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Originally posted by apacheman
reply to post by OutKast Searcher
Then aren't the colleges and universities committing fraud by selling all degrees as if they were equal?
If a degree in philosophy or art is worthless, then shouldn't it be sold at a much cheaper price or offered for free?
It seems to me that those degree paths are subsidizing the MBAs and athletics.
It seems that the MBA/accounting/other lucrative degrees should cost a lot more than what they do.This is yet another example of a certain class gaming the system to provide subsidies and welfare for themselves while decrying it for others.
Originally posted by Infrasilent
While I do have a great deal of sympathy for those struggling financially, I make a small exception for those trying to get out from under student loans. This is why:
In high school, I got excellent grades, had a job working 20 hours a week, and still managed to complete nearly a years worth of college coursework (Advanced Placement) before I ever applied to a university.
My peers derided me endlessly for my decision to attend a Cal State institution, because I grew up in an affluent area and no one could understand the fact that I wasn't going to spend in the tens of thousands of dollars per year simply for tuition. (I was generally considered one of the smart kids in school and apparently my decision did not sit well with them.) The deal with my parents basically was: we can pay for you to go to a cal state and anything else is on you.
I CHOSE to go to a cheaper, less "prestigious" (whatever that means anyway...) university because I could get a free ride, and if anything were to happen to my parents or their ability to pay I could conceivably support myself and continue my education.
At the end of the day, STUDENT LOANS ARE A CHOICE. No one forced anyone to get them. "SOCIETY" has nothing to do with it. Anyone who took them sure as hell made it harder on the rest of us though, because their retarded acceptance of ever-more ridiculous amounts of debt increased the cost of education for EVERYONE.
That said, I don't think the government has a right to hound people until the end of their days about these loans. If the economy has changed in such a way that one can't ever expect to pay, there should eventually be some way out from under them (like bankruptcy and settlement).
These loans are nothing but enslavement of the intellectual.
Originally posted by peck420
reply to post by ThirdEyeofHorus
There is no known way to interfere with the natural flow of business unless the buyer capitulates.
The buyer has always had the power in business, and they still do. They just seem to have forgotten that.
A price floor can be set above the free-market equilibrium price. In the first graph at right, the dashed green line represents a price floor set below the free-market price. In this case, the floor has no practical effect. The government has mandated a minimum price, but the market already bares a higher price.
A price floor set above the market equilibrium price has several side-effects. Consumers find they must now pay a higher price for the same product. As a result, they reduce their purchases or drop out of the market entirely. Meanwhile, suppliers find they are guaranteed a new, higher price than they were charging before. As a result, they increase production.
Taken together, these effects mean there is now an excess supply (known as a surplus) of the product in the market. To maintain the price floor over the long term, the government may need to take action to remove this surplus.
A historical (and current) example of a price floor are minimum wage laws, laws specifying the lowest wage a company can pay an employee (employees are suppliers of labor and the company is the consumer in this case). When the minimum wage is set higher than the equilibrium market price for unskilled labor, unemployment is created (more people are looking for jobs than there are jobs available). A minimum wage above the equilibrium wage would induce employers to hire fewer workers as well as cause more people to enter the labor market, the result is a surplus in the amount of labor available.[citation needed] The equilibrium wage for a worker would be dependent upon the worker's skill sets along with market conditions.
Originally posted by ThirdEyeofHorus
Originally posted by peck420
reply to post by ThirdEyeofHorus
There is no known way to interfere with the natural flow of business unless the buyer capitulates.
The buyer has always had the power in business, and they still do. They just seem to have forgotten that.
I'm talking about how the govt interferes in business. Did you not understand the price ceilings and price floors as govt controls on industry?
Originally posted by undo
reply to post by peck420
not really, i mean oil is used in thousand of other products we use every day including various plastics. they'd still have oodles of buying power to manipulate economies with as long as we need the other products created with oil.
the other problem is, even if we all stopped buying a product made by an american company now stationed in a foreign land, we'd end up hurting ourselves. the big companies hold the financial stablity of the world in their hands at this very moment. so spiting them their prosperity will make matters worse. the only viable solution is to make sane choices on regulation and get back our technology and industry base.
Originally posted by peck420
Who has the power? The government? The corporation? Neither, the buyer is the only one that has the power. If the buyers refused to buy oil from the companies (or in this case stopped buying all oil) the seller and the government would be forced to change their methods. Sadly, this scenario would only need and industry wide boycott of a couple of days to force movement (the higher the product turnover the faster change can be forced).
I can't emphasise this enough...the buyer has all of the power.
once again it is the buyer that moved it in the first place
Originally posted by whaaa
That would be true if classic "supply and demand" economics was the operating system but when you throw speculators into the mix; the old models break down.
Prices aren't set by supply and demand but by "perceived" value of goods and services. The econ they teach in school is pie in the sky mythos, outdated and obsolete.
No matter what the laws are.........insider trading is how business is done world wide and the deck is completely stacked against the consumer.
www.neweconomics.org...
Old school and it's adherents are fools.