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College Conspiracy(Read 4097 times)
College Conspiracy on: September 02, 2011, 12:38:27 PM
Reality; A shared narrative we all agree to believe.



Re: College Conspiracy Reply #1 on: September 02, 2011, 02:24:59 PM
Ballooning student loan debt, ballooning college tuition that far outstrips inflation, dozens of programs you're going to probably pay a minimum of $30,000 to graduate from without a reasonable chance of securing employment with the degree (and struggle for decades to pay off those student loans!), hitting the point where the administration at the school gets paid more and outnumbers the professors, for-profit schools basically sucking in the majority of GI Bill money in exchange for degrees that definitely don't get people hired...  I'm not sure what they could have crammed in there to make it worse, but I suppose I'll watch later to find out.



Re: College Conspiracy Reply #2 on: September 04, 2011, 11:48:42 AM
Education loans will be the NEW credit default swap...
No Nyarlathotep, no chaos...
KNOW NYARLATHOTEP, KNOW CHAOS!



Re: College Conspiracy Reply #3 on: September 05, 2011, 01:24:51 PM
Just read in the paper today about a statewide culinary academy that is now facing a class action suit by all of it graduates for the past 5 years or so. Seems they graduated owing 30 to 50 thousand in student loans and most can't get jobs at all in the field, those that have had to settle for low paying shitty entry jobs they could have gotten without any schooling.

What a racket.
Reality; A shared narrative we all agree to believe.



Re: College Conspiracy Reply #4 on: September 06, 2011, 10:12:37 AM
Culinary schools strike me as particularly insane.  That's one of those careers that there is absolutely no reason to have a degree program for - it should be on the job training.  Work your way up in a kitchen.



Re: College Conspiracy Reply #5 on: September 09, 2011, 11:32:26 AM
its probably really fun though



Re: College Conspiracy Reply #6 on: September 09, 2011, 10:19:13 PM
$50,000 worth of fun?, I can think of much  better uses


.
Reality; A shared narrative we all agree to believe.



Re: College Conspiracy Reply #7 on: September 10, 2011, 11:26:51 AM
The guy I know who went to culinary school said it was mostly cocaine and hooking up.  There are lots of kids from rich families, or lots of kids taking out big loans to be there.



Re: College Conspiracy Reply #8 on: September 10, 2011, 12:17:23 PM
I wanted to say something about the film but I first want to address a conversation I had recently with an financial advisor for a "for-profit" college/university.
 
This guy tells me that the object of his job is to get people through his agency which owns a plethora of privately operated schools. His job is basically a sales person, pushing a commodity and selling that commodity for a turnover. The problem is that the people he processes are low-income, poverty-level young adults that are eligible for federal financial aid and other grants as well as loans. The guy tells me that the business he is involved in pumps up the cost of enrollment so that the agency can turn a profit. There are multiple problems with this story he told me.

This agency is a predatory entrepreneurial venture. I asked the guy if the schools were accredited or fly-by-night, to which I got no response. If that is true then there is no security in achieving a degree since it will not be recognized legitimately. This predatory approach to education is just as toxic as the several financial groups that crippled the economy. The agency the guy represents is simply draining cash with no solid returns. Once the student graduates, he/she is done with the transaction. The agency is taking advantage of the poor and the disenfranchised public. It's a essentially a scam.

And this is the take-over of legitimate colleges and universities that has been apparent in the past decade. The college degree has become a pretentious title that is frequently bought and rarely earned. It's analogous to Confederate States of America currency; sure, it's a nice showpiece, but it's absolutely worthless. So what does it matter if someone gets their doctorate at a strip mall? Who needs to have a peer review by scholars when you can get a piece of paper with "Dr." before your name for a couple of grand? 

I also believe that the scare tactic of buying gold and silver to fight against hyperinflation that this documentary is promoting is screaming "hidden agenda."

This is the same pseudo-semantic dialog that conservative talk radio shows are babbling about. Is there a real security in gold and silver if agricultural prices inflate? With the amount of apocalyptic paranoia this National Inflation Association is spreading, there will be no currency but only barter. Not to say that gold and silver is a bad investment for someone that wants security when times are hard.
"White people is stupid, yo." ~ random black guy from Memphis.



Re: College Conspiracy Reply #9 on: September 10, 2011, 12:37:58 PM
Yep exactly.
Reality; A shared narrative we all agree to believe.



Re: College Conspiracy Reply #10 on: September 11, 2011, 07:42:15 PM
BOOYA, MOTHERFUCKER!!!

Quote from: bagman, 04-29-2002 04:35 PM
Haha I'm gonna get some punani soon ya fucks!

|)__/)
(='.'=) This is the signature bunny. He's hard-fucking-core!
('')_('')



Re: College Conspiracy Reply #11 on: September 20, 2011, 08:13:49 AM


definitely contradicts the message of the film.
"White people is stupid, yo." ~ random black guy from Memphis.



Re: College Conspiracy Reply #12 on: September 20, 2011, 06:43:18 PM
That charts from the government, what do you expect them to say?
Reality; A shared narrative we all agree to believe.



Re: College Conspiracy Reply #13 on: September 20, 2011, 07:56:21 PM
That charts from the government, what do you expect them to say?

I expect the government to give a lot more credible evidence than a privately-funded, ideologically-skewed organization.

But is that your only argument that it's from the government? Topic closed. End of discussion. Tru has summarized everything we need to think about the government in one pithy maxim.
"White people is stupid, yo." ~ random black guy from Memphis.



Re: College Conspiracy Reply #14 on: September 21, 2011, 12:28:37 AM
[/EOT]
BOOYA, MOTHERFUCKER!!!

Quote from: bagman, 04-29-2002 04:35 PM
Haha I'm gonna get some punani soon ya fucks!

|)__/)
(='.'=) This is the signature bunny. He's hard-fucking-core!
('')_('')



Re: College Conspiracy Reply #15 on: September 21, 2011, 03:39:08 AM
That charts from the government, what do you expect them to say?


Tru has summarized everything we need to think about the government in one pithy maxim.

There ya go, now you're getting it. You've got to admit ... masters of deceptive advertising.
Reality; A shared narrative we all agree to believe.



Re: College Conspiracy Reply #16 on: September 21, 2011, 04:11:13 AM
On that scale, I fit into some college no degree.... and my salary is way over that.... does this mean I'm an over achiever?



Re: College Conspiracy Reply #17 on: September 22, 2011, 08:04:08 AM
On that scale, I fit into some college no degree.... and my salary is way over that.... does this mean I'm an over achiever?

You make over the median with no college degree. Big emphasis on "median." I know of millionaires with little more than a GED.

Aren't you European anyways?

What this documentary was supposing was that everyone has the ability to strike it rich if they go into farming, gold mining, or another entrepreneurial venture. I simply think that's some loaded shit talk. I'd definitely like to believe everything written in Atlas Shrugged, but sometimes people's lives are not that straight-forward and conflict free.

That charts from the government, what do you expect them to say?


Tru has summarized everything we need to think about the government in one pithy maxim.

There ya go, now you're getting it. You've got to admit ... masters of deceptive advertising.

Apparently, sarcasm only has an effect on those that readily perceive it.

I suppose I'll have to take a stance that the graph has more validity than a documentary promoting the gold standard.
"White people is stupid, yo." ~ random black guy from Memphis.



Re: College Conspiracy Reply #18 on: September 22, 2011, 08:44:38 AM
So basically the documentary accepts the American myth of the entrepreneurial individual succeeding on their own against the odds, while dismissing education as a worthless drag on the path to true success (which is naturally defined in economic terms, also in context with the American myth)?

Glad I haven't watched it.  All it took was a mention of Atlas Shrugged to convince me I should never both watching it.

There are a lot of problems with the way the American university system is operated.  The biggest problem, among the ones I originally mentioned, is probably the bureaucracy being better paid and more numerous than professors at many universities - the mission has been shifting from educating to making money. 
« Last Edit: September 22, 2011, 08:50:14 AM by Emperor Reagan »



Re: College Conspiracy Reply #19 on: September 22, 2011, 08:47:43 AM
On that scale, I fit into some college no degree.... and my salary is way over that.... does this mean I'm an over achiever?

You make over the median with no college degree. Big emphasis on "median." I know of millionaires with little more than a GED.

Aren't you European anyways?


I was half joking... but as you point out, education isnt the be all and end all of earning a crust. That's the point, from my own personal experience, I stopped learning in school at about 14 or 15, and have since applied the basics I aquired to much better effect than many of my university educated friends.

Technically, pretty much all of us that use this site are European to some degree. But, yes I am, however, I dont live there.



Re: College Conspiracy Reply #20 on: September 23, 2011, 10:31:15 AM
Yes, American businesses and government are shallow enough to look at a college degree when hiring instead of the competency of the individual. Although, it is hard to gain employment without plus-years of experience or testing to show you have the correct knowledge of a position. I can tell you that a number of people would never have gotten a job if not for their degree. I can also attest that an undergraduate/graduate degree also means nothing in a strapped economy.

So basically the documentary accepts the American myth of the entrepreneurial individual succeeding on their own against the odds, while dismissing education as a worthless drag on the path to true success (which is naturally defined in economic terms, also in context with the American myth)?

Glad I haven't watched it.  All it took was a mention of Atlas Shrugged to convince me I should never both watching it.

There are a lot of problems with the way the American university system is operated.  The biggest problem, among the ones I originally mentioned, is probably the bureaucracy being better paid and more numerous than professors at many universities - the mission has been shifting from educating to making money. 

The drive for profits by certain trustee members closed the doors at my alma mater.

Everyday I read the headlines and see that a majority of our crippled GDP depends upon Wall Street's failing figures, my faith in the capitalist system dwindles (if not already diminished).
"White people is stupid, yo." ~ random black guy from Memphis.



Re: College Conspiracy Reply #21 on: September 24, 2011, 02:30:49 PM
I have no faith in the capitalist system.  I think it would already have completely collapsed without endless state intervention to keep its structures afloat.

I think that the only way capitalism actually works to the benefit of a society is the sort of welfare capitalism that dominated post WW2 until the early 70s, when people started to get boners for deregulation, cutting taxes/flat taxes, pulling back social programs, etc. 

The financial capitalism that has come to dominate since is a farce, where the economy is divorced from producing anything at all.  That's not particularly surprising to me, because I think the productive capacity of the world has outstripped actual need many times over.  There really isn't any more money to be made based on those incentives that people say capitalism creates.  Financial capitalism is based entirely on the vig from the remaining productive components of society and comes complete with the state taking every possible step to keep it afloat (from making bankruptcy harder to dumping trillions of dollars into bank coffers so banks can turn a quick profit gaming the interest rates).