Ha. Put your tinfoil hat on and read Scroogled http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2007-09-17-n72.html. This pretty much sums up what we 86% are worried about I think.

Ha! That's perfect.

I agree that it's not just the knowledge that makes you money that has value. I do think though that as the cost of education rises more and more people will forgo a liberal education in favor of one with a high return (money wise).

I think you could also make a case that a lack of a well rounded education will make people less interested in the political / economic forces that led them (me) to a vocational education in the first place. Less interest, less involvement, less control.

I'm sure those dissidents had it coming.

Take care.

Re: your second point - Homer is referring to working as an employee. From that standpoint he is dead on. I think the national mythos you refer to focuses mainly on the idea of entrepreneurship. In this regard the meritocracy idea is viable. You either succeed or fail. Trust me, there's not much coasting.

Try, Libertarianism: Individual responsibility, minimal government, states rights, sound money, fiscal conservatism.

I think you are way off on this. First, what's wrong with expecting a monetary return on your education? College costs are thru the roof. To spend 4 years studying Elizabethan Poetry may be very fulfilling but you will most likely not be able to pay the student loans. I went to school for Engineering & got almost no liberal arts education. However, at the risk of sounding like a presumptuous jerk, I am able to converse on just about any subject. history, science, art, politics, economics literature. I think that nurse's lack of knowledge on Freud and Stalin says more about the nurse personally and less about her formal education. And I think your choice of Freud and Stalin to make your point says quite a bit about you.

Great idea... In New York? Not bloody likely. According to a George Mason University Feb 2009 ranking of the 50 states in terms of personal and economic freedom, New York ranks, you guessed it, dead last. Link to the white paper below. http://www.mercatus.org/PDFDownload.aspx?contentID=26154 I will check out the essay you cited. Thanks.

Glad to see a few out there who have read Gatto. It's one thing to read a book and sympathize with the ideas. It's another entirely to realize that it's about you.

At every turn, government removes parent choice from education.

If you ever get a chance check out what happened to the DC Voucher program.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/08/AR2008060802041.html

From the article:
"The groundbreaking federal voucher program that enables nearly 2,000 D.C. children to attend private schools is facing an uncertain future in the Democrat-controlled Congress and may well be heading into its final year of operation, according to officials and supporters of the program.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said this week that she is working on a plan to phase out the controversial D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, the first in the country to provide federal money for vouchers. Norton said she wants to proceed in a way that will not harm recipients. But she added that she regarded the program, narrowly approved in 2004 for five years by the then-Republican majority, as on its last legs.

"We have to protect the children, who are the truly innocent victims here," said Norton, who like many Democrats opposes vouchers as a threat to public school systems. "But I can tell you that the Democratic Congress is not about to extend this program." "

Then check out the statistics on how those in the program performed vs those in public schools.

Gatto is completely correct. Those kids performed better than their public school counterparts and the $7500 voucher credit cost the taxpayers less than if the kids had gone to public schools.

If someone had asked you in July of 1969 what would be the state of the US space program in 2009...

Colony on the moon? Definitely.

Humans on Mars? Sure.

The USA unable to resupply it's own space station?

Armstrong will be dead before we get back to the moon.

Shame.

- "What was the overall success rate for getting a mission to mars? 50%? It'd suck to wait a year for a supply launch to be readied and launched, just to miss, and continue to drift off into space. There are other errors too. They could miss the landing zone by 1,000 miles."-

Of course you are right, it could burn up. But having people there waiting might actually increase the likelihood of a supply ship successfully landing. The colonists could set up a homing beacon that the supply ship might lock on to, eliminating many navigation problems over the long journey.

I think it's funny that this is a serious for a Mars mission but the "Mars Direct" guy was labeled as an extreme kook. Mars direct planned to launch a return vehicle and fuel processing station (unmanned) to refine fuel from the Hydrogen in the Mars atmosphere. This way, the first astronauts would not even leave Earth until the return ship were safely there and fully fueled.

Combining the two ideas, the ready fueled return vehicle could itself be the homing beacon that the manned ship locks onto.

OK - I like the idea of debating this topic with someone who actually lives under another government & tax structure but...

I suggest that the elimination of the personal income tax would set the scope of my government back a mere 5 years and you paint me as an anarchist? Seriously.

Think of the cost benefit analysis. 99% of the people in the USA would not even notice the change in scope but would gain over 20% of their income back. What would stimulate the economy more, bailouts and car purchase programs or $1.1 Trillion invested back into the economy at the local level?

And yes, I realize that tax is influenced by many factors. The effective spending point is debatable. Look up "the broken window fallacy of economics." Government is great at breaking your leg, giving you a crutch and saying "see, if it wasn't for government, you wouldn't be able to walk."

What I am saying is that taxes will go no where but up over the long term. More data means more programs can be refined, improved & expanded. More expansion means more taxes, which leads to the need for more data.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat.