Just Wondering

Here's a great comment from David McCulloch, who's written some terrific history over the years:

“'Any nation that expects to be ignorant and free,' Jefferson said, 'expects what never was and never will be.' And if the gap between the educated and the uneducated in America continues to grow as it is in our time, as fast as or faster than the gap between the rich and the poor, the gap between the educated and the uneducated is going to be of greater consequence and the more serious threat to our way of life. We must not, by any means, misunderstand that.”

I fear most people have never considered this.  After all, our schools gave us all good grades, didn't they?  Education is all messed up, from the meddling of politicians of both parties.  Those leading the schools shouldn't be leading--and shouldn't have been for the past forty years.  Everything's wrong, from the destructive testing craze to reliance more on self-concept than knowledge to overemphasis on technology.  I once said that education would never really improve and prepare people for the future until it imploded.  I'm more convinced of that now than ever.

A few weeks ago a Wayne State professor (physics?) wrote an op-ed piece critical of the inflated grades accompanied by diminished performance at his school.  It sparked, as expected, a flood of letters.  "I worked hard for my degree" was typical.  Yeah, right....  OK, my BA is legitimate and when I tell people what I had to do to get it, well, I'm sure many of them (unfamiliar with Amherst) think I'm fabricating.  But two of my three graduate degrees are, frankly, jokes.  I got them to satisfy state requirements.  They aren't real degrees, which I readily admit.  That's the primary reason why I went back to get a real Masters degree; I wanted a legitimate degree.  But, like so many high school diplomas, far too many college degrees aren't worth the paper on which they are printed.  Who will admit that, other than the WSU professor?

Are some politicans innately stupid or willfully so?  Who's that Missouri Congressman (Akin?) who made that ignorant comment about "legitimate rape?"  How could that even have been "I misspoke" or whatever it is that politicians use to cover up their lies?  How could such a thing, "legitimate rape" even be on the guy's mind?  Does he also have "legitimate pedophilia" or "legitimate murder" somewhere in there?  How could anyone want someone with this kind of thinking representing him or her?  What if he wins?  After all, he's running against someone who also shouldn't be representing us.

Is it true (I'm not sure, but the numbers seem to add up) that any federal monies gained by the expiration of the "Bush tax cuts" (passed by a Congress dominated by what party?) wouldn't match the federal money lost with Solyndra or the auto bailouts (now standing at $26 billion and rising)?  Again, it's not a revenue problem, but a spending problem. 

I can't quite put my finger on why it's the unions that are causing all this economic malaise in this country and, esp, Michigan.  We hear that the unions are keeping jobs, industry, etc. from Michigan, causing outsourcing to other nations, etc.  Wait a minute!  Aren't fewer than 15% of all jobs in this country "union jobs?"  And, of that, aren't about 30% of them public sector union jobs?  So, 85% of the jobs in the US are not "union jobs.?"  And, that number is about the same for Michigan.  So how is that the biggest problem facing industry, job creation, etc.?  It seems to me that it's not!

I know there are union problems, esp in industries like automobiles.  Still, work rules, paying for not working, etc. are still there.  Bad workers are protected.  Yet, I can't help but think there's an important role to be played by unions.  See the above, but have there been many articles, many radio talk show interviews, etc. aiming at the poor administrative decisions made by corporate leadership?  The auto companies are purportedly on the road back, but have the prices of cars declined significantly?  If not, why are people buying cars?  Can it be the quality of them has improved?  And whose fault was the lousy quality of years passed--the same guys operating the same machines then as now or those who designed and marketed the cars?  The latter aren't union workers....

The union (UAW) benefit from the auto bailout was about $27 billion, just about the loss the US taxpayers took on the bailout.  Stock- and bondholders were robbed of their money.  White collar, that is, nonunion workers, were robbed of their pensions.  Supplier employees lost their retirement investments.  Dealerships were forced to close, not by market conditions, but by gov't orders (the terms of the buyout), costing how many jobs of mechanics, salesmen, clerical workers, etc.?

Gee, I'm of two minds about unions!