Answers to the Short Quiz

[johnkarls]

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Editorial Comment = As is normally the case, the following questions were created before obtaining a copy of the book on which we are focusing. Accordingly, any pessimism on the part of Yours Truly should not discourage anyone from reading the book which, at least in theory, could be the proverbial Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread.
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Question 1

What are the five areas in which our author has compared the United States to the world’s other developed countries?

Answer 1

Health, education, safety, democracy and equality.

Question 2

Does our author seem to be aware that the U.S. government has reported for decades that 30% of Americans are illiterate as defined, for example, by the ability to read a warning label on a can of rat poison?

Answer 2

No.

Question 3

Does our author seem to be aware that 99% of American inner-city children live in single-adult households, that 95% live in single-adult households headed by a druggie, and that 75%-80% live in single-adult households headed by a druggie who turns over any receipts (e.g., welfare) to the pusher so the kids have to steal just in order to eat?

Answer 3

No.

Question 4

Is it any wonder that America has created a Permanent Under-Caste?

Answer 4

Yes and no.

Yes it is a wonder, because identical-twin studies (the Gold Standard for measuring genetics vs. environment, in this case studying one inner-city identical twin orphaned before her/his first birthday and adopted by a suburban family and the other identical twin who is adopted by an inner-city family) regularly show that inner-city children have the same level of intelligence as the general population.

But no it is not a wonder, because American society insists on financing K-12 education primarily with local property taxes. Which means that wealthy Americans congregate in wealthy school districts that provide outstanding K-12 education for their children, less-fortunate American parents who cannot afford to buy homes in wealthy school districts do the best they can for their children, and the Permanent Under-Caste which is confined to inner-city ghettos with no property-tax base, can NOT offer their children any hope!!!

As former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (who was Provost of Stanford University before joining the federal government) is fond of saying, she can tell from a child’s Zip Code whether s/he has a chance at a decent education.

That’s why we took such a strong stand at our 9/12/12 meeting that Bill and Melinda Gates are guilty of Crimes Against Humanity as defined by the Rome Statute which established the International Criminal Court at The Hague, because of their peddling Snake Oil that permits America to blame the Permanent Under-Caste for its own condition, rather than doing the Heavy Lifting required to actually solve the problem. [For more details, please see Q&A-6 through Q&A-9 below or http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org for all the materials relating to our 9/12/12/ meeting.]

Question 5

Because of the size of the Permanent Under-Caste that America has created, shouldn’t it be considered a miracle if America did not rate off the bottom of the charts comparing it to the world’s other developed countries in every important respect (e.g., education, health, etc.)?

Answer 5

Of course!!!

Our author’s approach is interesting = pick five areas for which there is an overall statistical measure by which the U.S. and 13 other rich countries can be compared, and then look at quite a few of the statistical sub-categories in each of the 5 overall categories.

However, if our author were aware of the size of America’s Permanent Under-Caste and its composition, hopefully he would have worked harder to obtain break-downs of each of America’s statistical measures for each of the 5 overall categories into two components = the statistical measure in each of the 5 categories for America’s Permanent Under-Caste and the statistical measure in each of the 5 categories for the rest of America.

Since he is blind to the existence of America’s Permanent Under-Caste, much less its size, he is like the group of proverbial blind men who are each asked to feel an elephant and describe it!!!

For example, in the category of health, he compares the life expectancy of American women to African-American men. Without apparently realizing, of course, that both categories contain members of the America’s Permanent Under-Caste and that in all probability, the contrast would be incredibly-more stark if the contrast had been between solely American women who are NOT members of America’s Permanent Under-Caste and solely African-American males who ARE.

Frustrating!!! Because his book could have been so much more informative!!! And so much more valuable!!!

Question 6

With regard to education, does our author peddle the Old Discredited Snake Oil pushed for 10 years by Bill and Melinda Gates that all that is needed to bring the typical inner-city SINGLE-DIGIT high-school graduation rates up to the level of the rest of the country is to break up inner-city high schools into smaller high schools?

Answer 6

No.

In fact he doesn’t even mention (as did Prof. Diane Ravitch in “The Life And Death Of The Great American School System” which was the focus of our 9/12/2012 meeting) that Bill and Melinda Gates had led America down this Blind Alley for 10 years!!!

Question 7

With regard to education, does our author peddle the New Discredited Snake Oil pushed for the last several years by Bill and Melinda Gates that all that is needed is to replace public schools with charter schools?

Answer 7

No.

Indeed, he cites one of the same studies described at length by Prof. Diane Ravitch (please see Q&A-6) that demonstrate that Charter Schools have performed LESS WELL than their public-school competitors EVEN THOUGH Charter Schools typically cherry pick the best students AND EVEN THOUGH Charter Schools typically expel non-performing students.

However, our author does not finger Bill and Melinda Gates (as did Prof. Ravitch) as the culprits behind this New Discredited Snake Oil!!!

Question 8

If so, why does our author believe Bill and Melinda Gates that calling a rattlesnake a canary will protect you if the “canary” bites? In other words, why does he believe Bill and Melinda Gates that calling a sociology problem an education problem will solve the problem? And why, then, don’t our author and Bill and Melinda Gates advocate closing every inner-city police precinct in whose jurisdiction a crime is committed and replacing those police with amateurs?

Answer 8

Per the Editorial Comment above, the questions in these monthly quizzes are typically created before obtaining a copy of the book. As set forth in Q&A-7, our author did NOT peddle the New Discredited Snake Oil pushed by Bill and Melinda Gates.

However, applying the three parts of Question 8 solely to Bill and Melinda Gates, the answers =

God only knows!!!
God only knows!!!
God only knows!!!

Question 9

Isn’t the Bill and Melinda Gates approach nothing more than giving Mainstream America permission to blame inner-city teachers for inner-city conditions, rather than challenging Mainstream America to do the Heavy Lifting that will be required of Mainstream America to improve this sociological (NOT educational) problem?

Answer 9

Of course!!!

Question 10

With regard to wealth distribution, isn’t the real problem that America has refused to educate its Permanent Under-Caste? In other words, that America has refused to empower (rather than create entitlements for) the Permanent Under-Caste?

Answer 10

Yes. Yes.

Question 11

Does our author merely propose wealth re-distribution, or does he actually propose taxing the wealthy to finance the transformation of the Permanent Under-Caste in order effectively to bring it into the mainstream?

Answer 11

Unfortunately, he does not advocate transforming the Permanent Under-Caste because he does NOT appear to be aware of it.

Question 12

Do all of the recipients of this newsletter know that President Obama broke the heart of Yours Truly by wasting his first term on healthcare rather than effective education for the Permanent Under-Caste?

Answer 12

I should hope so!!!

Question 13

In other words (which have been expressed many times in the past in the answers to these short quizzes), why did we need a Community Organizer to champion universal healthcare which has been proposed by virtually every U.S. President starting with Theodore Roosevelt? Why couldn’t the Community Organizer, instead, have empowered America’s inner-city residents with effective education rather than provided them with another entitlement?

Answer 13

It was a waste of a Community Organizer to tackle healthcare rather than transforming America’s Permanent Under-Caste!!!

God only knows why President Obama’s priorities were so badly askew!!!

Question 14

Is it the opinion of Washington Post Columnist Dana Milbank and long-time Business Week Columnist Robert Kuttner that America has “the best government money can buy”? That “campaign contributions” (aka, bribes) dictate everything that happens (or doesn’t) in the cesspool known as Washington DC? And that the “campaign contributions” often take the form of extortion by the pols rather than bribery of the pols? And that the return on “investment” (“ROI”) for “campaign contributions” to U.S. pols is THOUSANDS of times higher than on any other kind of investment the world has to offer? And that we could probably eliminate our annual deficits and even pay off in short order our entire national debt by auctioning off governmental favors rather than letting the pols give them away for pittances in the form of “campaign contributions”?

Answer 14

For our 2/14/2008 meeting, we focused on Washington Post Columnist Dana Milbank’s “Homo-Politicus: The Strange And Scary Tribes That Run Our Government” and long-time Business Week Columnist Robert Kuttner’s “The Squandering Of America: How The Failure Of Our Politics Undermines Our Prosperity”

The central theme of both books was that America has “the best government money can buy”!!!

Both authors believed that “campaign contributions” (aka, bribes) dictate everything that happens (or doesn’t) in the cesspool known as Washington DC!!!

However, only Robert Kuttner said that “campaign contributions” often take the form of extortion by the pols rather than bribery of the pols.

[Dana Milbank did not address the issue of extortion by, vs. bribery of, the pols.]

Yes, the return on “investment” (“ROI”) for “campaign contributions” to U.S. pols is THOUSANDS of times higher than any other kind of investment the world has to offer.

And yes, we could probably eliminate our annual deficits and even pay off in short order our entire national debt by auctioning off governmental favors rather than letting the pols give them away for pittances in the form of “campaign contributions”!!!

Question 15

Is President Obama’s failure to prioritize properly as described in Q&A-13 due to the realization that there are few, if any, “campaign contributions” available in the course of enacting effective education for America’s Permanent Under-Caste?

Answer 15

Probably.

Question 16

Whereas both President Obama and Congressional Democrats who controlled the Universal Healthcare Bill would be showered with “campaign contributions” from insurance companies, employers, labor unions, etc., etc.?

Answer 16

Obviously!!!

Question 17

If America really wanted to control its healthcare costs and bring them into line with other civilized countries, wouldn’t it get rid of all the litigation against doctors and other health providers which compels them to order all kinds of tests, procedures, prescriptions, etc., that serve little useful purpose other than to protect against litigation? In other words, didn’t “no fault” car insurance make sense? Though, of course, doesn’t there have to be a mechanism for getting rid of careless doctors just as there is a mechanism for getting rid of careless drivers?

Answer 17

Yes – Yes – Yes.

Question 18

And isn’t it impossible to do so because the tort lawyers are major contributors to the Democratic Party?

Answer 18

Practical people would admit it is impossible.

Optimists (on this issue) would hope for Republican control of the White House and the House of Representatives with a veto-proof majority in the Senate.

Question 19

And just to make the criticism bi-partisan, wouldn’t the next step in reducing American healthcare costs be to eliminate from President George W. Bush’s prescription-drug Medicare benefit the provisions that enable the drug companies to charge Americans for the world’s research and development costs? In other words, why should some paltry “campaign contributions” force Americans to pay higher prices for drugs than the rest of the world, and even try to prevent Americans from taking advantage of the two-tier pricing by buying their drugs on-line from Canadian pharmacies?

Answer 19

Yes, Medicare’s drug benefit should not force Americans to bear the world’s research & development costs.

No, some paltry “campaign contributions” should not have forced this result.

Question 20

Does our author have any practical suggestions for improving our government? Or does he merely offer the same-old warmed-over suggestions that everyone else has proposed for decades because they aren’t practical?

Answer 20

No.

However, he omits many of the same-old warmed-over suggestions and adds a few, all of which seem incapable of transforming the situation.

[As we have discussed many times in the past, (1) a parliamentary form of government would best transform the situation but would require replacing the scrap of paper drafted by some primitive farmers more than 200 years ago and called the U.S. Constitution, and (2) a Balanced-Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (such as the one that in 1995 fell one vote short of being approved by Congress for sending to the states for ratification) would at least solve the most pressing problem facing the nation which our author ignores.]

Question 21

Finally, to avoid ignoring our author’s fifth “vital measure of individual and national security” -- gun violence -- how many of us really believe that the most effective policy would NOT be for Mainstream America to do the Heavy Lifting required to transform the Permanent Under-Caste in which not only are 95% of the children living in a single-adult households headed by a druggie, the overwhelming majority of which turn over any money to the pusher so the kids have to steal just in order to eat, BUT THE CHILDREN KNOW BY THE AGE OF 5 THAT THEY ARE NOT ELIGIBLE FOR THEIR DREAMS AND THEIR ONLY REALISTIC CAREER OBJECTIVE IS PUSHER OR PIMP, OR GIRL FRIEND OF A PUSHER OR PIMP?

Answer 21

Presumably, transforming America’s Permanent Under-Caste would have a much-more dramatic impact on gun violence than any other policy.

However, statistical evidence is not readily available because both sets of pols have “taken their eye off the ball” (to use a famous phrase employed by President Obama during the 2008 Presidential Campaign in relation to another issue). Democrats blame guns. Republicans blame video games and an inadequate mental-health system. BUT NOBODY CARES ABOUT THE IMPACT ON GUN VIOLENCE OF AMERICA’S PERMANENT UNDER-CASTE (OR EVEN SEEMS TO NOTICE IT!!!)!!!