Category Archives: things getting worse

American College debt over $1 trillion

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I normally pay no attention to Mark Cuban. But this post of his got me thinking.

Remember the housing meltdown? Tough to forget isn’t it. The formula for the housing boom and bust was simple. A lot of easy money being lent to buyers who couldn’t afford the money they were borrowing. …

Can someone please explain to me how what is happening in higher education is any different ?

Its far too easy to borrow money for college. Did you know that there is more outstanding debt for student loans than there is for Auto Loans or Credit Card loans ? That’s right. The 37mm holders of student loans have more debt than the 175mm or so credit card owners in this country and more than the all of the debt on cars in this country. While the average student loan debt is about 23k. The median is close to $12,500. And growing. Past 1 TRILLION DOLLARS.

We freak out about the Trillions of dollars in debt our country faces. What about the TRILLION DOLLARs plus in debt college kids are facing? …

The Higher Education Industry is very analogous to the Newspaper industry. By the time they realize they need to change their business model it will be too late. Higher Education’s legacy infrastructure, employee costs /structures and debt costs will keep them from being able to re calibrate to a new generation of competitors. …


The Coming Meltdown in College Education & Why The Economy Won’t Get Better Any Time Soon

Controversial. Read the many, many comments on that post.

But I think Cuban’s got a good point. In 10-20yrs Universities will be far different than today. What we are doing now is unsustainable.

TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN FOR OFFICE

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I’m always complaining about the American Political system where corporate lobbyists write legislation and make decisions.

But the most recent TAL came as a big surprise.

Turns out that many times it’s the politicians hounding the lobbyists to make decisions. And write legislation. Not the other way around.

As always, well worth a listen …

This American Life BROADCAST: MAR-30-12

For anyone who has ever heard the term “Washington insider” and felt outside — we are with you. So this week, we go inside the rooms where the deals get made, to the actual moment that the checks change hands — and we ask the people writing and receiving the checks what, exactly, is the money buying?

Things are getting worse, by the way. Ever since the right leaning Supreme Court ruled on the 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision.

They decided that Political action committees (PACs) may accept unlimited contributions from individuals, unions, and corporations (both for profit and not-for-profit) for the purpose of making independent expenditures for and against politicians.

The best commentary on that idiotic decision was by comedian Stephen Colbert. He set up his own SuperPAC. Then had Jon Stewart (his boss) run it. Independently.

Here’s one of the TV ads paid for by Colbert’s SuperPAC. Mitt Romney is a serial killer.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

lobbyists write American laws

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That’s the fact, Jack.

NY Times op-ed By PAUL KRUGMAN“

Florida’s now-infamous Stand Your Ground law, which lets you shoot someone you consider threatening without facing arrest, let alone prosecution, sounds crazy — and it is. And it’s tempting to dismiss this law as the work of ignorant yahoos. But similar laws have been pushed across the nation, not by ignorant yahoos but by big corporations.

Specifically, language virtually identical to Florida’s law is featured in a template supplied to legislators in other states by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a corporate-backed organization that has managed to keep a low profile even as it exerts vast influence (only recently, thanks to yeoman work by the Center for Media and Democracy, has a clear picture of ALEC’s activities emerged). And if there is any silver lining to Trayvon Martin’s killing, it is that it might finally place a spotlight on what ALEC is doing to our society — and our democracy.

What is ALEC? Despite claims that it’s nonpartisan, it’s very much a movement-conservative organization, funded by the usual suspects: the Kochs, Exxon Mobil, and so on. Unlike other such groups, however, it doesn’t just influence laws, it literally writes them, supplying fully drafted bills to state legislators. In Virginia, for example, more than 50 ALEC-written bills have been introduced, many almost word for word. And these bills often become law. …

Lobbyists, Guns and Money

One day historians will marvel at the stupidity of having for profit corporations write legislation.

related – Wikipedia – ALEC

I will not vote for Harper

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@pmharper @toewsVic #TellVicEverything

Up until now, I’ve not been all that unhappy with the Harper Conservative government.

But their non-stop efforts to restrict online freedom have forced me to look for another Party.

The latest BAD LEGISLATION (Bill 30) is called Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act

WTF !?

Vic Toews Canadian Conservative Public Safety Minister said on February 13, 2012:

“.. either stand with us or with the child pornographers” in response to questions from Quebec MP Francis Scarpaleggia (Lac-Saint-Louis) regarding extensive Privacy Commission concerns about ‘warrant-less access’ to all Canadian Internet and Cell phone accounts under C-30

Does that sound familiar?

… George W. Bush, in an address to a joint session of Congress on September 20, 2001 said,

“Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”

Toews has been mocked and attacked for that polarizing, disingenuous statement.

Next time you hear the statement:

You’re either with us, or against us

… somebody is trying to hide something.

If you want to know the many, many reasons why Bill 30 is lousy legislation, follow Dr. Michael Geist.

“it’s a girl”

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The statistics are sickening. The UN reports approximately 200 million girls in the world today are ‘missing’. India and China are said to eliminate more female infants than the number of girls born in the US each year. Lianyungang in China has the worst infant gender ratio on record with 163 boys born for every 100 girls. …

Click PLAY or watch the trailer on YouTube.

How you can help.

(via Kottke – The three deadliest words in the world: “it’s a girl”)

hate rent-a-car companies

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Fox is the cheapest national brand in the USA, it seems.

For many cities you can get a vehicle for $50/week. Or even $6/day. … At least that’s what their website claims.

So why was my bill — still cheaper than the competition — more than double what I saw online:

$82 / week
$3.61 SEA Concess
$8.13 Tax SEA
$6.59 WA Rental Tax
$.26 WA MotVehTx

$35 CFC … (explained to be some sort of new building fee)
$3.36 VLF

Of course you are hassled with a scary up-sale of insanely expensive daily insurance options.

All in all, a terrible customer experience. Like this guy had:

On a recent trip to the airport rental counter I marveled at the ability of the Avis/Budget representative to make me feel like a criminal, a moron, and an irresponsible lout gambling with my life all in the space of about eight minutes. Welcome to modern car rental. …

Renting a car sucks

Are there any rent-a-car companies who actually tell you the entire cost? …

Canada must have more rules against deliberately obfuscating prices. The same company prices online are about double in Canada for the same vehicle as in the States.

more Fox complaints on Yelp

Airport Security Theatre

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I’ve four times crossed the Pacific this Fall. Air travel is horrible in 2011.

Departing Philippines, here are the line-ups I suffered.

1. Car entering the Airport was stopped. (1min)
2. Line-up and luggage x-ray entering building (15min)
3. Check-in and collecting boarding pass (20min)
4. Immigration (10min)
5. Security check-in (15min) … removing shoes
6. Boarding pass checked before entering the gangway (4min)

At each step it was clear to me that no real security inspection was underway. It was all theatre. Laughable.

The best article I’ve read yet on Security Theatre has been getting wide circulation online.

Charles C. Mann:

… To walk through an airport with Bruce Schneier is to see how much change a trillion dollars can wreak. So much inconvenience for so little benefit at such a staggering cost. …

Terrorists will try to hit the United States again, Schneier says. One has to assume this. Terrorists can so easily switch from target to target and weapon to weapon that focusing on preventing any one type of attack is foolish. Even if the T.S.A. were somehow to make airports impregnable, this would simply divert terrorists to other, less heavily defended targets—shopping malls, movie theaters, churches, stadiums, museums. The terrorist’s goal isn’t to attack an airplane specifically; it’s to sow terror generally. “You spend billions of dollars on the airports and force the terrorists to spend an extra $30 on gas to drive to a hotel or casino and attack it,” Schneier says.

… “We’re spending billions upon billions of dollars doing this—and it is almost entirely pointless. Not only is it not done right, but even if it was done right it would be the wrong thing to do.”

read more – Smoke Screening

What can airlines do?

Distract me with circus acts like this one from Cebu Pacific in the Philippines. :)

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via Kottke)

____ Airport Security

In Narita, Tokyo I was twice questioned by serious, skilled security officers. Both times outside the normal procedures. That was impressive — and scary.

In Vancouver, Canada I was selected for extra inspection, along with suspicious Russians and Iranians. That screening was very skilled and professional, too.

… Yet instances like that are rare, rare, rare.

(via Boing Boing)

P.I. Soccer Moms

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This American Life is the best radio show in existence. Always good.

But they outdid themselves in episode 447:

THE INCREDIBLE CASE OF THE P.I. MOMS
Originally aired 09.23.2011

What do you get when you take a P.I. firm, then add in a bunch of sexy soccer moms, official sponsorship from Glock, a lying boss, and delusions of grandeur? This week’s show.

Ira explains how a man named Chris Butler created a private detective agency where the investigators were good-looking soccer moms. Their publicist invited a reporter named Pete Crooks from Diablo magazine to do a ride-along with the PI Moms on a case. Pete thinks it’ll be a simple, fun assignment. Turns out he was wrong. …

Chris Butler is a megalomaniac who decides that his Soccer Mom private investigators would make him a reality TV celebrity. He now faces life in prison.

… On one level it’s a brilliant, astonishing story. On another an indictment of American “culture” in 2011.

To listen download from here, or subscribe to the audiocast via iTunes.

One bit of good news — the P.I. Soccer Moms reality TV show was cancelled.

worst radio music decade ever?

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In Idaho I’ve been listening to Hot 96.9FM.

Their playlist is about 9 songs long. I hear those few songs played less than an hour apart.

There are no DJs. And even the songs selected don’t have many musicians. It’s vocal supplemented with computer.

Marvin’s Room by Drake is a very interesting pop song. But the music video is so awful, I don’t link it.

Lighters by Eminem, Bruno Mars & Royce da 5’9″ has a lousy video, too. But I believe the song is a prototype for the rest of the decade.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube (profane version)

“Lighters” is an alternative hip hop song with influences of pop music.

The formula is simple. Get a catchy pop song started. Add rap for edge.

I do love the urban doggerel:

… Now his career’s
Lebron’s jersey in 20 years …

I’ll predict now that this decade will be considered even duller than the 1980s.

nobody telephones any more

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Kate explains why:

THE New York Times has declared that nobody telephones anybody any more. In a recent story by Pamela Paul called Don’t Call Me, I Won’t Call You, it said that we’ve all given up on the telephone in favour of texts and e-mails. …

“Phone calls are rude. Intrusive. Awkward,” wrote Paul. …

I’m not the only one who chooses to respond to a work-related message on my telephone with a conversation-avoiding e-mail; according to Paul, that’s the norm. …

Kate of Late – Not so alone in the no phone zone