Comments on: Rivas, Williams, and Gay: They were told there wouldn’t be any math on the exam

By: AesopFan

AesopFan — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 07:31:36 +0000

For the Record, in re my comment about Bill Whittle:
This is a new link from his archive; the one I used above is now dead. However, this link has only the “blurb” and not the video, which was fascinating, and I hope it is eventually reinstated.

https://billwhittle2.com/eat-the-rich/
“Is America really broke? Michael Moore (and others) tells us that there are oceans of cash being hoarded by the wealthy. But Iowahawk (iowahawk.typepad.com) did a little addition, and armed with these statistics Bill and the ‘Hawk blow a hole in the “hoarding” lie big enough to fit a documentary filmmaker through.”

Found the podcast in the Internet Archive:
https://archive.org/details/youtube-ows-BillWhittleontheEatTheRichMentality-6npXHS91U80

By: Julie near Chicago

Julie near Chicago — Sat, 14 Mar 2020 21:56:56 +0000

Aesop, just above: I know of a whole bunch of really smart people (some of them not nuts) who are teetering over the BIG precipice, and then there are so-called "Bleeding-heart Libertarians" (including Profs of Philosophy like Jason Brennan, Matt Zwolinski, Roderick Long *ugh*, ...) who need to read and absorb this little point from your quote:

"The thing about money is that it becomes vastly more valuable when it is EARNED. That’s why handout gimmicks and “guaranteed minimum income” schemes don’t work. The process of earning money creates value, and that value is by definition greater than the value of the cash."

Thanks for the quote. :>))) And the link -- the whole Tweet is very good. :grin:

By: shadow

shadow — Sun, 08 Mar 2020 23:28:50 +0000

Does anyone else remember a bunch of people making the same mistake a couple of years ago when we had the billion-dollar lottery?

By: The Real Jeff

The Real Jeff — Sun, 08 Mar 2020 13:46:27 +0000

What’s even more amazing is the answer was right in the money amount they were saying. $500 million. Which even an MSNBC dunce should understand means 500 x (1 million). And they wonder why their irrelevance has become more and more obvious.

By: AesopFan

AesopFan — Sun, 08 Mar 2020 04:39:12 +0000

What if Bloomberg actually HAD given everyone a Million Bucks?

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1235920036340142081.html

This is not materially different from Bernie Sanders muttering that he could fund over $50 trillion in new spending by looting the billionaires.
…
Looking beyond the hilariously deficient math skills on display in this clip, the notion of “giving” everyone a million dollars is absurd even if the Evil Rich actually COULD afford to do it. If everyone suddenly had $1M, the economy would crash.

You can look at what happened after Democrats nationalized student loans for an example. The system was suddenly awash with money. Profiteering schools jacked up their prices to soak up the cash. The sea of money was drained with astounding speed.

If everyone was suddenly “given” $1M, the big story the following year would be everyone’s astonishment at how quickly the money disappeared without making the standard of living all that much better. It would probably get worse, and now the $1M would be gone.

Not to mention that everyone wouldn’t GET $1M from this absurd giveaway program, once overhead and corruption were factored in. You’ve got to distribute the money somehow. Let Democrat-style Big Government do it, and you’d be lucky to actually receive 10% of your million.
…
The killing joke, of course, would be that within a few years most of the money would get back to the people and entities that originally controlled it, but along the way, the economy and regular working people would suffer. It would be like economic chemotherapy.

The thing about money is that it becomes vastly more valuable when it is EARNED. That’s why handout gimmicks and “guaranteed minimum income” schemes don’t work. The process of earning money creates value, and that value is by definition greater than the value of the cash.
…
This can be very bad news for individuals, but it’s utterly ruinous for society as a whole. The process of earning money is one of the ways we use our combined – cooperative AND competitive – intelligence to find opportunities and allocate resources. It’s why we are prosperous.

And so forth.

By: Alan Van

Alan Van — Sat, 07 Mar 2020 22:31:43 +0000

These high-falutin tv people with their cipherin and yammerin. I wish I could be as smart as thems…….

By: Rufus T. Firefly

Rufus T. Firefly — Sat, 07 Mar 2020 20:00:36 +0000

Artfldgr,

A friend teaches nursing. She says most do not understand concepts like 1/2, 1/4. Most.

It is truly frightening.

By: sdferr

sdferr — Sat, 07 Mar 2020 19:46:13 +0000

Ah heck, Estoy, what’s wrong with “propagandists”? Seems a fitly English word to me.

By: Estoy Listo

Estoy Listo — Sat, 07 Mar 2020 19:28:06 +0000

It’s been said before: “Journalist” is the wrong appellation for these people. We need a new term. I wouldn’t include “news” in this new label, since the word denotes knowledge w/ some associated accuracy. “Event” seems the better term. Event (What?) Event Talker, Event Chatter, Event Presenter?

By: Artfldgr

Artfldgr — Sat, 07 Mar 2020 19:04:22 +0000

So we have members of the MSM from the Times, the WaPo, and MSNBC spouting an error so egregious and mindless and elementary (in the sense of maybe, third-graders should have gotten it right)

are we talking third grade in the patriarchal evil era or now in the modern feminist education system?

the modern one is the one manufacturing that kind of math understanding..
where the idea of proper spelling is racist… (seriously)

The Common Core makes simple math more complicated. Here’s why.
https://www.vox.com/2014/4/20/5625086/the-common-core-makes-simple-math-more-complicated-heres-why

and thats LEFT leaning press…

but then again, all this ignores what Cheryl Iserbyte and others say we dont discuss… and have said since the REAGAN administration… but one day, we will all be equally stupid the way we will all be equally wealthy..

its what the feminist, lgbt, and all that is about… isnt it?
Cant make us all into richard feynmans (evil white guy anyway), so what is the alternative?

the horror when i found out there were students entering medical school who could not do the basic math necessary to even prescribe.. or figure out dosage differences in active ingredients. (did you know they are the same for children’s Tylenol and adult Tylenol… its just one is in metric and the other in the other system? i remember sitting down with my pediatrician and doing the math together in my office… he thanked me as that would save a lot of poor families money, and he never realized it…(whether this is true today i do not know, my son is over 30, and i threw away the eye dropper ages ago) )