California State College Budget Cut. Wtf?

[carlin]

So this has been on my mind for a couple months now. But I just got a news update email from my college that I will be attending for the first time in August that says that, "This budget will cut the CSU by at least $650 million - nearly one-fourth of state operating support - and the effects will be felt throughout our 23 campuses and among our 412,000 students. The proposed 'trigger cut' of another $100 million is especially problematic because the trigger won’t be pulled until classes for our last semester of the fiscal year have already started and it is too late for campuses to respond in any practical way."

Okay. Really? Like, REEEAAALLLYY?? Seriously? Is this really a valid way to fix anything? If anything it makes everything worse. And here's my argument why schools and colleges should be the LAST place to take money away from. To start off, I don't know if this restructure of the budget is unique to California or if other states are doing a similar thing, but for the sake of this topic, I'm just talking about California. Attacking the school budgets really makes no sense to me because I think this is where most of the money should be going to in the first place. If America wants to have a better economy in the future and smarter people who make better life decisions, then we need to be funding education. I just looked up reasons for reducing the education budget and so far, I have found absolutely nothing. There are no compelling arguments that I've found. So if anyone has a good reason for this, enlighten us. However, what would help the economy, is to reduce the military budget. "For the 2010 fiscal year, the president's base budget of the Department of spending on "overseas contingency operations" brings the sum to $663.8 billion." So says Wikipedia. Whhhyyyy are we spending this much, what do we stand to gain from having a bigger army in the world penis wagging game? The people who say we need to defend ourselves don't make any sense either. We have been attacked once in like the last 100 years, counting back from 9/11. And that wasn't even a real war. All it started was one of the biggest greed schemes in history. If we even cut 10% of the military budget, we could help education immensely. So what do you all think? Discuss.

[Reincarnate]

Believe me, almost every intelligent person alive agrees that education is something you should not be cutting from. It needs to be kept funded and under constant improvement. Some people disagree.

[who_cares973]

i found this out through friends that were having some of their classes cut for this coming semester. really sucks that all this is happening

[kommisar]

Because apparently a majority decided it was more important to fund nAtIoNal DeFEnSe than fund education for tomorrow's work force.

[Reincarnate]

Yeah our defense spending is ridiculous

[kommisar]

Also, someone I know works for a division of the government that doesn't exist.



fucen conspiracy

[Patashu]

USA: if we sell the hand that feeds us we'll lower operational costs!!!

[carlin]

Originally Posted by Patashu

USA: if we sell the hand that feeds us we'll lower operational costs!!!

What are you referring to?

[Patashu]

Originally Posted by carlin

What are you referring to?

substitute 'hand that feeds us' for 'schools, healthcare, roads, infrastructure, welfare, etc etc'

all being cut to pay off some nebulous debt that will apparently be paid faster by gutting USA's ability do useful work??? this is why economics is stupid it's twisted to devour itself

[kommisar]

Let's just make our own country and economy.

[WSCB]

We've already hit the limit of 14 trillion dollars down in debt. -____________-

[~kitty~]

I like how I've made an argument about more funding for the educational system, and people told me that it would cost too much. I bring up the military spending, and apparently that's justified because of communism. I don't get it? We're spending way more than anyone else, I bet. If we're a peaceful country, we're doing a shitty job of expressing that. If no one said we were peaceful, then what's the appeal of America? That it has the biggest military and we're the biggest and the baddest? Maybe that's why everyone hates us. I don't even know.
Another argument I heard against funding education was that many people will just go and not even try and the money will be wasted. I still feel like we're wasting much more money on military projects that don't help us with anything. We don't even know everything they're even testing out.
So our tax dollars will pay for these unknown projects by the military, but it's stupid to think we should take some of that money and put it towards increasing our educational fund which becomes more and more essential as we progress further into a technological age? We all know that tuition rates are increasing to some unreasonable prices, and some of us experience entrance fees for middle and high schools such as here in SC. What's going on? :l

[ledwix]

Yeah, UC tuition went up a whopping THIRTY percent or so in the last year alone. It's absolutely brutal. College education is the norm for well-paying jobs of course, and Bach. degrees aren't even worth as much competitively as they were 30 years ago. It seems like public education isn't even affordable for the majority anymore, let alone private.

Some economists now say that strictly from a financial perspective, it is more worth it to invest $120,000 in stocks than to spend it on a college degree. But of course, that's not an option for people who want to specialize in an academic discipline and really value the associated experiences.

Oh, and military spending is of course too much in America. Weapons are too expensive. And a lot of the military spending is spent on old veterans with benefits. You can't just take that promised money away, but it is still a huge burden. And perhaps a third of the military spending is just based on interest from previous wars that we haven't paid off yet. That is ridiculous. We've had too much war...

[Reincarnate]

Originally Posted by kommisar

Let's just make our own country and economy.

Enter Galt's Gulch

[Reincarnate]

Originally Posted by ledwix

Yeah, UC tuition went up a whopping THIRTY percent or so in the last year alone. It's absolutely brutal. College education is the norm for well-paying jobs of course, and Bach. degrees aren't even worth as much competitively as they were 30 years ago. It seems like public education isn't even affordable for the majority anymore, let alone private.

Some economists now say that strictly from a financial perspective, it is more worth it to invest $120,000 in stocks than to spend it on a college degree. But of course, that's not an option for people who want to specialize in an academic discipline and really value the associated experiences.

Oh, and military spending is of course too much in America. Weapons are too expensive. And a lot of the military spending is spent on old veterans with benefits. You can't just take that promised money away, but it is still a huge burden. And perhaps a third of the military spending is just based on interest from previous wars that we haven't paid off yet. That is ridiculous. We've had too much war...

Well you have to consider that when you go to college, that's four years spent NOT earning a full-time income, and four years that cost you an additional amount each year -- sometimes tens of thousands of dollars. On top of that, you may pay even more if you have loans due to interest.

I mean, when you crunch the numbers for the averages you find that going to college is still worth doing -- it's just becoming less and less worth doing. The actual equalization of your gain to where you'd be without college is pushed back further and further in time. I think it's not a good idea to just invest $120k in stocks over an actual education, though.

[Patashu]

Originally Posted by Reincarnate

Enter Galt's Gulch

The commercial starts zoomed out from the planet earth. Sounds of media and radio spout relevant news of our current political and economic turmoil.

*music starts to play, consisting of upbeat, technical bass-like tones*

A filtered satellite stream begins zooming into Capitol Hill Washington with media feeds growing louder into pure crowd-like chatter. Then with a flash-of-light it shows our politicians looking to Obama with his smug-like glaze. Then another flash and with a black, captivating background:

APATHY

Then another flash showing SWAT teams, police vehicles and violence in the streets. Then it transitions to an image of IMF leaders, Ben Bernanke and with newspaper headlines flowing transparently throughout.

Then with a similar background as apathy:

GREED

A feed of our US printing presses and workers stacking money. Shots of the buildings of Freddy and Fannie Mae, Bank of America; Wall Street with its stock tickers and trading pits.

Then:

CORRUPTION

Shots of Greece and protests. People getting mad with our current our system. Yells, screams and excitement.

Then a giant...

HOPE

It gradually fades away. ...and what's that? What's that shining dot in the center? It's growing larger! OH, IT'S BRIGHT! It's a... BITCOIN!

A ending drum sound, bass --whatever will bring attention-- plays.

A url to a informational Bitcoin website shows below the Bitcoin. Then the same sound.

A final flash to...

WHAT IS BITCOIN?

With the same URL at the bottom. Then cut.

[carlin]

Originally Posted by ~kitty~

I like how I've made an argument about more funding for the educational system, and people told me that it would cost too much. I bring up the military spending, and apparently that's justified because of communism. I don't get it? We're spending way more than anyone else, I bet. If we're a peaceful country, we're doing a shitty job of expressing that. If no one said we were peaceful, then what's the appeal of America? That it has the biggest military and we're the biggest and the baddest? Maybe that's why everyone hates us. I don't even know.
Another argument I heard against funding education was that many people will just go and not even try and the money will be wasted. I still feel like we're wasting much more money on military projects that don't help us with anything. We don't even know everything they're even testing out.
So our tax dollars will pay for these unknown projects by the military, but it's stupid to think we should take some of that money and put it towards increasing our educational fund which becomes more and more essential as we progress further into a technological age? We all know that tuition rates are increasing to some unreasonable prices, and some of us experience entrance fees for middle and high schools such as here in SC. What's going on? :l

If the US is trying to put on the mask of the "peaceful country" then it's lying. We aren't trying to be a peaceful country. Ever since we decided to be world police in the early 1900's, we have given up the right to say we are peaceful. As for projects, there's always those giant Landing Craft Air Cushion(LCAC). Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landing_Craft_Air_Cushion Apparently they've been around since '86. But the first I heard about them was like early last year. This massive thing needs $160,000 to train each operator and there can be 30 of those a year, so the budget can go to $4,800,000. For some reason, this specific cost-benefit document doesn't tell how much it takes to build one. And of course the actual navy website doesn't say anything about how much it costs. If you want to see something else interesting, check this page: The Navy Fact File has a page for pretty much every one of their project that they are willing to talk about. And this is just one branch of the military. This is your tax dollars hard at work. It really makes me sick to see all the money being wasted on things like this. Having a giant penis to wave in the face of Russia will only get you so far. It's time to start putting our money to more long term things. As someone once said, using brute force to gain power is the lowest form of power and lasts the least amount of time. Money is nice for power, but it will soon run out. If you want real power, you get educated. So on that line of thought, why the hell is our country using the second best form of power to finance the stupidest form of power. It's clear that we are starting to run out of ways to fuel both the second and third, so it's time to put everything into education. I know for some that may be hard, because they can't let go of their guns. It IS easier to be stupid because there is no work to do. But being smart will get everyone so much further.

[~kitty~]

So I guess what we're taught in schools and all these morals these politicians supposedly stand for mean nothing when it comes to how we act as a nation towards other nations? Hm... I'm always told that America is this "great" country and that it's a better place to live than others. Maybe for the fact that we're a consumer nation, but I have been told it's for other reasons too that seem to contradict with the fact that America is really kind of hostile.

[carlin]

Originally Posted by ~kitty~

So I guess what we're taught in schools and all these morals these politicians supposedly stand for mean nothing when it comes to how we act as a nation towards other nations? Hm... I'm always told that America is this "great" country and that it's a better place to live than others. Maybe for the fact that we're a consumer nation, but I have been told it's for other reasons too that seem to contradict with the fact that America is really kind of hostile.

Yeah same for me. I always get told that this is the best place to live. That may be true. Some other places may not have the same rights and freedoms as us. But why stop where we are, why not continue to set new standards and raise the bar higher for other countries. Don't just say it's perfect how it is. There are still a lot of things to fix.

[ffraxis]

Originally Posted by carlin

Yeah same for me. I always get told that this is the best place to live. That may be true. Some other places may not have the same rights and freedoms as us. But why stop where we are, why not continue to set new standards and raise the bar higher for other countries. Don't just say it's perfect how it is. There are still a lot of things to fix.

Sorry if this is derailing, but America does not have any rights or freedoms, just the illusion of rights/freedoms which is pretty much the base for people to continue supporting the ever worsening united states.

Also expect massive cuts in other public services sometime in the future.