John Quiggin quote that is relevant in light of Donald Trump's appointment of
pro-voucher pro-privatization Betsy DeVoss as US Secretary of Education. It's a concept that has been tried and failed.
Lars P. Syll’s Blog
For-profit schools — a total disasterLars P. Syll | Professor, Malmo University
See also
Public Goods
Great read. I think back to what happened with ITT Tech when you apply for-profit anything on that level. You get crippling debt for the people who fall for it, and eventually the school fails and goes into bankruptcy, where you also had the federal government step in and provide options for the student loans and class credit transfers.
ReplyDeleteAnother dumb-ass nomination from the increasingly unstable Drumpf.
ReplyDeleteIt won't be long before you start seeing those unnecessary bumper stickers saying "Don't Blame Me"...even in Texas.
In an otherwise stupid article the following line gripped me earlier today: "All governments lie. A few believe their own lies. But things get dangerous when they act in order to be true to their lies."
I of course I thought of Drumpf immediately. Sometimes he believes his own lies and sometimes he thinks he should actually be true to his lies. It's going to be a loony tunes four years.
"Another dumb-ass nomination from the increasingly unstable Drumpf.
ReplyDeleteIt won't be long before you start seeing those unnecessary bumper stickers saying "Don't Blame Me"...even in Texas.
In an otherwise stupid article the following line gripped me earlier today: "All governments lie. A few believe their own lies. But things get dangerous when they act in order to be true to their lies."
I of course I thought of Drumpf immediately. Sometimes he believes his own lies and sometimes he thinks he should actually be true to his lies. It's going to be a loony tunes four years."
I'd probably put this DeVos moron near the very top of the various "basket of deplorables" we have here. I see the buyers remorse setting in already from even those who voted for him. I have literally lost hope here in the direction this crazy administration will be heading in.
Penguin,
ReplyDeleteAs has been said countless times, no country in history has had the advantages and resources of modern America. That it has squandering so many of them, and with such speed, is the surprising thing. With all these advantages, the poorest American should have a standard of living of the typical middle-class Scandinavian: excellent health care, top notch education, low to no debt, a home the envy of the world, pensioners riding around in gold plated golf buggies if only to keep Peter Schiff in a job.
Instead, we have the opposite in modern America: huge unemployment and underemployment, employment insecurity, health insecurity, expensive healthcare, private debts up the kazoo, ghettoes, etc. It's shocking.
And now what? A man who looked like a breath of fresh air who before he is even inaugurated has rowed back on many of the progressive things that got him to the White House, has surrounded himself with fiscal hawks, warmongers and religious maniacs, and can't stop tweeting lunatic things in the early hours. Ominous stuff. You have to wonder what the hell Drumpf's going to do when he realizes the power of the presidency. After all, the Chiefs of Staff have already leaked that this is a man who has repeatedly sounded them out about using nuclear weapons! They think he's unstable and his buttons are all too easy to push. There may end up being a conspiracy to ensure that the daily intelligence briefing always reads: "Nothing's happened. Everything is just fine. You're amazing." So he doesn't end up doing something nuts.
Dubya must be thinking to himself: "I'm not going to go down as the worst president in the history of the republic! Success!!!"
John,
ReplyDeleteDrumpf is having such second doubts right now about how his own transition has been going. It's mind boggling to me that he's this arrogant and in denial enough to take credit for achievements he had nothing to do with just for the vanity. I don't even think he anticipated winning the election at all, so he's been in shock about the whole thing. I actually believe he's scared to death of all the people who have been protesting him at Trump Tower and who will protest at The White House at his inauguration.
That is my best bet of him going back to even a remote amount of what he promised is if there's so much backlash and pressure placed on him that if he doesn't give into these demands, he'll really go down as one of the worst presidents in American history, and I think it would shatter everything this maniac has been trying to do all his life to gain approval from others. Being ranked lower than even Dubya would really have to drive him insane. I was reading up on how Richard Nixon allowed for the creation of not only the EPA, but NOAA and a lot of other more progressive policy ideas with all the pressure he was getting from those who were also outraged with the way his presidency went and the war in Vietnam. Perhaps war with Iran will be Drumpf's Achilles Heel if it goes completely wrong.
With all the resources at America's disposal, it enrages me thinking about how there's still so much untapped potential of how great society can truly be. I try to debunk that mindset a lot of people still have about how the federal government is running out of money and we can't do this or that. I'd imagine the situation would be different if we actually did have Scandinavian style health are, education, great pensions and so much more, but the morons and dullards truly rule this country and they're also the ones who don't learn anything from past failure. Mike trying to show Aaron Clarey several charts and books disproving his bullsh*t several weeks ago on Twitter and that guy resorting to ad hom attacks about Mike being an Italian on Twitter shows me how much trouble we're really in right now.