4 ms·

> everyone in a geographic area has to travel on specific weeks That sounds like supply and demand 101. The direct answer here is take your kids out of school

by koolba 4y ago

> everyone in a geographic area has to travel on specific weeks That sounds like supply and demand 101. The direct answer here is take your kids out of school whenever it’s cheapest and then have them hang out at home during the “official” vacation period.

yonaguska 4y ago
> take you kids out of school This is what I'll be doing. I'm fortunate enough to homeschool for the time being, and that's my number one goal now, ensuring enough financial stability that we can continue to do so.
- midoridensha 4y ago
  This is another symptom of how American society is falling apart and turning into a low-trust society with no real sense of community. Of course, for you personally, it's probably the right decision, despite the problems it causes with childrens' socialization, because of the huge problems in American public schools these days, but for a society, it's terrible. In a high-trust society, people send their kids to public school (which is free) for a high-quality education, and don't worry about things like school shootings. There's no way I'd ever raise a kid in the US.
ghaff 4y ago
>The direct answer here is take you kids out of school whenever it’s cheapest and then have them hang out at home during the “official” vacation period. That can be difficult to pull off, probably especially in public schools which probably have less flexibility to bend the rules. But, yeah, it doesn't sound like some great conspiracy. And unless you live near the Canadian or Mexican border, of course it's generally going to be more expensive to travel to another country compared to living in France.
- sdwr 4y ago
  ?? Is it more difficult than just telling the teachers you're doing it? Give them a bit of notice, get the homework in advance, what are they going to say?
  - ejb999 4y ago
    exactly - did it all the time with my kids, we told the teachers ahead of time, the school didn't like it - we didn't care. Somehow our kids all survived, went on to good colleges and all graduated with great careers, even missing a few useless weeks of school.
- lotsofpulp 4y ago
  I grew up in the US in the 90s and 00s and I took a week off here and there during the school year with no issue. Less so in high school, but I do not recall anyone caring in elementary school. I remember other kids doing the same, and the teacher would just assign the classwork that was scheduled to be done during that week and you were expected to learn it while not in school.
  - ghaff 4y ago
    In the 60s/70s, my parents regularly took me out of grade school for family vacations but it was a private school and I was a very good student. I would guess that public schools were less amenable to bending the rules in general but I don't have direct experience.
- carlosjobim 4y ago
  Public schools have no authority over parents - they simply have nothing to say.
madcaptenor 4y ago
You also have the child care problem - school, in addition to its educational function, is free child care. I'd like to get as much of that as I can, because I have a limited number of vacation days.
mattgreenrocks 4y ago
I was about to say, "school districts don't like that." But I'm not sure they can do much, really, if you dot your i's and cross your t's with advance notice, handling homework/missed class, and it's once a year at most. Ask around. It's not worth foregoing thousands of dollars potentially because you want to avoid a conflict that resides largely in your head.
- koolba 4y ago
  All school districts will try to dissuade you from taking your kids out of school. It's like asking your doctor if you should eat a cheeseburger instead of a salad. He's not actually going to say no, but he's not going to say yes either. Most States have an specific number of days that you must attend to advance to the next grade. You may have to factor in whether they count sick days, religious holidays, or other allowed days off (e.g. take your daughter to work day). As long as you're under that cap they won't do anything. If you are under that cap, they probably won't do anything anyway. And if missing a few days of school is the tipping point in whether your little Jimmy or Julie has a decent education, you've got much bigger problems.
eatsyourtacos 4y ago
>That sounds like supply and demand 101. I really, really hate comments like this. It gives an excuse for pure greed and you basically throw your arms up and say "well, it's supply and demand that's just how it works!" There are only so many flights that can fit so many people, right? So.. instead of keeping the prices reasonable (i.e., basically the same price as other times +/- a few weeks out).. they jack up the prices because they know people want/need to fly then. So they sell out their flights at the price of their choosing- and only people who can afford (or are desperate to go over their budget) get to take flights. 'Supply and demand' isn't some mathematical law of nature that must be obeyed.. it is literally based on greed and charging as much as you can for something. If everyone had similar wealth amounts, then perhaps one can argue that's "fair enough" because it inconveniences people to a similar degree. But since we have such vast wealth inequality, "supply and demand" screws 90% of the population yet again.
- koolba 4y ago
  In your hypothetical model where the prices stay flat during peak times, who gets to fly? Say you have 10x more demand than capacity for that one week. Do we pick at random? First to book? The techie who builds an automated platform to snipe the tickets? I’d argue that insisting on the low demand price during periods of high demand is pure greed on the part of the consumer. It’s like demanding a ribeye for the price of dog food grade ground scraps.

by koolba 4y ago

yonaguska 4y ago

> take you kids out of school This is what I'll be doing. I'm fortunate enough to homeschool for the time being, and that's my number one goal now, ensuring enough financial stability that we can continue to do so.

midoridensha 4y ago
This is another symptom of how American society is falling apart and turning into a low-trust society with no real sense of community. Of course, for you personally, it's probably the right decision, despite the problems it causes with childrens' socialization, because of the huge problems in American public schools these days, but for a society, it's terrible. In a high-trust society, people send their kids to public school (which is free) for a high-quality education, and don't worry about things like school shootings. There's no way I'd ever raise a kid in the US.

ghaff 4y ago

>The direct answer here is take you kids out of school whenever it’s cheapest and then have them hang out at home during the “official” vacation period. That can be difficult to pull off, probably especially in public schools which probably have less flexibility to bend the rules. But, yeah, it doesn't sound like some great conspiracy. And unless you live near the Canadian or Mexican border, of course it's generally going to be more expensive to travel to another country compared to living in France.

sdwr 4y ago
?? Is it more difficult than just telling the teachers you're doing it? Give them a bit of notice, get the homework in advance, what are they going to say?
- ejb999 4y ago
  exactly - did it all the time with my kids, we told the teachers ahead of time, the school didn't like it - we didn't care. Somehow our kids all survived, went on to good colleges and all graduated with great careers, even missing a few useless weeks of school.
lotsofpulp 4y ago
I grew up in the US in the 90s and 00s and I took a week off here and there during the school year with no issue. Less so in high school, but I do not recall anyone caring in elementary school. I remember other kids doing the same, and the teacher would just assign the classwork that was scheduled to be done during that week and you were expected to learn it while not in school.
- ghaff 4y ago
  In the 60s/70s, my parents regularly took me out of grade school for family vacations but it was a private school and I was a very good student. I would guess that public schools were less amenable to bending the rules in general but I don't have direct experience.
carlosjobim 4y ago
Public schools have no authority over parents - they simply have nothing to say.

madcaptenor 4y ago

You also have the child care problem - school, in addition to its educational function, is free child care. I'd like to get as much of that as I can, because I have a limited number of vacation days.

mattgreenrocks 4y ago

I was about to say, "school districts don't like that." But I'm not sure they can do much, really, if you dot your i's and cross your t's with advance notice, handling homework/missed class, and it's once a year at most. Ask around. It's not worth foregoing thousands of dollars potentially because you want to avoid a conflict that resides largely in your head.

koolba 4y ago
All school districts will try to dissuade you from taking your kids out of school. It's like asking your doctor if you should eat a cheeseburger instead of a salad. He's not actually going to say no, but he's not going to say yes either. Most States have an specific number of days that you must attend to advance to the next grade. You may have to factor in whether they count sick days, religious holidays, or other allowed days off (e.g. take your daughter to work day). As long as you're under that cap they won't do anything. If you are under that cap, they probably won't do anything anyway. And if missing a few days of school is the tipping point in whether your little Jimmy or Julie has a decent education, you've got much bigger problems.

eatsyourtacos 4y ago

>That sounds like supply and demand 101. I really, really hate comments like this. It gives an excuse for pure greed and you basically throw your arms up and say "well, it's supply and demand that's just how it works!" There are only so many flights that can fit so many people, right? So.. instead of keeping the prices reasonable (i.e., basically the same price as other times +/- a few weeks out).. they jack up the prices because they know people want/need to fly then. So they sell out their flights at the price of their choosing- and only people who can afford (or are desperate to go over their budget) get to take flights. 'Supply and demand' isn't some mathematical law of nature that must be obeyed.. it is literally based on greed and charging as much as you can for something. If everyone had similar wealth amounts, then perhaps one can argue that's "fair enough" because it inconveniences people to a similar degree. But since we have such vast wealth inequality, "supply and demand" screws 90% of the population yet again.

koolba 4y ago
In your hypothetical model where the prices stay flat during peak times, who gets to fly? Say you have 10x more demand than capacity for that one week. Do we pick at random? First to book? The techie who builds an automated platform to snipe the tickets? I’d argue that insisting on the low demand price during periods of high demand is pure greed on the part of the consumer. It’s like demanding a ribeye for the price of dog food grade ground scraps.