Previously on Sirius Thought.…
I am passing along John Stossel’s special “Bailouts and Bull“(full segments here , you might have to dig after a week), ran during the 20/20 block on ABC. For years John has been the only member of the mainstream media to tackle lousy government policy, expose porkulus spending, and support libertarian ideas, and promotes free market capitalism. His weekly 10 minute segment on 20/20, “Gimmie a Break” is probably the best reporting on TV each week it airs. It’s a miracle his bosses at ABC haven’t fired him years ago, but my guess is they value his dedication to real journalism, and he brings in quite a bit of viewership. Every once in a while he will get his own hour-long special, which are always fun to watch.
Milton Friedman once said of John “Stossel is that rare creature, a TV commentator who understands economics, in all its subtlety.”
Good enough for ya? lets continue..(and now the conclusion)
**PartIII**
Obama and friends and many Americans want the government to nationalize pre-k. This is crazy; we all know that the pre-k sector is highly competitive. It is big business, and it should be that way. Parents that want to make sure their small children are in good hands. They want to know that their child is learning to play and learning to socialize, and the competition in the marketplace, provides various programs and unique ideas for accomplishing these goals. Mind you the cheap places are overrated babysitters, and some parents think there is nothing better for their child then their own time and attention. The bottom line is that privately controlled and funded Pre-K provides choice. Choice for parents on how to teach their children, when or if they need to be away from them for work. The liberals will argue that this is an equity issue, that not all parents can afford decent pre-k schooling, not everyone can send their kids to expensive schools. Universal Pre-K will allow all children to enjoy the benefits of early schooling. I call bull; U.P.K. will ensure that all children get poor schooling, that the government will force you to be away from your children, that they can start indoctrinating them even sooner in life. Public schools K-12 are already poorly managed. People say public schools need more money and they will get better, that is bullshit, the government has spent more and more money year after year and the schools are still crumbling. It isn’t a money issue it’s a management issue, teachers unions, no competition between schools, fixed curriculums and a lack of creativity are some of the factors leading to the poor public school system. And now the Dems want your kids in the system earlier.
“The government is providing K-12 education. and unfortunately, we’re in the toilet,” “to say that they are the ones to define what quality is, is laughable.” says Mia Levi a parent, and owner of 6 pre-schools. She realizes the truth that without choice and without competition quality degrades. She knows running 6 daycares that if her services aren’t exceeding expectations then parents will take their children elsewhere. If you are a parent I urge you to fight this with everything you have. It might seem like the easy way out, but in the end you are just damaging your child’s development. You are the best thing for your child, and to take away your choice means the government raises your child.
That is all I have to say about that for now, I could go on and on and on.
Next topic, I’ll keep brief. John tackles the bull about the need for a wall preventing immigrants from entering the country.
Those that want a wall along the border are not seeing the whole picture; they do not understand the complexities involved. For one they don’t understand the benefits of a mobile workforce between 2 countries. To say this bluntly, the Mexicans are willing to do jobs Americans won’t do, and they will do it for less money, because they are better off doing that, then staying in Mexico. The bottom line is that people will do whatever they can to get in, wall or no wall, because America provides opportunities they do not have. This isn’t about taking jerbs, on the surface that is what it seems, but everybody fails to realize that in a generation these migrant workers will be in a position to create jobs. America is a nation of immigrants, every single last one of them, and same for Canada, you are all related to someone that came here from Europe or Asia (I’m looking at you ‘Native Americans’!) We are all leaves on a family tree, whom at its roots reside people that came here with nothing or next to nothing, and built themselves a society we are all proud of, 2 of the largest economies in the world, and the cultural envy of many.
Getting back to the topic, what we need isn’t a wall; we need to make it easier for hard working people to legally immigrate. I don’t like lazy immigrants, in my opinion anyone not worth their weight in gold should be shipped back wherever they come from, but people that will work hard, pay taxes and contribute to society are all right in my books. My ancestors came from Ireland and Scotland and who knows where else, and made a life for themselves, a series of lives which ended up with me. I have no right denying that experience to anyone else that wishes to work hard. Some people with regards to the wall want to play the security card, but the fences and barriers up now are easily penetrated, spending millions on a wall will not accomplish anything. The 9/11 terrorists came into the country with tourist visas and some lived in the country for years before they did what they did. A few horrible exceptions shouldn’t be a reason to prevent any honest law abiding citizen from staying in our countries.
Lastly, John showcases a movement that seeks to degrade the idea of the American Dream. These people want to tell you that, in America (and I’m certain the argument can be said about Canada as well) a hard working person cannot make it anymore. That the system is designed to help the rich at the expense of the poor. Besides the million things wrong with all of that, I’ll focus on one. And that is that the system is not against anybody. If you are too lazy or unwilling to let it work for you, then you will fail. The brave gentleman in the special, set out to prove these people wrong. He hid the fact that he was college educated. Moved to a random town with 25 bucks, picked up low paying low skill jobs, and managed to rent a decent apartment and buy a truck, within a year or so. How many countries in the world can the poor do such a thing? Only the developed ones, only with countries that allow for easy labour mobility. These people claim there is an assault on the middle class, that people are getting poorer and poorer, as the rich get richer. These are pure lies; the middle class has seen more than doubling of real income in the past 60 years. Case closed.
For more detail visit the write-ups at abcnews.com or watch the videos. Those were my comments, I hope they were insightful. I’ll be back with more Sirius Thought some other day, for now, please take care.