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And betrays how little those parents care for the children without which they share DNA. When the rich pull their kids and taxes away from the common good of pu

And betrays how little those parents care for the children without which they share DNA. When the rich pull their kids and taxes away from the common good of public schools, it degrades that common good all the faster.

speakfreely 3y ago
You're saying you prioritize the well being of strangers above your own family? That's not how the human brain works. We are tribal primates. In a zero sum game, you're going to pick your in-group over the out-group. Any insistence otherwise just virtue signaling with no credibility. The better question is why the US education system has become a zero sum game. But don't blame affluent parents for following the incentives the system has forced on them.
- adamwong246 3y ago
  In some sense, can virtue signal all I want, because I have no children. It's very much in my interest that education be distributed evenly, rather than hoarded by a minority of monied families.
  - JohnClark1337 3y ago
    [dead]
  - speakfreely 3y ago
    > In some sense, can virtue signal all I want, because I have no children. Well, you're admitting there's no personal cost to your advocacy, which makes sense and I can't really argue you're not entitled to feel that way. Like in criminal justice reform, homelessness advocacy, etc. everyone is a liberal until the first time they get robbed, the first time someone smashes their car window, etc. Personal cost has a way to delivering reality to people who are disconnected from it. > It's very much in my interest that education be distributed evenly If there was no cost to the high performing students to keep everyone in public schools, I would actually 100% agree with you. But limiting the upper percentiles' outcomes to deliver almost negligible changes to the bottom percentile doesn't seem fair, either.
    - adamwong246 3y ago
      It's going to be very hard to improve society if I cannot convince others to act against against their own narrow, immediate self-interest at least some of the time. Society rapidly dissolves under such conditions. Indeed, can such an arrangement be called "society" at all?
- nathan_compton 3y ago
  Yeah, there are all sorts of primal instincts which human beings modify or suppress. In fact, most of what people recognize as common sense morality is restrictions on exactly what would be base primal instincts.
- alistairSH 3y ago
  The better question is why the US education system has become a zero sum game. I'm not sure I agree with that assertion. But, if it is, my vote would be to fix that instead of throwing out the system. Public education works - it worked in the US for decades and it works in most of our peer nations.

speakfreely 3y ago

You're saying you prioritize the well being of strangers above your own family? That's not how the human brain works. We are tribal primates. In a zero sum game, you're going to pick your in-group over the out-group. Any insistence otherwise just virtue signaling with no credibility. The better question is why the US education system has become a zero sum game. But don't blame affluent parents for following the incentives the system has forced on them.

adamwong246 3y ago
In some sense, can virtue signal all I want, because I have no children. It's very much in my interest that education be distributed evenly, rather than hoarded by a minority of monied families.
- JohnClark1337 3y ago
  [dead]
- speakfreely 3y ago
  > In some sense, can virtue signal all I want, because I have no children. Well, you're admitting there's no personal cost to your advocacy, which makes sense and I can't really argue you're not entitled to feel that way. Like in criminal justice reform, homelessness advocacy, etc. everyone is a liberal until the first time they get robbed, the first time someone smashes their car window, etc. Personal cost has a way to delivering reality to people who are disconnected from it. > It's very much in my interest that education be distributed evenly If there was no cost to the high performing students to keep everyone in public schools, I would actually 100% agree with you. But limiting the upper percentiles' outcomes to deliver almost negligible changes to the bottom percentile doesn't seem fair, either.
  - adamwong246 3y ago
    It's going to be very hard to improve society if I cannot convince others to act against against their own narrow, immediate self-interest at least some of the time. Society rapidly dissolves under such conditions. Indeed, can such an arrangement be called "society" at all?
nathan_compton 3y ago
Yeah, there are all sorts of primal instincts which human beings modify or suppress. In fact, most of what people recognize as common sense morality is restrictions on exactly what would be base primal instincts.
alistairSH 3y ago
The better question is why the US education system has become a zero sum game. I'm not sure I agree with that assertion. But, if it is, my vote would be to fix that instead of throwing out the system. Public education works - it worked in the US for decades and it works in most of our peer nations.