Links: Millennials are lagging, Biden's new social contract and misinformation

Links: Millennials are lagging, Biden's new social contract and misinformation 

The President's commitment to free community college should be extended to trade schools, including community colleges, ESL, remedial GED education and trade schools created as part of the Catholic educational system. Catholic education has the same class biases as the society at large. That this discussion should also include race is no surprise as well, including in inner city schools where parishes are closing. 

Students of working age, including documented and undocumented migrants, should receive compensation of at least the minimum wage for full-time participation in educational programs. Remedial programs should also be funded as a tax credit against employer-paid subtraction value added taxes. Child tax credits should also be paid, again, as an offset to employer collected income or subtraction value added taxes.

Catholic educational institutions must provide onsite daycare from high school through college to both its employees and students. This transition should also include an end to the demonization of sexually active teens. No class issue is more urgent than this.

I can see no downside in doubling down on education and child welfare, except for opposition from conservatives. That should be considered a badge of honor. It is about time to enlarge the social contract - and also to be in touch with its meaning - that is the trading of taxes and adherence to law in exchange for safety and social services.

The only way to mute the Manchin effect is to actually give aforementioned conservatives a stake in tax reform. I suggest that more faith based services and an end to the requirement that all but the most wealthy file taxes would be an incentive that would please the Republican base.

Suburban women are not put off by wokeness. Indeed, dealing with it in the proper way may attract more voters than it repels. Opposing equality (especially sexual equality and wokeness) is the major tool of conservatives in mobilizing the working class against reforms that would actually help them. This would even include explaining why the pro-life movement has no hope of accomplishing its ultimate objective. The alternative to decreasing abortion is to assure that women are socially and economically empowered.

Of course, wokeness should not be taken to the extremes of animal rights. While much can be done and said about the dangers and evils of factory farming, attributing moral agency to other land animals (I am not sure about cetaceans and dolphins) is a step too far. That being said, I am all for finding options to factory farming. Cloning meat would work out (and be easier in a closed loop system than keeping cattle), provided bone, blood and fat were also cloned and spun into a decent burger - or even some kind of fillet.