A non-profit organization dedicated to the eradication of all student loan debt through activism, education, and legislation; because student loan debt is dangerous to the US economy and to the health and well-being of individual Americans and their families. CRYN JOHANNSEN, Founder & Executive Director
7 comments:
Student debt is toxic debt. Yet, those from humble backgrounds - if they want a chance at making a decent living - pretty much must attain a higher education or acquire a skill that is in demand and not subject to outsourcing.
Looking back, if I could live my life over again, I would have attended community college for free and learned mechanics, plumbing, or something else. I often hear people say,"Yes, but if you very intelligent, do you think hammering nails or fixing leaks is going to satisfy you. Especially, when you are surrounded by meatheads?"
I fail to see how having a high IQ and/or advanced degrees helps one get through a workday at Sears, Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, etc. I see tons of college-educated people taking up space in those cells called cubicles. They are working in lifeless environs. By the way, I have known some briliant mechanics. They also seem to be down-to-earth.
My wife has a Master's degree, and after being unemployed for 12 out of 15 months, she is working in her field at $12.70 an hour. This morning, she told me that she feels like she is starting at the bottom again. So much for "higher education," right?!
Nando, being a lawyer or an engineer or a doctor doesn't even satisfy people with high IQs. Work sucks for everyone, even those with "advanced" degrees. I remember at David Souter's retirement press-conference he talked about having an "intellectual lobotomy" every year. If it's that bad for him, imagine what it's like for PI attorneys who work 70+ hours a week. Think they're feeling intellectually stimulated?
Screw that. I'd rather fix cars or run a bar somewhere and then, if my high IQ needs intellectual stimulation, I can watch some Godard films on the weekend or read me some Dickens.
People who hold the idea that intelligent people can only be satisfied by being shills for Exxon or working in BigLaw or devoting their life to some obscure Brazilian beetle that no one cares about, and not by fixing cars or farming or teaching schoolkids, have absolutely no idea what it's like to be intelligent.
The thing of it is....
Most of the Cocksure and heavily tattooed and pierced Tradespeople that are comfortable with their identity's and their places in the universe....pretty much started out from the age of 18 and/or after High school graduation, with the commitment to go into a trade, and not Higher Education.
So for these people, there was 4 very valuable years of learning and apprentichship, and "Practising" of the trade. Skill development in the trade.
In the meantime the kid that went to College was busy filling up his or her head with other things. Such as History, Literature, Sociology, Art History, etc. etc. Maybe even Economics or Business.
And then, for that Colege kid, a few years after graduation, when the hunger and reality and panic of indebtedness and Student Loan Poverty strikes, (with the full encouragement and zeal of the US Government), that former college grad has to now scramble to work menial jobs and/or learn a trade in order to eat and survive. For bare subsitsence, in other words.
So now the educated kid is deep in debt, and in real life survival school, and taking orders from much younger, noneducated superiors on the job. Taking orders from people that never went past high school, and that now own homes, and boats, and antique cars. And also own a rental property or two about town.
And being called a little "Bitch" over and over and over and over and over, and being asked to give blow jobs in jest. And all the other things that the blue-collar world embraces and views as good and typical day-to-day discourse.
To learn about the streets in other words, while deep in Student Loan debt. To learn firsthand over a lunch break about what the people in prisons think and say.
And terrified that a co-worker may discover that he or she has a College Degree. Lest they will hate you for it.
To try and dismiss all of the things that one has learned in an institute of Higher learning, because it has no application to reality.
I could go on, but no one cares anyway.
Maybe we are all a bunch of Animals anyway. After all, as many say, we evolved from Apes, and to Apes we will return.
All acting like a bunch of animals struggling to the top of an Economic heap, from the top of society on down. There will be victors, such as Al Lord and people like him, as well as the Congresspeople he can pay off, but still, no Human Dignity.
Only Animal dominance.
So Education, in that sense, and in the US in this day and age,doesn't matter at all.
So far from the ideals of what the US was supposed to stand for.
The Education Dept. makes a mistake? Can it be? The very department that closes its eyes and puts its head in the sand and says wow its dark in here and therefore if we can't see it it doesn't exist. What a total, unmitigated disgrace the DoE is. They just try and sweep everything, especially their own ineptitude and their paralyzing fear of a certain big, northeast-centered, media company masquerading as a higher education for-profit, under the table. Students deserve better than this - many are taxpayers too which I do believe the DoE forgets.
The best way to succinctly sum up the nature of humanity might be with a Dungeons and Dragons reference. Human beings as a collective whole possess high intelligence but low wisdom. (Int: 16, Wis: 9)
We can put men on the moon and we can build powerful computers but we can't figure out how to reduce worldwide poverty or how provide health care efficiently (USA), or how to live with one another without violent conflicts (wars, etc.). I won't be at all surprised if the world ends up becoming a dystopia in the future or if another huge world war and/or mass genocide repeats itself at on a grand scale.
Here is a book that is worth reading.
Actually, I took a course that was based around this book a long time ago.
And it is in line with Frank the UP says.
http://www.amazon.com/Cunning-History-Richard-L-Rubenstein/dp/0061320684
I mean, I read the book in 1985 or so, and the book talked about the reunification of Germany, which seemed absolutely so far fetched and preposterous in '85.
But the author was right. He was right, and dead on.
And maybe the book foretells more mass genocide as well.
So why should the US Dept of Education just round up all the impoverished and powerless Student Loan debtors at this point into concentration camps, and just kill all of them off in secrecy?
Hi Cryn:
Here is an excerpt from my Poem about Al Lord.
................on angel’s wings all turned to black
He claws and scrambles at your back.
And clutches , snatches takes away,
everything you can afford.
He is the fiend,
He is Al Lord.
For every cent you made in hope,
Lordy’s built himself a rope
To hang yourself and stretch your neck,
And kick your feet and gasp the air
To which you never could repair
For Albert owns it All, and there,
At such a price and premium as
Being born in a USA
Al Lord held eternal sway
Upon your hopes, your dreams, you beggars means,
He gloats he gleams, and glories in your screams!
And deep within his wicked heart.
He hates all knowledge. Hates all Art!
And clutches money in his claws,and builds a station,
with which to scrape away,
all Civilization.
Such a dark and wicked tower in this day,
Known as the fallen Sallie Mae.
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