The opposite of smart is dumb, and the opposite of hard working is lazy. Words like these aren’t just insults, they’re opposites to worthy attributes. So, it’s perfectly okay to use them. With that out of the way, let’s talk people.
Quality observations are all around us. We say a brand-new Honda is better than an old Chev because of durability and superior engineering. But can we talk about people in the same way—in regards to quality? If we could, here’s the criteria:
- Smart
- Hard working
- Emotionally stable
- Well raised
Smart doesn’t mean genius, it’s the ability to learn skills and retain knowledge. Hard working means reasonably productive. Emotionally stable says you’ve been loved to the level where your act is together. And well raised means you hold society’s goals within your understandings.
Well raised
Freedom is often described as “being able to do whatever you wish, as long as you don’t hurt someone.” So society’s goal, in terms of being well raised, refers to the acts of cordially living together. Every parent, no matter how bad, teaches their kids “please and thank you” along with other cultural traditions. But two practices have been removed from our norm that perhaps should be put back. They are:
- Living within your means
- Making babies only when ready
People who live paycheque to paycheque never have enough for retirement and often can’t get through the situation of temporary job loss. This creates the need for government programs and public assistance. And babies born to ill-equipped parents are not only robbed of their fair chance at life, but their circumstance can lead them into becoming a danger to others, including those who were well raised.
Low quality people
A common misconception is that low quality people are poor—they’re not. Yes, many are poor but most immigrants and many in low-income positions still provide families with hard working and emotionally stable environments, while encouraging and supporting education. So wealth is not the defining criteria. As a matter of fact, just as many low quality people can be found in the upper and middle classes. Why? Because the primary criterion is whether you’ve been loved and well raised, and many of us have not.
Parenting
Any good parent will tell you it’s work to successfully raise a good child. The effort required to love, teach, and provide is almost endless. So how do the dumb, lazy, emotionally unstable, and poorly raised do at it?
Parenting in the early years involves loads of physical energy and the later years require good mental skills. And though most of us get through phase one, thanks to help from neighbours and grandparents, it’s the teenage years that prove most problematic—especially when one is without a partner. Many kids are forced into leaving home early because their parent(s) can’t handle them. Lower quality caregiver(s) simply can’t continue to love fully grown bodies and they don’t hold the skills to provide teens with guidance. The result is eggs being tossed into the harshness of reality long before they’re cooked. (And we have lots of them.)
Culture
Ann Coulter, a popular representative of the far-right, once said kids born into lousy environments are statistically better off being adopted and the talk show crowd went nuts. She was tormented to pieces for mentioning such a thought. Now, I’m not advocating Ann’s position but do believe we ought to consider reinforcing the old norms.
Why can’t rappers make songs like, Don’t Breed ‘Em Until You Can Feed ‘Em, Let’s Be Smart About It, and Double Up? Aren’t school posters depicting young couples with captions like, “No Glove, No Love” and “No Pill, No Thrill,” only prudent? And shouldn’t speeches from politicians and social leaders include comments like, “Let everyone aspire to live within their means and only make children when it’s their time?” Crazy? Maybe. But many immigrants, with no more than grade three, know all about these things. Why? Because these sorts of messages have been pounded into them since birth. So if some parents aren’t giving kids these values, maybe society should. (Remember, it takes a village.)
Conclusion
There was a time when people valued financial astuteness and felt shamed by children born out of wedlock. But these views have shifted to valuing our credit scores and believing condoms are just for sailors. I’m not saying everyone thinks this way but views like these are commonly held among our lower quality friends.
Liberals hate this stuff. Issues like living within your means and having babies only when ready, or talking about the quality of people makes them crazy. You’ll never see a Michael Moore film about this. They wish words like dumb, lazy, emotionally unstable, and poorly raised were eliminated from our vocabulary because they’re demeaning to the ones created and raised under these conditions. But Ann is just saying you have to wait a few years.
The right is constantly criticized for offering simple solutions to complicated problems, while lefties believe everyone is innocent and we’re essentially all the same. And though some lefties suggest keeping the word stupid just to describe those like Ann Coulter, problems never get solved when swept under the rug.
Note: The National Review reports that 40% of babies born in the US are out of wedlock. When you factor in a percentage for parents who eventually get married or stay together as an unmarried couple, this percentage obviously comes down. And yes, consumer debt is at an all-time high.