HughBeaumont
HughBeaumont's JournalExhibit A of "Like-Minded Individuals to Reach Common Ground With", Folks:
http://discussionist.com/1015183142#post63And in case the post gets hidden, it says, and I quote:
I mean, COME on. Are you freaking KIDDING me? It's bad enough that site's loaded with economically stupid Dunning-Krugertarians and mean low-info bastards who name themselves after ammo . . . and now THIS nonsense?
Can we now say that this is a bad idea once and for all? Sometimes stupid is just stupid.
Explain This To Me Like I'm a Complete Idiot, Part 14: A Tale of Two Small Businessmen.
I have two friends (old classmates, to be specific) on Facebook that are small businessmen.
One owns a web solutions company, which is around a $5-10 million/year business.
The other, not so sure; I think it has to do with energy, but I do know that he has affiliates in Dubai and Singapore . . . so again, not doing too shabby for the most part.
Both veer on the righter of the right-wing political ruler. One posts frequent links to Kevin O’Leary’s screeds against raising the minimum wage in this country, stating it would cause him and his poor business that runs on margin to lay off workers as everyone else’s salaries would rise along with it (uh, yeah, that’s kind of the point if you want Capitalism to continue and not drown in a morass of debt). He’s also a Flat tax fan; as most higher-income people are, since they’d make out like bandits. His business pays salaries for talent that command much higher than minimum wage, so what does he care?
The other is far more batshit and blames just about everything under the sun on “Chairman Maobama”; very anti-government, very anti-regulation, very anti-anything that makes life an atom-speck fairer for workers, and also very much against raising the minimum wage. He’s a genuine Red-Baiter and False Dilemma-tosser extraordinaire. It’s kind of bizarre that someone who was an honor student in HS could be so amazingly idiotic politically.
Where am I going with this?
Well, just last week, Captain RedBait was online posting photos of the BOAT he just purchased. Not a yacht, but certainly no skiff.
As for Major Seven-and-a-Quarter an Hour Forever, he posted photos of his two week vacation with his family of four in Italy. We’re not talking just one part either – they visited at least four cities.
So . . . these two are crying poor (and obviously want everyone else to remain that way, so long as they aren’t), but at the same time, taking Italian vacations with their family and buying boats?
Explain this to me like I’m a complete idiot: Exactly how does this reconcile?
Dumbest Columnist on the Planet Tries to Build Bridges, Ends up Burning Them (College Costs):
A 2% solution to a host of college problems: Kevin O'Brien:
This is his grand solution to curbing college costs that's designed to please the commie lib'ruls . . . I think . . .
http://www.cleveland.com/obrien/index.ssf/2014/08/a_2_solution_to_a_host_of_coll.html#incart_opinion
snip
The incoming freshman would agree to repay the college for his or her higher education at a fixed percentage of the student's gross earnings for a fixed number of years. Say, 2 percent of income for 25 years.
The problem of crushing student debt is immediately solved. When the student graduates and gets that first job at what should be the lowest earning level of his professional life, he will also face the lowest college repayment level: 2 percent of very little is very, very little. Twenty-five years later, when the former student is the executive VP of a multinational company, 2 percent of a whole lot will still be a very reasonable price for the happy graduate to pay and a tidy raw-dollar sum indeed for Dear Old State U.
snip
First, the college has to choose wisely. If it contracts with marginal students who lack direction or motivation, it's likely to lose money on them. Then, the college has to make sure students don't lose their way during school. It has to make sure they learn truly useful things well. As graduation nears, the college is motivated to help the student land the best possible job at the best possible pay. It may even find ways to support the employed graduate with information and connections that make him a better (and better-paid) employee.
snip
Colleges and universities would be quick to eliminate courses, majors, even entire academic departments that offered insufficient return on investment. Some colleges and universities, finding themselves unable to compete, would disappear. That is not a bad thing. America is way over-colleged, hence the expensive, wasteful competition on creature comforts to lure freshmen, since the quality of undergraduate education is pretty much the same everywhere.
Once colleges eliminate departments and majors that don't move graduates into jobs worth a college education, businesses will recover the skills of screening their own applicants. That would put an end to Americans' patently ludicrous notion that every job more exalted than fast-food worker requires a degree.
OK, so from what I'm reading:
Colleges are corporate farm clubs.
Public money going to colleges are a bad thing (as opposed, of course, to public money going in the pockets of the Kochs) that cause tuitions to rise. Yeah.
The Arts and Social Sciences mean shiznit because they're not economically quantifiable, so we should just get rid of them.
STEM, Business and Finance Majors are the only things worth studying; everything else is just a hobby.
In 25 years, it's guaranteed that a college graduate will be an executive VP.
Every kid at the age of 18-19 knows EXACTLY what they want to do.
You wouldn't need 25 years of funding to pay professors NOW or anything.
Our job markets are ALWAYS awesome and accommodating to those with college degrees and those without.
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