Thursday, March 08, 2012

let's pretend student loans are about education...,

oftwominds | We have a "let's pretend" economy: let's pretend the unemployment rate actually reflects the number of people with full-time jobs and the number of people seeking jobs, let's pretend the Federal government borrowing 10% of the GDP every year is sustainable without any consequences, let's pretend the stock market actually reflects the economy rather than Federal Reserve monetary intervention, and so on.

We also have a "let's pretend" education/student-loan game running: let's pretend college is "worth" the investment, and let's pretend student loans are about education. There are three dirty little secrets buried under the education/student-loan complex's high-gloss sheen:

1. Student loans have little to do with education and everything to do with creating a new profit center for subprime-type lenders guaranteed by the Savior State.

2. A college diploma's value in the real world of getting a job and earning a good salary in a post-financialization economy has been grossly oversold.

3. Many people are taking out student loans just to live; the loans are essentially a form of "State funding" a.k.a. welfare that must be paid back.

We've got a lot of charts that reflect reality rather than hype, so let's get started.Despite all the bleating rationalizations issued by the Education Complex, higher education costs have outstripped the rest of the economy's cost structure. Funny how nobody ever asks if there is any real competitive pressure in the Education Complex; there isn't, and why should there be when students can borrow $30,000 a year?

6 comments:

Big Don said...

...[Re: borrowing $30k/yr]......unless, of course, you are a really sharp NAM student, in which case (since the pool is so small) elite schools will fight with each other for the opportunity to award you an all expenses-and-then-some fully paid wall-to-wall scholarship, in order to hype their diversity image, while equally-and-better-qualified white students have to pay every last exorbitant dime...

Dale Asberry said...

...and this is a problem, why? Why the hell do you care who wins the lottery?

Here's a little object lesson for you Donnie: cats who are adorned with a little bell on their collars kill and eat more live prey than cats without a bell. Unfortunately, many Cats have the damn little bells and have to learn to be sneaky little bastards to get their kill... more power to the Cats living large and to the Cats bringing home the food. Where does that leave the whiners like you, Don?

Big Don said...

"...why?..."

Actually, there is a very important *WHY??*. The quality of the output you get is diminished.  

A local dentist told us about what is, in fact, going on now days in the health sciences schools.  Lesser-qualified minorities have agitated so vigorously that they have gotten themselves unjustifiably admitted on quotas where they then get treated with kid gloves by the faculty.  They do not generally meet the rigorous traditional entrance standards. It's not possible to criticize or grade them down for poor work because they frequently then sue "for discrimination."  So they get passed through the system and out into practice.  Schools' hands are hopelessly tied by the liberal system run amok. BE-fkg-WARE...(think Michael Jackson, whose black private physician didn't even know how to properly perform CPR)...

Dale Asberry said...

Why "BE-fkg-WARE" when you can BE-fkg-AWARE? That is all it takes to unmask a douchebag.

The quality of the output YOU get is diminished.
Get your hands out of my fscking bizness, I'm a Tom Cat, not a mewling Pussy Cat.

Lindsey272012 said...

Student loan changes that were provided in the Medical care Change Bill is a good example. The reason it was provided was to help balanced out the cost of healthcare.They basically took out the intermediary who was assured to not lose cash and got all the profits from the attention on these loans.

Tony Reinikainen said...

Student loan really changes this year and the interest is so high.The negative things there is even you finish schooling you're still not employed.Really a coll article for me.

Master Arbitrageur Nancy Pelosi Is At It Again....,

🇺🇸TUCKER: HOW DID NANCY PELOSI GET SO RICH? Tucker: "I have no clue at all how Nancy Pelosi is just so rich or how her stock picks ar...