Is this a paradox or a conundrum?

Question

WHY DO POLITICIANS TAKE MONEY FROM SCHOOLS TO BUILD MORE PRISONS TO KEEP THE KIDS WHO GROW UP WITHOUT AN EDUCATION?

Answer 1

You seem to think that all people can aspire to greatness or success with education. That simply isn't true. There's lots of highly educated murders, rapist, pedophiles, embezzlers or what have you. Criminals are born with those propensities. We need prisons to house them. As the population grows, we are going to have more criminals.

Answer 2

That is neither, its a malconstructed question that answers itself... continuing the sentence with the word 'to' is (or if it isn't should be) grammatically incorrect, perhaps rewording it using the word 'when' would have been clearer.

And it does have an internal conflict to resolve but I don't really see it as paradoxical, I think conundrum would be my choice of words... that being said, I'm sure the government would have an answer to this to explain why money for one purpose is sacrificed for another.

Also it assumes that an education will prevent crime. I cannot verify that it is the case, but I would like to think it helps.

Hope this helps

Answer 3

If you consider the American budget as one big slush fund with a bunch of little baskets our elected leaders shuffle money into and out of, then it would be a paradox.


A paradox (Gk: παράδοξος, "aside belief") is an apparently true statement or group of statements that leads to a contradiction or a situation which defies intuition. Typically, either the statements in question do not really imply the contradiction, the puzzling result is not really a contradiction, or the premises themselves are not all really true or cannot all be true together. The recognition of ambiguities, equivocations, and unstated assumptions underlying known paradoxes has led to significant advances in science, philosophy and mathematics.

Answer 4

The money that politicians 'take' for prisons are from a different fund. It is very sad when people drop out of school. Many times, when they drop out it is to pursue a drug habit. The best solution is to have early intervention when a child appears to come from a high risk environment.

Answer 5

I always thought a paradox and conundrum were basically the same thing.

Answer 6

It is a paradox.

Answer 7

I'd say that it is a bit of both.

Answer 8

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