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>So at 17 or 18, with little life experience, ...isn't the real failure right here, in the constant infantilizing of our young? Shouldn't we be expecting our

by flubert 10y ago

>So at 17 or 18, with little life experience, ...isn't the real failure right here, in the constant infantilizing of our young? Shouldn't we be expecting our society to produce semi-capable adults when they come of age? It's not like people have to be so unworldly at the tender age of 18. http://roppskyline.pbworks.com/w/page/6550634/Growing%20up%20Spartan http://roppskyline.pbworks.com/w/page/6550634/Growing%20up%2...

dv_dt 10y ago
I would argue that requiring social/economic path that loads people down with high-debt at the beginning of their life is a recipe to destroying a lot of beneficial economic activity. (irrespective of if their specific career pays a lot). I strongly suspect that if you took the exact same amount of money as is spent on education today, financed it using either public debt or taxation or some mix, and direct funded more education through public universities, education would run more efficiently, and society and businesses would benefit economically more than individually loading people down with educational debt.
azernik 10y ago
I'm pretty sure those Spartan soldier-children were not capable of making informed financial decisions. In fact, a big part of that regimented lifestyle was built to take away choices from young people. Great saying (I think Israeli) - "the army is a system built by geniuses to control idiots". Because they generally recruit 18-20-year-olds, and yes, 18-20-year-olds are idiots. So the institution puts them through the kind of regimentation that the Spartans did to exert some kind of control.
- dctoedt 10y ago
  > Great saying (I think Israeli) - "the army is a system built by geniuses to control idiots". That's a variation on a line from Herman Wouk's World War II novel The Caine Mutiny, in which one character says that the Navy is a system designed by geniuses for execution by idiots.
  - azernik 10y ago
    Ha! I'd heard that book was good. I heard the phrase from my mom (Israeli, grew up in the 60s-70s). Not sure the saying is widely adopted in Israel or just she or someone agree knew read the book; apparently it rang true with people's experiences :-P

by flubert 10y ago

dv_dt 10y ago

I would argue that requiring social/economic path that loads people down with high-debt at the beginning of their life is a recipe to destroying a lot of beneficial economic activity. (irrespective of if their specific career pays a lot). I strongly suspect that if you took the exact same amount of money as is spent on education today, financed it using either public debt or taxation or some mix, and direct funded more education through public universities, education would run more efficiently, and society and businesses would benefit economically more than individually loading people down with educational debt.

azernik 10y ago

I'm pretty sure those Spartan soldier-children were not capable of making informed financial decisions. In fact, a big part of that regimented lifestyle was built to take away choices from young people. Great saying (I think Israeli) - "the army is a system built by geniuses to control idiots". Because they generally recruit 18-20-year-olds, and yes, 18-20-year-olds are idiots. So the institution puts them through the kind of regimentation that the Spartans did to exert some kind of control.

dctoedt 10y ago
> Great saying (I think Israeli) - "the army is a system built by geniuses to control idiots". That's a variation on a line from Herman Wouk's World War II novel The Caine Mutiny, in which one character says that the Navy is a system designed by geniuses for execution by idiots.
- azernik 10y ago
  Ha! I'd heard that book was good. I heard the phrase from my mom (Israeli, grew up in the 60s-70s). Not sure the saying is widely adopted in Israel or just she or someone agree knew read the book; apparently it rang true with people's experiences :-P