Insurance Agent Forum

[healthagent]

I'm just trying to live a good life because when I die I don't want to be reincarnated as a lizard or something.

[STIBROKER@AUSTIN.RR.COM]

Originally Posted by john_petrowski

I'm just trying to live a good life because when I die I don't want to be reincarnated at a lizard or something.

well being an ex nase agent is not going to help you up the evolutionary ladder.....

[James]

Originally Posted by john_petrowski

We're still a service society. For every one boss we need thousands of worker bees. Turn those worker bees into highly educated people and our society collapes.

Well some might dispute that, as once we were production base society which hopefully we will revive to its full potential again. As soon as we get over the Empirical mindset that has seem to set in after WWII.

[healthagent]

Just as long as we all understand that the education system is this country and how it's funded is no accident. In case you don't know, the property tax base makes up for a majority of a school's funds along with federal funds.

But wait a minute - doesn't that mean a rich area provides more taxes to their local schools? Hmmmm. So poor areas have lower property taxes and provide less? Gees whiz.

Well...why not just allow kids to go to school anywhere they want? Ohh...so we're gonna zone the schools so poor kids HAVE to go to the poor schools. We certainly don't want those poor folk mixing in with the upper class kids do we.

Well, then all the lower class parents will just pick up and move to a good school district. What? Real estate prices are maily set by how good the school district is? Ohh...guess they can't afford a house there.

This is all very meticulously worked out so the poor stay poor.

You won't do a thing to change education in this country until it's mandated that all schools get the exact same amount of funding based on the number of kids AND kids can go to whatever school they feel like going to.

[dvd493]

Sounds like school vouchers and home schooling are the way to go.

[marcircus]

Per John Petrowski:

You won't do a thing to change education in this country until it's mandated that all 1. schools get the exact same amount of funding based on the number of kids AND 2. kids can go to whatever school they feel like going to.

Wow, with regards point No. 1, I thought you were a capitalist? Well this is something that we can let go until we start discussing economics.

With regards to point No. 2: You may not believe it, but our schools, all of them, are adequately funded.

What is wrong is:

1. Lack of a family structure. The child is either being raised by a grandmother (mother is too young) or in a household without a father. The child may or may not know the father. The mother may or may not know who the father is. The child's siblings may be by more than one father. Few children have a father in the home, fewer yet have a father married to their mother.

2. Parents do not check on whether their children did their homework.

3. Parents do not support the school. I.E., the school disciplines a child for not taking their hat off in class. Parents involve the ACLU in protecting the child's right of expression.

4. Schools not safe (parents fault. Not society's, not a budget problem).

5. Staff are semi-litterate themselves. No, not a funding problem. This an EEO/AA matter. Try hiring competent personnel. Now you may run afoul of quotas, representation, guideliness Try mandating literacy tests for teachers and see what happens. I have heard the teacher's union president speak on television. She was not articulate, had terrible eloqution, none of you would have hired her as office help.

6. Parents let the TV babysit their children.

7. What happens if a school holds someone back a year (they fail a grade) - - lawsuit. What happens if the school denies someone a diploma because they did not meet minimum competency requirements in the 12th grade - - lawsuit.

8. Do-gooders in society don't let a school give a kid an "F" school just says the kid needs improvement. Well jeese, the kid is not held accountable. Parents are expected to read between the lines? Ever punish a kid for not doing their homework (either the school or the parents)?

[James]

Since the notion that money or class size has been blown away of any real effect of the education, the class rhetoric simply doesn't work.

In fact DC with the highest money spent comes in near the bottom of the list, so really can we get past the BS?

What amazes me is simply this, schools today don't teach the basics yet they want to teach BS and the disipline problem has a negative effect. Kids that cause problems shouldn't be allowed access on the public dime yet society has seemingly decided that they have to stay and have a negative effect on all kids. Just doesn't make sense at all, kick out the trouble makers and get back to the basics and yes Civics should be a basic course as in our Nation's History. Let me ask many here, what do you all know about the Barbary Coast Wars and how did it effect our Nation?

[marcircus]

James:

Civics should be a basic course as in our Nation's History.

That is kind of radical James :shock:

First we have to deal with more pressing problems like teaching kids about alternate lifestyles, and finish up the debate whether we should say the pledge of allegiance in the morning (unless ofcourse the flag offends someone) using the word "God."

No doubt about it, our schools are a mess. And look who is up and coming in the world: China and India. I wonder what happens to disruptive kids in their schools.

[dvd493]

So we are back to the strength of a family again. Only the family can teach a child the correct way to go. Only a family has enough love to take the time to care for its members to ensure they are raised correctly and have what they need. I'm sure a lot of people in the system would like to but just don't have the time.

That is why the way a family goes is the way a country goes. Throughout history, I believe if I remember correctly when the family broke down the country fell in 1-2 generations in 19 out of 21 cases. The family structure in America once restored is the only way I can see America being restored to its former strength as a country. If we redefine what a family is and society accepts the new definition, we can never recover from that.

[James]

Originally Posted by dvd493

So we are back to the strength of a family again.

Obviously so, a view of the Black Plight is evidence of negative effect of the family unit on the society. Anyone who would argue basically is saying they have no common sense at all or maybe worst. Look at how many are attacking Bill Cosby and his rather common sense talk of late, you only have to ask who and why they are attacking Bill Cosby. May it be the Jackson's or Sharpton's they all are trying to build or keep a power base that circles political power and money, seemingly the plight only aids them in their search.

[healthagent]

And yet when you look at America 100 years ago to where we are now the changes are absolutely astounding. Things have GREATLY improved over the years so much so that you can't even begin to talk about it. So I personally think that 50 years from now thing will be better than today, not worse.

[dvd493]

Families weren't an issue 100 years ago or even 50 years ago. Everyone knew what they were and what they were for. Families didn't start to get redefined until the 1960s with a new type of feminism that said a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle. A saying I find very funny but not true.

If the family as it has been defined for the last few thousand years stays the same way, then yes. In 50 years things will be much better than they are today. If the family is redefined and it is accepted. We will fall as a nation in the next 50 years. I hate to say it but it is easy to project out 50 years based on what weve seen happen over the last 40 years.

Already we have politicians on both sides that can't unite against a common enemy. Something so obviously needed that it shouldn't have to even be spoken but, no deal. If we can't fight the obvious wars, how can we fight social breakdowns when it happens in small subtle ways?

[healthagent]

I think throughout our history we've proven as a nation that we get crap changed that we really want changed. When things really don't matter to the country yet are over-hyped in the media like gay rights then Americans see no call to action needed. But going from slavery and no women's right to two presidential canditates - one black and a women is an insane change in mentality in actually a very short period of time.

Everything basically is going fine just fine which really pisses off the extreme right and extreme left. But all of us in the center are just worried about American Idol which says a lot that people are generally so secure that they really don't have worries. If the far right had it their way 90% of all TV shows would be off the air and gays would be banished to some remote island. If the far left had it their way all prisoners would be released tomorrow morning and they'd all be in education programs. Thank God the center runs this country and they all see the truth - which is everything is basically just fine. Just get the troops home.

This is not to say that people aren't suffering but it's an extremely small percentage. Heaven forbid you actually piss off the "center" of American because that's when crap actually changes. But until the center is pissed the extremists can go on ranting all they want.

[James]

The big lie, the middle leads the Nation. There is no sacred middle, in fact as in all societies you tend to have the rule of thirds. The Nation will follow the strongest third position there is at the time. You go back and do some basic studying all the way back to the Revolutionary War if you want, it in itself was supported by about a third of the Nation. The real factor behind getting people motivated to follow wasn't Jefferson or Adams nor Washington but some young idealist writer we now know as Paine. An extremist for his time but a writer that the people identified with when push came to shove. Abraham Lincoln ideas were on the extreme side that ended up engulfing the nation into war. WWI, an even split of thirds, some wanted to jump in with the Allies others the Axis, and yet another third supported neutrality.

We can come to recent history and even than you can not find this so called middle having any influence. The Space Mission that has lead to so much knowledge and growth of our Nation wasn't all that supported. Many identified to what Pres. Kennedy said about the hard work test the fabric of the society for the good but most didn't support in any real way. The space mission outside of keeping up with the USSR and that was during the Cold War when much was done in the name of propaganda by our Government for that position pushed the Mercury Project. Which in itself was lead by a person, which was one time a Nazi that used slave labor from the German Concentration Camps.

Yet there has been times that populist movements did have effect, which in earnest one can lay at the feet of Theodore Roosevelt, outside of that others tried such as Reagan but only achieve in degrees the success of TR.

[James]

Originally Posted by john_petrowski

And yet when you look at America 100 years ago to where we are now the changes are absolutely astounding. Things have GREATLY improved over the years so much so that you can't even begin to talk about it. So I personally think that 50 years from now thing will be better than today, not worse.

No doubt the standard of living and technology has blossom greatly well lets just say unprecedented historical changes have applied to the last 100 years or even 50 years or for that matter in the last twenty years. Yet it also can not be argued that our freedom as written and our societal structure is under attack.

[healthagent]

To be honest, the recent decision that really got me worried was the supreme court decision to allow localities to sieze property to increase their tax base. To me, nothing is more sacred then owning property and the fact that your county could seize your home and land to make way for a shopping plaza and justify it by stating that it provides much needed tax revenue is beyond insanity. I cannot believe the supreme court allowed that to happen. In the past eminent domain was used for extreme purposes; a new road or dilapidated abandoned properties. This was the first time eminent domain was used for a frick'n shopping center.

Aside from that I see everthing basically chugging along just fine. Does that mean there's not things to fix? Obviously - but things will always need fixing and most of it comes out in the wash.