Ralph Nader - Told You So

This morning I listened to a rebroadcast of the Current. There was a special segment called Project Money. Ralph Nader was talking about minimum wage. I admit, have not read anything by Ralph Nader, but have heard him speak several times through the media, and have always found him to be a highly intelligent man, and a compelling activist, and what he has to say, makes an enormous amount of sense to me. Terry O'Reilly also had a great interview with him many months ago, talking about his book Told You So.

Most artists struggle financially, as do the majority of people globally, and live daily with the fear of financial insecurity and poverty.

 Chris Hedges on the site Truth Dig, and Nation of Change, quoted from Ralph Nader and it demonstrates the injustice, and disproportionate wage gap between rich and poor, comparing it to medieval times.

“ How much political courage does it take to stand up for guys making $7.25 an hour while the head of Wal-Mart is making $11,000 an hour?” Nader asked. “What medieval period had that kind of wealth disparity? " - Ralph Nader

This got me thinking about what Ralph Nader thinks about creativity, and I think I found quote that encapsulates his thoughts, from the site focusing on the film about Ralph Nader An unReasonable Man

 " The students are not learning. They're not learning citizen skills. They're not learning how to practice democracy. They're not learning the creative force of their personality, and idealism and imagination.  Maybe if we started talking about citizen globalization, civic globalization, instead of corporate globalization, the world will move forward!  Let not future generations look back on us and say that this was the last generation that refused to give up so little in order to achieve so much."
-- Ralph Nader 

I think this quote indicates how Ralph Nader sees a direct correlation between the educational system and how our economy is run. I think he is of the same mind set as Sir Ken Robinson who believes that there needs to be a paradigm shift in the educational system.

When I think about students not learning citizen skills, it makes me think about B.F. Skinner, who rewarded, and punished rats through his behavioural modification method. Firstly, we are not rats, and are not always rewarded for good behaviour, nor punished by our bad behaviour; and it often it can be the opposite situation, where we are rewarded for bad behaviour and punished for good..

 Oh yes, we can become good citizens even politicians, however often, too many simply learn to manipulate the system, but makes for lousy human beings. I would suggest it isn't enough to learn about citizen skills, as we are in desperate need of learning how to be better human beings.