Superintendent for a Day

[Cramulus]

one of my friends suggested that they'd just make the kids watch VHS tapes of Carl Sagan's Cosmos all day.

Particularly that excellent bit about how we're the first beings with the ability to resist our reptile brain.



My lefty beardo commie roommate said he'd want to teach a day of civics. Not all that presidential election crap, like the electoral college, but how politics actually works on a local level. And how to get involved in the forces which actually change things, not facebook petitions and the like.

[AFK]

A close second for me would be to teach media literacy.  Kids are bombarded by many more messages from many more sources than I was as a kid.  I imagine it could be a bit dizzying for a raging ball of hormones and angst.  I think it's a good idea for kids to understand messaging, to think about what messages mean, what the motivations of the messager are, etc., etc.

[Disco Pickle]

 Creating a cushion of a minimum 2 years wages for emergencies.

It'd be a LONG fucking day.

Yeah, it would, given a mode wage of $19,200/year and an average family size of 3.5 people.   

Too young to have families yet, hopefully, and young enough to still be living at home for a few more years so with parental guidance and a little discipline, they'd get a much better start than they'd otherwise get.

And when they DO have kids, that cushion will evaporate like a snowflake in Tucson, on account of the "found money" rule.

Can't save everyone from themselves, but making the money harder to get your hands on or not worth the loss (putting it in an IRA) would help deter that sort of behavior.

It's an attempt to educate those who are willing to learn, it's not a guarantee of learning, and it's a damn sight better than what is currently taught.

IMO, I think a class of this sort should be mandatory from a year before legal working age until graduation.  

[Cain]

I would teach kids how to fight science with wood.

[Cramulus]

Oh yeah! Media Literacy -- that's definitely something I'd want to include but forgot to mention.

One of my hopes for America's future would be a movement of media literacy and media skepticism. Kids should learn how to watch out for biased framing, evocative language, and other ways you can manipulate a narrative to suggest a certain conclusion. At this point I've got a little twitch that I get when a politican says words like "Freedom" and "patriot" and "founding fathers"... basically, Robert Anton Wilson & Robert Shea usage of the word "fnord".

WATCHING OUT FOR FNORDS 101

it would be impossible to teach in public school though, people would accuse you of partisanship

[Doktor Howl]

 Creating a cushion of a minimum 2 years wages for emergencies.

It'd be a LONG fucking day.

Yeah, it would, given a mode wage of $19,200/year and an average family size of 3.5 people.   

Too young to have families yet, hopefully, and young enough to still be living at home for a few more years so with parental guidance and a little discipline, they'd get a much better start than they'd otherwise get.

And when they DO have kids, that cushion will evaporate like a snowflake in Tucson, on account of the "found money" rule.

Can't save everyone from themselves, but making the money harder to get your hands on or not worth the loss (putting it in an IRA) would help deter that sort of behavior.

It's an attempt to educate those who are willing to learn, it's not a guarantee of learning, and it's a damn sight better than what is currently taught.

IMO, I think a class of this sort should be mandatory from a year before legal working age until graduation.  

So, you're in favor of mandated liberatarian indoctrination?   

[Disco Pickle]

 Creating a cushion of a minimum 2 years wages for emergencies.

It'd be a LONG fucking day.

Yeah, it would, given a mode wage of $19,200/year and an average family size of 3.5 people.   

Too young to have families yet, hopefully, and young enough to still be living at home for a few more years so with parental guidance and a little discipline, they'd get a much better start than they'd otherwise get.

And when they DO have kids, that cushion will evaporate like a snowflake in Tucson, on account of the "found money" rule.

Can't save everyone from themselves, but making the money harder to get your hands on or not worth the loss (putting it in an IRA) would help deter that sort of behavior.

It's an attempt to educate those who are willing to learn, it's not a guarantee of learning, and it's a damn sight better than what is currently taught.

IMO, I think a class of this sort should be mandatory from a year before legal working age until graduation.  

So, you're in favor of mandated liberatarian indoctrination?   

wat?

How could you possibly get that from what I wrote?

So it's libertarian indoctrination to teach people at an early age what money is, what credit is, to save a portion of what they earn, invest for the long term, and to not live beyond their means or screw up their credit?

[Doktor Howl]

 Creating a cushion of a minimum 2 years wages for emergencies.

It'd be a LONG fucking day.

Yeah, it would, given a mode wage of $19,200/year and an average family size of 3.5 people.   

Too young to have families yet, hopefully, and young enough to still be living at home for a few more years so with parental guidance and a little discipline, they'd get a much better start than they'd otherwise get.

And when they DO have kids, that cushion will evaporate like a snowflake in Tucson, on account of the "found money" rule.

Can't save everyone from themselves, but making the money harder to get your hands on or not worth the loss (putting it in an IRA) would help deter that sort of behavior.

It's an attempt to educate those who are willing to learn, it's not a guarantee of learning, and it's a damn sight better than what is currently taught.

IMO, I think a class of this sort should be mandatory from a year before legal working age until graduation.  

So, you're in favor of mandated liberatarian indoctrination?   

wat?

How could you possibly get that from what I wrote?

So it's libertarian indoctrination to teach people at an early age what money is, what credit is, to save a portion of what they earn, invest for the long term, and to not live beyond their means or screw up their credit?

Yep.  You're pushing straight-up Ayn Rand, there.  Everyone knows that if everyone saved like that, our economy would collapse like Susan Brownmiller.

[Disco Pickle]

 Creating a cushion of a minimum 2 years wages for emergencies.

It'd be a LONG fucking day.

Yeah, it would, given a mode wage of $19,200/year and an average family size of 3.5 people.   

Too young to have families yet, hopefully, and young enough to still be living at home for a few more years so with parental guidance and a little discipline, they'd get a much better start than they'd otherwise get.

And when they DO have kids, that cushion will evaporate like a snowflake in Tucson, on account of the "found money" rule.

Can't save everyone from themselves, but making the money harder to get your hands on or not worth the loss (putting it in an IRA) would help deter that sort of behavior.

It's an attempt to educate those who are willing to learn, it's not a guarantee of learning, and it's a damn sight better than what is currently taught.

IMO, I think a class of this sort should be mandatory from a year before legal working age until graduation.  

So, you're in favor of mandated liberatarian indoctrination?   

wat?

How could you possibly get that from what I wrote?

So it's libertarian indoctrination to teach people at an early age what money is, what credit is, to save a portion of what they earn, invest for the long term, and to not live beyond their means or screw up their credit?

Yep.  You're pushing straight-up Ayn Rand, there.  Everyone knows that if everyone saved like that, our economy would collapse like Susan Brownmiller.

Assuming teaching it would mean everyone would do it, and that having a higher national savings rate would be a bad thing.

ok man.

[Doktor Howl]

and that having a higher national savings rate would be a bad thing.

ok man.

Ask the Japanese about that.  They tried it that way, back in the 80s, and learned what happens when people don't spend like mad bastards in a consumerism-driven economy.  Low retail sales = no economy.

I fail to see why this is such a difficult thing to wrap your brain around.

[Payne]

8th or 9th grade.

I'd teach them about how important history is, various 'philosophies of history' and how you cannot trust historians.

[Disco Pickle]

and that having a higher national savings rate would be a bad thing.

ok man.

Ask the Japanese about that.  They tried it that way, back in the 80s, and learned what happens when people don't spend like mad bastards in a consumerism-driven economy.  Low retail sales = no economy.

I fail to see why this is such a difficult thing to wrap your brain around.

That's a major simplification of why Japan crashed that leaves out a lot of the OTHER major reasons the economy crashed, and there was nothing "libertarian" about the Bank of Japan's inflationary monetary policies.

[ETA] and they had moved to a major export driven economy by then, running a large trade surplus, and we were buying their shit like mad soo..  what are you talking about?

[Doktor Howl]

and that having a higher national savings rate would be a bad thing.

ok man.

Ask the Japanese about that.  They tried it that way, back in the 80s, and learned what happens when people don't spend like mad bastards in a consumerism-driven economy.  Low retail sales = no economy.

I fail to see why this is such a difficult thing to wrap your brain around.

That's a major simplification of why Japan crashed that leaves out a lot of the OTHER major reasons the economy crashed, and there was nothing "libertarian" about the Bank of Japan's inflationary monetary policies.

Okay, so tell me how declining retail sales spurs an economy, or even maintains one...Rather than leading to a downward spiral.

I am all ears.

[Disco Pickle]

and that having a higher national savings rate would be a bad thing.

ok man.

Ask the Japanese about that.  They tried it that way, back in the 80s, and learned what happens when people don't spend like mad bastards in a consumerism-driven economy.  Low retail sales = no economy.

I fail to see why this is such a difficult thing to wrap your brain around.

That's a major simplification of why Japan crashed that leaves out a lot of the OTHER major reasons the economy crashed, and there was nothing "libertarian" about the Bank of Japan's inflationary monetary policies.

Okay, so tell me how declining retail sales spurs an economy, or even maintains one...Rather than leading to a downward spiral.

I am all ears.

Their property bubble burst due to loose monetary policy fueling mal-investment and driving up property prices beyond their true value.  Sound familiar?

This meant lower retail sales at home after the recession started, but since they were still a major exporter, we were still buying a lot of their goods over here.

Rather than do what they should have done and pull a Volker on their interest rate to suck in the inflation as quickly as possible to allow a real recovery, they did the same thing we're doing right now, pumping in more money to try and reinflate the bubble.

The biggest difference is that their banks just kept lending money they had little chance of seeing repaid.

[Fredfredly ⊂(◉‿◉)つ]

I would take 4th grade and teach them all about ME, THEIR FUTURE DICTATOR