Angry anarchist rant

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How does the average student find time to do anything under capitalism?

I am meeting with a job consoler and I am becoming scared out of my mind. I don't think I can manage to work and go to school at the same.

Working less than 30 hours a week will drastically decrease my options. Right now I don't have a job and my hands feel like they are already tied. I am stuck at my mom's house. I have no freedom of movement. I am in an invisible cage. I need to drive a car to get anywhere in this infrastructure, and I don't want to rack up more debt. I am trapped in an invisible cage. I am planning to transfer to a university next year I have the privilege to attend for free. I went to the cheapest community college around. But even this place racks up an uncomfortable amount of debt. Now the government is spiking the loan interest rate.

There is a type of protestant who claims this situation good. That it is building "character". Well I am going to explain how UNPRODUCTIVE this economic system is. Is it productive to produce waste?

These people (WASPs) love to worship efficiency. But their use of this term is very reductionist.

If the end result of the economic system is millions of advertisements, driving people want things they would have otherwise not desire. If the end result is the need for everyone to drive a car. If the end result is redundant jobs. If the end result is a need for redundant jobs. If the end result is redundant solutions due to restricted information and limited collaboration. Price signals and competition clearly do not create scalable efficiency. The end result is consuming more energy and creating more waste.

And this claim that it does create scalable efficiency, is a talking point that we here over and over again by the "authorities" of economics on radio and television. Even in school, I looked at my sisters notes for her microeconomics course, it basically said any economic system that isn't built upon market exchange is inefficient soviet style central planning. If students are expected to regurgitate this without questioning, this is cultural hegemony at its finest.

Burgeois economists don't seem to interact with anthropologists. If they are going to make many of these sweeping assumptions they start out with, wouldn't it make sense to consult anthropologists, so they can have an educated guess? It is 2014 and we still find "tragedy of the commons" in textbooks. Get with the times; this stuff was DEBUNKED ages ago.

I AM bitter! I have every right to!

I often enjoy disinterested discussions on a variety of topics that I never intend to do anything about. I did not always fully understand that most people in our society have little concept of disinterested opinion. I shudder to think of the kind of impression that some people might have of me due to my habit of saying whatever comes into my head on every topic.

Wow, you said a lot.

Lots of people balance school and work, not everyone can (including among NTs). I had a professor dismiss my complaints about having to go without sleep (school wasn't enforcing "quiet hours") as I was going to school full-time and working a part-time job. His position, he had to work 3 part-time jobs while going to school so my complaint had no merit. He was an asshat.

Education has long been set up to benefit those who can commit to doing nothing but going to school. It's a racket and 40 years behind the economic reality of what most people need from education.

I'm not sure bashing the Protestant work-ethic is an answer. Realize that that work ethic came from a culture that lived in places you could not harvest crops year-round. You either worked hard to store up for winter, or you starved.

And overcoming challenges in life does build character. I'm less inclined to have sympathy for people who "piss and moan" about their problems when it is clear they have done very little to try and overcome them. Complaining AFTER you've tried and failed repeatedly is at least understandable...not before.

The modern economy has ALWAYS depended on people consuming more than they really need. This isn't just capitalism. EVERY economic system on Earth depends on it. If we consumed little more than what we really needed, there would be no "prosperity," just "existence." We'd live like simple farmers and hunters. All the things we enjoy (including posting on the Internet) is the product of a consumerist society.

Is it counterproductive? Hell yes. You have to rise above the social programming and learn what is important to you and not buy into the rest of the garbage.

Of course, if the masses ever actually did that, the whole system would come crashing down. We are past the point of no return on this matter.

You know at the root of this ethic there seems to be a disturbing lack of empathy. Work is not anymore useful to man when it is an unnecessary oppression.

If these people don't care about my plight, why should I care about them? Why should I care for people who don't care about my feelings? After all, it's my labour they are interested in. This isn't creating character. This is the crushing of my soul, and this insensitivity does not help them or me. We work best when we care about each other.


You're saying its either this or become simple farmers and hunters? That there is no middle ground?

/\ Forget looking for empathy and just assume it doesn't even exist in the world of work. There are two kinds of people that work: Those to work to live and those who live to work but both still involve work.

There some "winners" with the changes in student debt financing.

The new student loan repayment :
- loan and interest are totally forgivable in 20 years, or in 10 years for public service [source 1]
- repayment is limited to 10% of discretionary income [source 1]
- wherein discretionary income: is the difference between adjusted gross income (AGI) and 150% of the federal poverty line corresponding to your family size and the state in which you reside). [source 2]
- presently, 150% of poverty line is ~17,000 - $20,000 for a single person. [source 3])
- adjusted gross income is gross income subtract various deductions such as contributions to a HSA, and student loan fees/interests [source 4]

Imagine becoming a public sector doctor or lawyer:
- Your first 10 years, on average your earn ~120,000 per year (varies widely)
- Assume 18,000 for 150% of poverty level
- Thus, 120,000 - 18,000 = $102,000
- Assume $3500 for HSA contribution
- Thus, 10% * (98,500) = $9, 850 repayment per year:
- Thus, 98, 500 total repaid of (loan + interest) over the 10 years, regardless of how much debt is take out.

A doctor or lawyer can easily rack up $300,000 to $400,000+ in student debt and assuming say 3.5% interest, then simple interest,( i..e, not compounding interest) per year would be 3.5% * say 350,000 so, 12, 225, and you only have to repay $9, 850 repayment per year for 10 years. Clearly, some people can be "winners" here.

The federal loans are presently at 4.6 to 7.1% interest, so the savings is even much more. [source 5]

It seems like a savings of ~ $225,000 to $350,000 is attainable.

sources:
1. http://www.finaid.org/loans/ibr.phtml
2. http://www.finaid.org/calculators/ibr10.phtml
3. http://www.ibrinfo.org/poverty_level_2013.vp.html
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adjusted_gross_income
5. https://studentaid.ed.gov/types/loans/interest-rates

I hear ya, bro. I'm on the other end, but working a job that does not use my degree and thus holding on by my fingernails trying to get by and pay back some of my debt. It really, really sucks.