Intro: "We've been hearing a lot about the war on women, which is real enough. But there's also a war on the young, which is just as real even if it's better disguised. And it's doing immense harm, not just to the young, but to the nation's future."
Portrait, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, 06/15/09. (photo: Fred R. Conrad/NYT)
Wasting Our Minds
30 April 12
In Spain, the unemployment rate among workers under 25 is more than 50 percent. In Ireland almost a third of the young are unemployed. Here in America, youth unemployment is "only" 16.5 percent, which is still terrible - but things could be worse.
And sure enough, many politicians are doing all they can to guarantee that things will, in fact, get worse. We've been hearing a lot about the war on women, which is real enough. But there's also a war on the young, which is just as real even if it's better disguised. And it's doing immense harm, not just to the young, but to the nation's future.
Let's start with some advice Mitt Romney gave to college students during an appearance last week. After denouncing President Obama's "divisiveness," the candidate told his audience, "Take a shot, go for it, take a risk, get the education, borrow money if you have to from your parents, start a business."
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Frank Carlucci is also on the board of directors of CBS. in 2009 Obama appointed him to the FED board...He was the point man in the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the first democratically elected prime minister of the Congo.
Jack
The Romney campaign released a statement from defense policy advisers Frank Carlucci and John Lehman. It said in part, “We are saddened to see the President of the United States politicize that event even reducing it to a campaign slogan. This is unbecoming of the Commander-in-Ch ief and it diminishes the credit that should rightfully go to our men and women fighting in the field.”
I did some checking on the rise in education costs and there were some modest increases in the 70’s but the bigger increases started later in the 80’s. This was, basically, Reagan’s decade of small government, less regulation and less tax for the rich. This ideology continued for years, except for Clinton and Obama but they both had Republican Congresses after, I think, the first two years, and we are still driven by this. Was this the start of teaching primarily to make money? Did federal and state aid decrease so that tuitions had to go up? Yearly salaries to top admin in universities and colleges have gone up in the last few years. Or are we as a nation more willing to give tax breaks for the very wealthiest instead of educating our children?
Absolute garbage. Aside from Steve Jobs' own shares (which were obviously American) and other Apple insiders (also American), Apple is owned -- according to NASDAQ, you can look it up yourself -- primarily by American investment firms.
I'd submit that it has been a four decades deliberate move to wreck a thinking people...and through 'dumb down', retain and exploit same.
I heard from a recently laid-off "elderly" (55 years old) friend who was an assistant personnel manager -sorry "Human Resources" manager, that if a resumé is honest enough to show that the person has been out of work for more than a year, so common in these times, then that resume goes straight into the shredder, unread!
And this is right across the professions and trades.
Funny, the training fields that are open seem to be in Medical Billings and Administration (a.k.a. training in how to find ways out of paying for care), Biotechnology (manipulation of bio-chemistry for advancement of commercial resource domination and the like.
And whose hands does that play into pray-tell?
So we're ALL in the shit together unless we take back the big-Business owned big Government elitist collectives and collaborators in the public demise and enslavement milieu.
We'll have to get back to regional cooperatives, as some of us where I live are trying to do.
(Remember the tobacco wars? Mitch McConnell turned to the tobacco lobbyists to create reasons why he had to vote against tobacco taxes. They did, and he did. Aren't corrupt politicians great?)
I don't know about you, Tom, but I didn't vote for war. I support only anti-war candidates. I didn't vote for bank bailouts, oil company subsidies, corporate tax breaks, or any of the other gravy trains that are bankrupting our country. Don't tell me I'm paying the price for my votes! I'm paying the price DESPITE my votes!
voting citizens (which itself is shamefully a low %) vote republican...ev en Joe the Plumber! Bush changed education from the get go to just memorization. No child left behind (ha) must be repealed.
Interest free while in school. Ten years to pay back starting one year after graduation, penalty occurs after the 11th year and rates go up..to 10% annually (encouraging the payback)...limi t the notes to those in need...I doubt Romneys kids with thier 10Million trust need college loans.
Personally, after working in a factory for 10 years, and upon returning to school... I am thankful for the Federal college loans @4-5% , worked up to three jobs at a time during college, took 18-20 units per semester during the first two years, always 15-16 units when I got to my junior year and still worked 24 hours a week...would I work a factory job again? NEVER. Self employ, find your nitch...carry your own water when you can, but society needs to offer the helping hand.
That's why the right lets it go on. They prattle on about fiscal responsibility and such, yet no amount of spending on military goods and services is ever too much for them.
Several decades ago, Margaret Thatcher claimed: "There is no alternative".
She was referring to capitalism. Today, this negative attitude still persists.
I would like to offer an alternative to capitalism for the American people to consider. Please click on the following link. It will take you to an essay titled: "Home of the Brave?" which was published by the Athenaeum Library of Philosophy:
http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/steinsvold.htm
John Steinsvold
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result."~ Albert Einstein
It is very easy to show that the more we have DEVIATED from Capitalism (e.g., Federal Reserve, interventionist government monetary policies, etc.) the worse our economy has gotten. And the government promises to fix it all by giving us more of the same.
No, history makes this very clear: capitalism is and was BY FAR the best economic system for a free society. It is not perfect, by any means, but it is better than any other alternative that has been tried, in the entirety of human history.
Cutting Education budgets is nothing more than a recipe for destroying the future of the country.
Wake up, US Citizens. The Republicans have gone off the rails and are lost out in the sagebrush somewhere. (presumably in Arizona)
We need to re-elect Obama, and give him a Congress he can work with. Get out the vote and elect sane Representatives and Senators.
Yes we need to give him 4 more years to finish what he started...takin g away the remainder of our rights!
Yes we need to give him 4 more years to finish what he started...takin g away the remainder of our rights!
more years to finish what he started...takin g away the remainder of our rights!"
that was in process before Obama got in office. Our system is at fault and it needs to be replaced... all this talk is just more pissing into the wind.
I've seen no indication of any capacity here, apparently, for 'empathy', insight, or connection with anyone who can't access the Parent Bank or the local community college, or the Temple of Venture Capital and off-shore money parking. Sorry. I just can't see this leopard (on the roof of our collective car?) changing his spots, Etch-a-Sketch notwithstanding .
Still waiting to hear one iota of "plan" beyond allegedly saving us from ruination under Obama - you know, that Socialist, populist puppet of the 99% (from whom he gets strident support from maybe 20/30 % of his own? )
What you see is what you get.... Not saying Obama has anywhere near delivered what he set out as an agenda, but arguably he tried and "believed" in American process and justice.
Romney did what, for America? (Spare me: jobs and tax revenue?! Those were 'fixed' under the Romney/Ryan strategy!) Danger...
Their basic idea is that 'products once made will adjust to a market clearing price'.
Why is that naive you may ask? Markets clear prices only once, and that is upon introduction, because from that point forward the forces of greed and power sift through and buy up all the competition, form monopolies and then price fix. Thus the call for anti-trust by those with common sense and a call for deregulation by the 1%.
All this is to say that education became obvious to the controllers in the 60's call to reality and the establishment went into action via raygun's example in gutting the finest FREE education system of the century.
My above economic point at the common sense of greed's influence is to say, that if education were truly emphasized, historical content would be a foundation of the electorate's thinking processes.
Presently...it ain't!
Quoting paulrevere:
This is an argument against corruption, not against capitalism. Your own argument shows that capitalism -- when government is NOT corrupt -- does indeed work.
Even Adam Smith (read his "Wealth of Nations") recognized in the beginning that a robust body of anti-trust laws would be necessary. That is essential for capitalism to flourish.
Remove the corruption, and markets work. They have worked, just fine, for the majority of the history of this country. The failures have come harder and faster, the more the government has "intervened" in our economy. To the point that now, the government controls most of it, and it is no wonder that it has been in a downward spiral.
That has NOTHING to do with "capitalism". On the contrary: it is a matter of government corruption and ineptitude. Stop confusing the two.
Is it simply Yankee bravado we are better than them? Even both have double the youth unemployment? I think there are simply less lowskilled jobs and adults work better so they take precedence in the employability scales.
A human being LOOKING FOR WORK. The most inventive mind and the creature with the best brain in creation "looking for work". I ask you!!
If you want high health care premiums , if you want an educational system thats out of reach for most people , if you want an infrastructure thats old and out of date , that can all be provided if you chose not to vote. If, on the other hand these things are why you chose to participate in the OWS movement, VOTE
These blogs help define what we want but VOTING GETS IT DONE......VOTE
As for balancing the budget it wont be balanced until we grow our way out of the current debt. No amount of cutting or tax increases will work only growth will solve the problem. We need spending on American made goods and services not tax cuts.
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