If I Were the Devil

[YPestis]

The OP's transcript makes little sense to me. They talk about removing ambition from people and alluding to welfare programs. However, at the end they say the government will put everyone to work and turn the country into a police state. Isn't that some type of right wing scenario of a weird amalgamation of all their hated nightmares? They dislike the idea of nondemocratic systems and somehow combined it with their hatred of entitlement programs. I guess it makes some weird sense that the government is slowly turning people into mindless drones so they can unleash a vast work program on the unsuspecting populace. Is that how some view the history of Communist countries? You know, by giving people free stuff and then dropping them off at labor camps?

[pixydust]

Hmm, when I was little (and also older, I had to wear uniform until I was 18) there was a special uniform shop you went to in order to get the uniform. If your parents were on benefits you got a voucher to purchase it with.

I had two years in a private and somewhat religious school, and the rest of the time before and after I was in a state primary and a state comprehensive. At the private school you didn't get vouchers but the dress code was very strict (you would get in trouble for having a ladder in your tights, and we are talking about eight year olds here). At the state primary you had to wear a blazer and be "smartly dressed at all times". At the comprehensive you had to wear uniform but they were relaxed about what you did with it - we had a fashion to shred our ties, some girls wore fishnet tights, people rolled skirts up to their midriff practically and boys cut off their trousers (hey, it was the Nineties).

But yeah, it never prevented competition. Can anything, right now?

Here, the school uniforms are pretty much : khaki pants (or skirt), polo shirt in XXXX color. Some schools it is a dress shirt in XXXX color. You can buy these supplies at Walmart, Target, Old Navy, or you can buy the designer versions. If everyone wore the same exact clothes, by the same manufacturer, it would make more sense, but that wouldn't go over well with snotty Americans!

[Guest Anonymous]

WTF? Way to paint everybody with the same brush.

You're welcome!

[Minerva]

If I were the devil, I wouldn't focus on the US as if it were the only country in the world.

I would designate an athiest to front for me before the highest courts in the land and I would get preachers to say "she's right."

Of course it would be a woman...

[rock_girl]

They don't prevent bullying, as least in the US....uniforms are sold everywhere, from Walmart ($5 shirt, $10 pants) to Ralph Loren and Lacoste (or however it is spelled), and yes the shirts have the little logo, so everyone can tell where you got your uniform.

Oh, how interesting. I went to a Catholic primary school that had a fair number of kids of low socioeconomic background, and a good number of them would have been wearing uniforms from the uniform pool although it wasn't at all obvious. Maybe because the uniform was exclusive to the school? Aside from shoes and backpack, we all wore exactly the same dress. I guess the boys could have worn pants from department stores provided they were the right shade of forest green. My high schools were private and had far less economic diversity, but it was next to impossible to figure out whose parents could afford the fees and whose couldn't. Well, we all knew the girl who boasted about the five story home her parents were building wasn't there on scholarship, but other than that it just wasn't an issue. Again, maybe it's because the uniforms were exclusive to the school. I didn't like the jumper at one of my schools (too itchy, drove me mad) so my mum sent a note asking if I could wear the one from my old school instead. It was almost the same shade of blue, and unlike the blazer there was no logo but I was still made to take the offending jumper off and don a new one from the uniform shop. My mum was pretty annoyed - she'd basically bought two jumpers I wasn't going to wear :lol:.

So maybe it's not uniforms, but really strict uniform guidelines that prevent bullying.