Let's continue today with how we got here, that is, why we seem to think that we should be able to poop out babies without regards to whether we can pay to raise them, have risky sex and bill someone else for the HIV treatment, or stuff our pie holes until we weigh 400lbs and then expect society to buy our diabetes medication.

Or, for that matter, "deserve" a $500,000 house if we make $8/hour cutting hair.

(If you want the run-up to this, read yesterday's Ticker)

Someone commented today that I forgot to rant about the government schools that are at the base of all this crap.

Well, guess what? Yesterday I got yet another dose of it as my daughter "graduated" 5th grade (where did THAT stupidity come from; when I was in school you graduated exactly once, at the end of your 12th grade year) and got to sit through something that I have ranted to the school about before.

As I was checking my daughter out of that particular part of the government indoctrination unit for the last time, I managed to corral one Ms. Norris, the Principal, and give her my screed about their "ceremony". She had not heard it before, although her predecessors had - this was her first year.

Specifically, they "recognized" every 5th grade student for "outstanding achievement in art education, musical education and physical education", just as they had in every previous year.

Some students were also recognized for actual achievements - you know, something that exceeded waking up and going to school?

But wait - can't some students be outstanding in their prowess in art or music, at minimum?

Certainly.

But if there are over 100 students, can all of any group be outstanding?

No.

out·stand·ing (adj.)
1. Standing out among others of its kind; prominent.
2. Superior to others of its kind; distinguished.
3. Projecting upward or outward; standing out.

So if we have 100+ students, all cannot be superior to others of their kind by definition.

Of course vocabulary is supposed to be part of your primary education, right? Guess what?

This sort of intentional lie - redefine words so they mean whatever you want them to today is a big part of how we managed to destroy individuality and achievement in America!

Why?

Because we refuse to address the truth and this refusal is a systemic and intentional act that begins on the first day of school and proceeds through the entire so-called "educational system."

On that very first day you bring your supplies to school in Kindergarten - and immediately some part of them are confiscated for "the communal good." Do YOU put those THIRTY SIX pencils in YOUR desk? No! Teacher "keeps them" and "hands them out." I raised unholy hell about this six years ago when my kid started Kindergarten, to no avail.

Do you see what's going on here?

Johnny learns on the first damn day in his government indoctrination class that "the government will dole out whatever you need, when you need it, and will take whatever you have in order to do that."

Of course they don't say that, but that's what's going on! Its "not fair" that a "poor" student might not have enough money to buy all those supplies they proscribe, so "Teacher" (the government) will make sure that those who have more pay taxes to support those who have less. This sort of intentional mental "bending" starts when you're FIVE and it never lets up!

It has become more important that we make all of our kids "feel good" than recognize those who truly have distinguished themselves via their achievements.

It is more important that everyone is the same than to recognize the truth that we are all individuals with different abilities, capacity for success, and most importantly, we will have different outcomes in life.

As a direct consequence of this we have a class of over 100 students and every single one of them got an identical award, with the standard of achievement being that you are capable of fogging a mirror and putting up with the school's crap without shooting spitballs at the teacher!

This intentionally and directly derogates those who truly do stand out through their efforts and discourages them from doing so in the future.

It in fact is a boot to every student's head urging them NOT to work hard since they get NO MATERIAL RECOGNITION THAT EXTENDS BEYOND THOSE WHO DO LESS.

This is an explicit and intentional act, it has been going on for more than 20 years, and it is why we are here in this nation today.

When I was in school the "A/B" honor roll was the lowest form of recognized achievement. All "B"s? Not good enough. You needed at least one "A", and we were graded on a 7-point scale.

First we considered someone with all "B"s on a ten point scale to be "honor roll". This is not a trivial difference at all; it is a full six percentage point derogation and even more when one considers that "all Bs" was good enough.

Based on the standards in place when I was in school, we are now handing out "Honor Roll" awards to students who are getting straight Cs! That is, you get an award for AVERAGE performance, based on a real grading scale.

But even that sort of "dumbing it down" wasn't enough! Next, we added "outstanding achievement awards" for physical education, art education and music education and then awarded them for doing nothing more than showing up in class!

So now "outstanding" means "the truant officer didn't come and pick you up, arresting your parents at the same time"?

Nor does this stupidity stop when one leaves elementary school.

I have a number of friends who have kids in high school, and have for over 20 years. For that entire time I have asked each of them who I have become acquainted with at some point in the time we've known each other, usually as they prepare to go off to college, if they can tell me how much a $10 pizza charged on the credit card that they will have shoved down their throat the instant they set foot on campus (at 18) will cost them at age 65 as a consequence of eating it instead of placing that amount in an S&P 500 index fund that would return, on average, 10% annually.

Not one of them could tell me how to figure it out.

In fact the foregone gains on that $10 over the space of 47 years is $881.98.

So if you eat one pizza a week in college, and are in college 40 out of the 52 weeks of the year for four years, you will have spent $1600 but at 65 you could have instead had $141,115.98.

We spend a full semester or more of our high school student's time in "health class" teaching them about "safer sex" but we do not spend 30 minutes teaching them about compound earnings or compound interest.

You want to know why not?

Because if we taught our kids this they would literally riot when they ran those numbers for Social Security and Medicare, and the first targets of their action would be us as their parents who are sticking them with a bill there is no possible way they can pay without bankrupting themselves and our nation.

So instead we lie by omission and over time little Johnny becomes bigger Johnny and he decides he wants a house. He goes and talks to a nicely-dressed banker or mortgage broker who looks at his pay stub and says "you can afford a $400,000 house."

What Johnny doesn't know, because you didn't insist that he learn, is that he can't afford any such thing. That "loan" is in fact a negative-amortization exploding debt bomb but Johnny is too ignorant to figure it out.

He's ignorant because you intentionally dumbed down his schooling, lest he figure out that dear old Mom and Dad have every intention of bending him over the table and raping him repeatedly when they get older, as there is not a snowball's chance in HELL that the Ponzi Scams called "Social Security" and "Medicare" can be sustained.

So to hide YOUR intent to screw YOUR child you intentionally failed to teach him or her how to calculate these things out for him or herself, afraid that Johnny or Jane will figure it out and tell YOU to go straight to hell for mortgaging their future.

Of course after the first generation does this to their kids, the next generation - the 20-somethings of today - don't know any better! They poop out a few kids but now they don't know what they should be teaching their kids - but aren't.

And the best part of it is that our government indoctrination centers, otherwise called "schools", don't teach this stuff either so Johnny can protect himself from the predators on both Wall and Main Streets, because by gosh, if they did, Johnny would figure out that the government is running that very same gigantic Ponzi Scheme!

Now let's take an objective look at educational standards to see if I'm overstating my case.

I'm going to use for this purpose the infamous 1895 eighth grade graduation test from Salnia, KS.

Snopes has gone after this and claimed that this does "not" demonstrate a shocking lack of educational standards. Notice that they say nothing about the authenticity of the test - that's because, after lots of research, plenty of people have confirmed that it IS authentic!

I'll accept about half of the criticism of the test at face value. Certainly, the history portion of the test is unfair by today's standards - it focuses on the topical events of the time, which we would pay a different level of attention to - and justly so. Geography, unless you live in Kansas, I'll give you half on, considering that a good part of the questions were Kansas-specific.

But how about the grammar portion? Hmmmm..... has "The King's English" changed? Oh I think not. More to the point, are we more concerned with "diversity" in language today than proper grammar? Ebonics anyone?

How about arithmetic? While you can probably argue that some of the units demanded in that section of the test are arcane for all but an agrarian society (e.g. rods and bushels), a few of those questions stuck out instantly given the financial situation we find ourselves in. Specifically:

6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
10.Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt.

Well, well, well. Now isn't that interesting. A substantial part of the arithmetic portion of the test bore specifically on matters of finance that would be of interest (pun intended) to anyone who was borrowing money!

Do we teach any of this today? Of course not! Walk into any car dealer - "how much payment can you afford" becomes the primary focus of any negotiation there as soon as you disclose that you intend to finance the car. And why not? 99% of our government school graduates not only couldn't answer those three questions in 8th grade they couldn't answer them as high school graduates either!

Think I'm being unfair towards the government indoctrination centers, er, schools?

I'm not. Here are the facts.

I ran a company with a few dozen employees for more than a decade - in Chicago. I got tired of so-called High School Graduates that were unable to answer those three questions above, or anything resembling them in the ordinary course of business.

See, if you worked in my office, someone might occasionally come in that forgot to pay their bill. That could require that you be able to make change for them, in your head or on a piece of paper using a pencil, for a $20 so they could get their service restored.

The majority of applicants were unable to do this; I instituted a math and English test necessary to get an interview, calibrated at an average 7th grade level. Nearly 9 out of 10 applicants - out of a pool of thousands over the years - failed. I kept ever one of these tests in a file cabinet in the event that the EEOC tried to claim I had "discriminated" against someone, along with aggregate statistics. It was disgusting.

Now let's be objective about this.

WHY aren't those questions on today's 8th Grade tests?

The government does not want our high schoolers, say much less graduates, to understand that both Government and Private Business are running one gigantic Ponzi Scheme after another, and that all are destined to collapse.

Notice that in 1895 there was no Social Security and no Medicare.

There was no incentive for the government to keep you from knowing about exploding debt bombs, whether on your personal or the public's balance sheet.

In fact, the government was quite interested in you having that knowledge, because you were expected to protect yourself and save on your own - there was no "social security" safety net and if you needed a doctor as you got older, you damn well better be able to pay him. If not, you might die, and government was interested in that not happening, since dead people don't pay taxes (other than one last gasp in the inheritance tax!)

Every year I get a "statement" from the Social Security Administration. It says that it is a statement of "projected" benefits, and shows the money that I've reported to the SS(A), and reminds me of both the dates on which I can "apply" and also that I can "apply" for Medicare as well.

Nowhere on that statement is the fact that according to both Mr. Walker, the former Comptroller General of the United States (you know, the chief accountant?) and The Dallas Fed's Fisher, Social Security and Medicare have a net present deficit of ONE HUNDRED TRILLION DOLLARS, and absolutely no plan or ability to fund it.

Fact is, I have no desire to suck off the public tit. If I cannot pay for my own medical care when I get older, it is time for me to go meet God. If I cannot pay for my own food and shelter, ditto. I have the right to ask my progeny for help, but I do not have the right to force her to cover my medical or living expenses via theft - otherwise called "taxation."

My parents see this differently. They have plenty of money to pay their own way. But they are very interested in not doing so, nor checking out peacefully if they exhaust their resources. As such they are perfectly happy to screw both me (as their son) and their granddaughter. They simply don't care - so long as they get theirs - who gets the bill or whether it can be paid.

Who's right folks? Well guess what - if you think you have a "right" to Social Security, a "right" to Medicare, or any similar "right" that extends beyond your present value to pay for whatever good or service you wish to purchase then you are claiming a right to screw your children and grandchildren in order to cover the bill.

It is my contention that those people who believe this are either ignorant of the impact on their kids and grandkids (in which case education and their repudiation of their position is the answer) or they simply don't give a damn, in which case they are spawn of the Devil and I pray that my belief in the Divine, which I will finally have proof of when I pass, turns out to be true.

One is obligated to look at incentives when looking at why things happen.

It is really quite simple:

• We provide incentives for people to poop out babies they cannot afford (more food stamps than you get as a single person, and welfare.) We thus get lots of pooped out babies that the parents cannot afford, and create incentives for women to sleep with men who can't or won't help support a family.
• We craft Ponzi schemes in social programs (Social Security and Medicare) which then gives cover to dozens of additional Ponzi Schemes, with the latest one (housing) consuming our economy. We thus get an education system that intentionally refuses to teach our children that we as parents are literally raping our childrens' futures, and that in turn turns them into PREY for the bankers and hucksters who then destroy their personal balance sheets and financial lives so they can turn a "profit."
• We start on the first day of Kindergarten indoctrinating our children that "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" is appropriate, beginning with a five year old's pencils and paper. We then find ourselves continuing this by claiming that every student in a class of more than 100 is "outstanding" at the same time for the same thing, a mathematically impossible feat, destroying the incentive of students to truly excel. We learned exactly nothing from the socialism experiment at Plymouth Colony, which resulted in the death of more than half of the colonists - a downward slide that was only reversed when The Mayflower Compact was torn up and private property rights, along with recognition for hard work and success, was instituted in its place. Oh, and we don't teach that inconvenient little fact in our so-called "history class" with regards to the Thanksgiving Holiday; if we did some of the students might discover that we're a bunch of flaming hypocrites and flip us the bird instead of "respecting" us. (As an aside, lying is worthy of respect, isn't it?)
• We are "happy" as parents when our schools get "good" test scores on things like the FCAT, even though the schools are achieving this by intentionally ignoring part of the state curriculum standards so they can "teach to the test." See, not everything in the curriculum standards is on the test, so the parts that aren't simply get ignored. Instead of demanding Principals and Curriculum Directors be fired and replaced for this, we cheer the "great" performance of our schools. Bluntly, we cheer cheating by our school administrations. (As an aside, can you really punish your kid for doing it if he or she does when the school board and administration are doing the same thing?)
• We not only countenance federal, state and local budgets predicated on unsustainable Ponzi Schemes (e.g. the housing bubble and school budgets on up the line) but we reward those people with re-election and reappointment to their positions. We then whine - after we've allowed these asshats to spend $9,000 on "smart boards" for classrooms, when a $50 white board works just fine - that our schools "don't have enough money."
• We allow people like Henry Paulson and Bernanke to pontificate on how "subprime will not spread", "the economy is fundamentally strong" and dozens of additional and similar lies, when these are people with advanced educations and actual knowledge of their falsehoods, who are speaking for the explicit purpose of "inciting confidence" - that is conning us. We then act on this and find our economic futures decimated; ask those who lived through this crap in the 1930s! Oh wait - you can't - they're all dead. Gee, I wonder why they're getting away with it this time when we no longer teach actual history in the damn schools!

We deserve what is coming folks, and the first place to direct your ire is at your County School Board.

You live in a district, you pay taxes, directly or indirectly, to support those clowns. Whether you have children or not the kids in school now are the wage-earners of the future and you had damn well better care about the quality (or lack thereof) of the education that is being doled out in them.

GET OFF YOUR BUTT AND DEMAND THAT THE CURRICULUM REFLECT REALITY, THREATENING TO FIND WAYS TO CUT OFF ALL THEIR MONEY IF THEY DON'T!

Specifically:

• No more "socialism" in the classroom. You bring pencils and paper to class, they are yours. From the first day of Kindergarten. This does not prevent someone who "has less" asking for a pencil, but it does prohibit confiscating your pencils, whether directly or via coercion ("c'mon Johnny, you have plenty of pencils.... can't Steve have one of yours?")
• The first time Thanksgiving is taught and from then onward, Bradford's diary and the truth about the colonists and The Mayflower Compact needs to be discussed. Fact: Socialism has never worked in the history of the world for any substantial period of time in other than small, insular, single-socio-ethnic groups. Presenting it as a "competing socio-economic theory" is not only ok but should occur, however, failing to note that every attempt at living under it for larger societies has failed is not acceptable. Period.
• Mathematics must include discussions of compound interest and compound earnings. When kids learn how to do percentages, they must be taught about compound interest and compound earnings. By fifth grade any kid should be able to take $100 and tell me what the total interest due is on that for 10 years at 10%, and how much money they will have if they start with that $100 and earn 10% a year, compounded.
• "Home EC", "Life Skills" or whatever you want to call it must spend at least as much time on financial education as sex education. You're just as screwed if you make a mistake financially as if you do sexually. To pass that class you should understand the basics of what a stock and bond are and how they're priced and traded, what a mortgage is, what depreciation is, how to compute the total imputed cost of owning .vs. renting a home and where and when fiduciary responsibilities apply and when they do not - and why you care. The fact that The Fed follows the market on rates; it does not set rates, must be discussed and understood, along with the overall monetary environment, including the difference between monetary and price inflation. The economic cycle, including Kondratieff Cycles (long cycles) and shorter-term cycles (18 years on average for housing and 7 for general business) must be understood. This cannot be an elective - it must be a required course. If you don't arm kids against the thugs on both Wall Street AND Main Street they WILL get screwed; Greenspan's example of urging people to take ARM mortgages at the bottom of the interest rate cycle in 2002/03 is just one example!

As for "we adults", here's reality folks:

• This is a recession. We just saw a huge jump in the unemployment rate today. Those "goldilocks" crooners are wrong, and if you listen to them whatever is left of your portfolio will be destroyed. Get to safe harbor with your investments NOW.
• Congress, The Fed and The Administration have all encouraged "holding" losses instead of selling bad positions and recognizing them. This is a gambit that will not pay; it is predicated on housing bottoming in 2009. THEY ARE WRONG - housing will not bottom in 2009. The best time to take those losses and sell those assets was in August of 07, and the longer banks and others wait, the worse it will get. We may have already passed the point where a depression is inevitable, but if we keep sitting on our butts while Congress, The Fed and The White House fiddle, allowing banks, pension funds and others to hide losses, we will get one with certainty.
• If you are going to have to sell your home in the next five years consider doing it right now and renting. You are at severe risk if this economic dislocation is mishandled by Washington DC, and there is absolutely no evidence that they understand what is going on or are willing to face reality.
• It is absolutely essential that as taxpayers you do not allow government largesse nor can you give a pass to the incompetence of state and local government officials who drew budgets and spending plans based on the housing bubble continuing. These people must be forced from office NOW. California is facing the possibility of bankruptcy as a state as soon as August of this year! Florida and other states will follow unless immediate austerity measures are taken. This is not optional.
• The states, municipalities and the Federal Government must get the illegal aliens - all of them - out of our nation immediately. These individuals are a huge net cost in social service, education and judicial resources and we do not have the money to spare. Worse, we need the jobs for Americans. This is not limited to California and Florida - Colorado and Illinois, for example, both have huge illegal immigrant populations. The arguments over "humanity" simply are no longer applicable - this is about economic survival, not whether we want to "be nice".

Time for the tough choices folks.

Either make them or they will be made for you.