American Politics 20 - Halloween Edition

[Elrostar]

I think the problem with the 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps' school of thinking is that there's no such thing as a level playing field to begin with. So it requires tremendous chutzpah for people, particularly ones coming from more privileged backgrounds, to suggest that the only true barrier to success is imposed by yourself and that you should just 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps'.

I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with personal responsibility. I'm a great believer in it, but I do believe that opportunities should be made available to everyone. Thus the importance of things like public education, for instance. Which is contrary to the idea of total self-responsibility, obviously.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Elro,

Should College (Bachaloriate Degrees) be available to all on the public dime?

[TrackerNeil]

So, Representative Cao not only retain one soul, despite being born of Satan, but he has, in fact, more than one soul to lose. That's just awesome.

The stupids, they mock themselves better than anyone else can do.

However, they may succeed in driving that seat right back into Democratic hands, which in my view will make the teabaggers far more palatable. I like my enemies self-destructive.

[VarysTheSpider]

Is that wrong because in your mind it's some sort of cynical GOP fig leaf for anti-minority policies, or wrong because you think self responsibility is bad somehow? Self sufficiency seems like an odd thing to find fault with if one believes in any economic freedoms at all. (Or do you mean something else entirely? Not trying to put words in your mouth.)

"All success is down to luck - just ask any loser." :)

[Max the Mostly Mediocre]

Actually, the problem with 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps' is revealed in the metaphor itself. Specifically, it originally meant 'an impossible task'.

[Swordfish]

I'm so surprised that this compromise in the bill hasn't been all over the news. Well, perhaps the Fort Hood tragedy is still in everyone's minds (and probably rightly so), but it just seems like something that is fairly noteworthy.

Why?

Wouldn't abortion, as defined in the bill, fall into the category of an elective procedure?

[Elrostar]

Elro,

Should College (Bachaloriate Degrees) be available to all on the public dime?

I feel like this is a trick question somehow. Like whatever I answer you have a followup question already planned out.

But here goes.

It would be nice if the only barriers to higher education were aptitude and intelligence, certainly. But that's not the same thing as saying that everyone should be able to go to college 'on the public dime'.

The English system is certainly not a bad model in terms of funding of universities. Although they have in recent years introduced tuition fees, the idea was that there would be grants available for people unable to afford the fees. How well this works in practice I don't know, as it's been a while since I was anywhere near the process.

But I wouldn't say that Oxford and Cambridge, UCL or ICL (just to name a few of the ones with higher international profile) are anything other than first-rate institutions, on a world-wide level. And I do speak from personal experience.

In the US it is certainly problematic that the cost of tuition at universities has sky-rocketed in recent years. And that's something I'll be glad to discuss at length. It deserves its own thread, though.