Joe Perez

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This thread has gotten me to wondering how my own life might have turned out differently, had I access to the sort of educational opportunities which today's urban youth take for granted.

My own educational history was... interesting. In 3rd grade, my teacher literally thought that I was mentally handicapped, because by that point I'd started to sort of check out and not give a **** about things like homework, class participation, etc, which were tedious and unchallenging. I far preferred to skip class and find secluded places (janitor's closet, boiler room, behind the curtain in the auditorium which was also the cafeteria, etc) to go and read. Apparently, teachers freak out when 3rd graders go missing after recess, and get really pissed when it happens again and again. I was a slippery little bastard.

I remember that one day they pulled me out of class, brought me into the office, and made me take a few tests which were unlike anything I'd encountered in the classroom. Then I got interviewed by a couple of well-dressed adults whom I didn't recognize, then my parents got called in for a conference. At some point in this process, they realized that I wasn't retarded, I was... above-average (by hick-town standards, anyway) and just bored as hell. Mind you, I assumed I was in trouble the whole time, as was usually the case when my presence was requested in the office. Bastards never thought to say "Oh, you're not being punished, we just think you might actually be a genius."

After that, they put me into Charlotte County's "Gifted & Talented" program. There was only one in the county, and it happened to be at my school. We probably had about 20 kids total in that one classroom, from grades 3-6, from three different schools. It was amazing. We learned about solid geometry, read serious literature, did basic algebra, learned to play the violin (I sucked), studied chess (didn't suck), wrote works of short fiction, visited what passed for "local" museums and galleries (those were some long rides in the short bus...) It was like that episode of The Simpsons (which was still some years away then) where Lisa gets to attend Cloisters Academy, only much smaller and in a double-wide trailer out behind the main building with no heat and a leaky roof. And no budget. And a single, grandmotherly teacher. I will never forget Ms. Rose Donaruma for so long as I live. She's one of the few teachers whose name and face I remember like it was yesterday, and she turned me back into a straight-A student.

Then came Jr. High. No more ivory tower; I was back in what prison inmates refer to as gen-pop. I started to tune out again. By my sophomore year of high school, I managed to fail both chemistry and world history in the same semester because I literally just did not give a ****. Apparently, acing the exams doesn't matter to some teachers when you haven't bothered to turn in a single assignment all year. (Also, mind you that I was sufficiently good at *actual* chemistry that, at one point, the local Sheriff's Dept became involved. Long story.) The school's drama teacher had to petition the administration to allow me to participate in that semester's school musical (with the caveat that I be excluded from the next one) because I was literally the only person who knew how to set up and run the lighting and sound consoles. I wasn't even IN drama class, I just found being the tech guy to be marginally less boring than going to my regular classes. (Also, there were many cute girls there.)


It's a miracle that I got into any college at all, much less the least-bad public University in a state so notorious for sucking that its male inhabitants are an internet meme. Man, did I have to plead a case with that admissions officer... I can't remember his name, but he has my gratitude.

Of course, because I'd slagged off so severely in high school, I found myself, for the first time in my life, being at an actual academic disadvantage in certain subjects. I had to take a remedial college algebra course the second semester of my freshman year, simply because I'd barely learned a single thing in high school.

I do actually remember the names of my HS Algebra I (fresh) and Algebra II (soph) teachers. Jerry and Terry Bolander. Jerry was a pig farmer who taught on the side. His brother, Terry, with whom he shared acreage, was also a pig farmer who taught (and coached the football team) on the side.

I detested them both at the time, and I resent them both to this day.

ridethecliche

iTrader: (2)

Imaginary pos cat awarded.

I like the turn this thread has taken. That was pretty interesting!

Sidebar: Brain, plz respond to mah pm when you can haz time.

cordycord

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Oh I'd say BHO would feel quite comfortable being called a Socialist.

triple88a

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So all of the people that bitched about obama taking 1 vacation.. wheres the outrage about Trump?

https://thinkprogress.org/trump-mar-...9ef#.suv4ybt6k

On February 17, President Trump will head to his $200,000-per-membership Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach for the third consecutive weekend, according to the Palm Beach Post.

Each trip reportedly costs taxpayers upward of $3 million.

Trump’s reluctance to spend a weekend in Washington stands in contrast to what he promised during the campaign, when he said he’d “rarely leave the White House.”

“I would rarely leave the White House because there’s so much work to be done,” Trump told a reporter in 2015. “I would not be a president who took vacations. I would not be a president that takes time off… You don’t have time to take time off.”

ridethecliche

iTrader: (2)

Holy crap Flynn just resigned.

Re: Trump vacations. This weekend he was there with the Japanese PM and his wife right? I wouldn't really call that a vacation, but yeah, the costs are pretty extravagant. Wouldn't be the first time that taxpayers have to pick up the tab for his dealings though!

shuiend

iTrader: (24)

Presidential vacations have never bothered me. Mostly because they are the boss, they get to set those vacation rules. Out of all the stressful jobs on Earth, being president of the US has got to be one of them. So if they want to spend a weekend at a fancy spancy private club, while entertaining foreign leaders, I don't really care.

bahurd

iTrader: (8)

Yes, generally those things tend to follow the money. Figure out how to get people employed (in a meaningful job) and business tends to fill itself in.


By your standards, I grew up in a tiny town... 52 kids in my senior class (I think somewhere around 90-100 today) and grades 7-12 served 4 towns in the district. The closest "city" was, back then, a manufacturing based city of around 12K. Other than a few private schools in the general area (Proctor Academy, Holderness etc), there was one Catholic school in that city.

Slowly, in the 60's the manufacturing started to dry up and by the 80's had become an exodus to the Carolinas (then). What manufacturing is there today is typically high tech and driven because the owner wanted to live in the area (lakes/mountains and good quality of life).

Those small towns today have become pretty much vacation spots (thank god for lakes and mountains) but also a huge drug problem. Economy is pretty much either low income service industry, or high income tourist/vacation property owner. Middle income is trades or small business owners servicing the tourists and to an extant the small mfg mentioned above.

Not enough population to support magnet schools although the schools do a good job with AP classes and alternative routes for "gifted" students.

As an overall objective, I'd think it'd be good for our society to have an educated healthy population. Policies should be put in place to support those things. IMO Not so simple I'm sure.

bahurd

iTrader: (8)

Yup, and now the infamous question arises; "What did the president know and when did he know it?"

Republican congressmen are starting to call for the inevitable investigation and it came out that then acting Attorney General Sally Yates informed Trump and his circle weeks ago that the FBI had developed information that Flynn had been compromised by his close, and financial, Russian ties.

What I find startling (actually not so in retrospect) is these guys never thought the FBI/CIA/NSA whoever could be recording conversations especially with foreign governments. I mean really... after all the Patriot Act disclosures and Snowden these guys think they're above the law or outside the reach. Don't **** with the spies, they'll get you back...

Too bad Nixon's dead, he could get some big legal consulting money...

cordycord

iTrader: (2)

Did Melania follow him down there an hour later in a second presidential jet? Did PM Abe have to get a taxi down there for their weekend meeting?

bahurd

iTrader: (8)

I suspect she didn't fly commercial from NY to Washington to meet up with the Trumpster. Remember, she lives in NY still. Maybe he took an uber.

triple88a

iTrader: (2)

Soooo https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...chuck-williams

bahurd

iTrader: (8)

That's perfect. Avatar material...

DNMakinson

iTrader: (3)

Failed Post about study funded for $3million on the % of people (USA) who could smell asparagus metabolites in their pee.

bahurd

iTrader: (8)

linkee no workee...

So FTFY

Taxpayer-funded study asked if people could smell 'asparagus pee' | Fox News

stratosteve

iTrader: (1)

I am confused.

bahurd

iTrader: (8)

Not my idea... What could go wrong?

Elon Musk on universal basic income: 'It's going to be necessary' - Business Insider

ridethecliche

iTrader: (2)

This is actually a really interesting line of discussion.

We're getting to a point where there is a lot of automation and we're at a point where mass jobs can be replaced by machines. The only reason we're not totally there yet is because cheap labor exists in china and india, but that won't always be the case. In America, mental health is tied pretty heavily to your work status. It's definitely going to be an interesting transition. Silicone valley is pretty into this idea, tbh.

bahurd

iTrader: (8)

I'm an industrial engineer by degree and my business is selling productivity to manufacturing customers. It's pretty well accepted the low hanging fruit (jobs) has been done. Any new plants being built are heavily automated and the difference between making stuff in China vs the US is heavily dependent on things like duties and freight. That's part of the problem, the cost of Capitol is the same globally so things like the willingness of government to underwrite jobs is ever more important to the equation. I.E. China's willing to subsidize manufacturing where we play states against states.

Not to say there isn't anything left but the majority of existing mfg jobs to be lost to automation is on the flatter part of the curve.

To carry the thought on, there's new processes (additive mfg, etc) that promise to completely upend our thoughts of what "manufacturing " is that will replace a lot of lower skilled people. GE is a leader in this. Think 3D printed turbine blades (right now it's limited to things like fuel controls etc) that have a lot of machined hours can ultimately be "printed". Phenomenal reduction in time to manufacture.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

It truly is.

The idea of a Universal Basic Income has been tossed around a lot in many of the more prosperous (and homogeneous) European nations, but I'm not aware that it's been fully implemented anywhere.

We've actually had a Universal Basic Income in the US since the 1930s, though it is only accessible to people over a certain age, and people who meet certain means-based criteria.



I've had exactly one experience with a society that had a truly universal Universal Basic Income. In the early 2000s, we landed a project to build a small radio station for the Seminole Tribe of Florida, inside of a new community center that they were constructing on the Hollywood Reservation. (It never went on the air, due to a combination of them ignoring the FCC and some internal political corruption, but we built it and they paid us.)


A bit of background on the Seminole Tribe:


Like many other Indian nations, the Seminole of Florida started out building depressing casinos in the late 70s. But under the leadership of Chief Jim Billie, they managed their money very wisely and diversified into a number of businesses which most people would not typically associate with Indian tribes. The Seminole Tribe owns a large number of citrus farms and cattle ranches (they are the 12th largest cattle-ranching operation in the US), they own a number of liquor distributors, a rock quarry, RV resorts, and the Hard Rock Cafe. Not just one restaurant, they own the whole brand / franchise. So if you've eaten at the Hard Rock at any point in the past decade, anywhere in the world, you've put money into the coffer of the Seminole Tribe.

They also have their own Air Force. I mean, technically they're not military aircraft per se, but they have an airport on site filled with private jets and helicopters. While I was there, I scored an hour of right-seat time in a Gulfstream 4, from an instructor pilot, just because he was bored and offered to take me up and drill some holes in the sky. (Wish I'd have had my logbook with me- my regular instructor would have **** kittens when he saw that line.) If the Seminole ever go to war against the Miccosukee, it will be an extremely brief and disproportionate conflict.

At last check, the Tribe's net revenues were $1.1 billion. This tribe has 4,000 members. That's a net revenue of $275,000 per person, including infants and the elderly. Not a lot of Fortune 500 companies pulling in that sort of margin.

Because of this immense prosperity, every member of the Seminole Tribe who lives on the reservation receives an annual stipend. I can't recall exactly what it was when I was there, but it was a lot, like $6-7k per month per person. And that was ~15 years ago, when 10,000 on the DJIA seemed like a lot.




Now, back to my personal story:




During the time that I was on site, my crew & I resided on the reservation as guests of the Chief. (He has a couple of very nice guest houses near his own, complete with staff.) I had a Seminole chaperone, but was allowed to roam freely so long as I was on foot, and thus, I did a lot of exploring. (Wasn't quite as adventurous as discussed in the other thread right now, as Seminole internal security, to be brutally honest, scare the **** out of me. Those are some big, tough, mean-looking ************* who are fully aware that they exist outside the laws of the State of Florida and the United States.)

Every house on the reservation, while not remarkable to look at, had several brand new pickup trucks and a couple of quad bikes parked in the grass out front. Unemployment among members of the tribe on the reservation is maybe 80-90%. It's not that there are no jobs, it's merely that they don't want or need to work. This is a society who are now on their second/third generation of being a total welfare-state, and aside from the small fraction who are members of what is shaping up to be a hereditary aristocracy, the fundamental concept of work ethic is simply absent from the collective consciousness. A few are employed in managerial & supervisory capacities in the various businesses on and off the reservation, but nearly everyone employed on an hourly basis doing actual work was either a gringo (in customer-facing hospitality type roles) or Central / South American (in entertainment and service type roles.) I assume that most tourists can't tell the difference between a Seminole and a Colombian with long hair and a badly-faked accent.

Alcoholism and drug abuse are rampant on a scale incomprehensible to most outsiders. Ditto obesity.

The average life expectancy of a Seminole born & residing on the reservation is 48 years. And these are people who have access to free education (including college), free healthcare, etc.

48 years. That's lower than Somalia and Ethiopia.



But the food was decent. We typically had lunch at the touristy places near the jobsite-ate a lot of gator tail, but the house staff, which included one Seminole chef, prepared native dishes for us at dinnertime. Those were amazing meals.



That's my one and only first-hand experience with a Universal Basic Income.

triple88a

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