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Bernie Sanders ideas is to make Wall Street pay for free education

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Bernie Sanders speaks to "NowThis" about how to make college free by making Wall Street pay for it.

He says "We bailed out wall street now its wall street's chance to free the middle class"

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kO3C0GQO7M[/ame]

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  • almighty_gir
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    almighty_gir ngon master
    i'm hoping against hope that he makes it to POTUS.
  • Ben Apuna
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    i'm hoping against hope that he makes it to POTUS.

    +1, Same here.
  • Noren
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    Noren polycounter lvl 19
    I think he has some good ideas, but "make Wall Street pay for it" sounds like populism to me.
    Having free education is great, but pretending that it comes basically free for the general public and people can get back at those bankers at the same time doesn't seem an honest approach to me. In the end the money could be used elsewhere or to lower taxes. Normally it should be self evident that free education in itself pays off, but that's probably hard to sell in a country that sees "socialism" in anything remotely social.
  • Dataday
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    Dataday polycounter lvl 8
    Just going to point out that that brand of socialism hasnt exactly worked out very well, historically speaking. The US has to be very careful about what its going to do as that 18.3 Trillion Dollars in debt isnt going anywhere but up. The biggest problem with the "bail outs" and wallstreet in general, is that its mixed in with political cronyism and the govt itself. There is a reason politicians on a meager salary end up millionaires... The best cure is to remove the cronyism and politicians from wallstreet (and vice versa).

    We also have to understand the dangers of moving over to a fiat currency in which the federal reserve can print money in the form of "I owe you slips" which the banks use for the rest of us.

    Be very careful about falling for the emotion/sentiment based reasoning any politician tries to peddle to push policy or action.

    2cents
  • Fuiosg
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    Fuiosg polycounter lvl 5
    Dataday wrote: »
    There is a reason politicians on a meager salary end up millionaires... The best cure is to remove the cronyism and politicians from wallstreet (and vice versa).

    how exactly is that done? I think government has to prove it's actually working for the people before an initiative like that can take place.

    I'm a big fan of Sanders, the first guy to not treat the big S like a bad word. We're so far to the right these days that Eisenhower looks like a radical socialist.
  • AtticusMars
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    AtticusMars greentooth
    Guess I'm an outlier here because I'm really hoping Sanders gets crushed by Hillary in the primaries. Subsidized education aside, his economic policy is backed by rhetoric and nativism, not evidence.
  • WarrenM
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    Hillary has a better plan?
  • Aabel
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    Aabel polycounter lvl 6
    Don't the Europeans charge at least some tuition? Not as much as the USA, but it certainly isn't free. Also the cost drivers of US college tuition should be addressed before we even think about increasing subsidies. As it is right now administrators and reagents, not professors and teachers, are the number one driver of tuition increases. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/06/higher-ed-administrators-growth_n_4738584.html This is not the kind of system we need to be giving a blank check too.

    I would be interested to know if Europe's University system has a similar problem.
  • McGreed
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    McGreed polycounter lvl 15
    Actually, we don't pay to tuition in most cases and in Denmark for example, every dane over the age of 18 is entitled to public support for his or her further education - regardless of social standing, called SU (which is the Danish students' Grants and Loans Scheme).

    But I'm guess its a real bad system because we are going bankrupt from it... no wait.

    And some more information about tuition in europe:

    http://www.studyineurope.eu/tuition-fees
  • stickadtroja
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    stickadtroja polycounter lvl 11
    in sweden its free. and its fucking great!
    one time when i couldnt find a job, i started studies instead, to support myself. so what should have been a disadvantage for me, not getting a job, actually made me smarter.

    free education should be one of the base things provided by the state for any country that wants to call it self a "democracy". i mean its just as a obvious right as free healthcare. you guys have that, right?
  • FULGORE
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    FULGORE greentooth
  • almighty_gir
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    almighty_gir ngon master
    FULGORE wrote: »
    "free"
    inigo.png

    hehe...

    "Free at the point of sale" might be a better term then, since it's definitely subsidised and paid for through taxes (in europe).

    But he is absolutely right, the state of both the education, and health care systems in america is a joke when compared to the rest of the modern civilized world.
  • AtticusMars
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    AtticusMars greentooth
    WarrenM wrote: »
    Hillary has a better plan?

    For education? I'm not sure, his education reform plan doesn't exactly have a lot of detail. My primary issue with him though is with things he's said about other policies (minimum wage, free trade, immigration)
  • FULGORE
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    FULGORE greentooth
    You could look at the UK to compare education, and you'd probably come to the conclusion that the "Us vs Them, the rich want to hold us back because eeevil" is as flimsy as it really is - the UK has schools and universities advertising high pass rates, pumping out graduates with identical degrees, increasing the supply and diminishing the value of a degree per sector.

    IMO, the best thing to do on an individual level is to get outside-of-academia experience or specialist skills, but then the starbucks-and-manbun kiddies wouldn't be able to blame "the bankers" or some such nonsense.

    But who needs pesky economics when you can promise to wave the magic "compassion" wand, right? ;)

    Keep in mind, the content in the OP comes from a man who thinks that starving children are a direct result of *not* having the deodorant industry regulated to the compulsory production/sale of one brand or product..
  • littleclaude
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    littleclaude quad damage
    @FULGORE - How would the fastest growing sector in the U.S. economy grow if you don't train new industry talent? and preferably debt free talent? do you not think it would cause the industry to rely on more outsourcing and growing talent elsewhere, maybe in a country with free education so the work force is able to put money into the pockets of the middle class :)

    According to research firm Gartner, The video game industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in the U.S. economy, worth $111.1 billion in 2015.

    (Gartner 2015) http://www.theesa.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Games_Economy-11-4-14.pdf

    Noam Chomsky gives a talk on Student Debt

    [vv]52391033[/vv]
  • stickadtroja
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    stickadtroja polycounter lvl 11
    uhh this totally is such a complicated issue, because of ecomnics or something, its probably not doable to have something scandinavia and big parts of europe already shown that it works. no lets spend those taxes on the military instead.

    please tell me what free means in this context? i have gotten 4 years in the university without paying barely any taxes, cuz of unemployment, it feels pretty free to me.
  • littleclaude
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    littleclaude quad damage
    Nice to see Bernie Sanders making education a high priority, maybe its time for change. :)

    [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YxHne6m_rU[/ame]

    [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cJUBOZE26k[/ame]


    Also Noam Chomsky also gives a great talk on the importance of educating women in developing countries as it helps bring piece and stabilizing world population as women tend to put their carrier first Marry a little later and have children later thus slowing population....totally side tracked there....maybe I should dig out the talk, haha! :/
  • Fuiosg
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    Fuiosg polycounter lvl 5
    Sanders' facial expressions when listening to Bachmann talk are priceless.
  • Aabel
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    Aabel polycounter lvl 6
    McGreed wrote: »
    Actually, we don't pay to tuition in most cases and in Denmark for example, every dane over the age of 18 is entitled to public support for his or her further education - regardless of social standing, called SU (which is the Danish students' Grants and Loans Scheme).

    But I'm guess its a real bad system because we are going bankrupt from it... no wait.

    And some more information about tuition in europe:

    http://www.studyineurope.eu/tuition-fees

    Thanks for the link. If the USA reigned in the abusive growth of college administrators and fired the worthless asses we could be comparable in price. Some administrators in the UC system make of $300k USD a year. Absolutely ridiculous.
  • ysalex
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    ysalex interpolator
    I like some of sanders politics but people need to realize that he has absolutely no shot at potus, and, if by some extreme he does end up there, he'll be completely ineffective.

    Look at Obama. His healthcare plan was as bipartisan as a universal healthcare plan could be. He made concession after concession and focused pretty much his whole presidency on pushing it through - and between the compromising and republican lead opposition his plan was basically neutered and butchered to the point of complete ineffectiveness.

    Sanders would fair much worse as his politics are far more left leaning than Obama and thus he's have even less support, and almost definitely dissent even from his own party.

    I'm not fond of Hillary but she 1.)knows how to work the beurocracy and even across aisles and 2.) she has the much more centered politics in order to do at least something.
  • almighty_gir
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    almighty_gir ngon master
    ysalex wrote: »
    I like some of sanders politics but people need to realize that he has absolutely no shot at potus, and, if by some extreme he does end up there, he'll be completely ineffective.

    Look at Obama. His healthcare plan was as bipartisan as a universal healthcare plan could be. He made concession after concession and focused pretty much his whole presidency on pushing it through - and between the compromising and republican lead opposition his plan was basically neutered and butchered to the point of complete ineffectiveness.

    Sanders would fair much worse as his politics are far more left leaning than Obama and thus he's have even less support, and almost definitely dissent even from his own party.

    I'm not fond of Hillary but she 1.)knows how to work the beurocracy and even across aisles and 2.) she has the much more centered politics in order to do at least something.

    yeah, we can dream though :)

    unfortunately you're 100% correct. until congress is cleansed the US is fucked.
  • kanga
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    kanga quad damage
    @FULGORE - How would the fastest growing sector in the U.S. economy grow if you don't train new industry talent? and preferably debt free talent? do you not think it would cause the industry to rely on more outsourcing and growing talent elsewhere,
    Yes I believe that big business and the political system does not care as much about development as we might hope. The catch phrase of today is pure profit in the shortest amount of time at any cost. You and I care about the brain power in our respective countries but big industry will outsource that in a heartbeat for the right price and let tomorrow take care of itself.

    America is in debt? JPMorgan Chase cleared 5.6 billion in 2014 third quarter that we know about.

    The system we have that was created by banks doesn't work. Money does not care who spends it, and money does not care how it is obtained, there in lies the fatal flaw.

    Check out the film trailer for: The True Cost, its how business is really done. Its a story about how a few fleas on the dogs back want to eat the whole dog regardless of the price. Then talk about free education, free healthcare, free food, clothing, housing and all the other things we should be smart enough to provide for each other if we were not so freakin stupid.
  • Fuiosg
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    Fuiosg polycounter lvl 5
    ysalex wrote: »
    Look at Obama. His healthcare plan was as bipartisan as a universal healthcare plan could be. He made concession after concession and focused pretty much his whole presidency on pushing it through - and between the compromising and republican lead opposition his plan was basically neutered and butchered to the point of complete ineffectiveness.

    Sanders would fair much worse as his politics are far more left leaning than Obama and thus he's have even less support, and almost definitely dissent even from his own party.

    Can't really see the comparison, Obama was never the liberal people made him out to be but a centrist. And because of that he could never rally any support from the left, people quickly became disillusioned with him.

    In any case I don't really see the point in saying Sanders has no chance, we have Donald Trump leading in the republican polls. I can't take this election thing seriously anymore, I'll support who I want to win.
  • PyrZern
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    PyrZern polycounter lvl 12
    ... Are there enough jobs for all the BA graduates O o? There gonna still be loads, and lots more soon with free ed, of ppl picking History, Literature, Psychology, and etc. Someone still have to deliver pizza and sell clothing at Macy's.

    I think increasing minimum wages to livable level will be more impactful...
  • ysalex
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    ysalex interpolator
    Fuiosg wrote: »
    Can't really see the comparison, Obama was never the liberal people made him out to be but a centrist. And because of that he could never rally any support from the left, people quickly became disillusioned with him.

    In any case I don't really see the point in saying Sanders has no chance, we have Donald Trump leading in the republican polls. I can't take this election thing seriously anymore, I'll support who I want to win.


    Thats the comparison, you said it: Obama is much more centrist. Even in the middle Obama couldn't get enough support to get anything done. Had he been closer to the left he would have had even less support, and Sanders is soooo far to the left that he wouldn't even have full support of his own party, much less far more aggressive opposition by the republicans.

    >In any case I don't really see the point in saying Sanders has no chance, we have Donald Trump leading in the republican polls.

    Right, thats how this part of the election process works. Nobody in the middle of the political spectrum, which is the vast majority of people, come out to vote or donate in the pre-election process.

    So in order to win the nomination the candidates have to move further left or right in order to get support from their parties base. Then in the general election they move back towards center in order to get support from the center majority.

    Trump is basically the republican version of Sanders in that way. He is super far to the right just like Sanders is super far to the left. They preform well in the primary because they're playing super into the hands of the fanatic supporters of their respective bases, since that is who contributes money in the primaries.

    But these guys never win the nomination because in the primaries the candidate who wins is the person with the best shot of winning the general. Hillary is playing the game better by sticking closer to majority/center politics, so when she gets dumped into the general she'll already be viewed as a true contender. Trump and Sanders have both played far too partisan to be able to win. Majority America will never vote for a guy who has said the things Trump has said, and likewise majority American will never vote for a guy who has said the things Sanders has said (even though I agree with Sanders).

    These candidates always run in the primaries there are several every year on both sides, and they have never won a primary, its been like this in politics since pretty much the beginning.
  • low odor
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    low odor polycounter lvl 17
    "Someone still have to deliver pizza and sell clothing at Macy's"


    not for long..The service industry robot apocalypse is coming..sooner than you would imagine....but that is probably a whole different thread


    Sanders seems too good to be true...The political landscape is such a wasteland on either side of the aisle it's like badly written television. With People like Clinton and Trump being forerunners it's like they are not even trying to hide the farce anymore
  • ZacD
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    ZacD ngon master
    Self driving cars will deliver pizza within 20 years, clothes will be bought more and more online, tier one call centers and support will be done by bots. Automation will eventually get rid of more and more jobs that don't require a thinking person. Soon we'll be 3d printing concrete houses, we should be trying to get rid of minimum wage jobs.
  • AtticusMars
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    AtticusMars greentooth
    ysalex wrote: »
    between the compromising and republican lead opposition hi plan was basically neutered and butchered to the point of complete ineffectiveness.
    I'm not sure how you formed this opinion but I think you need more perspective. If it weren't for the ACA I probably wouldn't have healthcare coverage and if I did most of my benefits would be denied as pre existing conditions.

    That's not to suggest it doesn't have problems, the ACA didn't and was never really designed to control for costs so insurance is very expensive for people who do not qualify for subsidies and poor people in the states that refused medicaid expansion are currently screwed. But to say it was neutered to the point of complete ineffectiveness is horribly and demonstrably wrong. By virtually every measure the ACA has improved healthcare access and coverage, particularly to the poorest people in America.

    No need to take my word for it though:
    The ACA’s first 2 open enrollment periods were associated with significantly improved trends in self-reported coverage, access to primary care and medications, affordability, and health. Low-income adults in states that expanded Medicaid reported significant gains in insurance coverage and access compared with adults in states that did not expand Medicaid.

    Source
  • ysalex
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    ysalex interpolator
    I admit that 'complete ineffectiveness' is overstating it, but my comments are mostly meant in comparison to its actual effectiveness vs. what president Obama hoped/campaigned/talked about implementing.

    While the ACA did help a certain % of the population, the original bill he attempted to introduce before republican meddling and compromising addressed far more. Bankruptcy from medical costs, even for the insured, remain largely the same (#1 cause for bankruptcy even among the insured), and medical costs/insurance costs have even gone up since the ACA, 65% of insurance plans have increased in cost in that time.

    I am 100% for universal healthcare, but the ACA turned out to hardly be a step in the right direction for most people - most people are paying more now than they were before. The only redeeming factor is that extra cost helps cover the young and poor, which frankly I'm glad to pay the extra cost on my plan for.

    But its hard to say it wasn't a failure, especially given how much of his presidency was dedicated to it, and what the original promises were.
  • AtticusMars
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    AtticusMars greentooth
    ysalex wrote: »
    I admit that 'complete ineffectiveness' is overstating it, but my comments are mostly meant in comparison to its actual effectiveness vs. what president Obama hoped/campaigned/talked about implementing.

    While the ACA did help a certain % of the population, the original bill he attempted to introduce before republican meddling and compromising addressed far more. Bankruptcy from medical costs, even for the insured, remain largely the same (#1 cause for bankruptcy even among the insured), and medical costs/insurance costs have even gone up since the ACA, 65% of insurance plans have increased in cost in that time.

    I am 100% for universal healthcare, but the ACA turned out to hardly be a step in the right direction for most people - most people are paying more now than they were before. The only redeeming factor is that extra cost helps cover the young and poor, which frankly I'm glad to pay the extra cost on my plan for.



    Can you name these supposed Republican compromises and meddling? Because not a single Republican voted to pass the bill so I'm not sure why they would water it down to appease them to get zero votes.

    The biggest piece missing from the law is the public option and that was killed off by Democrats, not Republicans. A small group of them threatened to filibuster the bill if a public option was included.

    It's still too early to tell what the impact of the ACA will be on medical bankruptcy, the law has only been in (mostly) full effect for less than a year and the number of uninsured people hasn't peaked. Based on the results Romneycare had in Massachusetts though it's a safe assumption medical bankruptcy will go way down on states that accepted the Medicaid expansion.

    The fact that insurance plans cost has gone up is not unexpected, that's what happens when you implement an insurance mandate. The hope is that the costs will grow slower. Which again, remains to be seen. Still it's probably not going to do much. In order for the ACA to really control costs in a meaningful way it would have had to be single payer. which it never was and was never promised to be.

    It was modeled after what Mitt Romney did in Massachusetts, which is not single payer. So I'm not sure what you thought was being promised here.
  • ysalex
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    ysalex interpolator
    Can you name these supposed Republican compromises and meddling? Because not a single Republican voted to pass the bill so I'm not sure why they would water it down to appease them to get zero votes.

    The biggest piece missing from the law is the public option and that was killed off by Democrats, not Republicans. A small group of them threatened to filibuster the bill if a public option was included.

    The fact that insurance plans cost has gone up is not unexpected, that's what happens when you implement an insurance mandate. The hope is that the costs will grow slower. Which again, remains to be seen. Still it's probably not going to do much. In order for the ACA to really control costs in a meaningful way it would have had to be single payer. which it never was and was never promised to be.

    >Can you name these supposed Republican compromises and meddling?

    Thats not how US politics really works. The republicans started a very vitriolic anti-'obamacare' campaign that was extremely effective in turning a good portion of the public against the bill. In response, democrats focused on their own re-election campaigns were forced to take varying degrees(depending on how tight their races were projected to be) of stances against the bill, forcing president Obama to make concessions and compromises to try to mitigate republican lead attacks. Remember 'death panels', and debates over womens health services? The concessions made during that spate were fairly vast.


    And I think we're losing sight of the initial point/why I bought up the ACA.

    The point is that even president Obama with a much more centrist political leaning wasn't able to accomplish much. You even said he had opposition from his own party.

    Sanders, with his far far left leaning would have a vastly more difficult time passing anything even nearing the kind of stuff he's campaigning on.
  • AtticusMars
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    AtticusMars greentooth
    ysalex wrote: »
    The concessions made during that spate were fairly vast.

    Yet you can't name any of these supposedly vast concessions that he made that crippled the law to complete ineffectiveness? Come on dude...

    The point is that even president Obama with a much more centrist political leaning wasn't able to accomplish much. You even said he had opposition from his own party.

    Sanders, with his far far left leaning would have a vastly more difficult time passing anything even nearing the kind of stuff he's campaigning on.
    No disagreement here. Every time there's a presidential election people begin treating everything they say as if they're going to accomplish it by royal decree.

    I don't think Sanders economic policy ideas could survive expert scrutiny let alone the political process.

    Sanders is just a populist. Like you said, similar to Trump (though you probably don't agree with my stance on Sanders)

    I'm not as confident as you are that they won't win the nomination though. Especially in Trump's case since he's leading, but maybe America needs an awful Trump presidency in order to fully appreciate evidence based policy making.
  • WarrenM
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    Look at Obama.
    Obama, despite historic levels of obstructionism, has achieved more than any President in a VERY long time. Sure, maybe the ACA wasn't all it could have been but the fact that it passed, AT ALL, in ANY form, is nothing short of a testament to what he's achieved.

    And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Obama is one of the most effectual Presidents of all time.

    I think Sanders has a great shot. Everyone I know wants to vote for him. And if he's up against Trump, it's no contest. The idea of "President Trump" will drive every non-stupid voter to the polls to prevent that from happening.
  • SonicBlue
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    SonicBlue polycounter lvl 10
    Obama administration, great achievements, destroying Libya and Syria by training and financing terrorists (with the support of the UN and the other NATO countries), no one did this before.
  • WarrenM
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    You're not even trying.
  • heyeye
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    heyeye polycounter lvl 6
    I would just love to see Bernie Sanders inspire young voters to actually go out and vote. The lower echelon of voter age has always been abysmal, but if the man can get young people to be concerned about politics, then he's already done a huge service to the country, regardless of nominations and POTUS.
  • SonicBlue
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    SonicBlue polycounter lvl 10
    WarrenM wrote: »
    You're not even trying.

    I'm sure they are enjoying their democracy now, and leaving my country (Italy) to deal with the mass of people escaping the war that now is raging.

    I was not replying directly to you, but in a general way of what voting for Hillary Clinton may lead to.

    To not derail the thread further, if you consider that the most brilliant minds, who are now naturalized as American citizens, came from countries where there is free education for everybody, you can clearly see that even if it's free, the competitive level is pretty high.

    Or you can just leave the situation as it is, letting people sustain an incredible amount of debts (pleasing your presidential campaign sponsors), and then get for free trained people from other countries. To be honest, if I had to decide, I would do just like that.
  • MM
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    MM polycounter lvl 17
    it is funny to still see people so naive to think that elections matter, that presidents matter and that politics matter. real democracy doesnt really exist anywhere in the world anymore. it never really mattered who the president were, this country like several other big countries are ruled only by money/power which is controlled by banks, oil companies and the military industrial complex. nothing else ever matters or will ever matter, so should just ignore all all these fake politics and get back to art.
  • AtticusMars
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    AtticusMars greentooth
  • WarrenM
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    it is funny to still see people so naive to think that elections matter, that presidents matter and that politics matter
    I know this is fun to throw out but it's simply not true. Stuff like gay rights and the ACA and the other good things that have come from the Obama presidency would not have come from, and did not come from, the Bush presidency. So it matters, at least somewhat. It affects things.

    So even if you're jaded to the gills and want to be apathetic and all that ... that's fine, you can ... but I would at least ask that you show up to prevent people like Trump from gaining seats of power. At least do that much.
  • MM
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    MM polycounter lvl 17
    these are not big issues when compared to millions of people getting killed only for oil and money. real issues are more basic stuff like food availability, poverty, war, disease etc.

    keep in mind that gay rights are good, but they are not only here today out of the goodness of the heart's of the presidents. its strategic politics to stimulate the economy since the LGBT population is also part of the economic farm that we live in. money is the bigger influence here than basic humanity. its the same reason why sometimes a big corporation would publicly support LGBT even though majority of their CEO's or shareholders hates LGBT. it has very little to do with fairness, humanity or equality and a lot to do with economics, profit and power like everything else.

    these rights would have come eventually from any party. it doesnt really matter who comes to power, Trump or no Trump. these fake politics and fake democracy is meaningless and pointless in the bigger scope of things that really matter.

    we live a privileged life here in USA at the expense of the people being killed elsewhere in the worlds, so it is also hypocritical to criticize the same powers that bring us the somewhat limited freedom we have here.
  • MagicSugar
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    MagicSugar polycounter lvl 10
    WarrenM wrote: »
    Stuff like gay rights and the ACA and the other good things that have come from the Obama presidency would not have come from, and did not come from, the Bush presidency. So it matters, at least somewhat. It affects things.

    Not to tarnish his legacy but I don't get why Obama could've stood for zero tolerance for Iran's nuke development. Why does an oil rich country like Iran need nuclear capabilities in the first place? I don't think number 1 reason is for power generation.

    You dont' have to pro this or anti that to know that they want to play crazy with Israel.
  • WarrenM
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    these rights would have come eventually from any party.
    It would never have happened under a republican president. Ever. Come on.
  • SonicBlue
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    SonicBlue polycounter lvl 10
    MagicSugar wrote: »
    Not to tarnish his legacy but I don't get why Obama could've stood for zero tolerance for Iran's nuke development. Why does an oil rich country like Iran need nuclear capabilities in the first place? I don't think number 1 reason is for power generation.

    You dont' have to pro this or anti that to know that they want to play crazy with Israel.

    The ME situation is a complete mess, at the beginning of the 80s, Iran and Israel attacked an Iraqi nuclear reactor in a somehow conjuncted strike, later the US helped Iraq fight Iran with the UN consensus, few year later, in 1991, they bombed Iraq.

    Is it clear that Israel do not want a nuclear capable nation near them.
  • MagicSugar
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    MagicSugar polycounter lvl 10
    SonicBlue wrote: »
    Is it clear that Israel do not want a nuclear capable nation near them.

    Im no pro Israel particularly how they deal with the Palestinians but I don't understand the hate and hypocrisy by nations against Israel.

    Supposedly they want to get rid of Israel because of their treatment of Palestinians but they themselves persecute and practice the occasional genocide of Kurds - a majority Muslim group of people. Turkey bombs them, Iraq gas them, etc.
  • FULGORE
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    FULGORE greentooth
    It's amazing how people slip into a saturday morning cartoon mindset when it comes to politics, imagining "their" candidate as the pure, noble, blonde-maned hero against some kind of CEO-banker-Skeletor hybrid seeking to destroy and ruin with no actual goal in mind (and the "other guy" *always* hates gay people for some unexplained reason, or is racist, or both). :P

    Anyone want to check on Venezuela, see how the socialist thing is working out? No "the bankers"/eeeevvvvil CEOs/Skeletors there - must be a paradise where everything is free, right? Right?
  • WarrenM
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    So it's either what we have now, or Venezuela?
  • McGreed
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    McGreed polycounter lvl 15
    I'm okay with how things is in Denmark now, compared to US and Venezuela. :P
  • FULGORE
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    FULGORE greentooth
    WarrenM - the point is it's somewhat scary to see people place faith in politicians who promise to wave the magic "compassion/fairness/rhetoric du jour" wand and ignore consequences - e.g. making something "free" is going to involve taking money from other people, be it taxpayers who are talked into it with a "fair shair" speech or other people, typically victims of a smear campaign (hence why it's popular to say "the bankers" with a sinister tone, pointing to absolutely no actual bankers or even actual banks, just an ominous vague enemy).

    Doubly so for education, where the average person seems fine supporting it because it feels good and warms their tingly little hearts, but ignores the factual - increased supply of graduates drops their own value without parallel sector growth, just look at England's unemployed young people.

    As it has been mentioned in this thread, approaching anything like this just dogmatic rhetoric, without regard for economics, is like attempting to command the tide to not come in.
  • Aabel
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    Aabel polycounter lvl 6
    If you are concerned about the costs of education in the USA you need to take a look at what Jerry Brown is doing. He has correctly identified the problem in the UC system and is fighting it. Increasing subsidies is only going to accelerate how fast tuition goes up. Giving a blank check to the current University system in the USA is a colossal mistake.
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