&gt; Someone who makes into the Army is a high achiever<p>This is a laughably absurd statement. Majority of enlistees are there exactly because they are not high achievers... A major benefit of the military is the opportunities it provides. They hammer into you responsibility, education, and highly skilled training. Even the lowest performers learn very complex tasks, making the military a fantastic example of what I&#x27;m advocating. Perhaps we need programs like this for the general public.<p>&gt; A friend&#x27;s child is sufficiently handicapped that at 20 he is incapable of speech more complex than grunting<p>I feel for your friend, as this is truly an awful thing to have to deal with. However, this is a false dichotomous claim. This scenario does not apply to any majority of folks in this country (or the world), and you&#x27;re transforming this into a black and white scenario. In addition, certain types of ailments will permanently necessitate assisted living, even in adulthood, which makes your anecdote even less relevant to this discussion.<p>&gt;  is a binary choice where every person is either totally disabled or capable of becoming a fortune 500 CEO if they just worked harder is both idiotic and common<p>Of course it&#x27;s not a binary choice. I never asserted as such. What I have asserted is, the future of the economy will depend on highly skilled and&#x2F;or highly educated workers. The idea of the &quot;working class&quot; must shift - otherwise there&#x27;s no purpose for them... and an economy cannot function with 50-80% of it&#x27;s workforce only consuming via funds not earned nor supported (via taxes, because taxing a BI is sort of a ridiculous idea) by them.<p>&gt; A living wage is about human decency<p>No it&#x27;s not. It&#x27;s about making folks as yourself feel good temporarily. A living wage is never enough. Why not make minimum wage $30 per hour today? It surely would postpone other necessary measures for longer! Inevitably though, we&#x27;ll have to re-address this issue in a few years time, as we have been doing for 78 years. We have got to figure out a better solution, because the one we have right now is simply not cutting it. Even you agree to this, surely.<p>So no, I won&#x27;t accept your defeatist attitude. Give up on the poor and stupid because they&#x27;ll never amount to anything. Don&#x27;t bother increasing education and training, because they&#x27;ll never be capable of anything more than mopping floors. Just give them money and don&#x27;t think about their problems for a couple of years.<p>What absurdity.<p>With this said, we really should end this. You will never agree with me, and I the same with you.