Funding Education

One of the more interesting games I have found on Facebook is called Nations. It allows you to create a fictitious country in which you are dictator of the country. Each day you are presented with two questions. Your options are to pick one of the three or four pre-created answers or dismiss the question. Your countries criteria on a dozen or so different factors may be effected and an outcome of your decision is listed.

At first I thought the game had a decidedly liberal slant. The longer I've played though the more I see is as just simply having an under-educated, popular opinion slant, which is itself sometimes liberal. Here is one such example of a question that doesn't have a good answer like privatize schooling.

A new worldwide study on literacy was released today placing your country in the bottom 10%. Do you:

	Increase funding to public schools and offer tax breaks to adults who attend literacy programs at local colleges.
	Enforce mandatory literacy tests? Find those who are dragging your score down and hold mass executions as an example to those who are considering not learning to read.
	Reading isn't necessary! What does reading have to do with making name brand shoes or nuts and bolts.

Based on my previous experience with the game, the "good" answer is the first one. This follows the popular thinking that increased funding solves education problems. Funding may account for why one county has better teachers than a nearby county, but in general funding only influences education in extreme cases such as a complete lack of textbooks.

If I were writing these answers my answer would be something like the following:

	Start a program to gradually privatize schools. In the meantime mandate look-say be replaced with phonics and stop promoting children to the next grade who have not met the grades reading requirements.

As I expected I selected option one and got the following result:

• The overwhelming success of Xeamland's (the name of my country) new literacy program has sparked the once untapped printing and binding industries.

We Three Kings

We Three Kings is a great Christmas carol by John Henry Hopkins, Jr. It's a pity that we only sing the first and last verses because each verse is good. I particularly like verse three because it makes verse four all the more meaningful. Here is the entire song.

Verse 1

We three kings of Orient are

Bearing gifts we traverse afar.

Field and fountain, moor and mountain,

Following yonder star.

Refrain

O star of wonder, star of night,

Star with royal beauty bright,

Westward leading, still proceeding,

Guide us to thy perfect Light.

Born a king on Bethlehem's plain,

Gold I bring to crown Him again,

King forever, ceasing never

Over us all to reign.

Verse 2

Frankincense to offer have I.

Incense owns a Deity nigh.

Prayer and praising, all men raising,

Worship Him, God most high.

Verse 3

Myrrh is mine: Its bitter perfume

Breathes a life of gathering gloom.

Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding dying,

Sealed in the stone-cold tomb.

Verse 4

Glorious now behold Him arise,

King and God and Sacrifice.

Alleluia, alleluia!

Earth to the heaven replies.

Who Gets Your Money

This is an Orangutan we saw at the Gulf Breeze Zoo. He was being fed green beans and had his hand out for more. Remind you of any US automakers? I suppose I think better of the orangutan because he isn't at fault for his situation. Of course I'm not sure I'll think any better of a congressman who votes to give a large company money in hard times by taking it from small companies and individuals (and their children) through taxes and a higher deficit.

Voting Tax

Wikipedia's article on Poll tax says among other things, "...a tax formerly required for voting in parts of the United States that was often designed to disenfranchise poor people...".  It also lists state identification cards to prevent voter fraud as a potential poll tax of sorts.  Even those states that provide free identification cards are suspect because traveling to the government office can be prohibitive for the homeless and because there may be a cost to acquire the documents needed for identification.

I'm not sure I've come to a firm conclusion on a poll tax.  I know I don't believe we should institute an Oligarchy.  You could have a good oligarchy for a time, but it would become corrupt sooner rather than later.  On the other hand I'm not sure a small barrier to the privilege of voting would be a bad thing.  Think about it; do we really want to be bending over backwards so that people who refuse to work a few hours at minimum wage can help decide the course of government?

If we don't require voters to be verified before they vote (as we often don't here in the states) voter fraud will increase regardless of any federal penalties.  A small fee would not have the privacy concerns (which I don't necessarily agree with) that an identification card would have, but it would have a similar effect of keeping would be repeat voters from voting again.  Some would say this would only prevent this type of fraud for the poor, but since each individual only gets one vote anyway a wealthier person committing this fraud would be easier to catch as they pass out the poll tax funds.  Of course this is the situation we are already in to some extent as the wealthy finance rides to voting locations for those they want to vote a particular way.  This is not illegal even though it has the same effect.

Of course a poll tax is by no means a cure all.  A poll tax would be a minor impediment to an electorate that sees no problem in using their 60% vote to take income from the 40% that are wealthier.  Of course this doesn't change either the 40% or 60% in relation to one another it just lowers them both, but that's another topic.

Perhaps the poll tax should be directly tied to the cost of the election.  Citizens are paying for the election indirectly now, so why not pay for it directly.  Normally I am against any new tax proposals, but in this case I'll make an exception.  A tax tied directly to the benefit would be equitable, voluntary, and simple.  It would be interesting to see what would happen if a state re-instated a poll tax.

India and Pakistan Standoff

This is a humorous bit on the "volatile" India/Pakistan standoff.

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/volatile_india_pakistan_standoff