Tag: bernie sanders college plan

The Case for Tuition-Free Public Colleges and Universities

~ rebelwillfarnaby ~ 1 Comment

Debating the “sheer recklessness” of any real policy has become the mainstay of CNN and the Corporate Dems. Back when Bernie was running in the primary and they were forced to cover him, they spent all of their air time bashing his ideas as pie in the sky, featuring “experts” from conservative think tanks to explain how the policies ruin our system and never work. The idea that drew the most fire other than M4A was making public colleges and universities tuition-free. This is the idea that flew all over most people, especially corporate Dems. Let’s dive into why the plan and walk through the primary misunderstandings and benefits of the policy.

Perhaps it has always been this way, but attending college seems to become more and more political every year. By political I mean that not only are ideas and politics discussed there, it is becoming a difference of parties whether you are pro college or not. Many conservatives(anecdotally) seem to view college as an institution owned by the DNC that is made to brainwash and liberalize their kids. While this is certainly understandable, it is hard to say for sure that it is the college changing kids opinion as opposed to the fact that a child is moving out of their home and away from all of their childhood influences. While this isn’t an objective or rational argument, we need to be aware that the very mention of college can have negative implications to conservative, rural voters. This is where Bernie’s plan can begin to heal the issue by letting all people attend college regardless of income, as opposed to Bidens plan, which is going to further the wedge between us by offering a massive cash give away to college-educated liberals without letting the impoverished into college. Basically, if you are with us, here is some money, but for everyone else, kick rocks. 

Imagine if college attendance matched the real demographics and income distribution of real Americans, it wouldn’t be possible to have strong political leanings. This is where those who didn’t attend college are wrong, it isn’t that colleges are super liberal, they are filled with wealthy elite professors talking to wealthy elite students. It is just by chance that the Corporate Dems have also recently abandoned the working class for college-educated elites. If everyone in the country had the same opportunity to be educated without strangling debt, this would destroy one of the best gatekeepers to prosperity. 

Perhaps the most flak that the plan caught was from an economic perspective. CNN railed constantly from Lincoln Project talking points that the plan was way to expensive to ever happen. They argued that like all of Bernie’s plans it would make the deficit skyrocket. Oh, the deficit, the magical trump card for anything you don’t like, don’t mind spending billions on a fighter plane, but how dare you try to educate us and raise the deficit! Ironically we never hear someone mention the economic impact of a large swath of the country holding massive amounts of debt. As of today there is over $1.5 Trillion in student debt, with 65% of it being held by people under 40. So how does this impact our economy? Well according to one study a 10% rise in student debt decreases homeownership by 1.5%. See this economy is a pie and we all have a slice. Your money is finite, if you have student loans that is monthly payments that will never circulate in the economy. You won’t spend that $100-$500/month on a local restaurant, the stock market, rent, a home, or anything else. On top of the economic damage from not spending, carrying that debt makes it harder to get a loan, to buy a car or home, so no more borrowing to stimulate the economy. This is already a big deal, just imagine in the next 10-15 years as our generation is the bulk of the economy and 66% of us have lingering student loan debt, that does not bode well for us long term compared to countries like Germany where you can get your higher education like a masters tuition-free. 

The other argument that conservatives and corrupt Dems like Mayor Pete make is, why should we pay for some rich kids college? If you know history as a democrat you understand how disgustingly cynically it is for someone like Pete to try and twist this in voters’ minds. You might be familiar with the name Franklin D. Roosevelt or FDR, only the most popular democratic President of all time. See Roosevelt went head to head constantly with people like Pete, always slamming them for cynically seeking self-empowerment. When FDR was leading the charge to create social security, the same argument was used, “Why would we pass a plan that includes rich people?”. See people like Pete aren’t just magically pulling a Bernie and turning on their donors, this is just a ploy to kill the bill and make sure no one can receive the benefit. FDR and his administration knew Social Security would never work if any group was excluded, not to mention the most powerful group. See when you include everyone the argument of fairness is completely removed. If you start giving tuition-free college to everyone making less than $120,000/year, imagine the anger and hostility for everyone hovering right on that line for household income, you would be incentivizing them to stop working once they approached that number. Imagine you have 4 kids, once you earn that $120,000th dollar, on the absolute lowest end you’ve just lost $160,000 that you will pay intuition. See Pete’s argument is a double poison pill, on the front end it makes the policy much harder to pass, but it also implants future troubles that will doom the policy. 

While Biden’s plan to just eliminate all student debt, would be extremely divisive, it would create an economic explosion. Granted it would not be anywhere near the results we would see from UBI or from M4A. If you are unfamiliar with the concept of the velocity of money, check out our post about it here. Essentially, the $1.5 Trillion would no longer be going to a small group of predatory lenders, and instead flow back into the economy. However, this would be going to a group that does contain some of the wealthiest most upwardly mobile people in the country. So to some degree, this is a Wildcat liberals way of giving tax cuts to the rich, they are finally helping the minorities who are more likely to carry student debt, and at the same time enriching their donors and constituents. 

This is why you must eliminate tuition and student debt together. Playing favorites with literal money is one of the most divisive political moves possible, at a time when the country has never been more divided. Or we can open the gates of upward mobility, reviving the American Dream. Imagine the spark of hope for so many impoverished students that if they work hard, they can go to college, regardless of money, and make a better life for their family. 

And finally, the main reason we have so much confidence in Bernie’s plan is that we have seen it work before, in America. See the most economically successful period in America was after WWII when every soldier was given free college tuition in the GI bill. We have seen free tuition pay dividends down the road, clearing roadblocks to an individual’s success in this economy.

Erasing Student Debt without Tuition-Free College?

~ rebelwillfarnaby ~ 3 Comments

With the stage set for Joe Biden to take the White House, many on the left are praying he will pass anything from Bernie’s agenda. By the looks of his complete corporate sell-out of a cabinet, from Amazon to Air B’n’B people, we are crazy to expect anything but a social security cut. However, they have recently floated the idea of eliminating all college debt. While this seems like a victory at first, this falls right in line with the Wildcat Democrats, they only move on things when it enriches or empowers them. With the election results showing the new American divide is the college-educated vs the non-college-educated, this seems to be a massive payout to highly educated people who supported Biden. This has the potential to incite class warfare, this is a trillion-dollar wealth transfer to the most upwardly mobile segment of the population. You are probably thinking, wait wasn’t Bernie for this? Are the companies that loan this money preying on minorities that receive the worst end of the bargain? Let’s break down how this plan differs from Bernie’s and why exactly the corporate Dems are keen on it.

First off, we should know, the Corporate Democrats that sell out constantly would never actually pass a bill to help working families, it is strictly against their donor’s demands. So how does this debt relief bill gets approved by the lenders that pay for their mansions? This is where Wildcat liberalism comes in. See the Dems find a way for these seemingly liberal policies to line the pockets of them and their rich donors. Stated more clearly the Pelosi brand of liberalism is to back a cause once it is financially profitable for her and her donors. Someone like Elon Musk becoming one of the wealthiest men on earth from renewable energy is a great example. They only get on board once they can make money doing so, just like all these consumer brands running marketing campaigns for social justice. Is the cause morally there? Sure, but they are ultimately doing it to make money. Nothing is sacred to this group of corporate elite Dems, and their donors who run these marketing campaigns. Remember Nike backing Collin Kapernick, all the while using slave and child labor to make their shoes overseas. While the call for social justice is real and legitimate, the movement has been overtaken by those profiting off the campaign. This is the case for every “liberal” cause that the corporate Dems have backed, it either makes them wealthy or at the least cost them nothing, for example publicly backing the #metoo movement yet not passing any legislation. 

So how could relieving student debt not excite the Bernie Base? Well if you are familiar with the debate on student loan debt there are a few different ways to slice this cake. The plan Elizabeth “The Snake” Warren and the Bidens corporate administration back calls for erasing all student debt. Is removing student debt a bad thing? No, at first take it is a really good thing. We know that minorities are more likely to take on student debt to attend college. If you are younger than 45 you know the pressure of attending college, do it or flip McDonald’s hamburgers for the rest of your life. We are also aware of the predatory practices with student loans, for example it does not disappear with bankruptcy. Student loans also cripple those in the most critical roles in society like social workers, who the market system tell us are worthless based on their paycheck. From this perspective you are probably wondering how could we not be excited about their plan? 

This is where it is important to highlight the difference in the Corporate plan and the Bernie plan. Bernie’s plan included making all public colleges and universities tuition free. This is the crucial part that Biden is missing, and also the part that risk further dividing the country. Imagine being in the massive group of people who did not attend college and you have no student debt, but you have plenty of debt on your home and car. You voted for Trump, he losses and Biden devises a plan to transfer as much wealth as possible to his voters and not you. He does it by erasing all student loan debt, not UBI or free healthcare that all voters receive, but by erasing the debt that majority of his voters carry. This is the major difference in Bernie’s plan and theirs, they are breaking FDR’s golden rule, never create a program that doesn’t include everyone. They are choosing a specific group to help, if we should ever cry foul play it is now. When the governement starts segmenting people you enjoy it until you are on the losing end of the deal. What happens if the Republicans are propelled by angry voters to give UBI only to those who didn’t attend college?(it would never happen) We would be in an outrage! This is why Bernie’s plan of making public universities tuition free is superior, it includes everyone and prevents this nightmare student debt crisis. 

This is the the primary divide between Bernie and the Corporate Dems like Pete and Warren, he is actually fighting for all people, not just his voters or donors. For the Corporate Dems the greed and thirst for personal power aligns with todays cynical climate. They flourish speaking negatively about the other side, scoring internet sound bites are much more important than actually legislating, Kamala Harris is a great example of that. This is why they will only back progressive seeming policies when they are lucrative to them and their base. They aren’t in the game to help the nation, they don’t care about red states or red voters, just the next election.