One of the biggest issues of the upcoming presidential elections is likely to be “experience”. Candidates with long and distinguished political careers (McCain, Biden, Dodd, etc.) are likely to trumpet their Washington experience, and note the relative inexperience of their rivals. Those with local, but not national, political experience (Romney, Giuliani, Vilsack, etc.) will try to trumpet their “outsider” status, with the implication being that career “Washington politicians” are likely to be somehow tainted. Relative political novices (Obama, Bush in ’00) will play that card, and additionally focus on their other experiences, or claim that political experience doesn’t matter as much as other factors. In short, candidates will try to make their own experience (whatever that may be) seem like the “right” experience for a president to have. But it does beg the question: how important is experience, really?
According to this article in the Houston Chronicle a startlingly high percentage of students in Texas drop out of high school. Its really quite scary if you think about it. And even those who graduate high school, many won’t go on to college.
At least half of my circle of friends, on the other hand, has some form of graduate degree. I feel very out of touch with the average American. And worried about social mobility in a society with drop out rates like those cited above.
Once upon a time, legislators were paid virtually nothing for their public service. Public service was considered a duty and a privilege, and pay was considered to demean their value. That system, however, created two problems. First, it functionally meant you had to be rich in order to hold one of those positions. Being a legislator, for instance, requires frequent trips to the capital, long hours working on legislation, time spent running for office, time spent meeting constituents, etc. It’s a job that requires at least forty hours per week, if not more. If you don’t get paid to do it, then you have to be rich enough to feed yourself and your family without an outside income, which is only feasible if you have substantial wealth. Second, people who aren’t getting paid become more vulnerable to corruption. After all, even the wealthy have bad years and hard times. Making a little cash on the side by selling votes can be a convenient way to get through those periods; and once you start taking illegal bribes, it’s hard to stop.
It has finally come to this. In order to protect its students from choking, a school in Rhode Island has banned talking during lunch. Because, ya know, the world is a dangerous place, and if you sit in a seat all day and don’t say anything, then you’re less likely to choke or fall or otherwise hurt yourself. And clearly not hurting yourself is more important than living a life. I mean, if you hurt yourself the school could get sued! Please let this be an anomaly rather than a trend…
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