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Do You Believe That Billionaires Should Exist?
69 Answers
1 million seconds equal 11 and 1/2 days. 1 billion seconds equal 31 and 3/4 years.
Yes or no?
Yes or no?
Answers
To the people who keep using expressions like 'sour grapes' and 'the politics of envy' I'd say that not everybody worships mammon. (like you obviously do) And you don't have to be poor to see there's less social mobility and equality of opportunity, in this country today, than there was 40/50 years ago.
20:05 Thu 07th Nov 2019
They are a fact of life and I'm not about to suggest getting any hit squads in.
It also rather depends on how they get to where they are, by fair means - well done.
By corruption, they need rooting out.
There's been a slight dip this year but I'm sure it hasn't taken the sparkle out of their lives.
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It also rather depends on how they get to where they are, by fair means - well done.
By corruption, they need rooting out.
There's been a slight dip this year but I'm sure it hasn't taken the sparkle out of their lives.
https:/
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To the people who keep using expressions like 'sour grapes' and 'the politics of envy' I'd say that not everybody worships mammon. (like you obviously do)
And you don't have to be poor to see there's less social mobility and equality of opportunity, in this country today, than there was 40/50 years ago.
And you don't have to be poor to see there's less social mobility and equality of opportunity, in this country today, than there was 40/50 years ago.
Spice, //there's less social mobility and equality of opportunity, in this country today, than there was 40/50 years ago.//
I disagree. Forty or fifty years ago you would rarely find a kid from a poor, working class background pursuing a professional career – or even settled in a nice office job They were destined for factories and at best, a trade. Unless they were smart enough to earn a place in a grammar school university wasn’t a consideration for them. That was completely out of reach. Not so today. Education is available to everyone now, regardless of background. If aspiration and a determined work ethic is there, so is opportunity.
I disagree. Forty or fifty years ago you would rarely find a kid from a poor, working class background pursuing a professional career – or even settled in a nice office job They were destined for factories and at best, a trade. Unless they were smart enough to earn a place in a grammar school university wasn’t a consideration for them. That was completely out of reach. Not so today. Education is available to everyone now, regardless of background. If aspiration and a determined work ethic is there, so is opportunity.
//Not so today. Education is available to everyone now, regardless of background.//
That's quite true, Naomi. But the quality and overall results of much of that on offer leaves a lot to be desired. However, something else you mention is equally pertinent:
//Forty or fifty years ago you would rarely find a kid from a poor, working class background pursuing a professional career – or even settled in a nice office job They were destined for factories and at best, a trade. Unless they were smart enough to earn a place in a grammar school university wasn’t a consideration for them.//
Very true. But nothing like 50% of grammar school pupils went on to university. But that percentage of young people going on to University education is the target today from all State schools. In my year at grammar school there were 90 pupils, three forms of 30. I probably knew, quite well, about twenty of them. Of that twenty I can recall only about three or four going on to Uni. Most of the rest went on to perfectly good careers in the professions and "nice office jobs". A few went on to highly successful academic, professional and artistic careers. But most went into the lines of work that you (correctly) say are out of the reach of many working class children.
My parents were working class. My father was a painter and decorator and my mother a wages clerk. But thanks to the excellent education I received at a direct-grant grammar school I was able to follow a career path that would not be open to many children today. Instead they would have to attend university, emerge with a somewhat valueless degree (which does little more than my 'A' levels did and in many cases considerably less) and of course be saddled with enormous debt.
That is why there is far less "social mobility" today.
That's quite true, Naomi. But the quality and overall results of much of that on offer leaves a lot to be desired. However, something else you mention is equally pertinent:
//Forty or fifty years ago you would rarely find a kid from a poor, working class background pursuing a professional career – or even settled in a nice office job They were destined for factories and at best, a trade. Unless they were smart enough to earn a place in a grammar school university wasn’t a consideration for them.//
Very true. But nothing like 50% of grammar school pupils went on to university. But that percentage of young people going on to University education is the target today from all State schools. In my year at grammar school there were 90 pupils, three forms of 30. I probably knew, quite well, about twenty of them. Of that twenty I can recall only about three or four going on to Uni. Most of the rest went on to perfectly good careers in the professions and "nice office jobs". A few went on to highly successful academic, professional and artistic careers. But most went into the lines of work that you (correctly) say are out of the reach of many working class children.
My parents were working class. My father was a painter and decorator and my mother a wages clerk. But thanks to the excellent education I received at a direct-grant grammar school I was able to follow a career path that would not be open to many children today. Instead they would have to attend university, emerge with a somewhat valueless degree (which does little more than my 'A' levels did and in many cases considerably less) and of course be saddled with enormous debt.
That is why there is far less "social mobility" today.
NJ, I too came from a poor background but gained a place at grammar school and, speaking from experience, I think the closure of grammars is a huge mistake. That said, we are now left, in the main, with Comprehensives which, for obvious reasons, fail to extend universally the fundamental quality of education offered across the board by grammar schools – multiple languages, individual sciences, complex mathematics and a broad range of literature, music, art, etc – but for the bright and ambitious the opportunities for higher learning are there. If they weren’t, students from Comprehensives would never do anything much at all… but some of them do very well indeed. In fact a friend of mine, a product of the Comprehensive system, is now a lawyer, another teaches A-level maths. Not Einstein, granted, but she’s not done too badly for herself in forging a perfectly respectable career – and neither has the other one. I think attitude counts for much – but unfortunately the attitude of ‘them and us’ that we see so much on here thrives, and that, in my opinion, is not only destructive, it’s self-defeating. Tell a kid often enough that he's less than others – and the chances are he’ll eventually believe it.
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