After Hilary and Barack sweep into office in '08 and revive the '90s movement for 'children's rights,' I may be at risk for suit from my children for not bringing this educational alternative to their attention:
Need one read any further than the quote from Sophia Bennett Holmes, 12, an aspiring singer-actress-fashion designer?
If you do, I think the last paragraph tells you all you need to know:
“I feel like they’re definitely going to have a hard time with college, where you have to sort of do that sitting down and shutting up thing,” said Victoria Rothman, 17, a public school refugee who now spends much of her school day studying music. “There are kids who sit here and play video games all day. I’d put a limit to that or ban it.”
Sure, some flexibility in curriculum and instruction is good, but a free-for-all? Probably not.
You can be a church volunteer and community activist and have silly ideas — redistribute income, raise the minimum wage — on economic issues. It’s common in the Catholic Church. Good intentions, bad ideas.
Raising the minimum wage may wreak havoc on lower income folks if we do have a protracted downturn (I think that we will). Bernanke’s book on the Great Depression had an essay on how real wages did not fall, to match the fall in demand, and may have contributed to the slow recovery (’34 to ’41, for nominal GDP) after the steep fall (’29-’33).
Raising the federal minimum wage will actually help my firm. CA minimum wage is way higher than everywhere else, and as a result, I often lose business to companies in other states.
I was a little shocked at the 40% increase though – that is definitely going to put some businesses out of business.
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