Lori Spechler Senior Editor CNBC "Op-Ed: Buried in Student Loans? Don't Blame the Banks":
"The cost of college is also the result of a culture that has accepted it as “the” best way to get ahead—we are not all Bill Gates. And high school has become a four-year sprint to get into the best college or university that money can buy. I get that, I am living it—early decision, SAT tutors, the full catastrophe is playing out again in my household.
There are certainly reasons that we buy into the dream.
But at the end of the day, it should all boil down to one simple question: can you afford it?
Is that fair? I don’t know but, it’s the way it is—I applaud any effort to change the system, but once you bought a ticket, please don’t ask me to foot the bill, I’m still paying for your house."
Bottom Line:
This was on CNBC -- CNBC!
Dandy Don would be singing in the background.
Xolo
Richard Vedder of National Review Online does not mince words: Forgive Student Loans?:
"Who would take the loss from the unanticipated non-repayment of a trillion dollars? If private financial institutions are liable for some of it, it could kill them, triggering another financial crisis. If the federal government shoulders the entire burden, we are adding a trillion or so more dollars in liabilities to a government already grievously overextended (upwards of $100 trillion in liabilities counting Medicare, Social Security, and the national debt), almost certainly leading to more debt downgrades, which could trigger investor panic.
This idea is breathtaking in terms of its naïveté and stupidity.
The demonstrators say that selfish plutocrats are ruining our economy and creating an unjust society. Rather, a group of predominantly rather spoiled and coddled young persons, long favored and subsidized by the American taxpayer, are complaining that society has not given them enough — they want the taxpayer to foot the bill for their years of limited learning and heavy partying while in college. Hopefully, this burst of dimwittery should not pass muster even in our often dysfunctional Congress."
Of course, I am not cruel or inflexible:
- Did you actually graduate college? (After year 2006?)
- Did you (or your immediate family) pay at least 51% of your tuition?
- Have you been current on each and every monthly loan payment, for a time period equal to the time you were in school? (Example: 5 years to graduate = 60 months of consecutive payments.)
- Are you currently working at a job that leverages your degree? (A very flexible definition.)
OK... Loan Dismissed.
A big chunk of Student Loan debt, whether performing or not, belongs to the government anyway, and we, collectively, are the government, so this is a "cost" that we should be willing to pay.
Bottom Line:
Let's hope that Vedder is correct about how our Congress might react.
~Tot1
Doing the right thing (meeting your commitments/obligations) should be rewarded.
Water Rates, the 4-Rs of Nontrepreneurism
Community Impact writes about the 4-Rs: Water Rate Raise Rankles Residents as Monarch Utilities - which operates Windermere Utilities a subsidiary of Southwest Water Company files for a (huge, and poorly designed) rate increase for Pflugerville.
"Monarch’s response
"Hayes said the reason for the rate increase is the nearly $70 million in investments Monarch has made over the past five years to tap new water sources, replace meters and replace aging water and wastewater treatment plants.
“Our sizable investment across the state means our costs are significantly higher and can no longer be sustained by the current rates,” Hayes said.
She said Monarch has made several improvements specifically to Pflugerville’s water services, including a new, elevated storage tank and improvements to an ultraviolet disinfection system at the Windermere wastewater plant.
“Monarch has invested millions of dollars on improvements throughout our combined systems to address enforcement actions against the company by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ),” Hayes wrote in a statement."
So, a government agency (TCEQ) enforces the rules against Monarch. Monarch then "invests" in improvements to get into compliance, and the residents get the bill.
Monarch should have applied for rate increases before their "investments", so that the community would have time to review their plans.
Bottom Line:
Let them (Monarch) eat cake. Don't spend money that you don't have then demand to be bailed out - that is Nontrepreneurism at its' worst.
~Tot1
It smells like raw sewage to me.
