January 20, 2014

The Spirit of 2076

Vroom, vroom, vrooom! The NYT editorializes:
Pre-K on the Starting Blocks 
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD 
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s ambitious plan to provide preschool education to every 4-year-old brings high expectations.

As a way to Fight Inequality Now, universal pre-K sounds ... stately. The median age of the Forbes 400 is around 66, so if enrolling 4-year-olds in 2014 works as well as promised, it should really make a dent in about half of the Forbes 400 within 62 years, which is 2076.

I'll be attending my 100th high school reunion (yearbook theme: The Spirit of '76) via one of Robin Hanson's downloaded ems, so I have that to look forward to, which is nice.
     

21 comments:

  1. rightsaidfred1/21/14, 3:54 AM

    I don't think this is about results.

    In a few years de Blasio will brag about the numbers signed up; the money spent; the staff hired.

    The abyss is staring back at us.

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  2. The snarking aside, should we do it or not, Steve?

    If universal pre-K helps the parents more than the children, isn't that good enough a reason?

    The comparisons to the aboriginal "Stolen Generation(s)" are clever but inapposite. No black activist is going to resent the establishment of free preschool 30 years from now.

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    Replies
    1. Policies that help stupid, poor people have more kids seem like bad ideas. Even ignoring cost

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  3. "No black activist is going to resent the establishment of free preschool 30 years from now."

    We have not yet begun to resent.

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  4. the neoliberal Left gets into office by pretending to stand up for the workers against the rich (stop inequality now!), and then when they get into office, they forget all about that, and instead it is all about race spoils and pouring money into the edu-propaganda system that molds young white minds according to the dictates of political correctness (the better to guilt you into manufacturing consent for mass immigration, my dear).

    The faux-populist Right pretends to stand up for the white workers against the immigrants and minorities, but then when they get into office, they forget all about standing up for whites and instead try to scare us with the evil terrorists and then pour money into the military industrial complex (the better to open up new markets for our corporate overlords, my dear).

    same as it ever was, same as it ever was, same as it ever was......

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  5. rightsaidfred1/21/14, 4:38 AM

    If universal pre-K helps the parents more than the children, isn't that good enough a reason?

    No. We need parents to raise children. Anything else is a distant second.

    We are too anxious to outsource our existence.

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  6. Or, alternatively, it has nothing to do with the Forbes 400 list in 2076. It has everything to do with the NEA, AFT, AFSCME and SEIU in 2014.

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  7. Cyril said: "If universal pre-K helps the parents more than the children, isn't that good enough a reason?"

    No. That would be just another spending program. The parents are (presumably) adults and can help themselves.

    "The comparisons to the aboriginal "Stolen Generation(s)" are clever but inapposite. No black activist is going to resent the establishment of free preschool 30 years from now."

    First, we can only hope that in 30 years nobody cares what some black activist resents. The Professional Complaining Industry is entirely dependent on white guilt, something we'll hopefully run out of by then. Second, you're underestimating the power of the Complaining Industry. They'll never give whites credit for trying to do the right thing.

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  8. OT, Looks like its not just the NYT, Slate, and CNBC stealing your material. Now WSJ is getting in on the act. Its like they copied and pasted your Fethullah Gulen posts.

    http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304027204579332670740491570?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304027204579332670740491570.html

    Your really influential Steve, aren't you?

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  9. The snarking aside, should we do it or not, Steve?

    Of course, not. It's a waste of our money, and it's not how Blacks would want our money to be wasted if they were in charge of wasting it.

    If universal pre-K helps the parents more than the children, isn't that good enough a reason?

    The comparisons to the aboriginal "Stolen Generation(s)" are clever but inapposite. No black activist is going to resent the establishment of free preschool 30 years from now.


    Let's suppose this program costs $10,000 per child per annum. Here's a challenge: Go to NYC and find a Black welfare mama who prefers to have the government pay that money to teachers and bureaucrats rather than to her.

    Good luck.

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  10. Hi Steve,

    Here's a potential blog topic:

    http://observer.com/2014/01/cory-booker-writes-a-new-profile-in-courage/

    Apparently Cory Booker, has studied the Torah. Now, I'm really confused, which victim group is Booker in now?

    "One of those brave 16 is my close friend Senator Cory Booker, who has had a special relationship with the Jewish community since I met him as an undergraduate at Oxford University in 1992. As is well known, Cory served as president of my Oxford L’Chaim society, where he became possibly the first-ever African-American-Christian head of a major Jewish organization. Cory and I then began studying Torah on a regular basis and he has gone on to lecture more American Jewish communal venues than any other political figure in the United States.

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  11. Does this pre-K program mean that the Head Start program will be disbanded? The target population seems similar. What will the pay scale be for those whose job it is to close the gap? Are there enough unemployed people with MA degrees out there to fill all these new jobs or will they water down the requirements? Wilhelm-de Blasio's new patronage army is now in the making; once formed they'll probably be ready to hit the streets with picket signs to protect their interests. All for da chillun, of course.
    Blacks and now, increasingly, browns are getting more and more expensive by the day. Someone else got the cheap labor but all I get is the f&%* bill.

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  12. "Let's suppose this program costs $10,000 per child per annum. Here's a challenge: Go to NYC and find a Black welfare mama who prefers to have the government pay that money to teachers and bureaucrats rather than to her."

    The Black welfare mama is hoping to one of those "teacher" or bureaucrat "jobs". Of course she'd prefer you just write her a check, but she knows that won't fly.

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  13. Head Start works. Enrollees compared to non-enrolled siblings are book/charged at a lower rate. In 12 years, Head Start will have contributed to lower juvenile delinquency in New York.

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  14. Henry Canaday1/21/14, 10:27 AM

    This reminds me of the old “American Agenda” series run by ABC news in the late 1980s and early 1990s, which might have been titled “Idiotic Ideas We Tried In The 1960s So That We Are Hoping You Forgot They Didn’t Work And Maybe We Can Slip Them By You Again.”

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  15. A brief skim through the comments at the Times shows a shocking number of sensible remarks and a good deal of skepticism. Oh sure, there are the usual ding-bat cheerleaders, but a lot of people don't seem to be buying this pre-K guff.

    Have we reached Peak Pre-K?

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  16. Fisk Ellington Rutledge III1/21/14, 2:24 PM

    Leftist imbeciles don't care about the future at all. What they care about is demonstrating to all that they are sanctimonious twits.

    Their goal is to try and close the achievement gap between Whites and nonWhites in the next 10 years. Because they are divorced from reality, some of them actually think what they do might work.

    But the main thing is to strike a pose. Note that one of the things that most sends a tickle down a SWPLs leg is those highly embarrassing "Man of Destiny" poses that Obonzo is so fond of.

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  17. mexico is breaking out into a possible revolution or civil war at this very moment. the shooting has started. could be the spirit of 2014.

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  18. Does this pre-K program mean that the Head Start program will be disbanded? 

    No child left behind, but some get a head start? Does any part of these programs make sense?

    Jody. Don't worry about Mexico's integrity as a country. It isn't a country, it's a collection of gangs, always was. Sometimes the shooting gets a little louder than usual, that's all.

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  19. Blank check for blank slate.

    Blank slate for ideology may be valid. Young ones in the last 20 yrs were so easily programmed to support the new dogma. And with such ease.

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  20. I seriously doubt America will be around to celebrate its tri-centennial.

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