If "diversity" was fertilizer, it couldn't grow sh...
Having had each and every Politically Correct bone surgically removed from my psyche allows me to sometimes be brutally and painfully honest. As a result, I sometimes tick my leftist visitors off. Please know that I do try to be an equal-opportunity ticker-offer: I find utopianists of any stripe to be revolting, mostly because of their ironic capacity to impede progress in the name of progress. Self-labeled "progressives," perhaps not coincidentally, happen to be the best at it.
"What's that?" you say. I'll give you a for instance.
Supposedly "compassionate" support of illegal aliens causes artificial deflation of wages. Keeping wages for manual labor perpetually low frees corporations from having to invest capital in research and development on cheaper, more efficient means of production. Corporate execs see the savings inflate their paychecks just as surely as low-wage and entry-level American workers suffer from the wage deflation brought on by the constant inflow of illegal foreign competitors willing to do their jobs for less. More significantly, importation of cheap labor also allows corporations to defer and delay research and development, thus passing the expense of much-needed innovation along to the next generation.
To sum it up, "progressives" who support illegal aliens impede progress, harm poor and entry-level workers and increase the salaries of corporate executives.
We can only wonder how much this instant-gratification-fulfilling profiteering fed by the deferred cost of innovation is going to hurt the America of the future. You know, the one in which we will need to care for an aging population? Demographics indicate that we need to innovate as much as we can now - today - before Alzheimers becomes an officially-recognized minority. The continued importation of a more socially-dependent class is simply not going to help.
People who blindly repeat the mantra that "America's strength is in its diversity" either have not thought very deeply about subject or are not capable of doing so.
There must be a dramatic shift in our collective mindset if tomorrow's America is going to be in a position to pay its elders the respect they're going to deserve. I think it must begin within our educational system, particularly our universities. They must do a better job than they ever have. They must "get down to brass tacks"...something that will be very hard to do unless we get rid of the effete marshmallows that run most of our institutions of higher learning.
I don't know, understand or care what the cloistered, tenured, egghead class strolling through our ivy covered halls believes. Perhaps it is time that we start to cure this disease by decapitation. Mr. Hanson mentions a few university presidents who would top my list of heads that have to roll.
Ivory Cower: University presidents have lost their dignity
Victor Davis Hanson
Technorati tags: diversity, education
"What's that?" you say. I'll give you a for instance.
Supposedly "compassionate" support of illegal aliens causes artificial deflation of wages. Keeping wages for manual labor perpetually low frees corporations from having to invest capital in research and development on cheaper, more efficient means of production. Corporate execs see the savings inflate their paychecks just as surely as low-wage and entry-level American workers suffer from the wage deflation brought on by the constant inflow of illegal foreign competitors willing to do their jobs for less. More significantly, importation of cheap labor also allows corporations to defer and delay research and development, thus passing the expense of much-needed innovation along to the next generation.
To sum it up, "progressives" who support illegal aliens impede progress, harm poor and entry-level workers and increase the salaries of corporate executives.
We can only wonder how much this instant-gratification-fulfilling profiteering fed by the deferred cost of innovation is going to hurt the America of the future. You know, the one in which we will need to care for an aging population? Demographics indicate that we need to innovate as much as we can now - today - before Alzheimers becomes an officially-recognized minority. The continued importation of a more socially-dependent class is simply not going to help.
People who blindly repeat the mantra that "America's strength is in its diversity" either have not thought very deeply about subject or are not capable of doing so.
There must be a dramatic shift in our collective mindset if tomorrow's America is going to be in a position to pay its elders the respect they're going to deserve. I think it must begin within our educational system, particularly our universities. They must do a better job than they ever have. They must "get down to brass tacks"...something that will be very hard to do unless we get rid of the effete marshmallows that run most of our institutions of higher learning.
I don't know, understand or care what the cloistered, tenured, egghead class strolling through our ivy covered halls believes. Perhaps it is time that we start to cure this disease by decapitation. Mr. Hanson mentions a few university presidents who would top my list of heads that have to roll.
Ivory Cower: University presidents have lost their dignity
Victor Davis Hanson
"The signs of erosion on our campuses are undeniable, whether we examine declining test scores, spiraling costs, or college graduates' ignorance of basic facts and ideas. In response, our academic leadership is not talking about a more competitive curriculum, higher standards of academic accomplishment, or the critical need freely to debate important issues. Instead, it remains obsessed with a racial, ideological, and sexual spoils system called 'diversity.' Even as the airline industry was deregulated in the 1970s, and Wall Street now has come under long-overdue scrutiny, it is time for Americans, if we are to ensure our privileged future, to re-examine our era's politicized university."
Technorati tags: diversity, education
