Uzique wrote:
i think you're being extremely unrealistic if you think that 'average' families that can't afford to educate 2-3 children are only in that predicament because they are frivolous with their luxuries. i think it's a convenient marginalisation of a social injustice that you apply so that you can ignore or dismiss the iniquities of the price-structured education system; the reason the joneses down the road can't send their 3 kids to private school isn't because they want a BMW for each day of the week. with some examples, certainly yes, but that is almost definitely not the rule. i'm not a parent myself but i would think it's reasonable to assume that a strong emotional priority would lie in providing for one's children, rather than pursuing material benefits of a holiday in the alps or a bigger television for the living room.
john i really resent your attitude about "being a drain on society, anyway". what you are basically advocating is the progressive stratification of society along socio-economic boundaries; you're giving a big thumbs up to 'class war' and the 'wealth gap', essentially. we've had that in england for the last 100 years and, trust me, it's not as fun as you think. cultural, social and political ideologies develop a power hegemony if you let structures like that exist; put simply, if wealth, education and privilege are kept to one group, that group are pretty quickly going to develop a stranglehold on the entire direction of the state/nation. cumulatively, this denies the possibility of 'democracy', and the whole structure fails. even the social assumption that uneducated, intellectually uninterested, blue-collar parents "won't care" for their children's own education is fucking LUDICROUS. insane. i know many friends that have parents that did not graduate or ever attend higher-education, and they are earnestly supporting their own children on their individual choices and aspirations. stop chatting shit to make things convenient.
Come to Cali. I'll show you families living in the projects, six kids, but both mom and dad are driving Cadillac Escalades.
Regarding your second paragraph, the States are funny about opportunity and the like. The amount of Hispanic Republican congressman just now is a good example. I'd wager the UK doesn't have the same degree of opportunity. Landed wealth will always dominate.