Sticking It to the Middle Class
"Budget cuts have hit public colleges hard, even as the demand for a well-educated workforce soars." That's the headline from U.S. News & Report cover story this month. The story doesn't talk much about why there's a demand for a well-educated workforce. Based on what I can see, much of the demand comes from arbitrary requirements imposed by the educational establishment (you need a Master's to teach third grade? Come on!), the government (requires Master's for pretty much any advancement, whether or not there's any tangible benefit derived from the Master's), and big business (ditto the government's demands).
At the same time, the federal government pumps absurd amounts of cash into the institutions, resulting in massive inflation. The final result: The rich can afford it because they have lots of money, the poor can afford it because of need-based scholarships, and the middle class get screwed: the average college graduate leaves with $22,000.00 worth of debt.
Though I typically find that USNWR is a mindless cheerleader for the higher education establishment (they probably need to be in order to get the necessary cooperation to do the annual colleges and university ratings), even they let slip the dirty secret (at least in the print edition; I couldn't find this statement in the online version): "During the high times not so long ago, colleges could afford to raise tuition because students had easy access to education loans." Easy money = rising tuition . . . at about four times the CPI over the past two decades.
I think higher education would be a great focal point for a new class warfare: Middle class versus everyone else: the Elites and the Poor. If we could merely band together, we'd dwarf the other classes at the polls and take back government so it'd stop screwing us. Unfortunately, too many middle class people simply don't see how they screw themselves every time they vote for more government, so any such mobilization effort is probably quixotic. But hey, a fella can dream, right?
Zombie Nation
Please help me: Are these guys serious? I spent about two minutes on their site and concluded that they're deadly serious, but presumably only in a wholly deadpan way. I can't tell for sure:
The Zombie Preparedness Initiative is a knowledge base provided by a community of citizens concerned about the impending zombie invasion and the imminent disaster that is sure to follow. We are not claiming to be experts on anything, we are merely doing what we can to gather knowledge and share the acquired information with the public. By doing this, we hope to help people prepare for the very real threat that we shall face when zombies show up and governments have not taken the time to prepare.
Miscellaneous
One of the most-bizarre stories I've read lately: A mystery man awakes in Discovery Park.
The infamous case of the exploded whale.
Unless you're willing to shell out $850 a year, you don't often get a chance to read Grant's Interest Rate Observer, but they put a hodgepodge of recent articles online, free of charge.
Grant's Interest Rate Observer Summer Issue (Free)
Note: Slow blogging winds blowing ahead.
