Cloudy with a bit of rain so far today. So often lately you can't tell if it is cloudy or if we have the haze from the fires. That tracks with what the Weather Channel has predicted for today: Warm (80s), cloudy with some sun, with periods of rain. I pulled out frozen dish I cooked a while back that I just have to put in the oven for a bit. And the dried herbs are ready to grind. Thankfully, not a lot of things I need to do. I can simply chill out for the most part.
JanInSanFran has an amusing post on the absurd hat styles among some militaries around the world.
30*********************************************************************
Last day of the first half of this year. Sunny so far but the weather predictions are for possible storms over the weekend. I still have the herbs to grind. My get-up-and-go was missing in action yesterday. Luckily I had a frozen meal ready for the oven so I didn't do much cooking. I have a quick dinner planned--not the beef roast which hasn't thawed out yet.
I rather expected the Supreme Court decision today on the student loan issue. Most of my thoughts on the situation don't deal with the matter of law. First, I think the student loan program was flawed from the beginning. Those who created hoped to do in the 1980s and beyond what was done in the 1950s and 1960s with the GI Bill--use an educated work force to fuel economic expansion in an age where the specter of a renewed depression scaring the crap out of them. And at the same time they thought to reward (at least some)of the veterans who won the war. The GI Bill plus the pent up demand from almost 20 years marked by depression and wartime rationing and plus the costs or rebuilding Europe and Japan did usher in economic expansion. By the 1980s that expansion was slowing down. But two of the three conditions the made the earlier economic boom were mission. Second, the program was fraudulent to begin with. It was sold to "customers" on the notion that they were acquiring "good" debt because the loans carried a low interest rate and they would get good jobs that would provide the income to pay it off easily with that would be cheaper because of inflation. There is no such thing as good debt. Third, those pushing the loans emphasized the "good jobs" that supposedly awaited the graduates when they graduated. But that future disappeared quickly as the economy changed radically between 1990 and now. Third, unlike other debt, student loan debt is not dischargeable in bankruptcy. In other words student loan debtors don't get second chances. They are in debt peonage for decades. Fourth, there was no accountability except on the part of the borrower who was accountable to pay the loan back to whoever the government designated servicer. The schools were not under any constraint to honestly advise their "customers" and were under pressure to enlist as many borrowers as they could because they weren't providing the money themselves. And the "services" weren't really responsible for dealing with the borrowers with any honesty and compassion.
All of that is why I think the student loan program should be entirely cancelled and all the debts cancelled. To those who bleat about how they paid off their loans, or never got them and it isn't fair for them to pay someones debt with their taxes. That is crap. We pay taxes all the time that fund things we might not use or like.
Question for the justices on the affirmative action matter: why is racial categories now verboten but legacy and athletic admissions not?
No comments:
Post a Comment