Hi Mike, On Jan 5, 2012, at 8:41 AM, Mike Gonzalez wrote:
> I am still hopeful that continuing technological advances, along with liberal > (lower case "L") attempts to proliferate these advances among the general > populace will eventually continue improving opportunity in spite of whatever > guy happens to be president. The advent of the internet did much to limit the > information gap between the poor and super-elite. What advances would the > average working class person need to be able to access the same fluid capital > as a "good old boy" to fund their own venture? An "average person"? Hard to say. But a smart and motivated person with no money, credentials, or connections can move to Silicon Valley and get access to capital through sheer chutzpah, so that reality already exists in part. > How do we radically decrease the cost of higher education and technical > training for people who are looking at jumping into new industries? By disaggregating credentials, instruction, and residence through blending learning: http://hbr.org/2011/07/synthesis-disrupting-higher-ed/ar/1 > > I think there's a general agreement among our movement that, while the state > shouldn't be in the business of picking winners and losers, a government > should be giving its citizens the tools they need to be able to succeed-- > considering that, not only is the average citizen fighting other Americans > out for success, they're fighting with Chinese citizens, German citizens, > etc. To do any less is setting people up for failure and is endangering the > economic future of our country. > > In all of this financial mess, the fact that every American worker, who is > slowly trying to claw his/her way to a better life, is fighting alone against > billions of people who would work the same job for bread, water, and shelter. > Limiting free trade is a poor choice given the overall economic benefits, so > the alternative (to me) is to train Americans to do those jobs that no one > else is advanced enough to do, and reject feckless income redistribution > (social democracy) and laissez faire (liberal democracy). I completely agree. > Will any president or any iteration of congress recognize this? Dan Walters from the SacBee told me an eye-opening truth: * politicians can never *create* change They can only *embrace* change already created by civic institutions. Right now, there's a lot of hard work about how to reinvent education going on in the trenches, with both support and resistance from government, teachers unions, faculty, etc. Arne Duncan, whatever his other flaws, is sponsoring a lot of innovative experiments. The politicians will recognize it after most of the hard work is done, as they always do. I expect that by the next presidential election in 2016 the road massive educational reform will either be common wisdom, or a wedge issues seized by one of the incumbents. (Yes, that's a prediction. Anyone want to place a bet for or against? :-) E > > On Thu, Jan 5, 2012 at 11:12 AM, Dr. Ernie Prabhakar > <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Tomas, > > Sent from my iPhone > > On Jan 5, 2012, at 8:05, Tomas de Utrera <[email protected]> wrote: > > > As it stands right now there will be no sharing of power if it is left up > > to our present leaders. > > That is always the case. > > Power, like money, is rarely valued if given freely. We have to fight for it. > The real benefit of Democracy is that you don't have to kill the existing > leaders to take power back. > > MLK proved you can take power through sheer moral authority. So could we, if > we were willing to the price he did. > > If we are waiting for someone else to solve our political problems, then > maybe we really don't deserve to have them solved. > > E > > -- > Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community > <[email protected]> > Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism > Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org > > > -- > Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community > <[email protected]> > Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism > Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
