We spend billions of dollars every year fighting drugs. Drugs are bad. We were all taught in school to JUST SAY NO!! Drugs cause crime. Drugs destroy families. They put all kinds of nasty stuff in drugs that can kill you. Drugs destroy lives. People die from drug overdoses. Drug funded gangs shoot each other over territories to sell their drugs in. The prisons are full of people with drug charges. . . . and where are we.
We still have drive by shootings. We can't stop the drugs from coming into our country. We can't even stop drugs from being grown or made in our own country. Our prisons are filling up. We spend more and more money fighting this drug war and putting dealers and users behind bars and for what? To create more government jobs? "Its for the children." Drugs are bad so we must make them illegal? WHY???
I remember learning about something called Prohibition in history class. That was when some people in this country thought liquor should be illegal. They got an amendment to our Constitution to ban the production and consumption of alcohol. They all patted themselves on the back for their accomplishment. The "Demon Rum" was gone for good. Husbands would now go to church with their wifes. Families wouldn't be torn apart by alcohol. And everybody would live happily ever after, right. . .
Nope. The banning of alcohol caused the biggest crime wave this country had seen up to then. So the government fought back. Federal marshals, the FBI, the ATF, and local law enforcement all fought the mobsters and rum runners. They hunted down the smugglers, raided the "Speak Easies," and it didn't stop it. Government agents were being killed. The mob was killing each other over beer routes and control of the supply. Innocent people were killed being caught in the cross fire. Jails and prisons were filling up with people that were arrested buying or selling alcohol.
There were people going blind from drinking "Bathtub Gin" that was made wrong. No more controls on how the stuff was made let anyone build a still and crank out dangerous product. And the tea totalers used this to their advantage. They said "look at poor George here. He drank some bad moon shine and now he will never see again. We were right banning alcohol, look at all the crime and pain it causes."
Luckily our country came to its senses and made alcohol legal again. And guess what!! The mob collapsed. Most kept on doing what they were doing before, selling liquor, but now it was legal. No more drive bys with "Tommy Guns." No more people going blind from drinking bad alcohol. Crime went way down. Yes we still had drunks. Yes, we had families destroyed by alcohol, but we had those problems when it was banned too. Making it illegal didn't make it go away.
So here we are, today, fighting our "Drug War" and wasting our time and money when we don't need to. We are afraid of the drug gangs and the smugglers. We die in the cross fire of the gang wars for territory to sell their drugs. People who use the drugs pay crazy prices for them so they steal and rob to fund their habit. Dealers cut their product with anything they can get their hands on to make a better profit. No controls on quality. We cause all this and pat our own backs and tell each other we are doing a good job fighting these horrible drugs. We scream for more money to be spent stamping out this plague in our society, but we never look at the true problem. Just make the stuff legal!!!
Yes, we will still have addicts. Yes, people will still die from overdoses. We will still have a drug problem, like we still have alcoholics, but how many lives will we save not fighting a literal war. Cops won't die raiding a drug house or trying to catch smugglers. We will save billions of dollars not housing all the drug offenders in our prison system. The government would actually make money being able to tax the drugs.
But, no. We continue to fight this war, continue to watch people die. We forget what we learned in school or we say this isn't the same, drugs are so much worse then alcohol.
But are they really?? Or is that what they are telling us and we just don't spend the time to think about it for ourselves. . .
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
A Grade of C Not Good Enough in the Real World
The grade of C, 70%-80%. In school they called it "Average." An A was "Excellent", B was "Above Average" but a C was supposed to be average. This is the system that most of us went to school under. The problem with average being 70% is, do you want to go to an "Average" doctor that only learned 70% of what they needed know?? Do you want someone working on your car that can only do the job right 70% of the time??
But, we teach just that to everyone in school. You can scrape through school at 70%! If you get a C you are average and that is ok. Even if you can't get a 70, a D or 60% is still passing in most schools! WHAT!!! Then you throw in multiple choice tests where a monkey can get a 25% and then what do you have. I'm sorry but this is pathetic.
Then the Federal Government sticks their nose in it and we get "NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND!" Well, with W. Bush leading the way with this program we can guess what type of student he was! So we dumb down the education level for everyone so the trouble maker, bully, and drug addicts can keep up too. No wonder we are behind the rest of the world.
School needs to mean something. A High School Diploma needs to mean something, and getting one is not a "Right." If you can't or won't do the work for it, you don't deserve it. 60%, 70% doesn't cut it in the real world. We need to teach our kids that you can't be successful in life with a "C" attitude. But we don't, or not enough of us. So we complain about the poor level of education and intelligence of students now, and the young graduates from college. But they just did what was expected of them.
We forget that people rise to whatever level they need to to survive. When you expect more out of someone you usually get it. We need to raise the bar in our schools or we, as a nation, won't be able to keep up with the rest of the world. Yes, we will have more dropouts. Yes, we will have a lower percentage of people with a High School Diploma. But we have no choice in the matter. If we try to drag everyone kicking and screaming across the High School finish line we will come in last. Each individual needs to be responsible for their own actions. If you choose not to do the work or ditch school you will suffer the consequences of your choices later in life.
We have the basic framework in our education system, but aren't using it right. Most schools have honors classes for students that excel. We have the average classes where most students fit, and we have the slower classes for the few that need extra help. We just need to use them properly. Just by kicking out the 1 or 2 trouble makers and drug addicts you will raise the level of education in the average classes. The 1 jerk in class does not have the right to destroy the education of the other 30. Don't put them in the slow classes, that is unfair to the students that need those classes. They need to be kicked out. They need to learn if you don't work, you get fired. I'm sorry but not everyone will be an engineer or a doctor. If you don't work in school you will end up cleaning their offices.
This is the only way we will be able to get enough students with enough of an education to compete with the world. It is a pure numbers game, but we are cheating right now giving out HS diplomas to everyone. The world runs on a Bell Curve. Right now our bell doesn't just have a crack in it, it sags in the center and bulges on the wrong side. We need to be honest with ourselves or we will all lose. Earning a 70% in a school that is only teaching half of what it should is loosing! And right now we are loosing. . .
But, we teach just that to everyone in school. You can scrape through school at 70%! If you get a C you are average and that is ok. Even if you can't get a 70, a D or 60% is still passing in most schools! WHAT!!! Then you throw in multiple choice tests where a monkey can get a 25% and then what do you have. I'm sorry but this is pathetic.
Then the Federal Government sticks their nose in it and we get "NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND!" Well, with W. Bush leading the way with this program we can guess what type of student he was! So we dumb down the education level for everyone so the trouble maker, bully, and drug addicts can keep up too. No wonder we are behind the rest of the world.
School needs to mean something. A High School Diploma needs to mean something, and getting one is not a "Right." If you can't or won't do the work for it, you don't deserve it. 60%, 70% doesn't cut it in the real world. We need to teach our kids that you can't be successful in life with a "C" attitude. But we don't, or not enough of us. So we complain about the poor level of education and intelligence of students now, and the young graduates from college. But they just did what was expected of them.
We forget that people rise to whatever level they need to to survive. When you expect more out of someone you usually get it. We need to raise the bar in our schools or we, as a nation, won't be able to keep up with the rest of the world. Yes, we will have more dropouts. Yes, we will have a lower percentage of people with a High School Diploma. But we have no choice in the matter. If we try to drag everyone kicking and screaming across the High School finish line we will come in last. Each individual needs to be responsible for their own actions. If you choose not to do the work or ditch school you will suffer the consequences of your choices later in life.
We have the basic framework in our education system, but aren't using it right. Most schools have honors classes for students that excel. We have the average classes where most students fit, and we have the slower classes for the few that need extra help. We just need to use them properly. Just by kicking out the 1 or 2 trouble makers and drug addicts you will raise the level of education in the average classes. The 1 jerk in class does not have the right to destroy the education of the other 30. Don't put them in the slow classes, that is unfair to the students that need those classes. They need to be kicked out. They need to learn if you don't work, you get fired. I'm sorry but not everyone will be an engineer or a doctor. If you don't work in school you will end up cleaning their offices.
This is the only way we will be able to get enough students with enough of an education to compete with the world. It is a pure numbers game, but we are cheating right now giving out HS diplomas to everyone. The world runs on a Bell Curve. Right now our bell doesn't just have a crack in it, it sags in the center and bulges on the wrong side. We need to be honest with ourselves or we will all lose. Earning a 70% in a school that is only teaching half of what it should is loosing! And right now we are loosing. . .
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Democracy or Democratic Republic?
We have a problem in this country. Well, we have a few problems in our country but this is one of them. One I have never heard anyone talk about. One I don't think most people know exists.
The Constitution was written and this country was set up as a Democratic Republic. That means we had a balance of a Democracy and a Republic. It was a mixture made to balance out the bad of both systems. Our founding Fathers studied all of the classic governments and saw the good and bad in each one. Their goal was to create a lasting framework that could be a foundation for a lasting Government but still have just enough flexability to change through the years when needed. They also wanted a government that never had too much power or gave too much power to any one branch of the government. So they set up a Hybrid system of a Democracy and a Republic.
A pure Democracy is government by popular vote. Everything is decided by popular vote. You don't have someone to "Represent" you in the government, all you have is a system for voting on bills and laws that are brought before the people as a whole. The good of this system is the government doesn't take rights away from the people. You have no one that you voted to represent you get into office and then change their views. This kind of government can be very attractive. You also don't have to worry about corruption of public officials because they don't exist in this form of government. This sound great until you look at the dark side of Democracy.
A pure Democracy can be VERY scary too. Democracy is mob rule. What the mob wants, it gets. Or more accurately, what the person or group that can control the mob wants it gets. As an individual you have no protection from what the whole wants. Democracy is worse then a dictator. A dictator at least is somewhat consistent on their agenda and as long as you are not on it you are fine. Democracy, on the other hand, is as fickle as the latest fad. Every few years would bring a different minority into the sights of the mob. They would strip that minority of their rights saying it was for the good of the whole and then move on to their next victim. Everybody is a minority in some way or another. What church do you go to? Do you even believe in God? What profession are you in? What entertainment do you like? What color is your skin, hair, eyes? Do you hunt, camp, boat, fish, eat meat, don't eat meat, sew, have a garden, not watch TV, excel in school or work, have a medical condition, what country did you or your ancestors come from . . . ? We are all minorities in some way and under a pure democracy none of us would be safe.
A Republic gets rid of mob rule. In a Republic you pick who will represent you in the government and then they make the decisions. For the individual this form of government is much less work. You don't have to worry about each bill, proposition, or law that is being debated. You did you duty and picked someone to represent you and figure all that out. When you vote all you would have to decide is who would represent you for the next term of office. Most Republics had multiple levels in them too. So the representatives the public picked would then elect a higher committee, senate, or president normally for a longer term then they serve. this way you have balance and consistency. Republics tend to be much more conservative and reserved then Democracies. This form of government also tends to have a higher quality of elected officials. If you only have one chance to pick someone, then you tend to do more homework first.
The dark side of a Republic is they tend to be elitist, rich, and not care about the "average" person in the country. Once they are elected they can do whatever they want. the people have to recourse until they come back up for election. And in the upper houses of a Republic that the people have no direct vote, the only remedy for change is to elect representatives into the lower house that will block bills from the upper house until the representatives can elect a new upper house. Change is SLOW in this form of Government.
Our Founding Fathers didn't want the evils of either of these forms of Government. They decided on a framework that would hopefully eliminate the evils of both and keep the benefits of them at the same time. they created a Democratic Republic. We had three branches of government that were set up to "check and balance" each other. To make it simple, the Legislative branch had the power to write laws. The Judicial branch decided if they were constitutional. The Executive gave a face to our government for foreign affairs and had veto power over the legislative branch.
Now, in the Legislative branch, we have two Houses. We have the House of Representatives that is chosen by popular vote from a specific geographical area. That representative represents the people in their area. Then we have the Senate, now this is where we get all screwed up! The senate was created to represent the States and their individual rights in the government. According to the Constitution Senators were elected by the State Governments so they could keep the Federal Government in check. They weren't elected by popular vote in the whole state like they are now. So If the Federal Government started encroaching on State's Rights, the Senate could block the bill and it wouldn't get passed. States wouldn't be blackmailed by the Federal Government by withholding Highway funds or other money from the state if they didn't do what the Federal Government wanted. The Senate was there to keep each state in control of their own destiny, and not be just side shows to the Federal Government.
In 1913 the people and state legislatures were sold the 17th Amendment that changed the Senate from representing the States to being popularly elected. Sounds good, right? Well the States lost their "check" against the Federal Government and this opened the door for the Mammoth, Overgrown, Over powerful Federal Government we have today. State Governments now have to recourse when the Federal Government steps on their rights and we all lose because of this. Without this change we would not have had FDR's socialist "New Deal." A social security program would have been up to the states, and you could then choose to live in a state with one or not. Education, Speed limits, driving age, drinking age, state health care, income tax, welfare, are all examples of areas that the decisions originally would have been up to individual states, but are now Federal. No more local choice with the choice to move to a state that better fit your ideals. What we have now is the population of bigger States dictating how everybody in every state should live.
Let those bigger States pass all the bills they want in their own States, just don't force the people in my State to live with it too. Let us decide what is best for us as a State. Let us decide how to educate our own children. Let us, as a State, decide if the age to drink should be 21, 30, or 12. If you want government health care, do it in your State and let everyone else decide what they want. If you don't like what your State is doing, become more politically active or move to one that you like better. But we are losing more and more of this choice, this freedom every year. And the sad part is we gave it to the Federal Government in 1913.
So we live under a Government that is unbalanced. We took a government that was balanced and moved a weight off the Republic side and dropped it onto the Democracy side and slid that much more to mob rule. We lost out and so did all our States. Our past generations gave that right away, and good luck getting it back. So next time you vote, be careful what rights you take away from someone else. Next time it could be your way of life up for a vote!!!
The Constitution was written and this country was set up as a Democratic Republic. That means we had a balance of a Democracy and a Republic. It was a mixture made to balance out the bad of both systems. Our founding Fathers studied all of the classic governments and saw the good and bad in each one. Their goal was to create a lasting framework that could be a foundation for a lasting Government but still have just enough flexability to change through the years when needed. They also wanted a government that never had too much power or gave too much power to any one branch of the government. So they set up a Hybrid system of a Democracy and a Republic.
A pure Democracy is government by popular vote. Everything is decided by popular vote. You don't have someone to "Represent" you in the government, all you have is a system for voting on bills and laws that are brought before the people as a whole. The good of this system is the government doesn't take rights away from the people. You have no one that you voted to represent you get into office and then change their views. This kind of government can be very attractive. You also don't have to worry about corruption of public officials because they don't exist in this form of government. This sound great until you look at the dark side of Democracy.
A pure Democracy can be VERY scary too. Democracy is mob rule. What the mob wants, it gets. Or more accurately, what the person or group that can control the mob wants it gets. As an individual you have no protection from what the whole wants. Democracy is worse then a dictator. A dictator at least is somewhat consistent on their agenda and as long as you are not on it you are fine. Democracy, on the other hand, is as fickle as the latest fad. Every few years would bring a different minority into the sights of the mob. They would strip that minority of their rights saying it was for the good of the whole and then move on to their next victim. Everybody is a minority in some way or another. What church do you go to? Do you even believe in God? What profession are you in? What entertainment do you like? What color is your skin, hair, eyes? Do you hunt, camp, boat, fish, eat meat, don't eat meat, sew, have a garden, not watch TV, excel in school or work, have a medical condition, what country did you or your ancestors come from . . . ? We are all minorities in some way and under a pure democracy none of us would be safe.
A Republic gets rid of mob rule. In a Republic you pick who will represent you in the government and then they make the decisions. For the individual this form of government is much less work. You don't have to worry about each bill, proposition, or law that is being debated. You did you duty and picked someone to represent you and figure all that out. When you vote all you would have to decide is who would represent you for the next term of office. Most Republics had multiple levels in them too. So the representatives the public picked would then elect a higher committee, senate, or president normally for a longer term then they serve. this way you have balance and consistency. Republics tend to be much more conservative and reserved then Democracies. This form of government also tends to have a higher quality of elected officials. If you only have one chance to pick someone, then you tend to do more homework first.
The dark side of a Republic is they tend to be elitist, rich, and not care about the "average" person in the country. Once they are elected they can do whatever they want. the people have to recourse until they come back up for election. And in the upper houses of a Republic that the people have no direct vote, the only remedy for change is to elect representatives into the lower house that will block bills from the upper house until the representatives can elect a new upper house. Change is SLOW in this form of Government.
Our Founding Fathers didn't want the evils of either of these forms of Government. They decided on a framework that would hopefully eliminate the evils of both and keep the benefits of them at the same time. they created a Democratic Republic. We had three branches of government that were set up to "check and balance" each other. To make it simple, the Legislative branch had the power to write laws. The Judicial branch decided if they were constitutional. The Executive gave a face to our government for foreign affairs and had veto power over the legislative branch.
Now, in the Legislative branch, we have two Houses. We have the House of Representatives that is chosen by popular vote from a specific geographical area. That representative represents the people in their area. Then we have the Senate, now this is where we get all screwed up! The senate was created to represent the States and their individual rights in the government. According to the Constitution Senators were elected by the State Governments so they could keep the Federal Government in check. They weren't elected by popular vote in the whole state like they are now. So If the Federal Government started encroaching on State's Rights, the Senate could block the bill and it wouldn't get passed. States wouldn't be blackmailed by the Federal Government by withholding Highway funds or other money from the state if they didn't do what the Federal Government wanted. The Senate was there to keep each state in control of their own destiny, and not be just side shows to the Federal Government.
In 1913 the people and state legislatures were sold the 17th Amendment that changed the Senate from representing the States to being popularly elected. Sounds good, right? Well the States lost their "check" against the Federal Government and this opened the door for the Mammoth, Overgrown, Over powerful Federal Government we have today. State Governments now have to recourse when the Federal Government steps on their rights and we all lose because of this. Without this change we would not have had FDR's socialist "New Deal." A social security program would have been up to the states, and you could then choose to live in a state with one or not. Education, Speed limits, driving age, drinking age, state health care, income tax, welfare, are all examples of areas that the decisions originally would have been up to individual states, but are now Federal. No more local choice with the choice to move to a state that better fit your ideals. What we have now is the population of bigger States dictating how everybody in every state should live.
Let those bigger States pass all the bills they want in their own States, just don't force the people in my State to live with it too. Let us decide what is best for us as a State. Let us decide how to educate our own children. Let us, as a State, decide if the age to drink should be 21, 30, or 12. If you want government health care, do it in your State and let everyone else decide what they want. If you don't like what your State is doing, become more politically active or move to one that you like better. But we are losing more and more of this choice, this freedom every year. And the sad part is we gave it to the Federal Government in 1913.
So we live under a Government that is unbalanced. We took a government that was balanced and moved a weight off the Republic side and dropped it onto the Democracy side and slid that much more to mob rule. We lost out and so did all our States. Our past generations gave that right away, and good luck getting it back. So next time you vote, be careful what rights you take away from someone else. Next time it could be your way of life up for a vote!!!
You Baby Boomers Screwed Us!!
You had your "60s" You had your drugs, sex, socialist programs. Then you took everything that your parents had learned from the depression and WWII and flushed it down the drain. You pushed your social programs onto this country. You bankrupted this country.
No elected official wants to be the one to say that now that bill has come due. That we had our fun with all our social programs. Putting Social Security into the general fund because hey, look at all the money in it. Well you 50 somethings, you blew it. You spent your SS and now you are looking at retirement and guess what, you already spent it. Oh well, you Baby Boomers are a big enough group that you can just vote and take it from your kids now with families and raising kids of their own. Now why did you go and spend it all years ago. You had your fun in college with all your hippie socialist programs you threw at the country, and in spite of what your parents were saying. But all these fuzzy feel good social programs had to be paid somehow.
So here we are now. Banks dropping like flies, why? Because you just don't get it. "Help the lower income families buy a house" so guess what. You came up with sub prime loans. You convinced people they could afford their balloon payments on a house they couldn't hope to afford. Then you go and try to pull the wool over your kids generation by not teaching us how interrest rates work in school. Oh, but you made sure we all had our heads pumped full of self esteem classes and that we needed to save the whales.
When you entered the workforce all those years ago companies gave you pensions. You entered a workforce that valued its employees. Your parents new what was going on, had lived through the Great Depression. But by the time your generation was running things and my generation was entering the workforce you took it all away. You took away the pensions from your kids and gave them 401Ks that reinvest into the market so your companies could use the money instead of saving it for the loyal employees that had worked for you for years. Oh, but you still kept your pensions to retire on. So now my generation is working for companies that offer no pensions, but put a little money into your 401k for you that is lost the second it goes in. Companies Baby Boomers now run that don't value good employees and don't realize that a companies greatest asset isn't its buildings or product but its employees. So my generation jumps from job to job, from crappy employer to crappy employer looking for someplace that treats its employees like real people. We loose what our employer puts in to our 401k because we couldn't stand to stay long enough to be "vested". And you blame this behavior on us because it couldn't be your fault for how you treat us. All of you that run these companies and wonder why you can't keep any new blood, anyone from the younger generation but all your older employees from your generation stay. But you don't like that either because now you will have to pay your generation the pensions they were promised in a few years when they retire unless you can figure out how to fire them or get out of it like some companies have. This is the work force that you have given your kids. Not the one your parents gave to you is it.
You didn't want us to learn to think for ourselves. When you became the teachers instead of the students you thought there were more important things to teach your kids instead of the 3Rs. You changed education from teaching into babysitting. How, you ask? Well, you called it a "Right." Then you changed it from a right for the students to learn in class to a right for the one or two troublemakers to not get kicked out of class and disrupt the learning for everyone else. I went through school watching teachers spend more time trying to make the one or two kids behave then teaching the rest of us what we were there to learn. You punish the little kid who brings a little action figure with a little plastic gun to school and call it "Zero Tolerance" but you don't kick out the kids to take the "Right" of education away from every other kid in school. Huh?!?! Because of these decisions you made, you turned a High School Diploma into a piece of paper that shows we survived 12 years of day care.
You didn't want us to learn to count change. Try giving a penny to some kid at a register AFTER they have already typed in the amount you gave them. Try asking a group of seniors at high school what the difference is between simple and compound interest. Try just asking them what is 10% off of $10.00 is!! Well, you got what you wanted. So this is the generation that is going to pay your SS checks!! A generation that is up to their ears in Credit Card Dept. A generation that supports a Pay Day Loan and Check Cash on every corner because they can't figure out they are paying over 300% interest!! That the $500 they keep turning over on a short term loan costs $1500 a year in interest plus the original $500 they have to pay back.
This is the generation you gave me for my peers. They look at me like I am a freak when I have to show them how to count your change because the computer went down. They think I'm not "cool" because I own every vehicle I have right now, no payments to a bank, their mine. They just are not "new" ones. They look confused when I say I wish I could afford something that they just put on one of their Credit Cards. They can afford it, they just got a credit increase and make the minimum payment each month. I am scared to death of the day that this "House of Credit cards" falls down. I look at the depression we are sliding into and hope it stops before all this dept bites us all.
I am fighting an uphill battle. You Baby boomers have had 40 years to preach your lies. I am only 30, trying to save for a family and retirement with no SS or a pension to plan on. Putting my money in a 401K that is loosing it as fast as I put it in because your social plans have crushed us.
So all you Baby Boomers PLEASE just go away and play golf and drink your tea and let the rest of us try to pick up the pieces and put something of our country back together. Leave us alone. You had your chance, and you screwed us!
No elected official wants to be the one to say that now that bill has come due. That we had our fun with all our social programs. Putting Social Security into the general fund because hey, look at all the money in it. Well you 50 somethings, you blew it. You spent your SS and now you are looking at retirement and guess what, you already spent it. Oh well, you Baby Boomers are a big enough group that you can just vote and take it from your kids now with families and raising kids of their own. Now why did you go and spend it all years ago. You had your fun in college with all your hippie socialist programs you threw at the country, and in spite of what your parents were saying. But all these fuzzy feel good social programs had to be paid somehow.
So here we are now. Banks dropping like flies, why? Because you just don't get it. "Help the lower income families buy a house" so guess what. You came up with sub prime loans. You convinced people they could afford their balloon payments on a house they couldn't hope to afford. Then you go and try to pull the wool over your kids generation by not teaching us how interrest rates work in school. Oh, but you made sure we all had our heads pumped full of self esteem classes and that we needed to save the whales.
When you entered the workforce all those years ago companies gave you pensions. You entered a workforce that valued its employees. Your parents new what was going on, had lived through the Great Depression. But by the time your generation was running things and my generation was entering the workforce you took it all away. You took away the pensions from your kids and gave them 401Ks that reinvest into the market so your companies could use the money instead of saving it for the loyal employees that had worked for you for years. Oh, but you still kept your pensions to retire on. So now my generation is working for companies that offer no pensions, but put a little money into your 401k for you that is lost the second it goes in. Companies Baby Boomers now run that don't value good employees and don't realize that a companies greatest asset isn't its buildings or product but its employees. So my generation jumps from job to job, from crappy employer to crappy employer looking for someplace that treats its employees like real people. We loose what our employer puts in to our 401k because we couldn't stand to stay long enough to be "vested". And you blame this behavior on us because it couldn't be your fault for how you treat us. All of you that run these companies and wonder why you can't keep any new blood, anyone from the younger generation but all your older employees from your generation stay. But you don't like that either because now you will have to pay your generation the pensions they were promised in a few years when they retire unless you can figure out how to fire them or get out of it like some companies have. This is the work force that you have given your kids. Not the one your parents gave to you is it.
You didn't want us to learn to think for ourselves. When you became the teachers instead of the students you thought there were more important things to teach your kids instead of the 3Rs. You changed education from teaching into babysitting. How, you ask? Well, you called it a "Right." Then you changed it from a right for the students to learn in class to a right for the one or two troublemakers to not get kicked out of class and disrupt the learning for everyone else. I went through school watching teachers spend more time trying to make the one or two kids behave then teaching the rest of us what we were there to learn. You punish the little kid who brings a little action figure with a little plastic gun to school and call it "Zero Tolerance" but you don't kick out the kids to take the "Right" of education away from every other kid in school. Huh?!?! Because of these decisions you made, you turned a High School Diploma into a piece of paper that shows we survived 12 years of day care.
You didn't want us to learn to count change. Try giving a penny to some kid at a register AFTER they have already typed in the amount you gave them. Try asking a group of seniors at high school what the difference is between simple and compound interest. Try just asking them what is 10% off of $10.00 is!! Well, you got what you wanted. So this is the generation that is going to pay your SS checks!! A generation that is up to their ears in Credit Card Dept. A generation that supports a Pay Day Loan and Check Cash on every corner because they can't figure out they are paying over 300% interest!! That the $500 they keep turning over on a short term loan costs $1500 a year in interest plus the original $500 they have to pay back.
This is the generation you gave me for my peers. They look at me like I am a freak when I have to show them how to count your change because the computer went down. They think I'm not "cool" because I own every vehicle I have right now, no payments to a bank, their mine. They just are not "new" ones. They look confused when I say I wish I could afford something that they just put on one of their Credit Cards. They can afford it, they just got a credit increase and make the minimum payment each month. I am scared to death of the day that this "House of Credit cards" falls down. I look at the depression we are sliding into and hope it stops before all this dept bites us all.
I am fighting an uphill battle. You Baby boomers have had 40 years to preach your lies. I am only 30, trying to save for a family and retirement with no SS or a pension to plan on. Putting my money in a 401K that is loosing it as fast as I put it in because your social plans have crushed us.
So all you Baby Boomers PLEASE just go away and play golf and drink your tea and let the rest of us try to pick up the pieces and put something of our country back together. Leave us alone. You had your chance, and you screwed us!
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