If everywhere you see "free university" you could replace it with "taxpayer funded university" that would be great.
How America's universities became debt factories
421–430 of 564 posts
Re: How America's universities became debt factories
#422Earlier quoted context omitted.
> We're wondering if you were perhaps mislead somewhat I wasn't. But I'm not going to write an autobiography here. I already regret revealing personal details in this thread. > in our experience its quite rare for a department not to have any funded PhDs with stipends. Who is "our" and what is your "experience"? Are you referring to Telemakhos and yourself? Are either of you even former humanities PhD students? And h…
I'll be very honest with you, I've never met a humanities PhD student without funding who should've been pursuing a PhD, and if the department you were in was so poorly funded that it couldn't give out stipends, then it's likely that you would've never found a job in academia afterwards anyway. Look, its not your fault, some people don't end up in the right undergraduate programs, they don't meet the right people, ma…
> I've never met a humanities PhD student without funding who should've been pursuing a PhD
1) In your entire life, how many humanities PhD students without funding have you met? Perhaps you think that, somehow, you've magically met most of them, since you seem to believe there aren't that many.
2) It's just your opinion whether an individual "should've been pursuing a PhD".
> if the department you were in was so poorly funded that it couldn't give out stipends, then it's likely that you would've never found a job in academia afterwards anyway.
My former department has placed many tenure-track positions.
Re: How America's universities became debt factories
#423Earlier quoted context omitted.
1) I do not agree with applying this retroactively. You shouldn’t change the rules in the middle of the game. 2) it would be unfair to make universities participate in the downside but not the upside. Perhaps the federal government should also turn the interest earned over to universities. This could actually go some way towards lessening resistance.
1) The game has been rigged since the beginning and the unis have been the biggest beneficiaries and the most malignant actors. You don't think they knew damn well what they were doing by charging $100k+ in tuition for an English degree to an 18 year with no hope of paying back the loans used to pay the tuition? 2) The universities have already gorged themselves at the greed-pig trough. How is it you think they can a…
Best posts in the thread. You're dead right on all of this.
Re: How America's universities became debt factories
#424Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is also very unfair towards the Dutch and German taxpayer. These countries ended up donating their money and educator time to the US. If your constitution includes provisions for free education, it might also be super hard to fix. (E.g. Poland.)
Their parents paid taxes like everyone else. If anything I would say it is unfair, that they are forced to move to the US, because the imbeciles in power mismanaged the economy so much that there are few adequate jobs for them, and the local Germany/Dutch economy is not competitive on the world stage.
No but at least they have good bread.
Re: How America's universities became debt factories
#4251) Move most good careers that do not require a college degree out of the country for the benefit of shareholders 2) Tell everyone born between 1980 and 1995 that they'll be unable to compete in the global marketplace if they don't get at least some post-high school education, and imply that the mere presence of a degree will help instead of having a specific type of degree 3) Have next-to-zero standards for public f…
From TFA:
> Lenders keep issuing loans without regard for the borrower’s ability to repay, knowing the debt can’t be discharged. ... Meanwhile, lenders—both government and private—keep the money flowing. Why wouldn’t they? With loans that can’t be discharged in bankruptcy, they’re guaranteed a return, even if it takes decades to collect.
From the first chapter of David Graeber's "Debt: The First 5000 Years".
> “But,” she objected, as if this were self-evident, “they’d borrowed the money! Surely one has to pay one’s debts.” It was at this point that I realized this was going to be a very different sort of conversation than I had originally anticipated.
Sounds like the perfect way to create a system where the only way out is some kind of black swan bubble burst. I (genuinely) wonder who will be protected from the shockwave when it does: the number of people on the debt side is presumably enormous.
Re: How America's universities became debt factories
#4261) Move most good careers that do not require a college degree out of the country for the benefit of shareholders 2) Tell everyone born between 1980 and 1995 that they'll be unable to compete in the global marketplace if they don't get at least some post-high school education, and imply that the mere presence of a degree will help instead of having a specific type of degree 3) Have next-to-zero standards for public f…
You forgot the most important part. The people agreeing to these debts, by definition , do not have an education in complex debt instruments that cannot be discharged. Taking our a vast loan to study English literature might seem unwise, but it’s something I could definitely see a starry eyed 17 year old deciding to do.
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Re: How America's universities became debt factories
#427Earlier quoted context omitted.
That’s only because doctors collude to limit the number of available residency places. I programmers were smart, they would: 1. Lobby the government to prohibit anyone from practicing programming without a license. 2. Limit the number of licenses granted each year
Not a bad idea, actually, especially with all these new tools
Good idea from a job severity/ protectionist standpoint or from a “protect the craft and quality for the good of the public” sort of way?
Re: How America's universities became debt factories
#428I don't know if this is some kind of heresy, but here we go. I don't think universities provide much value at all to the common student who is not going to be a PhD. I went to a very well-known institution known for putting the students in a room with the professors, maybe two or three students, to one professor. My economics professor taught me one on one. I still think, in the end, the work is mostly done alone, in…
Not a heresy at all. I went to two of the top 5 CS schools in the US and I barely recall anything I learned in there, almost everything I know ended up being self-taught later in a much more efficient manner than being student n.200 in a class taught by a researcher who barely speaks English and doesn't want to be teaching. The main upside was associating myself with those two brand names which later got me jobs and…
You are correct, but universities did use to actually teach. SICP is still relevant 40 years later, and it was because the professors who created the class and textbook actually gave a fuck, knew what they were doing, and were still allowed to do their jobs. I really do think this is a recent phenomenon, but I have no idea how to get back what we once had from the parasite class.
Re: How America's universities became debt factories
#429Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fortunately, we don't have the social skills to make that happen.
Also, the vast majority of software bugs are annoying at worst, with no death potential. Powers that be would react a lot more aggressively if stack overflows routinely led to bodies on the pavement.
The irony is that part is not commensurate to the risk of the software being developed.
Re: How America's universities became debt factories
#430Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not all lawyers and doctors are the same. Consider public defenders. And physician compensation can vary dramatically depending on whether they're a general practitioner or specialist, rural or urban, etc. Ironically, the ones we need the most are paid the least. Of course, that's assuming students finish their degrees and get jobs. Plenty of people drop out of school, and they don't get refunds! Law students fail to…
> Ironically, the ones we need the most are paid the least. That isn’t ironic at all. If they were paid more, we wouldn’t have a shortage.
It’s an implication of a system that pays commensurate to what one contributes to the economy rather than commensurate to what one contributes to society.