tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8390077273564072559.post7696285794779359138..comments2023-11-02T08:17:41.979-07:00Comments on The Cultural Historian: The Debtor's Prison of TodayErnest R. Rugenstein, Ph.D. Cultural Historyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05950496148415307178noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8390077273564072559.post-11954176220538482482010-11-04T13:39:27.955-07:002010-11-04T13:39:27.955-07:00"You cannot be jailed because you owe money o..."You cannot be jailed because you owe money on your JC Penny charge card..."<br /><br />Unfortunately, it appears that this is already no longer the case. As Minneapolis Star Tribune writer Chris Serres says in the video accompanying his informative article "In jail for being in debt":<br /><br />"One woman, for instance, was trying to park downtown one afternoon, and she was arrested on the street, all over a $250 dollar J.C. Penney credit card..."<br /><br />http://www.startribune.com/local/95692619.htmlJohnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08340875416987743762noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8390077273564072559.post-63454925454069856392009-11-28T18:24:41.716-08:002009-11-28T18:24:41.716-08:00Nice blog. I "OWE" you a "DEBT"...Nice blog. I "OWE" you a "DEBT" of gratitude for exposing me to it. It reminded me just how insidious universities can be with regards to entrapping a student into ever deeper debts during hard times. That is, when the purse strings are tightened, tuition goes up quickly, at a rate perhaps not matched by the loans. I wish that all universities would lock in a set rate of tuition (having an annual 3% cost of living adjustment is fine, with a cap of a 5 year term) so that the student does not have to decide whether to finish one's degree or eat every day. (And don't tell me that a university can't financially plan ahead -- they are an institution of higher education... hello?!) Instead, imagine that at the onset, a student can decide whether the loan terms are agreeable for the expected entirety of the degree. Car loans work this way. Fixed rate home loans work this way. Why not also the school loans? As for the student who needs extra time to finish the degree, then treat it just like any other refinancing (using the rates of the day, for better or worse). Seriously, it's just another layer to the virtual debtor's prison of which you wrote.<br /><br />Submitted to Facebook by TenebrusErnest R. Rugenstein, Ph.D. Cultural Historyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05950496148415307178noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8390077273564072559.post-51362849455961289432009-11-25T11:52:09.768-08:002009-11-25T11:52:09.768-08:00Another brilliant essay, Dr. Rugenstein. You could...Another brilliant essay, Dr. Rugenstein. You couldn't possibly be more correct.<br /><br />I just fundamentally don't understand what is going on and why the Powers That Be allow the situation to continue as it is. Consider:<br /><br />*The President has set a lofty goal for increasing the percentage of Americans with post-secondary degrees by 2020, yet those with degrees now can't find work - or wind up woefully underemployed (i.e. a cashier at a grocery store).<br /><br />*A recent edition of "On Point with Tom Ashbrook" centered around a discussion of how Asian countries are rapidly catching up to us in higher education; the People's Republic of China already produces more engineers than the United States does.<br /><br />*During the same program, a caller questioned one of the panelists about increasing the number of engineering graduates in the USA because of the shortage of job openings for those that we already have. The panelist (former president of MIT) dismissed the argument - in his opinion, we have to produce more engineers (his obsession) in order to produce jobs. (Does that sound backwards to anybody else?)<br /><br />*Some career fields were already in dire straits before the Great Recession. The Recession has just made matters worse. For example, recent projections indicate that last year, there were four times more MLIS graduates than there were job openings for them.<br /><br />*Despite everything, most universities appear to have their heads in the proverbial sand. My alma mater, a small state-owned institution, tore down all of its old dormitories and replaced them with new, state-of-the-art dormitories. The trouble is that there are fewer rooms available for students than there were with the old dorms and the cost of room and board has increased substantially. A university that is theoretically dedicated to affordable, quality education is deliberately becoming less affordable.<br /><br />Whatever happened to the ideals of fairness and social justice? When did it become acceptable for capitalism to take over our entire society? Is there no longer any such thing as an intrinsic good, like art or music or all of those other "impractical" fields? (History?) When did the wealthy decide it was acceptable to abdicate their responsibility to those who have less than they do?<br /><br />I just don't get it.Spekkiohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07469918029692401764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8390077273564072559.post-17313715592467274372009-11-24T20:09:43.862-08:002009-11-24T20:09:43.862-08:00As Noam Chomksy said in a recent email to me, it&#...As Noam Chomksy said in a recent email to me, it's a debt trap. A debt trap has been effectively created to strip students and progressive intellectuals from dissidence.Cryn Johannsenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08452412213997621242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8390077273564072559.post-3945162092355640172009-11-24T03:49:55.130-08:002009-11-24T03:49:55.130-08:00That is a very good article! I am glad there is n...That is a very good article! I am glad there is no debtor's prison, but these days going to prison might be luxurious to some people! You can study, get a degree, get 3 hots and a cot, get some buds to hang out with and form a gang.. I myself have fallen in the the credit card trap and my score is terrible! Amazing how much your score is checked now, sometimes even by an employer!Adirondackcountrygalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08647770774053345725noreply@blogger.com