2020 Vision

[surfinJ]

More money isn’t the problem.  It is just in the wrong places.
My daughters last three years of her aerospace master at one of the top engineering schools in the country, $1800 in total tuition.

J - I have to assume you understand that $1,800 per student doesn't pay the bills for the school and that the money is coming from somewhere/someone else.

The someone else would be open to debate but the somewhere else was my point.
It’s a choice where all the government tax revenues go, what is budgeted for what.
That is what may not be so democratically decided.
And the climb of the cost of graduate study since the ‘80s is mind boggling.
The reasons for the higher costs in the US are not tied to superior education.

[PonoBill]

It's a conversation, Ich, and you brought up the notion of "just spend more money". I understand the sensitivity and how irritating it is to have laymen pretending to have sufficient knowledge to be passing judgment on your profession, but the conversation is going to happen, and technological changes that I started talking about are probably inevitable. Even if they are resisted in the USA, much of the rest of the world will have no such sensitivity.  Chan mentioned the ML/AI education efforts underway in China. Even looking from the outside it's clear that their investment of resources in this effort is huge. It's obvious why they are doing so, a highly educated population of 1.42 billion walks right over a poorly educated population of 325 million.

And politically, the OECD poverty stats don't fly. OECD measures the number of people living below the median income, which is radically distorted by the inequality of income in the USA. Eliminate the top one percent and that poverty level disappears, the US instantly rises from second to the bottom to 4th from the top. How could that be? Did the lives of those folks "in poverty" change at all? Living below the median doesn't reflect the difference between families living on $5 a day in Slovenia and an individual living on $40 per day in the USA.

[Chan]

AI and virtual will be a larger component of education going forward in preK through adult learning.  It could enhance and compliment the roll of educators by eliminating rote tasks, covering repetitive materials in dynamic formats, providing better data and implementing data driven educational instruction instantly.  The roll of the educator will change.  Possibly, more efforts will be allocated to  individualized mentoring, guiding group discussion, and providing creative input.  Technology has, and will, change all professions over the next decade in ways we couldn’t possibly imagine.  I have resisted the electronic know-it-all taking over many of my tasks, but I’ve come to realize, in most instances, the machine outperforms me at my own job.   I don’t see this leading to a dystopian future necessarily. I hope that the added benefits will, in time, outweigh the negative aspects.  BTW, Klobuchar 2020.  Managing millennials is frustrating.  Who wouldn't want to chuck a binder on occasion.

[PonoBill]

I kept a stack of them just for that purpose.

[Rider]

Amy, Bernie, AOC, Corey, Liz, etc etc etc etc etc etc etc. Bring it on. Cheers...

[PonoBill]

Yeah, it's starting to look like the Republican party in the last election--ship of fools. I certainly hope Bernie and Hillary sit this out. Thankfully there's a primary. No AOC though, she's still just a kid.

[Quickbeam]

The most disturbing thing I see in this entire discussion thread is the poll at the top of the page where it shows there are still people who support Trump. I understand it is a very small sample size, but if this is any kind of reflection of the population at large then I’m just at a loss to understand. After everything Trump has done, it just astounds me that he would have any support at all.

[RideTheGlide]

The most disturbing thing I see in this entire discussion thread is the poll at the top of the page where it shows there are still people who support Trump. I understand it is a very small sample size, but if this is any kind of reflection of the population at large then I’m just at a loss to understand. After everything Trump has done, it just astounds me that he would have any support at all.

At least it is less than half of respondents; all the rest would likely line up behind whatever candidate does get the DEM nod. There are likely people who didn't vote out of disappointment with the current slate of DEMs (and one that hasn't even declared) in the poll but will cast a disappointed vote for the eventual nominee. But as much as I would hate to see it, it is very possible that the DEMs will lose. A lot of people think they will be too free with the borders and too lenient in social programs. Then there are the single issue religious and gun voters that won't vote DEM. We need to somehow wake the sleeping giant that is the youth vote; if the turnout % was the same in all age groups, the DEMs could go pretty far left, almost to where I am  , and still crush Trump.

[Wetstuff]

QBee...  I think Trump is beyond brilliant in a number of ways, mainly in the understanding there are specific constituencies with a total commitment to a narrow band of positions (Abortion, race, public lands, guns, etc).  This is a person who gave money to Planned Parenthood but likely has a 100% rating with the anti-abortion people  ..voted Democrat  ...with no history of religion - has all the fellow hair-model evangelicals in his pocket.  He basically put the farm belt in receivership with tariffs, then bribed them with a socialistic wealth transfer from the rest of us.  He may not have any particular core values but he can read a mob. 

Bernie and Jill Stein 'Ralph Nader'd'* Hillary, and I suspect the same thing to happen in 2020. 


Jim


*Bush/Gore totals were nearly equal  ...Ralph Nader pulled 3mil votes off the top - likely, the bulk from Gore

[Area 10]

The most disturbing thing I see in this entire discussion thread is the poll at the top of the page where it shows there are still people who support Trump. I understand it is a very small sample size, but if this is any kind of reflection of the population at large then I’m just at a loss to understand. After everything Trump has done, it just astounds me that he would have any support at all.

This is the US. I’m not sure it’s possible for people from other cultures to fully understand the US psyche.

I’m watching the Cohen testimony live right now. Absolutely horrifying at so many levels. Not the least of it being that many US people won’t find it in the least bit horrifying.

“Every nation gets the government it deserves” (Joseph de Maistre)?

[Subber]

Education and Surfing - Many years ago, I noticed quite a few young surfers surfing whenever the
combination of tide, swell, sun, etc. were best for a good surf.  I wondered how they could be
out there surfing at those times rather than being in school.

It turned out that they were being "HomeSchooled."  Many were homeschooled just so they could surf
at the best times.  I will say they were very well behaved, very respectful and very good surfers.
And, I felt intelligent.  Maybe dealing with the ocean & surfing helped them.

Over time I learned some were homeschooled using a program through the local Junior College,
and some using programs delivered over the internet.  Some went on to become sponsored surfers.
Some went on to college.

(I also know two people homeschooled (in a different state - no surfing) by only their grandmother with no special
program - I think the grandmother only graduated high school, years & years ago but she was intelligent.
When I was around, I watched as the grandmother basically made up activities for them to do to learn things.
I will say I wondered how effective this particular home-grown homeschooling would be but,
later, both students got 4-year degrees.  One became a grade school teacher in the public school system; the other
later got her MBA and works in business - so, it seems their homeschooling education was at least adequate,
although I think the formalized programs are probably better but don't necessarily have to be).

It is interesting to me because homeschooling seems to be so much cheaper and still effective.
The programs done over the internet are like what has been talked about above,
but not post-secondary, and, yet successful, and I would think at a much much lower cost
than the school districts around here.

[RideTheGlide]

QBee...  I think Trump is beyond brilliant in a number of ways, mainly in the understanding there are specific constituencies with a total commitment to a narrow band of positions (Abortion, race, public lands, guns, etc).  This is a person who gave money to Planned Parenthood but likely has a 100% rating with the anti-abortion people  ..voted Democrat  ...with no history of religion - has all the fellow hair-model evangelicals in his pocket.  He basically put the farm belt in receivership with tariffs, then bribed them with a socialistic wealth transfer from the rest of us.  He may not have any particular core values but he can read a mob. 

Bernie and Jill Stein 'Ralph Nader'd'* Hillary, and I suspect the same thing to happen in 2020. 


Jim


*Bush/Gore totals were nearly equal  ...Ralph Nader pulled 3mil votes off the top - likely, the bulk from Gore

The really amazing one to me is the tariffs. A *lot* of people believe that the Chinese pay the tariffs when their goods are sold here. Nope; it's the US buyer. At the other end, the Chinese go import from somewhere else instead of paying their own tariffs to import agricultural goods from the US. So with the farmers on hard times, we subsidize them causing a bigger deficit and increased debt. China is one of the largest, if not the largest, holders of US debt. So the Chinese are not paying the price for the tariffs; we are. And we are doing it with money we borrow from China.

[Admin]

The most disturbing thing I see in this entire discussion thread is the poll at the top of the page where it shows there are still people who support Trump. I understand it is a very small sample size, but if this is any kind of reflection of the population at large then I’m just at a loss to understand. After everything Trump has done, it just astounds me that he would have any support at all.

Our little poll seems to reflect what is going on pretty well.  https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_trump_job_approval-6179.html

[Bean]

The most disturbing thing I see in this entire discussion thread is the poll at the top of the page where it shows there are still people who support Trump. I understand it is a very small sample size, but if this is any kind of reflection of the population at large then I’m just at a loss to understand. After everything Trump has done, it just astounds me that he would have any support at all.

His apparent lack of political-polish has rendered him possibly the most transparent US president ever; for many that translates into trust.

[Area 10]

The most disturbing thing I see in this entire discussion thread is the poll at the top of the page where it shows there are still people who support Trump. I understand it is a very small sample size, but if this is any kind of reflection of the population at large then I’m just at a loss to understand. After everything Trump has done, it just astounds me that he would have any support at all.

His apparent lack of political-polish has rendered him possibly the most transparent US president ever; for many that translates into trust.

“The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous."

Recognise the quote? Is it Trump, perhaps?