The other day President Obama unveiled a plan to tackle the trillion dollar student debt bomb. It was an arm tackle though, and student debt trucked through Obama’s plan like Christian Okoye on twice as many steroids as he already was on.
Say hello to my student debt!
Student debt – with the help of Owsers – has become a hot-button issue being discussed by many pundits and commentators. But nearly all of them avoid the elephant in the room. They chalk high tuition inflation up to increased spending on facilities and lack of funding at the state level. But private college tuition rates are far outpacing inflation too. Something else is perpetuating this bubble, but hardly anyone sees the writing on the wall.
None of the economics professors who have blogs address the issue head on. None of them tell us that student debt has skyrocketed because tuition prices have skyrocketed because of this perverse system whereby the federal government, through granting such easy money to students, signals schools that they can basically jack up their tuition rates without having to worry about the market forces of supply and demand. The schools get paid, and the students are left with two things: the bill and (hopefully) a degree. But a degree is becoming less of a sure ticket to a job – a worse paying job at that.
Via Washington Post
The schools know: if they charge it, students will still come. It is a royally fucked up system, but it is damn near impossible to get a prominent blogger or newsman to state it in such clear terms.
Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution has barely any posts dedicated to the topic. EconLog touches on the issue, and some of the commenters know what time it is, but even for a “liberty-loving” outfit, Bryan Caplan and company have ignored this issue – something that is in the Hayekian and Austrian wheelhouses. It makes me wonder, do professors have a conflict of interest in pointing out exactly what is causing this tuition-debt spiral? I mean, they and their institutions benefit from this scheme. Not saying that they are purposely being dishonest, just that they may be so tied into this educational-industrial complex that they look for every other reason to explain the tuition increases before even glancing at the obvious.
Tom Woods, an Austrian economist with no learning-institution affiliation, is one of the very few who continually harp on the issue. Of course, this makes him a kook. He excerpts from his newest book Rollback:
Of course, it is the subsidies themselves that push tuition costs ever higher. Here’s the obvious point everyone pretends not to realize: colleges know the students have access to low-interest loans courtesy of government. Aware that prospective students enjoy artificially increased purchasing power, college administrations raise tuition (and cut back their own aid programs) accordingly. When tuition thus continues to rise, as any fool could predict, we hear huzzahs for the government – for however could students pay this high tuition without government assistance? It is the classic case, as Harry Browne said, of the government breaking your leg, handing you a crutch, and saying, “See? Without me you couldn’t walk.”
The solution is relatively simple. A dual-headed change in which the bankruptability of student debt is reinstituted and in which loan guarantees are immediately revoked. Let the chips fall where they may. Some creditors won’t get paid as more students default, but those students suffer the long-term consequences of declaring bankruptcy. Going forward, tuition prices decrease to their natural level, and kids have to either get loans through other means, work to pay for school, or rely on scholarships. And hopefully, this will also weed out some of the folks who were sucked into college by the cheap money and probably should have sought other means to develop work and life skills.
OWS could actually do something here, but they’d rather yammer on about getting student debt completely expunged. But that is their true leftist nature.
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I’m taking a chem class right now, and the professor doesn’t actually teach, instead opting for political indoctrination. I’m paying the school $1,000 for a class in which I’m basically told to teach myself–last time this happened, the administration basically told me to go fuck myself when I complained. The professor, a self-described socialist, feels that if anything, education needs MORE subsidization.
So I asked him, “How much does it cost to run this place?” He told me $100 million. “How much do you take in from students?” He told me $80 million. “Why not run an $80 million/year school and give $20 million back to the people?” He asked me if I cared about education at all. “Mine, sure.”
Being an older man, he at least recognizes that somewhere in the 70′s-80′s, we stopped educating people and started ‘training’ them. You could say that we SOCIALIZED it with the D of E, but I doubt he’d see the irony.
I come from a place where the economy is based almost wholly on education. Any talk like this is tantamount to anti-American self-hatred masquerading as debate. You’re not supposed to criticize anything.
Yet the economy is so obviously artificial, so clearly phony, so based on a shell game that nobody wants to cop to in case the house of cards comes crashing down, from house prices to rent to restaurant food to bookstores and car washes, that if you so much as bleat a single syllable about the farcical nature of the system – the ponzi scheme it is in all but name, the meaninglessness of almost all college degrees, the absurd subjects studied and the near-total masturbatory nature of entire institutions and the self-entitlement of absolutely everyone involved – then the media and press come down on you hard and label you some sort of anti-intellectual visigoth.
The suggestion that a sociology or media studies degree isn’t worth $5000 let alone $40000 or $100000 is met with righteous indignation. But no, says the Socialist Pundit, all people deserve a degree in, … something, … and for that, we need to Pay, and the government should Help Us, and bankruptcy is irrelevant – don’t they have rich people to tax? Just not me.
This, despite the fact that said degree is at best a curiosity, and not a necessity. Or even a benefit.
Perhaps the solution is to have colleges underwrite the loans. After all, if their education is a ticket to riches, they should have no problem making a bet on it. . . right?
It honestly makes me sick.
All gumption and drive has been sucked out of this generation of Americans. And the last one, for that matter. We need to import labor for jobs that Americans used to do; we cheerfully go into hock a a nation to export industrial jobs because, of course, nobody wants to work for wages any more in jobs that aren’t easy and comfy in nice tidy offices; and there are Brown People (heaven forfend that we should require Black People, our lower caste, to do actual work) from South of the Border to do it for us. And if our self-appointed Elite Liberal College Students should ever get their hands dirty, maybe starting a car wash company or having to eschew their virtually useless degree in Peace and Conflict Studies or Latin American History (re: All America is Bad) or Art Masturbation with a side order of Social Contempt – well, we can’t expect them to use their hard-earned degree to actually, say, innovate, think, entrepreneur themselves or work in an office without whining like little self-entitled babies.
They get some garbage degree and think that this entitles them to some kind of iron rice bowl. Well, the Iron Rice Bowl was recycled into exportable toys even in China, so you can kiss it all goodbye.
Your competition is the professional in India who works harder than you, is better educated than you, is probably smarter than you and will work for 1/5th your wage and work longer hours.
Your competition is the German who, due to productive use of capital (ie, not socialist redistribution) and technology can do the work of 2.6 Americans by using machines and technology.
Your competition is the Mexican who you voted for automatic admission because you felt borders were for evil empires and not nation states, even though Mexico polices its borders like some Nazi empire and just try to get Indian citizenship. And these people now run honest blacks out of jobs they might once have filled, had the liberal welfare state not made them permanent sociopathic children under a paternalistic Big Daddy. So by the way, your white kids won’t be doing those jobs either.
Your competition is the Chinese and Vietnamese engineer or worker who feels 10% of your salary is a king’s ransom. And you can no longer advocate for trade barriers because – you know – that’s hugely racist and discriminatory and it reinforces the imperialistic economic position of the Western Hegemonic Powers so fuck you all you need to give up your jobs so Chinese people can buy girls and overpriced apartments and can have enough money left over to bribe government officials at home and abroad, too.
There are so many self-destructive contradictions on the left, especially among the so-called “liberal elite” in colleges, it baffles me how they can walk without tripping over themselves, as one foot dances and the other tries to hop like a kangaroo.
The left is so intellectually crippled, so riddled with divisive internal contradictions, so befuddled with self-censorship worthy of the best Stalinist bureaucracy and so bereft of ideas, that it would take a generation just to clear the air and left some actual social progressiveness in.
Not one liberal gives a shit about poor blacks, and the proof is in their black-hating policies, policies that cripple the basic humanity of black people in this country.
Not one liberal gives a sweet damn about the poor. If they did, they’d leave them alone and let them trade and work for each other on their own terms, and not presume to know what’s best for them.
Not one liberal cares about Americans – the denial even of a border indicates they hold each and every American, with or without a job, in complete contempt. Funny how Chileans and Canadians can have borders, and even South Africans can beat, torture and eject illegal immigrants, but we’re not even supposed to have a fence and we can’t deny endless education and welfare supports to anyone who shows up and says Gimme Gimme Gimme You Owe Me White Bastard while they burn black people out of their homes and throw rocks at Asian Americans.
So what do you expect these so-called “Liberal Americans” who believe in the sanctity of this holy education culture to do when you point out the very obvious fact that the government has allowed the price of education to skyrocket? That their subsidies have inflated the price of degrees to the point that that no longer matter? That you now need some bogus, garbage degree to get even an entry-level job in some mindless bureaucracy pecking your way up a vicious corporate ladder?
I’ll tell you what I expect them to do.
Fall back on their cherished and absurd delusions. Without them, the fabric of their lives are shown to be nothing but patterns of lies and tissues of gossamer delusions.
Conservative lies were lies, but they produces something. We may not have liked it, but like it or lump it, they produced shit.
Liberal lies act solely as excuses and rationalizations. They do nothing but justify the inherent laziness and self-adulatory behavior of human social climbers. Almost all of it is mutual masturbation and back-scratching among status-seeking white hipster wannabees.
As if the world would be a better place, and the people would be better off, if each and every urban prole had a degree in Social History instead of – fuck, like what – a job and a family / husband / wife and kids and the things that help to define the human experience, and have done so for 10,000 to 100,000 years. Or so.
Yeah. But our ancestors were an unenlightened bunch of Regressive Counter-Revolutionaries. They had no idea what was good for them.
9/10 Gorb. Great rant!
those students suffer the long-term consequences of declaring bankruptcy.
I argued with a guy once over this issue of bankruptcy but it was regarding non-payment of medical bills. Basically he said bankruptcy isn’t all that bad. It’s an 8 – 11 yr headache. Anyone know the truth?
@Gorbachev
Democrats know that minorities, like Mexicans, vote Democrat. If they can import enough and give them amnesty, that’s 30+ million voters in their pockets.
Republicans are under the delusion that since Mexicans are largely Catholic, giving them amnesty would put the votes in the GOP’s pockets.
The lobbyists who run the show in BOTH parties will do everything they can to influence media towards open-border policies and reallocate funds towards illegal immigrants in order to get those 30+ million votes and keep their power. Win-win-win.
@Tim
So are you that MRA guy from Vancouver or not?
I sockpuppet as him at the Spearhead, but apart from that, no, I really am “Tim”. (my real name)
However, we are the same age and we are from the same city. Yes, its weird, but so what? Everyone here is weird.
@Tim.
I understand. You have to see it from everyone else’s point of view. That you used his name, happen to be from the same city, knew so much about someone we’ve barely heard of plus the fact you’re (as you’ve just pointed out) the same age as him was pretty big coincidence.
@810,
It’s not about politics. Dems vote against borders because it’s racist to have borders -even if everyone else has them. We can import shiftless lazy lower classes from every country without restriction but endure closed markets and closed borders for our own people – because, we all know, we must Atone for the Evil that only Americans did. Only White Americans, despite the fact that if anything, hispanics in America are the worst enemies blacks have had in 50 years, running them out of jobs, futures and possibly even neghborhoods – making the KKK look like multiculturalist beacons of enlightenment.
It’s ideology, pure and simple. And then a country like Canada imposes Eugenic-level population importation control, in a program the Nazis would have approved of, or at least their progenitors, the Liberal – progressive Social Hygienists of the 1920′s in NYC and California. And that program is fine, because they’re Canadian Neighbors and are above criticism. Because we’re the only bad guys in the world.
Russians never did anything bad. That’s a great country to have as a neighbor. Just ask Mongolia or Finland, or maybe Lithuania or Estonia or Poland or Romania.
China – there’s also a great, much better global citizen. No Vietnamese or Korean or Tibetan or Mongolian or Uighur or Thai or — wait, how many “minority peoples” have been exterminated there? 3000? 5000? — have ever complained about the imperialist ambitions or cultural arrogance of the Han Chinese.
Or those masters of Oriental Mystique, the Japanese. Okay, they’re rabidly racist, but that’s okay: They have a Mysterious Ancient Culture with Links to the Land and Animist traditions, so they can think blacks are monkeys and other Asians some sort of lesser human because, well, that’s just their cute culture.
Oh, and they can harass and discriminate as much as they want because, well, they’re not Evil and White – so just try to be treated as a Japanese if you live there for 20 years and speak Japanese fluently and take out Japanese citizenship and marry a Japanese and have Japanese kids. Of course! Multiculturalism doesn’t apply there. They’re not Racist Fucking Bastards of the Worst Order – because they’re Cute Little Asians with their Unique Cultural Attributes.
And Mainlander Taiwanese aren’t Racist Ethnocentric bastards for treating ethnically Taiwanese – just 65% of the country’s population – like local yokel serfs and deluded minority types who don’t need to speak their own language or have their culture respected.
And neither are racist for treating the ethnic Aborigines there as anything but cultural relics and retarded, embarrassing dumb cousins.
No, only white people are racist, and only Americans.
When some black guy beats the living shit out of some random old white geezer, screaming “Dance like a chicken honkey!” and “Beat whitey!”, they’re not racist motherfuckers out for a primeval beat-down.
No. White people – all white people, including the guy who got the shit beaten out of him and nearly killed – are responsible. The individual black guy isn’t responsible. It’s Black Rage. Yeah, slavery did it to the white guy. We white people should just bend over and let literally every person on Earth fuck us right up the ass because we’re easily the worst, most evil, cruel and criminal people on Earth.
Not the Aztecs. They were Noble Savages, not the leaders of a brutal, massive and complex state society that enforced control in their environment-abusing land-clearing people-killing civilization through fear and mass human sacrifice to the terror and delight of the blood-soaked masses.
But no, only white people were evil. All those Indians who enthusiastically sided with the Spanish in the vengeful butchery of the Mexica in an orgy of 200 year-old vendetta hatred were just delusional. There was nothing wrong with the puppy love they received at the hands of the Mexica and from the tops of the blood-draining pyramids in Tenochtitlan.
Only White people are evil.
Koreans who immigrate to the US aren’t to blame for their own vitriolic racism leveled against virtually everyone else, but especially at black people, who they view – at best – as subhuman monkeys, and at worst as troglodytic beats of ravenous violence. No, they adopted these extreme and overwhelming views from white people. There’s no way racism and rank xenophobia of the worst sort ever encountered by sorry foreigners could ever emerge from the pristine, culturally innocent Koreans. No way.
Yes, only white people (* Not Jews for some bizarre reason and not Liberals if they atone sufficiently and effect genuflective self-recrimination at all possible opportunities to the satisfaction of the Liberati who deign to rule over them), only white people deserve any criticism at all.
Not the Eskimos who have one word for them (“The People”) and another word for “Everyone Else (“I Don’t know who the hell you are but here’s my spear you stay on the pointy end of it thanks very much now fuck off”). No, no language other than English has socially constructed racism. No language has words for things like war or corruption or greed or tribalism but English, except maybe German, those lying deceitful fascist rotten cabbage-eating technocrats.
Black America isn’t the most homophobic, violently gay-bashing culture on Earth. They’re Protected People. They’re above all possible criticism.
Indonesians aren’t evil, despite their almost exemplary near-total extermination of whole cultures in Irian Jaya, the Javanese more or less culturally enslaving islands that they lucked into controlling by no merit of their own but demographics and the accidents of history (thank you Holland). They’re perfectly in their rights to exterminate and oppress the semi-barbaric jungle animists of Irian Jaya because they’re not Proper Muslims and hence aren’t really Human, right? And the Balinese, they’re useful for foreign coin but let’s get real, they’re also just a bunch of Hindu idol-worshippers and doesn’t the Quran say Kill the Unbelievers? Explicitly?
But Indonesians are just Misunderstood.
Muslim Arabs are Misunderstood Messengers of Peace. Their religion isn’t based on hatred of other religions, and God Forbid you should be not Jewish or Christian, because as bad as those are, being an Idol Worshipper gets you death, but if you read the Quran and the Sura and the Hadith it means you’re an Islamophobe and Muslim Hater for pointing out exactly what Muslims believe in ways that are inconvenient to the Muslims who like to tell convenient lies. Their religion doesn’t say slay the Jew and instruct followers to lie to Unbelievers in whatever way you want until you enslave their women and kill them to the very last one unless they submit to you as second-class citizens. It doesn’t tell them to kill people who want out of the cult. It doesn’t say women are basically enfeebled children with fewer rights and no real freedom. No. it’s all just Unbeliever Lies. The Quran is all goodness and light and feel-good inter-religious multifaith dialogue, multiculturalism and feminism and fun. It’s not the religion the Nazis would have invented if they … wait, they did, and lo and behold, same effect.
But oh for shame! Only a white American would say such terrible things. The Hindus don’t have any experience at the tender hands of the Muslims, no. Their perpetual terror of Islam has no basis in, oh, say, the tenets of Islam, no, not at all. Nigerian Christians have nothing to fear from marauding bands of Right-Believing Muslims who think raping little Christian girls saves them from the Evil Christians. No.
Only white people and, secondarily, Christians, are evil. Muslims are de-facto wonderful and good.
It’s not Muslims who have refused to bad slavery outright (instead of just as a convenience “for now”), and it’s not Muslim scholars who say that slavery is wholly justified and explicitly endorsed in the Quran. Islam is the religion of Peace. If you’re muslim, of course. But only the right kind of Muslim. If you’re the wrong kind, you’re a heretic and Apostate and you absolutely deserve death, which of course if not an indication of intolerance but merely outsiders misunderstanding the peaceful, ecumenical nature of Islam.
Coptic Christians aren’t under virtual siege, and have been for 1400 years, no. They haven’t had their country taken away. Their girls aren’t abducted and forcibly “married” to rapists in an effort to save them from the evils of Christianity.
The Crusades were evil white people attacking innocent Muslims. They weren’t trying to reverse the tide of bloody butchering Muslims that almost made it into the heart of France. They weren’t trying to undo 600 years of conquest, butchery and limitless rape by Arabs, who decided that Zoroastrians were filth and the Devil and exterminated possibly the oldest monotheistic religion in their Multiculturalist Misunderstood Drive to Unite the World in Peace and Harmony.
No. Only Christians were evil. The Crusades were wholly evil Christians smearing and killing innocent Islam and Muslims. There was nothing else about it. Muslims are always good. Christians are always bad and must hang their heads in shame.
Don’t you know – North Africa was supposed to be Muslim! No Carthaginians there! Moors were always Muslim! Spain, too! There were no Greeks in Turkey! That’s just a Myth!
Oh wait. Not Spain. It was cool to take that back after it was savagely conquered and its people oppressed. Why? The Anarchists were cool. Maybe the Reconquista was okay because it gave us the Spanish Civil War’s Anarchists. They were Good Guys, so we can overlook Spain’s unbelievably bloody history, even if this history was justifiable.
But not the attempt to turn back the tide! That was pure evil! Europe Must Be Muslim for it to be virtuous! Christians are evil! Especially white Christians! Black Christians are just Deluded! We can pat them on the head and say There There you’re just deluded! You’ve identified with your Colonial Oppressors! You’ll grow out of it one day, and until then, We Know What’s Best For You!
By fighting the Muslims at the gates of Vienna, the Christians showed how Evil they were ! Don’t you know?
If you DON’T KNOW ALL OF THIS, you just don’t irrationally HATE yourself enough. Don’t worry: We have Camps that can train you in the proper form and rituals for Self-Hatred. These Colleges of Mass Education are found all over America.
Only white America deserves extinction. And Greece, for giving the world civilization and letting Europe become the toilet bowl of humanity that engulfed the world. Of course.
All hail our Equality-Obsessed, Justice-Preaching, Anti-Racist Anti-Homphobic Pro-Woman Feminist Chinese/Russian/Nigerian/Muslim/Mexican/Indonesian/Tribalist Overlords and Masters, Please teach Us the Right Way To Think.
We Are Too Afraid To Think For Ourselves or even Be A People.
For we are like Jesus: We take on ourselves the entire burden of Human Frailty and Error, and in burning us like the Pagans burned criminals in their Wicker Man on summer festivals, by killing all that is White and America and European and Democratic and Scientific and Objective and Everything Else, we can Atone for Humanity’s Failings and
NOBODY ELSE WILL EVER BE BAD OR EVIL.
Wow. Must have eaten something that disagreed with me.
Maybe it was the soju.
I can see illegal immigration becoming a hot potato. Alabama and Arizona have their illegal fleeing into say Minnesota or Nevada, Minnesota and Nevada pass their own laws, etc, until every state in the continental U.S. has passed stringent anti-illegal immigrant laws.
Except California.
Except California.
California is going to eventually secede. It’s going to be the South Carolina of the 21st Century, kicking off the Second American Civil War.
Maybe. California is too valuable to give up.
What will be California’s reason to secede?
If any part of the nation secedes it will be the southern band of Texas up to about 200 miles north of the border. It’s a sea of brown down there already. California has a very narrow land area there on their south border, and I don’t think it is quite as brown as the southern part of Texas.
Second American civil war started in 1954 and ended when suburbanization was complete, one of the biggest instances of ethnic cleansing in modern history.
What will be California’s reason to secede?
Aztlan. California is the crown jewel of Aztlan.
one of the biggest instances of ethnic cleansing in modern history.
More like voluntary population transfer. Yes, white flight. But most people wanted to move to the sububs — get away from blacks, yes, but also bigger houses, better schools, more amenities and so on.
No way. Atzlan is Indios who undrestand that they need to be connected to the yankee money pipeline. Secessions are directed by splintering elites. Atlzans are not elites, they are the wretched of the earth.
Yes, voluntary. “Leave your house voluntarily or I will rape your grandmother and gang-stomp your son”
If we can assimilate the hispanics already here(and keep the illegals the hell out), then I don’t think it’ll be so bad. American culture, when liberals aren’t trying to destroy it, has a way of bringing out the best in everyone it absorbs.
We can assimilate anyone who can make attractive daughters. We will never assimilate anyone whose daughters are not our thing. Hispanics come in the Penelope Cruz and blonde Uruguay soccer player look, and they come in a barrel-shaped aboriginal look. Guess which ones we’re assimilating?
Making existing student loans from private lenders who don’t have government 100% guarantees dischareable in bankruptcy, when they were made by banks and at rates on the basis that they wouldn’t be, is probably something banks could sue the federal government over and win. It would be an ex poste facto law. It’s deeply unfair to the banks. I realize you may not give a rip about that, but courts probably would.
PA is correct. Secessions are led by aggrieved elites. The peasants revolt; they don’t secede.
You need an elite class to articulate such a complex vision.
What we have is this:
Secession without secession. California will cease being a viable entity, and become a net drain; Southern California will start to be run by those who now people it; it will slowly come to resemble the better parts of Mexico, which it already does, meaning it will go down the toilet.
Once it does, California will be American in name and obligation only. Mexico will become further and further politically integrated into the US.
In fact, I don’t see secession. I see domestic politics and population driving Mexico in American arms, with the attendant effects on the US that would have.
Far from secession, Mexico, because of the influence of Mexicans living here, will be more and more integrated into the US. The border will cease to have much meaning, and effectively, Mexico will become part of the US – not the other way around.
And then it will start to seep into the rest of the country.
Watch those international agreements. The inexorable pressure to bring Mexico and the US together will split it from its more natural Latin American allies; it might bring a few in with it, actually. Mexicans will see the US less as a bunch of Gringos and more as “the cousin next door”.
This is already happening.
The Mexican Elite are all for this, in a huge way. They’d sell their country to the US if the Americans would let them still run it. In fact, this is what they’ve done.
In the north, the other direction will happen: Canada and the US will drift further and further apart. While we’re dumbing down our people and slipping into greater irrelevance, the Canadians have far better education systems, don’t let in social rejects and retards, and have firm border controls in relative terms.
Despite the rhetoric, I don’t see any closer ties with Canada. By the time it gets to that, Canada will be half Asian. And they’ll be kicking our asses in every possible economic measurement.
They won’t be interested in what Mexico will be interested in.
So I predict not so much that California will become Mexico – but that Mexico will become an extension of Hispanic America.
The real dynamism of Mexico will head north. it will be run, culturally and politically and economically, even if by Mexicans, from north of the border – not south.
Mexico will surpass Italy in terms of GDP in the near future. There’s nothing wrong with Mexican immigrants or even sharing a border with Mexico. The real question is will we be getting the beautiful hispanics or will we be getting the ones shaped like Shwarzenegger’s maid. If it’s the latter then it will be a net loss. If we get white hispanics, the good looking ones, then it will be a net gain.
So a hundred years from now, you’ll have trouble finding a Spanish speaking Mexican, rather than an English speaking American? I can see that.
As for Canada… their Muslim population increased by 62% over the last decade, and is expected to triple over the next two decades. Muslim Canadians are the only ones breeding.
I went into an upscale high school recently on business, and saw a girls’ soccer team practice. All white girls, all slim and attractive, and so many of them. What I felt wasn’t exactly lust, it was hope.
not everyone is supposed or should attend college. not everyone should aspire to higher education. as a result of wanting to cash in, many schools programs are a joke and their accreditation is a joke as well. in the 60′s, i believe something like 1/3 of Americans attended any form of higher education. that rate has increased, but in reality, not everyone needs or has the aptitude for higher education.
Mexico will be run by mexicans, but the Mexicans will have so many connections to and may even live in the US that it will be effectively one elite population and upper class running Hispanic America (Mexico and hispanics in the US).
The locus of power in Mexico will shift north and the culture will become one: it will be culturally led by what amounts to “Mexican Americans”. Actual Mexicans in Mexico will cease to be as relevant to Mexico as Mexican Americans.
Tell all of that to a leftist and they will say:
“But, but, the liberals haven’t ruled the US for the last 40 years”.
If California wants to secede let them. It’s a beautiful state, but I can always take a vacation there if I want.
Gorby, I read your rant. While I largely understand your position, I would like to remind you as a Desi in Desi land that like the US-Mexico border, the Indo-Bangladesh border is the same. If you are brown and want citizenship, just slip in through the border after paying an agent (In US, coyote). I guess we would arrange a ration card (Public Distribution System card) for you, a Voters’ Card and then you can have a passport. Hurrah! Now you are a citizen of my country. It will take a bit and some additional money. However, if you want to come on an aeroplane, then I doubt whether even a decade would be long enough. Just slip in bro. I guess it would be the same in the US. If I legally try to become an immigrant, then perhaps it would be a long circutious journey. Bro, Why stop us from wanting the American dream. We too want to live in luxury like white people — have two cars, a home with a swimming pool, have a hot blonde/brunette wife, gf. After all, that’s what Hollywood has shown me all my life. When I was younger, I thought all Americans had a swimming pool in their houses. And not to beat this — WHITE PEOPLE ARE RICH.
I don’t mind White people looking after their interests. But to harp on free trade when it suits them and protectionism when it suits them is well, hypocritical. The British were all for free trade when they colonised India and switched over to protectionism when it suited them. I don’t mind white people living the good life, but I too want to live the good life. Libya is another example of white western hypocrisy. The French literally assassinated Gaddafi. His convoy was struck by missiles from a French aircraft. From a no-fly zone to an active bombing campaign, the west literally overthrew Gaddafi. How many of you here believe that the rebels would have won without NATO help. For the record, I am not saying Gaddafi was a saint. When America/Europe overthrow goverments because it does not suits them, it reeks of hypocrisy. Gaddafi was the toast of the town when he gave up his semi-existing nukes. There is nothing wrong in whites wanting to lead the good life. What’s wrong with us wanting the good life.
Gorby, I don’t know what we can do. We humans are by nature xenophobic and tribal. It’s everywhere. Its in our blood. I remember my anthropology teacher tell us that humans naturalise cultural differences. Later, I knew courtesy Pinker thats a human universal owing to our history and affects all of us.
I am an idolator, South Asian, etc etc etc (You can guess the country and religious affiliation). Ask Muslims and Christians about their views on us. In return, ask some of us what we think about you folks. Its US versus THEM. Your god doesn’t like me because I worship another god and your god is a zealous god. Its something I feel very funny both ways — the hair splitting on arcane theological issues. But these things mean a lot for “believers” I guess.
I guess there is no answer to this question of human tribalism. We are like this only. For the record, there is nothing wrong in whites looking after their own, just like there is nothing wrong in us looking after our own. I hope we can haggle and come to a compromise. Incentivise compromise and penalise those unwilling. PS — This works unless the other partner seriously believes that blowing himself up would be followed by ——— or that it would hasten the coming of ——– (Each one free to chose his or her own option according to their belief.) Cheers. For the record, my personal view point is simply this — Any ideology or doctrine which takes into account human nature is better than something which doesnt’. eg free love would lead to happiness. Dont know ’bout it, but it could certainly lead to STDs. A long rant.
Insightful thoughts on –not seeing University econ profs study the student debt problem.
Provocative idea by Default User.
P. Shiff might frame the debt problem as “the universities drink the alcohol that the gov’t pours. And the students are left with the hangover and the alchoholism.”
A dual-headed change in which the bankruptability of student debt is reinstituted and in which loan guarantees are immediately revoked. Let the chips fall where they may. Some creditors won’t get paid as more students default, but those students suffer the long-term consequences of declaring bankruptcy.
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Why wasn’t it like this to start with?
Why can’t students file? Why are loans guaranteed?
Unless it was to deliberately create a student debt crisis in order to create fodder for another marxist revolution.
That chart is insane.. how has college tuition inflated that much and the living cost looks like it has barely crawled? I feel so bad for people who can barely afford housing and just want a good education. If you have good marks in high school and can maintain them in university, schooling should be free.
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