Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Indebted, Educated Occupiers Unite: Students Denounce Sallie Mae and Student Loan Debt

Students in Washington, DC have joined forces to protest Sallie Mae and student loan debt. This is great news, because these young people have not yet graduated from college and are already aware of the student lending crisis.

I am currently in DC, and will be meeting with occupiers here. It is my hope that I'll be able to get in touch with these student activists during my stay.

I'll hit the Hill tomorrow, and will provide y'all with updates on how things went.

6 comments:

Nando said...

While I still do not support OWS - because I feel that this is ineffective - at least they recognize the effects of monstrous student loan debt. The fact is that this level of non-dischargeable debt is unsustainable. It has affected society, as grads cannot afford life milestones - such as marriage, purchasing a home, or having children. It will continue to do so - and become worse - as MORE grads are fed into the meat grinder.

We have an aging population. Take a look at Japan, to see how well this bodes for corporate states. No one is going to eliminate SSI or Medicare. These are HUGE liabilities, and the ratio of workers to recipients continues to decrease. We will continue to rely on foreign laborers to make up this difference. Of course, many elected cockroaches will use this as an opportunity to rail against immigration.

The game never ends.

Anonymous said...

Nice work. Sallie Mae is a sociopath. I was just at a screening of Default: The Student Loan Documentary at The University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. It was great to see students still in college wising up to the racket that is the student loan scam. Typically it has been after graduation that people begin to wake up. Declining law school applications are another good sign. Times are changing. The student loan gravy train for pigs like Sallie Mae will stop. And we will stop it.

one who survived said...

The failure of the Left. Conflating social justice with frivolities like homosexual marriage and the sacrament of abortion, is what has destroyed the Left.

Anonymous said...

@nando.

Actually, even WITH an aging population... Japan also has their fair share of youth unemployment.

Anonymous said...

The rugged, independent frontiersman...

It is as simple as this: Do you live in an area where the OWS is protesting? Tea Party? Protest du jour? Yes? Good. If you have any copies of III to Liberty, when you get off work, or on the weekend, grab a few copies, head on down to the whatever protest site and hand them out. And don't forget to hand a few out to the cops. You don't have to do this alone. Call your buddies. Compel them to go with you. If they won't ... because they have better things to do ... like drinking beer, watching the booboisie tube, or just "chillin", then tell them to "Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds them." Maybe take off your sandal and shake the dust off at their doorstep.

It's okay. You can still be bestest of buddies. Just give them the cocked-eye every time you see them.

Of course, you don't have to use copies of III to Liberty. You can pass out pocket constitutions. Make your own fliers and pass them out. Engage in peaceful conversations and make your case for liberty. And again, if you are feeling really spunky, you can do the same with the cops.

Look, I know we are all rugged, independent frontiersmen. Right? We just want to be left alone, stake out some ground, build our cabins, tend to our crops, hunt, and trade. We are not interested in picking others pockets or breaking others legs for that which does not belong to us.

But that is not the case, is it? Your rugged frontier life has been encroached upon by people who think you are too rugged. Too independent. They want you to share your land, your cabin, your crops, your meat, and your trade. In fact, they want to take that all from you, then loan it back to you at interest and fill their pockets.

Welcome to the world of serfdom.

So what do you do? Crouch down and lick the hands of your lords? Say, "Maybe if I just ignore them, they'll all go away?" Maybe they'll all just implode on themselves? Or maybe you'll just pretend that you can be that rugged, independent frontiersman within the system?

Still feel rugged? Still feel independent? Still feel like you are living up to your rugged, independent potential? Still feel like your own man?

As it stands right now, you are a serf to your lords ... no matter how much you want to pretend that you are a rugged, independent frontiersman. If you have to look over your shoulder while doing that which free men do by natures law... you are not a free man... you are an outlaw. And outlaws are always on the run. And free men don't run. Free men have no reason to run. Only serfs run when they have insulted their lords.

You need to understand something. Free men do not engage their lords because they are free men. They engage their lords to gain their liberty and become free men because, as it stands ... they are serfs.

No man gained his freedom by licking his lords hands. And no outlaw won his freedom by running ... the outlaw is always looking over his shoulder running from his lord.

Look, redress of grievances never work peacefully. It didn't work in England, and it didn't work for our Patriot Founders. But... you have a chance to reason the cause of liberty with others. You have a chance of bringing people to the light of liberty. Whether it is one, a hundred, a thousand, or a million ... that is more than we had yesterday.

There were a lot of people sitting on the fence licking the hand of the King ... until Thomas Paine and others showed up. And it made a big difference when throwing the yoke of the King off their shoulders.

There is strength in numbers.

Laurel said...

With all of the wealth that we have in this country, we should be able to educate people, many essentially for free.

By free, I mean while they have to make the effort to learn, we subsidize their tuition, living expenses, and books.

Instead, we have a "capitalist" system" where 18 year-olds take out personal loans that they cannot discharge in bankruptcy and then spend the next four (or more years) many of them drinking and partying instead of taking their studies seriously.

If we took education more seriously, that it is to educate and to enable one to find a job that pays a living wage and that as a rich country, we should make this a human right, I believe things would be better.

I am glad that young people who have crushing student loan debt are protesting at Occupy Wall Street (OWS) against this debt this is preventing them from accumulating savings, buying a domicile, and starting a family.