Yeah, I wish more people could see that instead of crying racism any time someone raises the concern. Because it does not help disadvantaged communities, it only excuses the failures of the education system to adequately serve those communities.

I mean yeah, if you have the investment know-how and the time to dedicate to that, you can use a self-managed retirement fund and potentially do better than you would with a 401k. But not everyone has the time or expertise to do that.

I don’t know if there are retirement accounts that solely invest in certified B-corps or with minimum ESG standards, but if so that might be an option. Those just tend not to grow as aggressively so people tend to overlook them.

Yeah, I’m glad you understand :)

I use PETG from recycled water bottles, but when the ceiling rises so does everything below it

That’s obviously a disservice to students in disadvantaged backgrounds, so why are you trying to argue against me when I’m saying we shouldn’t lower the floor further just to permit the education system to continue failing young people while fixing their metrics to look more successful?

Allowing those political elite to permit schools to fail to bring students up to a basic level of literacy does not help the working class. That only helps the elite, which is why they’re so intent on defunding, degrading, and dismantling the education system.

History shows us time and time again, that every successful revolution has been led by educated people.

No, it’s EASY for you. Just like it might be easy for someone who is genetically gifted to run 6 miles without any training.

Are you implying that the reason I’m literate is because I’m “generically gifted”? I’m sorry, but that’s a wild take. I’m literate because I went to school where they taught me how to read. I didn’t enjoy it all the time. I didn’t learn to appreciate reading until later in life. But it’s not too much to expect schools to teach people to read at a basic literacy level.

for most human beings, it takes lots of training to attain these abilities, and life-long training to retain them. if you stop training, your body degrades in weeks, and in months all your training is lost. your mind is similar. use it, or lose it.

Yeah, that’s called a K-12 education. If you didn’t complete that or a qualified substitute, or you got to the end of your schooling and still couldn’t read or write basic sentences yet somehow graduated, then you don’t belong in college. Hence why I said they should be required to take remedial courses before the 101 level.

Allowing primary and secondary schools to fail in that basic expectation is doing a disservice to everybody. I don’t care how many mental hoops you want to jump through and excuses you want to make, if a person is illiterate then they need to fix that before they should be admitted into a college-level education program.

If they can’t or won’t do that, then I’m sure there are plenty of blue collar jobs that they’ll thrive at. But pretending literacy shouldn’t be a basic requirement for college is wildly absurd.

Amazing how you assume “doesn’t meet the basic prerequisites for the educational program” means “brown people.” You racist or something?

I on the other hand understand that “brown people,” as you say, are perfectly capable of meeting the same requirements as everyone else, so it’s patronizing to act like they need those standards lowered.

Affirmative Action is about securing positions to qualified candidates who would otherwise be looked over due to their demographic/background. It’s not about lowering standards to let anybody in because (as you seem to be assuming) “brown people are too stupid to meet the same standards.” If that’s what you believe Affirmative Action is about, then you’ve fallen for right-wing propaganda about it. Good job.

Also, it doesn’t make me a grammar nazi to believe everyone in a college writing class should be able to formulate complete sentences in the language the class is instructed in. It’s on the education system to prepare future college students for that, and if they can’t do it in 12 years of primary and secondary schooling, then that’s a failure of the system. And you’re not doing anybody any favors by saying we should let that slide just because you don’t believe brown people can actually do better.

Thank you! It’s literally a disservice to marginalized communities to assume “oh, they can’t handle the same standard so we need to lower it for them.” Aside from being racist.

It’s funny how that commenter assumed I was talking about affirmative action, though. Almost as if they assumed affirmative action means lowering educational standards.

Expanding opportunities for disadvantaged youth to enter educational programs they qualify for? Good 👍

Allowing anybody into an educational program that they don’t even meet the basic prerequisites for, because you’re afraid to deny someone who could blame prejudice? Bleh 👎

It’s not that hard to comprehend.

I’d rather just buy the GPUs second-hand after the companies fail and have to liquidate…

I always thought it was stupid to entrust one’s retirement to a 401k, when the very basis of the economy is cracking at the seams and will eventually crumble to the ground. It’s building your future on a pillar of sand.

Of course, people rely on their 401ks as a retirement plan because the system is built around forcing that as their only option.

On the bright side, once it all crumbles and there’s nothing left for us peasants, while the executives make away on their golden parachutes, people will no longer have a reason not to tear the system down. Right now the reason it’s so hard to convince people to replace the system is because “What will that do to my 401k?”

Like, dude, you won’t need a 401k if we can successfully replace the system. That will take time though, of course. And whoever is at retirement age during the transition may be screwed for a while until we can get the new system in place.

That’s why people who want to tear the system down immediately and think about what comes next after (or not at all), while shaming people for not being onboard with that, are thoroughly deluded.

I’ve always viewed economics as a pseudo-science.

There might be some ways to apply the scientific method to economic systems, but even if so it would be a soft science at best.

But that’s not even what’s happening in conventional economic theory, and they try to treat it like a hard science.

Sometimes “we haven’t lost yet” is better than “we’ve already lost.”

As you should.

Even if they don’t promise to abolish the police, “Defund ICE” should be a winning proposal.

Running a 6 minute mile is not the same thing as reading a basic news article, and framing it as such is disingenuous.

Yeah, it ultimately boils down to the commodification of education, but it think there are also aspects of being allergic to anything perceived as elitism, and being terrified of accusations of discrimination.

I mean, holding everyone to the same basic standard isn’t discrimination. Even if some people from marginalized backgrounds don’t meet that standard. In fact, it’s kinda racist to assume those people need the handicap, as if none of them can meet the basic standards unless they’re lowered…

Yeah, you’re right. We should start with the easy wins, like making soaps, baked goods, hand tools, etc.

We can work our way up to more complex fabs and maybe some day we can have a worker’s collective to manufacture semiconductors, but we shouldn’t let the immensity of the task get in the way of starting on the simpler aspects.

Sorry, rereading what I wrote, it seems unnecessarily harsh.

You’re right though, there are plenty of things that cottage industries absolutely can and should reclaim. I guess I was just thinking about highly technical fabs, like computer chips and medical equipment.

Overall though, I’m very much in support of the idea of cottage industries in general.

You’re being a dense idiot, and I’m done with you.

Ah, I never tried that. Smart. I don’t smoke anymore. I lost the desire to after years of knowing it was harming me but continuing to do it anyway.

But yeah, a little resin is fine, that’s why I said cleaning it every few months or so is enough