--A lot of interesting things come my way; I’ve been sharing some of them on my blog (https://www.wrobertconnor.com/blog ). but there’s more to be explored in newsletter format.
Let me know what you think about the topics in this monthly Newsletter, and if you like it please share it with friends and invite them to subscribe. Or, if at any point you’d like to be removed from the mailing list, just let me know at [email protected].
--
Repeal the Second Amendment?
The long shadow of the second Amendment darkens all efforts to bring mass shootings under control. But the problem may not be in the amendment itself, but in the 5-4 Supreme Court ruling in the 2008 case, District of Columbia v. Heller, or possibly in subsequent interpretations of that ruling. The debate raises fundamental questions about how one interprets an old and venerated text. In any event, it’s worth re-reading Justice John Paul Stevens’ 2018 essay, “Repeal the Second Amendment.”
PS March for Our Lives and other organizations are marching in Washington and elsewhere on June 11 to support gun legislation. . You can support the effort here.
Kicking a $1.7 Trillion Can Down the Road: What Would Solon Say?
$1.7 trillion is the amount of student debt the government holds. Understandably those who have borrowed want to see some or all of it cancelled. That would remove a heavy burden on many recent graduates; it would also stimulate the economy (and probably inflation).
No wonder, then, that many politicians are eager to take action, but I have yet to see a plan that will keep the problem from recuring. The idea is to keep kicking the can down the road.
A smarter response would begin with a tough look at the extent of the problem. It’s not just that it is hard for young people to pay off debts incurred through the student loan program.. Such indebtedness also harms students’ education. It does that in many ways, pressuring them to choose colleges whose graduates earn big salaries, major in fields that promise easy job hunting, and avoid careers in public service fields
Student loans are, in other words, a miserable way to finance college education. I have not, however heard a plausible proposal for lasting reform. So I asked Solon, the Athenian statesman of the 6th century BCE, for a solution. He explained Athens had had faced a debt crisis of its own, one that ruined the lives of many citizens who had agreed to become slaves if they defaulted. Solon called his program “Earthquake for Burdens” (Seisachtheia; Plutarch Solon 15 etc.). It cancelled all such debts but it also went at the root of the problem – the law that allowed one to pledge his body as security for a loan. That was disruptive change, but it worked.
Following Solon’s example, we should have the government get out of the student loan business entirely and shift those resources to direct scholarships and grants. Increase the number and amount of Pell grants and reward colleges that increase their own funds for student aid. Stop kicking the can down the road. Go at the root of the problem.
This is do-able: Most recent appropriation for the annual cost of the current student loan program, was $72 billion, more than twice the appropriation for Pell grants of : about $30 billion a year.
The Republican Nominee for Senator from Ohio:
So J,D, Vance won the Republican nomination for Senator from Ohio, Bright guy, good writer. I enjoyed Hillbilly Elegy, at least as long as his grandmother was around to shape the narrative and J.D.’s life. After that the first of these, and maybe the second too, went down hill. One feature of his acceptance speech troubled me, as I explain in a blog post “Minimalist Philology: “
OTHER RECENT BLOG POSTS: at https://www.wrobertconnor.com/blog
Joy: A Peculiarity (May 27) (Can (Greek) tragedy be aguidepost on the path to joy?
Word of the Month (May 18) (Stoics can guess)
RediscoverinG, Reading, and Reflecting on a Lost Text (May 17) Well, as good as lost and good to reconsider.
Teaching Sam Alito (May 6) If I did, what?.
Urban vs. Rural (April 27) Then and now. The recent French election also shoed the rural / urban split, with Mac ron doing well in urban areas, Le Pen in rural settings..
--
“History teaches us that…”
What does History teach? That people who lac good evidence or strong arguments say “History teaches us that…”. So what does it really teach? To expect the unexpected, stay on your toes, and be wary of scam artists who say, “History teaches us that …”
Four point seven Percent Drop in College Enrollments! Why?
Reports on the big decline are not entirely convincing about the causes behind it, relying on familiar truisms about the perceived financial benefits of a college degree.
Can we disassociate this decline from a new, understudied epidemic among adolescents. The extreme end of the epidemic has suicidal kids held for days in hospital emergency rooms, waiting for a place in overcrowded psychotherapeutic facilities. We hear that this epidemic is affecting many high school and college students, maybe one in seven at any given moment.
The best discussion I have seen is by David Leonhard, “On the Phone, Alone.” No doubt technology and social media contribute to the problem, but its causes are not fully understood, nor can we be sure of the extent of its ripple effects, on classmates, siblings, and its overall mood, morale, motivation throughout this generation.
Nor do we yet know the full ripple effects of mass shootings throughout our society. All these seem to me to compound with the ongoing effects of Covid-19 – a terrible synergy.
I hope to be writing more about this in coming weeks, and would appreciate your thoughts and experiences.
-
In Case You Missed This $34.99 Bargain:
She found it in a Goodwill store and it turned out to be authentic. Great story!:
and the image I can't copy here.
--
Quotable: Volodymyr Zelensky quoting Charlie Chaplin: “The Great Dictator”: “The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people.”
--
Looking ahead:
Tthe Unites States now stands at the intersection of some very grave problems.. I’ll be trying to make sense of what I can learn about them. I’ll post my observations on my blog at https://www.wrobertconnor.com/blog.
Stay tuned, and let me hear what you are finding and thinking. Thanks!
Bob Connor
--A lot of interesting things come my way; I’ve been sharing some of them on my blog (https://www.wrobertconnor.com/blog ). but there’s more to be explored in newsletter format.
Let me know what you think about the topics in this monthly Newsletter, and if you like it please share it with friends and invite them to subscribe. Or, if at any point you’d like to be removed from the mailing list, just let me know at [email protected].
--
Repeal the Second Amendment?
The long shadow of the second Amendment darkens all efforts to bring mass shootings under control. But the problem may not be in the amendment itself, but in the 5-4 Supreme Court ruling in the 2008 case, District of Columbia v. Heller, or possibly in subsequent interpretations of that ruling. The debate raises fundamental questions about how one interprets an old and venerated text. In any event, it’s worth re-reading Justice John Paul Stevens’ 2018 essay, “Repeal the Second Amendment.”
PS March for Our Lives and other organizations are marching in Washington and elsewhere on June 11 to support gun legislation. . You can support the effort here.
Kicking a $1.7 Trillion Can Down the Road: What Would Solon Say?
$1.7 trillion is the amount of student debt the government holds. Understandably those who have borrowed want to see some or all of it cancelled. That would remove a heavy burden on many recent graduates; it would also stimulate the economy (and probably inflation).
No wonder, then, that many politicians are eager to take action, but I have yet to see a plan that will keep the problem from recuring. The idea is to keep kicking the can down the road.
A smarter response would begin with a tough look at the extent of the problem. It’s not just that it is hard for young people to pay off debts incurred through the student loan program.. Such indebtedness also harms students’ education. It does that in many ways, pressuring them to choose colleges whose graduates earn big salaries, major in fields that promise easy job hunting, and avoid careers in public service fields
Student loans are, in other words, a miserable way to finance college education. I have not, however heard a plausible proposal for lasting reform. So I asked Solon, the Athenian statesman of the 6th century BCE, for a solution. He explained Athens had had faced a debt crisis of its own, one that ruined the lives of many citizens who had agreed to become slaves if they defaulted. Solon called his program “Earthquake for Burdens” (Seisachtheia; Plutarch Solon 15 etc.). It cancelled all such debts but it also went at the root of the problem – the law that allowed one to pledge his body as security for a loan. That was disruptive change, but it worked.
Following Solon’s example, we should have the government get out of the student loan business entirely and shift those resources to direct scholarships and grants. Increase the number and amount of Pell grants and reward colleges that increase their own funds for student aid. Stop kicking the can down the road. Go at the root of the problem.
This is do-able: Most recent appropriation for the annual cost of the current student loan program, was $72 billion, more than twice the appropriation for Pell grants of : about $30 billion a year.
The Republican Nominee for Senator from Ohio:
So J,D, Vance won the Republican nomination for Senator from Ohio, Bright guy, good writer. I enjoyed Hillbilly Elegy, at least as long as his grandmother was around to shape the narrative and J.D.’s life. After that the first of these, and maybe the second too, went down hill. One feature of his acceptance speech troubled me, as I explain in a blog post “Minimalist Philology: “
OTHER RECENT BLOG POSTS: at https://www.wrobertconnor.com/blog
Joy: A Peculiarity (May 27) (Can (Greek) tragedy be aguidepost on the path to joy?
Word of the Month (May 18) (Stoics can guess)
RediscoverinG, Reading, and Reflecting on a Lost Text (May 17) Well, as good as lost and good to reconsider.
Teaching Sam Alito (May 6) If I did, what?.
Urban vs. Rural (April 27) Then and now. The recent French election also shoed the rural / urban split, with Mac ron doing well in urban areas, Le Pen in rural settings..
--
“History teaches us that…”
What does History teach? That people who lac good evidence or strong arguments say “History teaches us that…”. So what does it really teach? To expect the unexpected, stay on your toes, and be wary of scam artists who say, “History teaches us that …”
Four point seven Percent Drop in College Enrollments! Why?
Reports on the big decline are not entirely convincing about the causes behind it, relying on familiar truisms about the perceived financial benefits of a college degree.
Can we disassociate this decline from a new, understudied epidemic among adolescents. The extreme end of the epidemic has suicidal kids held for days in hospital emergency rooms, waiting for a place in overcrowded psychotherapeutic facilities. We hear that this epidemic is affecting many high school and college students, maybe one in seven at any given moment.
The best discussion I have seen is by David Leonhard, “On the Phone, Alone.” No doubt technology and social media contribute to the problem, but its causes are not fully understood, nor can we be sure of the extent of its ripple effects, on classmates, siblings, and its overall mood, morale, motivation throughout this generation.
Nor do we yet know the full ripple effects of mass shootings throughout our society. All these seem to me to compound with the ongoing effects of Covid-19 – a terrible synergy.
I hope to be writing more about this in coming weeks, and would appreciate your thoughts and experiences.
-
In Case You Missed This $34.99 Bargain:
She found it in a Goodwill store and it turned out to be authentic. Great story!:
and the image I can't copy here.
--
Quotable: Volodymyr Zelensky quoting Charlie Chaplin: “The Great Dictator”: “The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people.”
--
Looking ahead:
Tthe Unites States now stands at the intersection of some very grave problems.. I’ll be trying to make sense of what I can learn about them. I’ll post my observations on my blog at https://www.wrobertconnor.com/blog.
Stay tuned, and let me hear what you are finding and thinking. Thanks!
Bob Connor