Reform or Revolution?

[Diff-chan]

I guess what you are really talking about is how schools funding comes from the local communities taxes and since poor comminutes make less money, they pay less taxes and thus have shittier schools. I guess something like that could be fixed schools became a national thing and all the money was pulled together to make one unified level of education.

Well, I dont think the federal government could do a better job than the states do.

Anyway, in most states property taxes are what is used to pay for schools. New Jersey has some of the best schools in the country, by any measure. Top 5, I believe, and the state is 2nd for highest percentage of graduating HS seniors going to college. But property taxes are really high in NJ, and people bitch about it a lot. We're having a gubernatorial election in November and most of the guys are running on the lower property tax platform.

California used to have the best schools in the country, but, again, high property taxes. Then Proposition... 15 I believe came along with drastically lowered the taxes and set a cap on what the state could charge. Now, California has like the 46th best schools in the country. The public is screaming at Sacramento, saying, "we need better public schools!" but at the same time theyre saying "dont raise our taxes a dime!".

So you got a problem here, everyone wants good schools but nobody wants to pay for them.

[Scourge]

California used to have the best schools in the country, but, again, high property taxes. Then Proposition... 15 I believe came along with drastically lowered the taxes and set a cap on what the state could charge. Now, California has like the 46th best schools in the country. The public is screaming at Sacramento, saying, "we need better public schools!" but at the same time theyre saying "dont raise our taxes a dime!".

This is so fucking true. You'd think The State With The 10th Biggest Economy In The World would have decent schools. They aren't even allowed to build new schools or build onto existing schools, so a bunch of portable temp buildings (half without air conditioning) are the only solution and scum up every school campus around, making the beautiful Golden Mountain look like Mississippi or Alabama. I don't know when the 'no build' ordinance went into effect, but I know it's been more than a decade. Next time you see a headline where California acts like they're the most evolved intelligencia in the nation and everybody should follow their lead, just remember boys and girls, California doesn't think of their own children.

[Fe 26]

Well, I dont think the federal government could do a better job than the states do.

Anyway, in most states property taxes are what is used to pay for schools. New Jersey has some of the best schools in the country, by any measure. Top 5, I believe, and the state is 2nd for highest percentage of graduating HS seniors going to college. But property taxes are really high in NJ, and people bitch about it a lot. We're having a gubernatorial election in November and most of the guys are running on the lower property tax platform.

California used to have the best schools in the country, but, again, high property taxes. Then Proposition... 15 I believe came along with drastically lowered the taxes and set a cap on what the state could charge. Now, California has like the 46th best schools in the country. The public is screaming at Sacramento, saying, "we need better public schools!" but at the same time theyre saying "dont raise our taxes a dime!".

So you got a problem here, everyone wants good schools but nobody wants to pay for them.

I could see where all of that would become a problem. The people with kids are often not the ones paying the bulk of property tax. At the most they are paying a lot less than the industry leaders in the area, who probably only have 2 kids.

making the beautiful Golden Mountain look like Mississippi or Alabama. :

Our schools don't look like that. =P

[Mr-K]

Youre not upper-class, you wouldnt know. My girlfriend and a lot of her friends are, though, and from as far as I can see, a lot of these people worked their asses off their entire lives to become what they are. Savvy investment, not getting into consumer debt, and a little bit of luck all factored in but a lot of these people are self-made. They believe that anyone can do it too if they have the same work ethic and respect for money.

For the most part, I have found this to be very true as well. That and they employ my father to plaster their massive homes and fund my way through school. So. Thank you upper class!

[avatar]

Hell, I'm not even American and I'd help.

Thanks.

[Gohron]

Your whole line is the EXACT rhetoric of all those far-right militia groups. It's that Turner Diaries bullshit that DIRECTLY led to Oklahoma City. If you want to hole up in the woods with an arsenal and say the government is shit, fine by me, but it always ends with the want to CHANGE the government rather than just resist it. Thats what Oklahoma City was supposed to do, throw the government into upheaval so these militia groups could takeover in the chaos that ensued. It was madness, just like the whole Helter Skelter business, but they went ahead and tried it anyway.

The point I was trying to make is that your gut immediate reaction is armed resistance, as if that was the single and only way. It's that kind of thinking that's dangerous, and if you want to cry about me pointing it out, whatever.

I don't really give a fuck anymore, to me this country is already lost and there's not much that's going to change that. I don't plan to blow up any government buildings anytime soon.

Yes I can, because they aren't. Are they modernizing their force? Of course, they're a burgeoning world power, of course they're going to try and make their military the best it can be. However, the idea that the PRC is building up solely in preparation for some planned war on the US is moronic. China doesn't want a war with the U.S., they just Taiwan. They'll build themselves up, while at the same time draining us, until when they finally do take it we won't do anything about it.

Their military doctrine is very similiar to the Soviet Union. I never said they wanted a war with the US or are planning it, but lets say there's some problems with the oil, or a global economy collapse or something of the like. Then war is going to happen, and I would say China could run over any country on the planet next to the US, so who would they really have to worry about in such a situation?

New US military technology focuses on a lot of unconventional stuff because we're fighting a lot of very very unconventional battles but it also focuses on reaking mass destruction on divisional armored formations. Who could we possibly be fighting on this planet right now that would even have enough tanks or other armored vehicles to even form large armored divisions?

You really don't have any idea about current military theory do you? This is the ONLY way wars will be fought in the future. Take N. Korea for example, their entire military as it is designed now is based on the principle that they will fight a defensive guerilla war against the US using a massive network of tunnels and hidden bases to keep Kim and the other generals safe while they draw the US into their kind of war. The best way to stop them would be to take out Kim and these leaders, because under their regime they are the crux on which the government's power rests.

Are you paying attention? Or did I just miss the part when we started talking about N. Korea?

What in the world does N. Korea have to do with China? Really, what are you trying to get at by telling me about N. Korea when we're discussing the Chinese military? I have no doubt that the information that you just presented is factual and the truth, but it doesn't really apply to the discussion at all. If we invaded the N. Korean homeland it would probably be exactly like that.

If you don't think it would come down to sweeping house to house and every wormy hole from Kaesong to Najin for that platform shoe wearing bastard, you're wrong.

I'll bring this back into context with China, since you must've forgot what we were talking about, or tried to make me look like an idiot trying to compare two situations and countries un-alike.

Do you really think that a country with 30,000 Main Battle Tanks (with the newer ones being equal/superior to US Main Battle Tanks) are going to send their forces to just hang out in houses, waiting for the US to come? As I said above, the Chinese military is set-up a lot like the Soviet military (they can throw a lot of tanks into a war very quickly) the tactics they would employ would vary just to deal with new war technology, but there's no reason for them to have 30,000 tanks just to control their populace (the US has 10,000 tanks). It's an offensive beast that would be able to take a lot of casulities and still operate just as effeciently.


They have similiar air, ground and naval (not much) build-up and tactics to the Soviet Union. The Soviet military probably wasn't trained as well but they were set-up to make a very fast and powerful offensive on Western Europe, defensively their military would not have been as effective. Why would China need a military like that?

[Brisco Bold]

Thanks.

No prob.

I don't really give a fuck anymore, to me this country is already lost and there's not much that's going to change that. I don't plan to blow up any government buildings anytime soon.

?!?!

[Drewbacca]

I don't think Canada or Mexico would stand idly by and let a foreign country gain foothold on their continent. Canada and the U.S. might not have the best relations, but all things considered, we're on good terms.

And I doubt Australia or Britain would allow it to go by without retribution either.

[Brisco Bold]

I don't think Canada or Mexico would stand idly by and let a foreign country gain foothold on their continent. Canada and the U.S. might not have the best relations, but all things considered, we're on good terms.

And I doubt Australia or Britain would allow it to go by without retribution either.

Yeah. I think average Canadian citizens, even those smelly hippies who are all, "I hate America and everything it stands for," would fight.

[kedawa]

Do you really think that a country with 30,000 Main Battle Tanks (with the newer ones being equal/superior to US Main Battle Tanks) are going to send their forces to just hang out in houses, waiting for the US to come? As I said above, the Chinese military is set-up a lot like the Soviet military (they can throw a lot of tanks into a war very quickly) the tactics they would employ would vary just to deal with new war technology, but there's no reason for them to have 30,000 tanks just to control their populace (the US has 10,000 tanks). It's an offensive beast that would be able to take a lot of casulities and still operate just as effeciently.

All that chinese tankage and the U.S is retiring the A-10?! Bad, bad decision.