The Daily Cannibal |
- RIP OWS
- Worth 1000 Words
- Job Creation, American Style
- Sick Leave
- Hanging Separately
- Obamandias?
- Dance of the Dodgers
- Those Darn Germans
- Only One “Democratic” Party
- Suffer the Children?
| Posted: 22 Jun 2012 10:10 PM PDT  Someone's mother? Didn't think so. Sez Zombie over at PJ Media.com:
Yup. The Occupy folks have taken the position that any action that involves police suppressing our natural urges is indefensible, and that kids selling their own bodies is really just kind of natural, ya dig, so f**k da police and you know the rest. Back in the late 60s, SDS Harvard recognized that Nixon’s treacherous unwinding of the Viet Nam war was clearly just a ploy to deprive SDS of a cause to rally the troops, so they set off in search of a new one. Suddenly the campus was littered in flyers demanding another general strike. A strike against injustice. A strike against the capitalist pigs. Right on! What were they striking for? Well, for painter’s apprentices. It obtains that Harvard, that imperialist bastion of privilege, was paying the apprentices to the painters that kept Harvard looking bright and spiffy (and a very good job of it they do, too) a lower salary than (gasp) the painters themselves. Outrage flared. The clarion sounded. The students yawned. That was the end of SDS. It’s a shame, in a way. We always had a soft spot for the original core of OWS, because we thought they had a point, which they were very smart to keep very simple. They just said “Help! We’re hurting. We’ve lost jobs, we’ve lost funding, and we need some assistance here.” When people said “Well, what’s your agenda? What solutions do you have?” OWS quite properly said “WHAT??!! Are you kidding me?” “We knew you guys were having a ball, making piles of money, playing fast and loose with everything from mortgages to money supply, but as long as we got some of it, we left you alone. Now you’ve crashed and burned, and you turn to us and ask us what to do? YOU GUYS ARE IN CHARGE! DO SOMETHING!” Then it all turned into the predictably silly fiasco of absurd agendas, like “forgive all student loans.” Right. Like the US taxpayer can take on another $1 trillion of debt. The largely sentient core of the original lights slowly drifted away and left parkfulls of drifters, drug addicts, con men and lunatics, so we’re left with the sad remnants, the litter and human detritus, of something that might actually have amounted to something. The good news: It’s late June, and there is no meaningful reappearance of the magpies the cold and sleet chased away last year. With any luck, OWS is as much of a relic in 2012 as Solyndra. (Thanks to Bill Quick at the DP for the heads up.)
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| Posted: 22 Jun 2012 08:17 PM PDT  |
| Posted: 22 Jun 2012 01:12 AM PDT  Only eighty more boxes to go... Megan Gordon is a young woman with a master’s degree in English literature from the University of Colorado. She wanted to be a teacher at one point, like her mom, but that didn’t work out the way she had hoped — so she moved from Boston back home to the Bay Area and started baking pies. She took the pies to farmers’ markets in San Francisco, and people liked them, so she rented space in a commercial kitchen, filled out the blizzard of paperwork that presumably guarantees innocent consumers that they are not eating more than the allowable portion of insect parts, and put up a website to advertise her new “bakery” — which existed only online and wherever she set up a card table. She named her business “Marge,” after her grandmother, who knew a thing or two about pies. And what a great time to start a business! The economy was setting new records. By this, I mean that people were losing jobs at rates unseen since the Depression, housing foreclosures were hitting new highs, people were spending money with the reckless abandon of an Amish aunt, and the government was doing its usual wonderful job of looking after itself. But Marge putted along, doing well enough to keep Megan optimistic that it could be a success. Not having any connection with green energy or high speed light rail, Marge didn’t qualify for any stimulus assistance. It wasn’t likely that its rates of production could be expanded to any large scale level. A pie is either homemade or it’s not. And the internet did not seem likely to help, as it’s very hard to deliver pies by UPS. Then two things happened. Before starting Marge, Megan published a cooking/baking blog called A Sweet Spoonful, which combines very well-written short essays with recipes and some marvelous photography. (Go look, or don’t. You’ll get hungry if you do.) A publisher who had been impressed contacted her with a book contract. Then, her granola took off. That photo up top shows Megan sitting in front of only one-quarter of the orders she had boxed up a few days ago for shipment to a national clientele. Granola, it obtains, can be delivered by UPS. Granola? You bet. The pies were just fine, but for the last year or so, Marge has been rapidly earning a reputation for making the best damn granola you can find. So Megan dropped the pie, moved to Seattle (boyfriend), and focused on just the granola. What makes it special? Let her tell you:
Last week, the Wall Street Journal featured Marge’s Granola in its “Bits and Bites” section, and the orders really started rolling in. People buy it online, or by phone (Megan answers). Stores are stocking it. Is Marge the next Ben and Jerry’s? Maybe, maybe not. But it’s off to a helluva start. And there you have it. An overnight success. All it took was years of hard work, gritty determination and an understanding that if you make something really good, people will find a way to buy it, no matter how broke they are. These are things we used to understand in this country. Maybe we will again, if enough Megans start enough Marges and enough people see what it takes to make something out of nothing.  |
| Posted: 21 Jun 2012 09:24 PM PDT
What she did not expect was that 12 years into the new century, only 17% of Congress and the same proportion of corporate board members would be female, or that women would be making only 77 cents to a man’s dollar. But that’s the reality she sees, hence the need for a new feminist agenda. In one of those happy coincidences that sometimes punctuate a news junkie’s day, just as I was listening to a radio interview with Governor Kunin I spotted this headline from Europe: “EU court: Workers sick on leave can get extra time off.” Seems a court has decided that workers in the European Union, whose companies must already give them four weeks of paid vacation, are entitled to additional paid leave as compensation if they get sick during their vacation. Though this does raise the question of how to prevent fraud, it seems a logical conclusion – if, that is, you consider time off work a fairly basic right, rather than a grudging privilege as it is in the U.S., where workers’ rights are relatively trivialized. Gov. Kunin cited a conversation she had with women visiting from Ecuador who were shocked that our government didn’t guarantee paid maternity leave. Welcome to Benightistan, ladies.  |
| Posted: 19 Jun 2012 05:43 PM PDT  Get the rifles. boys! We'll lick that asteroid. From the Nonchalance Department: NASA has been tracking a 460-foot-wide asteroid with a slight chance of striking Earth. Scientists now believe an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs; the new one, which goes by the evocative name 2011 AG5, could do the same for some of us. But probably not. A hit seems unlikely at this point, and fortunately NASA’s Near-Earth Object (NEO) Observation Program “will still be watchful and ready to take further action if additional observations indicate it is warranted.” That’s according to NASA’s nonchalant Lindley Johnson, who no doubt has in mind the confident cookbook of anti-asteroid recipes summarized here, where the good folks at space.com assure us that we already possess some of the technologies we could bring to bear. But while it’s nice to know NASA stands ready to “take further action.” could our civilization really get its act together to address a world-threatening emergency, even with a decade or more of warning? I wonder this especially at a time when anti-government forces are energized and ascendant, forces that take inspiration from Ronald Reagan’s famous formulation, “Government is the problem.” Libertarians and right-wingers typically allow that a federal government should be in charge of national defense if nothing else. But how would that translate into planetary defense in a politically charged atmosphere where conspiracy theories undercutting world bodies like the United Nations run amok? One likes to think governments of the world would pull together in the face of an impending catastrophe. There’s hope. Strong leadership drew the United States into World War II despite opposition. The governments of Europe pulled together after that war, preventing further bloodshed by forming a peaceful union that has lasted half a century. True, in the more analogous case of climate change there’s been a discouraging lack of progress. But there’s a big difference between death by a thousand cuts and apocalyptic collision. Maybe the threat of the latter would generate the necessary solidarity and group heroism. But I have my doubts.  |
| Posted: 18 Jun 2012 11:07 PM PDT  "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone" In today’s Daily News, Mike Lupica suggests that the best strategy for Mitt Romney to follow in his campaign is to say nothing:
Lupica here refers to Obama’s somewhat unnerving habit of swerving off the road on regular occasions with statements like “The private sector is doing just fine” and of that ilk, which Obama bizarrely tried to explain away with an even larger, if more subtle gaffe, when he promised us that this wouldn’t be the last stupid thing he would say before this campaign is over. Cold comfort, that. But the President notes that he has no monopoly on saying stupid things, which is true, considering Romney’s “I like to fire people” and other notable moments. Hence Lupica’s advice, which is in fact excellent. Probably the best thing Romney can do is step back, avoid making bogeys and watch the First Golfer stumble his way to the eighteenth green like Tiger at the Open. This President, who has been described as a visionary and an an inspirational leader, now seems strangely myopic, and the ringing oratory that inspired many now echoes with an empty echo: “I’m trying to lead the country forward…forward…forward.” Some presidents can run on their records; not this one. For all the hype and hoopla his handlers puff at the media, he’s hardly been an inspiration on the economic front (it’s all their fault), and his domestic social agenda comes out as a confusing and canvas of Pollack-like spatters of high speed rail, funny green energy, pandering immigration policies and even more pandering to punitive tax policies that will do little to improve finances but will punish those bastards who make a lot of money when others can hardly afford gas for their second cars. Of course, there’s always the health care imitative, which, if and when implemented, should achieve the simultaneous nirvanas of providing everyone with affordable or free insurance while lowering overall costs. How exactly this can happen remains a mathematical puzzle of the squaring a circle variety, unless you happen to have one of those magic calculators that only those in the inner sanctums of the administration seem to possess. Well, he killed Osama, didn’t he? While he may not have pulled the actual trigger, he gave the order. Those of you who wonder what other order could have been given by any sitting president, with the exception of Cynthia McKinney, may be suffering from an overdose of cynicism or a surfeit of reality — you choose — but taking credit for that seems about as plausible as blaming him for the Greek default. So what are we left with? We seem to have someone who insists on persuading us that he has accomplished great things in the face of impossible odds, who has stood heroically like Horatio at the bridge as the armies of avarice and greed threatened to overcome us, and who has almost singlehandedly saved us from the abyss which yet yawns before us. But if we look at what actually emerges, as the smoke and dust of the oratorical tumult settles, is something more akin to a desert landscape: “And on the pedestal these words appear: ‘My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’ Nothing besides remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.” Lupica is right, Mitt. Keep up the rope-a-dope. Obama’s just the man for it.  |
| Posted: 16 Jun 2012 05:13 AM PDT  ...and I made these pants myself! Before the economic crisis hit Europe, I observed during a trip that many Greek businesses wanted to be paid in cash only. I didn’t think much of it at the time; if anything, I figured they were being niggardly about the credit card fees. Later when that country’s unmanageable debt was revealed, I read that the insistence on cash had to do with avoiding paying taxes, a contagion that had infected Greece’s whole economy. What you don’t see in the news are a lot of Greeks offering explanations for skipping out on what they owe. Some American welchers, though, tell a different story. Of course, there have always been the tax protesters, who for one strained reason or another claim income tax is unconstitutional or otherwise wrong. But even Ron Paul, who wants to eliminate income tax and repeal the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution, hasn’t made a big issue out of it during his presidential primary run, probably on the theory that you have to pick your battles. (I was a little surprised that the Occupy Wall Street movement never generated a new wave of tax protests, since one of the key items of complaint was the lower rate of taxation for capital gains than for earned income. But that’s another story.) Anyhow, if you’re not running for President, there’s no need to be shy about not paying up. Some of us even get help and encouragement from dodgy accountants, like United Revenue Service Inc., a tax preparation firm accused of filing false income tax returns for clients. Hey, if it’s so easy for these knowledgeable folks to help me hide my income in secret overseas bank accounts, it must be OK, right? Matt Lynch, a Republican politician in Ohio with a history of property tax delinquencies, is a classic example of the habitual offender, having used several tried-and-true excuses over the years. Family illness. Clerical error. No surprise, it’s local Democrats bringing all this up now. But really. You get one “clerical error.” After that we have a problem. The owner of a sushi restaurant in the Washington, DC area is using another strategy, the “oh, you don’t want to hear all these boring details” parry. Why does the business owe $840,000 in back taxes? “It's actually a long, long story,” laughs Daisuke Utagawa, a co-owner of Sushiko. “At the moment, I’d really rather not talk about it.” At least he’s willing to talk about not wanting to talk about it. Gigantically successful singer R. Kelly has apparently not yet offered any explanation for why, according to reports, he owes $4.8 million in back taxes. One might infer the usual excuse for entertainers: Thrust into the limelight of fast and loose living and big paydays, they trust their new fortunes to managers who may be incompetent or dishonest. Elusive singer Lauryn Hill might be breaking that musicians’ mold. Accused of not filing income tax returns for three years in a row, she’s charging into the 1099 breach with an impressive excuse. For “several years,” she says, she has “remained what others would consider underground,” alluding to unspecified threats to herself and her family. “I conveyed all of this when questioned as to why I did not file taxes during this time period. Obviously, the danger I faced was not accepted as reasonable grounds for deferring my tax payments, as authorities, who despite being told all of this, still chose to pursue action against me, as opposed to finding an alternative solution.” Nice try, Lauryn. You can use all the formal terminology you want (“conveyed all this,” “reasonable grounds for deferring,” “alternative solution”), but you’re still a tax dodger, and evidently not an artful one. Even mobsters file tax returns (on their legitimate income). But I guess it’s easy to get miseducated when it comes to citizenship. Lauryn Hill, you may be a fine singer, but you’re no Tony Soprano.  |
| Posted: 10 Jun 2012 11:24 PM PDT
 "Maybe we should call it the "euromark...." They’re at it again. If they aren’t bombing London, writing six hour operas or nailing proclamations to church doors, those pesky Germans still find some mischief to get up to, and now — they’re just ruining Europe. That’s right. All you have to do these days is pick up a newspaper or turn on the TV to hear how Germany is once again doing its level best to bring chaos and terror to Europe, which teeters on the brink of bankruptcy because — well, because it seems that some nations were maybe a little too generous with their citizens. Is that so bad? Now that their neighbors need a little help, the Germans typically refuse to cooperate. Why? After all, it’s not like they can’t spare a few euros — their savings rate is among the highest in the world. In fact, many expert economists have pointed out that German failure to consume more and save less has contributed to the slowness of European recovery, and may in fact plunge it right back into a recession. But Germans insist that the solution to Europe’s woes lies in austerity, because austerity means that Germans get to keep all the coin they have squirreled away. Indeed, one might suggest that Germans actually enjoy the suffering of nations which have done nothing more than try to provide a higher standard of living for their citizens. “You should watch your spending,” say the Germans, “and pay your taxes.” Well, who asked you? Do Germans think they are all of a sudden in charge of everyone else? Didn’t they already try that a few times? Have they short memories? Worse still, German stinginess is now spilling over into the US economy, and other expert economists are now saying that US joblessness and tepid growth may not be Bush’s fault any more, but rather the result of European economic conditions that Obama has no control over (either way, it’s certainly not his fault). Okay, enough. Still, you have to wonder what the hell Germans must be thinking these days. First, they have to watch the Greeks rob them of a few hundred billion euros by lying through their teeth about their credit:
Okay, bad enough, but then they had to sit silently grinding their teeth as Greece: a. airily demanded more billions b. asserted that it was actually the fault of the Germans and the French banks, who should have known better than to believe a thing the Greeks said. This another kind of “she was asking for it” rape defense. Now, the Greek left is saying that, if they win the election, they will void the pact the previous government accepted in order to receive the last tranche of 100 billion or so euros (“we can’t believe you assholes are such suckers”). So who is the bad guy here? Well, it’s…Germany. The Germans are not eager to continue pouring Alp-sized helpings of their hard-earned cash into what appears to be an insatiable maw, and have had the temerity to suggest that further subsidies should be accompanied by stronger controls. Borrowers respond that such controls violate national sovereignty. Sovereignty means that no one else can tell you what to do, because you are responsible for your own welfare. You can see how rapidly this notion begins to entire the realm of the comical in this discussion. Still, Germany has conceded that it is at least amenable to discussing a kind of “common fund,” which will buy from European governments all bonds that exceed 60% of that nation’s GDP. This should reduce borrowing costs considerably for the PIIGS — Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Grace and Spain — but will raise them for Germans in particular. The Germans see this as preferable to simply handing the PIIGS their credit rating through the issue of so-called “eurobonds,” which is really shorthand for “if we don’t pay, then the Germans have to.” This brings us too the real rub, which is “austerity.” Numerous “expert economists” have pointed out (correctly, probably, for once), that austerity at this point is probably not the best antidote to a continental economic contraction, and that more stimulus over the short term would be to everyone’s long-term benefit. Here, we agree — in principle. The problem is, no one — the Germans least of all — can look with equanimity at the prospect. What possible assurance can the Greeks give anyone that they will abide by their agreements? For others, “stimulating” a nation that has spent the last ten years in an orgy of onanistic self-stimulation with no regard for the harm they must inevitably inflict on hundreds of millions of their fellow euro-citizens must seem almost insane. And it is. Hence, a likely outcome. Yesterday the euro-sachems announced a substantial injection of funds into Spanish banks whose insolvency is based more on a real estate deflation (sound familiar) than outright fraud by their treasury and central bankers. With any luck, this will persuade depositors that they are safe, and stem the capital flight that has pushed Spain — which is actually a fairly strong economy, as is Italy — into danger’s path. It is also reported that this arrangement was arrived at with no meaningful strings attached regarding the autonomy of Spanish fiscal policy, which would be good news indeed to other nations who fear that the price of economic revival might be paid for by decreased control over their own internal financial affairs. As all this unfolds, all eyes will be on Germany, which, at the end of the day, is the essential guarantor for all such infusions and bailouts. The French have a significant role to play, as do other nations with communal interests, but the French are already backpedaling under Hollande from facing the consequences of their own excesses, and with Britain still on the euro-sidelines and the Swiss secretly rejoicing in their stubborn independence, Germany remains the Fort Knox of Europe. And Greece? Well, a nation that prides itself on how well they dance now confronts the grim moment when the music stops, and the piper must be paid. It looks like he’ll have to accept drachmas.
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| Posted: 06 Jun 2012 09:44 PM PDT  Undemocratic, probably The recent Walker recall election result and the reactions from various commenters indicates a clear need to repair our understanding of how our democracy works and what we need to do to fix it. First, we need to revisit exactly what the Democratic Party is and what the Republican Party is. So: Democrats are mostly people from the lower rungs of our economic ladder along with people with the highest IQs who may or may not be rich, like Paul Krugman (not rich) and George Soros (pretty seriously rich). This necessarily includes many minority groups who also may or may not be rich, like black people (not rich) and Jews (rich, mostly, with a sprinkling of poor teachers and such). Union members also tend to be Democrats, which is important, because unions are the Democratic Party’s version of SuperPacs. Individual union members are not generally rich (unless they are retired public service union members, for reasons still not well understood). Democrats, as their name suggests, are for democracy and the rule of the people. They also support saving our planet, equal opportunity, a strong safety net for the poor and the unhealthy, fairness, tolerance and moving our country forward. Republicans are almost invariably either rich people or people with very low IQs who are usually not very rich. This latter group includes rednecks, bigots, survivalists, and many people unable to enjoy the benefits of living in our nation’s coastal regions. (They do not have beaches, and can only get frozen sushi.) Republicans usually carry guns (where permitted) and are prone to violence. The social policy stance of the Republican party can seem puzzling to people outside the US, as they have none. Republicans believe that only the poor should pay taxes, that poor children should remain uneducated and should live in ghettos, and that the government should restrict itself to building highways and fighting wars against Muslims. They also favor global warming and pollution, species extinction, converting wilderness into oil fields, sexual and racial discrimination and harassment and moving the country backwards (into a medieval state, with feudal lords and serfs, if possible). Now, this raises an obvious question. Why are there so many Republicans? The answer lies in the Supreme Court, which has determined that a very small number of rich people are to be allowed to spend vast amounts of the money they have wrung from the bleeding lips of the poor to buy advertisements in the media. These advertisements employ clever arguments and catchy phrases like “A government big enough to give you all you want is also big enough to take all you have” to brainwash the stupid people who live between the coasts. This is what just happened in Wisconsin, which, unsurprisingly, is many hundreds of miles distant from both the Atlantic and the Pacific. There, a Republican governor who shamefully moved to deprive public services unions of their right to bargain as one group was compelled to run again for office prior to the expiration of his elected term. Republicans in Wisconsin asserted that the wonderful benefits that unions have obtained for their members, including the convenience of having their union dues deducted automatically from their paychecks, were evidence that unrestricted collective bargaining by essential service providers like teachers, police and firemen gave unions too much of an advantage in negotiating wages and pensions. And indeed, when left to their own devices, union members forgot to pay their union dues, resulting a 50% drop in union membership across the board. Outraged, the citizens of Wisconsin determined that Governor Walker had achieved his office under false pretenses, and turned out by the hundreds to sign the petition that compelled yesterday’s recall election. But the result stunned the nation. Governor Walker was re-elected by a wider margin than he obtained in the original election that put him in office. So how did Governor Walker gain a victory of such impressive dimension? Two Republicans named Koch spent millions of dollars in Wisconsin to buy this election — that’s how. The Koch brothers do not live in Wisconsin. They do not vote in Wisconsin. So why were they allowed to spend millions buying votes in Wisconsin? Because Justice Roberts and the Supreme Court said they could. If this seems unfair to you, you are not alone. Some have argued that rich Republicans have an unfair advantage in our electoral system because their spending is not restricted. To be fair, others have pointed out that labor unions also spend very large sums of their members’ money to influence election, but labor unions comprise many, many people, and clearly should be allowed to spend what they please. But to expect Republicans to voluntarily observe normal standards of decency and restraint may be unrealistic. Recently, insight into the Republican mind was provided by a Nobel laureate, the aforementioned very high IQ Paul Krugman, writing in the New York Times, widely regarded as “the paper of record,” meaning that if you read it in the Times, you can accept it as fact. Here is what Professor Krugman had to say:
There you have it. Literally snatching food from babies. Some may admire Democrats for their restraint in refraining from beating Republicans with staves, but I’m giving them fair warning: if you try to snatch the food from my children’s mouths, you’re going to get a damn good hiding. And that’s just for starters.  |
| Posted: 06 Jun 2012 01:44 AM PDT  What a day! Where's my pipe? Oh, the children! Won’t somebody think of the children? Social networking, sugary drinks…I’m coming to the conclusion that maybe it’s time we get rid of children entirely. I don’t mean we should do away with anyone. I just mean change some definitions. Go to your local museum and look at portraits of people with their children from past centuries. The children look and dress and wear expressions just like their elders. They’re miniature adults. And they were. It’s only in modern times, for example, that we started to disapprove of child labor. On the time scale of human civilization, we only recently invented childhood. Adolescence is an even more recent creation. There wasn’t even any such word in the old days. Being a “youth” just meant being a man (today we’d say “or woman”) who happens to be young in years. Yes, we expected younger people to be more foolish than we were. But we didn’t give them a lot of special privileges on that account. Today, these young people, these children and adolescents, are nothing more than a burden on society. It’s true in small ways and large. In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, with the support of Michelle Obama, wants to ban the sale of sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces because more and more children are becoming diabetic and overweight. The result of the sudden discovery that children can’t resist sweets will be that everyone is denied treats which, while unhealthy, should be available to grownups. In the name of protecting children, “nanny state” excesses are infantilizing adults. In a similar vein, Disney will be removing junk food ads from its children’s programs. Here we have a big corporation forced to turn down boatloads of revenue for its shareholders because one “special” class of people, the so-called “children,” are assumed to merit their own special TV programs. Ridiculous. Back when I measured my age in single digits, all I wanted to do was watch the adult programs. To sit with the adults in the adults’ dining room. To be with, and be one of, the grownups. I couldn’t wait. What’s all this “children’s programming” kids supposedly need now? Any parent will tell you it’s just a tranquilizer drug to keep the little ones occupied, and heck, wouldn’t a job – cleaning bathrooms, say – do the same thing? On the federal front, the government is now in a dither over how much time kids are wasting on their electronic devices. Seems that in narrowing the “digital divide” and increasing less-affluent children’s access to computers and smart phones, we’ve produced a generation of time-wasters. What a shock! Kids get new toys and spend time using them to play instead of learn. Worrying about this is the true waste of time. Then there’s bullying. We hear about it constantly, but you can’t stop young people from harassing each other any more than you can stop adults from committing cruelties, crimes, and wars. So let’s stop wasting precious time and national resources attempting to mitigate this far-from-new “problem” and start treating kids like the little grownups they are. If they assault each other, throw ‘em in a jail (making sure it’s one where the bars are extra close together). But if they’re just being mean, too bad. I survived being “bullied” in this way as a small child. So did hordes of smart, un-athletic, or “different” kids. And so can today’s young people. Finally, look at the situation childhood has put us all in economically. By treating children as special and keeping them in school year after year after year, we’ve created huge waves of people graduating college with five or even six figures’ worth of debt they can’t pay off unless they’re lucky enough to get a great-paying job (and how many of those are there in this 1%-vs-99% economy?). A generation of half-employed, underachieving debtors – just what we need. I could go on; instances abound. But I think I’ve made my case that we ought to do away with childhood and go back to the more practical state of past times, when youngsters had to live in the real world, defend themselves when necessary, and above all, make themselves useful members of society. Even Broadway is celebrating the hardworking newsboys of yore! So get to work, kids.  |
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