This posting will serve as Part 4 of the "Student Debt Crisis" series of this journal. I wanted to open the posting with an interview with Keely Mullen at the end of last year, who is a key organizer and spokesperson for the "Million Student March", because she has been the conservatives laugh of the year candidate (and even some mainstream liberals), and many in conservative media jumped all over this interview like a cheap suit on sunday, to use this for political and fiscal entertainment. Some laugh at Keely and say that students like her are so dumb and so out of touch with reality, and labeled as a spoiled rich girl ... if she didnt live a middle class life and was poor, they would call her a lazy welfare recipient that lives in her parents basement, I'm sure. Yet some of those same folks that criticize her are so dumb themselves and out of touch with reality, that they label her as being part of the "1%- percent", just because her dad paid $1,000,000 for their home in a decent middle income Chicago neighbourhood, and because Keely attended an expensive college (New Boston Post) . I mean like ... how paying $1million for a home in a major metro area like Chicago makes you in the "1%" ???!! ... my daughter just recently had some familia in town visiting from the Bay Area (San Francisco), who had to pay close to a million for just a basic nice but modest square footage home I was told while talking about recent real estate prices, and that's not in the central San Francisco at that!, and most other major metro areas are the same in 2016. No ... Keely and her familia is NOT in the 1% ... she may not be poor, but certainly not rich either (by my thinking ... see chart below), so before you insult this young lady, 'think' ... because some of your figures/ numbers are screwed up as well ... and if what you call her as far as the 1% is true by your standards, several of ya'll are also part of the 1%, eh? Keely is on the right track of thinking and at least questioning, and I commend her and all the students who question and push this serious issue ... for their work, endurance, courage and vision. Below she is ate alive by Neil Cavuto of FOX News, and of course Neil was praised as a hero of sort after this, but nothing he should be proud of, after all, Neil is smooth and sharp, which is like if you're on the witness stand with hardly no legal background/ knowledge, and have to face a clever smooth talking prosecuting attorney in a cross examination, Neil just got lucky to get this young lady to interview, who wasnt ready for him, if he would have went up against someone sharp as he is, he would have a real challenge. After the interview, will be the question from Hannah and John that many ask, can this free tuition gig even be feasible? ... then a few links and videos to look at both sides of this, after that, some additional input from me to close out ....
***** CNN/ MONEY: How close are you to the top 1%? ... in all fairness, according to this 2014 chart/ scale, if you have an annual household income of $430,000 ... you are considered as the top 1% ... so obviously my thinking of "what is rich or not", is wrong and screwed up as well. My point being ... say for example, you have a married couple that are both physicians/ doctors ... and say they bring in a combined income of $300,000 a year (which is considered the top 3%), they have 2 children for example, and all the usual expenses, and own a home with a property value of a million dollars, they are certainly wealthier income wise than I am ... but I do not consider them as rich, I see multi- millionaires and billionaires as rich (Wall Street folks for example, that get million+ dollar annual bonuses, that basically just "gamble"). But I dont hold it against them either, many people have really earned their wealth, nor do I want to drain "all" their wealth in taxes, but a fair amount of tax is all part of living in our society. No doubt though, this to me is absolutely hilarious now ... with so many professionals, and many even in debt themselves we have that fall into the "rich" category, that will be trying to explain how they are not rich! ... heh, heh, heh, heh, heh {:-) What matters though is not so much ... how much money you have?, but where your obligations and commitments are, which is importante to our country and needs. Take Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is also attacked because of her money ... by these figures/ standards, her net worth of what she makes on the side from book sales, speeches, investments, salary, and paid for her home, she would fall into a category of RICH, not nearly as rich as say Hillary "Dead Broke" Clinton for example ... but still rich. What is importante though is what folks like Warren, Keely or anyone else are doing to deal with these issues that are ignored too much, not their net worth.
Students want top earners to pay their tuition ... Thanx to Fox Business
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Is Free College Even Feasible?! ... Thanx to THINK TANK
***** U.S.NEWS: Bernie's Bad College Idea ... (newsread/ video)
***** COLLEGE RANK: How America's Colleges Could Be Tuition Free ....
$0 is the Cost of Making Public Colleges Tuition Free ... Thanx to SLATE MAGAZINE
***** POLITIFACT/ FLORIDA: Was college once free in United States, as Bernie Sanders says? ....
US students head to Germany for free degrees- BBC News ... Thanx to BBC NEWS
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***** PD/ RCJ: "STUDENT DEBT CRISIS" PART'S 3, 2 & 1
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Thomas Hudson Pickering aka "Ranch Chimp", "Commie Tommie" & "Skool" (short for old school) to kid's locally
This student debt deal the way it is now, and being one of the largest of debt currently, is just getting deeper and deeper, which will be a crisis to the economy if not already at some point without actual change in how we do things, and no credit to Congress who neglects this the way they have, while telling us repeatedly that our crisis is ISIS, terrorism or whatever. Another point here ... we are far from being broke, all that talk is more austerity measures and privatization talk ... our spending priorities are way out of whack, especially on our overbloated defense spending and other waste, politicians more concerned with politics and appeasing corporate lobbyist's in this expanding neo- dictatorship of corporate communism ... and much credit for screwing us can go to the U.S.Supeme Court and rulings like "Citizens United" ... and Hell NO, I dont support Merrick Garland either as President Obama's Supreme Court pick, what? ... another corporate litigation expert in these times? ... although some in corporate law says he has not enough corporate law experience (as far as working a diverse selection), and some worry about him being bad for mega corporate business, and too pro- environment. I cant figure out from what I read where Garland stands on things like "Citizens United", which is a big issue in these times too. We need more than the same old "repeat offenders", and to try to get rid of money in politics as it's now become, those are some of the real enemies to our economy and much else, and also reason why we are indirectly inciting terrorism through our own actions. The talk that we hear as well, as far as the rich being taxed too much or what Mr.Cavuto tries to peddle off on Keely in the opening video is bullshit, and the usual fear talk that if we dont kiss the asses at the top, they will leave the country and we will fall into eternal poverty and all be in soup kitchens, etc, etc. As far as folks like myself are concerned, for those who we generously support with massive corporate and banking welfare, tax breaks, subsidies, militarily defending them, their global assets and private properties ... go ahead and leave for all we give a shit if you feel so deprived and picked on, which we constantly hear in their whining propaganda, see how many other countries with half a brain will give ya'll the free ride we do, and put up with you! Many of the wealthiest folks at the top (multi millionaires and billionaires by my standards), hardly pay a damn thing in taxes with all else they get ... many draw more benefits, subsidies, taxation loopholes, than the bottom 99% could ever even dream of in a lifetime, and are pampered like babies still in the crib by us. At the same time though ... simply trying to tax the richest the max we can will NOT solve all our problems ... we need serious spending reforms in this country of our tax dollars.
When I listen to all angles to this and the 2 sides that battle each other and saying the other is wrong ... incorporating 2 angles who are called wrong can make things closer to right. I see this as similar to the health care problem we have, just ill spending and oversight is all, and a battle of $bux$ more than anything else, because the money is already there. No, I know how importante the system we have is, due to the investments and colleges/ universities/ higher education and all have put into it for decades, and alot of debt is still there any way we cut it. But other ideas need to be tried and to make what we do spend on work better, we do have many wayz now for young people to get help and paid tuition, and other grants, and a long list ... BUT ... starting up a "partial" free college system will NOT hurt our spending or those institutions who have higher levels of quality to offer. So I feel that a certain amount right now of free colleges/ universities for everyone to choose from is a good start, and it broadens competition, and cuts out some of the folks that are simply into profiteering only, who could care less about selling an education, and are more out to just milk the system with fly- by- night trade schools and colleges. Just like our health care system, it is too large to just shut out what we have without it hurting the economy in some other way ... we just need to clean house and have some limitations and competition to discourage a total monopoly like we have. Not everyone will choose to attend these free colleges either ... like health care with a partial public option, there is much to choose from and people can spend all they want still on what they want. This propaganda talk that folks like Bernie Sanders wants to make everything free is nonsense panic talk, just like when he or someone talks about a single payer health plan ... he/ they are not proposing to shut down everything we have as far as education, health care or anything else, or will it be the end of the world and country, back in the 1930's Social Security was also said to be the end to freedom, democracy, capitalism and America ... so nothing more than old school politics, and it's MORE freedom of choice actually, and a kind of buy one get one free deal. If it proves to work well and sells itself in the market place ... it will sell itself into a growing demand, like with any business venture ... if it fails like any business should in true capitalism, so be it as well ... but try it out and make it happen, that is all these students and advocates of this are asking, basically in a way for a freer expanded market/ choice. Which can all be looked at as being also more fiscally conservative and even innovative as far as marketing, eh? ... I mean, even folks like Mr.Carvuto could even agree with that, eh?, he acknowledges that folks like Keely make alot of good points ... well then, make it happen.
Back when I was young, the economy was different, and many could make a decent living with decent retirement and benefits on a middle class level with just a high school diploma. Today we have a different economy, and instead of a mass of car manufacturing, steel worker or related jobs ... we will have to structure for the newer middle class, as I point out here in paragraph#2, there are going to be many new jobs and careers that will be needed to fill, most of those to sustain a middle class that will spend and invest in our future economy, will need college/ university education degrees, to get anything close to what we could back when I was a kid with a high school diploma. We all agree to an extent that public paid education K thru 12 is/ was essential to our economy and progress, in this new economy, who can deny that it should and must be expanded for at least another 4 years to keep our nation competitive? Many of these other countries that have health care and extended public education for all to some extent, who dont nearly have the GDP we have in USA, do not have masses of people eating in soup kitchens, or even the percentage of homelessness we have, nor do you see mega corporations trying to flee from doing business in them countries, so they must be doing something right, eh? And comparing what our situation is to Greece, or 'would be' is not a balanced view, this IS NOT Greece, anymore than it is Germany, each country has their own unique economic climate, faults and needs, regardless of how global we are, just like these dime a dozen trade deals like TPP and NAFTA that are peddled off on us through our corporate/ banking pre- paid politicians ... we need to evaluate what is best for our economic climate and condition. We should be more concerned improving our economy and education, than being concerned how many corporate sponsored immigrants from Asian countries we can can bring in per year, to take up all these new careers at cheaper wages, that our children and grandchildren are paying an arm and a leg for their degrees at over- inflated interest rates (which also needs to be tackled), many accruing massive debt for years to come in the tens of thousands. While we are being told we should worry about Mexicans and Central American's coming over the border to do contracting menial jobs, that those telling us this garbage exploit themselves, those immigrants from south of our border, are not running our economy or jobs market into the ground as they try to tell us ... so getting our priorities straight is sensible as far as our economy. Credit to all these folks and students once again, who are pressuring our Congress to take action and bringing awareness, and thank goodness for social and alternative media and grassroots efforts, which is in order, justified and past due ... enough from me.
Word Out ....
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***** RANCH CHIMP JOURNAL "WELCOME" POST
***** RCJ MUSIC/ ART'S HONOUR ROLL SOCIETY (my hand- selected music/ arts picks)
***** RCJ/ THOMAS PICKERING: GOOGLE+ (video posts)
***** THE RESISTANCE/ PERIL'S OF THE POWER POSSE (inspiration for hope & change) ... to be viewed as a "profit- see", not a "prophecy".
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