Why we will never start school at a decent time (and why our politics will always be fucked) [View all]

The data is all there. It makes little sense to start our schools at the crack of dawn. Teens perform better if school starts later, there are fewer car wrecks (and less money spent to clean up car wrecks). Yet despite the data, odds are, high schoolers will be getting up at the crack of dawn until time stops.

Why?

We have a cultural obsession with suffering. Somebody has to lose. If a school board proposes starting school at a reasonable hour, you'll get a few people asking about logistics (particularly regarding athletics). But mostly what you get is a bunch of codgers screaming "WELL I WENT TO SCHOOL AT 6 IN THE MORNING! WALKED UPHILL BOTH WAYS! WITH BREAD BAGS FOR SHOES!"

In other words, "I suffered. So should you. Fuck data."

And that's pretty much the story of all our politics. We have adopted the idea that "misery builds character" as our national motto. Any attempt to alleviate misery is a nonstarter. Healthcare? Yeah, the data says universal healthcare would be better. But some people are incensed that somebody else might get healthcare at a reasonable price when THEY had to prostrate themselves before charities. They can't stand the idea of affordable college because THEY had to pay for theirs. And so on.

Our culture says there has to be a bottom rung. There has to be misery. Somebody has to lose.

You can show all the data you want, but to our culture, it doesn't matter.