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> Equality of outcome is easier to enforce by punishing the top percentile

More so the top percentile have the ability, and in my opinion, the moral responsibility to push the entire standard of education up for everyone, rather than their own kin.




This is a little ridiculous. You expect elementary school students, now removed from their gifted classes, to "push the entire standard of education up for everyone"? I think they will be a little too concerned with Minecraft and Roblox to support your grand ideas of social justice and moral responsibility.


> I think they will be a little too concerned with Minecraft and Roblox to support your grand ideas of social justice and moral responsibility.

I mean other than the fact that this is extremely dismissive, again, Finland is the example that did get rid of all this crap and is doing pretty well for itself.


Are you from Finland to be so sure of your argument? I've been a "gifted" kid so I'm sure about your interlocutor's. My parents have been summoned, more than once, to have a discussion about a group of four problematic pupils spending ~75% of the time playing cards. Turns out that we were consistently finishing all of the assignments, including the stretch goals, at the beginning and spent the rest of the time waiting for the others to catch up. But somehow none of us got an idea to try to tutor a bully or something. The system also didn't have a response to this.


Finland significantly increased the education standards for teachers and fired a lot of bad ones. Those two things will never happen in the US.


> is doing pretty well for itself.

Yup, world leader in startups, inventions, science, etc...

oh wait...


It's more important to watch the median standard of living explode upwards over the last 200 years than to blame the peak for being a little higher.

It's not the top percentile who have the ability. We have to all do it for each other.


> It's not the top percentile who have the ability. We have to all do it for each other.

Sure. And part of that is making sure that wealth is being distributed with the health of society in mind, rather than individual happiness at the top :)


Fixed pie fallacy. We have a shrinking middle class because the middle class has become the upper class, not because the rich are richer.

The top being higher doesn't lower the base. There is more money today than a decade ago.

Merely taking money from the wealthy does nothing to improve the standard of living.


Have literally any proof of what you're saying?

> There is more money today than a decade ago.

Where is it then?


https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/money-supply-m2

https://fee.org/articles/why-our-shrinking-middle-class-is-a...

The answer to where the money has gone is sort of everywhere. Everything from social security payments to military budgets has increased. Everyone makes more and things cost more too.


> And part of that is making sure that wealth is being distributed with the health of society in mind, rather than individual happiness at the top :)

Making sure it will happen will kill it. You have to have the right mechanisms in place to encourage it, and it may happen.


The top percentile has much, much more ability to influence society than poorer people do. And with more power should always come more responsibility.

To suggest that there's equally distributed chance, ability and responsibility is perverse; it flies in the face of reality.


> To suggest that there's equally distributed chance, ability and responsibility is perverse; it flies in the face of reality.

I didn't suggest that. And if I did, it wouldn't be perverse.


Mutual aid networks are a real thing that really exist.


I'm not sure the outcome you actually want here. Failing students for not performing at gifted levels is obviously not the outcome anyone wants.. What exactly should the gifted students be doing?


Which top percentile are you referring to, the wealthy citizens or the gifted children? I believe the comment you’re replying to is referring to the latter, while you’re referring to the former.


Gifted students, this wasn't supposed to have anything to do with wealth distribution.




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