Even during a crisis, colleges abuse their economic and reputational privileges

I happen to not be from VA. I happen to be from VT (as a google of my user name or email would show). FWIW, I teach at a Catholic school so many of the nonwhite students we see are a variety of Hispanic. But there are also plenty of others, including African Americans. We draw from New England in general, and to a lesser extent the entire Northeast.

But if I understand your comment correctly, you are not mistaken in that I am a person who thinks that it is right for educational institutions to make strong efforts about redressing our country's heritage of making life harder for some people than others. In my note I meant to express that there are anecdotal signs of progress. Too few, for sure, and I cannot say how much is due to the diversity officers, but wanted to suggest that the article's contempt for work in this area is not wholly justified.

That's debatable but regardless, we are speeding there as fast as we can. That's why. You already have the answer. For 80 to 90% of the population, it is a third world country. Why? Because the rich have to profit off the suffering of everyone else in all areas. Education, healthcare, food, safety, transportation, etc. I can't think of a single industry in America that's not focused on exploiting the poor, the young, the uninformed, the vulnerable, the sick, etc. Exploitation is what we do while pretending to care about people.

Even during corona times, Americans cannot and do not come together to help each other as a society. Yes, some people help each other, even some states, but the federal government is mostly trying to profit off the shortage of ppe and other equipment. They are focused on enabling profit for the corporations that elected it. So what if doctors and nurses die?. Fuck them. That's what America says. Don't believe it? Then where is our national stockpile of equipment? Where is our pandemic preparedness team?

This is in every sector. Why can't we have free education? How would these rich colleges get even richer then? Wait you actually think Americans care about the next generation? Please. Only as far as to how to exploit them. Half of Americans hate their neighbors so much, that they'd rather see them get sick, suffer, and die than create a healthcare program that covers everyone. But they have no problem spending trillions on wars and killing others. Americans are shitty people with a shitty government. They are stupid, incompetent, greedy, and above all else, cruel. They love to kill people, they love to hurt others, and they hate it when others are having a good time. Puritan ideals: hard to argue we don't have them.

So yeah, why are things like this? Because we are not a civilized country. Because we have no empathy, sympathy, or care for one another. Because we hate one another. Because we are willing to profit while others suffer and extend that suffering to profit more rather than help. That's why.

That might be true on a micro level or interpersonal relationships (some of them), but in the bigger picture there a systems in place to keep everybody healthy, educated and provide shelter if you need it. Looks to me like those three points are privileges in America.

And on the debt: Ok, it seems like average student loan debt is around $29k [1]. That's still pretty much and depending on your job might take quite long to balance out. In Germany state-provided student loan ("BAfög" - you can also receive it when you start an apprenticeship) debt is limited to 10k Euro. That means: No matter how much you get, your debt will top out there. You'll also only have to pay one half back to the state, the other half is "a present" or an investment in the future of the country. Seems pretty smart compared to 29k.

[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2020/02/03/student...

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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