Sage Advice from Thomas Friedman regarding, Well, Everything!

[another saigon]

this guy is so pathetic it is embarrassing to read. The NYTs could do so much better than this idiot! He even works a plug in for his book at the end. He seems so desperate to remain relevant. Anyway, here are his pearls of wisdom why america is no longer number one!...

We had a values breakdown!!! :eyes:


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/opinion/12friedman.html?ref=general&src=me&pagewanted=print



We’re No. 1(1)!


By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

I want to share a couple of articles I recently came across that, I believe, speak to the core of what ails America today but is too little discussed. The first was in Newsweek under the ironic headline “We’re No. 11!” The piece, by Michael Hirsh, went on to say: “Has the United States lost its oomph as a superpower? Even President Obama isn’t immune from the gloom. ‘Americans won’t settle for No. 2!’ Obama shouted at one political rally in early August. How about No. 11? That’s where the U.S.A. ranks in Newsweek’s list of the 100 best countries in the world, not even in the top 10.”

The second piece, which could have been called “Why We’re No. 11,” was by the Washington Post economics columnist Robert Samuelson. Why, he asked, have we spent so much money on school reform in America and have so little to show for it in terms of scalable solutions that produce better student test scores? Maybe, he answered, it is not just because of bad teachers, weak principals or selfish unions.

“The larger cause of failure is almost unmentionable: shrunken student motivation,” wrote Samuelson. “Students, after all, have to do the work. If they aren’t motivated, even capable teachers may fail. Motivation comes from many sources: curiosity and ambition; parental expectations; the desire to get into a ‘good’ college; inspiring or intimidating teachers; peer pressure. The unstated assumption of much school ‘reform’ is that if students aren’t motivated, it’s mainly the fault of schools and teachers.” Wrong, he said. “Motivation is weak because more students (of all races and economic classes, let it be added) don’t like school, don’t work hard and don’t do well. In a 2008 survey of public high school teachers, 21 percent judged student absenteeism a serious problem; 29 percent cited ‘student apathy.’ ”

There is a lot to Samuelson’s point — and it is a microcosm of a larger problem we have not faced honestly as we have dug out of this recession: We had a values breakdown — a national epidemic of get-rich-quickism and something-for-nothingism. Wall Street may have been dealing the dope, but our lawmakers encouraged it. And far too many of us were happy to buy the dot-com and subprime crack for quick prosperity highs.

[stray cat]

1. Have you done any hiring lately?

[Fumesucker]

3. Have you looked for a job lately?

[Fumesucker]

2. Says the man that married an heiress...

"We had a values breakdown — a national epidemic of get-rich-quickism and something-for-nothingism."

Does this overinflated windbag even *own* a fucking mirror?

[izquierdista]

7. I would imagine hundreds

For this guy to buy enough clues, he would need Carlos Slim's fortune.

[monmouth]

4. IMO he's spot on....n/t

[Raineyb]

5. Bullshit. Blaming the entire country for the economic downfall caused by a small number of

economic elites is complete right winged spin and utter bullshit.

Get rich quickism? Most people weren't making all that money. Most people were struggling to keep up with rising costs in the face of declining wages. Most people were just trying to do their best to grab a small piece of the American dream. Most people were NOT trying to get rich quick and get something for nothing.

Spot on my ass. Friedman is an embarrassment who apparently knows shit about economics despite having written numerous books on the subject. In fact the Lexus and the Olive Tree shows he doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about.

The man married to a billionaire who reaped the benefits of the Bush tax cuts is going to lecture those of us trying to get by with rising costs and decreasing wages? Spare me!

His words aren't worth the paper and ink used to print them nor the electricity used to create the electrons that they take up when you read them on screen.

[another saigon]

6. thank you

one would think an actual elitist like friedman, blaming the middle and lower class for their dire straits, would not be defended here.

You would think.

[ShamelessHussy]

8. he's right about not taking responsibility, though, as usual, wrong about who is responsible

he's like the M$M who try to hide the truth by blaming everyone/everything, no matter the issue, under the no fault/shift fault cloak of 'fair-n-balanced', so we are left with everything being equal. that is why we are always spinning our wheels, going nowhere, just in the same direction that the corporate elite dictate.

they may not know what time it is, or which way is up, but they got another thing coming if they think we don't.

[Crunchy Frog]

9. The Moustache of Understanding.

[Swamp Rat]

10. More drivel from a propagandist hired by the Über Klasse to support their Corporate Fiefdoms