May 17, 2009

Public high school legacy admissions in the People's Republic of Santa Monica

From the LA Times:
Emulating a controversial practice at many colleges, two high-achieving public school districts in California are giving preference to the children of alumni.

The Beverly Hills Unified School District and the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District have adopted legacy admissions policies for children of former students who live outside their enrollment boundaries. The policies appear to be the first in the nation at public schools, education experts said.

The programs vary slightly, but leaders of both districts say they hope to raise money by forging closer ties with alumni who may be priced out of their hometowns as well as with grandparents who still live there.

What's particularly striking is that this legal privilege is more or less hereditary, being passed down to the child from grandparents who currently live in Beverly Hills and from parents who used to live there:
Beverly Hills adopted its legacy policy on a 3-2 vote last spring, allowing the children of anyone who attended city schools at least four years and whose grandparents have lived in the city for at least a decade to apply for permits. Eleven students, among 5,100 enrolled in district schools, attend school under the program.

Fenton said he proposed the idea to reconnect the district with grandparents who live within its borders and no longer have a direct stake in the city's schools yet are asked to vote on school measures, such as a $334-million facilities bond passed in November.

Fenton also said the district needed to forge closer ties with its alumni and pointed to an example of the benefits such connections can bring: The Beverly Hills Athletic Alumni Assn. in recent years has raised more than $1 million for uniforms, scoreboards and other purchases, he said.

I wonder what Thomas Jefferson would have thought.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

53 comments:

  1. The obvious answer to me is theya retrying to maintain a certain white percentage in the schools. The white liberal Jews of Beverly Hills and the white liberal WASPs of Santa Monica don't want to see their alma maters completely taken over by Iranians and Mexicans respectively.

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  2. I favour school being allowed to select their pupils.

    But this looks like a dishonest, albeit maybe self-deceiving, way of giving extra places to kids with high IQ and high achieving personalities who are likely to achieve good academic results - given that these psychological attributes are sustantially hereditary.

    And, given the fact of assortative mating by IQ, it would even work for grandparents.

    But it would be better openly and explicitly to select kids on the basis of IQ and personality.

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  3. If the Santa Monica schools have excess capacity, then I'm not sure why we should object. What would Thomas Jefferson think?

    But the policy will sound a lot like "Grandfather Clause" if it is ever challenged in court for having a disparate racial impact.

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  4. Aren't most of the Iranians in LA Jewish?

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  5. Jefferson would think the rubbish needed raking.

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  6. The children benefiting are probably more authentic Americans than many in the district from post-1965 families, and deserve support from their fellow citizens.

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  7. What would Jefferson think of Ivy League legacy admissions, on which these policies are obviously based? That's got to be one of the most obvious manifestations of the American aristocracy.

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  8. I can see Steve's point.

    Some other important points not covered.

    1. Most grandparents are willing to let their grandkids use their address so that they can attend the school anyway. I even know people who have moved and rented out the old house and now use the rental property as their in-district address.

    2. School districts allow out of district students to attend. They just have to pay tuition.

    3. Teachers can often cut a deal with the district to get their kids in.

    4. Smart people are generally more able to go around the rules to get what they want.

    This arrangement actually makes it possible for the district to collect money from people when they catch them using grandma's address, rather than just kick them out. Most of us can see why the school would rather have the money.

    In very large districts where some schools are good and others are not, people who move away from a school often continue sending their kids to the better school and don't notify the school they have moved. Administrators know that, so when a kid is a discipline problem, they send a "do not forward letter" to see if the address is correct. If it is not, they kick the kid out. High performing students' addresses are not challenged.

    Dumb people just see the rules; smart people see the system.

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  9. "I wonder what Thomas Jefferson would have thought." He'd probably have distinguished between those of his children or grandchildren who were also his slaves, and those who were not.

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  10. "But it would be better openly and explicitly to select kids on the basis of IQ and personality."

    Nah, that's like Apartheid. These schools are just demonstrations of white liberal hypocrisy. They demand (with threats) that normal whites "integrate" with the plebs, but make sure to keep themselves and their kids in safe havens.

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  11. Could be worse, Steve, we have a truly awful education system up here in Canada. You folks may have to shell out for private schools but considering the tax rates it's a wash at best for us. Are American teachers unionized? They are up here in Canada and they pretty much run the country (they own the Toronto Maple Leafs, the second largest media chain, The Sun, and nearly bought Bell Canada, our biggest telcom). The biggest pools of capital seem to be public service pension funds.

    There was one kid from my town whose mom got remarried and moved them to Oakland back in the mid 70s. He explained that he had to go to a private school - and this kid was from my "project" - because the black kids would beat him up otherwise. He also said the BART was cool. In Canada, we can't afford private schools so the kids just get beat up.

    All this legacy business is very unbecoming of America, a country I still believe is a beacon of light, although anonymous above has a good point: if it helps protect whites from the hostile tribes I'm all for it.

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  12. The nice parts of santa monica are north of montana avenue

    Some of the rest of santa monica is poor


    how jewish are the nice parts of santa monica?

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  13. "Anonymous said...

    The children benefiting are probably more authentic Americans than many in the district from post-1965 families, and deserve support from their fellow citizens."

    True. But the parents of those children have consistently supported every harebrained, liberal idea and policy ever proposed, and in so doing, have made a mess of thier own town.

    So it's hard not to take some glee in thier misfortune and tell them - Well, just live with it. You've got your precious diversity - now live with it.

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  14. How many are we talking about? Eleven? that's not much.

    How many POTENTIAL candidates? That is unknown.

    It could be money. It could be ethnic nepotism. It could be test scores. It could be all of these. We probably don't know enough yet to call it.

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  15. A lot of the Iranians in the LA area (most of those in Beverly Hills) are Jewish, but they don't have a lot in common with Ashkenazim whose families have been in the US for over 100 years.

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  16. As whites become a smaller and smaller minority in LA, they are acting more directly to protect the interests of their fellow whites.

    Notice the double requirement here:

    (1) Children of alumni. This is a group that will reflect the older 80%+ white demographic of these districts between 1980-1995.

    (2) Grandparents must live in the district. This further whitens the eligibility pool since the long-term elderly residents are much whiter than the younger parents of school age children in the district.

    The next step is to expand "gifted" programs so much that they take in almost the entire white/asian student body.

    Another little way liberal whites in SoCal are looking out for themselves are resident-only street parking rules, which stop multiple families with cars from living in a single-family house and make it harder for inland NAMs to find parking in Santa Monica and Venice for a day at the beach.

    Since the permits take a while to get when you first move in and require interaction with the government and basic English literacy to apply for, even the new NAM immigrants who qualify them will still probably get ticketed when they first arrive.

    Another step I predict in the near future is aggressive enforcement of car insurance and registration rules. Most whites keep these up to date, NAM immigrants not so much. Right now Marina del Rey is very strict here, the rest of the white beach burbs will probably soon follow.

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  17. anonymous said...

    The children benefiting are probably more authentic Americans than many in the district from post-1965 families, and deserve support from their fellow citizens.

    No. The flood level immigration hitting America from around the world is separate. I don't want my government expanding its habit of racial preferences, what I want is for the government ending legal immigration and fencing the southern border.

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  18. I have no doubt that Thomas Jefferson would have been publicly outraged.

    Of course Jefferson himself inherited his wealth and freed all of Sally Hemings' children (ahem, ahem), but virtually none of his other slaves.

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  19. Ethnic breakdown at El Rodeo Elementary in Beverly Hills, where the Gellers are sending their kid.

    Ethnic breakdown at Canfield Avenue Elementary in Beverlywood, which I presume the Gellers are trying to avoid.

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  20. The public magnet high school I went to allowed some out of county students in - but they had to pay tuition. This school seems to be trying an under-the-table bidding process.

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  21. Somebody remind me how those two areas voted in the last election for POTUS.

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  22. Dave Lincoln5/17/09, 2:17 PM

    "Dumb people just see the rules; smart people see the system."

    That is a great comment, silly girl.

    "I wonder what Thomas Jefferson would have thought." He'd probably have distinguished between those of his children or grandchildren who were also his slaves, and those who were not."

    Don't be silly, dearieme, the slaves weren't going to school regularly - there was cotton to pick. Plus, if Thomas Jefferson were living in Santa Monica, why would he have slaves? There weren't any orange groves even, back then, and if you mean, nowadays, there is no way he could afford his house Monticello at today's prices, even with Mexican drywallers, or slave drywallers, for that matter. Give me a break!

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  23. Dave Lincoln5/17/09, 2:57 PM

    Oh, yeah, that Monticello is one big house, BTW. (I just saw a picture of it on the back of a nickle).

    I hope T.J. did not get one of those ARM Jumbo loans on it. He may have a HELOC on it for the slave purchases too. Looks like foreclosure on the horizon. He may have to move, quit farming, and get a job at the building shown on the back of the ten dollar bills.

    Good luck with all that.

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  24. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

    Haaahaaahaaahaaahaaahaaahaaaaa

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  25. Anonymous said...
    Could be worse, Steve, we have a truly awful education system up here in Canada..... In Canada, we can't afford private schools so the kids just get beat up.

    -------------------------------

    Do you live in the bad part of Toronto? Or maybe Surrey?

    Almost all the private schools in Canada are religious. Except for the odd one like Crofton House in Vancouver.

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  26. I have no doubt that Thomas Jefferson would have been publicly outraged.

    Of course Jefferson himself inherited his wealth and freed all of Sally Hemings' children (ahem, ahem), but virtually none of his other slaves.


    What is it with you guys?

    1) How old was Jefferson when he was supposedly schtupping Hemings?

    2) What possible motive could Jefferson have had in freeing the children of a slave fathered by a man in the Jefferson family tree?

    Not saying TJ didn't, but the assumption that he did is pretty thin.

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  27. Having lived in California most of my life I have come to believe that a large % of white children of liberals and hippies could be classified as slackers. A generation or two ago these children could get away with mediocre grades and still have a decent career. Now they are slated to go under the wheel.
    Asians are taking the high paying jobs and Mexicans are taking the low paying ones.

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  28. "It could be money. It could be ethnic nepotism. It could be test scores. It could be all of these. We probably don't know enough yet to call it."

    Thanks T for not blaming this one on White women or the SWiPpLes!:)

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  29. Lawful Neutral5/17/09, 8:12 PM

    Unreal. Simply unreal.

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  30. Roger Chaillet5/17/09, 8:33 PM

    Looks like there might be a run on legacy admissions in Socal. Seems the Jewish middle class has been caught up in the riptide of the minority mortgage meltdown. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-schools18-2009may18,0,7771174.story

    Here in Texas legacy admissions exist only on the university level. Like, say, for George Bush's daughters. One went to Yale and the other to UT Austin. UT Austin is sometimes referred to as a "public Ivy" since so many of its academic programs are among the best in the country.

    The latest brouhaha concerns a "brain drain" here in Texas. Seems there is only a finite number of students that can attend UT Austin. And the only way to get more blacks and browns into the university is to shove aside a like number of grossly overqualified whites.

    Thus the brain drain. These grossly overqualified whites end up attending out of state universities or secondary Texas universities.

    And the man behind the brain drain?

    Why, George Bush of course. He wanted to circumvent restrictions on the use of race and ethnicity in university admissions. So, while governor he signed a law circumventing such restrictions. The law emphasized such talents as being bilingual and being the first in the family to attend college or university. The law was written so as to benefit students from south of the border.

    So, extremely bright working class and middle class white kids get shoved aside, yet the children of plutocrats such as Bush go straight to the front of the line.

    Makes me wonder why tens of millions voted for him.

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  31. What would T. Jefferson think? That a lawsuit is in the offing.

    On a perhaps related note, it seems that Newt Gingrich and Al Sharpton are teaming up to erase the black-white testing and achievment gap. No, I am not drunk. I read this somewhere, but can't now relocate the article. I suspect they'll soon be performing as a rap duo. "Run GOP" or something of the sort. Maybe they've got presidential aspirations for 2012, and see themselves together on the ticket. At this point, I wouldn't count anything out. Didn't somebody say something about history repeating itself, first as tragedy, and then as farce?

    And on a totally unrelated note, it turns out that Maureen Dowd has been plagiarising from blogging posts, but of course has a totally credible explanation for how such a mistake occurred. Then again, it's never a mistake to upgrade your prose style (not to mention, it's thought content), which Dowd could just as easily do by cutting and pasting off spams for penile-enlargement.

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  32. Captain Jack Aubrey5/17/09, 9:46 PM

    The children benefiting are probably more authentic Americans than many in the district from post-1965 families, and deserve support from their fellow citizens.


    Allowing detours around our broken system is a way to let some people avoid fixing the broken system that they don't want to fix because they profit from it. If you force everyone to use the system as is, people will have to insist on fixing it. A good example is the effort to get the federal government to refund hospitals for treating illegal immigrants they are required to treat. In a word: no, no, No, NO, NO!

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  33. This planet is severely overpopulated by Homo Sapiens and has more problems than it can count, let alone solve.

    Therefore it wouldn't be such a damn tragedy if California dropped off into the Pacific Ocean entirely. And that would solve any of the problems ongoing in Santa Monica.

    P.S. The most prestigious medical experts have assured me that the physiological process behind drowning is essentially painless. So don't give me any of that bleeding heart Yankee lip.

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  34. Ted,

    Whether or not the planet is overpopulated, the sudden contraction of the productive, workforce that modern societies are facing when the the boomers quit, die and retire will reshape society.

    If you think kids are a burden, try having an unprecedented share of the population, non-working elderly with massive health care costs.

    At least kids grow up to produce.
    The indigent elderly are much more expensive.

    The mortgage crisis shows that people are willing to walk away from debts. That may prove to be the psychological conditioning they need to walk away from the debts of Social Security and Medicaid.

    Watch that euthanasia trend.

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  35. "leaders of both districts say they hope to raise money by forging closer ties with alumni who may be priced out of their hometowns as well as with grandparents who still live there."

    Is anyone really stupid enough to donate money to a PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL??? I give those losers money with every paycheck, they're not getting another dime beyond the ones they already stole from me at gunpoint.

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  36. "Not saying TJ didn't, but the assumption that he did is pretty thin."

    Dude, what are you talking about? They made a documentary film about it with Halle Berry and Nick Nolte. Of course that shit happened! You need to watch some more TV!

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  37. Anonymous disgruntled Canadian: "Are American teachers unionized?"

    Dude, if you don't know that American teachers are unionized, you probably shouldn't be expounding on the differences between Cdn vs American schools.

    It's unfortunate if any kids are being beaten up, but it's got to be less of a problem than in the States, 'cos the underclass here is smaller.

    Melnyk: "Almost all the private schools in Canada are religious. Except for the odd one like Crofton House in Vancouver."

    That doesn't sound right too me. In urban Canada (at least in the cities I know), private schools are for the upper-middle and upper classes. A few of these elite schools may have a religious affilation (say, with the Anglican Church), but they're not "religious" in the Bible-thumping sense. There are a fair few Evangelical schools, which are what I think you're talking about, and maybe they are a majority of private schools nation-wide, but they are not a vast majority.

    Remember, too, that Catholic schools are fully funded (i.e., free to the public) in Ontario and a couple of other provinces; so that's another option, even for non-Catholics.

    - intellectual pariah

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  38. "Run GOP" or something of the sort.

    LOL!

    Oh, back to the original topic:

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha...

    Haaahaaahaahaahaaaa!

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  39. Back in the 1970s, the public high school that I attended in a heavily Jewish neighborhood in the Midwest allowed those who owned a BUSINESS inside the school district boundaries to send their children to the school for free, and they also allowed teachers to send their children for free. They also allowed people in other districts to pay tuition set at half the average district cost and send their children to the school. In other words, if the district is spending $10,000 per year per child, you pay $5000. These programs were not "advertised" in any way, and only a small number of people took advantage of the programs, but they were there IF you knew to look for them. The vast majority of people had NO idea that any of these options existed.

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  40. David Davenport5/18/09, 4:18 PM

    Does Santa Monica still have some rent-controlled apartments?

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  41. "At least kids grow up to produce.
    The indigent elderly are much more expensive.

    "The mortgage crisis shows that people are willing to walk away from debts. That may prove to be the psychological conditioning they need to walk away from the debts of Social Security and Medicaid.

    "Watch that euthanasia trend."

    -

    Really, Adolf? The 'youts' today are going to be as productive as the people who are retiring,

    ...whom you want to 'kick to the kurb',

    ...since they don't anymore serve a 'useful' economic function in your twisted estimation of things?

    There is a BIG difference between being a consummption and production economy, slick; and again, most dumbed-down, pop-slop 'youts' clearly fall into the former category.

    Additionally, you, insanely,
    think the current crop of degenerate, living-over-one's-means deadbeats defaulting are a good example of financial austerity?

    And for that matter, just who is defaulting (and who was receiving) in the highest numbers from the sub-prime mortgage crisis? Boston Brahmins?

    Aahh, the ayn rand kool-aid-kult raises its psycho head once again... Can smell 'em coming from a mile away!

    Oh, and take some of your own advice and do society a favor, if ya get my drift:).

    -

    *Steve, you gotta screen these geezers better, since they are probably agent provacateurs... .

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  42. G. Stanley Hall5/18/09, 5:04 PM

    Man, I want to get my kid into the good school where they teach him about how every single thing his ancestors have done is reprehensible and worthless, not the crappy school where they teach him that.

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  43. "Man, I want to get my kid into the good school where they teach him about how every single thing his ancestors have done is reprehensible and worthless, not the crappy school where they teach him that."

    Yeah, just what exactly are we getting for our money out of the public fools system???

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  44. Man, I want to get my kid into the good school where they teach him about how every single thing his ancestors have done is reprehensible and worthless, not the crappy school where they teach him that.


    Actually the kids in the bad schools are taught that everything their ancestors did was great - inventing Egyptian civilization, Greek civilization, the hairbrush, the traffic light, peanut butter, you name it.

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  45. Vercingétorix5/19/09, 12:08 AM

    "...whom you want to 'kick to the kurb',

    "...since they don't anymore serve a 'useful' economic function in your twisted estimation of things?

    --

    Reminds me of the quote:

    "...Prussia was not a country with an army, but an army with a country. ..." - (Friedrich von Schrötter)

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussian_Army

    Whereas ---

    "America is not a country with an economy, but an economy with a country. ..." (John Attarian)

    --

    This is how we are to thank and care for our families and parents, eh, the generations that built America, and made our lives possible?

    *

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  46. ---"The mortgage crisis shows that people are willing to walk away from debts. That may prove to be the psychological conditioning they need to walk away from the debts of Social Security and Medicaid."---


    Ah, and these are just the kind and calibur of 'people' who you would find to be 'productive citizens'???

    Were U drinking with Testy when U wrote this?

    --

    ---*Steve, you gotta screen these geezers better, since they are probably agent provacateurs... .---

    I really second that one!!!

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  47. Vercingetrox said...

    This is how we are to thank and care for our families and parents, eh, the generations that built America, and made our lives possible?

    The Boomers didn't build America, if anything they tore it down in order to live off the accumulated capital. I'm not advocating euthanasia, but the Boomers as a generation deserve no respect.

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  48. Dave Lincoln5/19/09, 4:28 PM

    "Actually the kids in the bad schools are taught that everything their ancestors did was great - inventing Egyptian civilization, Greek civilization, the hairbrush, the traffic light, peanut butter, you name it."

    Well, they're right about the peanut butter (crunchy, not smooth). But just knowing that you've got one or two smart ancestors ain't gonna get you a job.

    That was very funny, G. Stanley Hall!

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  49. Vercingétorix5/19/09, 6:17 PM

    "The Boomers didn't build America, if anything they tore it down in order to live off the accumulated capital. I'm not advocating euthanasia, but the Boomers as a generation deserve no respect."

    Overall true Ronduck, though I really had in mind the pre-boomer generation(s).

    Aw heck, any generation or group of people is better than the current crop that anon referenced; those who would be 'willing to walk away' from their debts --

    ...i.e. willing to walk away from their responsibilities!

    Oh yeah, they would make greeeaaat citizens indeed!

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  50. We Are All Bankrupt5/20/09, 6:55 AM

    Debt default is often healthy for a society. It's like hitting the restart button. I have long advocated America repudiate all its foreign debts, which are simply insanely high. Why is it good for Africa but not for America?

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  51. Vercingétorix, I would like to point out that we are on the verge of a mass wave of elderly poverty. The Boomers that did not have children will have no one to care for them. The Boomers that had one kid will either burden their one child with their care, or they will get nothing from that one child. Those that had two or more children may die in dignity.

    Essentially, most Boomers saved nothing over the course of a four decade working career, or a good portion of their stock holdings may get wiped out, leaving the savers in the same position as the spendthrifts.

    A minority of the Boomers will die homeless, broke, and alone since they refused to breed. The birth dearth and legalized abortion are coming home to roost on those who supported it.

    In fact, quite a few will end up in nursing homes staffed by the children of the Blacks they spent so many years subsidizing, and the grandchildren of the Mestizos they imported to mow their lawns. How these Boomers will be treated by the staff of the nursing homes of the future when they are a helpless member of a hated racial minority can only be imagined.

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  52. Vercingétorix5/20/09, 3:03 PM

    Ronduck,

    After reading your reply post to mine, I gotta tell ya one thing:

    You are one heck of an articulate writer!

    Yup, everything said about the boomers is spot on. And you are soooo right about who is going to be takin' care of 'em in advanced age in their 'retirement homes'!

    Glad to see you have a blog, amigo. Look forward to checking it out more regularly!

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  53. I wasn't aware of this reality. Thanks for informing!

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