Showing posts with label student debt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label student debt. Show all posts

Monday, July 14, 2014

How Big Money Won It All: Student Loans

From a piece I'm working on: How Big Money Won It All -

This, on student loans:

As for students, tell them from little on that college is needed for a good and productive life, and then make it impossibly expensive, yet provide a way: loans. Huge loans that can’t be appealed or terminated or negotiated, but only repaid, with failure to pay not an option. Saddled with huge debt, students can no longer consider non-lucrative jobs, but only those that will pay them enough to pay off the debt, the kind of jobs that fulfill the needs of Big Money, the kind of jobs that prevent creative thinking and eliminate the possibility of “the educated” (actually, the technically trained) to challenge the system. The technically trained, by definition of the term, are well-trained, and likely to plod on; it’s the educated, by definition of the term, who are likely to challenge the status quo, ask embarrassing questions, think through the morality of corporate philosophy and economic principles. The last thing a dominant social entity needs is thinkers. Whether it be the Church, or State or now with the Owners of Capital and Labor, thinkers pose a threat; what a singularity needs is servants, the well-trained, who, with the promise of rewards (rarely realized) will stay the course favorable to Big Money - like the proverbial mule walking toward a carrot dangling from a stick tied to its head, just beyond its reach.

Friday, May 9, 2014

Student Debt

Another marvelous invention by our corporate-driven world ... if kids are stupid enough to want a college education, let's charge 'em for it, and if they can't pay it, let's loan them the money, telling them all along the way that a "college education will get you a great life." And, by the way, "don't major in the humanities, like art, music, history, philosopy - they won't pay off your debt. Major in math and science or business, and you'll land a great job in our labs and corporate offices and be happy for the rest of your life. Don't think too hard about it, don't raise questions about our corporate culture, make money your god and you'll be just fine. Oh, lest we forget, if you don't pay your debt to us, it'll only get worse for you. So, be good, be tame, be compliant, and be ever-anxious. Ain't America wonderful?"