Author Archives: Les Wong

Posts by Les Wong

Comments by Les Wong

"The problem you presented about the United States is an eye-opener. We always hear that the United States is the greatest country in the world but your points show that we are far from perfect. I agree that as long as we are motivated by money, we cannot progress as a society and more problems will result. However, I am uncertain that your proposed solution of standardizing everything will work. If there only exists one health care provider, there is nothing stopping them from overcharging as they essentially become a monopoly. It is somewhat similar to our MTA, the prices will continue to rise despite public protest and the public are forced to go along with the change because there are no alternatives. Your stance suggests the government partakes in corrupt practices of lobbying so it wouldn't be too farfetched to believe that the health care provider will be influenced by the same people."
--( posted on May 11, 2015, commenting on the post Revamping the Health Care System )
 
"The problem with healthy lunches is definitely a pressing issue in the public schools. It is difficult for people especially children to understand healthy eating habits if all they are given as a daily meal is one slice of pizza and a carton of chocolate milk. If we want to enforce healthy habits early, I agree that the public school system is a good way to start. I was also unaware that food deserts were a thing in the city because of our convenient transportation system. I feel like most of the time, people in the city are just too busy to cook for themselves since work is a prevalent part of their lives. As a result for convenience, they would just purchase ready made foods instead of cooking a healthy meal. From my search, there were approximately 8 Aldi chain stores in NYC, which are discount grocery stores, which has locations in the upper east side and the Bronx. While those stores are widespread and somewhat remote, there are subway lines that are a few blocks away and purchasing in bulk quantities will make healthy food not as expensive."
--( posted on May 7, 2015, commenting on the post Public Health Problems and Solutions )
 
"I think your solution to educate the public about salaries by essentially releasing salary numbers is great. This would increase company transparency to determine if there is underlying biases within their work decisions. It would, like you said, also give women a basis to negotiate their salaries if needed, which can decrease the wage gap they face. I also talked about paid leave for both parents because it would help the developing child grow with both parents contributing as well as decrease biasedness in saving maternity leave money by hiring a male. This is a great idea that will help the cause of gender inequality but will need government intervention for this to be enforced. With that in mind, forced legislation would probably also be necessary for salary exposure in order to increase legitimacy and ensure no data has been falsified. The solutions you came up with will be effective once we have the means to implement them."
--( posted on Apr 26, 2015, commenting on the post Gender and Economic Growth Solutions )
 
"Your idea of slow cultural change seems to be the solution that will most likely happen. I agree that forced legislation will be difficult to implement without opposition since culture is deeply rooted and an important part of people's lives. Cultural shifts seem to happen more often in the younger generation and evoking small changes will definitely contribute to the reformation of gender roles in society. I also agree that the changes must happen at schools because home is where the deeply rooted culture is strongly upheld. Parents who oppose cultural changes will be very unlikely to conform to the new social norms that may include important aspects such as gender equality. I also agree that paid leave for both parents is necessary not only for the healthy growth of the child but also contributes to gender equality. In the workforce, the bias of having to essentially pay for no work during maternity leave is certainly a factor that inhibits women. If companies have to consider paying both genders a period of absence, the discrimination will be greatly reduced. However, the problem will be getting companies to conform to these new maternity and paternity leave policies as they are losing money. In this case, your idea of forced legislation, which might not have worked in the previous case, can be very effective with companies."
--( posted on Apr 26, 2015, commenting on the post Gender Lens on Economic Growth: Solutions )
 
"The points you brought up regarding women being inferior is not something that people know about and it is really important that this issue is presented. The statistic that a third of women are beat acceptably by other men is a gender inequality as much as it is a domestic violence issue. Your points of women confidence is important for them to build up a basis to rise up in the ranks. Women need this confidence to in turn build up their skills to participate in STEM fields which seems to be the backbone of societal progress today. If there is inequality in the home, the school, and the workplace, it will be bad for society in the long run to maintain good progress without multiple opinions and viewpoints contributed by both genders. Solving this issue will not be easy however since domestic violence issues look to be culturally tied and it will be interesting to see the process in which this is solved."
--( posted on Apr 12, 2015, commenting on the post Cultural Gender Roles and Economic Growth )
 
"I think you pose a great argument regarding the current problems with gender inequality. The pay gap is already an indication that we are not equal in an economic standpoint and that will negatively affect the way our society functions in conjunction to commerce. It is important for women and men to have the same pay and the same opportunities so there is no perception of dominance between the sexes. If this problem is addressed and solved, then the value of the workers are equal and workers will feel appreciated in the workforce. I liked how you mentioned paid maternity leave since that is one of the biggest issues that women face when being a potential candidate for employment. To cut costs, companies will have a biased judgement when it comes to factors such as maternity leave and it is important to bring the problem up so it is addressed properly to accomodate all necessities of a person's life. The biology of women is not something that should affect their status as a productive member of society."
--( posted on Apr 12, 2015, commenting on the post Gender Inequality Problems )
 
"I agree with your solutions to how professors are handled. Adjuncts need to be paid more for the work they provide since most adjuncts are paid per semester and are constantly rotating around positions that can disappear. There should be a regulation that adjuncts who work at a specific university for a long period of time should be considered for a permanent position at that university. Tenured professors often rely on their job security and may become less effective without fear of consequence and as a result, the education system could be improved if they are closely examined for effectiveness. With decreasing offices, alternative methods for office workers are definitely needed and your solution looks to be very effective. The problem that might arise is, will vocational schools be enough to jump start their work in a world where bachelor degree holders are competing for the same position."
--( posted on Mar 19, 2015, commenting on the post Solutions: The Future of Work )
 
"I agree with your statements that internships are a huge factor in employment in the future. Everyone should get an internship but schools should do a better job in general for helping students acquire these internships. Schools currently just post openings but really anyone can randomly find a few common jobs and put them online. Schools need to attempt to accommodate internships for most of their students and not make it a free for all where students are competing against each other as well as the rest of the world. Currently, internships seem to be the deciding factor that separates people from the crowd so giving everyone internships will just force companies to find another, harder way to judge job candidates. A potential solution to alleviate this is for schools to hook up internships for say the top 20% of the class so education is valued and there is an incentive to go to college. Perhaps Macaulay should do something like this to reward scholars who attend and incentivize more people to attend to increase the reputation of the institute."
--( posted on Mar 19, 2015, commenting on the post Future of Work Solutions )
 
"I agree with your statements. Job security is at risk for many freelance workers and to top it off, they will be responsible for their own insurance and benefit costs. While it is good for the company, it is not good for the work force who depend on security and benefits to maintain their lifestyle. Freelance work will probably be an unpopular work choice so I don't think that will grow too big anytime soon unless regulation is placed that returns benefits and security back to the workers. Technology is rapidly changing the work force and replacing menial labor tasks. Lower class workers who can barely support themselves cannot return to school to attain a degree after losing their job to machines. This job shortage in labor tasks will only make those workers fall behind when competing with the Bachelor's holding people. This will only create a cycle where more people will continue to receive Bachelor's degrees and later on PhD's to stand out from the pool. From that point, the future of work becomes knowing the right people and shortcutting your way through to a position. This is already beginning to happen and delineates from the idea that hard work will get you far in life."
--( posted on Mar 12, 2015, commenting on the post Problems with Work )
 
"I agree with all of your statements. Employee benefits are definitely taking hits from budget cuts and economic issues. This extends to the issues with freelance workers as well since employers do not often consider them to be full time employees. If the future of work leans towards freelance work, benefits will likely be eliminated unless reform and regulation are put in place. Benefits are very important as the current costs of medical care and other insurances are expensive and unaffordable to a good amount of people in the country. Colleges are definitely not preparing students well enough for the real world as most companies require work experience for their entry level positions. Colleges only prepare the knowledge but not the practical experience and internships are very competitive in today's society. However, some colleges have a co-op program that allows students to gain experience while at school so if these programs were widely spread and accessible, it could potentially solve this problem."
--( posted on Mar 12, 2015, commenting on the post Future of Work Problems )
 
"I agree that stop and frisk policies need to be eliminated because, as you mentioned, are ineffective and continues to create distrust between the people and police. However, I disagree with your proposed solutions. Magnetometers, which I am assuming are like metal detectors, will not work well in a subway system. In massive rush hours coupled with the frequent MTA delays, there will surely be opposition among the fast paced New York City community. Everyone nowadays carries metallic objects such as keys and cellphones and detection would go off for nearly everyone. Magnetometers will not be able to detect drug substances and makes their use very limited to possible weapons, which are rarely ever found on people anyway. While legislation to help the formerly incarcerated find jobs will help the cause, it is difficult to convince an employer to hire an ex-convict in an applicant pool of other qualified people, even with proper legislation. Our society teaches us to not trust criminals and it will be difficult to change that position. Instead, the government should have more organizations like "Milk not Jails" to hire ex-convicts. I believe that your execution solution is too harsh to be inflicted on all crimes. Many criminals commit the same crime because they do not have a choice. When faced with a society that is biased towards criminals, they resort to re-commiting crimes to survive. Execution also creates a moral issue among the opposition and such life and death decisions require lengthy judicial review and expensive methods to ensure the person does not suffer."
--( posted on Mar 3, 2015, commenting on the post Solutions 1 )
 
"I agree that body cameras are the answer to most of the issues that arose recently in Ferguson. The big problem with the Ferguson case was that the media and the eyewitnesses could not get their facts straight, which cause massive conflict during the aftermath of the indictment. Had there been some physical evidence, much of the rioting may have been prevented. I agree that while body cameras can reduce complaints and problems, it is important to note that arming all officers with body cameras is an expensive endeavor and must be budgeted along with other officer needs. Street cameras are very expensive in terms of cost and labor and does not help in the cause of police brutality if police already have body cameras. That money could be used to better educate police officers and give them more training. Better education by the police and regular practice on how to handle stress related situations should also be a solution that is compounded with body cameras to make the police force more effective and unbiased. Discrimination is unlikely to ever be completely erased and body cameras will not stop officers from allegedly being racist. They could easily say a specific person is acting suspicious and warrant them a quick search. Especially in a place like New York where everyone is in a rush, many people would object to searching 1 in 5 people in a quick paced setting."
--( posted on Mar 3, 2015, commenting on the post Policing Solutions )
 
"I disagree with your points regarding speed traps. Speed traps are necessary to maintain safety on dangerous roads and highways since high velocity objects create a very large force that is devastating to multiple parties during impact. If what you say is true, speed traps need to be moved to different places so that drivers do not anticipate them and feel the need to slow down thus avoiding traffic. Speed traps, however, need to be limited but should still exist. I agree with your point that quotas are unethical and do not contribute to a safer society. However, if there aren't quotas at all, officers may slack on the job and that would not be ideal in terms of safety. A good solution is to limit quotas and lower the amount instead of eliminating them entirely. I agree with your comments that selective policing is unethical. The police should not abuse their power and are governed by the same laws that apply to the people. Abusing their power is the start of overstepping their boundaries and corruption. Union cards need to be banned and those holding them need thorough background checks to make sure they have not been committing any crimes that have gone unnoticed. The police have not "lost track of their true purpose" and they are still protecting and serving the community, merely they are incentivized by money. A "complete overhaul of the policing system" is unnecessary and impractical since limiting these incentives will contribute in solving most of the problems you listed."
--( posted on Feb 19, 2015, commenting on the post Problems with Policing )
 
"I agree with your comments regarding the abuse of power by police. Many instances of brutality happen in public and have been well documented especially as of recently and it is not a stretch to see it happen in prisons when police are not monitored or held responsible. This raises the issue that there may be even more cases of police brutality in prisons that we don't know about. This is a problem not easily solved since few people will ever sympathize with murderers and criminals and the fact that constant surveillance on police will be extremely costly. I also agree with your comments about the flaws in the judiciary system. A courtroom has to present itself as unbiased and equal so this example actively discriminates based on social status. Judges who impose their sense of punishment onto the judged also make the courtroom biased. Judge Dawson, in the article, even mentioned that his duty was to ensure the kids got into college but doesn't seem to worry about the potential ramifications of prison time that can be of detrimental effect after college. This is also not easily fixed since human nature can't be unbiased. It seems that every branch of government will need to reform in order to maintain a productive society."
--( posted on Feb 19, 2015, commenting on the post Policing Problems )