From: Dickey, Michael F (michael_f_dickey@groton.pfizer.com)
Date: Thu Aug 23 2001 - 08:11:34 MDT
At 07:55 PM 22/08/2001 +0100, Steve Davies wrote:
>This is true for other countries as well as the US - plenty of work on the
>British case for example. Here we have just officially confirmed that the
>under 35s have a lower standard of literacy than was the case before WW I!
"I find that really hard to believe."
It is difficult to believe, but with the growin trend of paternalism and no
negative feedback in schools, it would not surprise me.
"It seems to be fashionable to heap shit on public schools these days."
Actually in the US it is quite unfashionable to talk bad of public schools.
There have been many examples where charter schools that were run by
corporations came in and took over ailing public schools, turned them
around, and then the parents voted to kick the corporations out because they
were philosophically opposed to people 'profiting off of education'
Unfortunately it is usually the kids who lose out, as these schools
objectively score better on every test given to thier students. These
liberal biased soccermoms would rather have thier children have NO pencils
and pads then have some with Coca Cola logos on them. Its a shame.
"Don't they remember why public
school exists? There is this waving of arms and saying "Leave it to the
magic of the free market -- that will fix it." But all it will fix is that
the rich will have less tax to pay and the poor will go without
education... "
Do you actually think that is what happens? In fact free markets limit the
wealth someone, such as a CEO could accumulate, mainly because if a company
pays too much out to a CEO they are necessarily charging more for thier
product and will be undersold by a competeing company that pays thier CEO
less. If they pay thier CEO too little, he has no incentive to make sure
the company excells. In this way the market stabalizes on a value that a
company places on a good leader. They cant pay them too much, and they cant
pay them too little.
Also, the top 5% of wage earners in the United States pay 30% of the entire
nations taxes. So how do you figure that the rich have less tax to pay?
Bill Gates net worth is equal to half of the entire middle class in the US.
Yeah, he's rich, but that means he pays as much taxes as half of the entire
middle class.
Your objections to free markets are more based on your philosophical
opposition to it the to factual objections. In the US and in many other
countries there is a strong liberal bias in the media (I am not a republican
either, and disagree with them just as much as with liberals, only on
different issues) But the bias is there and it is quite obvious. All the
evidence and every case observed suggests that free markets (and capitalism
in general) benefits everybody involved. You often hear in the media and by
people on the street the phrase "The rich are getting rich and the poor are
getting poorer" this is not the case. The Rich are getting richer, but the
poor are as well. Just look at the poverty level in the US right now and
compare it with the poverty level in the 1950's, and then in the early
1900's, then to the poor farmers that made up 85% of the population in 1850.
Everyone lives longer healthier lives. The rich are getting richer, but so
are the poor. Its just the rich may get richer faster, but the entire
global standard of living is increasing and this is directly because of
capitalistic competition. We have a heavily regulated capitalism in the US,
and sparsely regulated free market economy would drastically accerlate that
process and drag 3rd world countries out of poverty and into
industrialization, and then further into post industrialization.
"I am no fan of school (I was lucky enough to be born into a family where I
was well-off and basically taught myself), but that doesn't mean I am blind
to how it can bring opportunity to those who would otherwise miss out. "
If there are people out there who want to be educated, there will be
companies out there willing to educate them, poor or not. And they could do
it better, cheaper, and faster.
Michael D
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