Young people uninterested in politics?

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The BBC ran an article on research conducted by the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex. The results showed that less than a third of young people express any interest in politics. It found only 31% of 16 to 24-year-olds were fairly or very interested in the subject, compared with about half of those aged 55 and over. Almost two-thirds of adults of all ages thought they would be seriously neglecting their duty if they failed to vote.

Of those in the youngest group – aged 16 to 24 – 42.4% stated that they had no interest in politics. This fell to 21% for over-65s. This research suggests that the younger electorate are becoming increasingly disengaged with the democratic system – but it also suggested they were more likely to express themselves politically in other ways, such as boycotting environmentally unfriendly issues. Only 44% took part in the 2010 general election.

Will Brett, head of media at the Electoral Reform Society, said that many young people were becoming involved in politics in more informal ways, such as social media campaigns, but he added: “We need to find ways of getting them more interested in our system of representative democracy. It’s extremely precious.”

What we are not getting in politics, either in the UK or the US, are altruistic people who genuinely want to serve their country and do their best for it. I do bellieve that most British MPs in the 19th Century believed in public service (which might have been due to the generalised fact that they were well-heeled in the first place and didn’t need to use Parliament as a later stepping stone) As a result you saw the greatest number of social reforms in history, and Parliament was deeply respected. Now, to many serve their time and hurry off to get lucrative jobs elsewhere. No wonder many voters despise them.

The importance of pre-school teaching

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According to a study from the University of California, Berkeley, the US economy values pre-school teachers at between $8.63 and $20.99 per hour. This contrasts with, for instance, a minimum wage for fast food workers of $15 an hour in New York state, a figure that took 3 years to campaign for. Pre-school teachers have to keep the peace among children at various stages of development and need, provide meals, wipe noses and teach basic math and reading that will get the kids ready for school.

Pay for teachers of little children varies geographically, as you might expect — from an average of $8.63 in West Virginia to $12.47 in Massachusetts. But in general Kindergarten teachers earn far more than teachers of 3 or 4 year olds, even though there’s mounting evidence that the social, emotional and cognitive benefits of high-quality programs for the very young can last a lifetime. That means better trained teachers could make a huge difference in the lives of infants and toddlers.

“There’s a disconnect between our 21st century knowledge about early childhood teaching and these 20th century wages,” says Deborah Phillips, a professor at Georgetown University. “We desperately need educated young people to be working with young children, but they look at this job and say, ‘It’s a pathway to poverty. I can’t pay my student loans if I do this.” She went on to say: “The caliber of teachers is tied to their wages. Better-paid teachers and caregivers have lower turnover, can afford more training, and, not incidentally, are less stressed and preoccupied — not a small consideration when screaming tantrums are a normal part of the workday. Policymakers and the business community are all now turning to early childhood education as one of the best investments we can make, if you don’t pay adequate wages, you undermine the very thing that produces that value.” (based on an article on the NPR Website, 2015)

Of all the professionals maybe the most admirable are those who teach and train little children, hopefully instilling them with an understanding of how to play, make friends with other children, restrain their anger and human selfishness, and begin to be a disciplined human beings. It is a never-ending job, bringing up a child successfully, requiring huge amounts of time, patience and energy. Some people think that Since both parents started working outside the home they are not finding enough time to discipline and civilize their children – a bit of a generalisation, but if you are delegating the most important years of upbringing you should at least pay handsomely for it.

An Epicurean government would make teachers among the highest paid people in the country, and the teachers of the little ones the highest of all. Bankers would come within the bottom quartile.

Blatant theft and modern banking: no lessons have been learned

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John Stumpf is the CEO of America’s most profitable megabank, Wells Fargo, which has 268,000 employees. His company has been operating in crisis mode ever since the federal Consumer Finance Protection Bureau hit the bank earlier this month with a $185 million fine, the largest penalty for consumer fraud the new agency has ever assessed. Yet the bank’s execs are walking out the door with multiple millions in bonuses. The exec most ‘accountable’ for Wells Fargo’s scam is exiting with $125 million.

What happened? Wells Fargo employees, CFPB investigators found, have over the past five years opened more than 2 million accounts that customers, as one press account puts it, “did not authorize, did not know they had, did not need, and clearly did not understand.” Some customers even ended up paying late fees on these bogus accounts.

Stumpf says he is going to “get things right” and “fully reimburse” any affected customers. But what he doesn’t admit is that the bank’s enormous annual earnings — and the enormous rewards these earnings have “earned” him personally — rest on a systematic “sandbagging” of the average Americans who walk into Wells Fargo branches.

This scam was totally planned and deliberate. If it had been perpetrated by the obscure and powerless (a.k.a African Americans) the executives would be serving life sentences at this very moment. But, of course, they were probably careful to contribute to the election expenses of numerous politicians. How long will Congress, and the political party that dominates it, put up with this Game of Thieves? Why do decent, taxpaying, law-abiding people have to stand there helpless while criminals walk away with multi-millions. Strumpf should be in handcuffs and a jail jumpsuit, his cronies likewise. They should all be made to repay every penny they have taken. So why is Strumpf out and about making inane speeches?

Ataraxia deserted me for a moment. Apologies!

Thought for the day

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“By the time the average child is five, its parents have posted 1,500 images of him or her on social media”. (The Daily Telegraph)

Why? Who has time to post them and who has time to look at them? I am reminded of the reaction of someone I know of who, not wanting to offend, but bored by numerous and ubiquitous new-born photos, would comment,”My, what a baby!”

Music and pain

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Music is so effective at relieving pain that patients should be allowed to listen to it before, during and after surgery, researchers have recommended. A study published in The Lancet found that pain levels fell when patients were played their favourite songs, even under general anaesthetic. “Music is a non-invasive, safe, cheap intervention that should be available to everyone undergoing surgery,” said lead author Dr Catherine Meads from Brunel University. Patients, she suggested, should be encouraged to choose any kind of music they like to “maximise the benefit to their well-being”. (After a hip operation earlier this year, her own pain was soothed by listening to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album.)

For her study, Dr. Meads reviewed trials involving 7,000 surgical patients and found that on a scale of one to ten, pain levels fell by two points if they tuned into their own choice of music. They were also less anxious and needed less pain relief after their op. In a follow-up study later this year at the Royal London Hospital, 40 women undergoing hysteroscopies or caesareans will listen to their playlists via pillows fitted with built-in loudspeakers.

The wonderful thing about human beings is the diversity of their tastes. Music is a good example. My preference is for calming, reflective, romantic music that carries you away into another place. Others need more energy and volume. Whatever the music, I would like to think that originality and imagination in the composition reduces anxiety and pain to the greatest degree. Some modern music, personally speaking, would enhance both pain and anxiety.