Yeah, About That College Debt Stuff

 Last night, I sat and read a bit over college tuition in America.

In general....the rate of yearly tuition....rises about 8-percent a year (twice inflation is the common wording used).

If you paid $17,000 a year for 2020....you'd be paying this year (2 years later) around $19,800.

This leads me to the odd mathematical situation.....that 17,000 cost related to 2030 being $36,701 (for one single year of tuition).  

The question is....can most all college graduates attain a modest salary at the end of four years in 2030, for a decent salary of $70k-plus?  I'm not really buying into that.  

You'd also be saying for a four-year period.....to meet the cost factor, you'd need to borrow $146,000.  

If you start laying these factors out on the table....a whole bunch of kids (now around 10 to 12 years old) are destined to be in a massive amount of woes in 2030 to 2035.  

Biden thinking he can save this crew today?  Some President will be sitting there between 2030 and 2040.....with people owing $100,000 minimum and some getting up into the $200,000 range.  

The Democratic Party: 1920 and 2020

 If you sat down in 1922 and gazed across the US....asking people about the Democratic Party....they'd say it was mostly for the working man and union folks.

The 1920 Presidential platform?  Pro-UN and League of Nations.  Very much into selling peace.....to all the vets who returned from the war.  They patted themselves on the bank for the banking system....which would halt all panics (nine years later, it proved worthless).  They promised to revisit the tax system....promising to fix that equality/fairness problem in taxation.

Lot of talk over women's vote, and covering the welfare of women and children. Increase in national salary for teachers?  Yeah, that's mentioned as well.  Building a federal highway system (started in 1916).....that is a big mention.

Shifting around blame on the post office system?  That gets brought up....apparently, folks thought the system was crapped out in 1920.

Suggestions in the press that they were being manipulated or controlled by the Democratic Party?  Total denial.

Flood control?  That gets hyped-up.

Three paragraphs of the platform for 1920....goes to Mexico.

Eight paragraphs of the platform chat over Alaska....particularly mentioning oil.

Two paragraphs toward the end of the platform go to blaming Republicans on corruption (especially those evil Senators).

In some ways, if you take out mention of years.....you could print the same platform in 2022, and most people would approve of the goals laid out.

So you start to think about 2020.  

It's more of a victim list and trying to explain how the government has failed the general public.

The police are the enemy......there's just never enough 'rights' to resolve LGQTB folks.....Wall Street is corrupt and evil.....censorship is a necessity.....ethnic groups need a special platform to stand on....and there's a terrible mess for people who borrowed $100,000 from the government for a college degree, which will require 20 years to pay off.

For some reason.....pronouns get mentioned a lot.

Taxes?  They actually get mentioned a good bit....but the fact that two out of three Americans now pay zero on federal taxes.....there's just not much to reform except making more of the rich pay 'more of their fair share'.

If you go beyond the urbanization areas.....those who do claim some past support of the Democratic Party....are now skeptical.  They haven't converted over to the evil Republicans....but they are less likely now than at any point in the past.....to vote a straight Democratic ticket.

For Biden to have won in 2020....it required Covid and the general fear of people being in crowds at the polling stations.  

Resolving the economy problems of 2022?  Well....virtually every single 'trick' has been pulled out of the bag, and the spiral continues on.  

In some ways, if you brought a hundred average Democrats into a square and allowed open discussions.....probably a third of them would suggest that the party can't survive as it is.....thus needing a third party to resolve differences.  Republicans feeling the same way?  Yeah, that's probably true as well.

Kinda funny....a hundred years pass, and we are more different today, than ever before. 

Yeah, About That Wing

 

I spent a fair amount of time looking over the photo today (was on Twitter).

Yeah, that's high-grade duck-tape.

According to regulations.....you can do this, and it's 'legal'.

Now if you asked me.....passenger sitting there and seeing this 3 minutes into the flight....it'd scare the crap out of me.

The word is....this was a African airlines (no name job).

Other question here....what triggered the holes?  Bullets?  Rust?

This Heard/Depp Court Episode

 Not that I really care, but I find myself spending an hour each day....watching court reporting over this Johnny Depp court action with the wife (Heard).  

He did a lot of talking this week.

Based on his commenting....she is about a '9' on the crazy scale, and you have to wonder how a guy ever got hooked up to her.  

Course, next week....she's got some chatter to give and it's probably just as bad on his situation.  

Things That I'd Like To SELF-IDENTFY As

 1.  160 pound fantastically fit guy.

2.  Micky Mantle-capable baseball player.

3.  James Bond agent.

4.  Cowboy (without any of the 12-hour horse-rides, or bronco-busting, or sleeping under the stars business), or rodeo-clown.

5.  Last Norman to leave the beach in France for the Battle of Hastings adventure on 14 October 1066.

6. Enlighted.

7.  Plato-philosopher.

8.  Retired secret Avengers member.

9.  Failed 1980s wrestler.

10.  County/western singer, who can't carry a tune.

Yeah, About That Lunch Thing

 Just odd....as VP for Obama, Biden had some deal where he actually sat down and had lunch once a week (well....most of the time, we can say).

At the beginning of his 'era'....Biden said he'd have Harris come for lunch as well.  In the 15 months that passed?  It's happened twice.

Why?  No one seems to know. 

Personally, for most of my life....I liked having lunch alone....giving me a chance to scan the newspaper while eating.  To be honest, with about 50-percent of the people I worked with....I'd just rather not have lunch with them.  

Joe's thing?  Maybe he just doesn't seem to have time to sit down for 30 minutes of a lunch.  Maybe he just chomps down on a pastrami sandwich in 12 minutes and move on.  Maybe Joe farts too much while eating.

A big deal?  No.  It's not like the 1920s when the President might not even see the VP for two weeks straight.   

College Debt Wisdom

 Somewhere out there....ought to be a physics PhD guy who can build a formula that says....x-degree at x-college with x-amount borrowed....gets you typically a x-job, which pays x-amount per year.  Then you figure 7-percent of that toward a college loan for 10 years, and that's all that you will get.  

My humble guess, if you did pursue a fine arts degree (unless your last name is Obama or Clinton).....you'd be cut off at borrowing no more than $6,000 a year.

Our problem is just not wanting to put a rocket-scientist to this task and admitting that college is kinda like deciding between a Kia Rio ($17k) or a Range Rover ($163k).  

Adding to this....no one has ever challenged public colleges to explain their operations cost, and why Michigan State University costs $14,500 per year or why Portland State University is $10,500 per year.  The same folks also don't have great explanations why out-of-state folks typically have to pay 2.5 times the rate, and having kids cross state lines for their goals.....makes the whole thing into a pretty big mess.

There ought to be a general rule on any loan of college money....you only attend your home-state schools.....or we deny you the loan.