makes them seem stupid or slow. I was like that at one point in middle school having the one of the lowest gpas entering high school, but graduating on top of the class. These "stupid" kids have a harder time in school and its really not their fault.

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Permalink Reply by Brittany Mezzo on May 25, 2012 at 10:17am

There's also the fact that it's not solely black and white; some excel in some subjects, but are lucky to make a D in another. I was always good with history and English, but horrible in math, no matter how much I studied and tried to memorize the steps.

I don't think making the parents have to pay for their stupid kid is the right way to go. It all depends on if the kid is actually trying and failing to understand, or if they are just being lazy. But you probably can't accurately testify if it's one or the other, so I would say no to forcing parents to pay for their child's shortcomings.

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Permalink Reply by kOrsan on May 25, 2012 at 10:20am

I was rather talking about kids who shove crayons up their noses, sling spitballs at other kids and otherwise disturb people. Teachers have to put up with that kind of stupid shit and sometimes the parents wont even accept that their kids are little assholes. I put those bullies in the same category as "stupid."

Everything can be learned and done as long as you just have the will to put effort in it, so kids who genuinely try would not get burned. Not everyone has to be a genius, I'd just like to filter out the obvious cases.

Besides, I'm just kidding man. Another idea I had was prisons for stupid people.

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Permalink Reply by Brittany Mezzo on May 25, 2012 at 10:28am

Well, that's a good thing then, because it'd be miserable to enforce.

I'm actually kind of for putting those kids that are assholes in other classes. Going through school with immature teenaged boys who wanted nothing more in life than to just make me as miserable as possible, I think I would have done so much better in school without having to worry about hiding everything that belonged to me from them so they wouldn't steal it.

Some bullies are using it as a way to forget their own insecurities, and others are just fucking assholes.

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Permalink Reply by Jaret on May 25, 2012 at 3:12pm

Love it.

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Permalink Reply by Brittany Mezzo on May 25, 2012 at 10:07am

I will say yes...and no.

The people that are currently living deserve to live, even if they are living with the aid of other persons or the government. They still are people. However, I would not mind opting out of population control. If the "you must get married and have kids or else you're just a loser" mentality was eliminated, I'm sure we could easily see a lot less hereditary disasters.

I understand what you are saying, but I fear that due to the greedy nature that is us humans, someone will make an ass out of themselves and kill off any undesirables. Like with communism, the idea is great, but in reality, someone will fuck it all up.

There's also the fact that we have so many people in the world, we sort of screwed over evolution for us. I think the only way we can evolve is in a controlled environment over years. However, our morality and sense of freedom allows us to live wherever we want, however we want, and (in most cases, we're at least working on that) with whoever we want.

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Permalink Reply by Unseen on May 25, 2012 at 2:02pm

"The weak must not survive!"

So should we be proactive? Executing anyone who seems somehow defective?

It seems to follow from your thesis that if one wanted to be both compassionate and also the handmaiden of human evolution, the thing to do would be to both help those who need it but to neuter them as well.

More seriously, (a) many conditions turn out to be transitory; (b) not all helpless people are helpless for genetic reasons; (c) Stephen Hawking.

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Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on May 25, 2012 at 2:59pm

RE: "So should we be proactive? Executing anyone who seems somehow defective?"

Could we start with Rick Perry? Please, please, please, please --

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Permalink Reply by Jaret on May 25, 2012 at 3:20pm

Well nature is pretty proactive. It kills the weak without mercy. If it was proactive, people would screw it up. Also steven hawking survives just fine in todays world. He is very wealthy. 

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