Unfortunately, the Occupy Wall Street gang is so stupid and boring even excellent commenters can’t make them very interesting. They are nothing but human spam.
Hmm. That analogy makes me want to explore the idea more fully. Who is spam, worms, viruses, bots, etc, on the world-wide HumanNet.
World's Only Rational Man 
Spam… you knew this was coming the moment you said spam:
As for the “occupiers”… some terrorist could blow up the place and he’d do the world a favor by cleaning the gene pool. Seriously. I was looking at when these guys protest. During those times the real Americans are all at work. Oh they can’t get jobs? Well, then maybe studying deep sea psychology was not such a good idea, eh? Maybe going into engineering or real medicine would have been smarter, no? Oh wait, that’s doublethink because it settles around the idea that education should be useful and we can’t have that!
I’m so sick and tired of stupid people. Over here university started again on Monday. I left the first lesson, went from the main building to the campus and the very first thing I ran in was a communist students’ group with banners saying “THE RICH MUST PAY!”
Seriously, at this rate I will soon demand a law that allows me to shoot annoying and stupid people in the face.
Bwahahahaha!! That Fine Arts degree didn’t get them anything, but it sure magnified their failures to ignore the reality of the debt and then turn and place the blame on the “greedy, rich” didn’t it?
I have a friend who thinks that people with more money than she has are ridiculous for spending money on things that she would never buy. I constantly remind her that it’s not her money to spend and if she wanted it, she surely has the money to purchase it.
Students borrow $50,000 to learn to play the cello better, then demand taxpayers pick up the tab because they can’t get a job. But there is already a program that allows repayment based on ability to pay. and that ability to pay is based on income ABOVE all other expenses … like food, rent, drugs.
But of course universities entrench students in class warfare. Actual class time gets less as prices skyrocket, funded by government backed student loans. Prof’s are treated as political high priests, as they preach Marxism and denounce the system that funds them. What a crazy little cult world our institutes of “higher” learning have become.
It’s a bit unfair towards music students, at least those I know. Over here entry requirements for such studies are EXTREME. If you don’t pass the play test, you won’t get in, simple as that. You already need to be way above average to get in. People from China and Japan come to Vienna to do this. Those who make the cut end up playing in all kinds of orchestras, or teaching themselves. The Vienna Philharmonics are a good example. These guys are not the problem.
The problem… well. Let me take the University of Vienna for a second. These days, every year, we have more than 2,000 beginners in psychology. And that is after “entrance exams” (which they are clearly not.) If only half of them graduate with a bachelor… that’s more than 1,000 psychologists every year.
I used to be IT chief. I worked in private corporations ever since I buggered out of veterinary medicine. Tell me… what am I supposed to do with 1,000 psychologists every year in a private company? I can use them for making coffee, on good days, and that’s about it.
Journalism, just as overrun over here. International Development (yep, that’s a course now over here), same thing. These degrees are worthless, overrun and chances for a job are zero if you don’t have connections.
I’d rather hire a cellist. Because getting in those courses and finishing with a degree takes a load of hard work, so they’re used to hard work and dedication. At least in decent music universities like ours.
Excellent observation! One of the reasons humanity and “soft science” degrees are worthless is because they’re so easy. Just play to your instructors’ biases and pass, leaving more time for partying.
So I’d never thought about your point before, but it certainly rings true. Learning to work hard is its own, employable reward.
Music seems good, but not sure student loans are the way to go … maybe private scholarships for the gifted. I was actually thinking of a nephew’s girlfriend that was promoting these Occupy Wall St things, in her first year music. I doubt the requirements are near as extreme over here … you need a pulse and a loan, though probably some skill is required. Another nephew got a music degree at DePaul, tried out at Julliard, now just finished his MBA at North Carolina, since music paid him nothing. The doctor and computer nerd nephews are doing just fine of course.
But yeah, at least they require discipline for music, and come out with a useful skill. So many degrees are a waste or worse, they get brainwashed into thinking they are needed in remaking society. Some become dependent on government for subsidized jobs, or learn to write grant requests for inane studies on animal behavior, or end up in government care of the entitlement class. Of course government workers get the unions, so get better pay, benefits, and early retirement … not that they deserve it. In music it becomes evident if you suck … whereas psychobabble students may think they are gifted, and successful businessmen are the problem.
Midwest Bill…
The real problem is that the parents let these kids out into a world where their education has not prepared them to get a real job, college educated or not. If you want to be an actor for example…great, but very few make it, so as a parent, I can support that with this- I will pay for your schooling and support that you want to be an actor. The catch is that you must have a trade or field of study that you can make a living at..if you forego that, you are on your own.
My daughter marches with the University of Michigan Band and plays the 10th chair trumpet. She is studying biomed engineering and minoring in music. She will have about a 120k of debt when she is through…It’s all hers and my offer to help is that she can live at home to pay the debt off. she must try to do it within five years so that when she marries and has kids, it’s a done deal.
Nice that you laid it out like that … $120k .. WOW. I graduated from U of Illinois 30+ years ago, worked nights and summers, and came out owing nothing. But I never really used my degree.
Now it is too expensive, and loans seem too easy. A college education isn’t a right or a need. A lot of high school kids should probably spend their last two years in a job training program, and certainly not be pushed into college. Save college for the biomed engineer types.
Absolutely agreed. When I was in a webdesign company (which later went under and proved me the futility of counting on unions) we had a graduate from our economics university (which is totally overrun these days.) Oh he was so great and he knew everything!
He went so far as ordering us techs around, even though we were a totally different department.
Well, long story short, he was fired for being utterly incompetent, but not after our CEO chewed him out in front of everyone.
Hmm . . . College grads as the new plebes. Threatening unrest if they don’t get bread and circuses.
I wouldn’t underestimate the potency of this situation, especially if incited and managed by cynical demagogues.
This is why you keep the population armed. Look into the UK. The population isn’t armed and the LEOs are castrated. The result was Blitz 2.0
I found a very old file on my machine. It’s full of politically incorrect stuf and Microsoft jokes from the 1990s.
But I also found this:
The person with the Science degree asks “Why does it work?”
The person with the Engineering degree asks “How does it work?”
The person with the Arts degree asks “Do you want fries with that?”
That might be paradise, if it weren’t for the Poli Sci grads playing on the Artists’ resentment and redistributing wealth.