MessageMichael's observations and the Winnipeg Free Press notwithstanding, I still think that being a student these days leaves one with rather limited choices about the future. Getting a good professional job now requires a graduate degree and there are plenty of people out there with graduate degrees. As well, there really aren't that many good professional jobs and it looks as though there will be fewer in future. The public sector used to be a good choice for many university graduates -- a good place to start and work your way up. Now it's the scene of extensive cut-backs. Moreover, there aren't the plethora of summer jobs out there anymore, so students have to borrow to pay there way through. It's now very different from back in the stone age when I was a student. I was able to earn enough during the summer to pay my way through the following year. Most of my friends could too.
So, no matter how the students who are marching in Quebec look at themselves, I don't think it's all that wrong to see them reacting out of a deep anxiety. Will they be able to get good jobs when they graduate? Will they be able to pay their loans back? And yes, it's correct to see them as part of the Occupy movement, but then what drives the Occupy movement if not a deep anxiety about the very uncertain future? Ed ----- Original Message ----- From: michael gurstein To: 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION,EDUCATION' Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2012 10:09 AM Subject: Re: [Futurework] What makes Quebec students 'distinct'? This interprestation flies in the face of the students' own interpretation of why they are demonstrating (as in the article I originally noted), the global interpretation of why they are demonstrating as in http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/quebec-student-fight-goes-international-how-a-battle-over-1625-got-noticed-149349285.html and simple logic, since the Quebec students who are demonstrating pay the lowest tuition in Canada (and one of the lowest tuitions in the OECD countries where tuition is paid) and the students in the rest of Canada are not demonstrating. For better (or worse) the Quebec students seem to have decided that education should be treated as a public good rather than a private one as the neo-libs and the economics profession have been hammering away for a couple of generations and are in this way making connections with the Occupy Movement and with the broader energies towards redefining political and social directions. M -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Arthur Cordell Sent: Friday, April 27, 2012 6:50 PM To: 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION,EDUCATION' Subject: Re: [Futurework] What makes Quebec students 'distinct'? This makes sense. From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ed Weick Sent: Friday, April 27, 2012 4:28 PM To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION Subject: Re: [Futurework] What makes Quebec students 'distinct'? I suspect that what is happening in Quebec will soon happen in the rest of Canada and perhaps in the US as well. In a previous posting, I suggested that universities have become "holding tanks" for young people who probably couldn't find the kind of work they're after if they were out in the labour force and who therefore see universities not only as a safe haven but as a place in which they can learn something that may be useful later on. However, as students, they have to pay tuition and room and board, and much of the money that keeps them going is borrowed. Given the uncertainties that will beset them when they emerge from the hallowed halls, they want to pay and borrow as little as possible. Many, reading the world that is out there, may have reached the point of being very uncertain about being able to repay their debts when they graduate, so they march in an effort to keep their costs down. Universities, on the other hand, are expensive to operate. One suggestion aired on TVO's Agenda a couple of nights ago was that universities are too diverse in what they teach. They offer far too many subjects. Perhaps they could cut costs by specializing much more -- e.g. in a given geographic area, University A could specialize in law, University B in health sciences, and University C in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Would this work? Perhaps though perhaps not. The largest component of university costs by far is professorial salaries. You'd still have to pay these. And you might miss the cost advantages of having all of your infrastructure in one place. Ed ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ray Harrell" <[email protected]> To: "'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION,EDUCATION'" <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, April 27, 2012 1:41 PM Subject: Re: [Futurework] What makes Quebec students 'distinct'? > PS. Canada really is becoming more Republican in the American sense. That > means you will have poorer health and the magnificent achievement of the > Canada Council on the Arts will disappear except for the very wealthy as it > has here. The battle is lost here but is raging full force in England and > in the old Iron Curtain countries. The virus is now in Canada as well. > Wealth as Aristocracy or wealth as private wealth. If I had to choose > either I would choose aristocracy. At least they are a part of the > government and have the paternalistic ideal of social responsibility for > their serfs. That's why we had so many educated and culturally > sophisticated immigrants in the 19th century. Even the house slave in New > Orleans were treated better than today's non-wealthy youths. Rent or own? > Which do you like? Personally what I like is irrelevant. We lost the > war. But for the record I think both choices suck! > > REH > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of michael gurstein > Sent: Friday, April 27, 2012 10:02 AM > To: 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION'; > [email protected] > Subject: [Futurework] What makes Quebec students 'distinct'? > > http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/04/26/f-quebec-students-tu > ition-debate.html?cmp=rss > > > _______________________________________________ > Futurework mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework > > _______________________________________________ > Futurework mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
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