Two eager readers provide a serendipitous juxtaposition of articles on handouts.
A Republican friend sends me Matt Bruenig’s “Case Against Free College” from the New Republic. Supposing and moralizing, Bruenig contends that subsidizing college education the way we offer free K-12 education would (a) unfairly benefit the rich, since a higher proportion of rich kids go to college than poor kids and (b) unjustly “valorize” college students and burden non-college-goers. Bruenig ignores the fact that other countries make university education free, find ways to offer extra help to low-income students, and achieve greater equality of educational opportunity. (Note: Senator Bernie Sanders would pay for his free-college plan with a tax on big financial institutions.)
Coincidentally, within four hours, a Democratic friend sends me Roberto A. Ferdman’s Wonkblog article on the impacts of free money on children. Ferdman looks at data from an ongoing study launched twenty years ago on the personalities of 1,420 low-income North Carolina children:
Four years into The Great Smoky Mountains Study of Youth, the families of roughly a quarter of the children saw a dramatic and unexpected increase in annual income. They were members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and a casino had just been built on the reservation. From that point on every tribal citizen earned a share of the profits, meaning about an extra $4,000 a year per capita [Roberto A. Ferdman, “The Remarkable Thing That Happens to Poor Kids When You Give Their Parents a Little Money,” Washington Post: Wonkblog, 2015.10.08].
What happened?
Not only did the extra income appear to lower the instance of behavioral and emotional disorders among the children, but, perhaps even more important, it also boosted two key personality traits that tend to go hand in hand with long-term positive life outcomes.
The first is conscientiousness. People who lack it tend to lie, break rules and have trouble paying attention. The second is agreeableness, which leads to a comfort around people and aptness for teamwork. And both are strongly correlated with various forms of later life success and happiness [Ferdman, 2015.10.08].
My Republican friend sends me an article focused on an abstract moral argument against throwing money at young people. My Democratic friend sends me an article based on scientific research showing the real results of throwing money at even younger people: better mental health outcomes. Let’s see if we get a similar contrast in what the Democratic Presidential candidates offer us in their debate tomorrow night from what the Republican field has offered so far.
Mr. Breunig … Why do more kids from wealthy parents go to college? (low hanging fruit)
I’ve been reading “Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis” by Robert Putnam. He researched household income and the class divide and its effect on families, parenting, education and communities.
We have the wealth and the ability in this country to solve a lot of problems, but we simply refuse to tax the people who accumulate wealth, mainly because the oligarchs now run the government.
Ah, yes, follow that pesky data, that pesky scientifically placed data . . . unless, of course, one is in the oligarchy who’s soul mission is protecting the status quo against all interlopers, reformers, and public-spirited servants.
Two clips offered this morning as further evidence of oligarchic governments protecting turf. The first from the workers-paradise, North Dakota. They can kill more American workers than can ISIS. It may just be a matter of time before their fouling of the water ends up in Oahe’s fish and Pierre’s drinking water. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/10/12/why-john-oliver-is-really-mad-at-north-dakota-video/
The second, is California, is by way of the world’s first self-made woman billionaire who developed blood and medical tests empowering patients and disrupting the “I got a secret” medical establishment. For the time being her “lab” is Arizona? Arizona-the papers please state, of all places. Imagine the entrepreneurship that the SD legislature could unleash here if they would only adopt the regulatory scheme as did Arizona. But the usual suspects: Sanford, Avera, Daugaard, et. al will never allow it – once again making SD the 50 state state in another category. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2015/10/12/this-is-what-i-was-put-on-earth-to-do-elizabeth-holmes-and-the-importance-of-passion/
Robert Putnam is a marvelous researcher and story teller about children.
It’s no surprise that when one’s life is a series of desperate struggles, communal niceties suffer. Another pesky scientific fact is that adults who are focused on subsistence survival lose measurable IQ points.
I don’t remember who used the term “Lives of quiet desperation,” but such lives take a great toll on human beings. Free education, including college, can relieve a significant part of that desperation.
Henry David Thoreau,Ms Deb> I Googled it.
Thank you, Mr. Mike.
“Lives of quiet desperation”—isn’t the social contract meant to keep people from living in such a state?
Yes, I believe so Cory. However, Koch/Republicans like to keep folks in that state. Desperate, law-abiding people will accept the worst conditions and lousiest pay to keep their children from starving.
Quiet Desperation is good for bidness, doncha know!
Deb, you make an excellent point – those with the least are not going to challenge the status quo for fear of losing what little they have.
As Eric Hoffer argued in “The True Believer,” “Where people toil from sunrise to sunset for a bare living, they nurse no grievances and dream no dreams.” Instead, they “are completely absorbed by the problem of hunger and cold.” Ibid at 28, citing Angelica Balabanoff’s “My Life as a Rebel.”
Deb,the Mr is making me sick. Can I assume the same for your Ms? ‘Cept I don’t get violently ill.:)
Sorry. I will henceforth avoid the “Mr.” with all possible diligence. On the other hand, I don’t mind the “Ms.” If it was the abhorrent “Miss”, that would be an entirely different story.
Very kind of you to ask sir (?).
Oh,Canada is a socialist country. Gawd save the Queen. I don’t mind Mr all that much. In fact I don’t mind at all. I’m incorrigibler.