Liberal Democrat

Liberal Democrat
Individual Freedom For Everyone

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Laura Flanders: Pam Brown- On Occupy Student Debt

Source:The Laura Flanders Show- interviewing Pam Brown.
"We as a society view our monetary debts as a moral issue: We took out the money, we should have to pay it back. The problem with this logic is that the money we are giving the banks, financial institutions and our government never existed before the interest we incurred piled up. 

Pam Brown of the Occupy Student Debt Campaign and Strike Debt says there's another way out of our predicament: If our numbers are large enough, we can collectively refuse to pay back the trillions that are being extorted from us. Watch the full conversation with Laura Flanders and visit GRITtv.org to learn more."


At risk of stating the obvious and perhaps introducing some people to common sense: if you don't want to be buried in debt (like mobsters who bury unfriendly witnesses) then don't borrow too much money. 

You should be spending your 20s and 30s building your career. Not looking for the cheapest, most dangerous place to live, in the most dangerous place and perhaps sharing that place with 2-3 other people (who are also buried in debt, or perhaps don't even have college degrees and work multiple jobs just to survive) because you are buried in debt and can't afford to live anywhere else, even if you actually have a good income.

Another risk at stating the obvious: college is  not free. Regardless of what any left-wing politician might tell you about having some plan to make college free for everyone, it never will be. Even if you have a scholarship, you have to go to that particular school and play sports there or be in some other program that the school values and complete it successfully, to keep that scholarship. 

I'm all in favor of making college affordable for everyone. But you don't do that by promising the world to everyone (which is what a 4 year college degree can get you) and telling them it's not going to cost them anything. You do that by making college more affordable upfront and empowering more parents to put money away for their kids college education, as well as telling students that if you serve your country one way or another, for a certain period of time, the government will wipe away your college financially. But you can't make something free that comes with a cost for everyone.