NationStates Jolt Archive

Recently, corporations, educators, and civil rights activists have been in heated debate over the issue of enforcing mandatory annual literacy tests for the people of @@NAME@@. Sparked by the nation's astounding level of illiterate citizens, several opinions have taken form, with several different approaches to the issue.

Validity: Valid for nations with adequate or lower Intelligence

1) @@RANDOMNAME@@, owner of @@MAJORINDUSTRY@@, argues: "This is a no-nonsense issue, and it needs to be dealt with in a no-nonsense manner! As an employer, I find it to be an increasingly difficult task to try to sort through the thousands of unreadable resumes sent to me on a daily basis. National illiteracy directly leads to economic decay. How can I hire capable employees if I can't even understand what they're trying to tell me about themselves? I say we mandate annual literacy tests, and issue fines to those who cannot pass them. Heavy fines go to those who do not even attempt to take them! If we hit the people where it hurts, their wallet, they'll suddenly gain the motivation to learn how to read and write properly! Or would you prefer that foreign nations continue to laugh at our national intelligence? How can we compete with foreign companies, given our current reputation?"
[Effect] Annual literacy tests are mandatory, and those who fail to pass or take the test are forced to pay a government fine
[Stats] Personal Freedoms down, Civil Rights down, Education up, Commerce up, Social Equality up, Welfare down, Book Publishing up, Information Technology up, Public Apathy down, Happiness down, Intelligence up, Tax Rate down, Compassion down

2) "OMG WTF???/" writes local high school dropout @@RANDOMNAME@@ in an email to the local government, "thy cnt mak us tak tests thas SOOOOO unfare!!!!11 jst bcuz zum stmpy rch pursn who cnt evn desided wat to wer, so so sad!!! don mak us tak tests, it maks me fel leik im in scool agn!!!1 thrs nothn rong weth teh wy i rite!! leev us alon!!!!!11"
[Effect] National illiteracy is not only rampant, but encouraged
[Stats] Personal Freedoms up, Civil Rights up, Economy down, Education down, Commerce down, Social Equality down, Welfare up, Book Publishing down, Information Technology down, Public Apathy up, Happiness up, Intelligence down, Compassion up

3) College instructor @@RANDOMNAME@@ argues: "Illiteracy is an unfortunate epidemic that has been sweeping our nation for far too long, and I think that mandatory testing is a very good idea. What I don't agree with, however, is the application of fines on people who fail or refuse to take it. That's not going to help our financially poor families one bit. What would you do to someone who couldn't pay the fine? Sieze their property? Because they can't read? Ridiculous. Instead, I think we should require them to take a semester of language classes to correct them, rather than flat out punish them for being uneducated."
[Effect] Annual literacy tests are mandatory, and those who fail to pass or take the tests are forced to take a semester of language classes
[Stats] Personal Freedoms down, Civil Rights down, Education up, Social Equality up, Book Publishing up, Information Technology up, Public Apathy down, Intelligence up, Tax Rate up, Compassion up

4) "Mandatory annual literacy testing is a terrible idea, as far as personal freedom is concerned," explains Civil Rights Activist @@RANDOMNAME@@, "because of the inherent expectation that everyone in @@NAME@@ has to be literate in order to be a productive citizen. Why would mandatory classes be any less of a burden on the poor than fines? What effect do you expect forced classes to have on a poor family that depends on their breadwinner to hold several jobs that they must now give up so they can learn to read and write properly? If anything, literacy tests must be optional. However, if people want to better themselves, I see no problem in offering government sponsored literacy classes for those who fail the test. That, I believe, is the most unintrusive yet beneficial solution to our literacy problem."
[Effect] Annual literacy tests are optional, and those who fail to pass the test are offered a semester of language classes
[Stats] Personal Freedoms up, Civil Rights up, Education up, Welfare up, Public Apathy up, Happiness up, Tax Rate up, Compassion up

...What do ya think fellas?

I'm blown away :) I believe you've covered all the bases, and you seem very comfortable using the stats [/envy]. It's well-written, an important topic, and unbiased. Well done!

Apparently you're the only person blown away. =P

No other comments? Yeesh.

For a democracy (or whatever the hell the United States tries to be) the only constitutional option is the last one HOWEVER democracy is a bad idea. I believe in a form of communism. There needs to be varried levels of taxes but then the government takes care of you based on the amount of taxes you pay. The rest of your money you can do with what you want. For this situation the Professor nailed it on the head. Everyone takes the test and if you fail you have to take classes provided by the government.

I wrote an issue like this myself, but for politicians only.

If I were you, I'd edit options 1, 3, and 4 to make them shorter. Other than that, it ain't bad. Non-biased and clearly well thought-out. Good on you. I do like option 2 :D

I wrote an issue like this myself, but for politicians only.

If I were you, I'd edit options 1, 3, and 4 to make them shorter. Other than that, it ain't bad. Non-biased and clearly well thought-out. Good on you. I do like option 2 :D

Funny you should bring that up, I actually crunched those down quite a bit in the first place! I wanted to say a lot more for each argument, since really I can agree in some degree with every one of them, but I can't cut any more of any of the arguments without losing an important part of each one...though I do suppose I tend to write out my thoughts in a pretty lengthy manner.

Fun fact: I've recieved more replies to posts regarding other people's grammar on other forum topics than I've recieved on this entire subject about literacy tests!

Ah, irony...

I realize this is old, but I'm new to NationStates and only just found the forum and this thread. I wanted to say that I like the idea of this issue. I hope it comes up in my government!

I agree that some of the options are too wordy. You can make the point of each option without so much verbiage. Crunch them down some more!

That said, I do like how you've covered all the alternatives and the way you put in humor without making the issue sound silly. Well done.

Maybe you could get someone *else* to play editor for you. It can be hard to cut your own stuff.