I'm about to be a 5th year senior at SDSU, where I've studied a mix of engineering, economics and math. I expect to complete my bachelors in Economics in Dec of this year. I work at a local learning center as a math tutor and teach an SAT prep course. I'd like to start a career on the business side of a technological firm but haven't really narrowed it down past there yet.
Let's make the future amazing
Anything thats changing the world or the way we look at it. Or opportunities.
I must've spent 100+ hours on TED since I found this site 3 or 4 months ago, but haven't taken part in the community until recently.
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A comment on Conversation: Can a volunteer-based-system ease our governments burden of providing social welfare?
I highly recommend it if you're interested in the topic,
http://www.ted.com/talks/rachel_botsman_the_currency_of_the_new_economy_is_trust.html
A reply on Conversation: Can a volunteer-based-system ease our governments burden of providing social welfare?
I like what you mention as it being taught, not mandated, and that is what I was envisioning. My idea would be something like corporate philanthropy, just as many places here in America give military discounts. In order to serve in the military they give a certain amount of time towards protecting our nation, if other civilians decided to help serve our neighbors, they could receive similar benefits.
As it is now, several companies, like Tom's Shoes donation program or any other companies advertising their philanthropic goals, receive a large benefit from concerned citizens. Right now I spend a lot of time going to certain websites (Facebook, Gmail, Twitter, Ted, etc.) and each one facilitates a different niche activity. WIth one focused on getting people out and about helping in the community in a wide range of , I expect it would become a daily part of one's life, getting them out in the neighborhood and simply spur good will. Which I've found to be contagious when genuine.
Large scale would just mean being able to make each person like a contributor to the community, which I would think means keeping it fairly local, while still somewhat connected nationally or internationally.
My favorite opportunity would be to help us avoid another poorly handled disaster like Hurricane Katrina. If you get people engaged in every city signing up for roles in disaster prep, with specific roles, then people would be much better prepared to help out in the case of an emergency. There would probably be some basic guidelines and roles to fill in each city, but people could also be free to sign up to help at a local food bank or mentor children or be a caregiver for someone with disabilities. It would be voluntary, but with some suggested operations and duties for each region.
A reply on Conversation: Can a volunteer-based-system ease our governments burden of providing social welfare?
I also don't think I am convinced of your belief that we can never end poverty, although even if that were fact, that doesn't mean more can't be done. We've practically eliminated illiteracy, polio, smallpox, and slavery in recent centuries in the western world.
Why not democratize food & potable water too?
Or housing?
Or education? (which may change drastically in the somewhat near future)
Poverty is just the status of not having the basic needs required to support oneself, right? But someone in poverty in America is in much better shape than someone in poverty in a third word nation, so the very state of poverty can at least be improved.
I wonder if our idea of work can change from purely being for wealth accumulation to 90% wealth accumulation/10% good deeds. Shoot make it 5%. Or 1%, even something as small as that on a large scale would get a large amount of good done for our neighborhoods and get people away from their computer and into the community. I think by simply interacting with others with an intention to help would spur more of that as it becomes the general attitude of the community members and spur a genuine desire to care for others.
A reply on Conversation: Can a volunteer-based-system ease our governments burden of providing social welfare?
I have heard recently about volunteers working to reclaim their cities after it has gone through bankruptcy and services like garbage, road and park maintenance were shut down.
As for the slavery concern, that is a valid concern I share but would hope to have it be an opt in system where it simply was inconvenient to not be involved, whether through financial incentives or for social reasons. Just as not having a Facebook can be inconvenient when meeting people who assume everyone has one. Thanks for the reply!
A reply on Conversation: Can a volunteer-based-system ease our governments burden of providing social welfare?
The free market works on an incentive based system; be productive, get paid, ideally. But it creates negative externalities and encourages accumulation of wealth over creation through productive efforts. Also its not entirely free (as in laissez fairre), we all pay a portion of our income (a proxy for our productive efforts) in taxes to go towards funding projects for the general goodwill of the community, to solve large scale problems we can't take on individually, like fight our wars, police our streets, monitor our safety, pave our roads, sweep our streets, and build our parks and schools.
People could simply give some of their productivity to the people through labor as a volunteer, and maybe pay less in the form of tax dollars or shopping costs and as long as it was done through a trustworthy system. It could possibly be more efficient than our government spending and give an opportunity for the unemployed to take part in productive efforts in exchange for basic services rather than relying upon government runs programs. Citizen run programs rather.
By eliminating or reducing the issue of government handouts from congress's responsibility, funds could be freed up, resources better allocated and perhaps the people would help to solve a lot of our problems in education, healthcare, poverty, etc.,. Possibly, it was a thought I wanted to get discuss, with people who are open to new ways of thinking about a problem.
There is always room for improvement, and I'm hoping to further explore that with this thread.
A reply on Conversation: Can a volunteer-based-system ease our governments burden of providing social welfare?
A reply on Conversation: Can a volunteer-based-system ease our governments burden of providing social welfare?
I've heard a lot of discussion of mandatory service in the armed forces, and wonder what would happen there was a required amount of volunteer service at home, on a nationwide scale. My idea is that although there are a lot of people willing to volunteer, those who actually do are still in the minority. With some sort of mandate/tax breaks/private benefit or just a general shift in the attitudes of the people, can we find a way to provide all or most of the social welfare we now rely upon our tax dollars to provide? Our tax dollars are generally spent very inefficiently, by those far away from the problems.
I guess I'm looking for opposition, or discussion on the different types of platforms that could be used to make such an idea of "all for one" realistic. Kind of the Facebook of volunteering per se, where everyone might be involved
A comment on Conversation: Can a volunteer-based-system ease our governments burden of providing social welfare?
America was founded upon the ideal of a nation "By the people, for the people", however our government is "Paid for by the people," not actually by the people.
By getting people to act in their local communities for the common good, could we make more efficient use of our resources than the government spending of our taxes?
Either through a government mandate of 2hrs/month or some sort of incentive based system?
A comment on Conversation: Does formal education as a child hinder a child's creativity?
When beginning 7th grade, I was placed in a math class that was way too easy for me which I fiercely fought with our school administration on to no avail. Fortunately for me, I had heard a teacher say that homework was only there to make the tests easier, and since the problem with my class was that it was too easy, I tried to make it harder by not doing homework (some self-serving logic, I know ;) ). This wasn't an issue in middle school as I knew only my parents would see the grades, and I argued that as long as I got A's on tests I could continue not doing my homework.
After a few days absent, I took a test and realized I knew none of the material whatsoever, yet was determined to figure out the answers so I could keep on with my free afternoons. So I tried things over and over again until I found answers that seemed reasonable and they turned out to be right. I kept on with this method and through determination to solve these problems, I found that I improved my test scores (physics & economics too) as I was no longer relying on memory, but rather continuously working to find a solution any way I could.
My theory on it is that by giving a student the answers and testing their retention, we test their abilities to retain knowledge (a skill of diminishing value where google is always a few keystrokes away), without ever encouraging our students to search for answers, which I find to be much more reliable than memorization, and very much applicable when its important to understand the big picture of things.
So my answer wouldn't be that its formal education that hurts our students, but the fact that we give them the answers or methods and then test retention purely. By getting our students to search, and assuring them that the questions are solvable, I think we can go a long way.
A comment on Conversation: What was not taught in school that you realize, REALLY should have been? (Why?)
As Plutarch said, "The mind is not a vat to be filled, but a fire to be kindled."
By lighting kids imaginations, we can get them to take responsibility for their futures. And although curiosity may not be something that can be taught, it can certainly be encouraged and nourished.
By showing children the excitement of learning, what it can do for you, how much fun it is, etc, we can provide the children with the skills needed to take responsibility for their own learning.
The trick is to get our teachers to be entertainers and mentors, rather than autocratic dictators ruling over their own nation of 30+ students.
On the hand of specific knowledge though, I believe our schools should guide students towards skills that allow them to solve any problems (within reason) that may arise in their life. In the 21st century this includes programming, finances, relationships, as well as the basics of reading, writing, arithmetic and science.
In the 22nd century that may involve piloting spaceships and using teleporters responsibly, but by nurturing curiosity and allowing the children to have some say in what they will learn I think we can trust that they will attempt to learn the skills most pertinent to their lives and their futures without too many government mandates on a general curricula.
And I'll end with my favorite idea from Douglas Adams, that the trick is to ask the right questions, while I trust that the answers will logically follow and fall into place.