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7 thoughts on “Best Piece Jon Stewart’s Done to Date”

  1. The state of teacher compensation is a reflection of the true values of our nation. We do not value our kids or our future as evidenced by the fact that we do not sufficiently value our teachers.

    But the really bad news is that we cannot as a nation say one thing and then do another — the way we treat our teachers will come back to bite us. If there was any “industry” where we would as a nation truly want the best and the brightest it is in the classroom.

    As a nation, we are falling behind many nations on math and science scores; even great minds are worthless if not developed or allowed to languish in over-crowded classes. America is losing ground, and our middle-class is shrinking and wages stagnant for all but the wealthy.

    Every day teachers are fighting the good fight for little more than minimum wage. While the wizards of Wall Street, meanwhile, get rich for contributing nothing of value to our country. I refuse to invest a dime of my money in the stock market because I refuse to contribute in any way to that sham!

  2. I had to go via comedy network to get the feed in Canada. It was an amazing piece and I love how he can bring together what the powers that be said when it was THEIR money being negotiated and how they have turned it around when it is about Wisconsin unionized workers such as teachers.

    We are currently without a contract here and crossing our fingers that negotiations go well.

  3. @ jolie: The man’s a genius. I sure hope you can get access to the full episodes soon.

    @ frugalscholar: Ditto. How many folks d’you suppose are out there these days who hardly watch the boob tube at all? Before the switch to digital, I rarely parked myself in front of the television, though I did like get the PBS NewsHour on my old fridge-top TV while I was fixing dinner. But when the horrid switch made setting up broadcast reception so cumbersome, I pretty much stopped watching television at all. {sigh} If I can’t get it off the Net, I don’t watch it.

  4. tmgbooks, I think you’re missing the point. It isn’t that America’s rich don’t value education for our children. It’s that they don’t value education for your children. Their children are going to high priced private schools. And frankly, when the time comes for their kids to be applying to their Ivy League schools, they would just as soon that your kids don’t offer too much competition.

  5. Pat, you’re right, but it is very short-sighted of them to hold that view.

    A poorly educated America without a manufacturing base will mean the end of the middle-class.

    I am very familiar with a country with no middle-class — Mexico. The richest man in the world is a Mexican. The problem is that it is not a very nice place even for the wealthy.

    The 400 richest Americans own as much wealth as the lower 50% of the entire population. But I hope those rich kids in their Ivy League schools are paying attention in class because history is not on their side.

    It was not the rich that made America great, it was the middle class. And it was also the middle-class that made the rich. Gadhafi is one of the wealthiest people in the world — how’s that working for him?

    Mistakes of hubris are the great equalizer; people born on third base but whom, if you ask them, will swear they hit a triple.

    The industry of America these days is basically war and electronic innovation along the lines of the I-Pod and I-Pad which are not exactly the cure for cancer if you know what I mean. And not a replacement for the foundation upon which America was built and is now being eroded away.

    And the other fact of history that works against wealth, even great wealth, is that family fortunes only last a generation; they get diluted among the progeny and lost to poor management, business cycles, greed, and waste.

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