Posted on 03/11/2005 6:02:26 AM PST by traderrob6
More political extortion from the left: When it's time to pick up supplies for her third-grade classroom, Jennifer Strand would prefer to steer clear of Wal-Mart. [snip]
"Scissors? A little girl in Philadelphia was taken by the police for having the scissors in school that the teacher had listed on the school supply list. Zero tolerance was cited."
Zero-tolerance = zero-thought
LOL! So true!
He responded that he wasn't aware that eating at the Olive Garden was some measure of financial success. I wish he had asked her why the heck she wasn't looking for a job closer to home (especially considering the price of gasoline), or look for a better-paying job anywhere? When she complained about the cost of bread and milk, he should have told her to stop doing her grocery shopping at the 7-Eleven.
Darn, I should be on the radio.
Why does a teachers union have any authority over purchasing school materials with government tax dollars?
If I were on the school board I'd require that the teachers buy items from the lower priced store, and fire teachers that refused to do so.
Tax dollars for schools should be diverted to push for a union's goals.
I know! It takes a while, but I check every tag on every item (unless I've bought it previously, but even then one should check) I buy. I hate the thought of the prison-slaves making all this "stuff" for us capitalist running dogs.
I always get excited when I find "Made in USA" on stuff. The sales people think I'm a wack job sometimes.. oh well.. maybe they are right!
Apology accepted. I admire your business ethics. I agree about President Bush. I hope the Lord continues to give him wisdom to run this country.
Not that it ever has been free, mind you... but point taken.
HungarianGypsy wrote:
"This is a serious question that I would like answered. If we no longer bought things from China who would suffer the most? Those higher up or the slave labor we are trying to protect in the first place? I would really appreciate insight on this, since I have asked it many times with no answer. Thanks!"
I wish I had a black and white way to answer your question.The news from China is very disturbing. They seem to care little for environmental concerns. China is evidently putting alot of its money and resources into its military buildup. They can use North Korea like a hired gun. They may soon move on Taiwan, and a shoving match with Japan has already begun. But the average Chinese person is just like you or I, trying to stay alive and have a little joy in the doing. It sure doesn't seem right to deprive them of a chance for a better life. What a bummer!
If only we could reform the greedy folks, be they commie bureaucrats, or capitalist captains of industry who imagine that their time is worth infinetely more than any person's who works with their hands. And I'm not so naive to think that labor unions are the answer to all the working person's problems.
My answer then is this:
Life requires a balancing of opposing forces, wishes, needs...and we must work to ensure that neither side gains the upper hand permanently. So, while we buy goods made in China, we need to apply increasing pressure against their government to force them to spend less resources on their military and more to raise the standard of living of the Chinese people. They must change their monetary policies, or else...
It's possible, but I think you give parents too much credit for rationality. The kind who send their kids off to school without lunch/lunch money are so utterly self-absorbed that I don't think it makes a whit of difference if a perceptive teacher helps the kid. They'll not notice anyway. Gambling/alcohol/crack/whatever else the parents do will take their undivided attention.
Education degrees are generally recognized as the easiest of all degrees to obtain. Teacher colleges are not really about training people how to teach but about indoctrinating the would be teachers into educational theories that promote collectivism and "feel-goodism".
Richard Mitchell talking about what teacher colleges do to their students:
Incipient schoolteachers --I have known hundreds of them--are generally decent young people of average intelligence. Some are stupid, of course, and some rarer few are brilliant. Almost all of them seem a bit more than ordinarily ethical, and I can't believe that any one of them ever decided to be a teacher for the sake of doing harm. Furthermore, the task of teaching a mind to work well is not a particularly difficult one. Teachers do not have to be brilliant, although they probably shouldn't be stupid. In short, almost all of those who seek to be teachers are quite capable of being good teachers, but something happens to them on the way to the classroom. They fall into bad company. -- The Graves Of Academe
Cross Lucy Ricardo and Karl Marx and you have a pretty good model of many a teacher -- daft and doctrinaire.
Walmart fudges their average hourly wage because they include higher up floor type managers pay into the calculation which brings up the average pay number."
Probably they do, but so does every other corporation, and some of them are much more highly creative at squeezing the numbers upward. The starting wage at our local Wal.mart is over $7/hr which is better than Target and all the grocery chains.
I was only giving MY parents credit for behavior I had observed in them. They both felt that the 'government' owed them something; any money that came their way through what ever source they felt was their just due. If I'd have come home with a new coat, my step-father would have noticed; potential pawn material.
I hadn't thought of that possiblity...
How would you go about severing China's US markets?
If done abruptly the empty shelves in so many stores, not to mention the probable cessation of our exports of raw materials would produce more than a bump for our economy. The backlash from consumers and industry against any such action would be immediate and intense.
What's your plan?
You are too right about some parents being self-absorbed. I had earned $600 for my first year of college (in the 70's state college wasn't out of reach)which my step-father "borrowed". Needless to say, I ran out of money after the first term, went to work full time, went to class full time, and didn't study(I needed to sleep). I managed to pay off my college bills about the time I was suspended for bad grades. My hat is off to anyone who can go to school full time and work full time. I have since learned I could have worked smarter, but when one is 17 one is 'so smart'. Someday I hope to go back and finish, of course, I'll probably be the oldest freshman ever.
.....this tactic gives teachers a bad name.....
And my "self-esteem" is greatly enhanced knowing I look wonderful at a fraction of the cost....LOL
Did you ever wonder what the ziploc bags were for? I could never figure that one out. I sent them in and never saw them again.
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