Month: January 2017

The Basic Income Is the Worst Response to Automation | RealClearFuture

The future doesn’t come that fast, and we will get a chance to see it coming. The best response is to encourage people to respond to technological progress and to seek out the new jobs that will become available as the old ones fade away.

no matter how sophisticated the system, no matter how advanced our machines seem to be, relative to what we’re used to, somebody still needs to do the work of keeping them running. We need someone to monitor them, maintain them, and regulate them, someone who understands how they work and how they connect to other systems

the basic income, as an economic program, is a plan to lure a large group of people into withdrawing from the economy and living in a state of economic helplessness and stagnation, separate from a technological elite who enjoy wealth and influence

Source: The Basic Income Is the Worst Response to Automation | RealClearFuture

An analysis of 10,000 scientific studies on marijuana concretely supports only three medical benefits — Quartz

  • Helps chronic pain in adults
  • Lessens chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting
  • Relieves some symptoms of multiple sclerosis
  • Worsens respiratory problems, such as chronic bronchitis episodes
  • Motor-vehicle accidents
  • Low birth weight in babies
  • Schizophrenia or other psychoses

Source: An analysis of 10,000 scientific studies on marijuana concretely supports only three medical benefits — Quartz

The Real Crisis in Education | Angels And Superheroes

As we implement new education legislation, I ask that teachers be treated as the experts we are. That we are not just included in the conversation, but that we are leading it. The data demands it, and our children deserve it.

United States’ schools with fewer than 10% of students living in poverty score higher than any country in the world. … Tragically, schools with 75% or higher poverty rates rank lower in reading scores than any country except Mexico.

Couple this with the 2013 data that indicates that a majority (51%) of public school students live in poverty in this country, and we see the true depth of the actual crisis of poverty, and its impact on education.

We are not in an education crisis. We are in a crisis of poverty that is being exacerbated by the school accountability movement and the testing industry.

Source: The Real Crisis in Education | Angels And Superheroes

What So Many People Don’t Get About the U.S. Working Class

The reasons for Trump’s win are obvious, if you know where to look.

Manly dignity is a big deal for working-class men, and they’re not feeling that they have it. … So is breadwinner status: Many still measure masculinity by the size of a paycheck.

Class trumps gender, and it’s driving American politics.

  • Understand That Working Class Means Middle Class, Not Poor
  • Understand Working-Class Resentment of the Poor
  • Understand How Class Divisions Have Translated into Geography
  • If You Want to Connect with White Working-Class Voters, Place Economics at the Center
  • Avoid the Temptation to Write Off Blue-Collar Resentment as Racism

WWC men aren’t interested in working at McDonald’s for $15 per hour instead of $9.50. What they want is what my father-in-law had: steady, stable, full-time jobs that deliver a solid middle-class life to the 75% of Americans who don’t have a college degree.

trade deals are far more expensive than we’ve treated them, because sustained job development and training programs need to be counted as part of their costs

If we don’t take steps to bridge the class culture gap, when Trump proves unable to bring steel back to Youngstown, Ohio, the consequences could turn dangerous.

Source: What So Many People Don’t Get About the U.S. Working Class – by Joan C. Williams