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New York, 3:02 AM
Mon Nov 30
13 posts in the last 24 hours
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10/25/09
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10/20/09
I will look into this. I haven't been working in a while, and $200 would go a long way at Trader Joe's. Ain't no shame!
10/19/09
Also, she's going into social work. Shouldn't she be the person lamenting the abuse of the system?
My other roommate and I used to plot ways to report her to the feds when she pissed us off. Handy note: Once you get over $100 of fraudulent food stamps it's a felony. #jschool
10/19/09
10/19/09
Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure that my volunteer stipend was more than $450 a month. #jschool
10/19/09
It's almost enough for one to despair of the entire welfare system. Almost. #jschool
10/19/09
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10/19/09
Further, apparently it's okay for taxpayers to provide government assistance to thousands of Walmart employees who are so poorly paid that they're eligible for a plethora of government programs, hence the reason why I see nothing wrong with AmeriCorps personnel accepting government assistance, especially given the pittance they're paid. #jschool
10/19/09
Note also that the program is based on income per household, not on how much your degree cost or what it might be worth someday. Frankly, I'd rather see qualified people using this resource than starving to death in the streets, but then, I'm not a Republitard.
For every so-called "welfare queen" milking the system, there's a gay kid who got thrown out of his house, or a single mom, or a laid off blue collar guy with a kid to feed. Their survival choices are strictly limited to either public assistance or crime. (Yes, some choose both. Not the point.)
Those who object may pick up some Charles Dickens to remind them of what the good ol' days were like. #jschool
10/19/09
10/19/09
One can't know in advance if there will be a glut of lawyers, doctors, librarians or research assistants when one happens to graduate, and one shouldn't have to speculate on that when pursuing an education in a field where one has proficiency and interest.
By your logic - and you know I love ya - students who aspire to certain fields should make their educational pursuits a strictly economic exercise.
Based on the number of self-entitled, moronic, wealthy jackasses who went to law school with me solely because Mommy and Daddy wanted to be able to say "My son, the lawyah...", I think that all professions are ill-served by that exercise. #jschool
10/19/09
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10/20/09
10/19/09
Terrifying? Yes. Unfair? How? #jschool
10/19/09
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10/19/09
If you're getting a graduate degree in Journalism, you're jobless by choice. If you've got one in economics, law, etc. you're jobless because you're unfortunate. #jschool
10/19/09
I figure after a while you'll give up and arrive at the same conclusion as the rest of us--that your tax dollars are going to go somewhere, and ensuring that people who earn less than $14,000/year (!) in New York City (!!) don't literally starve to death on the streets is as good a place for that money to go as any. What's that old line? Death and taxes? At least in this case the former can forestall the latter. #jschool
10/19/09
The broader point is that this is a capacity utilization problem. These kids are being told they can be whatever they want, and encouraged to take unholy amounts of debt by a system that makes it available with almost no qualification. That's a terrible system. My taxes are creating dual bad incentives - cheap student loan debt to fund worthless degrees and then foodstamps to feed these kids.
Graduate journalism school is a breadline factory. I'd like to stop participating in its operation. #jschool
10/19/09
10/19/09
10/19/09
Hint: these things are related.
Government has artificially removed the cash barrier to higher education. The result? Acres of debt, tons of worthless degrees, and no economic results to show for it.
Broad student loan subsidization was a gamble on America's youth that didn't pay. #jschool
10/19/09
10/19/09
10/19/09
We need to redefine "achievement." Going to school and getting a degree is not a guarantee or talisman of success. And it shouldn't be blindly encouraged to the point where we're manufacturing large quantities of debt-laden kids without any useful skills. Like master-level Journalists. #jschool
10/19/09
*Also, they are a pretty efficient little stimulus package since that money gets spent fast, whereas regular tax rebates can go straight to the ol' savings account/mattress/whatever. #jschool
10/19/09
I'm in favor of the food stamps - starvation is unconscionable. I'm not in favor of the education subsidies that create reliance on them. Feed the poor; just don't give 'em a BA in English and 60K in debt too. #jschool
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