Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[MaximumZero]

The United States are close second, which really make me wonder: wasn't there a thing called the "American Dream"?

I think our education system may have something to do with that.  If you're born in certain areas, you're much less likely to graduate high school, which (probably) means no high paying job for you (my twelfth grade English teacher described inner city "dropout factories" where the vast majority of students don't graduate).  People's ability to go to a good college is also very dependent on income, and quality of public schools is pretty closely tied to how expensive it is to live in a certain area.  Basically, if your parents are poor, you end up at a big disadvantage in the job market because of your poor education, which means you're more likely to be poor.  Rinse and repeat for the next generation.

The problem isn't the "Dropout factories", it's the "teachers don't want to deal with hopeless cases so pass them anyway" factories. Now, I was in high school 12 years ago, but I'm currently in college, and the problem remains, at least here. The average reading level of my fellow students (many of whom are inner city born and poor, but graduated high school,) is about on part with what a 5th grader should be at (according to ORSIG), and their math is addition, subtraction, and multiplication. That's about it. These are people who somehow made it into the local community college, and are attempting to get degrees. When I was in high school, there were numerous seniors who refused to read any word aloud that was more than one syllable, and could not figure out how to use a period in a sentence. All of these students were pushed out of the educational system with passing marks. I really, really wish I were exaggerating.

The educational system of the United States of America makes me weep. It makes me weep bitterly.

[DJ]

Why not cut off welfare payments only when the income they are earning without the welfare becomes twice or thrice that of the welfare payments themselves.

One reason (from the perspective of welfare for everyone): Then you have to pay for the bureaucratic system for determining, managing and tracking when people get their welfare cut off.

Another reason (from the traditional perspective): Because someone who is capable of earning does not need as much assistance as someone who isn't earning (this is partly true, assuming the hourly rate is higher than the hourly cost of childcare). And because welfare needs to be conserved for those who need it most, those who earn need to be given progressively less support based on an arcane and difficult  to process formula, thus justifying the welfare bureaucracy.

Another reason (from the conservative perspective): Anyone who isn't a cripple can earn a good wage if only they work hard enough. Someone who works but isn't earning enough to live on has been judged by the divine hand of the almighty market and does not deserve any assistance.

Note: I am not ENTIRELY serious with some of these answers.

I don't get why it has to be so complicated. Simply set a base welfare, that those without income get paid in full. Those with income get 50 cents deducted from their welfare for every dollar they earn. Sure, people that work and get welfare will live more comfortably, but as long as the base aid is high enough to live on, I don't see a problem. It just an incentive for people to go out and get a job, and since they'll be progressively better off as they get better paid jobs they will hopefully get off welfare eventually.

The one problem I see is that working can cause high transportation costs, but that can be solved by deducting travel expenses from the income before calculating how much welfare to pay out.

As for tracking these things, doesn't IRS do that anyway?

[scriver]

Max, I would find it far more likely that it is the schools that force teachers to let bad pupils pass rather than it being them "not wanting to real with hopeless cases".

[GlyphGryph]

DJ, the only serious problem with that is time the time lag - you get money based on how poor you were last time they checked, which means you'll get more than you need when you don't need it, and less than you need when you do. Which is admittedly a flaw with current system.

Far better simply to give the money to everyone under all cases in full, and tax from the first dollar of income - use the system we've already got to handle manipulating people's money supply rather than build two systems towards the same purpose.

The only time this doesn't work is when you think there are some poor people who simply don't deserve assistance - in this case, its hard to kick them out.


And yeah, MZ, scriver makes a good point - at least locally, that sort of pressure was 100% from the school - they would come down hard on teachers who were grading "too strictly" and thus making them look bad. (and gets calls from parents)

Brings me sort of back to the Olympic thread - what, exactly, is a teacher getting paid for? To perform the job they were hired to do, to demonstrate their expertise in best way they can, or to make their organization look good? Here, at least, they are often strictly at odds.

In my experience, those dedicated to the second are more likely to reap rewards, even if they don't bother teaching a single thing in any of their classes. (The current principle of my old high school, when I took classes there and he was just a teacher, had us rewrite the entire book and then gave us a test with the answers to rewrite. I don't think he taught a single thing the whole class, and no one got less than a B)

[Mrhappyface]

To enlist in the US military: You need a high school diploma or equivalent, be in reasonably good shape, and not have a serious criminal record.

[Mrhappyface]

Just wanted to bump this with hilarious copypasta.

>Traveling across US
>Invited by two friends in NY to have dinner in a restaurant
>Waiter comes to the table
>"What can I get for you gentlemen this evening?"
>I order a vegetable platter and a small bowl of olive oil
>first friend orders cheese burger with fries, and a 12oz steak with extra mashed potatoes
>second friend orders full rack of ribs, pulled pork sammie, macaroni and cheese, and deep fried pickles
>15 min later waiter returns with their food
>friend asks me if I want to try a fry, say sure, grab one and gently pour ketchup onto it
>he looks at me in confusion and asks me what I'm doing
>starts pounding bottle of ketchup into a separate bowl he requested
>empties another one into the bowl
>asks the waiter for a third bottle and empties it into the bowl
>grabs a handfull of fries, oil dripping down his arm as he squeezes them
>making airplane noises BRRRRRRRM, WOOOOOOOO, VOOOOOSH
>dunks them into the bowl of ketchup, entire fist is stained red
>has to forcefully shove them into his mouth as to make sure none of them drop
>tells me "that's how ain't no faggot eats sum fries"
>other friend says "praise jesus" and starts clapping
>soon the entire restaurant is clapping
>waiter comes back with the food I ordered
>soggy, dripping pizza margherita and a small bowl of olive oil
>"I ordered a vegetable platter, not a pizza... that's not what I wanted..."
>"Oh, I'm sorry. How about a fruit salad?" he said while holding up a cherry flavored lollipop
>first friend is laughing while chunks of french fry evacuate from his mouth
>man in 10 gallon hat walks up to our table and starts shooting revolvers into the ceiling of the restaurant screaming "YEEE HAW" repeatedly
>eagle bursts through the ceiling and takes my oil

[Bauglir]

Man I'm pretty liberal but goddamn if I would not love such a restaurant experience. That's the sort of story you tell people for years, and which they assume is fictional because come on, really.

[Dutchling]

Deep fried pickles? 

[Frumple]

Roughly half (+/- 25%) of southern cooking can be summed up as "Deep fry everything." Pickles are no exception.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

The NC State Fair is very notorious for frying everything under the sun. Deep fried butter in particular comes to mind.

[andrea]

Deep fried butter

I lost a year of my life just READING that. why would you eat deep fried butter?

[GlyphGryph]

My wife loves deep fried pickles.

They are really good, and are one of the four deep fried foods you can get most anywhere in the country (the others being potatoes, onions and cheese)/

[RedKing]

Deep fried butter

I lost a year of my life just READING that. why would you eat deep fried butter?

A deep-seated hatred of all that is good in the universe?

Or, you're just really hungry and your name is "Buford".



My wife also loves fried pickles, although I'm not all that fond myself.
Of all the "KILL IT WITH BOILING OIL!" type fair foods i've tried, I think deep-fried cheesecake and deep-fried ice cream were the best two. I saw that "deep-fried butter" sign at the Fairgrounds and had my own WTFBBQ moment a couple of years ago.

[Sheb]

Apparently, they manage to deep-fry beer.

Who said DF cooking was unrealistic?

[scriver]

My wife loves deep fried pickles.

Let me guess, she eats them on her cracking bread?

Though. I would love to try some deep fried ice cream.