The Three Greatest Obstacles to Achieving Equality of Opportunity in America

Posted on October 27, 2017 by JohnM

The worst news about civic life is that the other side may have as strong a case as yours. Even on the issue dearest to your heart. This can lead to analysis paralysis. Here is my short list of the essence of the argument against my vision of equality of opportunity for America through education.

1.) Local control of schools

2.) Parental liberty

3.) Cultural/religious Liberty

How can anyone be against the adoption of best pedagogical practices in every

school, home, and community in America? Distrust of centralized authority, concern for parental privacy rights, fear of loss of cultural/religious autonomy. Unfortunately, the history of the United States and the world provides ample grounds for these concerns.

But I choose equality of opportunity.This is not easy. Perhaps this choice is not even rational. It is what my heart and soul say is right at this point in history in this place.

What do you think?

Justice Matrix

Posted on September 21, 2017 by JohnM

Blindfold

Univesality – not one law for rich, another for poor.

Not one law for blacks, another for whites. Not one for women, another for men.

Aka: equality before the law, equal protection of the laws

Scales

Proportionality of punishments to crimes.

Guilt or innocence a function of the evidence not the whim of the judge.

Is there a finger on the scales?

Sword

Justice delayed is justice denied.

Justice must be swift and certain or it is not justice.

But sword pointed down

means justice should be minimized. Coercion

(aka violence) is bad.

Criminalize as little as possible.

Starting gate

Justice is about equality of economic opportunity.

If you are malnourished or lacking the same cultural capital at the starting gate, there is no equality of opportunity. Is there a diversity versus equal opportunity trade-off?

Are some values less conducive to upward mobility?

Ladder

Does greater economic inequality make the rungs of the ladder too hard to reach?

Does a too high minimum wage rip off the bottom rung?

Is there a parental liberty versus equal economic opportunity trade-off?

Pie/Leaky Bucket

Is money being taken from the wells of the rich to the cups of the poor in a “leaky bucket” – much of it going to third parties and reducing work incentives for both rich and poor?

Is there a fundamental trade-off between growing the pie and splitting it more evenly?

Income and Wealth Inequality Statistics:

Current versus historical.

What is too much? What is too little? Who decides?

How?

Mobility Statistics

How much is enough?

What explains differentials in mobility?

Is the American dream

a fraud?

Tax Burden statistics

How much is too much vertical and horizontal inequality? Where are we on the spectrum? What would change your mind?

Religious Literacy

Posted on September 21, 2017 by JohnM

Religions tell three big stories: how and when the universe began and how and when it will end

(cosmology), how to live

(morality), and how we

the enlightened came to acquire this knowledge.

All great religions have the same common ethical core – a message of gratitude (piety, obedience, humility, renunciation) and kindness (mercy, love).

All great religions acknowledge the difficulty of living according to these principles in the face of bad luck, the unkindness of others, and our own negative emotions.

All great religions offer

a recipe for a discipline

which should minimize deviations from the narrow path of gratitude and kindness

RELIGION:

The Big Picture

A medieval set of answers to ultimate questions, a corrupt set of institutions bent on survival and expansion, a bunch of good people doing good things,

These disciplines incorporate prayer at many times during the day as well as a regular calendar of collective ritual events.

All religions have historically been a barrier to scientific and economic progress as the priestly class has sought to prevent the rise of competing castes.

There is no power more absolute than that of power over the souls of men. As all power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, the historical consequences have been dire.

Separation of church and state and freedom of religion are critical to freedom of speech and human progress. But some sort of secular equivalent of religion must exist to answer all the ultimate questions of morality, cosmology, and history.

Ethics

Posted on September 21, 2017 by JohnM

What does it mean to do the right thing?

#1 #2 #3

Ethical Core of

All Great Religions

Piety, aka

Gratitude, aka

Humility

Charity, aka love,aka kindness,

Mercy

Self-Control,

Discipline, aka desire control

Political virtues

Equality before the law, aka universality

Reciprocity —no rights without duties, duties without rights

Proportionality of punishments to crimes, rewards to merit

Economic virtues

Diligence, hard work, first do no harm (eg. do not be a burden on others)

Frugality – postponement of gratification

(marshmallow experiment)

Pursuit of Excellence, self-improvement

(eg. kaizen)

Classical

Virtues and Vices

Courage,

Temperance,

Prudence

Justice –

4 Cardinal Virtues

Seven Vices:

Pride, wrath,envy, sloth, lust, gluttony, greed

Right thought, right speech, right action, right mindfulness, right concentration, right livelihood

Ethics by profession and stage of life

Warrior versus Priestly ethics

Versus Business ethics

Physician versus

fiduciary codes of ethics

The student stage versus the householder versus the wandering holy man

Traditional Virtues

Obedience

Loyalty

Honor

Economics

Posted on September 21, 2017 by JohnM

Principle Example #1 Example #2 Example #3

#1 Tax it get less of it, Subsidize it, get more of it.

Aka “humans are rational utility maximizers”

Aka “incentives matter”

Aka Demand curve slopes downward and to the right. And supply curve upward to the right.

Tax work, get less work. Subsidize non-work get more non-work. No wonder our labor force participation rate is so low. Tax marriage, get less marriage. Subsidize non-marriage get more of it. No wonder single parenthood has skyrocketed.

Tax savings with negative real interest rates, get less savings. Subsidize speculation with negative real interest, get more speculation. Surprise, surprise.

Look at our

Savings rate! Look at a pattern of rotating bubbles.

The minimum wage is a tax on hiring, raise it get less hiring. Rent control is a tax on housing. Rent control leads to housing shortages.

Regulation is a tax on business, reduces number of businesses, favors

big companies

versus small.

#2 The Paradox of the Invisible Hand,

aka the miracle of the equilibrium point in the supply demand curve, aka the free exchange of ideas, goods, and services, tends to to maximize prosperity for all.

Minimize state interference.

This explains the relative prosperity of North versus South Korea.

Ever seen a satellite photo the Asia at night?

The more free an economy, the more prosperous the society. Selfishness is paradoxically good for all.

The relative success of the Soviet Union and Maoist China versus the United States and post-Maoist China.

Communism is great in theory, in practice a nightmare.

The relative success of Brazil, Mexico, after free market reforms relative to Cuba, Zimbabwe,

and other command and control economies.

After all, the way to maximize profits is to meet the needs of others.

#3 Government is necessary to prevent monopolies, to provide public goods, and make sure that externalities are priced in.

The cost of pollution made life in many US cities unlivable in the 1970s. Every time I take a deep breath on the street, I thank God for regulation.

Without safe streets and law and order, life would be poor, lonely, nasty, brutish and short.

As it is in certain zip codes where these public goods are not provided.

The key to prosperity long term is productivity growth – the key to which is maximizing human capital through public education.

History

Posted on September 21, 2017 by JohnM

Lesson #1 Lesson #2 Lesson #3

Progressive

consensus

Class is ultimately all that matters. All

history is the history of the exploitation of the have-nots by the haves.

The history of the West is the history of the exploitation of the non-white by the white and the history of mankind is the history of the exploitation of women.

Western and US imperialism

are the causes of anti-Americanism and terrorism.

This is the lesson of Vietnam, Iraq.

Conservative

consensus

Communist premises lead to tyranny, injustice,

and poverty —

as in Soviet Union, China,

Cuba, Zimbabwe

Free markets lead to rising standards of living —in China

As in the US,

Europe, Brazil, Mexico. The West has been a hugely net positive force in world history.

Peace comes through strength not appeasement.

Weakness encourages aggression. This is the lesson of Munich and 9/11.

Is there a middle ground?

Free markets lead to rising standards of living —in China

As in the US,

Europe, Brazil, Mexico. The class

Is all that matters premise is false.

The driver of history is human imagination not class struggle.

Property is not theft but the fence of liberty.

Free markets are not enough.

Education and health are public goods and high standards of each for all are the government’s business. The West has been a net positive force

for the world and this can be measured by the relative degree of gender and racial equality there

The lessons of Munich, 9/11, Vietnam, and Iraq are all worth remembering.

Hindsight is 20/20.

The choice of the wrong analogy could result in untold human slaughter. What sane person would want to take on

that burden?

(ie what sane person would want to be president?)

Constitutional Law

Posted on September 21, 2017 by JohnM

Time for a 4^th Amendment Package?

Make more Reduce Establish End taxation
“Democratic” Corruption Justice/Freedom without Represent

Abolish Senate	Single longer terms for Congressmen	Equal schools amendment – equal programs, equal disciplinary standards	Balanced budget amendment Transparent Citizen’s Guide to Financial Report
Abolish Electoral College	Single longer term for president	Education as fundamental right amendment	Rule based monetary policy: violation of article 1, Section 9
Tweak Senate	Automated districting to eliminate gerrymandering	Basic Income amendment – end current welfare system 82 programs	Statehood for DC
Tweak Electoral College	Require Congressmen to read bills – if don’t read who wrote?	GBrubstake Amendment	Statehood for Puerto Rico
E voting	Transparency – every clause in every bill author disclosed	No zip code safety gap amendment	National Teaching and Citizenship Acadenies
Automatic voter registration	Limits on donations	End affirmative action	End rule by executive decree
Mandatory Voting		End disparate impact mandates	End filibustering
Direct Referenda (a la Switzerland)		End Price Controls (min wage, rent control)	End executive pardons
End life tenure for judges	Make judges electable	Universal DNA testing	End dual citizenship
End rule of 5 for judicial decisions	Abolish elections of Judges	Parent licenses and training programs	End age restrictions

First three packages: Bill of Rights, Reconstruction Amendments, Progressive package (direct election of Senators, Income Tax, Women’s suffrage, Prohibition)

Much has changed in last 100 years, time to make the law of land consistent with these new realities

Rhetoric

Posted on September 21, 2017 by JohnM

To be a thinking citizen demands being attuned to logical and statistical fallacies and the propaganda tricks of demagogues.

A rhetorically un-trained citizen is a patsy at the poker table of modern politics.

Logical Fallacies	Statistical Fallacies	Propaganda Tricks
Begging the Question	Data Omission	Code words
The Straw Man	Correlation and Causation Confusion	Manipulative Images
The False Dilemma	Misleading aggregate data	Dog whistles
Ad hominem	Survey question framing	Wedges
Appeal to Emotion: (spite, fear)	Cherry picking	Old fashioned bold lies
Appeal to Authority	Sampling errors	Camera angles
The Red Herring		Composition
Appeal to the Majority		Lighting
Moving the Goal Posts		Testimonials
Fallacy of Composition		Scapegoats
Moral high ground fallacy
Furtive fallacies
Hasty generalization/ Converse accident
Argumentum ad baculum (might makes right, appeal to consequences)
Post hoc, ergo propter hoc
Non sequitur

A fallacy does not prove a claim false. But its use does undermine it.

Swift quote on lies: falsehood flies and truth comes limping after it.

A lie travels halfway around the world while truth still putting on its shoes.

People remember the lie not so much the truth.

Health Care

Posted on September 21, 2017 by JohnM

Principle Fact Solution

Side A

Health care is a

basic right and should be treated as a public good like education or defense.

Most other developed countries treat it as such and many have better health outcomes at lower costs.

Adopt universal health care on a

Canadian, British, or French model.

Have a public option as in US public education.

Side B

The key to maximizing the quality and abundance of any good or service while minimizing its cost is the free market.

The history of the Soviet Union, China, Cuba,

Venezuela,

Zimbabwe is testimony to the fact that government control leads to scarcity – to long lines and empty shelves in health care as in all other areas of the economy.

Minimize government involvement

In health care.

Let the free market do its magic here as in computer technology leading to abundance at low cost and high quality.

Side C

The real issue is not health care or health insurance but health – maximizing each individual’s potential for joy and productivity.

The free market versus government choice is a false dilemma.

Health outcomes are more a function of behavior than either health care or health insurance access.

Most health care and health insurance systems in the world are hybrids.

Problem is too much and wrong kind not too little.

Re-frame the health policy debate accordingly.

Universal catastrophic care plus health savings accounts.

The greatest health crisis is the 20 MM children living a Daily Katrina of unsafe streets, second rate schools, and unstable homes.

Liberal Arts AcademyTime to Re-Imagine Education

Category Archives: Matrices

The Three Greatest Obstacles to Achieving Equality of Opportunity in America

Justice Matrix

Religious Literacy

Ethics

Health Care