White Flight
An article in the Wall Street Journal (20Nov05) about white flight from a high school in Cupertino CA. Cupertino is a upper middle class community south of San Francisco in Silicon Valley.
An Asian student population is causing rising academic standards causing many white parents to withdraw their children from the school and some move out of the community.
The school has some of the highest test scores in the state. Although everybody is in favor of high standards in the abstract, not everyone is in favor of having to struggle to meet those standards.
One white mother who was taking her son to an after-school soccer game noticed all the Asian parents arriving to take their children to an after-school study program. A fe years of her son playing soccer while the Asiian kids were htting the books would be bound to create academic disparities.
In the process of looking for "green space" in our quest to improve New Richmond School facilities are we losing our focus on academic achievement? We are not competing with Hudson or River Falls for school campuses, but with India and China for technical excellence. Will our children fall short in the marketplace?
posted by Bob Ziller @ 9:09 AM
15 comments
15 Comments:
Bobz,
You make a good point about there being an over emphasis on sports in this country as opposed to academics. But why do you tie it to finding "Green Space"? Isn't some kind of balance in order here? Do we want our kids to all be bookworms and eggheads, or do we want them to find a balance between mental and physical activity.
I agree the current status in this country needs more emphasis on the mental activities and less on sports. But I'd rather see a Soccer or Football field near a High School, than a Burger King, Mc Donald's and a Tatoo Parlor.
One more thing. Whenever you talk about "competing" with India and China, it may be more accurate to say that "market forces (i.e. Big Business" wants to lower the American standard of living down to that of these countries in order to maximize their own profits. It's happening everywhere you look.
If you think the bad ole corporations wish the lower the American standard of living how do you think the automobile worker making $7.00/hr will be able to afford a Chevy let alone a Cadillac?
Bob, I don't get your point.
Delphi workers may soon be making $7/hr. Is that what you want?
Northwest is whining about the millions the loose every day. I just heard 2 days ago that KLM has had record profits. You don't suppose between Checky secretly dumping his stock leaving NW with the billion is debt he amassed to acquire the company, and the partnership with KLM vanishing has anything to do with trying to bust the unions?
Union busting is the order of the day, not because of thes huge loses the corps are whining about, but because the Bush Admin has given them the green light.
WW, you're going to have to ask the pilot's union.
Checky is a gun-slinger in the finance business. Nobody secretly dumps stock. It's all in the open, especially for corp. officers and large stock holders.
The pilot's union has CPA's and other professionals on its staff and could have easily analyzed the unfunded pension benefits. They didn't question it. The union negotiated unfunded benefits and looked the other way or thought they had put one over on stupid management.
Now the chickens have come home to roost and Delta is cutting pilot pay another 34 percent.
United had union members on the board of directors and now it is in bankruptcy.
Unfunded pension and health benefits are ruining many corporations and unions can take their share of blame.
How do you come up with Bush giving corporations the green light to bust unions? I haven't heard of any controversial labor laws passing in the last 20 years that would allow him to do what you say.
The only changes I have heard labor leaders complain about are NAFTA and GATT.
WW, you're going to have to ask the pilot's union.
Checky is a gun-slinger in the finance business. Nobody secretly dumps stock. It's all in the open, especially for corp. officers and large stock holders.
The pilot's union has CPA's and other professionals on its staff and could have easily analyzed the unfunded pension benefits. They didn't question it. The union negotiated unfunded benefits and looked the other way or thought they had put one over on stupid management.
Now the chickens have come home to roost and Delta is cutting pilot pay another 34 percent.
United had union members on the board of directors and now it is in bankruptcy.
Unfunded pension and health benefits are ruining many corporations and unions can take their share of blame.
How do you come up with Bush giving corporations the green light to bust unions? I haven't heard of any controversial labor laws passing in the last 20 years that would allow him to do what you say.
The only changes I have heard labor leaders complain about are NAFTA and GATT.
Bob,
"How do you come up with Bush giving corporations the green light to bust unions? I haven't heard of any controversial labor laws passing in the last 20 years that would allow him to do what you say."
You are right here. It's more of an observation. But every Republican administration the same type of business activities take place. Pensions are raided (like the A&P pension with Reagan) and Anti Trust Laws are ignore. (Microsoft was found guilty in court, but the Bush Justice Dept. did nothing to MS for their anti-trust violation.) Merger mania reigns the day. There may not be new laws but the ones on the books aren't enforced.
I have a friend that works for United. They gave concession after concession. They finally became employee owned. He had a retirement stock once valued at $86,000. Trouble was he could not trade it since it was a retirement fund. Now it's worth about $86 dollars.
Every time it's the workers that get screwed. You don't see them cutting CEO compensation when these companies are so poorly managed that they are in bankruptcy do you. Instead they get bonuses.
I don't have facts, but you have to admit that it's suspicious that all of a sudden NW is losing millions/day 4 years after 9/11. Their flights are packed. Yes, fuel is up, but that can't be the whole story. All these industries want to bust the unions while their is a administration that favors these types of moves. You know Rep. hate labor because they are such big contributors to the Dems. bust them and a political enemy is weakened.
I'm sorry that we are way off the original topic. Do you know what happened with the KLM/NW partnership? I don't. But think it strange that KLM has huge profits while NW is bankrupt.
At least you debate here instead of insult like OTBL.
I think I'll let you get back to NR issues.
No problem. We're buried down here in the comments. Please do me a favor and try to post something. You mentioned that you couldn't post, but can comment (obviously).
I agree totally that bonuses paid to CEO's when their companies lose money is wrong. But you know that bonus contracts can be screwed around so the executives can get a bonus for keeping the company from going bankrupt even if it looses money. Go figure.
Your picking on the wrong company when you bring up Microsoft. Bill Gates took IBM to the cleaners, because they didn't know what they had in the operating system. Bill had a one line clause in his contract that said he could use it for himself.
As for being sued for tying in the internet browser into Windows, that was illogical. What they did was a natural extension of their Windows operating system. I'll never understand what was wrong with that.
Thanks for the phone call. I'll check my e-mail now.
Bob,
I'm not JPN. My identity will remain a mystery for now. OK?
Bill Gates, (thought he seems to be coming around as a philantropist, is given way too much credit for things he never invented. He bought the operating system for $50K.I don't remember all the details since it was almost 30 years ago but I'm 90% certain it nothing to do with IBM.
A shrewd businessman he is. He's not as much of a computer genius as his reputation make him seem to be. Almost every innovation in software MS has has been acquired from smaller companies. Microsoft develops virually nothing on it's own except
Windows (whose concept was a ripoff from xerox I believe).
As far as what he did wrong with IE.
It's basically a application. He tied it so tightly to the operating system that it could not be uninstalled. He's doing the same thing with Windows Media Player now.
Someday he'll be deducting micropennies from your bank account for every web media you view.
"The first graphical web browser to become truly popular and capture the imagination of the public was NCSA Mosaic. Developed by Marc Andreessen, Jamie Zawinski and others who later went on to create the Netscape browser"
I remember years ago MS was part of the W3C web consortium http://www.w3.org/ They would agree to standards and then go off with IE and ignore them. Like everything MS does, they create rules for developers to work with their operating system and then wiht their own products they do things totally differently. This has on occation backfired for instance the Front Page Web Page development software. I don't think many serious web developers use that product.
As for the details of the Anti Trust suit. With the Deep pockets of MS, if they were not guilty they never would have lost. It's only like last year that they settled with the states (one of which was MN,) who did not jump on the federal settlement.
My understanding of the history of the PC operating system is that Bill Gates developed the CPM. It was the first step in in managing input/output devices tied to the CPU from tape drives, to keyboard, to monitor to floppy drives.
With that reputation, he contracted with IBM to develope an operating system for a large version of a PC patterned after the architecture of the Apple IIE.
He did that and, as I said in an early comment, his contract said that he had the rights to use the system for his own use. IBM did not know what they had. At that time the PC was considered a toy by IBM and said it would never replace the large machines sitting in a large air conditioned room in all corporations and banks.
The rest is self-evident. Bill Gates was a good programmer and one great businessman.
If I'd been Bill Gates I would have intergrated the browser into the Windows OS. Everybody (well maybe 99.5%) owning a computer uses the internet.
I have an American Heritage dictionary that stays resident while using Microsoft Word, eventhough I have access to spellchecker. My guess is that someday, Microsoft will integrate a dictionary into their wordprocessor.
No doubt the damned government will sue them.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Bob,
I deleted the previous post because I wanted to make a correction and hit post instead of edit.
I think that we both seem to have parts of the the story. I found this from a quick Google search.
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa033099.htm
The "Microsoft Disk Operating System" or MS-DOS was based on QDOS, the "Quick and Dirty Operating System" written by Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products, for their prototype Intel 8086 based computer.
QDOS was based on Gary Kildall's CP/M, Paterson had bought a CP/M manual and used it as the basis to write his operating system in six weeks, QDOS was different enough from CP/M to be considered legal.
Microsoft bought the rights to QDOS for $50,000, keeping the IBM deal a secret from Seattle Computer Products.
Gates then talked IBM into letting Microsoft retain the rights, to market MS DOS separate from the IBM PC project, Gates proceeded to make a fortune from the licensing of MS-DOS.
In 1981, Tim Paterson quit Seattle Computer Products and found employment at Microsoft.
I think it's foolishness for us to try to reargue a case that's been decided in the courts after many years of legal wrangling. That result is that MS lost. If you did what Gates did you would have lost too. Netscape was the big looser in this battle because MS truely had a unfair advantage and thus limited competition. You pro Laisser faire guys are always arguing about how great competition is, until your in a position to stiffle it.
The inevitable result of this thinking is the creation of monopolies, which does the exact opposite of what the right is allows talking about "Freedom". When monopolies are created there is no "Freedom" to compete. True competition is stiffled or eliminated and the monopolies use their economic power to influence political power. Take the Congressmen caught taking bribes as an example. To me it's much more rational for the government to have some degree of influence. After all "The Government" is who we voted for. At least I have a vote and a small voice in what the government does. I have absolutely no influence or impact on what Microsoft does. I'm certainly not arguing for the other extreme where the govenment runs everything. In my view this country was built on the balance between the two. Without the labor movement most workers would still be putting in 12hr. days 6days a week. And if they got hurt,or sick too damn bad. That's not the kind of society I want and you'll see in the next election that it's not what the majority of Americans want either.
I think we've strayed far from your original post. I wonder why you gave it racial overtones?
I think it is more cultural. Asians have traditionally placed great emphasis on education and ancestry.
White American or Pop culture places more emphasis on Sports,money, and hedonistic pleasure. That's the
crux of the issue in my mind.
I'm coming in here late in the discussion, but I have a couple points of info:
1. CEO pay doesn't get cut when union wages get cut and the workers' portion of the benefits package increase, i.e., health care, because this is making the business more profitable.
It's pretty interesting the Ford would pay Bill Ford $15 million in annual salary. Why? He'd probably take the job for $1 million...he may not be worth that much. Do you think Bill Ford has the experience and background to run GM? If GM did hire him, do you think they'd pay him $15 million annually? This is a board of directors problem. Maybe it's the type of problem that requires progressive legislation that caps the taxable amount of salary executives can be paid.
2. Last spring I went to a luncheon where the speaker was the CEO for Sun Country Airlines. He pointed out that there is too much capacity in the airline industry. No airline can increase ticket prices and keep them up. He said the one of the most important KPI's for the airline industry is cost per seat mile. For airlines like Northwest and Delta that cost is between 7 and 11 cents. For airlines like Sun Country and Southwest, that cost is 3-4 cents per mile.
Before deregualtion, all the airlines pushed their costs on to consumer through government regualted prices. In a sense, there was no competition. It was more like protected oligopolies.
3. Mircosoft v. IBM is an example of the lean upstarted running circles around the bloated giant. The giant can't see his feet and doesn't have a clue what is happening directly under his nose.
I think the auto industry reflects a similar example. There was not competition until the 1980s. Till then, if the costs went up, the price tag on a car went up. If one of the Big 3 raised its price the other two quickly followed. It wasn't really based on competiton and it wasn't based on quality. The Big 3 could negotiate benefits packages and wage packages and increase their prices. Now, as BobZ points out above, the chickens are coming home to roost. Their markets are eroding, they don't have a good selection of small cars to attract the consumer looking for comfort and great MPG.
This is a management problem. It is lack of vision and probably another example of bloated bureauracy and inbred turf wars.
The last few cars I've purchased were Fords. One Tarus got totalled in a hail storm so I bought a Focus wagon. Great gas mileage, decent room to haul stuff, but not enough comfort in the driver's seat. I traded that for a Tarus wagon. I like it alot. But I can't understand why there would be a Ford Tarus and Mercury Sable still being made by the same company. You see the same duplication on cars with different names in the Big 3. Some are wishing up, but very slowly...
I'm not sure how we got from schools to cars? What I see coming to roost is the American obsession with power mobile gas guzzlers and a sheep mentality of the American public.
Madison Ave. somehow convinced everyone they needed an SUV or a Pickup Truck regardless of the style of driving they did and without any concern for gas milage. It was for the most part keeping up with the Jones and following the trend. My last 3 cars have been Japanese. Everyone of them ran for over 230 Thousand miles. I've yet to hear of a Taurus that didn't start falling apart at 100K.miles.
My first "Japanese" car was a Chevy Nova. It was actually a Toyota Corrola in disquise with a lower price tag. I felt a little guilty not buying an "American" car, until I discovered this car was assembled in Freemont. CA. I saw a News Hour Report years ago that shattered the myth of "Buying American cars". The truth is that auto parts are manufactured around the world, and you couldn't purchase a completely American car no matter how hard you tried. Many Ford parts are made in Mexico at plants that have extremely low environmental standards.
Since my Nova I've choosen "Japanese" cars because of their unmatched reliablity. Why is it that
the Big 3 can't build cars this reliable? Is that a worker problem?
I think more management and engineering. The Big 3 have continually balked at higher MPG milage standards and environmental controls while the Japanese have made this the focus of their R&D.
I think it was Ford recently whining that Toyota was "hoarding" the hybrid technology. Isn't that the point of R&D to develop an advantage over the competition?
This whole point was brought up in reaction to "competing" with India and China. If current trends continue, I see no other possible result than for the American Standard of living to sink to the same level as China and India. How is it that countries like Sweden and Norway can maintain exceptional standards of living, and provide health care for everyone and we cannot?
This isn't an American worker problem at all. It's a management problem. That's what I was trying to point out above.
I buy my cars from the local dealers. If someone offered me a foreign car option that was in the area, I would consider it. So part of my reason for buying a car locally is service. I know the people I'm buying from, I can get a loaner car without begging and for free, and it keeps the money in my community.
It's an interest dilemma for those people that won't shop at Wal-Mart because of it's impact on the local community, but they won't buy cars from the local dealer and prefer to go to the Twin Cities and leave their money there.
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