USA IGNORANCE!!

[Skippman]

Our medical technology is making constant leaps and bounds. I recently saw a tech demo where they used a HP Ink Jet printer with a special cartridge filled with biomass to literally print DNA typed replacement organs in 3D. If we don't improve or education system we're going to loose our technological edge because there won't be any new bodies to do the research and development nessicary to keep that edge. We have to start on the ground floor.

[hercules71185]

exactly! We need some more educated people. Not cutting down average people. Because well they are normal. Then again I think our education tactics are wrong. Think of your funnest class aside from gym. Mine was Marine bio. I had a crazy teacher who made my class a lot of fun. I admit I was a pain in school, I learned too fast and got bored more than often. In that class I did good and learned more than any other class. I think to be a teacher you shouldn't just need a BA. You should have some psychology classes and maybe a "teaching" class.
Also instead of cutting school to 10 years like an original idea. Make it longer. Say include the AA with the option to get a BA in High school. Sorry to cut it short, but Kim got home. :-D

[martini161]

I like the tree fungus that was found deep in the rain forests that makes a fuel that is like diesel in almost every way.

lol, it could be absolutley clean but just because its in the rainforest all the tree huggers would make a big stink

[hercules71185]

Yea the crazy tree huggers. They made Honda recall 475 prototype engines. They kept claiming using mice in the engine was inhumane...

[martini161]

Yea the crazy tree huggers. They made Honda recall 475 prototype engines. They kept claiming using mice in the engine was inhumane...

suprised they havent bitched about dog sled teams yet

[bmaverick]

I like the tree fungus that was found deep in the rain forests that makes a fuel that is like diesel in almost every way.

I like a good built wagon with six strong pulling horses that eat hay. Screw all the car companies and big oil.

[Skippman]

Our education system needs a definate overhaul. I don't know that I nessicarially agree that incorporating the Associates Degree is the right way to do it as that would deminish the value of the Associate Degree since everyone would be compelled to get it.

Personally I like Germany's idea the best, followed by Japan.

Paraphrased from Wiki:

In Germany Primary education usually lasts for four years and public schools are not stratified at this stage. In contrast, secondary education includes four types of schools based on a pupil's ability as determined by teacher recommendations: the Gymnasium includes the most gifted children and prepares students for university studies; the Realschule has a broader range of emphasis for intermediary students; the Hauptschule prepares pupils for vocational education, and the Gesamtschule or comprehensive school combines the three approaches.

What this means is that at an early age the children are sent to a school suited to thier particular tallents. People tend to forget that being a mechanic is just as difficult as being a chemist or any other "college" vocation. We need trade schools in America. People who can actually fix things are just as important as people who can create them. Your local computer repair tech is just as useful as the guy who designs the microchips in it. True both jobs take drastically diffrent skill sets but without both, neither is useful.

Trade labor makes up a large portion of the backbone of our economy. Carpenters, electricians, plumbers, laborers, mechanics, etc. Without these critical skills there will be no more houses, no more buildings, no more running cars, etc. Take the car for instance. While rigorous testing in the lab can give you ideas of what the car will do in the real world, ultimately it's up to the mechanics experience to keep it working and to report to the manufacturer any issues they may have overlooked. That's where Techical Service Bullitens come from.

Rather than telling every child he can be whatever he wants to be, why don't we try praising the people who make our lives better? If our children see that we respect our plumber and mechanic maybe they'll want to be one when they grow up.

[Dragon_Cooler]

Honestly, I have always kind of wondered what other countries thought about the american times right now. How is it effecting them? What kind of news are they getting?

Personally, I havent been effected by all this yet..... Its hard for me to see that we are in a recession PERSONALLY. And i know that can be rough to say, but I have a job, make good money, fuel is at an all time low (wont stay like that though, wish it would), I just bought a car, I still buy things. I guess mainly its since I dont own a house or dive into stocks.

[Skippman]

Honestly, I have always kind of wondered what other countries thought about the american times right now. How is it effecting them? What kind of news are they getting?

Personally, I havent been effected by all this yet..... Its hard for me to see that we are in a recession PERSONALLY. And i know that can be rough to say, but I have a job, make good money, fuel is at an all time low (wont stay like that though, wish it would), I just bought a car, I still buy things. I guess mainly its since I dont own a house or dive into stocks.

I see the effects only abstractly as well. I've watched my 401K and IRA's both tank. But I haven't actually lost any money yet as I've not sold the stocks in them. I think I planned smartly for this by investing 1/3 my portfolio in utlities and companies that pay dividends which is all you really can do to hedge against a downtrun in the market. Dividends are almost always paid no matter what the stock price is otherwise they risk devaluating the stock even further.

If you want to see what the rest of the world thinks of it, watch BBC America some night. That's the only time I ever hear news about any of Africa which America seems to completely ignore. By and large most of the worlds pretty poor off with this whole thing. There's no American economy anymore. Hasn't been for over 10 years. We've become so dependent on foreighn manufacturing that any impact there is on our economy ripples over to thiers. If we fall, they fall too as they will no longer have a customer for the goods they produce.

[hercules71185]

I keep taking advantage of it. Every week I buy a stock in a company that is big, but cheap. Vu1 is doing very good. I bought at 40 cents it's now 1.50 I spent 1k on it. Now it's worth a decent amount more. I figured intel would have been a good option last year it kept plummeting so I got rid of it before I lost more than a few percent. lol. BUT, during the time of the crash of DHL I anticipated that UPS and Fedex would jump in value. Being that more companies use UPS for some reason I just used that. It's doing great. Also I used the holidays. November 20th I figured all of the stores already spent their money for stock yet not sold anything till black friday. So I bought Best buy and Target sold them both Dec 9th. Doubled my money.

Skippman,
If we divided our schools. What do you think average parents would think? My kid is good enough to goto that school. Or I want my child in the school of science not labor (example). I'm not sure what it's like where you are. Down here an AA is basically a HS diploma. 60% of our HS graduated with an AA. We have another school that opened up called CALC or Clark's Advanced Learning Center. (oddly it's full of morons, students and teachers)You do graduate with an AA. With no additional college prices.

[Skippman]

Thats part of the problem though Herc. For years we've been teaching our kids lies. That everyone gets to be a winner. That your special and unique and can do anything you put your mind to. And to reinforce this falicy we've promoted kids who do not deserve the advancement. We've dumbed down the education system and tailored the circulum to pass standardized tests, not to improve overall education. Just ask a teacher.

If you want your kid to go to a better school work with them on thier education, send them to tutoring, actually participate in thier development. Entrance to a good school is something that should be earned. We need to teach that reward is equal to effort. We also need to teach to the learning style. Just because you want to be a astronaut doesn't mean you get to BE an astronaut. There are varying levels of intellectual ability just as there are varying levels of physical ability.

On the subject of that, maybe we should try paying a scientist what we pay a pro athalete. People doing cancer research live off grants and it would be surpising to me to find one who can break $100,000 a year in revenue for research that may change all human life while we pay some jerk who can hit a baseball $13 Million.

[hercules71185]

on the subject of that, maybe we should try paying a scientist what we pay a pro athalete. People doing cancer research live off grants and it would be surpising to me to find one who can break $100,000 a year in revenue for research that may change all human life while we pay some jerk who can hit a baseball $13 Million.

Funny you mentioned the 2 things I'm going for now. I'll reply in a bit though. But, yea people can't accept the fact that their child just doesn't have a gift. Aside from that have you ever noticed the fallacy of telling kids they can be anything is typically exaggerated by families that have less than gifted children. I'm not sure why, but I think everyone has seen this. The kid in 5th grade who is struggling to read "see spot" or "duck duck" is convinced they will grow up and be an astronaut. Then ensured by their parents that they don't have to stop there. They can be a Space traveler.

[Alathald]

Bit late chiming in here but I agree with Skipp on the school systems, especially on the way Germany operates their system. My econ teacher actually made a great point the other day (for once) and I thought you guys might get a kick out of it...In America it's all about getting to the top of the ladder or getting as high as your skill set will allow rather than finding something you're good at and sticking with it. What does this mean? It means when someone is good at their job, they go after a promotion and continue to be promoted until they get to a position they just aren't skilled enough to get promoted from. That means that in America, rather than moving down one level and sticking with the job they excel at most people are working a job in which they aren't skilled. Scary thought...

[Skippman]

Alathald I could see that. I may not particularly like my job but I am very good at it. I don't really have any asperations to be anything more than what I am. I make a liveable wage, have time to play with my toys, and have a stable job which is all I ever really wanted.

Climbing the corporate ladder is nothing more than social networking and has very little to do with skill anymore, not that I'm sure it ever did in the past with a few rare exceptions. I think part of the problem is people have been fed this image from TV that you have to have the brand new car, the 4,000 sq ft house, the brand new appliances, a super huge TV, etc. Why plan for tomorrow when you can enjoy today!? Being the son of imigrants (German) gives me a unique perspective I guess in that I don't consider material wealth a goal to achieve. I just want to surround myself with people I care about and share what I have with them. Corney eah?

[hercules71185]

They say money isn't the cure for anything. MAN do I have to disagree a bit. I was living in a low income apartment. Making 8 an hour on my own. I had so much stress from just bills and food. Now that I'm stable and do good I have no stress of that nature. I also don't live anywhere near my standards. My bills are 1/4 my income. Sometimes I feel stressed about small things then remind myself how far I've made it already. Money doesn't buy you everything, but for the ones out there struggling to make enough, for food, and electric. That's stress! I admit stress of running a business or having to actually sell to make money is tough. That is what stress most people can't seem to take. I think it's fun. it's like competition, the thing I strive for.
Now even though I said that. I'm not going to be an Oncologist for the money. Or a baseball player for money. I just want to do something to use my brain and my athleticism.
I think ideally making say 85k a year with 2 people is what people should strive for. It's not too much where you can't do it. At the same time you can have a house, a new car under warranty, and not have to worry about the repo man and the electric.