Comments on: Economically incompetent ACE cuts

By: Financial literacy – Educate adults. « The Standard

Financial literacy – Educate adults. « The Standard — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:19:08 +0000

[...] salesmanship in selling financial products. But Anne Tolley just destroyed the long running cheap effective and more efficient than the alternatives Adult Community Education program in a burst of short-term [...]

By: johnbt

johnbt — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 06:01:17 +0000

According to Maryann Street the cost of ACE courses cut by the government works out at $59 per punter. These include the macrame, the sword fighting, the silk dying. But my personal favourite is the old guy who could afford trips to Italy but wanted us poor buggers to pay for his Italian cooking lessons.

By: Draco T Bastard

Draco T Bastard — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 23:33:46 +0000

It means that people won’t have access to the information they need to make rational decisions, ie, stupider.

By: prism

prism — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 09:00:32 +0000

If NZs had gone to night classes in spanish cooking we would have had better cuisine in the 1950s and 1960s. Restaurateurs, many who came to NZ from Europe as a result of the cataclysms of the Second World War, noted the awful hotel meals, and one commented that they seemed to be prepared from one recipe all over the country. One trick was to overcook a roast then make gravy from the bitter, near-carbon stuck to the bottom, with contributions no doubt from past roasts).
Wanting to learn something beyond school, gain new skills etc. stops us from settling back into the tight little complacent tunnel-visioned society we had in the mid 1900s. Unfortunately those who have been successful following their channel of opportunity, underestimate how much their wealth is built out of others adopting new ideas.
Many local councillors would like to shut down libraries, or bring more user pays in as they hardly read books at all, and only want to learn more of what made their personal wealth.

By: Rex Widerstrom

Rex Widerstrom — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 06:08:19 +0000

I used to teach marketing and PR skills to… gasp… fledgling small business owners at the Wellington WEA. Yes, the very core constituency National claims to represent. They presumably went off and put these new found skills into building their business and increasing their profits. Maybe they grew sufficiently to be able to offer work to other people.

Yep, definitely useless bludgers who’ll go on to to contribute nothing to the economy.

Ironically, it was through this work that another client noticed I was prepared to teach media skills and hired me to do so, because their performance was pretty dire. And that client was …even bigger gasp… the National Party Research Unit.

It was, however, mildly amusing that they asked whether I’d charge the same fee as I did at the WEA (which I saw as basically pro bono work… IIRC I got about $60 a night).

By: Mac1

Mac1 — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 05:56:44 +0000

Nah, Nats’ policy better described by the joker, or the knave.

By: kiwiteen123

kiwiteen123 — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 05:50:47 +0000

That does not necessarily make people ‘stupider’ they could rationalize the spending and put less money into more effective programs.

By: Draco T Bastard

Draco T Bastard — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 05:44:27 +0000

By cutting education spending. I thought that would be obvious even to you.

By: kiwiteen123

kiwiteen123 — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 04:51:42 +0000

I’ll repeat my question as you did not answer it.
How is the National government making people ‘stupider’?

By: kiwiteen123

kiwiteen123 — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 04:50:28 +0000

Look, this is as left-wing I get.
I’m in two minds.
On part of me says: “go to university and get a job”
The other half says “help people learn basic things in night-classes”
Are you in favour of the Nats’ ace policy??

By: QoT

QoT — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 04:48:07 +0000

Children of educated parents are more likely to succeed in education. But this requires a longterm view which neither National nor fake Internet teenagers have.

By: QoT

QoT — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 04:46:33 +0000

“People who don’t succeed in orthodox learning environments”. “People who don’t have time to attend daytime schooling”. “People who can’t commit to longterm learning”.

But of course a “teen” has no idea about the realities of life post-high school, so I’ll let you off the basic-empathy hook for this one.

By: kiwiteen123

kiwiteen123 — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 04:46:12 +0000

How is the National government making people ‘stupider’?

By: kiwiteen123

kiwiteen123 — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 04:44:53 +0000

Maths.
English.
Computing.

By: QoT

QoT — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 04:44:41 +0000

Yes, dear, I understood the attempted-snark point you were trying to make.

Try to understand mine: And the people who these educated folks switched their votes to have decided the best way to keep in power is to make people stupider? Your logic is not like our Earth logic.