America No.1? In what? A look in the mirror

Jarod said:
Why are you in my neighborhood? Lets go to lunch!
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We are looking at buying that property. Unfortuantely if we go forward I wouldn't be the one who gets to tour the property otherwise I would have to loved to join you.
 
cawacko said:
We are looking at buying that property. Unfortuantely if we go forward I wouldn't be the one who gets to tour the property otherwise I would have to loved to join you.
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That store just opened, they are selling already?

I dont particularly like the location, its behind a Home Depot and way back off the main road, "Northlake Boulevard". They have zoned the city where all the Targets, Wall-Mart's and Home Deopts are on that road, and all the up-scale shopping, like the mall, banking and upscale restaurants are north on PGA the next main road north. Also the property borders Lake Park and Riviera Beach, too of the poorist and most corrupt cities in the area. The only good thing is you get a GREAT view of the building as you drive by on I-95 so there is some built in free advertising.
 
Jarod said:
That store just opened, they are selling already?

I dont particularly like the location, its behind a Home Depot and way back off the main road, "Northlake Boulevard". They have zoned the city where all the Targets, Wall-Mart's and Home Deopts are on that road, and all the up-scale shopping, like the mall, banking and upscale restaurants are north on PGA the next main road north. Also the property borders Lake Park and Riviera Beach, too of the poorist and most corrupt cities in the area. The only good thing is you get a GREAT view of the building as you drive by on I-95 so there is some built in free advertising.
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Yeah, you get some developers who will build a building, find a tenant and then sell immediately.

Thanks for the feedback.
 
Same story, different perspective .. and one that I agree with.

Who Will Tell the People?
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
May 4, 2008

Traveling the country these past five months while writing a book, I’ve had my own opportunity to take the pulse, far from the campaign crowds. My own totally unscientific polling has left me feeling that if there is one overwhelming hunger in our country today it’s this: People want to do nation-building. They really do. But they want to do nation-building in America.

They are not only tired of nation-building in Iraq and in Afghanistan, with so little to show for it. They sense something deeper — that we’re just not that strong anymore. We’re borrowing money to shore up our banks from city-states called Dubai and Singapore. Our generals regularly tell us that Iran is subverting our efforts in Iraq, but they do nothing about it because we have no leverage — as long as our forces are pinned down in Baghdad and our economy is pinned to Middle East oil.

Our president’s latest energy initiative was to go to Saudi Arabia and beg King Abdullah to give us a little relief on gasoline prices. I guess there was some justice in that. When you, the president, after 9/11, tell the country to go shopping instead of buckling down to break our addiction to oil, it ends with you, the president, shopping the world for discount gasoline.

We are not as powerful as we used to be because over the past three decades, the Asian values of our parents’ generation — work hard, study, save, invest, live within your means — have given way to subprime values: “You can have the American dream — a house — with no money down and no payments for two years.”

That’s why Donald Rumsfeld’s infamous defense of why he did not originally send more troops to Iraq is the mantra of our times: “You go to war with the army you have.” Hey, you march into the future with the country you have — not the one that you need, not the one you want, not the best you could have.

A few weeks ago, my wife and I flew from New York’s Kennedy Airport to Singapore. In J.F.K.’s waiting lounge we could barely find a place to sit. Eighteen hours later, we landed at Singapore’s ultramodern airport, with free Internet portals and children’s play zones throughout. We felt, as we have before, like we had just flown from the Flintstones to the Jetsons. If all Americans could compare Berlin’s luxurious central train station today with the grimy, decrepit Penn Station in New York City, they would swear we were the ones who lost World War II.

How could this be? We are a great power. How could we be borrowing money from Singapore? Maybe it’s because Singapore is investing billions of dollars, from its own savings, into infrastructure and scientific research to attract the world’s best talent — including Americans.

And us? Harvard’s president, Drew Faust, just told a Senate hearing that cutbacks in government research funds were resulting in “downsized labs, layoffs of post docs, slipping morale and more conservative science that shies away from the big research questions.” Today, she added, “China, India, Singapore ... have adopted biomedical research and the building of biotechnology clusters as national goals. Suddenly, those who train in America have significant options elsewhere.”

Much nonsense has been written about how Hillary Clinton is “toughening up” Barack Obama so he’ll be tough enough to withstand Republican attacks. Sorry, we don’t need a president who is tough enough to withstand the lies of his opponents. We need a president who is tough enough to tell the truth to the American people. Any one of the candidates can answer the Red Phone at 3 a.m. in the White House bedroom. I’m voting for the one who can talk straight to the American people on national TV — at 8 p.m. — from the White House East Room.

Who will tell the people? We are not who we think we are. We are living on borrowed time and borrowed dimes. We still have all the potential for greatness, but only if we get back to work on our country.

I don’t know if Barack Obama can lead that, but the notion that the idealism he has inspired in so many young people doesn’t matter is dead wrong. “Of course, hope alone is not enough,” says Tim Shriver, chairman of Special Olympics, “but it’s not trivial. It’s not trivial to inspire people to want to get up and do something with someone else.”

It is especially not trivial now, because millions of Americans are dying to be enlisted — enlisted to fix education, enlisted to research renewable energy, enlisted to repair our infrastructure, enlisted to help others. Look at the kids lining up to join Teach for America. They want our country to matter again. They want it to be about building wealth and dignity — big profits and big purposes. When we just do one, we are less than the sum of our parts. When we do both, said Shriver, “no one can touch us.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/o...em&ex=1210219200&en=8840ccd86e5a2549&ei=5087
 
Superfreak said:
You want to talk about cost comparisons with other countries... how about you dig up the cost comparisons of what we spend on our public education system per student and compare THAT to the EU or Japan etc...

Your "argument" above is pathetic and beneath you. Yes, I do not like where our public schools have gone. My kid sister is 12 years younger than I am. We went through the same public school system. By the time I was done with 8th grade, I had already taken algebra, trig, geometry and calc. By the time she went through the system they were starting algebra in the 9th grade. The reason... because algebra was too hard for some of the kids in the 6th grade.

Tossing money at education is not going to fix the pathetic nature of the system. I am most certainly NOT for tax cuts in education. I would much rather see increased competition via the school voucher system. Let parents decide which schools will best teach their kids. Public, private, charter, magnate... whatever.
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Hopefully, I'm not off topic by actually talking about the topic.

"Tossing money at the problem" is what we do with healthcare, it's not what we do with education.

If we were "tossing money" the infrastructure of our schools wouldn't be crumbling, students wouldn't be learning from outdated and raggedy text books, our schools would all be properly equipped with state of the art computer and science labs, and we would be attracting the best and brightest teachers and administrators.

The school voucher system is a placebo, not a solution. There is no conclusive evidence that charter schools do any better than public schools, and in fact, there is evidence to the contrary. Vouchers are the typical American solution .. look for the easy way out that costs the taxpayer a nickel less,
 
Hey, Cy!

When you gonna jump all over BAC for posting the same article by Friedman that somebody you assumed was a righty did?
 
blackascoal said:
Hopefully, I'm not off topic by actually talking about the topic.

"Tossing money at the problem" is what we do with healthcare, it's not what we do with education.

If we were "tossing money" the infrastructure of our schools wouldn't be crumbling, students wouldn't be learning from outdated and raggedy text books, our schools would all be properly equipped with state of the art computer and science labs, and we would be attracting the best and brightest teachers and administrators.

The school voucher system is a placebo, not a solution. There is no conclusive evidence that charter schools do any better than public schools, and in fact, there is evidence to the contrary. Vouchers are the typical American solution .. look for the easy way out that costs the taxpayer a nickel less,
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Actually to the contrary... from 1990 to 2002 funding increased by 40% on a per student basis.... yet standards are not going up. I am looking to see if I can find more recent data for you. Here is a link to more current data....

http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/10facts/edlite-chart.html

Also, private schools and public schools tend to do about the same on the core standardized requirements.... it is the additional preparation for college that the public schools are lacking. The voucher system in Milwaukee works quite well. Parents are happy with the system. Competition is most certainly a solution. Take a look at the number of public schools in Milwaukee that have shut down as a result of the poor relative performance they have had.

Vouchers do not cost the taxpayers any more or any less. They take the alloted dollar amount the fed would give to the public school and in turn give it to the private/charter/magnate school.
 
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Superfreak said:
Actually to the contrary... from 1990 to 2002 funding increased by 40% on a per student basis.... yet standards are not going up. I am looking to see if I can find more recent data for you. Here is a link to more current data....

http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/10facts/edlite-chart.html

Also, private schools and public schools tend to do about the same on the core standardized requirements.... it is the additional preparation for college that the public schools are lacking. The voucher system in Milwaukee works quite well. Parents are happy with the system. Competition is most certainly a solution. Take a look at the number of public schools in Milwaukee that have shut down as a result of the poor relative performance they have had.

Vouchers do not cost the taxpayers any more or any less. They take the alloted dollar amount the fed would give to the public school and in turn give it to the private/charter/magnate school.
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As always, I appreciate your civility.

Simple question .. If we're spending great sums of money on education, why are our schools crumbling and near third-world condition?

What I'm suggesting is that our priorities are all fucked up, and we've been conditioned to put the individual before the interest of the whole.

From my perspective "patriotism" is sacrifice for the benefit of the whole. I don't mind bringing less money home if we are effectively addressing the needs of our future. Taxes are a necessary function of government, which is something that is not recognized by the right .. who insist on tax cuts even during time of war.

The bottom line is that our schools need state of the art computer and science labs, and irrespective of any study, if our students don't have access to these labs it's because we haven't spent the money to fund them.

"No Child Left Behind" is an unfunded mandate that concentrates on the cheapest way to pretend that we are actually addressing the needs of our students.

We need to produce the best educated and informed students in the world and there should be no impediment that prevents that if we are indeed the great nation we claim we are.
 
blackascoal said:
Food for thought .. reason to seek change?

America by the numbers, No. 1?
by Michael Ventura

No concept lies more firmly embedded in our national character than the notion that the USA is "No. 1," "the greatest." Our broadcast media are, in essence, continuous advertisements for the brand name "America Is No. 1." Any office seeker saying otherwise would be committing political suicide. In fact, anyone saying otherwise will be labeled "un-American." We're an "empire," ain't we? Sure we are. An empire without a manufacturing base. An empire that must borrow $2 billion a day from its competitors in order to function. Yet the delusion is ineradicable. We're No. 1. Well...this is the country you really live in:

. The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (the New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).


The important issue is not where we stand ...but why we stand where we do.....
Does this help?
http://tinyurl.com/5ovr8h



. The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).

. Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the earth. Seventeen percent believe the earth revolves around the sun once a day (The Week, Jan. 7, 2005).

. "The International Adult Literacy Survey...found that Americans with less than nine years of education 'score worse than virtually all of the other countries'"

. Our workers are so ignorant and lack so many basic skills that American businesses spend $30 billion a year on remedial training (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004). No wonder they relocate elsewhere!

. "The European Union leads the U.S. in...the number of science and engineering graduates; public research and development (R&D) expenditures; and new capital raised" (The European Dream, p.70).

. "Europe surpassed the United States in the mid-1990s as the largest producer of scientific literature". Nevertheless, Congress cut funds to the National Science Foundation. The agency will issue 1,000 fewer research grants this year (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004).

. Foreign applications to U.S. grad schools declined 28 percent last year. Foreign student enrollment on all levels fell for the first time in three decades, but increased greatly in Europe and China. Last year Chinese grad-school graduates in the U.S. dropped 56 percent, Indians 51 percent, South Koreans 28 percent (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004). We're not the place to be anymore.

. The World Health Organization "ranked the countries of the world in terms of overall health performance, and the U.S. [was]...37th." In the fairness of health care, we're 54th. "The irony is that the United States spends more per capita for health care than any other nation in the world" (The European Dream, pp.79-80). Pay more, get lots, lots less.

. "The U.S. and South Africa are the only two developed countries in the world that do not provide health care for all their citizens" (The European Dream, p.80). Excuse me, but since when is South Africa a "developed" country? Anyway, that's the company we're keeping.

. Lack of health insurance coverage causes 18,000 unnecessary American deaths a year. (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005.)

. "U.S. childhood poverty now ranks 22nd, or second to last, among the developed nations. Only Mexico scores lower" (The European Dream, p.81). Been to Mexico lately? Does it look "developed" to you? Yet it's the only "developed" country to score lower in childhood poverty.

. Twelve million American families--more than 10 percent of all U.S. households--"continue to struggle, and not always successfully, to feed themselves." Families that "had members who actually went hungry at some point last year" numbered 3.9 million (NYT, Nov. 22, 2004).

. The United States is 41st in the world in infant mortality. Cuba scores higher (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).

. Women are 70 percent more likely to die in childbirth in America than in Europe (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).

. The leading cause of death of pregnant women in this country is murder (CNN, Dec. 14, 2004).

. "Of the 20 most developed countries in the world, the U.S. was dead last in the growth rate of total compensation to its workforce in the 1980s.... In the 1990s, the U.S. average compensation growth rate grew only slightly, at an annual rate of about 0.1 percent" (The European Dream, p.39). Yet Americans work longer hours per year than any other industrialized country, and get less vacation time.

. Sixty-one of the 140 biggest companies on the Global Fortune 500 rankings are European, while only 50 are U.S. companies. In a recent survey of the world's 50 best companies, conducted by Global Finance, all but one were European.

. Fourteen of the 20 largest commercial banks in the world today are European.... In the chemical industry, the European company BASF is the world's leader, and three of the top six players are European. In engineering and construction, three of the top five companies are European.... The two others are Japanese. Not a single American engineering and construction company is included among the world's top nine competitors. In food and consumer products, Nestlé and Unilever, two European giants, rank first and second, respectively, in the world. In the food and drugstore retail trade, two European companies...are first and second, and European companies make up five of the top ten. Only four U.S. companies are on the list.

. The United States has lost 1.3 million jobs to China in the last decade (CNN, Jan. 12, 2005).

. U.S. employers eliminated 1 million jobs in 2004 (The Week, Jan. 14, 2005).
Three million six hundred thousand Americans ran out of unemployment insurance last year; 1.8 million--one in five--unemployed workers are jobless for more than six months (NYT, Jan. 9, 2005).

. Japan, China, Taiwan, and South Korea hold 40 percent of our government debt.

. Sometime in the next 10 years Brazil will probably pass the U.S. as the world's largest agricultural producer. Brazil is now the world's largest exporter of chickens, orange juice, sugar, coffee, and tobacco. Last year, Brazil passed the U.S. as the world's largest beef producer. (Hear that, you poor deluded cowboys?) As a result, while we bear record trade deficits, Brazil boasts a $30 billion trade surplus (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).

. As of last June, the U.S. imported more food than it exported (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).

. "Americans are now spending more money on gambling than on movies, videos, DVDs, music, and books combined" (The European Dream, p.28).

. "Nearly one out of four Americans [believe] that using violence to get what they want is acceptable" (The European Dream, p.32).

. Forty-three percent of Americans think torture is sometimes justified, according to a PEW Poll (Associated Press, Aug. 19, 2004).

. "Nearly 900,000 children were abused or neglected in 2002, the last year for which such data are available" (USA Today, Dec. 21, 2004).

The USA is "No. 1" in nothing but weaponry, consumer spending, debt, and delusion.

http://www.citypages.com/databank/26/1264/article12985.asp

That's the good news .. the bad news is that it's gotten worse.
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