US compared to Rome Options

[Divergent Realit...]

we were dumped in a private school down here. it was ridiculously easy, so i guess the parents were just paying for the grades. i stuck it out for the whole year (because the girls were also ridiculously easy), but my brother ended up going to a public school after a semester. he said the "regular" classes were the same way.

25th actually seems pretty high. i would have guessed in the upper 30's at best.

but i do see what you're saying. dallas public schools are hilariously bad. they have entire schools that are literally just a bunch of trailers surrounding a cafeteria and gym, and it's because of all the mexicans.

yeeeeeep.

everyone loves the portable buildings.

overcrowding for the win.

[Inferia]

Education is a complicated business. Personally, I do believe there can be improvements made in US public schools. My high school was pretty good, but I don't think it prepared me for college. However, I don't believe giving kids more homework and harder problems is the key to better education. Though amount of knowledge taught in the US maybe be lacking as compared to many other places, but the US do encourage independent thinking and problem solving, which I believe is just as important as knowing how to do a billion different differential equations. I think there should be some common ground found on more difficult curriculum and creative problem solving.

[dauss]

well i guess what i don't really connect is, how is not being in the top 20 nations K-12 going to bring the downfall of our country?

You said:

people come here from all over the world to get their education. what's wrong with our education policy?

I've heard it here, I've heard it at school and that was people bitching that their teacher couldn't speak English. In all reality, when they get their degree are they staying here or going back to their home country?

Education may be good enough to prep kids for college, but it's so damn expensive that a lot of students have debt up to their eyeballs.

i don't agree on healthcare, i think our healthcare system is fine. i don't want government subsidized healthcare, nor do i believe that not having it will bring the downfall of our country.

We spend more on health care than any other country and we are the fattest country. We're also paying significantly more and getting worse health care than other first world countries. So all these obese people are going to have a shitload of problems which will clog up our health care system, along with all the baby boomers who are now hitting their retirement age.

how would not using ethanol or any other energy issue end up being the downfall of our country?

Enjoying your $4/gallon milk? That E85 is going to be the biggest disaster. To ween ourself off of foreign oil, we'll need farmland the size of TX dedicated to producing biofuels, and that's assuming that we're using the same percentage of small cars like they do in Brazil. Even that would be over 100% of the current corn crop. Then you have to water the plants, which consume an emormous amount of water, and everyone is fighting over water rights.

[impala454]

You said:

I've heard it here, I've heard it at school and that was people bitching that their teacher couldn't speak English. In all reality, when they get their degree are they staying here or going back to their home country?

staying here. but the point is, how does this lead to the downfall of america?

Education may be good enough to prep kids for college, but it's so damn expensive that a lot of students have debt up to their eyeballs.

yeah but they're making more money than people in other countries. and, how does joe bob smith's $5k credit card bill or $200/mo 3% interest student loan payments bring about the downfall of america?

We spend more on health care than any other country and we are the fattest country. We're also paying significantly more and getting worse health care than other first world countries. So all these obese people are going to have a shitload of problems which will clog up our health care system, along with all the baby boomers who are now hitting their retirement age.

there is so much complete made up bullshit in this paragraph its hard to know where to start. we do not spend more on healthcare than anyone else. you know why? because we don't pay 50% of our wages in taxes to the government for shitty government subsidized healthcare. we're not the 'fattest' country. in fact, the men's health magazine I just received showed that we eat healthier and exercise enough to be in the top 10 health wise. our healthcare is some of the best int he world. why the hell do you think people from all over the world are coming here to have major medical procedures?? why the hell do you think people from all over the world come here to be doctors??

none of that even matters though. lets say you're right and it's really as bad as you think it is. how does this bring about the downfall of america? much less "compared to rome"???

Enjoying your $4/gallon milk? That E85 is going to be the biggest disaster. To ween ourself off of foreign oil, we'll need farmland the size of TX dedicated to producing biofuels, and that's assuming that we're using the same percentage of small cars like they do in Brazil. Even that would be over 100% of the current corn crop. Then you have to water the plants, which consume an emormous amount of water, and everyone is fighting over water rights.

so which major country on the planet doesn't have this problem and will take over because of our supposed downfall. it's also pretty hilarious that you bring this up in a thread where you're comparing us to rome. did the romans start running out of gas to run their SUVs too?

[rabble]

The roman empire fell because it had too much land to cover from hostile nations constantly attacking in on it. And the fact that the governmental power was pretty much disjointed after the move of the capital to constantinopel (again, largely a distance problem of governming).

The military being "over-confident and over-extended" in roman times is completely different from the current condition. Over extended in roman times means that they couldn't muster a military force to suppress the outer regions of its borders based on trained army per amount of land needed to protect... while our "over-extended" is the UNWILLINGNESS to muster forces large enough to SUPRESS another country to our will (making a draft, mandatory service, or population willing to join in herds). Much like pre-WWII, we aren't willing to commit mass people into military service... doesn't mean we couldn't.

As for "over-confident", im not even sure what that means. Because rummy thought the force that could invade iraq could also maintain stability was wrong does that mean our MILITARY was over-confident? Considering that any modern war is predetermined to have america as the superior force, its hard to say they are "over-confident"... maybe ill-prepared for PERFECT survival rates of the soldiers, but that doesn't seem like our military is in any threat of failure anytime in the near future.

Honestly the domestic side seems like a more obvious "downfall" of america (such as economy crashing), but that happened to japan and they are still around... Rome isn't around anymore because their cities were sacked and they fell completely apart... i don't see that as much of a threat in the U.S.

God im tired, hoped that reads like i said in my head... heh

Holy shit dude way to prove the fucking overconfident point. You basically said "we aren't overconfident even though our military can never loose...ever...never ever in a million years, we are always going to win...always"
Secondly, did you know the romans trained and armed the gauls? (the people who first sacked rome) DOESN'T THAT SOUND FAMILIAR TO THE CURRENT SITUATION!?!?

About education, I think massive school reform is required, instead of treating it as a fucking government sponsored daycare we need to pump money into making it a situation where students can explore their options and learn what they want to. (after all that basic math/English/science/etc is out of the way) That way the stupid fucking kids will drop out a die a horrible death while the smart kids succeed (don't give me that everyone needs an equal chance bullshit, if you don't want to go to school then drop out and get a job) But I think if the school system starts offering a wide range of options to students then the dropout rates will decline and we will start having on average more learned people in their chosen subjects, thus increasing our production and whatnot.

[GOB]

DOESN'T THAT SOUND FAMILIAR TO THE CURRENT SITUATION!?!?

nope. the only familiarity is the fact that the entire middle east is probably just now caught up to ancient rome in terms of education and technology.

[Dogmeat]

as long as it's required that illegal immagrants serve 6 years in the army upon arrival I'm all for letting them come over, I'll put it that way.

earn your keep assholes.