or even, (and thank GOD, he's out of the race now), Kevin O'Leary.
I can just imagine what HE would do for education! And if you don't remember, here is Trump's pick for Education Secretary, Betsy Devos:
Now, I don't know exactly what goes on in the States or how deep this horrible scam they have turned education into runs, but I know it's pretty evil in Canada. My country actually uses the student loan bait and switch. They promise GRANTS for people from poorer families, (the ones that will take longer to pay off loans and maximize profits), then after it's too late to pull out of the agreement, like when you are already attending classes, surviving from emergency loan to emergency loan, they change their minds about the grants they had promised you, but offer you a high interest loan when they're positive you have no choice but to accept it. That is what happened to me, and that's why I will never pay back my student loans. I'd sooner go to jail. I wonder if they have this scam in the U.S. too. Americans are fond of thinking they've got it tough and Canada is this wonderland of free education and healthcare and all that nonsense, but they only hear the good stuff. They haven't LIVED in Canada and learned the truth.
I also wonder if the laws are the same on the maximum amount of interest allowable by law. I know in Alberta 23% is the most allowable because some of those payday loan places, (again, put up in low income areas and targeting the poor, who take longer to pay them back and can be bled for more), were busted for charging too much interest. But I guess it varies across the country. If I'm in Newfoundland I could get charged up to 60%! And then if I am charged even MORE, there's no telling if the perpetrators will be properly prosecuted. Is this law the same for student loan providers? Is it provincial or federal? Is it enforced? Are students paying back 60% or more on their STUDENT loans?
I've read that the rate of 7% is pretty common on student loans in Canada. At that rate, if it takes you 15 years, you will have paid more than twice your loan. This article says that a typical loan burden in Canada is $27,000, though, that's from the most recent Stats Canada numbers on this, taken in 2012. It can very easily cost a student that much in one year to go to a school in Canada now. So interest, if the scumbags at the banks actually ARE limited to charging 7% interest on student loans, (and I doubt the shit outta that), would be about 1900 bucks a year. Doesn't seem like much - until you live in Canada. A person with a university degree can work his ass off for 10 bucks an hour and STILL not have 1900 bucks a year extra. Been there, done that. So in 15 years of working midnight shifts, maybe clawing your way up to 12 or 13 bucks an hour, you might manage to pay off the interest. MIGHT!
And the situation is even more dire in the States and the U.K! The Globe and Mail article stated that the returns on a B.A. are not what they once were. I'll say! They are actually falling below the cost of investment. The solution? Don't go to school. Don't get educated. Stay dumb. It's almost as if this is the plan...
Then my mind got even MORE hideously capitalistic and I thought, "What a great time to start making derivatives and shorting student loans!" This is what happened to the housing loan market. Greed made people actually start betting on people not paying back their loans. HOPING they'd fail and their dreams of owning homes would fall short, making CDS, CFD and whatever other downright Satanic derivative buyers cream their Armani suit pants. I guess I'm not the first person to think of that either. Here's an article that includes a "smart," (I'd prefer "predatory"), investor telling an interviewer that if you want to take advantage of the student loan bubble, buy Navient. They loan money and student loans are up, which drives college tuition up, which drives student loans up. It's actually CALLED a rip-off in the article. But, wisely, he doesn't get into how to profit from the loans that WON'T be repaid. At least not on the record.
Because I have exactly no faith in the vultures who people Wall Street and whatever its equivalents may be in countries around the world that are creating these student loan bubbles, I have little doubt that there will be a crash. And because the loans are guaranteed by the country, it's going to be taxpayers who bail out the lenders, so the lenders don't give a flying fuck. Here is a very good summary of the 700 billion bank bailout of 2008. It has now cost in the 16.8 TRILLION dollars according to the article, and it's nowhere near finished. And really not much has been done to keep it from happening again. The key line in the article was, "The industry is not afraid to do it again because they know no one goes to jail and the government will bail them out." Maybe the industry will just do to the student loan market exactly what they did to the housing market. Could the next big financial crash be in the student loan area, and not in housing?
And at the risk of straying too far into unknown territory, is it not possible that this loan consolidation company doing commercials during hockey, Sofi, I think it was called, (Social Finance?), just goes looking for these impossible to collect loans? Loans, like mine come to think of it, that have had money paid into them, some with more money paid back than the original loan and 100% of the remaining debt is solely from interest. They buy these loans off the banks cheaply. Let's face it, the banks know they won't be repaid so 50, 40, 30, probably even 10% is a win for them, especially since they've already been paid back more than they loaned. Then these companies offer their services to the people who took the loans, for a fee, of course. They knock off a certain amount like the 40 or 50% they talk about in the commercials. This way pay it back or not, the company still makes a profit. Furthermore, the company takes out CDSes, (credit default swaps), on the loans worth more than they paid for those loans. This way Sofi gets even MORE money if they person doesn't pay the loan back! It looks like everybody wins, no? UNTIL companies can't pay the CDSes any more and the government, (taxpayers), are on the hook. Now, I'm no expert in this area, but do you suppose this isn't going on? Do you suppose this is why Navient is buying back its stock thinking that their company is worth "far more than the sum if its parts?" Just something I think about while watching hockey.
That's ONE of the things I was thinking about as Washington handed the Pens a drubbing in their own barn this morning. Well it was morning to ME anyway. It was good to see Crosby back. I like watching players like him and McDavos. They do a lot of little things that don't get noticed by most. Some, especially in the case of Sid the Kid, are dirty little things, but they make big differences in the game. Things you probably wouldn't notice if you haven't played. That makes watching the game more fun. Another thing that makes a big difference to me is the announcer. It was Mike, "Doc" Emrick. I like his announcing. He has more words for "shoot" and "pass" than anybody. And he often slips really fast jokes into the call. Today he says, "There are a number of referees who thought there should be a call on that play. I agree but then I'm not wearing stripes. Some think I should be but..." and without a stop, a laugh or anything launches into an ad. An AD! If I remember correctly it was an ad for some holiday resort somewhere. I was personally affronted! I go to great lengths to illegally watch live streams of hockey online that are usually stolen from NHL Center Ice or just rebroadcasts onto youtube from Russian feeds of Canadian broadcasts or whatever. I get heavily pixelated picture a lot of the time. I get stoppages due to crappy wifi a lot. And it is all worth it so I am not exposed to the further dumbing down of North America through commercial ads. Now they're sneaking them into the broadcasts! Sickening!
But then I started thinking, "I wonder what I would do if Huawei came up to me and asked me to promote their cell phones and services during my classes. Would I be strong enough to tell them to stick their offer up their "pigu," or would the school insist? If the school insisted, would I do it then? Are we all eventually destined to be forced into this capitalistic nightmare the world is turning into?" I thought back to the joke Doc threw into his broadcast almost as if it weren't allowed. Then I thought about the recent interview with Trump in which he clearly does not understand the former president George W. Bush's joke about the reason the oval office is round. He said it's so there are no corners to hide in. Trump doesn't get it. So many questions! Does greed kill humour? Was even Dubyuh better than Trump? I can't stand to see people sitting back and allowing the destruction of our education system and our world. I wonder if those who can do something and don't are just as guilty as the scumbags who jump at the opportunities for reasons of greed. But one, maybe the ONLY, solace, respite, last bastion of hope for the weary, is when we can laugh at the magnificent jackasses these spirit-sucking swine appear with their lust for money and power and stalker-esque obsessions with themselves.
And I started wondering, down the road, hopefully WAAAY down the road, when people are drinking Brawndo, eating extra big ass fries and watching "Ass!" and "Kicked in the Balls," will that be the only humour remaining? Fart jokes and slapstick? Will we lose all wit and thinking humour? If so, I am glad I won't be here.
Is the world turning into one "extra big ass" Idiocracy? And is it getting that way because most people's attitudes are, "Go away! Batin'."?
This kinda ruined the hockey game for me. More than the score.
I don't know though... Maybe if I could just dumben up, go with the flow, do what I'm told, be a good consumer, drink the Brawndo etc., etc., I could at least, then enjoy a hockey game.
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