First of all, let's not change the subject, Bobby. The problem here is that the government sneaked in a bunch of socialist banking takeover measures into a so-called "healthcare reform bill" at the last minute, as part of "amendments" that were supposed to tie in the house bill with the senate bill. That is sneaky, deceptive, done behind closed doors, and clearly not "transparent". There was NO PUBLIC DEBATE on these banking measures.
As for your diversion regarding the "need" for a college education, I'm certainly not disputing that many jobs have formal requirements for college educations, but it is truly very rare that one needs a college degree to get those jobs done. Your example of NYC street cops is a perfect case-in-point. The job has continually become more and more rote, with any intelligent input from the police officer being discouraged. No longer is "discretion" tolerated. If a police officer diverts from procedures in any way, his job is in jeopardy. However, the formal education requirement has increased, and the relative compensation has DECREASED. A NYC cop today can expect to start out making less than $35K per year, which is totally ludicrous by NYC cost-of-living standards.
Public colleges today are more than adequately equipped to educate students who are truly qualified, but they have been saddled with "open admissions" policies and useless liberal arts programs. Public colleges are inundated with moron freshmen who really have no business taking up space on any college campus.
After attending public college at night for nearly 10 years (ending in 1999) while managing my career by day, I managed to earn enough money to pay for my education and graduate with ZERO student loan debt. In fact, by the time I graduated, I had paid off the student loans that I had foolishly borrowed when I first started school at an expensive, private college. In addition, I had amassed a tremendous amount of real-world experience, and built a decent resume (which goes much further than college after your first job, assuming you've done a good job).
Luckily, most of the morons at public colleges drop out before they finish their first year, so things get better as students progress. As an employer and a manager, I found that the quality of public college graduates from technical majors such as Mathematics, Computer Science, Accounting, Economics, etc., was much higher than average. They are much more pragmatic. In fact, with a few notable exceptions, I've found that Ivy League educated employees are some of the laziest, least motivated, "entitled", good-for-nothings I've ever had the displeasure of firing.
Ed, you live in a bubble. Today even to be appointed as a street Cop you need a Associates Degree. I know you love the public Colleges, but they are not large enough to accommodate the demand and they cannot offer all of the majors people would need. To fill the gap, public Colleges would have to expend billions in construction cost which would come out of your tax bill.
The number of jobs that do not require a degree have been dwindling quickly. The US is not creating those jobs, and those that do exist are low paying for the most part. Yes union plumbers and electricians can make more, but the unemployment rate in construction is around 50% in this region now.
I do not like the fact that they have taken young people first starting out in life and preying upon them. These adjustable rate loans that now accrue interest while the person is in School, so each period your loan balance goes up is predatory. You don't have to pay until graduation, but at graduation you are paying interest on more money than you borrowed.
The idea of Student loans was to help people get started in life, not have them start their working life with an anchor around their neck.
