Here's your diploma, now go file for bankruptcy!

 

The Kaplan-owned newspaper of shame, which is run by the shameless, featured a piece today about the rise in bankruptcy filings among college educated folks. Big shock-a-roo, right? Wrong.

So, there you have it, folks. You receive a diploma and are soon headed to the poorhouse! Grand, ain't it?


Related Links


"UPDATE: Exclusive Interview - Whistleblower David Goodstein Discusses Victory over Kaplan University," AEM (July 25, 2011)


"UPDATE: BREAKING! Whistleblower David Goodstein Slams Kaplan and Wins!," AEM (July 22, 2011)

"Sordid Relationships And Broken Promises: Kaplan University's Troubling Financial Relationship To The Washington Post," AEM (November 23, 2010)

"Thoughts On Shame: Michelle Singletary, The Washington Post, And Kaplan University," AEM (November 16, 2010)

Yes! Go Dean Dad! - Remarks About A Student Loan Stimulus

In other blog news . . . over at Inside Higher Ed, Dean Dad wrote a piece entitled, "A Student Loan Stimulus?,' and suggested, thanks to the smart Twitter folks' idea, that Obama's plan to invest in community colleges should be used to forgive student loans for people in their 20s and 30s. 

Here's a snippet (for the full read, go here):

President Obama has proposed spending five billion dollars on building renovation at community colleges across America. 

It’s a nifty idea, even though it’s politically DOA. Divided among 1100 community colleges, it works out to between four and five million each. That’s certainly helpful -- no argument there -- but it’s not enough to add much capacity. Even a smallish, not terribly cutting edge classroom building will run at least ten million. It would help tremendously with certain kinds of deferred maintenance, but that tends to be too inconspicuous to hold much political appeal. And the stimulus would take an awfully long time to work through the system. “Shovel-ready” is a myth; we don’t get to shovel-readiness unless and until we’re serious, at which point the decision has already been made. First there’s the environmental impact, the ADA compliance issues, the retrofitting, the bid process, yadda yadda yadda. In other words, it’s a helpful long-term idea, but the short term payoff isn’t there politically or economically.

The helpful folks on Twitter pointed out a much better idea: use the money to forgive interest on student loans. (And I say this as someone whose loans are paid off.)

The student loan stimulus would do a world of good for people in their twenties and thirties, who are struggling badly as a group at exactly the times when the economy is counting on them to start both careers and families. Reducing their monthly (and total) loan payments would give them more spending money immediately. And unlike a one-shot tax refund, the reduction in loan payments would be permanent, so the money would be more likely to go into increasing aggregate demand. (One-shot windfalls are likelier to be saved.) Without demand, hiring just isn’t gonna happen.

 Good remarks, Dean Dad!

The Author's Hour: Robert Whitaker's Anatomy of an Epidemic

The Author's Hour entails interviews with  authors who are already published or on their way to being published. The subjects will be wide ranging. We'll talk to experts from the fields of economics, history, sociology, political science, philosophy, literature, etc. The intent of this new series is to connect with authors whose work intersects with my own. This way, it will allow me to introduce my readers to other authors who are: 

• concerned about the student lending crisis
• other major societal problems
• interested in my work as a political activist for the indentured educated class

Our next author is Robert Whitaker. Mr. Whitaker has an illustrious professional background. His website states:

Robert Whitaker has won numerous awards as a journalist covering medicine and science, including  the George Polk Award for Medical Writing and a National Association for Science Writers’ Award for best magazine article. In 1998, he co-wrote a series on psychiatric research for the Boston Globe that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. Anatomy of an Epidemic won the 2010 Investigative Reporters and Editors book award for best investigative journalism.

 He is also the author of Mad in America (Basic Books, 2010).

Before I jump into the interview with Mr. Whitaker, I want to thank one of my special readers who introduced me to Bob. The conversation was great, and I encourage all of you to buy Bob's recent book, Anatomy of an Epidemic.

Here's what we discussed:

CCJ: Not all of my readers are familiar with Anatomy of an Epidemic. Provide us with a brief hypnosis of the book, and why you decided to write it.

BW: The book investigates a puzzle: Why has the number of people disabled by mental illness soared in the past 20 years? And the hypothesis I raise is this: Is it possible that the widespread use of psychiatric medications, in one manner or another, is fueling this epidemic?

CCJ: You discuss the two histories of psychiatry and the rise of pharmacological drugs in the U.S. and in Europe. Most of us are familiar with the 'positive' side of this story, i.e., how people with mental illnesses have been cured or their bad symptoms have been diminished as a result of popping pills ('the magical bullet' theory that you mention in the beginning of the book). However, the negative side of the story is not as well known - it's much like two sides of the same coin. Tell us about the negative side of taking pills for bipolar disorder, ADHD, schizophrenia, and depression for years. What happens to some people? (And you obviously show that not everyone has a negative experience).

BW: The negative side of the coin is that many people who take the medications, particularly over the long-term, end up experiencing worse psychiatric symptoms, physical problems related to the drugs, and cognitive decline related to the drugs. In the aggregate, I think the data is pretty clear: long-term use of psychiatric worsens overall outcomes. Some people do well on the medications, but on the whole, the long-term use of medications worsens outcomes.

CCJ: I have a lot of readers who tell me that they are so overwhelmed by their student loan debt that they sought help, and have been prescribed all kinds of pills (anti-anxiety, sleeping pills, anti-depressants, etc.). How do you feel about this fact, i.e., that people who are drowning in student loan debt are being prescribed these types of medications? While some of them might have legitimate reasons for seeking medical treatment of this nature, do you think this is the best way to deal with the problem both at a societal level as well as a personal one?

BW: I would say this is precisely the wrong way to deal with this problem of student loan debt. Taking a pill won't make that debt go away, and so the underlying situation won't change. The question, I suppose, is whether taking a pill will help that person cope with the distress better, and thus perhaps pursue a better course (in terms of getting a job, etc.) Taking a pill may somewhat alleviate the emotional distress, at least for a time, but I don't think there is any evidence it helps people come up with a long-term solution to this problem. This is a problem that requires a societal fix, and that is providing youth with an opportunity to go to college without ringing up large amounts of debt.

CCJ: In your reporting, what were the most disturbing aspects of the interviews you had with people who began to question the benefits of taking these sorts of drugs? Does any particular story haunt you?

BW: Many stories haunt me. The ones that lingered were those instances when people suffered greatly trying to get off the medications, or never could get off, and ended up feeling trapped. People who began questioning the merits of the drugs often ended up being shunned by family and by their doctors, and had to go down this medication withdrawal path alone (when they decided to do so.) We have a system that encourages people to get on the drugs, but there is nothing in the system that helps those who want to get off them do so.

CCJ: These are powerful drugs. What happens when you mix them with alcohol or other recreational drugs?

BW: This isn't something I studied. But any time you mix drugs that act on the mind, whether illicit or licit, you obviously are courting danger. There is a risk to ingesting such a mix of drugs.

CCJ: As you indicate in your book, many experts in the field believe the theory of serotonin is just that - a theory - and many have hoped to debunk it. Why is this idea, that the 'mentally ill' brain has a 'chemical imbalance' still so popular, even among psychiatrists and clinicians?

BW: It's a myth that has been promoted by commercial interests, and one that is neat and simple and comforting. And people have difficulty giving up neat, comforting myths, particularly when those myths fit an ideological or commercial agenda. Plus, imagine if mainstream psychiatry were to now say, hey, that chemical imbalance story we have been telling you about, turns out it's not real! Psychiatry doesn't want to have to confess that story, and so,  among the leaders of psychiatry, I think there is a hope it will now gradually fade away.

CCJ: The book was very insightful about the history of psychiatry and the rise of pharmacological drugs. What projects are you currently working?

BW: Since Anatomy of an Epidemic was published in the spring of 2010, I have been regularly traveling to give talks, both in the United and in a number of other countries, about this topic. That has consumed most of my time. I have also written a bit more on the subject--magazine pieces, book chapters, etc. I would like to get to the point I can start working on a new book, but I haven't made it there yet.

If you are an author and interested in being featured in AEM's new series called, "The Author's Hour," please send me an email - ccrynjohannsen (at) gmail (dot) com. 

Related Links

"Jon Chattman's Passion for Pop Culture, Humor, and 'Staches (Before They Were Cool)," AEM (Sept. 7, 2011)

"The Author's Hour: Morley Winograd and Mike D. Hais and their Search to Understand Millennials", AEM (Aug. 22, 2011)

"[Part II] The Author's Hour: Morley Winograd and Mike D. Hais Debunk Assumptions about Millennials," AEM (Aug. 25, 2011)

"[Part III] The Author's Hour: Mike D. Hais and Morley Winograd Address the Public Perception of Millennials," AEM (Aug. 25, 2011)

Student Loan Defaults - Reader's Reaction, and Why I Still Give A F$%*K! About This Country

Yesterday, I wrote a piece about defaulting on your student loans, and that sparked a lot of interesting reactions from readers. I was most struck by what AtheistATLawyer said. S/he wrote:

 Defaulting on student loans? I have no choice! When you make 10k a year as a 'lawyer' do you think you can pay back 75k in student loans? Of course not!

What are they going to do?? I don't plan on ever paying back my student loans. Fuck the shitty gov't and fuck this awful country.

This is the result of the law school scam. Patriots turning their back on this 'country' BECAUSE IT IS SHIT. 

It was all a lie. And now I know. Too bad I just figured it out. At the ripe old age of 27.

Here's how I replied:

@AtheistATLawyer - I feel your rage. That is why I am doing everything in my power to raise holy hell about this situation. 

I know a lot of people are defaulting and have defaulted because they had no other choice. 

It's disgusting and wrong and we need to do something about it. 

I don't say fuck this country, because there are too many great people here. 

The remembrance of 9-11 and how people sacrificed their lives for others is proof of that. And in saying that, I do think it's despicable the way in which the Bush Administration turned that into something else in the years that followed, and Budweiser had ads last night to buy their beer by using 9-11 images (fuck those assholes). That's all shit. But you know what isn't shit? Those people who decided to take down United 93. Those were good people. The people who helped each other out of the towers. The first responders who gave such a shit that most of them DIED under melting rods of twisted steal in order to evacuate others. As people went down the stairs, those men and women WENT UP to their deaths, high above the NYC skyline. They went up because that was the right thing to do. In a small, Irish neighborhood that was hit the hardest, police men there watched out for a shop owner named Mohammed. They were worried that he'd be targeted, because he was from Lebanon. You know what? He wasn't, because people had opened up their arms to him years earlier when he opened a bagel shop. 9/11 didn't change that for him, and he's still there and happy to be part of that community. Someone could come back and accuse me of being overly-sentimental, but I say screw that. This shit MATTERS, and we need to remind ourselves of the fact that there are good people out there and that they do good things for one another.

That's why this fight is worth it, because there are lots of great people who don't deserve to be a part of this bullshit system. We need to band together. We need to remind ourselves of what it means to look out for each other. We need to revive democracy. I know. I know. I know. It's always been bullshit. Perhaps that's true. But at least we TRIED to live up to certain ideals and principles. We need to get back to the basics and reclaim those things.

We need to insist that our institutions reflect the good things about us, and that means that you and others who have defaulted should be given a break. You don't deserve this shit. 

Yesterday [September 11th] reminded me of a lot of painful things, especially the way we went to war for no reason in Iraq. So many lives lost. So many innocent lives. At the same time we stopped investing in our communities and people here. It's painful, because it's the opposite of how people responded on that dreadful day. They should be our role models, because they gave a shit about one another. And as a result of giving a shit, there were lots of people who survived that event. 

I give a fuck about this country because it produced Father Mychal Judge - http://marginsofeverdaylife.blogspot.com/2011/09/in-memorian-loss-of-thousands-of-souls.html [It was also beautiful to see that my fellow comrade, Dona Furiosa, over at Scholastic Snake Oil, also wrote a heartfelt piece about Father Mychal - bless you, Dona].

We need to think about how we can give a shit and then demand change. 

I'm exhausted and tired of this bullshit too. We don't deserve to suffer under these economic conditions. It's un-American.

Henry Giroux is right. The U.S. exhibits a culture of cruelty (look at the recent GOP debates for evidence of how blood thirsty and uncaring we have become, or so it seems from all the hooting and clapping over vicious, disgusting things). In many ways, it seems that civil society is being torn apart, and if you turn to thoughtful writers, many of them are bemoaning the collapse of Empire. Giroux is also right in saying that we are dominated by a punishing state. A punishing state that fears its youth, turns them into debtors for life or incarcerates them at a frightening pace. Americans only represent about 5 percent of the world's population, one-quarter of the entire world's inmates are incarcerated in the United States. How's that for privatizing the prison system?!? Indeed, we are witnessing the eradication of our democratic values.

Does that mean it's hopeless. No way. Far from it. As Giroux recently wrote:

In the spirit of the tenth anniversary of 9/11, the nation engaged in acts of mourning and heartfelt remembrance for the nearly 3,000 victims who lost their lives. In the face of unspeakable hardship and suffering, people all over the country, not only those directly involved in rescue and recovery efforts, reaffirmed the dignity of public values, the social good and the importance of caring for the lives of others.

. . .

What the collective response to 9/11 signifies amid the suffering and despair is a gesture of hope, a recognition that in the behavior of those who sacrificed themselves to help others, a bittersweet beacon of the repressed spirit of democracy shone forth [my emphasis]. The call to witnessing and counter-memory exceeds the despair of the past and speaks also to the future. It is a call that is prophetic in its insistence that the economic, political and social conditions be created for upcoming generations to decide their own future and take back their country from the dark and dangerous policies and politics that have chosen authoritarianism over democracy.

 It's time for us to bring back our country from the brink, to denounce this frightful authoritarianism, and begin to invest in people and communities again. The wars must end. We need to bring our troops home, and stop placing them in catastrophic, violent, deadly situations. That is one of the ways we'll solve the student lending crisis. Start investing in things here.

Evelyn De Morgan - Hope in a Prison of Despair (1887)

Defaulting on Your Student Loans

So many of us have fantasized about defaulting on our student loans. We imagine a collective refusal to pay our debt. We'd do this together, we say. We'd show them. We'd just stop paying entirely, and then the financial institutions who turned us into these indebted zombies would really pay. One reader of mine, a very astute economist, insists that we must revolt in this manner. He calls for a debt revolt on all things, not just student loans.

But then we - the student debtors - stop and think about the co-signers. For those of us with co-signers, we realize we're trapped. We'd have to get our mother, father, or grandparents, perhaps a friends - the co-signer(s) - to agree to this decision. (This is what many of you have said has held you back from committing suicide, something which devastates me every time I hear that admission). Suddenly, default doesn't seem like a possibility, and so we begin to despair.

Recently, I learned that a neighbor had lost his job in construction. I said to my husband, "how is he surviving? It's hard for me to understand. He has no income."

My husband laughed and said, "that's where something called savings comes into play. You know, there are people who've socked away enough money that when bad things happen to them, like losing a job, they can depend upon it."

I suddenly felt beside myself, a feeling I don't often get when it comes to being a debtor, and I said, "We're so screwed. How will we ever have any substantial amount of savings with these goddamned student loans? It's not just us! There are hundreds of thousands of debtors like us. What will happen to us when we're that age and you lose your job or I am diagnosed with cancer? We're over."

So, when you imagine defaulting. What's your initial feeling? Does it change? Do you always feel the same about the idea of doing it?

Also, here's a real shocker. Student loan default rates have risen sharply. Gee . . . wonder why . . .  What's Arne Duncan's brilliant response to the student lending crisis?!? He said in a press release, ""These hard economic times have made it even more difficult for student borrowers to repay their loans, and that's why implementing education reforms and protecting the maximum Pell grant is more important than ever. " Perhaps "education reforms" means helping current debtors? I'd love to be wrong, but I seriously doubt that is what this man means. And how will protecting Pell grants help those of us drowning in debt, jobless, and already out of school?!? I don't see the logic, Sec. Duncan. Once again, the department comes off as sorely out of touch and incapable of solving the crisis, even though they could be instrumental in help us.

Related Links


Bob Drummond, "U.S. College Loan Defaults Highest Since 1997," Bloomberg News (September 12, 2011)

"Now Is The Time To Invest in CURRENT Borrowers," AEM (September 1, 2011)

Riiight. In my dreams . . .

Artist: Dave Coverly