How Our State Should Change: Problems with the Current State of Our Union: Taxation and Education

Where We Stand Today

Statism, Taxation and Education

A theme that seems to be taken for granted in America today is that we supposedly all want the same things. The essential idea that many people hold here is that the majority of the United States population has common interests; therefore, taxation is effective because it expresses the will of the majority. This is a Utopian (or perhaps fascistic) aspiration for society that has not yet been achieved. First, we must take into account how the poor, middle, and elite classes are extended the opportunity to get educated. Second, we must address what the different WE's want to do with tax dollars in our local communities, states and countries.

The opportunity to become a taxpaying citizen is not equally distributed in any society. Yes, Horatio Alger’s stories are moving, but there are Mexican day laborers who work harder than most Americans and make less than minimum wage. This makes the opportunity to pay for one's own healthcare very difficult. It appears once we make some coin, WE don't want to share revenue with others in the form of taxes for Education and Healthcare....well, fine. Create a fool proof system that guarantees everyone is contributing to the economic pie, and then pay for these essential needs. I am certain this will involve taking away some freedom of choice and liberty; all you have to do is look towards practical, real life examples of communism or fascism in the 20th century to understand this fact.

Often there exists a class of people (generally the ones with the power and wealth) that don't want to allow others to become well educated. This class often ends up keeping all the wealth and opportunities to themselves.

You will have a fight on your hands.

What will you do with that group, their political influence, and the power behind their wealth?

Education in many forms is necessary in order to compete for wealth creation opportunities. Unfortunately, when one becomes wealthy it is natural to become headstrong, conservative, protective, and over confident about how they created personal wealth.

Men kept women from education and wealth creation opportunities, Whites did this to Minorities and Jews, and the Upper class has done it to the lower classes since the beginning of time, and everyone has exercised their supposed inherent authority over youth in some manner or another.

Can we uncover this practice today? You have to dig deep into the legal framework of most societies to uncover institutionalized systemic practices that deny opportunities to others. Overt discrimination is no longer acceptable. Most developed societies can cover up systems that deny opportunity to groups with propaganda and anger over issues like illegal immigration. It is common to scapegoat a group and cover up the real truth. The wealthy can use their wealth to steer contracts and business opportunities in their direction and better educate their offspring to perpetuate a closed system. Often these people know exactly what they are doing, but the offspring have no clue until it is too late. Well...knowledge is power, and it is never too late to share.

Are we sharing with lazy people who are not contributing to the economic pie? This seems to be the dilemma we have with ourselves over issues like Healthcare. To calm the poorly informed citizenry, academics should get out of their Ivory Towers perhaps they can uncover who is contributing and who is undeserving of Healthcare from tax dollars.

The practice of financial aid is a perfect example of a way to reverse the continuation of a systemic practice that allows the wealthy to keep more of the wealth in the hands of a few families, as is affirmative action. While affirmative action may irritate some minority geniuses and conservative thinkers, it will produce people who can be voices for the problems in the system, i.e. a voice for the lack of opportunity in the system from education to job creation and in the work force. Financial aid gives opportunities to the less fortunate in education and brings fresh eyes into a system that has previously excluded them. It is not just about tax dollars, healthcare and education, but it is a fresh perspective on various unresolved issues.

Taxation originated as a process whereby the government would step in and redistribute money from the rich to the poor, as well as collecting a communal pot that could be used towards fulfilling societal desires. However, this money can get tied up or redirected by clever politicians and business leaders, and never fulfill its intended purpose: to create more opportunity for all citizens.

At some point back in history someone created the foundation that allows a family’s wealth to be created; this foundation may have been legal or illegal (whether it is via the free market and trade, slavery, or warfare). Once established their process of building wealth can be considered legitimate by the government for many years and generations. With this historical framework in mind, to take a snapshot today of and create policy that will affect future generations is irresponsible. It is not impossible to find many people from lower incomes with 4.0 GPA's, who have worked harder in school but will only make half as much at their job as you or I will someday.

Please feel free to comment below, but remember to be thoughtful and respectful.

(Because getting two points on a 10th grade extra credit blog assignment simply isn’t worth anyone’s time if you aren’t willing to sit down for a while, and think.)

MARS is creeping closer to earth in January

Mars will be easily viewable at the end of the month, the appearance of a reddish- orange planet will be seen my many of the people living on planet earth at the end of January. The last time Mars was visible was two years ago and now it is approaching very soon. Mars will be shadowing the path of the sun, rising and setting.

Good thing that Galileo discovered that the earth rotated around the sun and that the sun was the center of the universe because now scientist can discover interesting things that are happening and the rest of the earth can see. Without Galileo's discovery the world and its universe would be very out of whack and no one would be able to understand why things like being able to see Mars is possible. Also the telescope was a scientific tool used to discover the universe's unique characters and facts and how everything came about. The telescope is used in todays world very much and many people own one to view special times to see other planets that are in our universe. Thanks to Galileo and proving the universe is heliocentric!

http://www.theday.com/article/20100103/ENT07/301039960/-1/ENT

The Worlds Tallest Tower in Dubai

Move over Empire State Building, the World has a new tallest building, The Burj in Dubai. The Burj is 131 meters taller than the Empire State Building. This is a great achievement for Dubai and will attract many people just like the Empire State Building did and still does.

The Burj building costed an estimated 20 billion dollars of the Dubai's economy and about four years to complete the tallest man made building in the world. This Building is connected to the industrial revolution because without the Industrial Revolution the materials like steel and concrete would not be present in mass produce needed to finish the massive building. Although it was a man made building there were machine and tools used to create the very large structure. The Industrial Revolution has a huge effect on every building built in todays world and the technology keeps reaching higher advancements. So thanks to the revolutions buildings like the one in Dubai can be built today and keep reaching higher and higher structures. The speed of theses building being built is increasing along with the sizes, this is shows me how the Industrial Revolution had such a huge effect on everything that is manufactured and everything that is built. It is understandable how fast the building went up because the advancement to technology keeps getting much better.

http://www.3news.co.nz/Dubai-mega-tower-last-hurrah-to-age-of-excess-/tabid/417/articleID/132407/Default.aspx

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/07_02/WorldsTallestDM_468x525.jpg

The Cove

This is sort of random. But I just wanted to tell everyone about a movie I just saw. It is extremely interesting and I think it is something everyone should try to see. It is a very true documentary on the slaughtering of dolphins in Japan. It talks about a small town called Taiji with a big secret. Taiji has hidden coves where they lure dolphins everyday. They then kill those dolphins or sell them to aquariums or Seaworlds across the world. It changed my view on animals and fishing. It is mind boggling that they kill so many dolphins everyday. People are not allowed to take pictures or even enter these secret coves. They are kept completely secret. The only people that know about this problem are the fisherman, the government, and the police. The fisherman don't even understand what they are doing. They have been told that they need to kill the dolphins because the dolphins are eating all the fish. Japan's ruthless killing used to be a problem with whales and people were able to stop that. If we spread word of this we can stop the slaughter of dolphins forever. Please try to watch the movie or atleast look at the website. This is a big problem that needs to stopped.

This is the link to its website. Here

You can also go here to help stop the killing. Here

Napoleon, the conquerer not the pastry

Napoleon Bonaparte was a military and political leader of France in the 1800's. He was a military genius and a brilliant politician that help to shape European politics. In the first decade of the 19th Century, The French Empire under Nepoleon, engaged in a series of wars against every European power. It was only his defeat in Russia, where he lost 600,000 men, that stopped him from dominating Europe. What would the world be like now if he would have defeated the Russians. Would France be the France of today?

Population explosion

During the 1800's, the industrial revolution saw the advancement of both the railroad and the steam ship. Both inventions lead to exploration and settlement, thus leading to a population growth. Advanced transportation allowed people to travel further distances and discover new lands for settlements. The mass transportation also allowed for the movement of goods such as food, building materials and machinery. During this same time, there were great advancements in medicine and vaccines. What played a bigger part in the population growth, advancement in transportation or medicine.

Why take a test?

Tests are extremely beneficial...for teachers. It is a perfect way for a teacher to see how much a student has learned and how much information they have retained. Luckily, the tests we take at Menlo are less about seeing how many facts we retain and more about using our knowledge of subjects to make connections and come to conclusions and in my opinion, this is what tests should be about. Unfortunately, because classes involve so much factual reading, often, 50% of tests test your ability to answer multiple choice or write as much as we remember about a certain passage.

There is very little to be learned from taking a test. In fact, the point is not to learn from the test because the test is to see how much YOU have learned. However, what can be learned is common themes and how difficult certain teachers tend to make tests. Many teachers tell you what the structure is but for those who don't, you can learn what to expect on future tests from taking the first one.

In conclusion, tests are helpful depending on what exactly is tested but often lack important questions that test your ability to think.

Why take a test: Final Exam

I don't know why schools give students finals. It isn't fair that we have to take a test that covers everything from the beginning of the year through half way through the year. It is nearly impossible to remember every single topic, so students stress out and have to study a ton. It is pretty much like teaching a whole semester in just one week, and for most students this is really overwhelming.  Not only do we have to worry about one class, but we have to worry about every single one. On top of a week packed with finals, teachers always throw in that five page research paper, that chemistry test, and that “Quest”. We are only left with the extended class periods to study for the finals, and that is just not enough time! What is the point of doing this? What are we going to gain out of this? I say that we gain nothing, and that teachers should consider taking finals out of our lives.

Taking Finals out of our lives would benefit the student in many ways. First, we would actually look forward to school in the last couple of weeks of the semester. This means that we can just have a regular schedule and be stress free. We would also not risk that grade that we worked so hard for over the course of the year during just one test.

I'm sure that teachers can find a better way to end the year. Instead of a hectic week, why not make it a fun week. We can have projects like the end of the year. Students get a lot more exited about this type of stuff because it is hands on. Or we could have finals, but just be reasonable on the assignments the week before. We could also have them spread out in a better way. Instead of having two a day, why not have one per day, and just have the entire week before be dedicated to just studying.

Extra Credit Test Blog

Tests are horrible. They are made in order to evaluate a student based upon the results of other people at your school or even compared with the other kids around the country. This is a very poor way of testing someone's knowledge, as there are so many factors that can affect how someone does on a test. Many of the factors are based upon the student, yet many times the teacher can affect the test in a way that screws over the person who takes the test. A student may have had a long night, and may not be thinking straight because of all of the other things on his/her mind. With so many classes, students can only retain so much information, which forces students to work until they are dead tired, which rarely allows you to get enough sleep and think straight. Tests force the students to do well, which puts the emphasis off of learning. The joy of learning is lost from the students, and there is only pressure to compete and do better than your peers. Tests are horrible as they take away from the joy of school, and cause bitter rivalries as to who did better on different assessments.

Extra Credit Blog

xtra Credit Blog: Why take a test? What is the purpose of a test? How do you study? Can you learn something during a test?

Personally I despise test. They are the worst invention. I would rather have projects. Yeah taking test do test what you learned and your ability of remembering what we did during the unit, but couldn't we be tested by a project and hitting key points of the unit your project?. studying for history is a little bit difficult because there is so much to study since we cover so much information. I sometimes study too broadly and not deep enough and then i get to a few of the multiple choice questions and i am screwed. I like when you give us what to study like the prompts and other things we will need to know for the test. I do not really believe you can learn things during a test but reviewing for test is where i learn the most. Tests are Test and every class has them