How Learning Died in America

[PoliticalChic]

"“Between the early 1980s and 2007 we lived in an economic Golden Age. Never before have so many people advanced so far economically in so short a period of time as they have during the last 25 years. Until the credit crisis, 70 million people a year were joining the middle class. The U.S. kicked off this long boom with the economic reforms of Ronald Reagan, particularly his enormous income tax cuts. We burst from the economic stagnation of the 1970s into a dynamic, innovative, high-tech-oriented economy. Even in recent years the much-maligned U.S. did well. Between year-end 2002 and year-end 2007 U.S. growth exceeded the entire size of China's economy.”

Interesting info. Thanks. It always interests me what people consider middle class. I consider a person that makes at least $50,000 middle class. Under that, I would consider them trying to reach middle class status. In to days age $50,000 a year plus benefits won't buy you any extras whatsoever but you can afford to at least pay a meager, emphasis, MEAGER mortgage and drive a decent used vehicle. There will be those that disagree but invariably they know before posting they are wrong.

1. Do you know what the average family income is?
$52,100
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/22/u...-but-is-still-6-below-its-2007-peak.html?_r=0


You lose cachet in a post where you don't define where that income is meager.

Further.... today benefit packages run between 25% and 35% above income.





2. And this....
“…in 1967 only one in 25 families earned an income of $100,000 or more in real income, whereas now, one in six do. The percentage of families that have an income of more than $75,000 a year has tripled from 9% to 27%. But it's not just the rich that are getting richer. Virtually every income group has been lifted by the tide of growth in recent decades.” Great American Dream Machine
This was during the Bush administration.




3. Consider this:
"Although median annual household income rose to $52,100 in June, from its recent inflation-adjusted trough of $50,700 in August 2011, it remained $2,400 lower — a 4.4 percent decline — than in June 2009, when the recession ended. This drop, combined with the 1.8 percent decline that occurred during the recession, leaves median household income 6.1 percent — or $3,400 — below its level in December 2007, when the economic slump began."
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/22/u...-but-is-still-6-below-its-2007-peak.html?_r=0

This is directly attributed to the incompetent in the White House.




4. Compare this with the Reagan recovery:
"During this seven-year recovery, the economy grew by almost one-third, the equivalent of adding the entire economy of West Germany, the third-largest in the world at the time, to the U.S. economy. In 1984 alone real economic growth boomed by 6.8%, the highest in 50 years. Nearly 20 million new jobs were created during the recovery, increasing U.S. civilian employment by almost 20%. Unemployment fell to 5.3% by 1989.

Real per-capita disposable income increased by 18% from 1982 to 1989, meaning the American standard of living increased by almost 20% in just seven years. The poverty rate declined every year from 1984 to 1989, dropping by one-sixth from its peak. The stock market more than tripled in value from 1980 to 1990, a larger increase than in any previous decade."
Reaganomics Vs. Obamanomics: Facts And Figures - Forbes

 

[daveman]

My first thought when I read your post was "Show me a school where there are no parents critical of the education that their children are receiving".

Homeschoolers.

 

[daveman]

Liberty should allow a person to decide for themselves what America is to them, as long as they obey the law.

Indeed. But they DON'T have the liberty to decide for other people what America is.

The majority has the right to create new forms of social order within the framework of the Constitution. That includes Social Security and a real Healthcare System. Same as we created the Natonal Park System, and the CDC, as well as NASA, NOAA, and the other agencies neccessary to our life.

Not at all what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about people insisting others not show the American flag because it hurts their widdle feewings. Stuff like that.

 

[Dot Com]

Cato institute? CATO INSTITUTE?!!!

Big surprise that Polichic is a Reagan fluffer. Were you also a college repub & have ayn rand as recommended (req'd) reading just like Paul Ryan (R) does to this day?

Ayn Rand
“”There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.
—John Rogers

Ayn Rand was a Russian atheist, the author of vast doorstop-sized tomes like Atlas Shrugged and the ripped-off biography The Fountainhead, and other thick, boring books espousing, essentially, psychotic libertarian themes and ideology.

Ayn Rand - RationalWiki

THAT actually retards one education Enough w/ the Raygun fluffing as well or I'll give you more mat'l that will dissolve your rw sand castles in the sky

"Cato institute? CATO INSTITUTE?!!!"


This is exactly what morons post when they have no way of contesting the truth of a post.


I am right about the Reagan legacy, and also right about your intellectual ability.
You never should have left school in the fifth grade to join that hippie commune......

Is that how you say "I surrender" in Lolibertarianese?

 

[daveman]

Cato institute? CATO INSTITUTE?!!!

Wikipedia?

 

[initforme]

$52,000 doesn't get one very far. You cannot possibly argue against this can you? Yes it will get you the basic necessities but surely doesn't make one financially sound.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Cato institute? CATO INSTITUTE?!!!

Big surprise that Polichic is a Reagan fluffer. Were you also a college repub & have ayn rand as recommended (req'd) reading just like Paul Ryan (R) does to this day?

Ayn Rand - RationalWiki

THAT actually retards one education Enough w/ the Raygun fluffing as well or I'll give you more mat'l that will dissolve your rw sand castles in the sky

"Cato institute? CATO INSTITUTE?!!!"


This is exactly what morons post when they have no way of contesting the truth of a post.


I am right about the Reagan legacy, and also right about your intellectual ability.
You never should have left school in the fifth grade to join that hippie commune......

Is that how you say "I surrender" in Lolibertarianese?

There is an ancient saying that has moment, here, in our relationship.
It applies to my teaching you: "A fool, though in the company of the wise, understands nothing of the doctrine being discussed, as a spoon tastes not the flavor of the soup."

I realize that the sagacity therein is way above your pay grade, but it was so appropriate that I couldn't resist.

 

[PoliticalChic]

$52,000 doesn't get one very far. You cannot possibly argue against this can you? Yes it will get you the basic necessities but surely doesn't make one financially sound.

1. "$52,000 doesn't get one very far. You cannot possibly argue against this can you?"

Of course I can.

Argue is the least of it....I can prove it.

Let's start with this: the number itself is meaningless without knowing where one resides, and what level of debt one allows oneself.
Allows....the operative term. Delay gratification.



2. The rules haven't changed: to avoid poverty: Graduating from high school,
Waiting to get married until after 21 and do not have children till after being married, and
Having a full-time job.



3. And here is an actual can-do story of the American work ethic:

1. For a real-world perspective on the American ethic, find the Alan Shepard book, “Scratch Beginnings, in which the author recounts his own social experiment, at age 24, starting out at the lowest rung of the economic ladder. The question: could he conquer poverty in one year at his best efforts?
2. He left his home with nothing but a tarp, sleeping bag, an empty gym bag, the clothes on his back, and $25. The went to Charleston, South Carolina…a city where he had never been before, and where he knew nobody. He didn’t use his college education as a resume, nor any family or other contacts.
3. The first night he finds the Crisis Ministries homeless shelter, and, next morning, begins working odd jobs. Within a few weeks, he gets a regular job with a moving company. He moonlights on weekends to make extra money.
4. He makes friends and contacts, and these help him to find jobs and housing…Within five months, he gets a raise from the moving company to $10/ hour. And another, to $11/hour in less than nine months.
5. Progress was retarded by breaking his foot on the job, yet by three months he was able to move out of the homeless shelter and rent a room in a large house in an upscale part of town. (It was owned by a friend he met while working a second job on weekends.) Then, just a month later, he moved into a two-bedroom duplex with the cousin of one of his co-workers. It was a bit rundown, so the two of them spent a week-end making it like new. (His share was $325 because he took the master bedroom.)
6. After just ten months he was living in his own furnished apartment, with his own car, and he had $5,300 in savings.
a. The book also tells of other low-income people he met, and how they, also, would like a safety net second to their own work,

"Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream" [Paperback]
Adam W. Shepard (Author)



Of course, one can simply complain and wring one's hands......

 

[Dot Com]

this entire thread is rich coming from a girl who can't construct paragraphs

As to learning, parents need to stop working those three jobs to get by and mentor thier children. Oh! Wait! They can't because then they'll have no savings at all. Thanks 1%er's & the front groups- Heritage & Club for growth who help to further decimate the middle class

 

[NYcarbineer]

People should come here to be Americans not to change what America is..that's the way it used to be, and it worked quite well .

Liberty should allow a person to decide for themselves what America is to them, as long as they obey the law.

Indeed. But they DON'T have the liberty to decide for other people what America is.

Tell that to the author of this thread. She's an immigrant and all she does is tell other people what America should be.

 

[NYcarbineer]

The people who celebrate diversity seem to share a universal dislike for one culture: the American one.

By all means, please come to this country and bring the best parts of your culture for all to enjoy. But when you come here, assimilate. Don't make your neighborhood just like your old country, and DON'T insist we hide away our culture because you don't like it.

Welcome to America. Please surrender your individuality, because it will conflict with the collective homogeneity that conservatives believe being an American entails.

People should come here to be Americans not to change what America is..that's the way it used to be, and it worked quite well .

America was a land of native peoples once. Then it was colonial England. Which of those situations should not have been changed?

 

[NYcarbineer]

"Cato institute? CATO INSTITUTE?!!!"


This is exactly what morons post when they have no way of contesting the truth of a post.


I am right about the Reagan legacy, and also right about your intellectual ability.
You never should have left school in the fifth grade to join that hippie commune......

Is that how you say "I surrender" in Lolibertarianese?

There is an ancient saying that has moment, here, in our relationship.
It applies to my teaching you: "A fool, though in the company of the wise, understands nothing of the doctrine being discussed, as a spoon tastes not the flavor of the soup."

I realize that the sagacity therein is way above your pay grade, but it was so appropriate that I couldn't resist.

If the irony of you posting that line were a soup, it would be reserved for the gods.

 

[initforme]

"
1. For a real-world perspective on the American ethic, find the Alan Shepard book, “Scratch Beginnings, in which the author recounts his own social experiment, at age 24, starting out at the lowest rung of the economic ladder. The question: could he conquer poverty in one year at his best efforts?
2. He left his home with nothing but a tarp, sleeping bag, an empty gym bag, the clothes on his back, and $25. The went to Charleston, South Carolina…a city where he had never been before, and where he knew nobody. He didn’t use his college education as a resume, nor any family or other contacts.
3. The first night he finds the Crisis Ministries homeless shelter, and, next morning, begins working odd jobs. Within a few weeks, he gets a regular job with a moving company. He moonlights on weekends to make extra money.
4. He makes friends and contacts, and these help him to find jobs and housing…Within five months, he gets a raise from the moving company to $10/ hour. And another, to $11/hour in less than nine months.
5. Progress was retarded by breaking his foot on the job, yet by three months he was able to move out of the homeless shelter and rent a room in a large house in an upscale part of town. (It was owned by a friend he met while working a second job on weekends.) Then, just a month later, he moved into a two-bedroom duplex with the cousin of one of his co-workers. It was a bit rundown, so the two of them spent a week-end making it like new. (His share was $325 because he took the master bedroom.)
6. After just ten months he was living in his own furnished apartment, with his own car, and he had $5,300 in savings.
a. The book also tells of other low-income people he met, and how they, also, would like a safety net second to their own work,"


So what is your point? Americans aren't willing to work hard? I would say they are the hardest working people on the earth. Sure there are those that are not. But those who are working work harder than any other country out there. So, this is one case. I started with nothing and worked hard to have my own business too. In fact I am retired from it. Passed it on to my son. But that doesn't mean I don't see the struggle that others who work hard to barely get by have. Those are the ones thrown under the bus by the elite. There are a huge percentage of hard working people who struggle to make ends meet. They don't collect unemployment. They get so food stamps. But they don't get ahead. And I don't place all the blame on them. So they work until they collect Social security. I am thankful for that program.

 

[regent]

I read those Horatio Alger books too, then the teen years came and bingo, they were old hat.

 

[daveman]

Liberty should allow a person to decide for themselves what America is to them, as long as they obey the law.

Indeed. But they DON'T have the liberty to decide for other people what America is.

Tell that to the author of this thread. She's an immigrant and all she does is tell other people what America should be.

If you agree with it, you won't mind telling immigrants who complain about things like co-workers displaying the American flag on their desks.

Or is that different? Somehow?

 

[PoliticalChic]

"
1. For a real-world perspective on the American ethic, find the Alan Shepard book, “Scratch Beginnings, in which the author recounts his own social experiment, at age 24, starting out at the lowest rung of the economic ladder. The question: could he conquer poverty in one year at his best efforts?
2. He left his home with nothing but a tarp, sleeping bag, an empty gym bag, the clothes on his back, and $25. The went to Charleston, South Carolina…a city where he had never been before, and where he knew nobody. He didn’t use his college education as a resume, nor any family or other contacts.
3. The first night he finds the Crisis Ministries homeless shelter, and, next morning, begins working odd jobs. Within a few weeks, he gets a regular job with a moving company. He moonlights on weekends to make extra money.
4. He makes friends and contacts, and these help him to find jobs and housing…Within five months, he gets a raise from the moving company to $10/ hour. And another, to $11/hour in less than nine months.
5. Progress was retarded by breaking his foot on the job, yet by three months he was able to move out of the homeless shelter and rent a room in a large house in an upscale part of town. (It was owned by a friend he met while working a second job on weekends.) Then, just a month later, he moved into a two-bedroom duplex with the cousin of one of his co-workers. It was a bit rundown, so the two of them spent a week-end making it like new. (His share was $325 because he took the master bedroom.)
6. After just ten months he was living in his own furnished apartment, with his own car, and he had $5,300 in savings.
a. The book also tells of other low-income people he met, and how they, also, would like a safety net second to their own work,"


So what is your point? Americans aren't willing to work hard? I would say they are the hardest working people on the earth. Sure there are those that are not. But those who are working work harder than any other country out there. So, this is one case. I started with nothing and worked hard to have my own business too. In fact I am retired from it. Passed it on to my son. But that doesn't mean I don't see the struggle that others who work hard to barely get by have. Those are the ones thrown under the bus by the elite. There are a huge percentage of hard working people who struggle to make ends meet. They don't collect unemployment. They get so food stamps. But they don't get ahead. And I don't place all the blame on them. So they work until they collect Social security. I am thankful for that program.

You don't understand it?


Decisions and determination make the difference.

Hand-wringing and complaining make Democrats.

 

[regent]

"
1. For a real-world perspective on the American ethic, find the Alan Shepard book, “Scratch Beginnings, in which the author recounts his own social experiment, at age 24, starting out at the lowest rung of the economic ladder. The question: could he conquer poverty in one year at his best efforts?
2. He left his home with nothing but a tarp, sleeping bag, an empty gym bag, the clothes on his back, and $25. The went to Charleston, South Carolina…a city where he had never been before, and where he knew nobody. He didn’t use his college education as a resume, nor any family or other contacts.
3. The first night he finds the Crisis Ministries homeless shelter, and, next morning, begins working odd jobs. Within a few weeks, he gets a regular job with a moving company. He moonlights on weekends to make extra money.
4. He makes friends and contacts, and these help him to find jobs and housing…Within five months, he gets a raise from the moving company to $10/ hour. And another, to $11/hour in less than nine months.
5. Progress was retarded by breaking his foot on the job, yet by three months he was able to move out of the homeless shelter and rent a room in a large house in an upscale part of town. (It was owned by a friend he met while working a second job on weekends.) Then, just a month later, he moved into a two-bedroom duplex with the cousin of one of his co-workers. It was a bit rundown, so the two of them spent a week-end making it like new. (His share was $325 because he took the master bedroom.)
6. After just ten months he was living in his own furnished apartment, with his own car, and he had $5,300 in savings.
a. The book also tells of other low-income people he met, and how they, also, would like a safety net second to their own work,"


So what is your point? Americans aren't willing to work hard? I would say they are the hardest working people on the earth. Sure there are those that are not. But those who are working work harder than any other country out there. So, this is one case. I started with nothing and worked hard to have my own business too. In fact I am retired from it. Passed it on to my son. But that doesn't mean I don't see the struggle that others who work hard to barely get by have. Those are the ones thrown under the bus by the elite. There are a huge percentage of hard working people who struggle to make ends meet. They don't collect unemployment. They get so food stamps. But they don't get ahead. And I don't place all the blame on them. So they work until they collect Social security. I am thankful for that program.

You don't understand it?


Decisions and determination make the difference.

Hand-wringing and complaining make Democrats.

That's great news, I mean, your explanation on how people become Democrats. Does that mean all these complainers on these boards, you included, are on their way to salvation?
How long does the conversion take?

 

[PoliticalChic]

"
1. For a real-world perspective on the American ethic, find the Alan Shepard book, “Scratch Beginnings, in which the author recounts his own social experiment, at age 24, starting out at the lowest rung of the economic ladder. The question: could he conquer poverty in one year at his best efforts?
2. He left his home with nothing but a tarp, sleeping bag, an empty gym bag, the clothes on his back, and $25. The went to Charleston, South Carolina…a city where he had never been before, and where he knew nobody. He didn’t use his college education as a resume, nor any family or other contacts.
3. The first night he finds the Crisis Ministries homeless shelter, and, next morning, begins working odd jobs. Within a few weeks, he gets a regular job with a moving company. He moonlights on weekends to make extra money.
4. He makes friends and contacts, and these help him to find jobs and housing…Within five months, he gets a raise from the moving company to $10/ hour. And another, to $11/hour in less than nine months.
5. Progress was retarded by breaking his foot on the job, yet by three months he was able to move out of the homeless shelter and rent a room in a large house in an upscale part of town. (It was owned by a friend he met while working a second job on weekends.) Then, just a month later, he moved into a two-bedroom duplex with the cousin of one of his co-workers. It was a bit rundown, so the two of them spent a week-end making it like new. (His share was $325 because he took the master bedroom.)
6. After just ten months he was living in his own furnished apartment, with his own car, and he had $5,300 in savings.
a. The book also tells of other low-income people he met, and how they, also, would like a safety net second to their own work,"


So what is your point? Americans aren't willing to work hard? I would say they are the hardest working people on the earth. Sure there are those that are not. But those who are working work harder than any other country out there. So, this is one case. I started with nothing and worked hard to have my own business too. In fact I am retired from it. Passed it on to my son. But that doesn't mean I don't see the struggle that others who work hard to barely get by have. Those are the ones thrown under the bus by the elite. There are a huge percentage of hard working people who struggle to make ends meet. They don't collect unemployment. They get so food stamps. But they don't get ahead. And I don't place all the blame on them. So they work until they collect Social security. I am thankful for that program.

You don't understand it?


Decisions and determination make the difference.

Hand-wringing and complaining make Democrats.

That's great news, I mean, your explanation on how people become Democrats. Does that mean all these complainers on these boards, you included, are on their way to salvation?
How long does the conversion take?

reggie....lately you really have had nothing to say, and have been reduced to this innocuous attempt at being cleaver.....e.g., this post and you posts where you refuse to engage and claim that you're waiting to agree with whatever 'historians' tell you.


C'mon now.....bring something to the table.

 

[NYcarbineer]

Indeed. But they DON'T have the liberty to decide for other people what America is.

Tell that to the author of this thread. She's an immigrant and all she does is tell other people what America should be.

If you agree with it, you won't mind telling immigrants who complain about things like co-workers displaying the American flag on their desks.

Or is that different? Somehow?

I don't know what that's supposed to mean. If a Mexican immigrant wants to keep eating Mexican food, despite being in America, that's his business.

 

[regent]

You don't understand it?


Decisions and determination make the difference.

Hand-wringing and complaining make Democrats.

That's great news, I mean, your explanation on how people become Democrats. Does that mean all these complainers on these boards, you included, are on their way to salvation?
How long does the conversion take?

reggie....lately you really have had nothing to say, and have been reduced to this innocuous attempt at being cleaver.....e.g., this post and you posts where you refuse to engage and claim that you're waiting to agree with whatever 'historians' tell you.


C'mon now.....bring something to the table.

OK, so what happened to the battle to destroy teacher unions? That was hot stuff for a little while; have the conservative think-tanks dropped it, and are now working on a new bombshell? If so I hope it's something catchy like FDR could really walk but used the polio gambit to work on people's pity for votes and dimes. FDR kept the dimes.