Large Helmet Crab Shell
and Its Shadow,
with Starfish.
Atlantic City, NJ,
Beach, 2003.
In 2010 86.5% of all adults over 25 years of age had completed High School.
29.5% of adults had completed 4 years or more of college. 25% had a Bachelor degree or higher degree.
The price of a college education has risen from 1950 to 2007.
Year---------Public College/University---------Private College/University
1949-50----------$1,233------------------------------$1,430
1959-60----------$3,244------------------------------$3,904
1969-70----------$7,041-----------------------------$16,234
1979-80---------$21,031-----------------------------$41,434
2006-07--------?$60,000---------------------------?$100,000
(Prices appear to include tuition plus room & board, perhaps books, fees, other expenses.) Adapted from The NYT Almanac, 2010_____________________________________________________________
Higher Education is a good example of the cost of governmentalist intervention. The 'bail out' in education however was done through private citizens and the extension of federal financial aid programs to the general public, from early defense department programs to encourage degrees in science and technology.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s many if not most students and their parents paid for the student's college education. Private 'tuition plans' which allowed parents to borrow for the year, but pay monthly, and a variety of other plans were available.
Pell Grants for welfare recipients were available. The Federal Family Financial Assistance Plans for Tuition and other expenses were not developed, not available at many or mot private schools, or available only to military, Department of Defense, or other restricted groups.
Federal financial aid programs initially were regulated under the US Code of Federal Regulations, were not considered 'consumer credit', were unsecured, simple low-interest rates loans, and were not considered to be a 'bill collectors' bonanza.
Over the years as the 'real economy' has faltered, the federal debt and 'paper economy' has grown, federal tuition assistance programs have been 'grown' into 'the student loan industry'.
This is a huge computerized network of 'third-party bill collectors' who do not lend money, who do not honor the enticing student payment deferment and forgiveness options offered to applicants to 'get a signature', charge with high-interest, compounding interest finance fees, and generates an exponential number of duplicative 'accounts', billings, and negative credit reports through the consumer 'credit reporting agencies' (CRAs).
The financial aid programs are done with governmental seal of approval under the Federal Insurance Guarantee Corporation. For a 5-10% or more 'origination fee' and 'loss/default insurance premium' form signed, in advance, at the same time as the application or on 1 form which is considered to be both 'Application' and 'Promissory Note", the applicant becomes a target for the 'student loan industry' bill collection machine.
Despite violating Federal Trade Commission laws against advance payments required to get a loan and United States Code Annotated (USCA) laws against extortionate extension of credit under 'Racketeer Influenced Organized Crime', the student loan industry persists. It has become larger under looser laws for approving loans as the tuition amounts have increased. Now many are extended to involve parents and family property.
Obama involves cabinet departments, like the Department of Education, which now claims to actually lend money rather than sponsor loss/default insurance policies as students obtain actual loan money from banks and other lenders. Many 'third party' bill collectors invoke this department and others on their billings.
Under Obama, rewriting or revision of federal laws has occurred. For example, USCA rules on usury have been revised allowing outrageously higher interest rates. Modern usury rate limits previously had been increased from 8% in frequently cited cases to 25% for 'revolving loans', and compound in addition to simple interest. Compound interest previously was considered 'loan sharking', exorbitant interest rates on amounts borrowed.
Using paying students who borrow to attend college to subsidize the welfare class of students on Pell Grants, other 'no payment required' funding, the social welfare budget in general, or as 'start-up' funds for business grants, loans, or other governmentalist programs, is unfair and violates the civil rights of those who stay off 'the public dole' and try to pay their own way. Unfortunately, the value of a college education has not kept up with the cost of a college education for these students, if they cannot find a high paying job or a series of financial solutions which allow them an adequate standard of life.
Other violations of civil rights occur through automated filing of bankruptcy-type lawsuits, as is now done by attorney groups in New York and other states. Names are placed on lists and lawsuits have been filed in enormous numbers in computerized locations.
The enormity of the data errors on government files and those forwarded to the credit reporting agencies (CRAs), to bankers/lenders, to courts, police, and others is mindboggling. So is the harm these data streams can cause to an individual US citizen.
Government contracts to CRAs, and the Obamacare plan to join CRAs, IRS, and the health care industry, is beyond frighteningly Orwellian. Data put on these computers, whether accidental or with intent to harm cannot be undone, easily or at all.
It may be time to take as much valid official data 'offline', as is possible, and to reserve the Internet for advertising and the voluntary exchange of information and opinion.
Governmentalists may have to understand that 'yes, you cannot make money off of these things.' Government picks up the cost of those products or services which are not profitable for private businesses. Welfare medical care, public school education through elementary and high school, products of industries which have failed to stay solvent or make a profit, whether by demands for ridiculously high wages and salaries, management errors like too much or too extravagant construction at the wrong time, like higher education.
(See http://monthlynotes20.blogspot.com to read blogs on 'Can the Credit Consumer Survive the Credit Reporting Industry?')
Email mkrause381@gmail.com or mkrause54@yahoo.com to comment or request copies of this or other blogs posted by mary for monthlynotesstaff at http://monthlynotes21.blogspot.com (http://monthlynotes.blogspot.com through http://monthlynotes21.blogspot.com) on www.google.com. See http://monthlynotes18.blogspot.com and http://monthlynotes19.blogspot.com for monthlynotes bloglists of titles and URLs.
Graphic: An Original Photographic of a 'Large Helmet Crab Shell and Its Shadow, with Starfish', Atlantic City, NJ, Beach, 2003, copyright mkrause381@gmail.com or mkrause54@yahoo.com.
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