Is this the way that we can save the World?

[nomadpete]

The core issue to advancing civilisation / society is clearly education. I'm not championing tertiary education for everybody. It didn't open the ABot mind (Nev).

Every type of 'employment' requires some level of education and some self discipline.

But, of even higher importance than the 3 R's, is teaching REASONING. That's the skill needed to separate wheat from chaff and is the antidote to the current misinformation plague.

[nomadpete]

I'm a little miffed to hear that it's improper to tar the well educated ATSI people with the same bad brush as their larger numbers of 'sit down' brothers.

 

On reflection, that implies that we must only apply the good brush (that applies only to the Tryer's who have done the hard yards to get educated and employed), to all the others who haven't pulled themselves up from the mire. Such comparison diminishes the hard work that has been done by the successful ones.

 

I totally agree that compulsory (secular) basic  education should be applied to all people, regardless of ethnicity, culture, wealth or skin pigment.

But we have created division in our society by creating different laws for different demographic groups.

 

 

As for the idea that a base living allowance be paid to all, how then do you intend to motivate everyone to contribute to society  (do work)?

Most won't.

Edited November 30, 2020 by nomadpete

[old man emu]

28 minutes ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

Howard quarantining some of the siddown money for food instead of letting the men of the household spend it all on booze. Not that I totally agreed with Howard...  there are white ferals who need this too

Too true. It would be really great to see that happen to all monies paid out under the "unemployment benefits" umbrella. The money that the government has thrown out has often fallen onto the "unwant to be employed" who spend it on booze, speed and tatts". In the current anti-pandemic situation there are otherwise employed people who are deserving of assistance due to loss of employment, but to spalsh the money across the whole spectrum can only incite those who were not in need of the help, but are paying for it anyway.

[red750]

Speaking of earnings, I spent an hour or so last night going through one of those click-bait articles on Yahoo (there was bugger all on TV,including all the Foxtel channels). It was about the high earners most of whom are in the entertainment or sport areas. People with net worth in the millions and billions. The article did not cover people in business, industry, etc., except one  -  Elon Musk, whom it claims is worth $22.1billion. Actors, muso's, basketball, baseball and football players, golfers, boxers, and only a couple were worth less than $1million. At the other end of the scale from Musk was Elvis's daughter Lisa Maree, worth MINUS $16million. If you want to get rich, let your ar*e hang out of your pants, warble some incoherent lyric, and let the $$$ roll in. (Second on the list, from 127 listed, was Oprah with $5Billion.)

[Yenn]

More on earnings how about those CEOs of big corporations such as the banks. They get a salary of at least  one million dollars and then a bonus of say 3 million dollars if they can get the company to achieve the same as all its competing companies. You cannot tell me that anyone earns a million dollars a year and you cannot convince me that they need that much. What on earth do they do with it?

[Old Koreelah]

5 hours ago, old man emu said:

A very enlightening article, and brutally frank. It highlights the thought that if you set out a trough, the pigs will soon get their snouts in it. 

 

The one thing that I find most important in it is that Aboriginal people cannot hope to improve their economic situation without education. Without the 3 Rs nobody, black, white or brindle can hope to work at anything other than the most menial tasks. How do you get these people educated? Well, if the Government is paying out vast sums of money to the "aborigine industry", why not cut off that money and offer it to teachers at similar rates that people who work in those isolated mining enterprises are getting. Pay teachers $200,000 to compensate them for living in isolation. Maybe the attitudes of Millenials to social injustice might be the trigger that would get young teaching graduates to give it a go in the Wilds...

Spot on, OME. I suspect few politicians relish getting the Aboriginal Affairs portfolio; it seems to be a poisoned chalice.

At the grass-roots level, many well-meaning white fellas have tried to do their bit and have left disillusioned.
I didn’t, possibly because I was lucky to spend most of my career where good community relations meant all kids had a chance. As previously stated, I’m proud of how so many of our Koori students turned out; most are in work, several have tertiary qualifications and a couple run businesses.
 

On the other hand, my time teaching indig. kids in remote areas backs up much of what Stone has to say. When the administrative culture ignores blatant rorts, nothing will change. Education is the only way out and requires the right sort of teachers to spend a few years in remote communities- not just a one-year stint. One of the biggest challenges is getting kids to turn up and take it seriously.

“...so there must be a “no study, no pay” rule—and a strictly enforced one—under the program proposed.”

Good luck finding a government with the backbone to enforce that.

When teachers typically drop out of the industry after 5 years- when their HECS is paid off- governments should be paying attention.

 

[old man emu]

In all areas of government spending there needs to be a lot of hard-hearted people. A Government can't go throwing money, which no member of it earned, about without demanding some tangible return. 

It is so true that politicians make more effort in pork-barreling of various sorts  in order to be returned to the trough than they do in making long term plans for the improvement of the electorate they are governing.

 

I wonder if the lack of western democracy in places like Russia, China and Vietnam has allowed their governments to make long term plans in the knowledge that if today's planners leave the scene they will be replaced with others who have the same philosophy and  objectives. Even Hitler and Mussolini's mobs made life better for their people before they got enveloped in megalomania and empire building.