Lord Herbert wrote on Aug 14
th, 2013 at 2:26pm:
By removing the motivation and the means for creating personal wealth ~ you soon reduce a nation's economy to a subsistence level.
I never said anything about removing the motivation for accumulating wealth. If people want wealth, they can go after it. In fact, if you cut someone's pay, they'll work harder for longer. Carrot and stick.
We buy cheap products from China. What can I say? The Chinese just keeping working, working and working because they expect to make it in the end. The West has lost its stamina. It lost it way back in the 19th century when the Chinese built the Transcontinental Railway in the USA.
The problem is when wealth accumulation is all people do. That's despite the fact that most Australians are above the poverty line. Ever heard of the contrast between "live to work" and "work to live?" That's what I'm talking about. Getting rich doesn't have to be the reason why you go to work each day. Can't you just do it because you love your job?
Lord Herbert wrote on Aug 14
th, 2013 at 2:26pm:
A private education offers a much more broad and wide-ranging learning experience for the student. It's the extras and the add-ons .......
A private education doesn't automatically make you "smart." It is not a silver bullet or magic wand for success. The student still needs to have the "innate ability" to learn and perform. A person isn't "smart" because they had a private education. It's a combination of their
innate ability and the experience they get from a private school.
If someone says they're better than someone else because they went to private school, they're suggesting they're better than
everyone who didn't go to private school. That's classism. It's wrong, not because someone is jealous, but because it isn't actually true. It's a person's
innate ability that is the primary driver of success, not their just experience. Getting a "good education" is great, but you still need the "innate ability" to perform.
Lord Herbert wrote on Aug 14
th, 2013 at 2:26pm:
........... that hone young intellects and characters to a fine edge that public schools have neither the funds nor the teaching talent to offer.
If you think there was no character building in my public school, you are gravely mistaken. We had plenty of that, to the point where it became patronising.
Lord Herbert wrote on Aug 14
th, 2013 at 2:26pm:
Your mask has slipped again.
Here again we see you in the role of petulant leftwinger who is aggrieved that others might be stealing a march on the working classes because they've made personal sacrifices and efforts to rise above the mob.
Leftwingers such as yourself become peeved when others pull ahead of the hoi polloi through sheer hard work, self-discipline, and personal sacrifice.
There you go again with the straw man argument!
All I said was "classism," and now you start talking about people getting ahead in life? Where did that come from? You are definitely arguing against a straw man here!
You then talked about fictitious fears of people getting ahead through hard work. That's despite the fact that in the paragraph you were responding to, I was talking about the same thing: hard work. The difference was that I said that if a person was smart and worked hard, they wouldn't need to go to private school. Their own innate ability would ensure their success.
If you could know in advance that you had a smart kid, paying for a more expensive education is an unnecessary sacrifice. If you were a smart kid looking back and you went to a public school, you'd know that. Of course, you can't know that, so parents send them to private school anyway.
.............. and as if public school students don't work hard and have no self-discipline. Another straw man argument there! FYI, I worked hard and got to 98th percentile in my state, so I'm "sticking it" to those people who have their minds infected with private school classism.
The trouble is when sending kids to private school is a family tradition and becomes ingrained in people's minds. It's when it has nothing to do with personal choice, but something people think they're expected to do. Having said that, I respect Torpedo's personal choice to send her kids to private school because it is something she has thought deeply about.
Lord Herbert wrote on Aug 14
th, 2013 at 2:26pm:
Get rid of that chip on your shoulder, Mn!
If there's someone with a chip on their shoulder, it ain't me.