Here are excerpts from a review I published in VDARE.com in 2003 of a book written by Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren and her daughter:
Huge numbers of mothers entered the labor force over the last few decades. And the inflation-adjusted price of food, clothing, appliances, electronics etc. dropped sharply. So how come we don't feel like we've got a lot more discretionary income than our single-income parents had?
A wise and readable new public policy book called The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke provides a simple answer:
We don't have more discretionary income than our single-income parents had.
The mother and daughter team of Harvard Law professor Elizabeth Warren and former McKinsey consultant Amelia Warren Tyagi explain: "The average two-income family earns far more today than did the single-breadwinner family of a generation ago. And yet, once they have paid the mortgage, the car payments, the taxes, the health insurance, and the day-care bills, today's dual-income families have less discretionary—and less money to put away for a rainy day—than the single-income family of a generation ago."
The two authors note: "The brunt of the price increases has fallen on families with children. Data from the Federal Reserve show that the median home value for the average childless individual increased by 23 percent between 1983 and 1998 … (adjusted for inflation). For married couples with children, however, housing prices shot up 79 percent—more than three times faster."
For example, in August, the median price of a single-family home in pleasant, suburban Ventura County west of Los Angeles was $480,000.
Many economists shrug that this vast rise in prices increases Americans' net worth. "But that net worth isn't worth anything," the two women point out, "unless a family plans to sell its home and live in a cave, because the next house the family buys would carry a similarly outrageous price tag."
... The biggest single cause of this growing financial stress on middle-income parents: the breakdown of much of the public education system. As Warren and Tyagi note, "Even as millions of mothers marched into the workforce, savings declined, and not, as we will show, because families were frittering away their paychecks on toys for themselves or their children. Instead, families were swept up in a bidding war, competing furiously with one another for their most important possession: a house in a decent school district… " ...
But what causes "bad schools"?
Here the authors play it coy. I can hardly blame them. Almost everybody uses "bad schools" as a euphemism. Who wants to become a pariah for telling the truth?
And for a book about the economics and law of personal bankruptcy, The Two-Income Trap is full of well-crafted zingers. I came away just plain liking these two ladies and their down-to-earth approach based on both formal data and the realities of daily life.
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128 comments:
Scalp bad students.
It would seem that the very presence of blacks and Mexicans in the US is a form of white birth control.
Oh, those bad schools are just so, well, bad! Tear them down and build new ones! Like they did with the tenements.
Anyway I thought Warren got kind of a bad rap prior to Fauxcahontas, which is despicable. But her work on family income did have some worth. But in the end it didn't matter.
Good advice from two of America's most prominent Cherokees!
Anyway I thought Warren got kind of a bad rap prior to Fauxcahontas, which is despicable.
What's despicable about Warren's being open about her Amerindian ancestry?
So mortgages for families are going up because a) they are buying much bigger houses and b) they need to buy them in high-priced areas to avoid bad schools due to changing demographics. And this is heartless Wall Street’s fault? Sorry, to my mind, Warren is still just a decently credentialed misery pimp. They're a dime a dozen.
Spending yourself into bankruptcy is a small price to pay for vibrancy and diversity for other people's children.
Does that make Amelia Warren Tyagi 0/64th Cherokee?
BTW, pointing the obvious secondary and teriary effects of demographic change hardly makes you a hero and is certainly not original. And you certainly can't be Harvard Prof or a Senator from MA if you spell out the primnary causes.
Anyway, a Lib writing a book like that reminds me of a Samuel Johnson quote:
"Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all."
Substitute '' trendy Liberal'' for 'woman' and we have a winner.
If the main reason home prices have increased is competition for homes in good school districts, why has the average size of homes also increased so much over the past 40 years? My hypothesis is that more income has mainly translated into larger homes due to the need to keep up with the Joneses. People are also driving much more expensive cars than they used to.
Another way to think about it: discretionary income has increased, and people are buying more square footage at their discretion.
I also suspect that greater income inequality has placed more pressure on the middle-class to conspicuously consume larger homes and more luxurious cars than they can afford.
Here the authors play it coy.
You think so? Does Warren strike you as someone who deep down knows the real score?
"If the main reason home prices have increased is competition for homes in good school districts, why has the average size of homes also increased so much over the past 40 years?"
That's a big way developers and buyers and zoners try to manipulate the quality of students -- by making being able to afford a big house the membership qualification for the school district. Not surprisingly, the Bush Push for zero down payment mortgages undermined that .
Other causes of declining real family disposable income: Going off the gold standard in 1971 pushed middle-income families into upper-income tax brackets. Reagan only indexed income taxes in 1985, and it wasn't retroactive. The dependent exemption especially was decimated (literally: it was worth about 1/10 what it had been).
The Social Security tax increased from 4% in the early 1950s (combined employer and employee tax) to 15.3% today (including Medicare tax).
And the great increase in divorces boosted housing demand, driving up prices.
"If the main reason home prices have increased is competition for homes in good school districts, why has the average size of homes also increased so much over the past 40 years?"
Or maybe home prices have increased because the U.S. population has nearly doubled over the past 40 years.
The ironic thing is that even without the Fauxcohontas nonsense, Warren's background is pretty much unique among Ivy League law professors: growing up in near-poverty, dropping out of college to get married at age 19, having a baby in her very early 20's.
Aside from he association with the Obama administration and her apparently false claim of Indian heritage, I happen to agree with Elizabeth Warren far more than I disagree with her on substantial economic issues. She was one of the few voices of reason in the media after the 2008 economic meltdown.
The ironic thing is that even without the Fauxcohontas nonsense...
What is "faux" about Warren's Amerindian ancestry?
What is "faux" about Warren's Amerindian ancestry?
That there are millions of people in this country, and that's not an exaggeration, who have "more injun in them" than she does, but have the decency not to use it to their advantage.
It's completely made up. She has no NA ancestry. She recently admitted it was literally all just talk 'family stories' and nothing more.
What is "faux" about Warren's Amerindian ancestry?
That there are millions of people in this country, and that's not an exaggeration, who have "more injun in them" than she does, but have the decency not to use it to their advantage.
If she has Amerindian ancestry she has Amerindian ancestry and should qualify for whatever benefits attach to that. If you want to design a finer test for ethnic preferences, go ahead and suggest one. (For example, some benefits only accrue to people are are registered with recognized U.S. tribes, but she didn't apply for those.) I don't see how your notions of "decency" are supposed to be operationalized. Does Barack Obama lack decency in claiming he is African American? He had a relatively privileged upbringing compared to many black Americans. And he isn't even descended from slaves.
What I take from this review is that Sailer and Warren weren't exactly on top of the giant housing bubble that eventually destroyed the economy. This would be like complaining in 1999 that dot com stock prices were so high that middle class people couldn't afford to buy them.
She has no NA ancestry. She recently admitted it was literally all just talk 'family stories' and nothing more.
"Just family stories" probably describes the foundation of most claims of ancestry.
And you are really distorting what she said. She is sticking to the position that she is Native American. She does not "admit" she has no Native American ancestry.
Here's an excerpt from her recent statement:
"My Native American heritage is part of who I am, I’m proud of it and I have been open about it."
http://articles.boston.com/2012-05-31/metro/31907185_1_native-american-heritage-law-school-teaching-jobs
That there are millions of people in this country, and that's not an exaggeration, who have "more injun in them" than she does, but have the decency not to use it to their advantage.
So if someone is less a percentage of black/Indian/Hispanic/Scots Irish than some other American, she has no right to say she has that ancestry?
For your readers who seem to be unable to keep up, Prof. Warren hasn't produced a shred of proof of her Cherokee ancestry other than family anecdotes; one of the only provable ancestors was actually in the militia who put them on the Trail of Tears.
Steve, Google Todd Zywicki's takedown of The Two Income Trap. The good professor and her Soros-employed daughter seem incapable of simple arithmetic.
She grew up poor, Peter? Driving an "old" MG to high school? I grew up solidly middle class in the 70s and I hitched home from the bus line after football practice (private school 20 miles away).
Is this supposed to impress me? If the Dime Store Indian gets into the Senate, she'll vote almost 100% down the line with the Democrat wing of the Demopublican plan for dispossessing native born white Americans from their country and their economy.
You can definitely bet she would never cast a vote against affirmative action!
Warren wanted AA but looks way too White, so she decided to be "part American Indian.". That worked for her until she ran for office-- big mistake because she exposed herself to an actual opponent and to opposition research. As a wanna-be professor she had no direct opponents, only the universe of other professor wanna-bes with diffuse stakes in the general scramble for professorships.
Even if a rival for a promotion had denounced Warren he would have been ridden out of school on a rail for violating the strict taboo-- never question any AA beneficiary, even a fraudulent one, lest you bring disrepute to the AA system.
After all, if any recipient were a fraud that would mean the system had failed by admitting a fraud, so since the system is perfect, logically it cannot harbor any frauds.
"She grew up poor, Peter? Driving an "old" MG to high school?"
That reminds of when I read a biography of Tom Monaghan, the billionaire founder of Domino's Pizza. As I recall, the pizza business was losing money and he was dirt broke -- until he traded his partner (and brother) a car (which he apparently owned free and clear) for his half of the business. Sorry, but I've been broke, and I didn't own outright any cars that were worth anything. If I had, I wouldn't have considered myself broke yet. Rich people tend to have a very different definition of poor when they reminisce about it.
That there are millions of people in this country, and that's not an exaggeration, who have "more injun in them" than she does, but have the decency not to use it to their advantage.
People who think that racial preferences are themselves problematic probably don't view her conduct as "indecent."
The reason we don't think we have it as good as our parents is that we have no memories of their life when they were starting out-we have our best memories of them when they were better established.
And I for one don't remember my supposedly better off parents using the internet at home.
I could't get past her primary claims, 1) Having a second income makes your family less financially secure. 2) The increased indebtedness of Americans isn't their fault because the things they went into debt for were necessary as opposed to discretionary.
If you don't go ahead and spend or borrow against the extra income, you simply are more financially secure. If everyone refrains from going heavily into debt, house prices don't go up as much.
One more thing -- The increase in the value of your house is not lost, your children inherit it.
Steve,
yes, American families are over spending today. But I don't think you are accurate in blaming most of the over spending on the desire to get away from the underclass.
Steve, where you live, in the Studio City area, there is a direct correlation between house prices and how "diverse" a school district is.
But I spend a great deal of time traveling on business to cities like Indianapolis and Omaha. Cities with reasonably good job prospects for professionals. I will speak only of these two cities since they are the ones I know best. In both cities there are more than a dozen different suburban neighborhoods that have school districts that are not at all "diverse" or "vibrant"
In both cities you can find a single family house on a quarter acre of land in a non diverse non vibrant school district for only $200k
With today's low mortgage rates, the mortgage on that $200k house will cost you only $900 a month.
This $200k house won't have granite counters or stainless steel appliances, but it will be almost identical to what you Steve would pay $800k for in a nice part of Studio City.
Steve, A family with a single professional breadwinner has no trouble supporting a family in such a home, so long as the family buys modest middle class two year old cars rather than new luxury cars.
Steve, what you find in Omaha and Indianapolis is that many many families choose to live beyond their means, not because they are forced to by "vibrancy" or "diversity" but rather just because they have a desire to consume more than they can afford.
No one NEEDS to drive a Lexus or a Benz, but many people prefer to, and decide to get themselves in to debt to do so.
No one needs a four bedroom four bath four thousand square foot house but many many professional couples choose a large house with all the modern amenities because they want to
So Steve, among the couples that you know personally in Studio City I am sure that most of them need two incomes in order to get by. But you should not generalize your experience to the rest of the United States.
Here is the analogy - a big part of the reason why why white Americans have health problems is due to their being over weight. immigration and diversity did not cause them to be over weight, it is simply that they lack the willpower to not over eat. Same thing with white couples that choose the four thousand square foot house and the two luxury cars. Immigration and diversity is not forcing them in to it, it is the same lack of discipline.
Now again, I will be the first to admit that what I am saying does not apply to the expensive coastal cities. Yes, in expensive coastal cities both parents need to work in order to be able to get away from the "vibrant element"
Steve, may I ask some of your readers who are professionals that live in cities in the middle of the USA to chime in and criticize my point of view?
...and Instapundit has a link to a blistering 2010 Megan McArdle attack on Warren's "scholarship".
"If you don't go ahead and spend or borrow against the extra income, you simply are more financially secure. If everyone refrains from going heavily into debt, house prices don't go up as much. "
Sure. You refrain, and end you'll up living in the barrio (and sending your kids to the local school). Google 'sub optimal nash equilibrium'.
BTW you can get most of the ideas from the book from this lecture.
"For your readers who seem to be unable to keep up, Prof. Warren hasn't produced a shred of proof of her Cherokee ancestry other than family anecdotes; one of the only provable ancestors was actually in the militia who put them on the Trail of Tears."
THIS IS GREAT NEWS. WE SHOULD ALL USE 'FAMILY ANECDOTES' TO DECLARE OURSELVES INDIANS AND GET EXTRA SERVING OF BUFFALO MEAT, AKA AFFIRMATIVE ACTION.
I think we should all Indian-ize our names.
I'll be Elk-That-Not-Trust-Weasel.
I'm 100th Apache by the way. This truth was handed down through my -great-grand-uncle, usually when he was drunk.
Indian names Truth.
Salmon-That-Swim-Up-Wrong-Stream.
"It would seem that the very presence of blacks and Mexicans in the US is a form of white birth control."
With forced integration certainly for the time being. though there are some trends that can buckle that. homeschoolers don't care about "bad" schools for example.
"why has the average size of homes also increased so much over the past 40 years?"
Additional price discriminatory method to keep those houses in the good school districts. Small houses are cheap houses and cheap houses are in crappy districts.
Tyagi is an Indian ( Asian Indian ) name
Steve,
Every conservative pundit and wonk wannabe should be asking Elizabeth Warren to define what she means by "good schools."
I remember her using mean SAT score as a proxy for race and that people were willing to pay more for homes in neighborhoods where the local high school has a higher mean SAT score.
The other way people go broke is trying to pay for private school while living in the heart of an urban area. How many families can really afford Georgetown Prep or Trinity School?
I love how people define "poor" these days. Boy, we've become a nation of wusses, thanks to progressives making everyone think of himself as a victim.
The cosmo Left glommed onto her at some point and so her "affordable family" paper trail was obscured.
Warren was fairly conservative in attitude toward traditional households (like the Massachusetts middle class) but only by the standard of political Harvard faculty. Compare that to Samantha Power, Lani Guinier, Elena Kagan...
I'll admit, I can't think of why the claim of Indian ancestry would matter to me in the least. What is interesting is what she is likely to do in office. She appears to be somewhat less beholden to the big financial companies than most congresscritters, which looks promising, and she seems to have some disinclination to cheerlead for what's happened to the lower middle class in the last 40 years or so, which is also promising. On the other hand, she's not from my state, so my opinion means nothing, and there's not much point researching her positions in depth.
Does Warren strike you as someone who deep down knows the real score?
Of course. Deep down, everyone knows the real score. Every. One. No exceptions.
. She recently admitted it was literally all just talk 'family stories' and nothing more.
Same thing in my family - google the 'indian princess myth' - its almost verbatim what my mother told me
and remember the famous story of johnny cash - thought he was irish and part cheroke- turns out he's a 100% scots
too bad his daughter married an err 'scots-irish'.
@ "If the main reason home prices have increased is competition for homes in good school districts, why has the average size of homes also increased so much over the past 40 years?"
I've seen statistics that show the main driver has been the price of the building lot, not the size of the home. This is especially true in the big cities, where minorities congregate disproportionately.
ot :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18327493
"Blueseed's start-up ship to steer past US immigration laws"
have fun boys...
Other causes of declining real family disposable income: the costs of personal transportation. Two cars instead of one, each driven 12 to 15 thousand miles a year. Warren discusses this.
I think we've all seen a decline in perceived neighborhood safety as well. When I was growing up the children played outside and rode their bicycles many blocks from home. In our family the only rule was be home for supper. You don't see that kind of childhood freedom anymore. It was cheap. Now we have organized after-school activities with parents as chauffeurs. That costs money.
Warren has clearly been demonized and smeared by the financial industry. who view her as a threat.
Yeah, I know she played the AA BS card. She still had a good point with the book, and was one of the few people criticizing the banks.
" I've been broke, and I didn't own outright any cars that were worth anything. If I had, I wouldn't have considered myself broke yet."
Same here. When I was broke (one of the "working poor"), I lived in the basement of the business where I worked. My boss, the owner of the business, had a daughter who was invited to two different proms. But they could only afford to buy her one prom dress. I'll never forget my boss saying, "Now my daughter knows what it feels like to be impoverished."
Recently, I saw a former classmate (and current professor of diversity) post on Facebook about "deprivation". Her example was that in her former home (which she owned, not rented), she didn't have a countertop next to her stove.
Are you damning her with faint praise?
Not only is Fauxcahontas accused of misstating her ancestry, she is also accused of academic misconduct.
Since her accuser is now deceased, and she has had plenty of time to answer his accusations when he was alive, it would be pretty shabby of her to respond now. Maybe her real Indian name should be ShabbyAcademic.
But, but, but. Warren was a nursing mother in Law School, or something.
Surely that has got to count and cancel out affirmative action!
So her daughter would be 1/64th US army officer who rounded up the Cherokees for the "Trail of Tears"?
Elizbeth Warren is on the side of most Americans. Anyone who stands up to Wall Street is bound to have the media elite pick away endlessly on any minor issue it can find.
Warren is spot on regarding the results of double income families.
My Father's house, in a nice neighborhood but in a crappy school district was worth twice his income when he bought it. Today, it would be three to four times the income of a person in the same position on the GS pay grades.
All of the extra money from two earners has gone into bidding up the prices of homes, private schools, and the accoutrements of two earner life style such as twice the number of business clothes, two cars, two people eating out for lunch, summer camps, day care, etc.
American homes have gotten larger where there is new housing stock especially in the sunbelt suburbs. These new houses are not representative of most houses nationwide, and there have been plenty of townhouses (rowhomes) built too. Its worth noting that housing is more expensive where the houses are smaller (northeast, California) because incomes are so much higher and there are more people crowded in.. Sunbelt McMansions are relatively cheap.
anony-mouse @4:30p
My parents had internet email and a modem in 1983. My uncle had it in 1986.
Other causes of declining real family disposable income: Going off the gold standard in 1971 pushed middle-income families into upper-income tax brackets. Reagan only indexed income taxes in 1985, and it wasn't retroactive.
Are you really sure about this? Take a look at the data here. http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/Content/PDF/family_inc_rates_hist.pdf The effect you're talking about seems to have been only temporary and easily made up for since that time.
"If you don't go ahead and spend or borrow against the extra income, you simply are more financially secure. If everyone refrains from going heavily into debt, house prices don't go up as much. "
Sure. You refrain, and end you'll up living in the barrio (and sending your kids to the local school).
Why is that, might I ask?
HIS IS GREAT NEWS. WE SHOULD ALL USE 'FAMILY ANECDOTES' TO DECLARE OURSELVES INDIANS AND GET EXTRA SERVING OF BUFFALO MEAT, AKA AFFIRMATIVE ACTION.
How many generations back do you think most Americans can trace their ancestry there chief? Family history passed down is probably the primary source of info on ancestry.
Same thing in my family - google the 'indian princess myth' - its almost verbatim what my mother told me
Except that it's not a myth. If you are founding stock American, there's a high likelihood you are related to an Indian princess. I'm sorry to break it to you.
and remember the famous story of johnny cash - thought he was irish and part cheroke- turns out he's a 100% scots
too bad his daughter married an err 'scots-irish'.
Right. One American was wrong (allegedly) about having Indian ancestry. Therefore, all Americans are wrong about having Indian ancestry?
Not only is Fauxcahontas accused of misstating her ancestry, she is also accused of academic misconduct.
Since her accuser is now deceased, and she has had plenty of time to answer his accusations when he was alive, it would be pretty shabby of her to respond now. Maybe her real Indian name should be ShabbyAcademic.
Accusations are always honest and truthful. Or are they?
So her daughter would be 1/64th US army officer who rounded up the Cherokees for the "Trail of Tears"?
I thought this was a conservative website. It more resembles a liberal witch hunt on this issue.
Of course. Deep down, everyone knows the real score. Every. One. No exceptions.
You need to get out more. I know lots of committed leftists who would in no way recognize the "real score" as it's meant here.
They believe every word of their world view. Every. Word. No exceptions.
Anybody who scams the anti-white, absurd, unconstitutional "affirmative action" system has my support. Why in the 21st century are native Americans getting set asides and quotas anyway?
Except that it's not a myth. If you are founding stock American, there's a high likelihood you are related to an Indian princess. I'm sorry to break it to you.
[citation needed]
And if you're part European, you probably have some royal blood in there somewhere, seeing as how it's good to be the king and all. And if you're central asian, Ghengis is in your blood, and so on.
Imagine you were picking a doctor, or a plumber, or a mechanic to fix your car. Would his marital history or history of making racist jokes or his having once claimed to be part Indian (that rumor is in my family, too--I have no idea if it's true, but maybe Warren and I are distant relatives) factor into your choice in any way at all? Or if he'd once called a photographer for the other side "macaca?". Or if he went to a church where the preacher said some wild and offensive stuff?
You would ignore all that stuff, since it is all completely irrelevent. Instead, you would want to know if the doctor knew his stuff, or if the mechanic usually did a good job. You'd want to see some references from the plumber for other people who would recommend his work.
The way we pick and talk about politicians is a lot closer to the way we talk about sports teams and pro athletes than the way we talk about competent professionals we want to hire to do some demanding task for us. That's the kind of coverage we get--political talk shows mostly sound like those time-filling sports talk shows they put on when there's no game, or like celebrity gossip sort of shows. And the quality of leadership we get is a reflectin of that crappy way of thinking and talking about it.
I see that Fauxcahontas has sent her defender here to defend her good name.
Jwalker@
"If the main reason home prices have increased is competition for homes in good school districts, why has the average size of homes also increased so much over the past 40 years?"
Because the quality of the house has to match the price of the location. The houses get larger to increase the perception of value, even though most of the price is in the location of the home.
remember the famous story of johnny cash - thought he was irish and part cheroke- turns out he's a 100% scots
The (actual) Scots are descended from Irish settlers who took over Scotland in the period AD500 - 1000.
Eric Falkenstein knows finance, reads iSteve, and is not a fan of Elizabeth Warren. See, for example, "Elizabeth Warren's Bankrupt Study". Or hit the search feature on his blog, there are plenty more. He considers her to be smarmy, naive, and grossly ignorant about the financial industry.
Anonymous said...
I'm 100th Apache by the way. This truth was handed down through my -great-grand-uncle, usually when he was drunk.
Well, from what I know of Apaches, that doesn't make it sound any less likely to me...
Even if Warren is correct, what does she propose to do about it?
Vast sums of money in the US are spent avoiding the awesome suckitude of America's poor people. America, for many generations, has allowed most people who are halfway intelligent, hardworking, and responsible to become at least middle class. Which means our poor people are a concentrated collection of the dumb and degenerate (and to be fair, some people who are just unlucky).
This was my experience growing up. Being poor was mildly annoying (funky old house, rusty old car, 2nd-hand clothes, old slow PC) but by far the worst part of it was being around other poor people.
So people buy big expensive houses so that they can be around other people who have it together enough to buy big expensive houses. And most importantly, so their kids can be around the children of other competent, intelligent people and go to the same schools.
Living in Costa Rica for a while was instructive. CR's poor people tended to be less degenerate than the American ones, since many were recent immigrants from the countryside. But also CR's GDP per capita is much lower than the US, so the ammount that people can spend to get away from poor people is much less. A typical "middle class" house might be a spartan little place with concrete walls and floors and a corrugated tin roof, a small kitchen and living room, and 2-3 small bedrooms, and a tiny yard. Not appreciably more luxurious than a typical family apartment in Cabrini Green (at least before they went to hell). They'd also own a very well-maintained 1985 Toyota Tercel.
In America, this neighborhood would probably turn quickly into ghetto hell, but instead in CR it is full of hardworking, responsible, often well- educated people. And you know what? It wasn't bad. You don't actually need a huge McMansion to have a pleasant place to live- just so long as you can still evade the lumpenproletariat.
As for her Indian ancestry...in my family there are stories about us having Indian ancestry, but there is no actual documentary proof - except a photo of my great-great-grandfather, in which he looks noticeably Indian.
This may be the case for Warren, minus that photo. But ultimately, who cares?
As for her Indian ancestry...in my family there are stories about us having Indian ancestry, but there is no actual documentary proof - except a photo of my great-great-grandfather, in which he looks noticeably Indian.
This may be the case for Warren, minus that photo. But ultimately, who cares?
But if all whites start claiming to be racially protected minorities how will the federal courts find a rationale to continue to their jihad against firefighter exams ?
The comments on this post are a good example of why conservatives have so little impact on police or governance in the U.S.
In a post that notes that a leading liberal admits that blacks and Hispanics create bad schools, almost of the posters had rather focus on her claims to be an American Indian.
Think about how affordability of housing and the quest for good schools affects policy much more than affirmative action.
Yet, conservatives would rather focus on the personal instead of policy.
While living in Mass I was not a particuarly big fan of Ms. Warren or her opponent Scott Brown (who I viewed as essentially a potential Neo-Con which has been proven correct).
While she said a few good things against the banks, I just assumed that once in office she would vote lock step with the democratic party establishment which has proven itself to be no friend of the White middle class.
I was puzzled how a gradudate of Rutgers law shool (a third tier law school) could get tenure at Harvard Law. Either she was brilliant or had an angle I thought. However, her first law job was doing home closings out of her house ... so the brilliant part did not seem to fit.
Then I found out that her husband was Bruce Mann a sought after legal scholar, so I assumed she was a "trailing spouse" academic who got her job as part of a package deal to obtain the servics of her husband.
When I read that she was considered by Harvard to be a miority Native American hire for the purposes of diversity that put another piece of the puzzle together.
Now that I discovered that she made quite a bit of money flipping properties (in some instances from people who being foreclosed on for non-payment of their mortgage), her image as an insincere, phoney, career opportunist has come clearer into focus.
It's too bad, because I once though I detected some sincerity and conscience there.
Loved the Two-Income Trap. Favorite insight -- that we're being bankrupted by the Three H's: Health Care, Housing, and Higher Education. All three are sold in a market that's free on the demand side, but have severe barriers to entry for new suppliers put up by the existing suppliers (in the case of housing, it's zoning laws).
Warren also wrote a very good personal finance book called All Your Worth. My two favorite titles of that genre are both by Democratic party officials -- Andrew Tobias, author of The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need, is the Party Treasurer.
Does that make Amelia Warren Tyagi 0/64th Cherokee?
LOL'ed.
Nerd humor at iSteve...
"I see that Fauxcahontas has sent her defender here to defend her good name."
or maybe Steve, does Ms. Warren read your blog?
I love how people define "poor" these days. Boy, we've become a nation of wusses, thanks to progressives making everyone think of himself as a victim.
I was befuddled by this persistent mis-spelling, 'Fauxcahontas', throughout the thread - thinking to myself, "Why do you need the 'c' if the 'x' already supplies the same sound?", when suddenly it dawned on me that we're dealing with a bunch of effete panty-waist metrosexuals who actually pronounce 'faux' the same way as the Frogs themselves.
> If the main reason home prices have increased is competition for homes in good school districts, why has the average size of homes also increased so much over the past 40 years? My hypothesis is that more income has mainly translated into larger homes due to the need to keep up with the Joneses.
Why shouldn't the primary way of making them more expensive be to simply enlarge them? It doesn't have to be that way, but why not?
> People are also driving much more expensive cars than they used to.
Now there I think you are making a stronger point. Even if you are pretty much forced to buy a big house, you could still get from A to B in whatever.
Except that it's not a myth. If you are founding stock American, there's a high likelihood you are related to an Indian princess. I'm sorry to break it to you.
no. anglo saxons generally speaking, did not intermarry w/ indians to the level of say, latin america - and if they did it tended, as with mulalottos to stay on their side of the fence..
blistering 2010 Megan McArdle attack on Warren's "scholarship".
Megan McArdle is an ass and a libertarian propagandist -- she wouldn't know scholarship if it bit her in the ass. As usual, she got all the facts wrong in this attack -- see here .
Except that it's not a myth. If you are founding stock American, there's a high likelihood you are related to an Indian princess. I'm sorry to break it to you.
[citation needed]
It's obvious just from the comments section to this post that a lot of Americans have some Indian ancestry. That's been my experience anecdotally outside of iSteve as well.
It also makes common sense. We know there were a lot Indian-White relationships (look at Oklahoma alone for crying out loud) and there have been four or five centuries for their offspring to assimilate and spread into the U.S. populace.
It's completely made up. She has no NA ancestry.
[citation needed]
I don't get the criticism of Elizabeth Warren here other than based on her political views.
If don't believe Elizabeth Warren has Amerindian ancestry, yet you oppose the idea of job and other preferences for "people of color," why do you object to her occupying a position that could be said to be reserved for a person of color?
Is it that you feel that in her claiming to be Amerindian she has sort of switched sides, is showing loyalty to people of color rather than to the European peoples?
And if you're part European, you probably have some royal blood in there somewhere, seeing as how it's good to be the king and all. And if you're central asian, Ghengis is in your blood, and so on.
It's not really a good analogy. If you are an American with Amerindian ancestry, the relationship to the Indian ancestor would be much closer generationally than for someone claiming to be a descendent of Ghengis Khan or of many European royalty.
Coexistence between Europeans and Amerindians only goes back five centuries.
A person who is 1/32nd Cherokee may be genetically part-Cherokee, but they have no Native American "heritage" to speak of. They have no family memory of a relative who was actually raised in the Native American community.
Hell, my grandma and her siblings are 1/16th Cherokee and they have no family memory of it, and they damn well would never claim to be part-Cherokee for reasons of affirmative action or a government handout.
I would do so, however, not for personal gain but so as to do anything within my power to undermine those stupid, unjust programs. Why wouldn't anyone?
Elizabeth Warren's problem isn't just that she lies about her "Cherokee ancestry" but that she's done nothing whatsoever to oppose affirmative action, quotas, handouts. Likewise, she and her daughter can bitch about the increasing burden on families of buying a hme in a "decent neighborhood" with "decent schools," but so long as she plans to do nothing about reducing immigration and enforcing our immigration laws I have no reason to support her.
"Being poor was mildly annoying (funky old house, rusty old car, 2nd-hand clothes, old slow PC) but by far the worst part of it was being around other poor people."
YES!
Living in one room with a food budget of under $10 weekly, no medical budget or health insurance (a kind friend kept me supplied with Ora-Gel), wearing second-hand clothes, walking to work in all weathers, was nothing compared to the misery of being around other poor people.
I escaped a dysfunctional family situation only to land in the midst of people for whom dysfunction was not only the norm but apparently, the goal. Unless things get really really bad (threat of serious jail time, drug withdrawal, etc.) poor people seem to relish the disasters that make up their daily lives. They invariably make the poor decision, the unwise choice, the move that leaves them dealing with consequences for which they have no resources (inner or outer). It's uncanny. And they seem to have no guilt at all for inflicting the misery of their lives on the rest of us--sadly, including their offspring.
I've always been one for the straight and narrow but I would seriously consider a life of crime if I knew that was the only way to avoid dealing with poor people every again.
"Another way to think about it: discretionary income has increased, and people are buying more square footage at their discretion. I also suspect that greater income inequality has placed more pressure on the middle-class to conspicuously consume larger homes and more luxurious cars than they can afford."
Nah. It was a housing bubble. People are sheeple and do what others do. In a bubble, people can be led to do the most insane things because they think there's guaranteed to be someone to sell to and make profit if things go bad for them. "Can't lose!" Famous last words.
Consider the 17th century tulip mania -- a single tulip bulb, at the top, cost more than a farm. Discretionary income did that? No. Insane delusions of riches to come when selling. Developers built big houses to make their own big profits and sold to buyers while telling them, big houses are what OTHER people want, so you better buy one so you can sell for a profit, too! Idiots "bought" the story so bought the house.
Read:
Extraordinary Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.
"Warren wanted AA but looks way too White, so she decided to be "part American Indian."
Wait a sec. I thought the stats said American White Women were the primary beneficiaries of Affirmative Action. Even Steve once wrote a column that AA for women was less noxious to White men since the preferences were being given to sisters and wives -- family members.
Why would Warren need an extra "kicker" of being American Indian?
"Even if Warren is correct, what does she propose to do about it?"
She proposes Schools of Choice so anybody can go to any school.
Oh, great. Her solution would see White folks who took on backbreaking mortgages to get away from the "bad schools," iykwimaityd, having the "bad school" "essence" being bussed in, anyway.
That's why, unlike Steve, I don't believe Warren actually "gets" it but is just being coy.
I think she really is self-deluded enough to think that there's something wrong with the concrete or brickwork at the bad schools, or something.
Eric Falkenstein knows finance
The problem is that "knows finance" these days largely means "knows and parrots neo-liberal dogma".
Eric Falkenstein knows finance, reads iSteve, and is not a fan of Elizabeth Warren. See, for example, "Elizabeth Warren's Bankrupt Study". Or hit the search feature on his blog, there are plenty more. He considers her to be smarmy, naive, and grossly ignorant about the financial industry.
Falkenstein is an idiot.
He doesn't like fairly straightforward empirical analyses because it undermines the propaganda that the middle class hasn't been that hurt, that things have gotten better, that the financial industry has been good, that anything wrong is due to the moral failure of households, etc.
Bad schools because of bad students..
"That's why, unlike Steve, I don't believe Warren actually "gets" it but is just being coy. "
Steve, did you miss these?
Ms. Warren's who? whom?
a reply
"Why would Warren need an extra "kicker" of being American Indian?"
The breibart article linked upthread says she didn't.
A person who is 1/32nd Cherokee may be genetically part-Cherokee, but they have no Native American "heritage" to speak of. They have no family memory of a relative who was actually raised in the Native American community.
What the heck is "family memory"?
Your definition of "heritage" depends on racial percentage?
Hell, my grandma and her siblings are 1/16th Cherokee and they have no family memory of it, and they damn well would never claim to be part-Cherokee for reasons of affirmative action or a government handout.
Your grandma and her siblings are fools.
off topic
Tags immigration, H1B,
Anonymous posted link above.
Start-up wants to put ship off California shore to bypass immigration laws
4 June 2012
A Silicon Valley start-up called Blueseed wants to convert a cruise ship into a floating centre for foreign workers who cannot get visas to work in the US.
The ship would sit in international waters roughly 12 miles (20 kilometres) off the California coast in order to bring foreign entrepreneurs closer to the technology capital.
Blueseed president Dario Mutabdzija says ferries will take the heads of the small companies back and forth each day to attend meetings on land with venture capitalists.
More than 700 start-ups have expressed an interest in working from the boat, which will also offer housing and recreational services.
Mr Mutabdzija says the idea for the vessel was conceived because of the difficulty entrepreneurs face when trying to obtain B-1 US business visitor visas.
The BBC's Matt Danzico took to the water to find out more.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18327493
JSM, after Clare Dalton was denied tenure (and Ruth Bader Ginsburg before her) Harvard Law couldn't give the job to just another woman. There HAD to be a kicker.
Dalton sued HLS in 1987. Harvard settled toward the end of 1992, some say driven by the fact the the name most mentioned for Sec. of Labor in a Clinton cabinet was Robert Reich, Dalton's husband! Warren was hired in 1993 as an AA twofer.
It seems that some think her qualifications were up to Harvard's standards. Google a HLS faculty directory from the time and you'll see that there's little deviation from the average instructor's CV: Ivy and Little Ivies like Williams and Amherst for undergrad, basically Harvard, Yale & Stanford for law school. Not a Rutgers or (gasp) University of Houston in sight.
One of the funniest things you ever saw around Harvard Square was the 4'10" Reich strolling with Dalton, a 6-foot Amazon.
Roissey, is Reich an alpha?
"Oh, great. Her solution would see White folks who took on backbreaking mortgages to get away from the "bad schools," iykwimaityd, having the "bad school" "essence" being bussed in, anyway.
So the next generation of nice middle class people won't buy an expensive house, but they will take out large loans to send their kids to private schools which will go up in price. Same thing. That's what the "school choice" people fail to understand. Good parents will always do everything in their power to remove their kids from a loud, disruptive classroom filled with kids who drag their own children down.
My fiance and I recently discussed the pros and cons of paying for private education vs buying a house in an expensive area. The key is to look around at the types of private schools in your area. There are those that are committed to serving the "disadvantaged"- they manage to teach more than the surrounding inner city public schools, but a normal intelligent child would be bored there. Also, these schools are run military style. Then, there are the reasonably priced private schools that serve the local, home grown middle class. People who grow up in ghetto families, but manage to become teachers, nurses and administrators send their kids to these schools. These parents are a head and shoulders above their ghetto peers, but their ideas of proper behavior and challenging curriculum cause the standards to be lowered across the board. Then, there are the expensive private schools where students are admitted based on ability, and mutual respect between the kids and the teachers is possible and real. If we were to stay in our current location, our best bet would be a Solomon Schechter 25 minutes away (does one have to be Jewish?), but if we were to buy in a relatively cheap neighborhood in Seattle, there would be a lot more options.
Warren is exactly what is bad about our elites. Fauxcahontas claimed falsely to be Indian, and got away with it because she's liberal, a feminist, and has family connections to the OK City Democratic machine. Both she and her grandmother flipped foreclosed houses and made gobs of money.
Joe Average cannot claim to be Indian and get away with it, and get hired on by high-rolling institutions like Harvard as a result.
So it is utter hypocrisy. AA goodies for me, but not for thee. There is no defense of her. She is exactly the kind of person who can see the problem and goes along with the corrupt/decadent elite.
Warren has NO ZERO ZILCH NADA NONE American Indian Ancestry. NONE AT ALL. It was just made up. There is no evidence WHATSOEVER that she has any Indian DNA, while an ancestor DID round up Cherokee for the Trail of Tears hahahaha.
More aristocratic pretensions. "We" can claim AA stuff, you peons cannot.
Elizabeth Warren has no Indian background, link here. Hotair and Ace of Spades have covered this exhaustively, because it is so laughable. She's about as Indian as I am Black.
@ JSM
Being part American Indian is added diversity, more vibrant if you will.
Here's a related true story.
20+ years ago, I attended a lecture by Mark Smith-Soto, a professor of romance languages (Spanish) at UNC Greensboro. During informal conversation, he said his name originally was Mark Smith. But as a Spanish professor, that was too caucasion sounding, so he added -Soto. I honestly don't recall if Soto was a close or distant family surname.
True story! Google him. Mark Smith-Soto UNCG
Elizabeth Warren has no Indian background, link here. Hotair and Ace of Spades have covered this exhaustively, because it is so laughable. She's about as Indian as I am Black.
Sorry bub, that link only says that a document that someone (else) relied on for her ancestry does not exist.
Warren herself stands by the position that she has Native American heritage. It's not laughable at all. In fact, it's highly plausible that a traditional American with roots in this country going back several centuries would have some Indian ancestry. More likely than not even.
It's interesting to note that Revilo Oliver was for many years in the Department of Spanish and italian at UI Urbana. I doubt La Raza would have approved.
Who is the idiot playing contrarian on this thread? So we're supposed to take Warren at her word, or rather at her family's word, that she has an Indian ancestor several generations back, despite no proof existing of this, and honor her as a "woman of color"?
All this talk of American Indians and AA gravy train is making me salivate.
As a southern white man mixture of Scottish-German with a tiny amount of American Indian (so my grandmother said), how can I get some affirmative action? Seriously.
Is there a DNA test specific enough to prove I can claim an AA category? This may sound crazy, but I'm serious.
IIRC long ago a Ford employee changed his name from Anglo to Hispanic but don't remember why. Again IIRC he then got an employment advantage. Was he adopted? I Googled but found nothing.
"Elizabeth Warren has no Indian background, link here. Hotair and Ace of Spades have covered this exhaustively, because it is so laughable. She's about as Indian as I am Black.
Sorry bub, that link only says that a document that someone (else) relied on for her ancestry does not exist.
Warren herself stands by the position that she has Native American heritage. It's not laughable at all. In fact, it's highly plausible that a traditional American with roots in this country going back several centuries would have some Indian ancestry. More likely than not even"
So, what's your point? That someone who cannot produce a shred of tangible evidence (old stories don't count as tangible evidence) can get AA benes merely by proclaiming that someone in their family told them they had an hispanic, black, or native american ancestor many many years ago?
That's a standard that virtually every person in the world can meet, no?
So, in other words, everyone is entitled to AA benes potentially, no?
The Native American Indian tribes, who strictly regulate enrollment, don't seem to agree with your view or Ms. Fauxcahontas.
I wonder why.
Given how screwed up your logic is it's hard for me to tell if you are for AA or against it as unworkable and impractical because everyone and anyone is potentially entitled to it.
All they need is a desire to "game" the system and a willingness to claim that someone once told them they had such and such an ancestor.
Is there a DNA test specific enough to prove I can claim an AA category? This may sound crazy, but I'm serious. - D. Tricks
Dear Dirty,
If I were you I would just go ahead and claim the ancestry and take the AA benefits. Is your grandmother alive, and of sound mind? If so, get a recorded statement from her. You could also pay for a genealogical study, that might turn something up.
But in general, I don't think you need to prove you're Amerind to get the benefits. I've never heard of DNA being used for such a thing. You just have to claim. If you later run for high office, it may bite you in the behind; I'm just assuming you have no such plans. (Correct me if I'm wrong.)
Anonymous: Was his mother's maiden name Soto?
Other Anonymous: Okay, I get that she was probably full of shit wrt claiming to have Indian ancestry, or at least guessing without much evidence. But why should I care about that? I mean, suppose she just made it up to game the AA system. I'm missing why I ought to feel upset about that, since I think AA is a force for evil in the world.
What matters to me is, if she comes to a position of power, what she is likely to do there. Probably, she will be a pretty standard politician, with all the bad that implies. But I can't see why her having claimed to be an Indian will make her any worse. She has actually stood up to big financial companies, in some small way--something damned few public figures are willing to do. She does seem to have some concern for people who weren't born with +4 sigma IQs and trust funds, which is kinda refreshing.
My not-too-informed guess is that she will be marginally better than her opponent. And if she's worse, it will be because of her beliefs or connections or something, not because of whether she once claimed to be an Indian, called someone Macaca, referred to New York as Hymietown, didn't inhale, bowed to the king of Saudi Arabia, or whatever other idiotic non-issue some empty-headed journalist is now pretending matters. Deciding elections on the basis of stupid shit like this is like choosing a doctor on the basis of whether you like how he does his hair.
What will she do in power, if she gets it? That's the only thing that matters. Mini scandals that don't bear on that are utterly irrelevant.
A person who is 1/32nd Cherokee
It's been mentioned before but bears repeating: 1/32 of Cherokee ancestry, even if real, may very well be comparable or lower than Neanderthal ancestry on the level of DNA (2-4% in Europeans). Claiming any special status based on 1/32 is totally absurd. At this level, I have aboriginal ancestry from all continents excluding Australia. And I am white.
Lost in Enemy Territory:
They believe every word of their world view. Every. Word. No exceptions.
Their mating choices and real estate market behaviour shows that it's not true though.
Falkenstein isn't an idiot, and doesn't carry water for any TBTF Wall Street firms. His weakness, IMO, is in putting too much faith in the ability of the poor to raise themselves up by their boot straps by dint of will power and self discipline. And in ignoring macro factors weighing on the poor and working class (e.g., outsourcing, unbalanced trade, competition with illegals).
"Anonymous said...
Who is the idiot playing contrarian on this thread? So we're supposed to take Warren at her word, or rather at her family's word, that she has an Indian ancestor several generations back, despite no proof existing of this, and honor her as a "woman of color"?"
- I think the Harvard libs already made the choice to honor it for you. These types make far too many choices in this country. But we could throw a major monkey wrench in the AA system, if we all started to claim a minority ancestor with no evidence, like Warren. The system (except for Native Americans) is set up to encourage this sort of thing, to jack up the number in the minority camp. So we could all claim it, dilute out the impact of the benefits, and not only that, throw major monkey wrenches into the various constituencies, media, etc - when mysteriously, large numbers of 'African Americans' started to vote for Tancredo. It would force Eric Holder's conversation in a direction he doesn't want to go. What is a minority? Why does someone who claims to be 1/32 Cherokee heir to the benefits of a Native American, while someone with 1/8th Cherokee ancestry, living as a white American, subject to discrimination as a white?
It's a white woman so incompetent and unqualified that she had to rely on the ass-pull of an imaginary Indian princess ancestor to get anywhere vs. a white guy who got in on charisma and merit.
I'd pick the white guy in a heartbeat. Raging incompetents do much worse when handed levers of power, so go with the qualified white guy instead.
In both cities you can find a single family house on a quarter acre of land in a non diverse non vibrant school district for only $200k
With today's low mortgage rates, the mortgage on that $200k house will cost you only $900 a month.
Of course, your lender will require you to pay taxes and insurance, which bumps the cost up to $1550 or so.
I don't really care about Elizabeth Warren but agree that the relevant point is that it's highly unlikely she would lift a finger to do anything about affirmative action.
I do object to the various anon's on here asserting that most "founding stock" Americans likely have some Indian ancestry. Do Anon 1-1X have any evidence to back this up? My ancestors on my father's side came here in the late 1600's (New York, then PA where one was the owner and rower of own of the boats used to ferry Washington's army across the Delaware, then into N. Carolina and eventually Western Tennessee, all served in the CSA during the War of Northern Aggression and rejoined the empire in time to fight and die in WW1, WW2, Korea, and Vietnam) and on my mother's side in the early 1800's and not only have I never heard one word of Injun ancestry, the surviving photos we have (going back to before the War of NA) look like well, a bunch of people from the British Isles.
And given that lengthy history in America, it outrages me that my children have to let somebody else cut in line because of their skin color or claims to whatever the f**k heritage. To hell with Elizabeth Warren. Scott Brown too..
I'm 1/32nd "Seminole", whatever that means. The bigoted side of the family insists it means American Indian Princess, whichiswhat she attempted to pass for in late 1800's Jacksonville. The open minded side of the family claims it means Runaway Slave. The Census records record the woman in question as "black". Actual photographs of her show a tan skinned lady with straight dark hair. If you looked at my grandma, mom, brother and I you'd never know - tall, fair skinned, blonde-red, blue eyes. My aunt on the other hand, medium build, dark tan skin, straight black hair, brown eyes, barely looked white.
When I was living in Lexington, MA in the late 1990's the VP at our all white firm claimed Native American status. Diversity in Contracting, dontcha know. I think he was 1/32nd Mohawk or something. We used to laugh at the stupidity of it all, but it was perfectly legal and valid. There were cases discussed in the press in the 1990's of contractors in Oklahoma and Colorado who were blond and blue eyed claiming American Indian ancestry of 1/16th to 1/64th being permitted to use that ancestry for AA purposes and winning contracts because of it. It may seem ridiculous now, butit was perfectly legal then.
Anonymous said...
"I see that Fauxcahontas has sent her defender here to defend her good name."
or maybe Steve, does Ms. Warren read your blog?
Everyone with an ounce of credibility does.
One thing undermining the middle-class today is the Fed's 0-interest policy. It's hard to convince yourself to put money away in a savings account for a rainy day, when that money only steadily gains 0.1% in interest - or to put it another way - steadily loses 5+% in value. The banks pay crap on deposits now. They don't need your money - they just get it from the Fed, which conjures it out of thin air.
And money saved in 401Ks is not discretionary money. That isn't really your money - it belongs too the government and to Wall Street. They let you know that by telling you what you may or may not do with it, and penalizing you if you attempt to use it for your own purposes.
"Anonymous Anonymous said...
One of the funniest things you ever saw around Harvard Square was the 4'10" Reich strolling with Dalton, a 6-foot Amazon."
Reich was a real pioneer in diversity - the first lawn gnome appointed to cabinet level rank.
A good compromise on the question of the morals of falsely claiming to be an Indian demands that you like closely at the wording of the question.
If the survey asks if you are Amerind (the term Nei, Cavalli-Sforza, etc. use), answer the question honestly.
If the survey asks if you are "Native American" (a term racial Marxists used to tacitly deny that white people can be native to the United States, and to suggest that Amerinds were necessarily the first groups in North America ... not necessarily so with the discovery of Kennewick Man), answer the question autistically.
If you were born in a place, you're native to it, right? It's not unusual for an American to be part Greco-Polish and part Anglo-Austrian, right? Where else would that combination exist but the US?
We race realists have every bit as much right to determine the meanings of words as anyone.
"Native American" means anyone legally born in the United States, as of this moment.
Who's with me?
The evidence is the good students do well in the "bad" schools and bad students do poorly in the "good" schools.
Now the good students might get bullied/harassed more in the schools with the bad students (which is what the "bad" Schools are) but that, unlike trying to make everyone more intelligent, is fixable with more supervision.
"The evidence is the good students do well in the "bad" schools and bad students do poorly in the "good" schools. "
Good students get good grades and do well on the high stakes tests when they attend bad schools, yes, but they miss out on interesting learning activities, challenging academics and a chance to satisfy their curiosity. I don't think most normal people realize just how low the standards are in "bad" schools (in order to boost graduation rates) and how much time is spent on discipline.
Also, good students in "bad" schools miss out on being socialized into the middle class. In "good" schools, teachers respect their students by having high expectations for their conduct and relating to them as human beings. In "bad" schools, classrooms have to be run military style just to avoid injuries, and students are constantly thanked and praised for raising their hands, following directions, keeping their hands to themselves or attempting work. To a normal child this environment would be highly constricting, insulting, and it would lead to hating school and deep resentment towards authority.
Plus, meaningful friendships and learning to act as a part of a peer group would be impossible for a good student in a bad school. He could learn to get along with his classmates, but they would be far, far below his level, so he would never be able to benefit from their input, rely on them, trust them or respect them.
Jim Oliver,
Could you please give a reference to your claim. I would find anything that is on a government site and has been peer reviewed to be acceptable as a start.
I have found that almost no studies have been done on white students in majority non-white schools. That is where the research should be but is seems to be something that colleges of education will refuse to do.
@ Olave
Re: My desire to claim American Indian status for AA benefits
Grandma is long dead, but she said she was part Cherokee (Eastern Band I presume).
THIS IS VERY INTERESTING!
Tribal membership rules vary greatly.
Read Wikipedia for Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood and Blood Quantum Laws.
Some tribes require 1/2 degree blood quantum, others require 1/32. Some require no minimum, only a direct descendant.
So--- What does AA require, tribal membership or not?
Did Lieawatha mention the Black Tide effect on the Public Ed System?
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