Comments on: Government for the people? http://caldems.com/blog/2007/02/22/government-for-the-people/ blog of the Cal Berkeley Democrats Sat, 22 Nov 2008 06:21:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.1 By: thar http://caldems.com/blog/2007/02/22/government-for-the-people/#comment-3 thar Fri, 23 Feb 2007 08:08:50 +0000 http://caldems.com/blog/2007/02/22/government-for-the-people/#comment-3 The conservative demonization of "big government" is very interesting in relation to their notion of liberty. Might make a good topic for a PVC meeting... The conservative demonization of “big government” is very interesting in relation to their notion of liberty. Might make a good topic for a PVC meeting…

]]> By: rockenthusiast http://caldems.com/blog/2007/02/22/government-for-the-people/#comment-4 rockenthusiast Tue, 27 Feb 2007 03:49:20 +0000 http://caldems.com/blog/2007/02/22/government-for-the-people/#comment-4 Wow, I think you might be the first Berkeley student to ever quote Howard Zinn. But really, this is derivative writing at its finest. Wow, I think you might be the first Berkeley student to ever quote Howard Zinn. But really, this is derivative writing at its finest.

]]> By: N.Raider http://caldems.com/blog/2007/02/22/government-for-the-people/#comment-5 N.Raider Tue, 27 Feb 2007 05:18:45 +0000 http://caldems.com/blog/2007/02/22/government-for-the-people/#comment-5 Building schools and subsidizing health care do not solve our domestic issues. They are at best a step in the right direction. The United States is the only industrialized nation in the world that does not view health care as a human right. Insurance companies are insuring the healthy while the people who do not have health insurance need it the most. We need single-payer health care like every other industrialized country in the world. As for our education system, we need to do much more than just build schools. Our urban public schools are receiving fewer funds than before as more of the middle class sends their children to private schools. The embarrassment that we call our public school system is turning into something that destines our urban children to social immobility. Sarah Knopp, who is a teacher, activist, and ran against Jack O'Connell for the position of State Superintendent of Public Instruction said, "It is not that politicians and the rich don't 'understand' the problem. They have no incentive to make the system succeed for poor children." If we think that our health care and education systems need more funding, we are missing the bigger picture. We need to evaluate what we want to see our health care and education system do for American society as a whole, not just the middle and upper class. Building schools and subsidizing health care do not solve our domestic issues. They are at best a step in the right direction. The United States is the only industrialized nation in the world that does not view health care as a human right. Insurance companies are insuring the healthy while the people who do not have health insurance need it the most. We need single-payer health care like every other industrialized country in the world.

As for our education system, we need to do much more than just build schools. Our urban public schools are receiving fewer funds than before as more of the middle class sends their children to private schools. The embarrassment that we call our public school system is turning into something that destines our urban children to social immobility. Sarah Knopp, who is a teacher, activist, and ran against Jack O’Connell for the position of State Superintendent of Public Instruction said, “It is not that politicians and the rich don’t ‘understand’ the problem. They have no incentive to make the system succeed for poor children.”

If we think that our health care and education systems need more funding, we are missing the bigger picture. We need to evaluate what we want to see our health care and education system do for American society as a whole, not just the middle and upper class.

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