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Post a Comment On: Steve Sailer: iSteve

"Obama's Affordable College Speech & Bush's Affordable Housing Speech"

41 Comments -

1 – 41 of 41
Anonymous Severn said...

Because the Chinese are quaking in their boots over what inspired engineering marvels Cleveland State Community College of Tennessee's remedial math students are going to invent.


The Chinese do not care where stuff is invented. They know it will be made in China in any case.

8/9/10, 3:25 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I not as pessimistic about "affordable college" as in hindsight one should be for "affordable housing" for the following reasons even with the most pessimistic view of the value of college education for the dummy quintiles:
(1) It seems to me to be a more efficient redistribution of resources from dumber people to smarter people
(2) make-work may provide more stability than helicopter drop resource distribution, even for dummies that otherwise shouldn't be given money for college
(3) a lot of people feel more comfortable going in to low status career paths if they have a veneer of credentialed exclusivity to them, so it may be a cheap way to get people to stop thinking lawyer/doctor or bust.

I'm sure there are drawbacks, but I see community colleges as stabilizing forces that keep proles optimistic and busy, even if they don't offer the workforce retraining value one would hope for.


Hopefully Anonymous
http://www.hopeanon.typepad.com

8/9/10, 3:27 PM

Anonymous Harry Baldwin said...

One of the reforms in the Obama's student loan reform that disturbs me is that it ensures that graduates will never have to pay more than 10 percent of their income in loan repayments, and that if they maintain payments for 20 years, the loan will be forgiven. Doesn't this simply mean that the federal gov't will pick up the tab for the difference?

If someone comes out of college with a degree in comparative religion and a debt of $120,000, and he ends up earning $30,000 a year as a truck driver, he will only have to repay half of the principal on his loan, let alone no interest whatsoever.

This would bother me more if I thought anyone in Washington cares about how we will pay for anything anymore. At this point, I'm assuming we're headed for a complete crash within a few years and this sort of nonsense will be irrelevant, and they all know it.

8/9/10, 3:31 PM

Anonymous Nanonymous said...

Doesn't this simply mean that the federal gov't will pick up the tab for the difference?

Yes, it means exactly that. Under Obama's new program, it is federal government that directly lends these loans. It is very explicit about it. The whole setup is the surest way to further blow education bubble by rewarding irresponsible behavior.

8/9/10, 3:59 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Remedial math?! This is our hope for the future? Why not just close the high schools and start college at 15?

The prof's would hardly notice.

8/9/10, 4:07 PM

Anonymous l said...

Encourage a lot of subprime students to go to college. Student loan bubble crisis, here we come.

8/9/10, 4:08 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

We just don't have enough chemical engineering graduates assembling office furniture for a living.

Right?

8/9/10, 4:21 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Like other ponzi schemes, a Keynesian monetary system demands constant growth else it implodes rapidly.

This means that ever-increasing amounts of newly-created money must find their way into the system. The power elite doesn't care what the money is borrowed into existence for -- Cash for Clunkers, New Houses for Everyone, College for those who barely made it through high school -- it doesn't matter what it is, it just has to be something.

Often overlooked is the US Military's role in keeping the monetary gravy train flowing -- that is, keeping oil sold in dollars instead of other currencies as long as possible.

That system, in place since Henry Kissinger came up with it in the 1970s when we defaulted on our "good as gold" promise, is in the process of collapsing. Will it be tomorrow or next year or five years from now? I don't know, but when it happens it is likely to happen quickly.

8/9/10, 4:30 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's really a vote-buying exercise.

However, I fear that it is misguided. I don't think the young bother to come out on election day during the mid-terms.

They might not even bother to come out during the next Presidential election.

Probably the money being doled out to keep teachers employed is better spent, from a vote buying point of view.

8/9/10, 4:35 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Harry Baldwin: This would bother me more if I thought anyone in Washington cares about how we will pay for anything anymore. At this point, I'm assuming we're headed for a complete crash within a few years and this sort of nonsense will be irrelevant, and they all know it.

I tried to make a similar point in another recent thread, but it looks as though Blogger/Blogspot ate up about half of what I wrote.

Anyway: Lately I am getting this persistent feeling that trends are accelerating, and that the Day of Doom is being moved up by about a decade - I had originally forecast it as arriving circa 2020 [when the peak of the Caucasian Baby Boom starts to retire], but now I am getting a very strong presentiment that it could be a whole lot closer to 2010.

8/9/10, 4:38 PM

Anonymous Mike said...

We have far to many college graduates as it is. When Enterprise can demand - and get - college graduates to rent cars you know supply has overwhelmed demand.
Some of the dumbest people I have ever met have masters degrees. A girl I fired for being too dumb to competently answer a phone has nearly finished a masters.

8/9/10, 5:04 PM

Anonymous Mystic Pizza said...

FEWER AND BETTER PEOPLE SHOULD GO TO COLLEGE. AND THERE SHOULD BE MORE COMMUNITY COLLEGES OR SOME SUCH INSTITUTIONS FOR VOCATIONAL TRAINING. EVEN MANY COLLEGE GRADUATES DO NOTHING WITH THEIR DEGREES.

8/9/10, 5:24 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I've just learned that Don Wakamatsu of the Seattle Mariners was fired. Don is half Japanese/Half White.

Question for the HBD-folks. Which half was responsible for his dismal performance?

8/9/10, 5:50 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

"redesigning remedial math courses" = making the addition and subtraction even easier. Besides, who needs to balance a checkbook now that everyone has debit cards?

8/9/10, 6:24 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Mike said:


Some of the dumbest people I have ever met have masters degrees. A girl I fired for being too dumb to competently answer a phone has nearly finished a masters.


But what was her masters in? Public Health Management Policy?

8/9/10, 6:45 PM

Anonymous HeinleinFan said...

"Why not just close the high schools and start college at 15? "

Will never be done, but is about the best thing that could be done.

8/9/10, 6:47 PM

Anonymous Golden Coach said...

Isn't it time to call them "Party Schools"?

I think Obama thinks this way because too many like him NEVER LEAVE COLLEGE. He's still in the 'big man on the campus' mode at the Oval Office.
After Harvard, he was at University of Chicago and he hung around 'intellectual' types all his life. Never dealing with reality or the real world. Just reading, discussing, feeling privileged and know-it-all, filled with big ideas but no idea of what society is really like, etc.
College professors and students have this conceited view of themselves as SPECIAL: while most of the world is wearily grubbing for money, they are into TRUTH, JUSTICE, MEANING, AND FUN!!!! College parties with beer, pot, and Che Guevara posters are pretty routine. "Marx and Coca-Cola" as Godard once said of 60s radical youth. I suppose it's "Guns and Jesus" on the Right.
Since college life is what Obama knows best, his big idea of making the world better is to turn the whole world into a big never-ending teachable moment. IT TAKES A CAMPUS.

Though Clinton served as governor for 2 or 3 terms, he and Hillary were forever in the college radical mode. And Dubya was forever in the fratboy mode. And judging by the Iraq War, it's as if a bunch of fratboys planned it over pizza and beer.

College was supposed to turn young people into thinking adults. Today, it keeps adults from ever growing up.

8/9/10, 7:17 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Perhaps the proposal is a 30,00ft. cruising altitude solution to a worsening on-the-ground unemployment problem - e.g., put more people in college and keep them out of the job market for awhile.

8/9/10, 7:40 PM

Blogger DCThrowback said...

@ Severn
Or, more appropriately, it will be stolen by Chinese. Get it right.

The coming education bubble has been discussed at great length by several folks, most notably Professor Glenn Reynolds, who wrote a piece for the Washington Examiner this past Sunday.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Sunday_Reflections/Glenn-Harlan-Reynolds-Further-thoughts-on-the-college-tuition-bubble-100216064.html

8/9/10, 8:41 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

It is like he is writing off the bottom half of society.

8/9/10, 9:18 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Chinese have been stealing American technology for years. Regardless of where the stuff is invented, it'll be produced in China. Then those produced goods will be sold here and, since we have low tarrifs and barriers to trade, those goods will dominate our market. Then, to buy those goods, Americans will go into debt to Chinese creditors. Then, to build houses to store those goods, America will bring in illegals to build more houses. Then, to help NAMs afford those houses, we'll put more regulations on lending/banking companies and subsidize subprime loans. Then, when everything collapses again, the Chinese will buy more our bonds.

End process: Americans invent, Chinese own.

To paraphrase Gordon Gekko from Wall Street: "I create nothing. I own."

8/9/10, 9:34 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Visited the left coast liberal bastion cities recently and there were ZERO Obama b umper stickers on display.

8/9/10, 9:36 PM

Anonymous Jack Aubrey said...

George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and about 80% of Congress deserve to be put on trial for economic crimes against humanity. This country is just circling the drain. I want to get my hopes up by reminding myself that the GOP is going to retake Congress this Fall, but who am I kidding? They'll just continue to F it up like they did under W.

8/9/10, 11:17 PM

Anonymous Elbrac said...

OT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/nyregion/10riverside.html?_r=1

Just like Will Smith in Six Degrees of Separation and Obama in politics? If it works socially and politically, why not sexually?

White people are suckers for the 'well-heeled' black guy or girl. Obama smiles and he's president. Oprah hugs and she's a billionaire. Morgan Freeman does the noble negro routine and white people slobber all over him.

8/9/10, 11:56 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Visited the left coast liberal bastion cities recently and there were ZERO Obama bumper stickers on display.

Good point. I live in the "Berkeley of Midwest" (Madison, WI). Hardly any Obama stickers at this point. That's quite a change from what seemed every other car. Unprecedented for sure.

8/10/10, 12:19 AM

Blogger chicagopeasant said...

The graduation rates for colleges are very dismal. In Illinois the four year graduation rate for most of the major state colleges is less than 30%. This is as most people have paid up to $80,000 for 4 years of college. The high schools continue to push everyone on to college. The counselors never give out the non-graduation rates. My advice; If you are providing your son or daughter college education money, make sure you have access to their grades. AT the first sign of slacking off, do not provide them with any more money. Save yourself from further monetary loss.

8/10/10, 4:43 AM

Blogger Paul Mendez said...

Somewhere, (this blog?) I read about a young guy who racked up a big pile of debt and spent 4 years of his life getting an accounting degree, but who couldn't find a job.

He was quoted as saying something like, "I wish I had gone to jail for 4 years. I wouldn't have all this debt and I might have learned a trade."

8/10/10, 5:59 AM

Anonymous Severn said...

Here's a story on the Countrywide topic, Steve.

8/10/10, 6:14 AM

Anonymous 2+2=5 said...

Mr S: You are a cock-eyed optimist. It's remedial arithmetic, math(-ematics) is for graduate school.

8/10/10, 6:35 AM

Anonymous David Davenport said...

The coming education bubble has been discussed at great length by several folks, most notably Professor Glenn Reynolds, who wrote a piece for the Washington Examiner this past Sunday....

Yes, U. of TN law school prof. Glenn Reynolds, who frequently blogs -- often during workweek hours -- about the lack of jobs for lower tier law school graduates, the need for fewer government employees, and the virtue of laissez-faire business and free market employment.

When is Glenn going to resign from his day job?

8/10/10, 7:19 AM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

elbrac,

great link.

“Just two companions who enjoy each other company to explore the beauties of life,”

immigrant english: socially awkward, grammatically incorrect, jingoistic, maudlin

I think the new hip swpl thing should be putting orbite tv on your resume

8/10/10, 9:06 AM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

What a great way to wreck the economy, again! However, I think I would prefer this country defaulting and going into a severe decades long economic depression to discourage any further immigration, than prosperity and more immigration and displacement of Americans.

So, way to go Obama!

P.S - Or we could get prosperity and closing the border/immigration restrictions, which is a virtual impossibility.

8/10/10, 9:44 AM

Anonymous SGOTI said...

Typical Obama hogwash.

Sounds: noble, uplifting, egalitarian.

Reality: expanded thirteenth grade paid for by the few, already overextended taxpayers left.

I'd be less depressed if our "leaders" talked about useful vocational training rather than churning out another huge batch of B.A.'s with few skills relevant to a modern economy.

8/10/10, 10:05 AM

Anonymous Jonathan Silber said...

Watch out world: I may be able to pass remedial math and reading!

8/10/10, 1:14 PM

Anonymous headache said...

Follow the money. Who's going to turn a profit off student loans? My guess is the same banksters who got Barry elected and left us holding the after housing bubble.
I guess they've sufficiently recovered to start looking fo new playing fields.
I don't think Barry is pandering as much to the racial underclass as he is making sure is donors are happy.

8/10/10, 1:33 PM

Blogger elvisd said...

It's funny the talk about Cleveland State, and how some commenter suggested ending high school and starting college at 15.

Well, my son's 15, and he's starting at Cleveland State, though only for one class in a dual enrollment program. Just picked up his American Govt. book, which looks like it took People magazine for inspiration.

And no, I don't think the Chinese are going to be quaking in their boots over anything going on there.

8/10/10, 1:53 PM

Blogger Evil Sandmich said...

"Cleveland State Community College "

It's Cleveland State or Cuyahoga Community College, not both...er...oh it's joke, sorry!

I do find it amusing here locally that Cleveland State has such a hard time in trying to be more respectable than 'Tri-C' when down in Cincinnati no one would ever confuse Cincinnati State with UC.

8/10/10, 3:26 PM

Blogger David said...

Having a college diploma makes you smart.

Therefore, to spread smartness, we need only distribute college diplomas to everyone - toss them out of flying helicopters, even! Shower the people!

This is not more than a modern Cargo Cult mentality.

(I say "diplomas" instead of "degrees" because a degree will not retain its current value if anyone and everyone must be graduated. There will be "degree-inflation." The only constant will be the piece of paper.)

8/10/10, 3:42 PM

Anonymous Kirby Jon said...

the other thing Kirbyjon told me, which I really appreciate, is you don't have to have a lousy home for first-time home buyers. If you put your mind to it, the first-time home buyer, the low-income home buyer can have just as nice a house as anybody else.

the other thing Obama and the Democrats promise, which I really appreciate, is you don't have to have be very bright or work hard to get an PhD in theoretical math or physics physics. If you put your mind towards working the system, people without the qualifications or ability can have just as high falutin degrees as the talented elites

8/10/10, 6:52 PM

Anonymous David Davenport said...

Do as I say, not as I ... dept.:

DON’T GO TO THAT LAW SCHOOL: It’s Too High-Ranked! I didn’t follow this advice — I turned down free rides at Duke and Chicago to go to Yale on substantially less attractive financial terms, but I’m sure it was a good move on my part.

Posted at 9:44 pm by Glenn Reynolds
( 10 August 2010 )

http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/

8/10/10, 7:34 PM

Blogger Mike Courtman said...

As Pink Floyd should have said,

Hey, humanists... leave us kids alone!

and no, you can't have any pudding with your media studies degree.

8/11/10, 2:10 AM

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