The truth comes out

[Sacred Jellybean]

However, far too many people distrust vaccines.  The way out of our current pandemic is a vaccine, but the government is going to have to make it MANDATORY here.  Legally binding, EVERYONE will need to get it (barring a doctor advising specific patients not get it yet due to compromised immune systems, and those very exceptions are why everyone ELSE needs to get it).  Will our current government have the leadership will to mandate it?  I'm not so sure.  In the past they did at least, but now we have people putting the country in danger because they distrust an industry to the extent that they dismiss valid scientific data in favor of random gossip on Facebook.

The anti-vax moment is extremely depressing. We're in a situation where we'll need it the most. Though, a vaccine isn't likely to be created and tested any time soon, is it? I've heard a year to 18 months. Even when one is invented, I still stop short from believing the government should make it mandatory. I don't have an irrational fear of vaccines, but in principle, the government forcing its citizens to take a drug is just a little too far for me. I'm behind not allowing unvaccinated children to attend public schools (particularly if parents have the choice to put them into a private school that more closely aligns with their beliefs) but further than that just raises my hackles.

Unfortunately, I don't know a good solution. What else can you do, stop unvaccinated people from going out in public? Force them to register as "unvaccinated" and track them and stop them from coming to crowded areas? I don't know of any solutions that aren't less draconian than forcing them to take the vaccine to begin with. In an ideal world, people would put their trust in science and we wouldn't have to be debating this, but a bunch of Karens got educated at YouTube university with a minor in memes, and suddenly, they know more than scientists.

For college, I actually believe that "everyone needs a diploma" is a toxic mentality and has resulted in a lot of problems. As demand has risen, tuitions have skyrocketed, resulting in crushing student debt that graduates have to contend with. A lot of them don't even land jobs that are relevant to what they studied. I agree that education in a multitude of subjects is enriching. But I think colleges should go back to being elite institutions for people who are earnest in studying and learning.

Take myself. I've always disliked school, insofar as I didn't like to write essays, study for exams, etc. Learning is its own reward, and doing it on my own terms is more interesting. To me, I'd have been just as fine going to a trade school that only focused on my job skills (software engineering). That being my major, I obviously liked those courses the best, and they were most relevant to what I wanted to be doing for a career.

On the other hand, when more slackers like college-aged, pot-addled Beanjo enter the university, pretty soon, they have to start watering down the curricula to ensure enough students pass. It all arises from this toxic idea that everyone needs a bachelor's degree in order to have a decent job. It seems to me that colleges should keep their integrity as an elite institution for the brightest and most motivated minds. Trade schools and apprenticeships seem like the best entry points into the workforce for everyone else. A non-trivial amount of software companies don't require a diploma, and will readily employ a person who has the equivalent years of work experience (I want to say Google does this?).

Don't get me wrong. As stressful as it was, I'm glad I went to college, and learned the things I did, even non-Comp-Sci subjects. I just don't think that it's a good solution on a wide scale.

I won't make any claim as to whether college should stay public/private as it is now, how much the state should sponsor students, etc. I'm a little undecided on that, and will only say that everyone who wants to go to college, should be able to, with little-to-no financial burden. Having it be fully state-sponsored seems like a good idea, provided we could put some kind of cap on tuition fees, otherwise colleges could charge whatever they wanted to and make bank on all our tax dollars. How that could be calculated/implemented is beyond me. How do you price a thing like that, exactly?