There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom

We’re still in the eye of the slowest news cycle in history. From Rolling Stone to Cosby, there are plenty of stories about rape, but those are more like tabloid stories than news. Most people – including many on Reddit and 4chan – know the accusers are lying, which is why these alleged ‘victims’ (or what I call storytellers) didn’t go to the police but instead went to their lawyers and the press, because filing a false police report is a crime. Rape is a very traumatic event, anyone who is raped and isn’t under captivity would immediately seek help, not wait 30 years or go to the press.

For those who fall between the cracks in today’s super-competitive economy, to quote the title of a popular Richard Feynman lecture, There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom. What this means is we need to lower our standards for what the American dream really means, especially for those who are not smart enough to succeed. Maybe the American dream is greeting strangers at Walmart or asking patrons if they want fries with their burger. These are jobs that don’t pay much, but are fulfilling and do create economic value. Maybe the American dream is uploading pictures to Facebook or taking selfies – two activities that also create value. Maybe it’s watching Keeping up With the Kardashians, which we believe should be required viewing for women who can’t cut it in STEM.

Through the schools and through popular culture, we need to teach the millions of people who reside on the left side of the bell curve how to be economically useful, productive individuals. Have the high schools and Jr. high offer classes on how to flip burgers, for example. Or how to set-up a Facebook profile (assuming anyone doesn’t still have one). We need to teach consumer spending, as well as broadcast FOX News in schools to counteract the liberal bias found in the curriculum. These are just some tentative ideas. They are probably terrible, but it’s a step in the right direction.

But really, why are wasting untold billions and countless hours teaching room-temperature IQ kids stuff that will go in one ear and immediately out the other? You pose this question to a typical welfare liberal and they will be outraged that you imply that not every kid has an inner Einstein that can only be unleashed with taxpayer dollars, or they will go on about how low-paying jobs are just as important and prestigious as STEM jobs. We argue, that while low-paying jobs do create economic value, individuals in the low-paying service sector are inferior to STEM workers and no amount of whining by the left will change this. The sooner these low-paying jobs can be fully automated, the better society will be. The people who lose their jobs and are unemployable can be warehoused in condominiums with tiny rooms that resemble egg cartons at little cost. Or maybe warehouse them underground, away from sight, in which case there is indeed plenty of room at the bottom.