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Derek Scruggs
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6 months ago
in Nothing to Do With Quarterbacks on Will Wilkinson
Well... Everyone "knows" that it's best to start saving for retirement when you're in your teens and early twenties, and yet most people don't get serious about it until their forties. That poor decision literally costs you hundreds of thousands of dollars, perhaps more than a million, and it can be quantified pretty accurately. Conversely, what's the financial loss from having your child educated by an average teacher vs. one in the top decile?
Re: the dowry example - I suspect that's as much about fear of loss as gain for your children. It looks very bad to not provide a dowry. Further, those cultures generally devalue women relative to men, so the dowry is a form of compensation, too, since the dowry comes from the bride's parents, not the son's.
Re: the dowry example - I suspect that's as much about fear of loss as gain for your children. It looks very bad to not provide a dowry. Further, those cultures generally devalue women relative to men, so the dowry is a form of compensation, too, since the dowry comes from the bride's parents, not the son's.
1 reply
1 year ago
in Im Getting Political in this Piece on Learn To Duck
Re the South - I grew up in Georgia and my anecdotal experience is Obama hasn't a chance in hell outside of Florida. I have college educated friends in Georgia and Mississippi who think Obama is a muslim (though they live in rural areas, not Atlanta which undoubtedly will go for Obama, just not enough to offset the rest of the state).
1 reply
Charlie
...and that just brings up another thing that's crazy. Suppose he *were* a Muslim? So freakin what? I'd still vote for him.
The sad reality is that while now you can run credibly for president as a woman, a black person, or probably any other race as long as you've got some firm roots in this country, you still have to be a Christian (or at least put on a very convincing show that you are).
A jew's chances are dubious, and an atheist or agnostic probably doesn't have a shot in hell - even though a very large and growing segment of the population describes itself that way, and even though very well educated people are disproportionately well-represented in that group.
The sad reality is that while now you can run credibly for president as a woman, a black person, or probably any other race as long as you've got some firm roots in this country, you still have to be a Christian (or at least put on a very convincing show that you are).
A jew's chances are dubious, and an atheist or agnostic probably doesn't have a shot in hell - even though a very large and growing segment of the population describes itself that way, and even though very well educated people are disproportionately well-represented in that group.
1 year ago
in Messaging, not email on A VC
You also appear to assume that the relevant factor in education spending is the quality of the teacher, not the quality of the school. However, there is a lot of evidence that the quality of the school in terms of the principal and the quality of the students attending it matter greatly. See for example http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/esp/esp95toc.html Hedonic studies of housing prices imply that people are willing to spend more in at least some cities for access to better quality public schools (though measuring the quality of the schools :
http://cedb.asce.org/cgi/WWWdisplay.cgi?0609543
http://ideas.repec.org/a/jre/issued/v18n31999p3...
http://www.econ.yale.edu/seminars/labor/lap04/s...
People may or may not be short-sighted about their retirement (I spent my teens and early twenties studying and travelling, rather than saving for my retirement, and I don't regret it), but many parents are willing to spend on their children's education.
As for the dowry, I don't understand what you are trying to say. If no parent cares about their children's financial future for that child's sake, then why would the culture think it very bad to not provide a dowry? Especially in a culture that devalues women relative to men? And I am well aware that the dowry comes from the bride's parents, that is why I was talking about daughters in the comment you responded to.