[Rhodes22-list] A Global Intelligence Briefing For CEOs

[john Belanger]

brad
  i agree with your generous offer, and i think most people would, but the problem with the premise of your offer is that by the time a young person is of age to go to college, they have the means lined up, or the opportunity via their scholarship record, to go. much is made of those who somehow or other fall through the cracks. i don't believe there are that many kids out there who deserve to but can't afford it. i believe that a serious majority of those who don't finish school, don't finish because they can't make the grade. economic greed also plays a role. when your friends have jobs, money, cars, clothes, large screen tv's, and time, its hard to keep your nose in the books.   

Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
  Robert,

This has to be short and sweet because we have company coming over soon, a
small part of our community. If you must know - a minister and his Chinese
wife but that doesn't matter. You hit some salient points. Poor people
breed faster than wealthy people. That is a fact. I am the product of two
grandparents who both had families of twelve. If you told them they were
poor they'd punch your lights out! They didn't measure their wealth by the
width of their TV screen or the speed of their car. We live in a society
where people watch TV and see people driving Mercedes and living in
mega-size houses and think they are poor. Never mind that they have a 36"
TV and are driving a damn nice Toyota. Everything is relative. We in the
US are very generous people. The folks who scream racism and class the most
are those who have a vested interest in the issue continuing.

Here's the deal; give me one deserving kid who is smart with good work
ethic, who can't afford to go to college - I'll house him, find him a job
with a company that will pay for his education, and give him a damn good
paying job when he graduates. My golf partner's company will offer a much
better deal than I can.

It has been a long time since I read "Watership Down" but I still remember
the storyline. If someone offers you meals for life they probably have good
control over your life.

Brad



On 3/27/07, Robert Skinner wrote:
>
> Hank wrote:
> > ...
> > The part about the declining birthrate I found very interesting. I
> believe
> > you can even break it down further. Meyer breaks it down by ethnicity,
> but
> > not by socio-economic status. From my personal observation while living
> in
> > Mexico, The upper and middle class are having fewer babies, while the
> lower
> > class have more.
>
> Hank, this looks like "evolution in action" [Oath of Fealty
> (Mass Market Paperback) by Larry Niven (Author), Jerry
> Pournelle (Author)].
>
> http://www.amazon.com/Oath-Fealty-Larry-Niven/dp/0671532278
>
> Let me pose a problem that needs some attention:
>
> It would appear that when you don't have enough money or
> education to indulge in other activities, there is always
> making babies.
>
> In addition, we have some theological organizations that
> actively promote procreation -- as long as they get to
> specify how, when, where, and with whom it is accomplished.
> These organizations tend to target the poor and uneducated.
>
> There is an observation about democracies which I must
> paraphrase, as I don't remember the actual verbage or
> attribution: "The majority (in this case, the poor) can
> tax the well-to-do few to support themselves."
>
> Given these two trends, it appears that democracies will
> begin to degenerate as soon as they opt for universal
> sufferage.
>
> Education:
>
> Acting against this progression is education. Earlier
> in US history, immigration was at a low enough level so
> that people coming into the country were motivated to
> and could hope to become prosperous within a generation
> through public education. At that time education was a
> one-on-one small group exercise in one-room schoolhouses
> across the country, and served to transmit cultural
> morms via osmosis.
>
> There was plenty of room for malcontents and adventurers
> to move west, and a person could adopt a new persona
> when they moved on. Accomplishments and redemption were
> possible.
>
> Unfortunately, as we have consolidated and regulated
> our public school system, we have de-regionalized and
> de-cultured it in the name of efficiency, losing its
> very essential capability to transmit cultural norms
> and social values to the immigrants that we absorb as
> well as our native youth.
>
> We seem to be breeding economic ambition and basic
> intellect out of out population - to the arguable
> extent that these attributes are related to class or
> income.
>
> So -- the question:
>
> What remains to prevent the intellegent and privately
> well-educated few from becoming the new slaves of our
> socio-economic structure?
>
> --
> Robert Skinner "Squirrel Haven"
> Gorham, Maine 04038-1331
> s/v "Little Dipper" & "Edith P."
> __________________________________________________
> Use Rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org, Help? www.rhodes22.org/list
>
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