Submitted by VectorJones on Thu, 06/28/2012 - 12:48.
We used to invest in our citizens' educations, just like the rest of the world. 50 years ago, you could go to UCLA and graduate with any degree you wanted for a pittance. That was because, like the rest of the world, it was understood that if there were going to be any doctors or engineers or scientists in America, we were going to have to make them.
Then some hemorrhoid decided it would be so great if we stopped all that and just imported everyone else's educated people here and give them American jobs. Meanwhile, they stop funding education for Americans, allow profiteers to come in and turn education into a cash register, and generally make Americans so irreparably indebted or uneducated that they have no choice but to take whatever jobs are left. Then the government takes the cash they used to spend on its citizens and funnels it into wars and corporate welfare.
Basically, the American government colluded with corporations to write us off and sell out our futures. Business as usual.
The last line and the first para are correct, as is everything but the first sentence in the second. Basically people decided that they should let rich folks keep more of their money and stop educating the hoi polloi so randomly because things ended up all hippie and shit. I've watched California educations skyrocket in price, which causes their collegians to flood into other states that are also hiking tuition (but not as rapidly).
The thing the infographic does not tell you is the percentage of people in Nordic countries that go to what we define as true "University." It's a lot smaller than in the US. More people go to trade schools or other career-oriented paths. That is generally set early, even before high school graduation, much as in the British system. We built our educational philosophy on the idea that anyone can be shaped into a scholar in the Enlightenment mold, when that is simply not true; the resulting flood of failed and long-term students have become a cash cow as a result.
I'm thinking that if the bankers in Scandanavian countries had done the things there that they did here, many of them would have been prosecuted. Why have none of them been prosecuted here?
There is a strong Libertarian streak in the United States. By their own admission, Libertarians do not care about equality or quality of life. Their primary concern is freedom. The idea that society is a construct that does not really exist and there is no reason for society (government) to infringe upon freedom in any way.
Comments
Then some hemorrhoid decided it would be so great if we stopped all that and just imported everyone else's educated people here and give them American jobs. Meanwhile, they stop funding education for Americans, allow profiteers to come in and turn education into a cash register, and generally make Americans so irreparably indebted or uneducated that they have no choice but to take whatever jobs are left. Then the government takes the cash they used to spend on its citizens and funnels it into wars and corporate welfare.
Basically, the American government colluded with corporations to write us off and sell out our futures. Business as usual.
The thing the infographic does not tell you is the percentage of people in Nordic countries that go to what we define as true "University." It's a lot smaller than in the US. More people go to trade schools or other career-oriented paths. That is generally set early, even before high school graduation, much as in the British system. We built our educational philosophy on the idea that anyone can be shaped into a scholar in the Enlightenment mold, when that is simply not true; the resulting flood of failed and long-term students have become a cash cow as a result.