The Joe Biden Presidency II : He's too old...or something like that!

A small part of me wonders how much of that is a mindset from the Great Recession and how many employers are stuck in that.

Entering the job market in 2010 as a college grad, was awful, and while I was lucky to find work in my field, it was also hard as hell. I'd see so many entry level jobs with things like bachelor's degree followed by several years of experience only for the pay to be ridiculously low. I'd sometimes see roles that more or less would be something you'd need an entire team for because no way can one individual do it. Other times it's just something ridiculous that should have anyone serious laughing. I actually turned down a role earlier this year because it was a pay cut and they required me to move.

If anything, I don't think the problem is skill inflation, but that employers have too many unrealistic standards and again, still think it's the late 00s early 10s. There's a reason a lot of them were screaming about how no one wants to work anymore. Employers want Erling Haaland but want him on low wages, when anyone with sense knows that's not feasible.

 

Some also made out like bandits at the same time that the social housing stock was being decimated, especially in high housing price areas such as London. I knew someone who bought his apartment near Russell Square. A few years before he passed away it was worth well over £1m. His heirs assuredly did very well out of the deal. Meanwhile, many younger people pay insane amounts to rent in and around London.

 

Let's give credit to Senator Pell who originally pushed these grants through congress and they were later named after him. He was a senator from RI from 1961-1997 and unlike many at that time he voted against the Defense of Marriage Act.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claiborne_Pell

 

Dublin is on my list for where to live after I move to France in 8 weeks (after I get mum settled I'll move somewhere more celiac friendly). Rent prices in Dublin are astronomical, whereas buying a place isn't that outrageous for me, but it would be for someone starting out (I've had my place paid off for years and a comparable place isn't out of my means). A mortgage is often considerably less than rent, but young people will never be able to save up enough for a down payment to buy because of the astronomical rent.

 

Pell was a character, that much was true. A remarkable character, but a character. A favorite of mine is him taking a lit cigar from Fidel because he thought it was a gift.

 

Well, yeah. Most of the original buyers did well out of it because the properties were deliberately priced at well below their true value. Y'know, that was the point. That's why it was essentially just buying votes and turning people into supposedly home-owning conservative voters.

That worked at first because we had a huge public housing stock so, as this fella, (hardly a leftie), said about Thatcher's privatisations back in the day...




It always made me laugh when they described it as a 'great success' because there were queues around the block to buy that stuff. Apparently they were surprised that people wanted an asset they could sell for an immediate 30-50% mark-up. Well, having been in business for a few decades selling something at 60-70% of it's value doesn't strike ME as a 'great success'. It strikes me as a bloody disaster.

With the housing stock they had to keep them for a few years but were then often left to their children who sold them when they fell on hard times and were then bought by landlords who rented them out so they were STILL being rented. The money going to private landlords instead of the local council.

 

I'm guessing most of us have caught this take from Jon Stewart?

 

It seems Brian Taylor Cohen is a bit miffed...



Gaetz is just lucky that the republicans have been charge of the department of justice for the past 3+ years people have known this about as otherwise, HE'D be for the high jump, let me tell yer.

 

Needed him more in 2016

 

Tariffs like the Biden tariffs on EVs?

Weird how Biden invited a literal nazi to the White House.

 

Fair warning-- you are far enough out in right field now that I can no longer even guess what you are on about.

 

Biden invited Trump to the whitehouse, who I have been told is a literal nazi and fascist. Why would Biden platform a nazi?

 

Wooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!

Checkmate!

 

Great, you paid yours. If you're not whining because someone else's debt got cancelled, no problems. If someone else being relieved of theirs triggers you , grow up some.

College got too expensive for a lot of POCs, given how America pays us less. We all need to figure out how to make blue collar jobs pay more and be safer/cleaner/better bennies, or we need to figure out how to make college tuition cheaper.

 

The first salaried job I ever had could have been done by a dropout/non college student/GED holder. The employer simply didn't want to do hundreds of interviews.

 

haha, not triggered, silly, just expressing my view. It's been the same way forever, there are loans and there are grants. I received both as a young student paying my way through school with no other assistance. I always understood what "loan" meant and never expected my debt to be forgiven.

 

Well, times have changed for the better, and that debt can now be erased, regardless of what we call it. Predators counting on generational poverty to fleece POCs trying to secure jobs and lives needs to be a thing of the past. We'd already be secure if it weren't for racism.

 

Should people be able to get other debt forgiven too, or just college kids? I just paid off a couple of credit cards and my car but if someone could erase my mortgage that would be nice.

 

I understand that, my point is that I never expected my student loans to be erased, and I don't think it's a great idea to bake that idea in now (debt forgiveness because we were duped and these lending institutions are behaving like predators, and the cost of a college education is too expensive, etc). The pitfalls of borrowing have always been there, and the sooner people learn to manage their debt commitments responsibly, the better.

 

The problem is that costs have gone up so much that many more people have loans and those loans are larger. This is putting a damper on the economy which is exactly the opposite of what college graduation should be doing.

When I check people out at the store, I am amazed at quality and quantity of food people on EBT cards (what used to be "food stamps") get. I never qualified, and even now I can't buy things like that. But this isn't just about those people getting steaks and fancy organic items that the poor-adjacent don't. That money then goes to the store, and then to the growers and processors. It's putting a subsidy in a place that has a large multiplier effect.

 

Being in a big old debt hole is the worst. And it's easy to get sucked in. Does forgiving student loan debt help people to become more responsible, disciplined borrowers (better prepared to avoid drowning in debt) or does it reinforce this notion that it's fine to borrow money and then not pay it back because it's a bummer? All this debt is a drag on the economy, look at the interest on the national debt...it's the American way. I see it as a political loser and a dangerous precedent to set with kids who've just signed up voluntarily for a debt obligation.

I never qualified either but I'm thankful that EBT cards are a part of our safety net and definitely support keeping that program funded.

 

Neither is credit card debt thanks to Biden’s senatorial work for MBNA, et al.

 

Plus, there are few ordinary debts as likely to prove ruinous as college debts-- a mortgage perhaps. Otherwise as long as you don't go buying a yacht or an airplane or something...

Again, this is not about anybody feeling sorry for these students or wanting to do something nice for them; it is about returning a crippled part of the economy to its proper function. If you want to keep track of the forgiven part and arrange for them to get a bill for it if they ever leave the country, that's fine.

Fussy but fine. If it makes you feel better.

 

Education, is a serious and a long term investment. For some, it's a chance to get into a better situation than the one they grew up in. Or it's a chance to pursue and make a career out of a passion. It's a chance to leave the small town one might have grown up in (Especially if you were different in said small town). The notion that people are being irresponsible when it comes to student loans is quite frankly, ludicrous. These aren't people buying things on credit cards when they know they can't afford them. Or people blowing money on DoorDash for 20 chicken nuggets or surf and turf.

For a lot of people, having to borrow to pay for college is a necessity. Some because they might be too wealthy for financial aid but too poor to pay the tuition alone (MASSIVE EDIT: I got my sentences mixed up.) Others being first generation students and not knowing what to do and others because they might be working but aren't making enough. I was a first generation college student. My parents were of the generation that you were either going to college or straight to work. Luckily, my parents along with my grandparents (All who were of the earn your keep type thinking) helped me with my tuition.

I don't have student debt for the reason mentioned. I am grateful. And I won't be against forgiving it (Unlike my younger sibling, who also has no student loan debt). People are trying to make their lives better and may have to borrow money. That's understandable. But the notion that student loans are being used irresponsibly is again, ludicrous.

The biggest problem, and I'm sure those employed by colleges can add, is many but a big one is admin bloat. One that Tom Nichols (A college professor) has touched on. Another, and this is non-college based, is employers being cheap.