Democrats & Liberals: Archives

It is a good book, but I disagree with your interpretation on point #4.

As I read it, the poor kids are attracted to drugs because it is like a tournament. Most of them end up with almost nothing, and some of them end up dead, but the one guy in 1000 who makes it, makes it really big and gets very high status. It is similar to the legal, but also bad paying pursuit of sports and entrainment.

The idea is that some people are really bad at understanding the odds. It is the same reason that the lottery is a stupidity tax. This would be the right wing spin. It would probably aslo be the left wing spin.

Tragically both sides of Claim #3 are equally and absolutely correct. Teachers spend most of their time teaching the test questions because they are told in absolute terms by their administrators that they personally and their school’s futures are dependent upon delivering the required test scores by whatever method necesary period. The right answer is all that is important rather than understanding the question. As a result, critical and creative thinking has been abandoned as a non-productive exercise. It has been replaced by the purely rote ability to memorize and parrot back the answers to the questions on the test as the only legitimate educational goal. Nothing else is important. The gross ignorance of the American people’s understanding of what a Constitutional Republican Democracy requires is proof positive of the failure of this current test lunacy. It is no wonder that we are now an intellectually illiterate 5th world Country. Unless and until this educational philosopy is changed, America will contine to slide deeper into the abyss of illiteracy and inconsequentuality.

Tragically both sides of Claim #3 are equally and absolutely correct. Teachers spend most of their time teaching the test questions because they are told in absolute terms by their administrators that they personally and their school’s futures are dependent upon delivering the required test scores by whatever method necesary period. The right answer is all that is important rather than understanding the question. As a result, critical and creative thinking has been abandoned as a non-productive exercise. It has been replaced by the purely rote ability to memorize and parrot back the answers to the questions on the test as the only legitimate educational goal. Nothing else is important. The gross ignorance of the American people’s understanding of what a Constitutional Republican Democracy requires is proof positive of the failure of this current test lunacy. It is no wonder that we are now an intellectually illiterate 5th world Country. Unless and until this educational philosopy is changed, America will contine to slide deeper into the abyss of illiteracy and inconsequentuality.

Jack,

It is true that the authors emphasize the “tournament” aspect of drug dealing, with a high payoff for making it to the top (as long as you manage to stay out of jail).

My interpretation (to be honest I don’t have the book handy) was that participants have at least some idea that it is a lousy deal but don’t see alternatives. If they had a more conventional route to economic stability than many/most of them would take it.

Woody

I fear we encourage the failure. I recall my middle class friends telling me that of course ghetto kids don’t work at McDonald’s since it pays only “chump change” (yes they use that term to try to look cool). I worked at McDonald’s and took the chump change. That is how you build up to success.

The poor pick up the rhetoric of the general society. We should be saying that someone who works at McDonalds is a better person than one who sells drugs and say so without equivication.

IS claim #1 true?

kctim,

I don’t claim any expertise on the matter, but they give pretty convincing data.

Ok Woody.
I was just curious if a swimming pool is much more likely to kill a child than a gun or not.
I dont care about the spin, its useless.
I was just wanting the facts.
Should be an interesting read. Thx.

A couple of things:

I was just curious if a swimming pool is much more likely to kill a child than a gun or not.

I’ve seen this reported elsewhere - the data is pretty clear. While it may seem counterintuitive at first, it actually is pretty much a no brainer:

1) an infant or very young child can easily fall into a pool and drown. A child of the same age is unlikely to even be able to fire a gun.

2) It is far easier to hide and secure a gun than a pool. Think about how often you’ve been at someone’s home and seen their guns just laying around loaded. Now think about how many times you’ve seen a swimming pool that was not as secured as it should be to completely prevent access by children without parental supervision.

3) Nearly all children are attracted to swimming pools and will use them when given an opportunity. I don’t think that nearly as many children are tempted by guns.

4) Parents very often allow their children to use pools with “faux supervision” (I scooped a 3 year-old from the bottom of a pool this summer - frightened but unharmed - while her parents and a bunch of other adults sat nearby - each thinking that someone else was watching). I doubt the same is true for guns.

I have more to say, but I’ll split it into separate posts for readability.

adverbal,

Yes, exactly. It is not that pools are inherently more dangerous than guns, but that children are encouraged to play in pools and are (usually) kept away from guns.