Slashdot Mirror
Homeless Student Is Intel Talent Search Semifinalist
An anonymous reader writes "Samantha Garvey, a senior at Brentwood High School, has managed to become one of the remaining 300 semifinalists in the Intel Science Talent Search this year. Her research focused on mussels and on her discovery that they change the thickness of their shells if a predator such as crabs are introduced. Why is Garvey's achievement so impressive? Because she and her entire family are homeless, and rely on a local homeless shelter. Such a situation would stop many students from being able to focus on studying, let alone a research project, but Garvey has instead used her situation as motivation."
Great, another excuse for slashdot libertarians to tell us the only problems we have are big government and our own laziness.
Of course, a man with a solid shot at becoming our next president is now on record saying the primary motivations for class conflict in America are "greed" and "envy" of those who've done well. Not like we're sick of going without healthcare or tired of applying for and not getting fucking part-time retail work or sick of needing an engineering and/or Ivy League degree just to get a real job out of college; no, we're just envious little pricks.
Simple: Americans believe in the just-world hypothesis. They believe that "God helps those who help themselves."
Americans believe that anyone who is homeless is homeless because they deserve to be homeless. The proof is simple: they're homeless. If they didn't deserve to be homeless, they wouldn't be.
Likewise, the rich are rich because they deserve to be rich. Taking away their riches in the form of taxes would be unjust, because they clearly earned their riches and didn't simply inherit them or steal them. We know that because they're rich. If they didn't deserve to be rich, they wouldn't be.
Once you understand that this is how Americans almost universally think, the objection to universal health care and the refusal to fund programs to help the homeless should become clear. Americans don't believe in bad luck, they believe in a vengeful God.
America (I'm addressing you as a whole).
How is it that you allow young people, let alone whole families, to be homeless, to live in "shelters".
In a world of limited resources, the resources we have are given to those who are most likely to do something helpful to society with them. "Money" is a way to reward contributions to society. Statistically, a child born to a family that earned money is more likely to also be successful -- it's in their genes. The family puts their child into a great (expensive) school to make sure she can reach her potential.
Capitalism is an economic equivalent to Darwin's survival of the fittest. There are merits to this, despite the corruption.
At the same time, you have to make sure that the occasional "mutant" who has abilities beyond her parents has the opportunity to make money herself. That's what socialized education is for. There is also something called "Child Services", which makes sure that children are receiving an acceptable upbringing. I'm not sure what kind of shelter this family is in, but it was unsafe, then the daughter would have been removed from the family and placed in foster care.
In America, we give you a free chance, but not a free ride. There's your answer.
I take it this AC is a wonderfully wealthy douchebag. Anyone else?
http://www.acetonestudio.com
Their situation is the result of a pattern of behavior, and a type of lifestyle. Other people would not end up destitute due to an accident; intelligent, responsible people have contingencies to mitigate disasters. You're creating an artificial split between "in the past" and "this time", when the two are intrinsically linked.