Essential HL Random Thoughts Thread

[Professor Emeritus]

- most people should not go to university


- most degrees are worthless


- some degrees make people dumber


- encouraging 18 year olds to incur 5/6 figure debt unnecessarily is reckless


- society will improve when this is widely accepted

Finland's students are extremely well educated when they graduate from secondary at 16. They can choose to attend university or trade school, both are free. I think 95% choose to do it and they split pretty evenly between university and trade school.

 

[Professor Emeritus]

Doesn't all socialism start off as "Democratic Socialism"; Activism, workers parties, political election machines, etc.
It's just a matter of time & opportunity when power is centralized enough that there is no turning back from a death spiral of tyranny.

As someone else said, this is a hilarious position when the most anti-socialist forces across the world are clearly showing how prone to concentration of power they are.

What if you advocate for libertarian socialism?

 

[DEAD7]

As someone else said, this is a hilarious position when the most anti-socialist forces across the world are clearly showing how prone to concentration of power they are.

Example?

I'm thinking of concentrations like that in North Korea, Russia, Venezuela* and China where central planners can no longer be removed from office.
What anti-socialist "force" if any would you put into that category?

 

[DEAD7]

Finland's students are extremely well educated when they graduate from secondary at 16. They can choose to attend university or trade school, both are free. I think 95% choose to do it and they split pretty evenly between university and trade school.

My position on education(which largely a debate about college cost) has always been that unless we are discussing reforming k-12 we arent serious, we are just pissing in the wind.
The American focus on higher education is a huge part of the problem with education.
IMO

 

[Professor Emeritus]

Example?

I'm thinking of concentrations like that in North Korea, Russia, Venezuela* and China where central planners can no longer be removed from office.
What anti-socialist "force" if any would you put into that category?

Russia is socialist now?

North Korea and China started with violent wars, so does that fit the pattern of your claim at all? Literally the only example that "fits" is Venezuela, but one example isn't a trend, it's just random. Especially when similar situations exist all over the world with non-socialist leaders from Erdogan to Kagame to al-Sisi.

I was thinking of explicitly right-wing, anti-communist leaders such as Bolsonaro, Orban, Erdogan, Modi, and of course Trump, who are all working in various ways to consolidate power and subvert their owns nations' democratic mandates.

 

[Professor Emeritus]

My position on education(which largely a debate about college cost) has always been that unless we are discussing reforming k-12 we arent serious, we are just pissing in the wind.
The American focus on higher education is a huge part of the problem with education.
IMO

I think it's hilarious to play the two of them off of each other when most of their problems are connected and in an ideal world they'd obviously be working together. Telling K-12 and university to fight over scraps is like telling Black folk and Latinos to ignore the White man and fight each other for the remains.

America isn't "focused" on higher education. America is focused on the military, Wall Street, and corporate profits. K-12 is definitely the deeper root of America's education issues, but both K-12 and higher education as well as trade schools should be getting MORE support across the board, not fighting each other for support.

 

[DEAD7]

I think it's hilarious to play the two of them off of each other when most of their problems are connected and in an ideal world they'd obviously be working together. Telling K-12 and university to fight over scraps is like telling Black folk and Latinos to ignore the White man and fight each other for the remains.

America isn't "focused" on higher education. America is focused on the military, Wall Street, and corporate profits. K-12 is definitely the deeper root of America's education issues, but both K-12 and higher education as well as trade schools should be getting MORE support across the board, not fighting each other for support.

The education conversation in this country focuses on college, specifically student debt* is what i meant.
I(surprisingly) agree with everything you said in this post

 

[DEAD7]

Russia is socialist now?

North Korea and China started with violent wars, so does that fit the pattern of your claim at all? Literally the only example that "fits" is Venezuela, but one example isn't a trend, it's just random. Especially when similar situations exist all over the world with non-socialist leaders from Erdogan to Kagame to al-Sisi.

I was thinking of explicitly right-wing, anti-communist leaders such as Bolsonaro, Orban, Erdogan, Modi, and of course Trump, who are all working in various ways to consolidate power and subvert their owns nations' democratic mandates.

Russia is currently basically a presidential republic with significant socialist legacy... heavy central planning played a part in getting it to where it is now.

Not sure what the war comment is attempting to say... 90% of governments were started from war...
The trend amongst those i listed was a greater emphasis on central planning.
I believe India falls into that too with nationalized banks and industry
My Indian coworkers always claim its one of the least free countries.

 

[Professor Emeritus]

Russia is currently basically a presidential republic with significant socialist legacy... heavy central planning played a part in getting it to where it is now.

Not sure what the war comment is attempting to say... 90% of governments were started from war...
The trend amongst those i listed was a greater emphasis on central planning.
I believe India falls into that too with nationalized banks and industry
My Indian coworkers always claim its one of the least free countries.

I don't think there's much connection between "central planning" and "socialism". Like I said, the current USA and Indian governments are openly anti-socialist, yet they're even bigger on central planning than their supposed "socialist" predecessors. Socialism can run the gamut from libertarian socialism to communism, while pro-capitalists can promote anything from anarchy to corporate oligarchy. To claim that democratic socialism is any more heavily weighted towards central planning than neoliberalism or modern conservatism is unsupported by current events.

 

[Serious]

@DEAD7

I found your utopia....
Skyscrapers — but no sewage system. Meet a city run by private industry

 

[DEAD7]

@DEAD7

I found your utopia....
Skyscrapers — but no sewage system. Meet a city run by private industry

 

[phcitywarrior]

Agreeing with a statement =/= Agreeing with the person who made the statement.

I critique an argument and someone feels I'm personally attacking them. The US is getting very soft.

 

[phcitywarrior]

This dude here drops a lot of gems about the VC business model.

I've watched some of his videos and his one of my favorite tech folks at the moment. Very authentic. I also respect his grind. Dude went from Sri Lankan refugee to where he is now.

 

[satam55]

@DEAD7

 

[DEAD7]

@DEAD7

What an idiot... I have no idea what he was trying to get across.
Kudos to the breh for not dismissing the idea of voting for conservatives and simply stating they arent there to vote for.