The Glade 4.0

Federal Mandates can eliminate competition, depending on how the mandates are written. However, I disagree that raising the minimum standards automatically removes all competition.

And my experience has been that States continue to compete with each other. Texas for instances draws many businesses because they don't have a state income tax. Minnesota draws many citizens because of the great opportunities for outdoor activities. Other States have their benefits (and costs/negatives) as well.

The problem is that enforced homogeneity is, well, homogenous. The social and ecenomic reality of that outcome is akin to the inevitable heat-death of the universe. Where there is no disparity in wealth, performance, etc. There is no motive force to compel the movement of energy within the system. Which is to say that the system grinds to a halt, continuing only in the sense of an ever downward economic "cooling".

All of which goes back to the cultural issue of egalitarianism with respect to outcome vs. egalitarianism with respect to treatment/behavior.

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Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

I believe it is incorrect to equate minimum standards with homogeneity. They are not the same, and one doesn't lead to the other.

History disagrees with you, I'm afraid.

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If that were to be true Khross, then every school across the nation would have exactly the same performance, which we all know is false. There still are better and worse schools out there, regardless of what legislation is out there.

Minimum standards always lead to a lowering of expectations and disincentives to perform; and, yes, we are approaching an equilibrium state in the United States. However, that equilibrium state is far lower than it needs to be or would be. You have unqualified highschool and college graduates diluting the labor force and end markets for individuals with an education. And, amazingly, even school systems that are disproportionately regulated, like California, are failing to produce adequately trained or educated graduates for older college standards. Indeed, even the CEEB has lowered its standards so much that the GRE and SAT have no valid analog to IQ and individual knowledge based merit tests. Consequently, even statistical measures of performance are problematic.

And none of that really matters when faced with the largest problem of all: stupid people breed more.

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There will always be outliers and individual variations, but there's no particular reason the homogenaity Khross mentioned should have already occured. He didn't give a time frame to reach equilibrium and obviously it will not happen instantaneously.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

No, if that were true we would see a lower outcome in schools since control ebcame single point oriented (Federal), and we have.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Are we looking for the final solution?

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"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

How about the final countdown?
[youtube]XAg5KjnAhuU[/youtube]

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Holy shitsnacks!

The system slows down and speeds up at certain points... much like the motivation and well-being of a person. You can't reasonably expect it to always accelerate, or even stay constant. Maybe a lot of people will have to starve in the process eventually, who knows.

Racist!

Did I do that right?

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades