Comments on: New York Times columnist speaks to the Econ Club of Grand Rapids

By: Raynes

Raynes — Sat, 21 May 2011 03:40:12 +0000

This has made my day. I wish all piotsngs were this good.

By: Joel Van Kuiken

Joel Van Kuiken — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:14:20 +0000

Thanks for the synopsis of the event, Jeff. I didn’t realize Brooks would be there — I would have liked to ask some tougher questions, if I had attended. That said, I find Brooks to be level-headed, basically moderate (although what moderate actually means in 2010 is an arbitrary question), and open to dialog and discussion. I’m not a fan of “conservatism” but at least Brooks is unlike the current Republican tyrannical minority. Hopefully, they’ll bring Krugman next.

By: Jeff Smith (GRIID)

Jeff Smith (GRIID) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:35:39 +0000

Kate, no one verbalized any objection to Brook’s comments. All of the questions that were asked did not challenge any of the points Brooks made in his talk, they just wanted to have him affirm their own thoughts on how to improve education in this country. I did forget to mention that Brooks also made a comment about how single parent homes were also a major cause of children not doing well in school, but like much of his presentation he did not cite a source to support such a claim.

By: Kate Wheeler

Kate Wheeler — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:28:53 +0000

The Economic Club certainly is good at appealing to its right-wing base, isn’t it? This is exactly the type of speaker they seem to prefer: someone who seems on the surface to be speaking to a topic of general intellectual interest and who, in fact, is helping to bolster their agenda of shifting and keeping wealth sequestered at the top of the economic ladder.

What’s equally troubling here is Brooks’ attitude about the working class and poor children. And am I right in understanding that no one challenged his statement that they “don’t learn how to compete” and therefore will never have a healthy work ethic?

That is mind-boggling. Did he run over a few peasant children with his carriage when he left the event?

There is no one social class that has a corner on intelligence, creativity, or determination. There is, however, a long history in this country of depriving many children of the resources and encouragement they need in favor of the few. And it sounds like a number of the members of the Economic Club would like to keep it that way.

By: Y.B. Ordinary

Y.B. Ordinary — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:29:31 +0000

The voucher system is simply a ploy to get poor people to pay, through their taxes, for rich kid’s private educations. Once again redistributing the wealth- upward.
As to the quote in paragraph 8, it sounds as if Brooks has got his conservative talking points down pat, as usual. Apparently, those working class kids can’t learn anyway, so why should we even try to educate them. The Cons have been pushing for eliminating public education for decades now.
Did Mr. Brooks happen to say how much teachers would be paid in his vision? I believe teachers should be paid in proportion to their value to society, so I’d put them somewhere in between bank branch managers and doctors, and probably above lawyers. They are responsible for the future of our nation, even according to Mr. Brooks. So bust the unions, and put 40 kids in every public classroom with a minimum wage worker with no health insurance? Sounds like a sure way to end public education once and for all (and those cursed taxes needed to support it).
OK, to be fair, from your report it sounds like the audience were the ones who were against public education more than Mr. Brooks. But I find it hard to believe that his advocacy extends to anything more than another way for corporations and billionaires to raid the public treasury.

By: r

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:41:09 +0000

School vouchers are unconstitutional if the school is parochial, a serious violation of the seperation of church and state.

The arguement that vouchers provide competition and raise the bar for public education is ludicrous. The idiots peddling this idea try to point to the test scores which are higher than public schools in many cases. Private schools pick and choose their students and if someone begins to have academic or behavioral problems they kick them out and the child returns to a public school.

The push for privitization of schools, the military, prisons, and most other government functions is freightening. There are those who argue that privitization saves the government money. Yes it does, because the private sector will pay its employees less. This is part of a larger plan to eliminate good paying government jobs and destroy the middle class .