Responses

To get the context for this post please read HERE.

Raising a Moral Child talks about the differences in positive and negative reinforcement for behavior in children. It discusses consequences as well as actions and reactions to common childhood development phases and what each one tells a child. It talks about each type of response and what they can do to a developing mind's decision making skills in the future. I feel that many early parents are confuses as to what they should do or say when they're child achieves or misbehaves. Will their response determine how their child will and learn and grow positively or negatively? The answer may be easy, but we're learning that even our punishments and rewards/praise have a lasting effect. This reinforced what I already was concerned about, that there is a fundamental way to teach a child incorrectly, and even though you may think it's right, you're just setting them up for failure. That scares me, that it's so easy to influence, not just the youth, but our infants and new adolescents. We must be careful to what what we do and say and how we do and say it, for these actions can impact a life forever.

Parental Involvement is Overrated discusses parents' roles in their child's education and why we shouldn't jump to any conclusions or always play a major role. New studies are finding that children don't all learn the same (duh) and that that not only applies to coursework and the learning environment, but to parent involvement in school; from homework to field trips. We can't safely assume that everyone will equally benefit from extra help, and that it won't negatively impact them either. We need to take a step back and learn what helps and what hurts. Intentions have a way of becoming demands, and pushing children isn't always what they need or want. Research shows that different races tend to respond differently to school help and will either do better or worse depending on individual findings. These can affect how a child learns and if they have the desire to learn in that way. We should approach every opportunity cautiously, for we know not the consequences of our actions.

Once the recession began, people owed even more money
than their county was producing. That's not good.

Recovery for Whom? is about how the 2008 recession may have hurt all of us, but the recover that follows it is mainly benefiting big corporations and homeowners are still up a creek without a paddle. Especially those who are just now entering a workforce hit hard by job loss and a reluctance to spend more money. Businesses are currently cutting corners wherever possible, even though they continue to enjoy tax cuts and enormous profits. I believe that tax reform is of the utmost importance and that the only thing stopping it is the lobbying by the corporations it world effect most. These companies have enjoyed the ease of lobbying

and kept tax cuts to boot. They also continue to spend less while making more, even as they commit illegal, or wrongfully legal, acts in order to maximize profit. The great 2008 recession was built by the banks and paid for by the fed. But they don't care because, one,  it's not their money and, two, they are paid by both the government and by the corporations they protect. Whether it's fracking, sub-prime mortgages, tax evasion, bailouts, privatized healthcare, unregulated spying, or food privatization, those in government who have been bought will always go with who has the most money. It's when the will of the people is no longer represented and the representative is no longer accurately representing, they must be removed, but this is often difficult to do. Whether it's lying to the people they represent or lying to the government they work for, they deserve no place in a developing society.

Saving Young People from Themselves focuses on how our future workers aren't adequately prepared for the future, and how the system meant to help them is in fact working against them. Mainly, that they aren't saving up enough for retirement, and even the systems we have in place now aren't enough to deal with the current impending destruction of everything people have saved for. The systems we have in place should work as advertised and should work for the benefit of the person saving without compromising their current paychecks. We should better prepare our future by educating them and by allowing them to save more efficiently and effectively, making money with their money, instead of letting it devalue. If we let our money sit around, we only allow inflation and the value of the dollar to determine what we'll have left in the end. We need to make smart decisions now to prepare for later.