Gongol.com Archives: August 2016
August 25, 2016
Woman sentenced to prison for letting a 4-year-old starve and freeze to death
Is her sentence long enough? Probably not. It's a story of unconscionable individual depravity -- and of serious institutional failure. If we're truly a good civilization, we should be looking carefully into how this could have happened, and how we can make sure it doesn't happen again. Ever. If government isn't protecting the vulnerable children among us, then it must immediately correct its course with all the focus and energy that can be mustered. It's not enough to just punish those who neglect children after the harm has been done. There is an affirmative duty to protect.
Polk County (Iowa) task force endorses higher minimum wage
The Board of Supervisors will consider it next. If approved, it would hit the upper $10 range by 2019. The minimum wage probably should track inflation, but changing the numbers doesn't solve the underlying problem. It should trouble voters if people are stuck in low-wage occupations because they aren't developing more valuable skills on their own. It should bother people if employers don't value their employees enough to invest in helping them develop higher-value skills. It should bother all of us if there aren't pathways available to make education and skill development accessible and affordable to people who are willing to invest their own efforts in the process.
700 years of inherited money in Europe
More important than sending money downstream to your heirs is sending some wisdom their way. Without that, they'll only keep the money through luck. With it, they don't necessarily need the money.
University of Chicago takes a stand on free speech
And a rather firm one at that: It basically tells incoming freshmen that they're probably going to be offended by something along the way.
Facebook categorizes your politics
Your behavior tips off the site to what it thinks your political alignments might be, and its ads respond accordingly
