The reality of this? You can take one single mental clinic of a sixty-odd folks....having to speak Chinese, Spanish and forty-odd languages. Then you go and figure the various issue.
The $15-million? Well....it'll be spent in a single month, if you count in drug therapy, alcohol/drug rehab, and costs.
The fact that 3,000 folks seeking help....probably won't see employment for a year or two minimum? Yeah.
For all the good that they suggest they might be doing....I just see it as a 'pit'.
First, I've come to some belief that an element now exists in the US...where political ideology is being organized around a more developed factor where less intelligent (dumber) people are recruited and developed into a cult-like ideology.
In this group, you get a list of thoughts, without much discussion being conducted. They are simply dumped upon you, and the reaction is....repeat the process and hope that no one asks questions.
The fact that college-level 'kids' are in this group? Yeah, that worries me that they'd be this stupid/naïve.
Second, I've come to believe that around 20-percent of the general public that one might bump into.....are probably qualified in the status of being 'stupid'. Half of them might eventually emerge and improve their status....the other half will stay stupid for the remainder of their lives. My problem? Guessing which group I'm talking to, and if I should waste 10 minutes talking 'sense' into them....bringing them out of the 'pit'.
Third, I watched a video today....of a guy who walked into a Wal-Mart and asked the three young 'clerks' about getting a left-handed hammer. The three probably spent at least fifty seconds....engaged in looking up a left-handed hammer. Far as I could tell....they weren't willing to give up on the search (that's a positive). On common sense? I'm giving up on them.
His emphasis? Well....not everyone arrives at Princeton to get into STEM classes....equally prepared.
I pondered over this for a while, in a long thought process.
One of the top ten things I learned upon leaving the farm in 1977, and over the next five years....there were just a fair number of people who were educationally....unprepared. I'm not saying they were stupid, but that they were given x-amount of education and some of it...stuck, while some of it just dissolved into thin air.
As I reach age forty....this belief got worse. I had the opinion that probably 40-percent of high school kids were arriving in some Air Force job skill....marginally getting some skill after 12 weeks of tech-school.
Today? I'm in full agreement that a fair number (maybe half of America's high school graduates can't handle science, technology, engineering, and mathematics basics. I might even add literature/plain English to the list as well.
But the question is...if you arrived at Princeton and seem to be unable to handle the STEM classes....what's the college to do with you? Lower the expectation? Add a 5th year to bring you up to date? Block you entirely because you aren't that capable?
Then you have the screwed-up problem....if you have Asian kids step up and have the skills....should you deny seats to Princeton to these kids....because of the unfair nature of things?
Personally? The best solution is to make a new second Princeton university....called Princeton-prep. Tell the remarkable kid applying if you don't pass the STEM mandated levels.....no problem, we'll help you improve. For the nifty price of $49,500....we will give you a Princeton-prep situation.....doing real high school level STEM crap. Then to really sell this to the Princeton leadership....I won't hire professors ($90,000 cost per year)...I will hire real plain high school teachers at $55,000 a year.
I saw this today and pondered over it for an hour.
We never discussed this idea in my rural Alabama high school. It was around two years later....I sat reading a article over finance (at the base library), and came to grasp the printing of money factor.
Even if you sat in a coffee shop today, and engaged in conversation on this idea....I suspect that forty-percent of people would not grasp what 'printing' really means or how our economy performs (past, present or future).
What Milei says? Well....to be honest, most colleges are already 'printing' degrees and handing them out to stupid people.....making them think they are wise enough for a college degree, when they aren't that wise or intellectual.
I sat this week watching some 24-year old 'kid' (female) who was fairly disturbed. She'd finished up college back in the summer of 2023, and her job prospects (now going 8 months) were two temp-jobs (came and went) and currently a part-time job at some coffee shop (I assume shift-manager). She was peeved over the value of the two degrees she had (one of which related to acting), and that she spoke a second language. In her mind, the degrees were supposed to open doors, and a real salary.
There's a crazy reality developing....where you feel like some folks (college-bound and college-delivered folks)....are developing into some kind of cult.
It's just an odd topic to think about....what has developed around the concept....someone asking you 'why want you talk about 'such-and-such'?'.
There can only be five responses:
1. I have no interest in conversing over this topic.
2. To be honest, I just don't know enough to engage or have an opinion.
3. I have zero interest or insight to share in such a conversation.
4. To be honest, engaging with you....will only get you hyper or freaked-out.
5. I've got better things to do than waste 5 minutes on some bull$hit topic of 'such-and-such'.
End of the story.
It's amazing that people have started to reach a level where they know the conversation path, and how they are measuring their response to the five potential outcomes. The fact that response '4' and '5' come up often? Yeah, that probably provokes a bit of Einstein-like calculations.
I sat this week and watched the Netflix series....'The Three Body Problem' (8 episodes).
Pure science fiction? Yeah, and it took various twists/turns.
Basic story.....some Chinese gal is dragged in the 1960s into a research project....to send a message out into space, and at some point.....gets a return message. This return message basically says....don't go any further, or you will invite 'trouble'.
Well....the Chinese gal goes ahead.
What you have develop is some alien culture that is in need of a new planet, and decides Earth might be a great place.
The rest of the story dwells over the Earth folks who stumble upon the alien business....some folks die, and there's some attempt by the 8th episode to hinder/halt the arrival of the alien invasion (note, they are about 400 years from the arrival point).
I have to admit on story value....it's a '10', and does make you ask.....could people accept some alien arrival presently.
So if you are hooked-up to Netflix....it might be worth watching.
I saw the word today, and had to go to remind myself the meaning.
So you've voted in various officials at the city, county, state and federal level....discovering weeks, months and years later....they were not capable of running the office they held.
You know....the feeling you have over your county commission, your local prosecutor, your local judges, the state governor, House and Senate members, and the President/VP.
I paused over this for a while.....pondering.
I don't remember this being a big issue in the 1980s/1990s. Somewhere after 2000....about once a month (at least starting out)....I would notice some evidence of incompetency. Gradually....it became once a week, and today....I'd say five to ten times a day....I see ineptocracy going on. I actually see it globally now....viewing events in China, Russia, the UK, Canada, etc.
My question....did we always have this element of Ineptocracy going on, and it's just easier to recognize it today? Or has something triggered the inept people to 'rise-up' and be the chief choices when elections occur?
