Somewhere in the Mid-west of the US.

I'm 21, thanks. In a few months I'll be 22.

Soth,

You mean the US is still the dominant country in the world, not the world is the dominant country in the world.

This source is from the government, and it gives a little different figure for entry level wages for teachers, about $32,000. Here are some facts about teacher earnings.

"Median annual earnings of kindergarten, elementary, middle, and secondary school teachers ranged from $43,580 to $48,690 in May 2006; the lowest 10 percent earned $28,590 to $33,070; the top 10 percent earned $67,490 to $76,100. Median earnings for preschool teachers were $22,680.

According to the American Federation of Teachers, beginning teachers with a bachelor

Lol, how can people be interested in math when all the teachers do from first grade is give you formulas, and never explain anything about "why?" If you want to learn math, you pretty much have to do it on your own.

I wouldn't mind if she were president, because the probable outcome is that she would prove she is so weak to rule that others would end up ruling for her.

Dutcher,

Eh, ok I stand corrected. But you are still more densely populated because your homes are absurdly expensive, and most people live in apartment-like residences.

> avogadro wrote:

> orlly?

"only 8% of them are able to pay for themselves through tickets and merchandise etc"

Keyword, "etc"

Emo,

You're right, some inner city schools can't afford really cool stadiums and so on, but they still have sports teams and they are expensive. I haven't done my research with high school sports, but I have no reason to believe they aren't much different from college ones. Colleges typically have their own sports teams, and only 8% of them are able to pay for themselves through tickets and merchandise etc. That means tax dollars and tuition are paying for them and athletic scholarships. Now, I do not mind sports, but it pisses me off when my tuition is paying for them.

BW,

There is some anti-American sentiment and guilt tripping in our schools, but I think you may be over blowing it. Also, we were required to take economics in order to graduate. I took AP economics, so I can't comment on the regular course, but we learned about the goodness of the free-market. The first day of class our teacher gave us a questionnaire of who should receive scarce resources, and after our answers he said that to think like an economist you have to figure out how to most efficiently distribute resources. That was the major theme of the class, efficient resource distribution, lol. And he did many class experiments, and the first one was proving that the free-market system was more efficient than a command or traditional economy. It was great stuff!

As for the estate tax. The estate tax used to qualify for estates worth $600,000, but atm it's $2 million. Next year it will be $3 million. In 2010 it will be repealed. It 2011 it will be $1 million.

I can see the point of redistributing wealth in order to benefit society as a whole and allow greater social mobility, but in practice it ends up taking away from the middle class and lower rich. It does nothing to the super rich class who are able to influence the political power structure. Why would they harm themselves?

x is right that some social programs are intended as investments rather than hand outs. However, in the US increasing money for education or health care would actually solve nothing. We spend more $ per student than anywhere else in the world. The problem is not a lack of funding, but an inefficient system that needs dramatic reform. When tax dollars and tuition are supporting college sports team who can't pay for themselves and huge football stadiums, and high schools have huge gyms and swimming pools, you know something is just messed up. If we did something about our powerful teacher's unions and turned our schools in to facilities of education rather than entertainment, it would be a lot less expensive.