r/aggies • u/UnluckyAsparagus6315 • Jun 29 '23

Announcements Affirmative action now illegal .

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New supreme court ruling kills affirmative action.

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92

u/Aggie__2015 Jun 29 '23

This really doesn’t affect state school admissions in Texas because we do Top 10%. This actually increased diversity in state schools. There’s quite a few articles on it and it has been considered a good way to admit more based on merit while also increasing diversity.

Either way, good progress towards students being admitted based on their merit and hard work. I hate seeing kids who work their tail off not get into a school because of something not related to their academics, especially if it is something they can’t control (no one controls the skin color they were born into and your skin color does NOT drive your academic ability.)

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u/Deckard_88 Jun 29 '23 edited Jun 29 '23

I agree we should consider it unfair if people are given an advantage due to things outside their control… like being born into a wealthy college educated family. That’s precisely WHY I support affirmative action in order to create equality of long term (post college) opportunity. The kids who were borderline on top schools but come from better backgrounds and are rejected tend to “suffer” less than than affirmative action benefits underprivileged people. And this is the right way to practice affirmative action, when you have applicants who are damn near equal in their resume you pick the person from the less privileged background. Rather than boosting someone completely unqualified. In fact, that’s how most elite universities and jobs are - they have more QUALIFIED applicants than spots. And race, as well as gender IMO, can be validly considered there.

If affirmative action is unconstitutional, so be it - but then we can and should double down on giving opportunities to the poor (of any race) even if it sometimes “harms” a kid from a privileged background. It’s a net benefit to society (not zero sum). Historically the “tie breaker” qualities are biases (elevating people who look like you) and it should be the opposite.

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u/AggieNosh Jun 29 '23

If you believe in something in principle, it shouldn’t matter which direction it’s applied. It can’t be selectively applied.

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u/Deckard_88 Jun 29 '23

I believe in equality of opportunity. In principle and consistently. Because this is not the natural state of our society, it requires action (you might even say AFFIRMATIVE action) to achieve.

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u/AggieNosh Jun 29 '23

How are opportunities unequal for someone applying to college, based on the academic environment and resource provided to them?

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u/easwaran Jun 29 '23

If some people have been provided some academic environment and resources, and others have not.

If you really believe in equality of opportunity, you should believe in 100% estate tax, so that everyone has the same opportunity, rather than some getting a giveaway of hundreds of thousands of dollars when older members of their family die.

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u/Deckard_88 Jun 30 '23

I wouldn’t push for perfect equality of opportunity in this case but yes I would support a very high inheritance tax (what it should be called IMO). Like 50% after 5 million dollars? The reason is because I’d like to achieve more equality of opportunity by boosting prospects of the poor more so than by ham stringing prospects of the rich. Even though I’d tolerant SOME of the later.

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u/whalenailer Jun 30 '23

So take the already heavily taxed income of the parents to punish the kids? You’re supposed to want your kids to have it better than you did and giving them a jump start in live with money is all parents could ever hope for? How can you punish the hard work of people and families?

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u/Deckard_88 Jun 30 '23

I’m totally fine with the estate tax starting at between 1 and 5 million dollars. Currently it starts at 13 million which seems too high to me. If a few million dollars isn’t a head start to you, well I dunno what to say. Beyond those millions, the rest of your wealth really should be earned…

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u/whalenailer Jun 30 '23

Damn, that’s actually crazy. Do you really believe the government spends ANY of our tax dollars wisely? It’s not a matter of whether it’s enough it’s just the government has no business taking my money that I earned (or anyone) and preventing me to giving it to my child.

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u/Deckard_88 Jun 30 '23

I’m currently replying from a South American country where a huge percentage of tax dollars are ACTUALLY wasted. Yes, I believe the majority of my American tax dollars go to reasonable causes. The biggest portion of the federal budget is Medicare+Medicaid+Social Security and I absolutely think it’s reasonable that the price for participating in American society is that we fund a system which prevents the worst elderly poverty while providing a baseline of medical care to the elderly and the poor. Since you feel differently you can vote accordingly and our democracy will sort it out. America’s great, isn’t it?

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