It also stabilizes people financially so that they can think about something other than how they are going to get through the current month. Pretty hard to care about something as abstract as climate change unless you either a) just got flooded or b) know how you’re going to make your mortgage/rent payment for november 2019.
This is a good point. simplicitus counter, though: selfish rich people.
I live in upstate NY now, but next weekend I go down to South Carolina to visit family including my…sigh…deplorable Dad. He’s full-gone. And maybe, I think, always was.
For a variety of reasons I have not been down on this annual beach trip in a few years. But he’s turning 83 and … I’ve pushed my luck enough. Gotta see the guy. …
I called him once, “Whatcha doing, Dad?”
“Watching about the Muslims on TV.”
sigh
It was on one of these trips that the Benghazi story broke, and omg he would not shut up.
No it won’t. Conservatives think they alone are 100% responsible for any success they have. The thought other people might benefit from UBI pisses them off. It’s one of the reasons they are so against M4A and free higher education. They think “Why should it be free when I had to pay? Am I getting that money back?” Someone else benefitting from a program that they didn’t benefit from is unacceptable to conservatives.
My brother in law paid for his 3 kids to go a 4 year school. I don’t know how much money it cost him but I assume at least $250K. He would go absolutely ballistic if someone like Elizabeth Warren came around and made college free. Not because it makes the world a better place, or eases the burden of student debt. But because he already paid whatever amount for his kids to go to college. And he would absolutely demand he get his money back.
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I am reminded of the parable of the workers in the vineyard.
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This. When the topic of free college came up once my mom was baffled that I supported it. “What about all the money you paid to (insert university)?”
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This is one of my favorite columns ever from Alexandra Petri. It’s not about free education but the ultimate point is similar. Conservatives want people to have it just as “tough” as they did.
Yea it’s a reason why they hate the thought of raising the minimum wage. “How dare McDonald’s pay $15/hr to flip burgers! When I worked there I made $2.50/hr and turned out fine!”
Heh. I made $1.65 and I was the top paid guy on the crew. Started at $1.35 an hour.
The college thing is…odd. At least make City/State colleges free or close to it. If someone wants to piss away 100k or so to send Tiffany to Vassar to study French poetry have at it - maybe make it 200K and for every Tiffany have a free spot for someone.
MM MD
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i think that’s the point. make instate public universities and trade schools free for instate residents. if you want to pick and choose where you go, have at it. but naturally the private university prices would start to fall also because of demand.
but yeah, that’s the classic conservative i walked up hill in he snow both ways bullshit that they want everyone to go through… but now days its more like my grandfather or great grandfather walked up hill in the snow both ways so now you should have to do that. not me though, my grandpa already did it…
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My state college was $20k+ per year. As a state resident (out of state pays like triple). That’s way too much.
Where are our anti-capitalist bretheren ITT to assail the travesty of such a pro-capitalist measure as UBI?
Might be slight consolation, but I’m probably as close to something resembling a conservative around here and I think the college expense crap is completely insane - I basically drank my way thru my first crack at college, so when I went back I had to pay full price out of pocket at a state school while I was working 40+ hours a week, - and I FULLY support free/low cost public uni’s - we’re crippling a generation with student loans. (At least when I went thru the tuition costs were “reasonable”.
MM MD
The college issue is a great example of capitalism reaching its logical end.
In the old days, people got a tremendous amount of value from attending university, and paid very little for it. Naturally, this meant that there was room for the price of education to increase, cutting away at that economic surplus. Now the costs are nearing the benefits, which would be the natural equilibrium if we want to believe Econ 101.
That conservatives are completely unable to understand that is so infuriating to me. “But it’s the free market at work! They’re still getting value for their money!” Yes, maybe they are paying $99 to get $100 in lifetime value (on average–let’s just ignore the variance at play here since conservatives seem completely unable to think probabilistically). But past generations paid $1 for that $100 in lifetime value, and that economic surplus has carried forward and multiplied many times over.
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I wrote a check for mine every quarter and with books and fees it was ~$8000. This was 2002. $20k is ridiculously expensive.
I didnt pay a dime but I was lucky. But my school was 33k/yr with housing. And you want housing because the surrounding area rents are insane. I had a place already and had a full ride grants + scholarship.
My community college experiment in the early nineties only cost me $800 a semester…
OMFG Trump voting in-laws visiting.
I am going to be drinking A LOT this weekend.