2020 Election Thoughts

[Texsox]

57 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

I am pretty lucky right now, but I know a lot of people who aren't.  I live in a rustbelt town full of people with skills that match last century's job market.

Yet schools should be teaching cursive and how to do your taxes if you follow Facebook posts. 

Preparing young people for careers that haven't been invented yet is an interesting dilemma. 

[Balta1701]

2 hours ago, Texsox said:

Thinking about the next four years is there anything that a Biden administration could do that would impact you directly? Stopping the border wall for example is something I believe is right,  it really doesn't directly impact me. 

For you personally,  what are you hoping for?  

That $10,000 or more student loan relief would be really nice. Other than that,  it's indirect stuff that I believe will make America better,  which makes my life better. 

Support for educational institutions. If they are taking hundreds of millions of dollars in losses, they will be cutting staff, avoiding hires, eliminating teaching positions, and I’m still hunting for one.

[pcq]

22 hours ago, Jose Abreu said:

She needs a time out and detention. Crazy bad girl. 

[The Beast]

1 hour ago, Texsox said:

Thinking about the next four years is there anything that a Biden administration could do that would impact you directly? Stopping the border wall for example is something I believe is right,  it really doesn't directly impact me. 

For you personally,  what are you hoping for?  

That $10,000 or more student loan relief would be really nice. Other than that,  it's indirect stuff that I believe will make America better,  which makes my life better. 

I am hoping to see actual bipartisanship in Washington DC given the congress that we have. That is not likely but it is what I want to see.

I would like to see the ACA get a public option and for infrastructure to be a priority. I also want immigration reform to get done since there’s room to compromise there.

1 hour ago, southsider2k5 said:

I am pretty lucky right now, but I know a lot of people who aren't.  I live in a rustbelt town full of people with skills that match last century's job market.

 

19 minutes ago, Texsox said:

Yet schools should be teaching cursive and how to do your taxes if you follow Facebook posts. 

Preparing young people for careers that haven't been invented yet is an interesting dilemma. 

@southsider2k5 and @Texsox I want to see what ideas each party has about how to address a skills gap that is generational and how each party would address jobs lost from automation. Is it retraining programs for careers in demand like nursing or a trade as opposed to UBI? I’m not sure but the only person who has had much of an idea is Andrew Yang.

59 minutes ago, WhiteSoxFan1993 said:

I don't need anything that impacts me directly. I need policies targeted at drastically reducing poverty, and I'm talking about long-term solutions and not just one-time handouts. Reducing poverty reduces crime, reduces the strain on the health care system, and adds taxpayers to the economy. I'm not sure I want to have kids and raise them in the US if something tangible isn't done about poverty.

I can't go a week without reading a story about a teenager caught with a stolen vehicle. Kids in the worst communities need better schools, teachers, child care/mentoring, and job opportunities for their parents, so that they see paths forward other than stealing cars.

What would be a poverty proposal that could help?

[CentralChamps21]

2 minutes ago, The Beast said:

What would be a poverty proposal that could help?

We need something that fixes the problem long term. In the most impoverished communities, we need resources that care for, educate, and guide kids from birth through high school graduation. Jobs for their parents, child care so they can go to those jobs, world class schools and teachers, mentors who help and guide kids outside of school hours, and some kind of community-law enforcement partnership that keeps bad influences away from kids. Basically everything that kids in Lake Forest, Hinsdale, and Munster get without needing the government to provide it. Create real opportunity for kids to graduate from high school and become productive members of society who don't drain the criminal justice system because they're committing fewer crimes, don't drain the healthcare system because they're not on drugs, and actually contributing money to the government by being taxpaying job holders. It will take a couple generations, but poverty starts to decline dramatically. It's essentially reparations, paid out in a very unsexy way. A second level to this would be to build HBCUs (well, if they're new they're not historical so I guess BCUs) in large cities in states that don't already have them.

In the short term, help reduce drug dependency by offering treatment as an alternative to prison, flood poor neighborhoods with jobs, and provide GED/community college opportunities to adults, but these fixes become too costly in the long term if the ideas above aren't implemented to reduce the number of kids that are becoming a burden as adults.

This really ought to be a much, much higher priority than forgiving student loans, but college grads in their 20s are a demographic that is both liberal and has low voter turnout so pandering will take priority over real solutions.

[Texsox]

@WhiteSoxFan1993 some of what you're asking for can be tied into loan forgiveness.  I received for example $5,000 for teaching 5 years at a Title 1 school.  I believe that program could be improved by offering $1,000 a year beginning the second year and bumping it up regularly so that experienced teachers who remain at those schools would be rewarded.  

You could tie loan forgiveness with volunteering in adult education programs or other programs. 

[The Beast]

40 minutes ago, WhiteSoxFan1993 said:

We need something that fixes the problem long term. In the most impoverished communities, we need resources that care for, educate, and guide kids from birth through high school graduation. Jobs for their parents, child care so they can go to those jobs, world class schools and teachers, mentors who help and guide kids outside of school hours, and some kind of community-law enforcement partnership that keeps bad influences away from kids. Basically everything that kids in Lake Forest, Hinsdale, and Munster get without needing the government to provide it. Create real opportunity for kids to graduate from high school and become productive members of society who don't drain the criminal justice system because they're committing fewer crimes, don't drain the healthcare system because they're not on drugs, and actually contributing money to the government by being taxpaying job holders. It will take a couple generations, but poverty starts to decline dramatically. It's essentially reparations, paid out in a very unsexy way. A second level to this would be to build HBCUs (well, if they're new they're not historical so I guess BCUs) in large cities in states that don't already have them.

In the short term, help reduce drug dependency by offering treatment as an alternative to prison, flood poor neighborhoods with jobs, and provide GED/community college opportunities to adults, but these fixes become too costly in the long term if the ideas above aren't implemented to reduce the number of kids that are becoming a burden as adults.

This really ought to be a much, much higher priority than forgiving student loans, but college grads in their 20s are a demographic that is both liberal and has low voter turnout so pandering will take priority over real solutions.

I like the plan, I just don’t know how much it would cost. A lot of these things would be great in our cities, but if local governments have ignored or neglected poverty in their cities for this long, what would start it now? Have any people in public service talked about this in a serious way before?

[caulfield12]

4 hours ago, southsider2k5 said:

I am pretty lucky right now, but I know a lot of people who aren't.  I live in a rustbelt town full of people with skills that match last century's job market.

https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/11/columbus-drivecapital/

Between Ohio State, Ohio University, Oberlin, Carnegie-Mellon, Case Western, Michigan, PSU...there's at least some hope for the Rust Belt in advances like that, but it's not going to do much for blue collar workers without university degrees or advanced training who have increasingly become redundant ever since the Reagan administration.

[caulfield12]

3 hours ago, Texsox said:

Yet schools should be teaching cursive and how to do your taxes if you follow Facebook posts. 

Preparing young people for careers that haven't been invented yet is an interesting dilemma. 

https://news.yahoo.com/assimilated-china-plan-over-global-113007372.html

 

There's the bleak future unless 1) US STEM education and venture capital keeps up, or 2) the immigration faucets are turned back on to inject more foreign talent into the system to compensate for "native deficiencies" in those areas.

Very simple.   We now know pretty much exactly what China wants to do, but what is our counter?

School during the summertime?  Unions will never go for that, unless pay is 2-3X higher.

Saturday school?

Middle school supplemental/after-school education until 9-10 p.m. (from Sunday through Thursday nights)?

Training centers specializing in tutoring for Maths/Chem/Biology/Comp Sci/Physics, etc.?

Starting education at age 3.

 

 

[caulfield12]

25 minutes ago, Texsox said:

@WhiteSoxFan1993 some of what you're asking for can be tied into loan forgiveness.  I received for example $5,000 for teaching 5 years at a Title 1 school.  I believe that program could be improved by offering $1,000 a year beginning the second year and bumping it up regularly so that experienced teachers who remain at those schools would be rewarded.  

You could tie loan forgiveness with volunteering in adult education programs or other programs. 

Something like 90-95% of those who applied for loan forgiveness over the last decade for doing public interest work (especially teaching) never got the promised benefits because of paperwork/bureaucracy/fine print/red tape/bank and loan consolidation....and it REALLY got bad the last 4 years under DeVos, because her goal was to collect every penny for both the banks and for-profit/online universities.

I did a program similar to Teach for America where I earned a second Master's degree (and certification) while working during the day as a teacher (and getting paid a regular salary at the same time, instead of having to go through one semester of student teaching, which was done over the summer before we started full-time).   They provided a significant discount off the tuition at University of Missouri at Kansas City.

I also did AmeriCorps National Service for two years/terms, so each year, we accrued $4,725 in scholarships (not so practical because the stipend, not pay, was set at the Federal poverty rate back then, around $8,000 per year.)

Edited January 15, 2021 by caulfield12

[CentralChamps21]

29 minutes ago, Texsox said:

@WhiteSoxFan1993 some of what you're asking for can be tied into loan forgiveness.  I received for example $5,000 for teaching 5 years at a Title 1 school.  I believe that program could be improved by offering $1,000 a year beginning the second year and bumping it up regularly so that experienced teachers who remain at those schools would be rewarded.  

You could tie loan forgiveness with volunteering in adult education programs or other programs. 

Yes, loan forgiveness under the umbrella of urban poverty elimination would be great.

 

14 minutes ago, The Beast said:

I like the plan, I just don’t know how much it would cost. A lot of these things would be great in our cities, but if local governments have ignored or neglected poverty in their cities for this long, what would start it now? Have any people in public service talked about this in a serious way before?

The cost would probably be in the trillions. I'm not going to say state and local governments have been blameless in fighting poverty, but the amount of investment needed is far, far above what state and local governments can provide. Get corporate America involved too. When the Democrats roll back the tax breaks Trump gave them, allow them to gain some of it back by being partners in the program.

I haven't seen any elected officials proposing anything at the level I'm suggesting. It doesn't get votes because it takes a generation to see real results and politicians only support things that produce results quickly so they can get re-elected. I'm hoping the COVID relief bills have greased the skids because we've approved $trillion+ packages.

[Texsox]

13 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

https://news.yahoo.com/assimilated-china-plan-over-global-113007372.html

 

There's the bleak future unless 1) US STEM education and venture capital keeps up, or 2) the immigration faucets are turned back on to inject more foreign talent into the system to compensate for "native deficiencies" in those areas.

Very simple.   We now know pretty much exactly what China wants to do, but what is our counter?

School during the summertime?  Unions will never go for that, unless pay is 2-3X higher.

Saturday school?

Middle school supplemental/after-school education until 9-10 p.m. (from Sunday through Thursday nights)?

Training centers specializing in tutoring for Maths/Chem/Biology/Comp Sci/Physics, etc.?

Starting education at age 3.

 

 

That's one of the biggest points I try to make in immigration conversations.  Why are we more worried about minimum wage workers from Central and South America and not notice the high dollar jobs also being taken? 

[caulfield12]

39 minutes ago, Texsox said:

That's one of the biggest points I try to make in immigration conversations.  Why are we more worried about minimum wage workers from Central and South America and not notice the high dollar jobs also being taken? 

The question is how many American workers are 1) willing to work hard enough for degrees in those areas, 2) willing/able to take out loans or can borrow from their families, and, mostly importantly, 3) work 9/9/6 schedule, which basically in China means from 9 a.m. through 9 p.m., Monday through Saturday?   At least 72 hour work weeks...and we're not talking about earning a partnership in a law firm, we're talking about the competition at the bottom and mid levels of a Top 10 worldwide technology company (at least the more "gladiatorial" competition here in China, compared to the US).

We'll see soon enough in Texas.

If schools like UT-Austin, Rice, etc., can produce enough talent to feed into the industry there like you have Stanford, Cal Tech, Berkeley, UCLA, USC, Pomona, Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, UC-Santa Barbara, UC-Davis, UC-San Diego in the UC system as well as a community college system with many or a majority of those students aiming for Silicon Valley jobs upon graduation.

 

[Quin]

5 hours ago, Texsox said:

Thinking about the next four years is there anything that a Biden administration could do that would impact you directly? Stopping the border wall for example is something I believe is right,  it really doesn't directly impact me. 

For you personally,  what are you hoping for?  

That $10,000 or more student loan relief would be really nice. Other than that,  it's indirect stuff that I believe will make America better,  which makes my life better. 

If we're not talking about COVID related stuff, something that would go a LONG way is universal Pre-K. My fiancee and I are aren't yet ready to start a family, but if there was a nationwide system in place when we are, they would be tremendous.

[tray]

Racial intolerance is the new racism.  That supercharged  Trump's political power with loyal support from white supremacists like those who marched in Charlottesville and those who stormed the Capitol.   But racial intolerance is not only found at the fringe. Mainstream Republican ideology dovetails with racial intolerance in many ways - segregation, refusal to acknowledge the impact of generations of slavery, discrimination, unequal policing and justice

There can be no compromise with bigotry and racism. They have to be defeated. That  didn't happen after the Civil War and probably won't happen for several more generations.

So forget the notion that there will ever be unity between Trumpublicans and Democrats. Not gonna happen.

[Big Hurtin]

Is Nancy Faust still with us?

[StrangeSox]

10 hours ago, Quin said:

If we're not talking about COVID related stuff, something that would go a LONG way is universal Pre-K. My fiancee and I are aren't yet ready to start a family, but if there was a nationwide system in place when we are, they would be tremendous.

Biden's child care plan that was just announced is actually pretty strong on this stuff. Tax credits or direct subsidies for pre-K school, and expanded child tax credit too.

We're paying $2500/mo right now for child care for two kids. $30k/year! We're lucky in that we can shoulder that burden, but raising children in this country is incredibly, unnecessarily expensive.

[Kyyle23]

12 hours ago, Texsox said:

That's one of the biggest points I try to make in immigration conversations.  Why are we more worried about minimum wage workers from Central and South America and not notice the high dollar jobs also being taken? 

I believe that the high paid CEOs that are taking huge bonuses and moving jobs out of the country might have something to do with this I dunno

[Kyyle23]

Wow, this thread 

 

[pcq]

Sen Tommy Tupperware lays groundwork to delay inauguration cuz pandemic. 

[Quin]

1 hour ago, Big Hurtin said:

Is Nancy Faust still with us?

@Balta1701 and I will repost this until the end of time.

 

[Quin]

7 minutes ago, pcq said:

Sen Tommy Tupperware lays groundwork to delay inauguration cuz pandemic. 

Tuberville's constitutional knowledge is pretty much nil.

[CentralChamps21]

8 minutes ago, Quin said:

Tuberville's constitutional knowledge is pretty much nil.

I would make a terrible Senator because I couldn't get through a floor speech without mocking him at least a little bit and I'm sure that would get me thrown out.

[pettie4sox]

41 minutes ago, Quin said:

Tuberville's constitutional knowledge is pretty much nil.

And people wonder why snobby elitist blue states make fun of reds states... because they elect idiots like Tuberville...

[chw42]

36 minutes ago, pettie4sox said:

And people wonder why snobby elitist blue states make fun of reds states... because they elect idiots like Tuberville...

Tuberville might actually be more clueless than Trump when he first took office.