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Wednesday, January 27, 2010 - 7:03pmSanction this postReply
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I just now walked away from the TV. Ugh.  10% of income for a new graduate is going to be painful. Obama must think every degree guarantees a "fat cat" salary.


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Wednesday, January 27, 2010 - 7:32pmSanction this postReply
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Teresa, Painful for who?
(Edited by Dean Michael Gores on 1/27, 7:32pm)


Post 2

Wednesday, January 27, 2010 - 7:32pmSanction this postReply
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He's stoned. Just like Clinton often was. Funny neither of them would release their medical records. Look at the squinty red eyes and the goofy, inappropriate smile.

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Wednesday, January 27, 2010 - 8:24pmSanction this postReply
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And Obama won't release his college records from Columbia either.

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Wednesday, January 27, 2010 - 10:33pmSanction this postReply
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TSI: "I just now walked away from the TV. Ugh. 10% of income for a new graduate is going to be painful. Obama must think every degree guarantees a "fat cat" salary. "

The President said :"To make college more affordable, this bill will finally end the unwarranted taxpayer subsidies that go to banks for student loans. (Applause.) Instead, let's take that money and give families a $10,000 tax credit for four years of college and increase Pell Grants. (Applause.) And let's tell another one million students that when they graduate, they will be required to pay only 10 percent of their income on student loans, and all of their debt will be forgiven after 20 years –- and forgiven after 10 years if they choose a career in public service, because in the United States of America, no one should go broke because they chose to go to college."

The State of the Union Address is online at the White House, of course
http://www.whitehouse.gov and follow the instructions.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-state-union-address




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Post 5

Thursday, January 28, 2010 - 4:34amSanction this postReply
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Of course, few will remember that in the speech, he uses the unqualified word 'families', when in reality, this will be yet another redistributive program, and 'families' will mean 'qualified families.'

It could mean nothing else; where does such subsidy ultimately come from, if not 'unqualified families?'

It's like the guy walking out of the factory everyday with a wheelbarrow full of straw. Every day, the guard stops him at the gate, goes through the straw, finds nothing, and lets him go. This goes on every day for years.

When he retires, the guard asks him, "I know you were stealing something, but can't figure out what it was. What was it?" and the man says "Wheelbarrows."

Education subsidy... healthcare... employment... clunkers... stormwindows... the topic just doesn't matter--the topic is the 'hay', as long as it's all about redistribution.

Redistribution is the wheelbarrow, the real goal.

Welcome to the gray economies of waiting for circulstion squeezed out at the point of a gun, ala the also giant FAIL Soviet model. It's the tribal dream, endless subsidy on the backs of others.

Because in America, no (qualified) tribe member should ever have to provide crass value-for-value. And, that lofty goal is so sought after by those pursuing it that they justify the required totalitarianism necessary to implement, and willingly sell-out freedom for their latest really, really good cause.

Obama gave his 'Maitre'd of Totalitarianism' speech last night... while waiting in the wings is the 'sous chef of Totalitarianism' GOP.

After every line, I consciously asked the question, "Did he just say anything?" It was largely empty soaring rhetoric, sprinkled with relatively very few hints at any actual policy. That 70 minutes could have easily been 7, and there is the real '10%' message of last night.

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Thursday, January 28, 2010 - 7:36amSanction this postReply
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Fred's analysis is spot on. I'd add an important element. Where Fred said, "Redistribution is the wheelbarrow, the real goal" It is important to understand that the far left is comfortable with the concept of overloading the system beyond the point of collapse, breaking its protections (like the constitution or separation of powers or objective law), destroying vital fabric or structure (like the dollar or banking) because they believe that the full implementation of social justice and redistribution will require a new structure which they are ready to trot out as soon as they believe we are 'ready' to receive it.

Sometimes one asks the question, "Don't they know that will make things worse?" And often the answer would be, "They just don't understand how things work - they drank the kool-aid in college and haven't looked at reality in this area since."

But other times a better answer is the one Rand brought us when she said, they count on the victim to find a way. Social metaphysics applied to politics and economics. "I don't understand reality," says the social metaphycian, "but I will control that person who does know how to succeed and he will make things work for me."

But for some people - like the group in power now, it is often better to see them saying, "The system we desire, but can't tell anyone about yet (they wouldn't understand) will create a universe where no one needs suffer the tyranny of having to 'know' or the ability to 'achieve' but we will have to allow (okay, encourage) this system to become overloaded and destroy itself so we can bring on our utopia."

Redistribution is the goal, but don't make the mistake of thinking their rhetoric and proposed projects even begin to describe how far they want to go. They want to go far beyond the redistribution that can be done in a mixed economy.

Redistribution is the goal, and don't think that some of them aren't consciously planning on destroying our current system as a necessary means of getting their system installed.

Redistribution is the goal, and Rand was right - they are terrified of the very idea of having to live in a world where their abilities are needed for survival, their moral stature is seen and judged, and they much achieve their own happiness. And long ago they made mental peace with the idea of enslaving those whose abilities make survival possible, who are comfortable with their own moral worth, and who are happy. Their twisted view of metaphysics and epistemology is under their real drive.... What they really want to redistribute - from you to them - is your abilities and your moral stature and your happiness. They can never admit this to themselves and they cannot shake an unidentified sense of terror, or blind hatred, or paralyzing depression, abject shame, except by a vigorous pursuit of their unstated goal.


Post 7

Thursday, January 28, 2010 - 9:56amSanction this postReply
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Watch this 50 second video from 60 minutes and compare Obama's behavior with his demeanor during his speech last night.

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Post 8

Thursday, January 28, 2010 - 3:34pmSanction this postReply
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A Self-Reverential State of the Union Address

If substance was the main take-away of this address, it would have been merely mediocre. But what made it downright harmful for Obama and Democrats was its tone. The speech was defensive and petulant, backward-looking and condescending, petty and graceless. He didn't persuade people; he lectured them. What was on display last night was a man of unsurpassed self-righteousness engaged in constant self-justification. His first year in office has been, by almost every measure, a failure – and it is perceived as a failure by much of the public. Mr. Obama cannot stand this fact; it is clearly eating away at him. So he decided to use his first State of the Union to press his case. What he did was to set back his cause

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Thursday, January 28, 2010 - 5:03pmSanction this postReply
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President Obama is no John Kennedy, but he is much better at speaking to the hearts of the people than was President Bush or President Bush, or even President Carter. Ronald Reagan is a tough act to follow. I believe that President Reagan's greatest service to his country was being able to ACT LIKE THE PRESIDENT when we had forgotten what that was supposed to look like.

It is pretty easy to complain about the present and glorify the past. Hesiod told the myth of the Five Ages, from the first Golden Age to the present days where Men of Iron commit horrible acts. After his retirement, Barry Goldwater paid Hubert Humphrey a tribute for his statesmanship in the senate, saying how rare that was in their day, when the senators of the previous generation had been so much greater. Nice as that may be to sleep on, I think that every time and place is pretty much what you make it.

Jimmy Carter's cloying humility was one thing. Dick Cheney's sneer was a different message.

All manner of antecedent models can serve. I look at the Athenian Assembly as portrayed in the comedies of Aristophanes. I see the people changing their minds back and forth with each new input, hoodwinked by this until they are tricked by that, falling for one until they are seduced by another. Athens never developed a long history of stalwart men who lived according to personal standards that derived from the best virtues of their society. Whom can the Republicans or Democrats cloak in white to follow Cato the Censor, Cato of Utica, Julius Caesar, Marius, Sulla, Pompey, and Cicero?

Instead, I think of the scene in Anabasis, where Xenophon calls the Spartans and says, You guys grow up as thieves, so go up there and steal us a way through the pass; and the Spartan says, Look who's talking! You vote for whoever steals the most from the public treasury as long as they promise to distribute it among you.


Post 10

Thursday, January 28, 2010 - 7:11pmSanction this postReply
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You are right, Dick Cheney was great.

Post 11

Friday, January 29, 2010 - 6:26amSanction this postReply
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Interesting thoughts on Obama, ridicule - and Hoffer's The True Believer......

http://www.aconservativelesbian.com/2009/02/17/why-ridicule-is-obamas-kryptonite/

Post 12

Friday, January 29, 2010 - 7:11amSanction this postReply
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Some numbers...

Average yearly income of the lowest 55% income households in the US: $25,000 (2005). Public school college tuition for 4 years is $7,020 (2009). Lets say that for the vast majority of cases, people who use other people's stolen money for education do not know what to learn, choose poor courses, and do not become more productive from the education.


Given the above and the 20 year plan:
A four year college is $7,020 * 4 = $28,080. To be able to pay this amount back, a person must make at least $28,080 / 20 * 10 = $14,040 per year. Looking at the chart at wikipedia, about 13% of people make up to $14,040 per year. On average, over 20 years, these people can only be expected to pay back half of the loans (income levels are pretty linear from 0 to $14,040 for the 0th to 13th percentile, integrate half the area under the triangle). So if only half of the loans are paid back over 20 years by 13% of the population, that is (1/2) * ($28,080 / 20) * (13% of 300,000,000) = $27.4 billion dollars never repaid.

Given the above and the 10 year plan:
A four year college is $7,020 * 4 = $28,080. To be able to pay this amount back, a person must make at least $28,080 / 10 * 10 = $28,080 per year. Looking at the chart at wikipedia, about 29.4% of people make up to $28,080 per year. On average, over 10 years, these people can only pay back half of the loans (income levels are prety linear from 0 to $28,080 for the 0th to 30th percentile, integrate half of the area under the triangle). So if only half of the loans are paid back over 10 years by 29.4% of the population, that is (1/2) * ($28,080 / 10) * (29.4% of 300,000,000) = $123.8 billion dollars never repaid.

Notes:
- Due to wild inflation, people will actually have much higher incomes in the future and be more able to pay the loans back with the funny money.
- Fortunately not everyone in the lower 29.4% income percentile will be doing the 4 year college 10 year college payback plan, nor the 4 year college 20 year college plan.

Post 13

Saturday, January 30, 2010 - 5:10amSanction this postReply
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Dean, the $7,020 you used included only tuition and fees. Including room and board, etc. roughly doubles it. 

Your calculation also assumed no interest on the loan and no pay increases. However, arguably these two missing factors more or less offset each other.


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