[P2P-F] Occupy Student Debt

Mon Oct 31 15:44:26 CET 2011

As with the effect of the GI Benefits of post WWII, where education was  
treated as social infrastructure, the primary way out will be a massive  
write down if not just a jubilee. Persisting within an economic model  
which denies the importance of infrastructure of multiple types, physical  
and social, or of the necessary inclusion of productive labor in the  
conduct of a sustainable economy. Corporatism has essentially dissolved  
the nature of national sovereignty to evade taxes and any investment in  
the national sovereignty. The free market model actually breaks down the  
commons in multiple ways. The write down/jubilee is the only useful way  
forward that I can see. Because it is politically objectionable to the  
corporatists, it will be awhile before the threat of more drastic  
solutions causes some persuasion to actually reform and re-regulate.  Tadit

On Mon, 31 Oct 2011 10:22:35 -0400, Samuel Rose <samuel.rose at gmail.com>  
wrote:

> On Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 9:44 AM, Douglas Rushkoff <rushkoff at gmail.com>  
> wrote:
>> This is great.
>> I hope people go to the other sites for proposals on ways out.
>>
>
> For student debt, there are 2 culprits here:
>
> 1. The private finance companies and the federal government who are
> overcharging, or charging people for debt on education not delivered.
>
> 2. The schools themselves who are at this point bilking people out of
> huge amounts of money by clearly not giving them the skills they would
> need to take advantage of the market as it is now (not as it was 30-40
> years ago. Or even worse, a training for someone's fantasy about how
> things should be, but are not).
>
> In some cases, the debts are still held by the schools, in some cases
> government, in some cases finance companies/banks. In all cases, a
> political action such as a strike could target demanding all 3 waive
> some or all of existing student debt.
>
> Equally as important would be a way for students and people in
> communities to provide an alternate financing route for education.
> This alternative financing route could offer a plurality of assistance
> for students (food, energy, perhaps even some forms of health care) by
> means other than just loaning money. Assistance should be contingent
> on a thorough review of the school itself, and that it is providing an
> appropriate education at a reasonable price. There should be a good
> chance that students would be able to do more than just get a "job"
> (at any level) with this education. Non-traditional university
> education routes should hold equal footing with existing universities
> in this alternate education assistance system. Whatever the education
> source, it should be judged mostly on it's capacity to serve students
> by helping them learn to provide for themselves and bootstrap and
> build new infrastructure (manufacturing and technology, food, energy,
> scientific research, humanities, social sciences, etc) that can help
> others coming along do the same.
>
>
>
>
>>
>> On Oct 30, 2011, at 10:00 PM, Eric Sanders wrote:
>>
>> Check this out!
>> http://occupystudentdebt.com/
>> Best,
>> Eric
>>
>> ---
>> http://rushkoff.com
>> http://twitter.com/rushkoff
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>