MedicalStory2
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User ID: 2071
MedicalStory2
24d ago
I remain frustrated that so much of the abortion debate ignores adoption as a possibility. It's so ignored that OP might think it's an unrelated point, but without addressing adoption, statements like...
It's therefore unsurprising that most parents choose not to condemn themselves to such a future.
are a red herring to me, at least for the USA.
(In all 50 states (and possibly in most non-USAmerican countries as well -IDK), there are Safe Haven laws allowing no-penalty surrender of newborns.)
I want to say this with no offense to OP, because what I'm complaining about is so common.
MedicalStory2
1mo ago
When I graduated college into a weak job market (30 or 40 years ago) that was a very popular idea. (Allegedly) old people weren't retiring and making room for young people; old people were preventing new housing from being built in order to enhance the value of houses they had bought for a song many years ago; old people insisting on fat social security payouts they didn't really need which would result in an insolvent system; old people pushing the government to take on lots and lots of debt which would have to be paid by future generations. etc. etc.
Except for not retiring, these all seem true both now and when you (and I) were young, but not true 100 years ago. I'd argue that the alienation of youth could easily be responding to a real change.
The alienation has persisted for over a half century, because the complaints have been true over that period.
MedicalStory2
4mo ago
Clearly, I didn't phrase my comment well enough. I may edit. (I'm also the author of the linked post, BTW.)
Dividing the US k-12 budget by the number of US children 0-17 is $11,800. Dividing the Swedish k-12 budget by the number of Swedish children 0-17, I got about $19,000. (I'm still wondering if I'm missing something, particularly about Sweden.)
Unless I'm way off, I think the main I made still stands - DINKs are subsiding children already, but in an inefficient way.
DINKs are already made to pay for children. They are just paying in an inefficient manner.
K-12 education costs about $11,800 per child in the USA (not per pupil, per child 0-17 that exists in the country, whether or not they are enrolled in public k-12 school). My Googling and back-of-the-envelope calculations get $19,000 per child for the same calculation in Sweden, but this surprises me because I thought we Americans were particularly pathological about overspending on education, so possibly I did something wrong.
Those numbers are cost per child in the population, not cost per student, so a per child payment (much bigger than the ones claimed downthread to have had little effect) could be tried and be revenue neutral.
(Edited to clarify per child rather than per enrolled pupil.)
MedicalStory2
5mo ago
Thanks for the link. I read the article and his anti-gerrymandering proposal too. For the House, I think he's got something close to the best thing that could be passed. (I still also want proportional representation, but don't currently see a realistic path to get there.)
For the Senate, I don't think the proposal (as summarized, I haven't read the full article) gets us to what you and the founders envision. We're too partisan.
MedicalStory2
5mo ago
We could certainly use more rational decision making in politics. We could certainly use less partisanship and more concern for the general welfare. I don't think your proposal gets us there.
First, we could look to the Federal Bureaucracy to see what happens to an arm of the government with stability against the forces of the whims of each election. Is the bureaucracy non-partisan? De jure yes, but de facto no. It has been basically captured and loyal to a specific party for decades. (And to the extent that's changed over the past year, it's only been by replacement with people loyal to the other party.) Does the bureaucracy make rational decisions? Lol, no.
Second, I don't think it helps to select for moderates. Smart people are more likely to have extreme beliefs and if, like me, you believe that our government is sliding backwards down a rut, what we need are "wild" ideas to get us out.
For what it's worth, I propose proportional representation using the "single transferrable vote" system. More diversity of beliefs and less toxic partisanship (like incentive to sabotage another party) in a multi-party system.
MedicalStory2
10mo ago
Would this have even been a crime in Israel? Quick Googling shows that the age of consent in Israel is 16, but I didn't find any information about the age of the person Alexandrovich was contacting.
I ask because I don't think it's too uncommon for any allied country to exert pressure on behalf of a citizen or even for local officials to allow flight from jurisdiction when the sex crime in the US isn't a crime in the home country. I can't find anything to confirm the pattern, but I do remember a local case a couple decades ago in Colorado involving a Swiss citizen.
I know I'm being analytical about an emotional situation in saying this, but, for the parents, which was the focus of the original sentence, adoption is a complete solution.
If we're going to move the discussion to a solution for society in general, I'd say that even if the high demand for infants pointed out down thread doesn't apply to Down Syndrome infants, charity or something charity-adjacent (like foster care) has always been the best solution we have.
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