longer.blue

For anyone wondering how we got to the point of the billionaires basically siezing control of our gov't, here's a quick recap: The educational standards Pres. Eisenhower passed in 1958 (after Russia launched Sputnik) were known as the National Defense of Education Act. It increased funding for science and mathematics education. IQ tests were used to help place students in classes matching their abilities. The was an accelerated or gifted tract. During the golden age of American education, which was the envy of the world, students were also taught government, civics, philosophy with critical thinking and debate, economics, foreign language, music, and the arts. A high school graduate of the 1960s was fairly well educated, read at a 10th-12th grade level. After Reagan was inaugurated in 1981, he gutted the education funding and the subjects about government, civics, philosophy with critical thinking and debate, accurate history, leading to poor educational standards. People now now read at a 4th-6th grade level after graduation from high school. At least 50% don’t know the 3 branches of government, nor how our government works. They don’t know accurate history, and many are functionally illiterate. Most of our voting population are at this level of education, so they can’t make informed choices when they vote. They lack critical thinking skills and are more susceptible to propaganda. This dumbing down of our population was long planned by the wealthy and Republicans, and Reagan put it into action. He also gutted much of the New Deal, which had leveled the playing field to give average people a chance at getting educated and moving up. His new laws hollowed out the middle class, busted up unions, allowed over 60,000 manufacturing jobs to move offshore. Wages were lowered or stagnated so there was little chance for upward mobility. Taxes were massively reduced for the wealthiest, and raised for the middle class. Social Security was taxed for the first time. Billionaires increased from 13 before Reagan to 900 by 1990. They also hold political power and own most of the GOP and a good handful of Democrats in Congress. And here we are.