On Dec 11, 2010, at 1:50 PM, John Sessoms wrote: > From: "Bob W" > >>> Someone sent me this link - some very powerful pics... >>> > >>> > <http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/12/london_tuition_fee_protest.ht >>> > ml> >>> > >> good stuff. Nice to see students getting worked up about something for a >> change, even if it is a bit selfish. The police seem to have got it wrong >> though. >> > > One of those situations where there aren't many "good guys" on either side of > the line. > > Good cops caught up in a bad situation. When every possible response is > wrong, the only thing you can do is try to find the least worst response. I > don't know if they were successful. > > I think the government's policy regarding education costs are short sighted, > and will cost Britain a lot more more in the years ahead than they're ever > going to "save" with their cuts and tuition increases. > > This applies to U.S. education policies as well. > > Education should be as close to free as it's possible to make it, so that as > many can take advantage of it as want to. > > Education is an investment in the future of the nation. Over the long term > everyone benefits from low cost education, whether you are paying tuition > yourself or have kids you're going to have to pay tuition for in the future. > Investing in creating an educated population has a very high Return on > Investment. > > But it has to be an investment at the level of the society. It's not > something an individual, even the wealthiest individual can afford. Works the > other way as well. Disinvestment in education will bring very steep increases > in future costs. > > Turning education into a profit center the way it's being done in Britain and > the U.S. is self defeating.
I think it's more about keeping it a break-even situation. The European socialist model has pretty much failed. It's unsustainable, as most free-lunch plans tend to be. Paul > > The pool of educated workers will shrink and there won't be enough of them to > grow the economy. The cost of finding educated workers is going to go up > sharply, unless you bring low-wage workers trained in third world countries > where they understand the difference between the VALUE of education and the > COST of education. Those third world, low wage workers are going to bring > third world, low wage values along with them. They won't share the cultural > values of our societies. > > And bringing in those low-wage workers creates another problem of how are you > going to deal with your own native population you've displaced from the job > market. You force the middle class down into the working class, and displace > the working class on to the dole. > > It's been done before and it's always had disastrous results. > > Bread and circuses will mollify the displaced worker for only so long. > Especially since sooner or later some "taxpayer" is going to revolt against > the cost of providing bread and circuses. > > Meanwhile, the mob grows and grows down in the belly of the beast. > > Read Gibbon; read Marx (and what Lenin & Stalin made of his writings); read > Mein Kampf ... the French tried it in the 18th century, and you can see where > that got them. > > "Après Moi" anyone? > > Every farmer knows you don't eat your seed. And that's exactly what our > current governments are proposing to do. > > So there's your choice, invest in education, keeping the cost to the student > low, which offers very high future profit ... or don't invest in education, > letting the cost rise prohibitively, generating very high future costs. > > OTOH, the student's behavior won't garner them much sympathy. > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
