re: Reason article on luxury goods and class: don't mind the gap

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Are you no longer a communist Ralph?

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I have never been a communist.

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Because some rights are universal and granted by our Creator.

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God created our right to health insurance? Is that in the Torah? I can't find it in the New Testament.

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We also believe that public funding of education especially K to 12 should be equal. A kid in the poorest part of the town should have the same educational opportunities as a kid in the richest part of town.

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I wish that was true. It isn't. Socialists believe in teacher's unions to the exact detriment of the goal you claim

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I wish that was true. It isn't. Socialists believe in teacher's unions to the exact detriment of the goal you claim

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Bingo.

Ralph may want to see change, but his own party is the biggest political force fight against real reform. There is a disconnect between liberals like him and the progressive nut jobs that took over the Democratic Party (especially on the local level). He may not have figured that out yet but it is clear as day to the rest of us.

Years of having to deal with a disfunctional public school system taught me that throwing money at urban public schools without major reform will achieve nothing. What works in a posh suburb isn't going to cut it in places like north Baton Rouge, Memphis, Birmingham, St Louis, etc.

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Freedom of religion, right to trial by jury, the right of free speech and the right to health care are all universal rights of humans.

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That's an interesting list. At face value, it's a good one. If you mean it to actually say "right to have the cutting edge of healthcare treatment at no cost and with no regard to price at the expense of other citizens" I would be curious to hear why you think it belongs in a list with the other three items.

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I listened to a podcast recently with Jordan Peterson and some sociology professor, and they were discussing the fact that relative poverty and not absolute poverty play a very big part in crime and other dysfunctional behaviors associated with poverty. I can't remember all of the details, but the gist was that when people, especially young men, perceive that they can't move up their "dominance hierarchy", that will manifest itself in behaviors that work to undermine that hierarchy. And these behaviors are less pronounced in smaller communities of similar status. They used Chicago ghetto vs Appalachia as examples of high and low relative poverty. Of course, there are other factors in that, but relative poverty was a major contributor.

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I know

this is just an example of why "forced diversity" is a fool's errand. poor people do not gain the cultural values of the rich via osmosis, and instead this creates all sorts of problems. the most absurd example is all the whining about gentrification, which shows how vapid and worthless this belief system actually is

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My biggest point of class envy is the ability to afford to have multiple children in daycare at the same time.

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that's actually interesting b/c that's only a middle class issue

those above and below you don't have that issue

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The thinking that throwing money at a problem can solve it is a liberal fallacy.

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Like our military spending and Republicans?

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Like our military spending and Republicans?

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pretty much the same thing, especially in this era of sectarian/insurgent conflicts