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In the future, and in some jurisdictions already, being able to speak Spanish may well be one of those choices people make that affects their career prospects. My granddaughter's school starts all kids learning Spanish in kindergarten so that it won't be an impediment for them. Up here in Northern New England I would be hard pressed to find someone else that speaks Spanish even if I could speak it myself. People that don't want to learn it can choose to live here. We are all free to make these choices.
This baby boomer grew up in a very small house with 8 people, 1 bathroom, 1 phone, 1 TV, 1 car. My parents had their bedroom, my sister one about the size of a walk-in closet, and 1 for us 5 boys. You can squeeze that many in a modest sized room if you have 2 sets of bunk beds. Baby boomers are not universally affluent now, nor were they in the past.
I will grant you that as a result of globalization young adults today have a tougher road with career paths, but they know this when making the choices that affect their career prospects. The ones I feel bad for are the aging baby boomers that entered the workforce with one set of rules and now find themselves with an entirely different set. Some choose to reinvent themselves going to school at night and on weekends to acquire new skills or education. Some choose not to, and then complain about the consequences.
In response to a changing economy one of my buddies went back to school (while still working) to become an RN in his mid-50's. Another re-invented himself (and acquired the requisite licensing) to become an insurance agent in his 50's. His wife re-invented herself in her 40's (going to school at night and on weekends) to become a school teacher. All of those career changes were necessitated by a changing economy and all required a lot of sacrifice to acquire their new credentials.
This is incorrect, skill sets and career paths that are "envouge" now change like shifting sands. Skill sets and career paths that can take 5-10 years to truly develop will go in and out of demand like the shifting sands of a desert.
This is a very serious problem because it leads to analysis paralysis and younger people simply not doing anything but working at star bucks and living at home. Because who wants to be 15-70k in debt for a degree/skill set that may or may not be in demand when you get to the other end of the tunnel.
Because employers have been allowed to get away with murder the last 30 ish years it is now resulting in all sorts of job fields that have almost no one in them, and no one is rushing to go into them because as soon as they start taking the classes and tests and paying out big money they know that when they get out there is a good chance they will not be supported by employers if they are able to find some sweat shop in melasiaya to do it.
I am choosing to go into weapons development so that people can more efficiently kill each other, there will never be a shortage of demand for weapons around the world.
Im not talking about getting a job, I am talking about needing to speak spanish to even order your food when you got out or any other buisenss interaction.
What makes you think that doesn't already happen in several metro areas throughout the country?
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the problem is that tract housing is now ghetto minorities and gangs where as during the boomers younger years it was respectable people raising families. Now the boomers that have made it (into beach front properties or the like) can somewhat insulate themselves from the very problems they caused (rampant immigration, free trade, etc).
How did Boomers who started out in inexpensive tract housing cause ghettos and gangs? Why didn't the next generation just beginning to build their wealth buy the homes and move in when the Boomers sold their inexpensive housing to upgrade?
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These sorts of things dont effect the well established nearly as much, they effect people trying to carve out a life for themselves, people that still have to trade labor for capitial because they dont have capital to leverage, only now their labor is worth significantly less because they are competing against slaves over seas.
Everyone starts out at the bottom. I graduated college in 1980, smack dab in the middle of a recession when very few jobs were available, and interest rates on mortgages were in the 14%-range. I survived. So did many others. It just takes effort and time. There is no instant gratification. No one owes you an easier time of it merely because you exist. Frankly, you're acting like a spoiled brat.
Thats not the argument I made, I said the rich dont like it.
It's not just the rich who don't want the public trespassing on their privately owned property. Go to a middle class neighborhood. Try to set up a tent and go camping for a week or so in some stranger's back yard. See how well that goes over.
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The issue is ACCESS to public lands, if the rich were so pro public lands they would not be responding like petulant children that people are using old trails to access national parks.
Why can't the public use the public entrances? That's what they're there for.
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THIS is why more land needs to be made public, the rich land owners have proven, by in large, they are not willing to work with the public when there are access / easement issues.
That can happen via eminent domain. The problem is that the government doesn't have enough money to pay just compensation for the land they want to take for public use, nor do they want to remove it from the tax rolls as doing so would reduce tax revenue. You see, there are no taxes assessed on public lands.
There is help for them. The problem is that many won't make the effort and sacrifices required to correct their mistakes. That's no one's fault but their own.
How do such parents provide for their children?
I only know of a certain percentage of homeless people that don't want to be helped and prefer their misery for whatever reason.
But most people do accept help.
Also, what might seem like a mistake to you might not be a mistake to them at all.
For instance having a child, it is absurd to speak of "fault" or "mistake" in this context.
Even if parents can't provide for their children alone, they must be supported by society. After all, we are humans and not animals in a jungle that only care for their own offspring. Benefiting from my participation in human society, I am also responsible for the well-being of total strangers and their children. It is a give and take. Even if I were a totally egoistic sociopath, it would make sense because when others are miserable, it backfires on society. We are all sitting in the same boat, so everyone should try to keep the problems on that boat to a minimum.
It is funny, I am a total atheist with a Buddhist past, but I have often noticed that I "am" much more "Christian" than most people who actually are Christians.
It's not just the rich who don't want the public trespassing on their privately owned property. Go to a middle class neighborhood. Try to set up a tent and go camping for a week or so in some stranger's back yard. See how well that goes over.
Why can't the public use the public entrances? That's what they're there for.
That can happen via eminent domain. The problem is that the government doesn't have enough money to pay just compensation for the land they want to take for public use, nor do they want to remove it from the tax rolls as doing so would reduce tax revenue. You see, there are no taxes assessed on public lands.
Your evading the key parts of my arguments so we will have to agree to disagree. Camping in someones 1/4 acre back yard is different than walking through the back portion of someones 100 acre estate to get to a federal park. Wanting to own my own single family home is different than frothing at the mouth to buy up part of yellow stone national park to set up my own mansion and kick everyone off.
The federal govt can print the money off, state govts should not own public lands because they dont have the ability to print money to excersize eminite domain powers very effectively.
I only know of a certain percentage of homeless people that don't want to be helped and prefer their misery for whatever reason.
But most people do accept help.
Also, what might seem like a mistake to you might not be a mistake to them at all.
For instance having a child, it is absurd to speak of "fault" or "mistake" in this context.
Even if parents can't provide for their children alone, they must be supported by society. After all, we are humans and not animals in a jungle that only care for their own offspring. Benefiting from my participation in human society, I am also responsible for the well-being of total strangers and their children. It is a give and take. Even if I were a totally egoistic sociopath, it would make sense because when others are miserable, it backfires on society. We are all sitting in the same boat, so everyone should try to keep the problems on that boat to a minimum.
It is funny, I am a total atheist with a Buddhist past, but I have often noticed that I "am" much more "Christian" than most people who actually are Christians.
So in regards to caring for children, if everyone is responsible for caring for others children then who gets the choice females to mate with? If everyone is taking care of everyones kids then how does the sex get divyed up? Thats the only issue I see with the whole child thing.
If someone is not getting chosen to mate with then why should they have to pay for the kids?
What makes you think that doesn't already happen in several metro areas throughout the country?
How did Boomers who started out in inexpensive tract housing cause ghettos and gangs? Why didn't the next generation just beginning to build their wealth buy the homes and move in when the Boomers sold their inexpensive housing to upgrade?
Everyone starts out at the bottom. I graduated college in 1980, smack dab in the middle of a recession when very few jobs were available, and interest rates on mortgages were in the 14%-range. I survived. So did many others. It just takes effort and time. There is no instant gratification. No one owes you an easier time of it merely because you exist. Frankly, you're acting like a spoiled brat.
WE are going to have to agree to disagree, you seem to think that boomers open boarder policy and free trade agreements have no bearing on where we are today and I think the younger generations were sold out big time. The USA pretty much has no national boarders anymore, US citizens are not being protected by forign interests.
I only know of a certain percentage of homeless people that don't want to be helped and prefer their misery for whatever reason.
But most people do accept help.
Also, what might seem like a mistake to you might not be a mistake to them at all.
For instance having a child, it is absurd to speak of "fault" or "mistake" in this context.
Even if parents can't provide for their children alone, they must be supported by society.
That's exactly what I'm talking about. Making decisions to act in ways that result in consequences for which one cannot bear the responsibility is extremely selfish, greedy, and destructive to society. It is absolutely unconscionable to expect anyone to work hard to support themselves and their own dependents, and then take even more from them to support others who've made irresponsible decisions. If they donate to the support of others voluntarily, fine. But taking it from them via government force is wrong.
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After all, we are humans and not animals in a jungle that only care for their own offspring. Benefiting from my participation in human society, I am also responsible for the well-being of total strangers and their children. It is a give and take. Even if I were a totally egoistic sociopath, it would make sense because when others are miserable, it backfires on society. We are all sitting in the same boat, so everyone should try to keep the problems on that boat to a minimum.
The problem with your touchy-feely emotional perspective on that is that NOT everyone is expected to "keep the problems on the boat to a minimum." There are a substantial amount of takers who contribute little to nothing. They're CAUSING problems for everyone else.
In the U.S., women on public assistance, as a group, have a birth rate that's 3 times higher than that of women (with or without partners) who support themselves and their children themselves. 48% of all births in the U.S. each year are paid by Medicaid, the free taxpayer-funded health care program for the poor. And all of those kids need to be supported by public assistance for at least 18 years. Meanwhile, 47% of all 1040 income tax filers pay zero federal income tax, which is collected by the government to fund Medicaid and other government-provided services. That's a LOT of taking, and very little contributing. Our society is going to collapse under the burden.
Your evading the key parts of my arguments so we will have to agree to disagree.
I've evaded nothing. People of ALL socioeconomic levels don't want others trespassing on their private property. Period.
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Camping in someones 1/4 acre back yard is different than walking through the back portion of someones 100 acre estate to get to a federal park. Wanting to own my own single family home is different than frothing at the mouth to buy up part of yellow stone national park to set up my own mansion and kick everyone off.
The problem here isn't the private property owners. It's the government selling off public lands. The government is deciding the public has no right to use those lands anymore.
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The federal govt can print the money off, state govts should not own public lands because they dont have the ability to print money to excersize eminite domain powers very effectively.
If the Fed Gov can print money, why are they selling off public lands instead of buying more?
And don't give me some lame excuse that you think it's because the rich are "making" them sell it. There are FAR fewer rich people than everyone else. And everyone only has one vote. If the public doesn't want the Fed Gov to sell off public lands, vote the elected officials who authorize those sales out of office.
I've evaded nothing. People of ALL socioeconomic levels don't want others trespassing on their private property. Period.
The problem here isn't the private property owners. It's the government selling off public lands. The government is deciding the public has no right to use those lands anymore.
If the Fed Gov can print money, why are they selling off public lands instead of buying more?
And don't give me some lame excuse that you think it's because the rich are "making" them sell it. There are FAR fewer rich people than everyone else. And everyone only has one vote. If the public doesn't want the Fed Gov to sell off public lands, vote the elected officials who authorize those sales out of office.
One word, LOBBISTS and members of the govt getting PERSONALLY rich off of the favors they do for the rich people. When the govt prints money to buy lands the individual politicians dont get rich.
Now we are getting somewhere, this discussion has gone full circle, I think our govt is going to start going socialist as the young people start to out number the older generations. When socialists have control they will, hopefully, start buying back lands, printing off the requisite money to do so as well as fix a whole myriad of other problems brought on by the boomers.
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Go to a middle class neighborhood. Try to set up a tent and go camping for a week or so in some stranger's back yard. See how well that goes over. 
