Founding Father quote of the day

Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.

Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776

Education and Cappuccino Machines

I believe our public school system is probably the single biggest example of how the government so easily and so massively fails to do anything efficiently or effectively that the private sector could do in its place. Education is an incredibly important institution for the health and prosperity of any society, I think everyone agrees with that. We have seen a massive increase in the amount of money that is being spent per pupil in the US over the past few decades, and yet our avereage test scores are falling. What does this mean? It means that too many people don't understand the real problem. And you can't come up with solutions to a problem you don't understand.

The underlying problem, I think, with the public school system is a complete lack of proper incentives. To start with, schools and school districts don't even have to think about the way they spend money like every other private institution does. In the real world, you have sources of revenue and you have expenditures and the entire endevour of a firm is to make sure that the former is always bigger than the latter. This requires wise investment and allocation of resources. When firms malinvest, they either learn extrmemly quickly from their mistakes, or they die. When schools malinvest, they just whine and beg for more until somebody raises taxes. And malinvest they do. Just go to your local public school, walk up and down the halls and make a list of everything that seems unecessary- it might surprise you. If you get real lucky, you may even see an unused cappuccino machine. See this article for more.

Schools and school districts are simply alloted a budget and attack it like a wild dog being thrown some stray meat. They don't worry about making sure they are getting any type of a return and so they aren't incentivized to allocate their funds with the uttmost efficicency. Why would they even consider trying to spend less then their budget? But money is the problem, right? Schools are so poor they just need the funds to turn themselves around, right? Wrong. It is a fact that money spent on pupils and test scores of pupils are NOT correlated in this country. Go look up New York, Chicago, or Miami if you don't believe me.

Now, let's talk about teachers. Who would ever want to work for an institution that only rewards longevity and ignores performance? This is the 21st Century, for goodness sake. The days of firm loyalty by workers who stay with one firm their entire lives are long gone. As a student, did I ever rate a teacher based on how many years he/she worked? Never! I rated teachers based on competance, ability to teach, their passion for the subject, etc... If we want great teachers, we have to incentivize them properly. Having great teachers is not a matter of pumping more money into a flawed system, it is a matter of re-allocating the current money to the great teachers. Crazy! I know!

Finally, let's talk about students. The public school system is failing them tremendously by creating a psuedoreality that makes them belive that effort is the only thing that matters and that they are all equal and all special. No real world works like that. We are lying to our children and dilluting them if that is what we teach them. And studies have shown that the emerging generation is meeting considerable friction in the work force as they have to quickly learn that results are what matters, and people aren't equal- some poeple are going to outperform others. So whats happening? Our schools are wasting money promoting agendas that cripple students. Yikes.

I think it is extremely clear that the problem with our current school system has nothing to do with a lack of money. In my perfect world, it would be great to severe the tie between the government and the education system once and for all and let the private industry do what it does so well. In my perfect world, there still be room for government to subsidize private education, making it accessible to everyone. I know my perfect world may never exist, but can you imagine how much diffferent a school would operate if it knew that any unhappy parent could easily take their kids (and their money) to a competing school? Maybe they would rethink those cappuccino machines...

What do you think?

Murder and the Sanctity of Life

I find it interesting that of all the reasons our founding fathers had to defend their dissension from the motherland, they started with the most basic of all rights: the right to live. It seems almost odd, considering that before the rebellion their lives weren't really at jeopardy. I think, perhaps, for the first time in a very long time our founding fathers came to the knowledge that there is something uniquely special simply about being alive, and that life itself qualifies one for certain, unalienable rights.

It is because we esteem life itself with such sanctity that we have decided that their need be no other qualification or requirement for an individual to have access to the privileges and and insurances of the Bill of Rights, or for that matter, all other civil laws that have come out those rights. It is then a testament to our founding fathers that the war they fought really wasn't about themselves, for they were willing to lay down their lives for the sake of ours.

So what is so special about life? Why have we fought so hard to provide equality to all men, no matter their race, gender, religion or any other distinguishing feature that may define them? Perhaps it is only in the loss of life that we truly come to appreciate its immeasurable value. One thing is certain: life is special. It creates meaning and purpose. It turns chaos into order. It allows for emotion and experience. It is the catalyst to all knowledge.

Here is my question: how can we, as a society, truly value the sanctity of life without also showing equal reverence and respect for the process that creates life? The answer is irrefutably and absolutely we can't. This blatant and gross contradiction is so glaring and obvious that it kills me to watch our society deny it. We have literally taken the miracle of procreation and have dragged it through the filthiest, most desecrating sewage thinkable. We trample it and reduce it to little more than instant gratification. How humiliating this must be to the men and women who gave uo everything to preserve the sanctity of life.

Perhaps the most foul and evil forms of this perversion is abortion. To deny any being the right to live is to destroy the very cause for which our founding fathers fought. I absolutely hate (and I don't say that lightly) the phrase "pro-choice." When discussing abortion, there should be no talk of any kind about choices or the right to choose. Abortion has absolutely nothing to do with choice. The choice was already made. Abortion has to do with consequences and the sanctity of life.

Equally frustrating is the discussion on the beginning of life. Why does this matter? If life is so special and important, then it shouldn't matter when it scientifically begins, what should matter is the process that makes it possible. To debate over the biological formation of a fetus completely skips the more important questions: why have we allowed the desecration of procreation to reach a point where such debate should ever be necessary? Why should there ever be any desire for any life to be terminated due to pure selfishness? How could this ever be acceptable?

Abortion for any reason other than rape, incest, or severe health risks to the mother or child, is pure, unadulterated murder. There is no logical way to distinguish the effects of killing a human being before or after birth. A life is the lost either way. The unfulfilled potential of either human being will never be known in this life. Each loss is equally tragic. Somehow, just because the fetus couldn't talk yet, or walk, or be seen or held, that makes it different? Of course not. I am convinced that we have to value the sanctity of life (and the miracle that makes it possible) more than this if we are to avoid the devastation that has come to so many societies before us.

What do you think?

Fouding Father quote of the day

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

The Decleration of Independance, July 4, 1776