audtatious wrote:A programmer I knew told me about his childhood in Detroit. He was constantly beaten up as a child due to getting good grades in school and trying hard to succeed. He would try and steer clear of the kids in his neighborhood while on the way home as they would steal his books, call him an Uncle Tom and such. The last time I talked with him he had just visited his mom at home and had run across the same people that used to pick on him. They were all standing around the liquor store doing nothing, didn't have jobs and lived off welfare. When asked how he got the new car he told them it was due to the work he put forth and they all dismissed the effort as something they were not interested in. In his opinion, that was the norm that these people are taught when they grew up and he was highly against the gov't programs that helped support those lifestyles.
I've talked about this issue before, not necessarily in a race thread, but in the ways to improve education. Each race in this country, for whatever reason, has stereotypically (and stereotypes wouldn't exist if they weren't largely true) different attitudes towards education. Whites are probably a little diverse in their attitude in that a portion feel they are entitled to it and kinda blow it off, a few don't care, and most will do well and care. Asian families care very much about education and push it very hard. Blacks, they still have a reputation of not caring, as indicated by the story. So the question is, are they poorly educated with the system stacked against them or is it simply their attitude? I'm of the school of thought that it is largely their attitude, but I think that slowly, this attitude may be changing.
RiceRocketGal wrote:Ya the playing field is already leveled at the beginning of the game... when we are all born.. naked and crying for someone to feed us. What happens there depends on the decisions and work and effort of someone else who is in charge of us. It was not my rich classmate's fault that their parents fared better in life than mine did. It was not their fault that my parents had children they could not afford. Taking away from those children to give to me is not fair.
In the workplace. One shows up to work 5 days per week... works it;s butt off... works weekends when needed... works 12 hour days when needed. Another shows up 5 days a week... does the minimum amount of work necessary to hold a job... no overtime... don't call him on his day off 'cause he isn't answering the phone.Another works 3 to 4 days a week.... calls in sick a couple days a week.. is habitually 5 to 15 minutes late for work. Spends most of his work time in the bathroom or playing on-line video games (or talking on NICO)...
Equality says they all get paid the same. Fairness says they get paid what they are worth to the company based on their reliability and performance.
I would like to inject a little economics into this if I may, because, well that's just what I like to do.
About the number of kids in families when income is taken into affect. In the economics of population, poor families have more kids because the chance of survival, whether real or perceived, is smaller than that of a higher income family. When looking at populations and income together, there is a correlation between income and the quantity vs. quality paradigm. As income rises and parents can afford a better lifestyle for themselves and their offspring, they are going to care more about the quality of their children as it is largely guaranteed that they will survive through childhood. They see the benefit of having less children but producing higher quality children, whether that is in health, education, or what have you.
About wages. Salaries are like an average of what everyone in the position would make if they were paid based on performance and productivity. What this also means is that people in the same position are paid based on average productivity of all those in the position put together. So, the ones who sit and look at their screen all day pull down that average while the ones who work their butt off bring up that average. Productivity in a position, when graphed out, is probably in the form of a bell curve, where most people are towards the center and close to the average, and fewer and fewer people are seen as you move away from the center.
At the same time, the worker who doesn't work very hard recognizes the benefit of not working very hard in that he/she gets paid more than others relative to productivity levels. The one who works hard recognizes the downside of working hard, at least within that position. The upside that is possible is the promotion as a means of increasing salary for better productivity.
