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dirtbag
climber
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Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University gave the New York protests a lift on Sunday with a speech that has been making the rounds via Youtube. Because the protesters were prohibited from using a megaphone, he paused in between lines for the crowd that had gathered around him to repeat his words more loudly. He told the protesters they were doing the right thing by standing up to Wall Street:
"You are right to be indignant. The fact is the system is not working right. It is not right that we have so many people without jobs when we have so many needs that we have to fulfill. It’s not right that we are throwing people out of their houses when we have so many homeless people."
"Our financial markets have an important role to play. They’re supposed to allocate capital, manage risks. But they misallocated capital, and they created risk. We are bearing the cost of their misdeeds. There’s a system where we’ve socialized losses and privatized gains. That’s not capitalism; that’s not a market economy. That’s a distorted economy, and if we continue with that, we won’t succeed in growing, and we won't succeed in creating a just society."
http://slatest.slate.com/posts/2011/10/05/occupy_wall_street_stiglitz_lessig_west_lend_protests_intellectu.html
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Klimmer
Mountain climber
San Diego
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The Fixx - How Much Is Enough?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xcuGBQWswg
How much is enough?
Good enough, is not good enough
Don't complain that you've got it tough
With all you have, your life's a bore
Can't relax, you want so much more
Blind needs won't set you free
Can't you see that time is slipping away?
But I got to say
How much is enough? When your soul is empty
How much is enough? In the land of plenty
When you have all you want and you still feel nothing at all
How much is enough, is enough
Gravity may bring you down
But harmony could spin you 'round
Information ariel says buy buy buy material
Give take all day long
Can't you see it's hopeless being strong When you live it wrong?
How much is enough? When your soul is empty
How much is enough? In the land of plenty
When you have all you want and you still feel nothing at all
How much is enough? How much is enough?
Buy buy buy, buy buy buy
So give me your attention, I know it's getting late
While we were dreaming, something slipped away
We're drowning in possessions, playing tricks with our minds
Lost from one another, baby put your hand in mine
Time is slipping away, but it's not too late
How much is enough? When your soul is empty
How much is enough? In the land of plenty
When you have all you want and you still feel nothing at all
How much is enough? How much is enough? How much is enough?
When you have all you want and you still feel nothing at all
How much is enough? How much is enough? How much is enough?
How much is enough? How much is enough? How much is enough?
Read more: THE FIXX - HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH LYRICS
http://www.metrolyrics.com/how-much-is-enough-lyrics-the-fixx.html#ixzz1ZvxCkiXX
Copied from MetroLyrics.com
The Fixx - No one has to cry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74dlhTr9H50
As I wake today, same as yesterday
I get in my car, poor, turn my wheels
So much to say, who's got time to listen
Fulfill our dreams, shame is left unseen
Why should someone lose so that I get by?
Why should someone pay just to send me high?
No one has to cry while I can smile
No one owns the sky, so blue above you
But somewhere in this world is a field where we all play
Secrets in your eyes, no one has to cry
There's no self-control as we play our roles
It's all dog eat dog, we're all dressed for show
As we plot and scheme full of American dreams
Who says it's fair who gets the opportunities?
There are some who live without so that I get by
They pay the price for doubtin' just to send me high
No one has to cry while I can smile
No one owns the sky, so blue above you
'Cause somewhere in this world is a field where we all play
Secrets in your eyes, no one has to cry
No one has to, oh, no
Why should someone lose so that I get by?
Or pay the price for doubting just to send me high?
No one has to cry while I can smile
No one owns the sky, so blue above you
'Cause somewhere in this world is a field where we all play
Secrets in your eyes no one has to cry
No one, no one, no one has to cry
'Cause somewhere in this world is a feeling we possess
Secrets in your eyes no one has to cry
No one, no one, no one has to cry
No one, no one, no one has to cry, no one has to cry
Read more: THE FIXX - NO ONE HAS TO CRY LYRICS
http://www.metrolyrics.com/no-one-has-to-cry-lyrics-the-fixx.html#ixzz1Zw1kfPiY
Copied from MetroLyrics.com
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 6, 2011 - 02:53am PT
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If you confiscated every single dime from every single billionaire in America you couldn't cover all the debt our government will rack up this year
fine Skip. Let's totally slash the military by 70% and just threaten to Bomb the crap, even nuke, anybody who seriously threatens our country. If allies want protection, they have to pay for it. It's the military budget that's DOUBLED since 2001, not the medicare budget or the Social Security expenses, they didn't double. The military did and we were already spending more on our military than any country in the world by far.
Are you guys so chicken that your really have to be able to destroy the world 100x over instead of just 10x?
That's less risky than gutting our schools and elderly
Peace
Karl
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Dr.Sprock
Boulder climber
I'm James Brown, Bi-atch!
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UC Davis
1973
tuition: $212.50 per quarter
which was picked up by the state scholarship program,
total tuition: 0
nowadays, you are just a slave to citibank for tens of thousands plus interest
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Dr.Sprock
Boulder climber
I'm James Brown, Bi-atch!
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The Board of Regents for the University of California (UC) has proposed to raise tuition by up to 16 percent a year over the next four years. The increases would bring tuition to $22,000 for the 2015-2016 school year. Adding campus fees, room and board, and books and supplies brings the total cost of a four-year bachelor’s degree program to a staggering $160,000.
UC President Mark Yudof claims the extreme increases are needed to meet the projected $2.5 billion shortfall in the current UC budget. The alternatives, according to Yudof, are increasing the number of higher paying out-of-state students—decreasing the enrollment of California students—or eliminating classes. Although several regents loudly opposed raising tuition, they offered no serious counterproposals.
One regent, Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, suggested a new tax dedicated to the state colleges and universities, but his regressive proposal is little more than demagoguery given the opposition of the financial oligarchy to any significant increase in social spending.
Since coming to office, Democratic Governor Jerry Brown has approved a budget that may cut almost $3 billion from education. An earlier plan to raise taxes primarily targeting the state’s poor was scrapped due to lack of support.
While Democrats control both houses of the state legislature, not a single politician has proposed raising taxes on the wealthy to preserve social funding. Currently only 11 percent of UC’s $22 billion budget is paid for by the state of California.
Richard Blum, a UC regent and the multimillionaire spouse of Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, has called for a turn toward outright privatization. “I’ve been watching this for 10 years, it has essentially been a waste of our time to beat on governors and legislators,” Blum told reporters on Friday. “Where is the money? It’s in the private sector, with corporations and with wealthy individuals.”
At the same time that programs are cut and tuition soars, the Board of Regents has approved several bonuses to already highly compensated administrators. The largest of these, $744,950, was given to UC chief investment officer Marie Berggren, bringing her total annual compensation to $1.2 million. The bonus was required by her contract due to a better than expected performance of the UC’s $70 billion endowment.
Similarly, on Thursday the board approved a $259,000 raise for UC Davis Medical Center CEO Ann Madden Rice, bringing her base pay to $960,000 a year. Using the same justification as the bailed-out banks to defend exorbitant CEO pay, the Board of Regents claims these huge paychecks are needed to stay competitive and retain “talent.”
Significantly, most of the highest paid UC employees head programs such as sports or medical centers, which generate large amounts of money. Blum’s push for corporate intervention would only accelerate the current trend of cutting programs that do not make money and concentrating wealth on the programs that do.
Financial aid programs like the Pell Grant are facing cuts of their own, deepening the crises for students from lower and middle-income families. Under these circumstances, young people will be forced to either quit college, or take out gargantuan loans.
These debts burden working class families for decades. Already by June of last year, student loans exceeded credit card debt in the US for the first time.
Unlike credit card debt, student loans cannot be discharged in bankruptcy and there is no statute of limitations for repayment. As tuition rises and the job market remains stagnant, far more students will find themselves in cycle of debt they cannot escape. In 2009 the percentage of people who defaulted on their student loans within two years of entering repayment rose from 7 percent to 8.8 percent.
There is no longer any significant section of the bourgeoisie that views public education as crucial to society. In bourgeois politics the only important question now is whether students will be employable.
Indicative of this is the Los Angeles Times’ coverage of State Senate Bill 547, which would loosen high school standards for producing college-ready graduates. A recent editorial, for example, states, “not all students are interested in attending college, and not all of them should.” Rather, what is needed is an education system that primarily trains students to “qualify for a satisfying and well-paid job.” Nowhere is it suggested that education is important to a person’s quality of life or the social fabric of society.
Students and their families must reject the position that they must either become indentured servants or beg from the rich—or perhaps do both—to get a basic education. Free, quality education from pre-school through university is a fundamental social right, which must be fought for on the basis of an independent socialist perspective.
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 6, 2011 - 10:21am PT
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UC Davis
1973
tuition: $212.50 per quarter
which was picked up by the state scholarship program,
total tuition: 0
nowadays, you are just a slave to citibank for tens of thousands plus interest
not only that but the banks have it worked out with the politicians that the Government GUARANTEES to the banks that the students will repay the loans and then NOBODY can declare bankruptcy on student loans, even after 50 years. So better not flunk out of medical school (or get sick bad) halfway through or you're hosed for maybe life!
If the gov is going to guarantee it. why not loan the money themselves and make bank on it?
Peace
Karl
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CrackAddict
Trad climber
Canoga Park, CA
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not only that but the banks have it worked out with the politicians that the Government GUARANTEES to the banks that the students will repay the loans and then NOBODY can declare bankruptcy on student loans, even after 50 years.
I think Obama put a 20 year limit on payback, and the amount you have to pay back every year is a small fraction of your monthly pay. The downside is rates are sky-high, usually about 10%, even when the prime rate is 0%.
This will cause more people to take out bigger loans without a thought of having to pay them back, and will allow Universities to raise prices even higher. Politicians then want more money for student loans, and the cycle continues unabated.
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CrackAddict
Trad climber
Canoga Park, CA
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This Revolution against Our dysfunctional Right Wing Government, that only works for the 1% has been in works since Reagan wrecked America
I'm joining in
The Tea Baggers have even joined in, they got smart and figured out that they were on the wrong side, and were just helping the Rich (Koch Bros) take over.
Yeah, the Unions are trying to hijack it now too, how long before Obama is marching on Wall Street in a desperate effort to be re-elected?
Everyone involved is a puppet for failed Government policy. The Obama administration is giddy that people actually believe a handful of Corporate types will take the blame for the mess our economy is in, and they can keep getting kickbacks while pushing financial "reform" that addresses such issues as overdraft fees, etc. What a joke. We deserve better than that.
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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All just "tea party"envy by the unwashed mob and their puppeteers.
They are just a mob,
incapable of elucidating anything coherent.
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dirtbag
climber
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TGT, whatever.
It is gaining momentum.
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Captain...or Skully
climber
Where are you bound?
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Why do you people hate rocks?
I like rocks.
'Tards, not so much.
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dirtbag
climber
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Yes, but...their theme--that there are a lot of people in suits getting away with f*#king up the economy while the middle class suffers--is spot on. We'll see what develops...
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Norton
Social climber
the Wastelands
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Wall Street Protests:
In the first act, bankers took advantage of deregulation to run wild (and pay themselves princely sums), inflating huge bubbles through reckless lending. In the second act, the bubbles burst — but bankers were bailed out by taxpayers, with remarkably few strings attached, even as ordinary workers continued to suffer the consequences of the bankers’ sins. And, in the third act, bankers showed their gratitude by turning on the people who had saved them, throwing their support — and the wealth they still possessed thanks to the bailouts — behind politicians who promised to keep their taxes low and dismantle the mild regulations erected in the aftermath of the crisis.
Given this history, how can you not applaud the protesters for finally taking a stand?
PK
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Norton
Social climber
the Wastelands
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Jeff,
Well based on what you have put forth, it makes absolutely no sense for us to engage in discussion. I don't agree with any of those assessments which you have offered but you are certainly entitled to your opinion. For my part, I am only interested in having debates with people who are not overtly hostile and genuinely wish to look at the various issues. If you perceive me in the light you have outlined, then, of course, you WILL be hostile. You would be unable to meet my criteria for having non-hostile interaction as a requisite for discussion.
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Norton
Social climber
the Wastelands
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Jeff,
I do wish to thank you for sharing your perceptions, thus clearing up this matter. It certainly does explain a whole lot of that which here-to-fore made no sense to me. Continued interaction would be pointless and would likely generate nothing but additional hostility. There would be no realistic prospect of us ever achieving any meeting of the minds. In fact, discussion would foster both of us to invest time and energy into patently negative pursuits. Doing so would certainly not represent a positive use of our respective life energies. If it is all the same to you, then, regarding future discussions between us, I shall simply pass.
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Norton
Social climber
the Wastelands
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Jeff,
I am sorry you perceive it that way but I see it differently. When I come in from outdoor work and check in only to find a HUGE number of extremely emotional vitriolic posts directed specifically at me over the span of a but few hours, I become concerned. Moreover, this was not the first time it has happened. It is happening more and more frequently - long posts and numerous posts directly in a very emotional tone specifically at me. It is not a situation wherein he posts one comment which is "heated" and then waits for me to return to reply to it. I am noticing a pattern of escalating vitriol and it is directed at me. I do not feel this pattern is healthy for any of the parties involved and accordingly I have asked Ken not to specifically engage me in these discussions. I do not feel that request is unreasonable.
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Norton
Social climber
the Wastelands
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Hey Jeff, its Show and Tell time!
Why don't you post up your high school diploma?
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