We should be expanding student
aid
---
fund your own charities
making students pay for their own education makes them work harder
On Apr 30, 12:01 pm, Tommy News <tommysn...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Wasting Our Minds
> By PAUL KRUGMAN
> Published: April 29, 2012
>
> In Spain, the unemployment rate among workers under 25 is more than 50
> percent. In Ireland almost a third of the young are unemployed. Here
> in America, youth unemployment is "only" 16.5 percent, which is still
> terrible — but things could be worse.
>
> And sure enough, many politicians are doing all they can to guarantee
> that things will, in fact, get worse. We've been hearing a lot about
> the war on women, which is real enough. But there's also a war on the
> young, which is just as real even if it's better disguised. And it's
> doing immense harm, not just to the young, but to the nation's future.
>
> Let's start with some advice Mitt Romney gave to college students
> during an appearance last week. After denouncing President Obama's
> "divisiveness," the candidate told his audience, "Take a shot, go for
> it, take a risk, get the education, borrow money if you have to from
> your parents, start a business."
>
> The first thing you notice here is, of course, the Romney touch — the
> distinctive lack of empathy for those who weren't born into affluent
> families, who can't rely on the Bank of Mom and Dad to finance their
> ambitions. But the rest of the remark is just as bad in its own way.
>
> I mean, "get the education"? And pay for it how? Tuition at public
> colleges and universities has soared, in part thanks to sharp
> reductions in state aid. Mr. Romney isn't proposing anything that
> would fix that; he is, however, a strong supporter of the Ryan budget
> plan, which would drastically cut federal student aid, causing roughly
> a million students to lose their Pell grants.
>
> So how, exactly, are young people from cash-strapped families supposed
> to "get the education"? Back in March Mr. Romney had the answer: Find
> the college "that has a little lower price where you can get a good
> education." Good luck with that. But I guess it's divisive to point
> out that Mr. Romney's prescriptions are useless for Americans who
> weren't born with his advantages.
>
> There is, however, a larger issue: even if students do manage,
> somehow, to "get the education," which they do all too often by
> incurring a lot of debt, they'll be graduating into an economy that
> doesn't seem to want them.
>
> You've probably heard lots about how workers with college degrees are
> faring better in this slump than those with only a high school
> education, which is true. But the story is far less encouraging if you
> focus not on middle-aged Americans with degrees but on recent
> graduates. Unemployment among recent graduates has soared; so has
> part-time work, presumably reflecting the inability of graduates to
> find full-time jobs. Perhaps most telling, earnings have plunged even
> among those graduates working full time — a sign that many have been
> forced to take jobs that make no use of their education.
>
> College graduates, then, are taking it on the chin thanks to the weak
> economy. And research tells us that the price isn't temporary:
> students who graduate into a bad economy never recover the lost
> ground. Instead, their earnings are depressed for life.
>
> What the young need most of all, then, is a better job market. People
> like Mr. Romney claim that they have the recipe for job creation:
> slash taxes on corporations and the rich, slash spending on public
> services and the poor. But we now have plenty of evidence on how these
> policies actually work in a depressed economy — and they clearly
> destroy jobs rather than create them.
>
> For as you look at the economic devastation in Europe, you should bear
> in mind that some of the countries experiencing the worst devastation
> have been doing everything American conservatives say we should do
> here. Not long ago, conservatives gushed over Ireland's economic
> policies, especially its low corporate tax rate; the Heritage
> Foundation used to give it higher marks for "economic freedom" than
> any other Western nation. When things went bad, Ireland once again
> received lavish praise, this time for its harsh spending cuts, which
> were supposed to inspire confidence and lead to quick recovery.
>
> And now, as I said, almost a third of Ireland's young can't find jobs.
>
> What should we do to help America's young? Basically, the opposite of
> what Mr. Romney and his friends want. We should be expanding student
> aid, not slashing it. And we should reverse the de facto austerity
> policies that are holding back the U.S. economy — the unprecedented
> cutbacks at the state and local level, which have been hitting
> education especially hard.
>
> Yes, such a policy reversal would cost money. But refusing to spend
> that money is foolish and shortsighted even in purely fiscal terms.
> Remember, the young aren't just America's future; they're the future
> of the tax base, too.
>
> A mind is a terrible thing to waste; wasting the minds of a whole
> generation is even more terrible. Let's stop doing it.
>
> More:http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/30/opinion/krugman-wasting-our-minds.h...
>
> --
> Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
> Have a great day,
> Tommy
>
> --
> Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
> Have a great day,
> Tommy
--
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