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I wonder if I could say something useful. I'll probably make an ass of myself - again - arriving late to the conversation and having only skimmed the previous posts.
Dave, your analysis of the causes of skyrocketing tuition is a theory Thom rejects - although I don't necessarily but am also not completely convinced of it. Presuming it's true I don't think it's a problem government can't fix if it wants to and continue to subsidies - or pick up the entire cost - of education. It's been done throughout Europe at least since WW II and has yielded none but stellar results. Thus, I consider it a matter of too little government intervention not too little. Halfway measures always result in the worst of both, if not all, possible worlds.
Democratic government doesn't "intrude", it acts on behalf of the people rather than elites. Elites decry democratic government because it checks their power. You seem to have really swallowed their line - hook and sinker too.
Your figures are wrong. As of 2006, 81% of first time college students enrolled full time for the duration of their studies graduate within 6 years. Of those enrolled part time 19% graduate within 6 years. Of both groups together 55% graduate in 6 years. Until recently, college attendance and graduation was so prevalent that, as far as the job market was concerned, not having a college degree made the same disadvantage as did not having a high school diploma 40 years ago.
Marc, I'm not about to dismiss your speculation regarding foul play, or its conventional manifestations. But is it unreasonable to suggest that pay-or-die healthcare is another kind of foul play? - AIW
Aliceinwonderland ~ Interesting thought! Nevertheless I have to wonder what the Progressive Left lifespan is as opposed to the Reich Wing. Seems like a lot of Left Wing activists have a short life expectancy. The more successful the shorter lived. Maybe I'm imagining things. However, I wouldn't discount the possibility of foul play so easily. Especially with all the depleted Uranium laying around... Just saying.
Palindromedary ~ You're the conspiracy guru here. Help me out.
Palindromedary ~ All good points. I think what you said helps to explain Matt's contention that all his students want is to be rich. That is a desire that is fostered by TV. They want riches because that is what is sold to them. To fall short, which 99% obviously will, is failure.
I love your analogy of how only the good guys can shoot straight. So hilarious when Clint Eastwood walks openly into a hail of gunfire fearlessly and armed only with a hand gun and manages to pick off everyone hiding behind something who have shotguns without being shot once.
The same can be said of every stereotype festered by our lying media. There is nothing depicted on TV that has any foundation in reality. You can go all the way back to the 1950's with "Leave It To Beaver." The artificial depiction of a functional middle class nuclear family. There is nothing functional about a nuclear family. It is a relatively new state of existence that came about as the result of the industrial revolution. The nuclear family lacks social cohesion and it's members tend to repel each other. As a result it is not functional. Yet, the media paints the picture in our minds that it is not only functional; but, completely normal. No wonder our society is so completely dysfunctional on so many levels. It is built on a foundation of pure BS.
It seems that our media has the cards stacked against all of us. No matter what we do, how hard we try, or even how successful we are, we will always be failures in the eyes of the media. How much easier is it to control a bunch of whipped dogs who already feel inadequate like there is something wrong with them and they aren't even normal, than it would be to control a bunch of self empowered citizens who are full of self respect and self confidence? Hmmmmm?
You can't even eat the foods in the US anymore without getting cancer from them. Here's an example of "an apple a day will expose you to cancer causing chemicals". The Europeans won't even let American apples into their country ..they are banned for exceeding their acceptable limits by over 100 times their limit they consider dangerous levels.
"A chemical called diphenylamine, or DPA, applied to apples after harvest has been troubling the European Food Safety Authority since 2008. The substance is used to keep apples from getting those aesthetically displeasing brown spots, but has “the potential to break down into a family of carcinogens called nitrosamines.”
Our EPA (Eat Poison Administration) has no problem with such high levels of this dangerous substance sprayed on our apples.
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/you_can_no_longer_eat_americ...
Got bud! Bud and bud, what a combo! Hodor!!!! But, I'm glad they got rid of that little snit of a king..Jeffrey...he was such an irritating pip squeak!
I suppose the messages that we are constantly being sent through TV programs and movies are to make people think they can get rich automatically without much effort. Of course, some people do get rich without any effort. They are born with a silver spoon in their mouths...they inherit their money. Others turn to crime and become drug pushers. I wonder how many young people look up to drug pushers who are seen to ride around in fancy cars and who wear expensive jewelry. They see politicians being bought off by corporations and realize the laws only apply to the poor and not to the wealthy.
TV and movies, who are trying to sell products..making people want more than they can afford... also foster illusions that just don't work in the real world. The 110 pound, very good looking movie star, beats the crap out of some muscular Hodor* hunk of a guy that towers over them.
*Hodor...the giant in the TV sequel Game of Thrones..one of my favorite TV shows.
All the "good guys" are such good shots while the "bad guys" never hit anything.
That Russia Today or Al Jazeera are propaganda machines but all those US "news" channels are telling us the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth is pretty obviously a lie.
The "Truth, justice, and the American way" illusion has been drilled into everyone's heads since the first Superman movies back in 50s and 60s. Now, it's Captain America with virtually the same messages of propaganda.
Maybe John Kerry and Obama should make their next propaganda appearances in a Captain America or Superman costumes...though I think Goofy or Wily Coyote are more fitting costumes for them. That war criminal, baby Bush, dressed up as a fighter pilot..then lied to us about "Mission Accomplished". But, even then, I suspect they wouldn't be any more of a laughing-stock than they are already. Their obvious, two-faced nonsense... their hypocrisy about Ukraine when the US was, itself, behind the initial overthrow of the legitimate Ukraine government... is so obvious to many of us that have listened to them...it is almost comical. But it's really not funny..it's pretty scarey...they play a very dangerous game that could result in a world-wide disaster.
But then, some day in the future (if there is a future), some film maker will create a dramatization for TV on how Obama and Kerry, sitting by the Presidential fireplace or gazing out the window with somber demeanors contemplating their bold standoff of Communist aggression upon Ukraine, with patriotic music playing, they greet us with "Seig Heil! We are the rulers of the world, as we deserve to be!" Flashbacks of JFK's Cuban Missile Crisis ghosts in the background. And a narrator telling us just how close the world again came to total nuclear war.
And the communal, government provided TV set, to be used only for propaganda news (that everyone is gathered around because the economy is such that one can no longer afford to buy one's own TV sets) announces that the war between Eurasia and East Asia is ongoing. And a vodka commercial flashes on the screen to which cues every viewer to take another swig followed by cheers! Seig Heil! Seig Heil! Seig Heil!
Ok, it's time for another toke on the spliff. ;-> Later, dudes!
Matt, not taking money from someone can indeed be the same as giving money to someone else, when the money not taken is in the form of tax breaks for someone too rich to need them; tax breaks that wind up being financed via higher taxes on someone not so well off. In my book, that's tantamount to theft.
Meanwhile the only way to eliminate the need for welfare is to have a society with no rich and no poor! - AIW
PD says "I think that the prescription drugs are more of a problem than illegal drugs." You got that right, buddy! I don't remember the actual statistics, but annually, the fatalities from prescription quack "remedies" WAY outnumber deaths from black market drugs. And deaths from marijuana? ZERO. Which makes pot prohibition such a joke.
I just thought of the perfect one-liner for a TV pot commercial: "This bud's for yew!" - Aliceinwonderland
Aliceinwonderland ~ Very, very well said!!!
Palindromedary ~ Stock trades don't make real money in nanoseconds. For that you need a diverse portfolio and lot's of time. Let the HFT'ers have their shortfall. As the saying goes, easy come, easy go.
Thank you Marc; excellent suggestion! Okay... tax-supported education pre-K through PhD, tax-supported heatlhcare, fire dept, postal service, utilities, law enforcement and public works! Stir all that together, bake at 350 and voila! A civilized society based on fairness and inclusion! - Alice IW
Long term today, in high frequency trading, is more than a second. Millions of dollars can be made in less than a second in high speed, high frequency trading. It's fraction of a second insider trading. Their trading computers, with fiber optics network connects to trading houses detect when normal traders are trying to buy or sell and the high frequency trading computers beat them to raise a stock price before normal traders can get their orders placed. The normal traders get stuck with the higher prices when their trades are actually put through.
Thank you DAnneMarc:#23....actually, the avatar is not that clear but it is supposed to be a flying pig....as in "when pigs fly". ;-}
I could sure could use a vascular dilator right now...that's for sure! And although there are vascular dilators for asthmatics in the form of inhalers....I just wonder what the long term effects of those are? I'm sure that those people who are against marijuana will jump on any bit of information that will be a detraction for the use of it. I haven't smoked or in any form imbibed marijuana for over 30 years..and I only tried it a couple of times. In fact, I suspect that the reason I have asthma for about as long is that I smoked some bad Mexican MJ that may have been sprayed by the US government back then. I had a bad reaction to it. Just makes me wonder if I got a dose of Agent Orange from it. Agent Orange is a weed killer they used in Vietnam.
But, I really get a kick out of the fast talking and small print warnings on TV commercials for various prescription drugs. While showing some totally unrelated warm and loving domestic scenes of family or friends they quickly warn the viewer of all of the side effects of the drug they are advertizing. Most of these commercials always includes some pretty gruesome side-effects..including death...but it goes by so quickly you might miss it. They wouldn't even be doing that if they didn't have to. They always end it with "ask your doctor if this drug is right for you!" Yeah, like those pill-pushers are going to say no after you nag them for those drugs? I think that the prescription drugs are more of a problem than illegal drugs.
Marc, in our pay-or-die system of healthcare delivery, such fatal conditions often go undetected until too late. Factor in pollution from the fossil fuel industry and other industries, and the crap that gets in our food... it's a miracle any of us live much past age forty in this banana-republic shithole. - AIW
Aliceinwonderland ~ How so very, very, well said!!! And please, throw the Police Department and public works in with that list too!!
"Punished" for being successful, Matt? You're breaking my heart.
What we really need is tax-funded EDUCATION, pre-K through PhD. Period. And tax-funded healthcare, fire department, postal service and utilities. None of these things belong in the private sector; if they're all non-profit, they won't cost so damn much. Then nobody gets punished for being not-so-successful, and everybody gets to have a life, regardless of one's status in the job market. And that's all I've got to say on this topic. Have a lovely week! 'Bye now... - AIW
I have a confession to make. I remember when I was in grade school in the 50's I wanted to be the richest person on earth. Based on that, I am a total failure.
ChicagoMatt -- Do you realize your 100% tax write-off is what Thom would call a discount for the rich. A large portion of those students who walk by your school each day are part of Romney's 47%. They pay no income taxes, so a tax writeoff would mean nothing.
Also, the profit motive in education seems to have no place. If long term greed were part of the profit motive I could see the profit motive might have some benefit. It seems that the creed of business schools has become in the long term we are all dead. I heard that in my econ courses in the 60's. The expression "long term" seems now to have evolved to 5 years (the avg CEO service length). The business model that has evolved is spend more on PR and than on quality..
ChicagoMatt ~ You are right about this blog. We are mostly older people. Your colleague is also right. A lot has changed in the mentality of people. I think this can be largely attributed to the media and a non-threatening public agenda (ie the lack of a military draft.)
The bottom line is that the contribution to society should always be the bottom line in anyones goals. In a large part we have failed our children by allowing that goal set to be replaced. Hopefully, as adults, we can remedy this ill before it contaminates all of society. Thanks for your contribution as an educator. Keep up the good work.
Thank you! I get the feeling I'm one of the younger people on here. If my politics make you worry about the future of the country, you should hear what most of my students say. I teach middle school - ages 12 to 14 - and when you ask them what they want to be when they get older, they literally say, "I want to be rich." That's ALL they think about it. Some of the girls even, without a hint of sarcasm, list their dream job as "trophy wife". As a parent of two daughters (and a son), it makes me a little worried for their futures.
One of my coworkers, who has been teaching for 40 years and is about to retire, told me that it wasn't always like this. He had seen the shift from an "I want to change the world" mentality in younger people to the current "I want to be rich" mentality. The pragmatist in me encourages the students to pursue careers that are fulfilling both emotionally AND financially.
ChicagoMatt ~ Then welcome aboard! Your input will surely be appreciated. However, keep in mind that most of the members of this blog are worn out from bogus arguments and will attack whenever they see the symptoms. Don't be discouraged. We really appreciate every perspective we can get; and, our goal as well is to unite and speak with one voice. Again, welcome aboard!
By the way, despite the brats, some of the best teachers I've ever had were in private school. One of my biggest problems were the school let them go just when I was really beginning to respect their contributions. That was also a huge contributing factor to my leaving. However, it was the fellow brats that were the straw that broke the camels back.
ChicagoMatt ~ Well done!
Ok thank you! I hope I did this correctly.
Aliceinwonderland ~ Ironic, indeed!! It is also quite a coincidence that such an activist with such a high level education in history and politics would come down with incurable cancer at such an early age, isn't it?