This Week I Learned: ADA, Shyamalan, Individual Good
After a few weeks of sharing less than *fun* things I learned, this week is a lighter read. It includes a celebratory anniversary, risks taken by a movie director/writer I admire, and a potentially pivotal moment in world history. I almost added in beluga whales having knees, but turns out that while they do have bones, they don’t have knees.
Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) Turns 30
Sunday, July 26, 2020 marked the 30 year anniversary for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). I work for a nonprofit in the health/disability space and this has been on my radar for more than just the past week.
A quick primer for those who don’t know much about it, the ADA essentially guarantees equal protection and treatment for people with disabilities. It means businesses can’t refuse service to someone because they have a disability. It means employers are required to give reasonable accommodations to employees with a disability.
Aside from the obvious importance this has in prohibiting the discrimination of people, I learned just how common disabilities are. 1 in 4 US adults has a disability, and the older someone becomes, the more likely they are to have a disability of some sort.
M. Night Shyamalan Bet on Himself
I love movies, and specifically those who write them. M. Night Shyamalan lands in the category of my favorite writers due to The Sixth Sense, Signs, and Split. However, until I read a Rolling Stone piece on him I had no idea that even after his huge successes early in his career, he still had to finance some of his recent movies just so they could get made.
This included getting a $5 million loan to fund The Visit, a found footage film I still need to see. Then, he spent another $9 million on his next film Split, which is actually the reported full budget for the movie. Both movies returned huge profits and turned out to be great career moves.
Shifting Away From Common Good and Towards Individual Good
It used to be that after harvest season, the leftover food in crop fields was free for anyone to take. So those who couldn’t afford food were able to come and collect what they needed. This was in England, in the early 18th century. The general ideology of people and government was doing things for the common good of society.
In 1788 that changed due to the Steel v Houghton ruling that essentially established property rights. It meant the farmer who left food in their fields, still owned that food, even if they never intended to collect it. Many point to this as the beginning of absolute property rights for the owner.
