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Can someone please explain how in the world can a university president be paid as much as five million or more a year? What is it that they do? Wait. They make our young people go into debt.
This is the most immoral and shameful aspect of the American society.
Oh please. You always want to blame other people. People put themselves in debt. And, yes, the amount of debt that people irresponsibly get themselves into is shameful
I am a boomer and the federal reserve stole my financial present by keeping interest rates at zero. Thanks Alan Greenspan and Ven Bukakke.
Interest rates have only been at zero for a few years. In the 80s and 90s, interest rates were really high. It all evens out over a reasonable period. If you were banking on a short-term investment period, then you stole your own financial future.
Interest rates have only been at zero for a few years. In the 80s and 90s, interest rates were really high. It all evens out over a reasonable period. If you were banking on a short-term investment period, then you stole your own financial future.
True, as I mentioned in my post earlier there are many many better investments these days. Putting money in a bank savings isn't really an investment anymore.
It's crazy for someone to think that they should limit themselves to bank savings accounts for their investments.
That era of high interest savings accounts is gone and one needs to adapt to current times.
It's like someone trying to fight technology and not know how to use a computer or email.
I remember hearing about technophobes back in the day, sometime in the 1990s. People that refused to use computers or were scared to use them.
Now your grandma is as likely to have an iphone , laptop as you are .
We aren't hearing much about things like the 'digital divide' , technology has gotten to the point where even very poor people have internet access at least through their cell phones. You can buy a chromebook for under $200 or a used laptop for next to nothing and access free wifi at a number of places these days.
People should start looking the same way in terms of investments. There are going to be a lot more ways to invest with the JOBS act and crowdfunding,etc which is only growing.
To answer the question...We have all stolen their future and it's been done in a variety of ways, debt being only one symptom. Here are just a few of the things we've allowed to happen over multiple generations. Slowly, steadily, bit by bit we:
--Accrued more debt
--Fought in dubious wars
--Thought that just because we're a democracy (supposedly..actually we're
republic, but I digress), that voting once a year would be enough to take care of everything (Newsflash: It isn't).
--Allowed both government and big business to accrue more and more power over us.
--Collectively closed our eyes to the rampant corruption in government, or only looked at the corruption from the "other team" but not our own team's.
--Generally emphasized security and comfort over liberty/freedom, waiting for / wanting the government or some "magical other" to take care of the icky parts of life (like saving for retirement, among many other things) that we don't like doing.
--Generally have a very short term outlook on things and not willing to endure any short term pain/sacrifice for long term benefit.
We believed the lie that democracy / democratic forms of government is supposed to be easy & convenient. As a matter of fact, it's the opposite of convenient. Democracy isn't for the faint of heart. When the people get wimpy, they lose their liberties/freedoms.
The real reason is bloat. In the University of California system, there are more administrators than faculty. The same kind of obesity has spread throughout America. SUNY Albany has a VP for Student Success. I wonder what she does.
Another factor is that a professor spends much less time teaching than he used to. He has "more important" things to do, like "research", faculty "conferences" and "conventions". So there are more assistant professors (i.e., Barack Obama) and graduate assistants passing on their shallower knowledge.
And there's been mission creep. Universities involve themselves in every aspect of American life. No corner is safe from their meddling. Instead of passing on the accumulated wisdom of the ages, they're worrying about every cause that comes along. And if none come along, they'll start one.
Money pays for all of this. Some of it from parents, some from students and an increasing amount from taxpayers.
Lots of universities have that title. Rather than "wonder" what they do, it might behoove to find out? You know, before casting aspersion.
Mission creep? Meddling? You sound a lot like someone who fears facts and knowledge might get in the way of your beliefs. Where, exactly, might the pressing societal issues and debates be explored, if not at institutions of higher learning? Corporate America? Congress? Your living room? LOL
The people who stole our children's future are most visibly the richy-rich politicians and businesspeople who are in bed with each other, and have colluded to sell off a huge portion of our well-paying jobs to other countries. A mere two generations ago, one did not need a college education to make a lot of money. These days it is almost a necessity, unless you're willing to brave extreme weather and extreme physical danger working on an oil rig somewhere. A guy I knew told me that on standard lumber-mill pay in 1966, he was able to buy a brand new top of the line Corvette. Can a person working a regular non-managerial lumber mill job do so today? Not a chance, hoss.
I agree that college presidents shouldn't get paid millions of dollars. But colleges never used to charge what they charge these days. Look back just two generations and see what it cost to attend college. My dad went to a private college (not a state school) and he said that working a standard job that a teenager could get in those days, he was able to save up enough money in one summer to pay for the entire cost of one semester. These days the same school's cost per semester is approximately $13,000. How many standard jobs that teenagers can get will pay that much in three months? Heck, that would make the job pay over $60,000 when you figure that that $13,000 has to be AFTER-TAX money!
The reason why college is so expensive is simple - supply and demand. Everybody wants to go to college these days, but they ain't making more colleges at a rate sufficient to keep up with demand. Even if they did, the colleges would be "new" and nowhere near as desirable as old established colleges with long legacies of successful alumni. If you attend Joe's College, established 2012, you have no idea if that degree is going to get you anywhere. This is why just about every "old" college out there advertises the year it was established, very prominently.
The demand for a college degree is high because our well-paying jobs that didn't require one have largely vanished. And it's getting even worse with well-publicized studies showing people with bachelor's degrees serving coffee at Starbucks. Just yesterday I checked out a particular profession and it always requires a minimum of a master's degree, but the median pay is only about $42,000. Two generations ago, you could easily get a job right out of high school that would have you making that type of money (adjusted for inflation) in four years if you were a good worker. No student debt, no master's degree, nothing... and it wouldn't require that you move to Williston, North Dakota or live on a boat.
It can be said that the fault lies with the politicians and the rich businesspeople as I theorized at the beginning of this post.
But the real truth is that the fault lies with people who are far less visible.
You want to know who is responsible for the loss of our children's future?
LOOK IN THE MIRROR.
Unless you have exhaustively researched every candidate for whom you've voted, such that you make sure you never cast a vote for anyone who is rich or has deep-pocketed interests supporting his/her candidacy (interests which will, of course, expect favors in return for the donations if the candidate wins the election), and unless you have never bought anything that was made in China or some other third-world country when it USED to be made in America not all that long ago, YOU ARE THE PROBLEM.
And as such, you have no right to complain. You made it happen.
The only people who are excused from culpability are those who have always done everything possible to avoid electing people who engage in "crony capitalism" and to buy American-made products.
The reason college costs are outrageous is because they are creating little empires with luxury campuses etc. And competing for HUGE GOVERNMENT TAXPAYER DOLLARS for nonsense "grants" etc.
Like the latest one I heard about $466 Million dollars WE PAID FOR: "Why Do Fat Girls Date Less and Risk More?".
Other than that, I agree completely with your comment that I bolded. And I would add to THAT, people are completely CULPABLE by ignore our founding principles, the civics they SHOULD UNDERSTAND in the concept of a REPUBLIC, Federalism, LIMITED GOVERNMENT, three EQUAL branches of government instead of adopting a PROGRESSIVE circa 1920's ideology that there MUST be an underclass and political class.
Apathy, greed and stupidity is what stole our children's future. Just like Ben Franklin said "It's a Republic if you can keep it".
Last edited by runswithscissors; 12-10-2014 at 03:44 AM..
The reason college costs are outrageous is because they are creating little empires with luxury campuses etc. And competing for HUGE GOVERNMENT TAXPAYER DOLLARS for nonsense "grants" etc.
Like the latest one I heard about $466 Million dollars WE PAID FOR: "Why Do Fat Girls Date Less and Risk More?".
Other than that, I agree completely with your comment that I bolded. And I would add to THAT, people are completely CULPABLE by ignore our founding principles, the civics they SHOULD UNDERSTAND in the concept of a REPUBLIC, Federalism, LIMITED GOVERNMENT, three EQUAL branches of government instead of adopting a PROGRESSIVE circa 1920's ideology that there MUST be an underclass and political class.
Apathy, greed and stupidity is what stole our children's future. Just like Ben Franklin said "It's a Republic if you can keep it".
The "news item" says $466 thousand, not million. You must a Libertarian, no one else exaggerates to quite the same level! LOL
PS - Still waiting on that hyperinflation.
Last edited by shaker281; 12-10-2014 at 04:31 AM..
Can someone please explain how in the world can a university president be paid as much as five million or more a year? What is it that they do? Wait. They make our young people go into debt.
This is the most immoral and shameful aspect of the American society.
Other than negotiating compensation when you're going into the job, University Presidents can be responsible for fund raising and pulling in endowments and creating long term income streams for the school. If his negotiator is smart he may be a commission for these tasks, or his contract ended for not achieving these tasks. Especially if it's a private school you may not have access to how this money is made.
As Ms Welch said: I'm not paid what I'm worth. I'm paid what I earn.
Nature is cruel and supply vs demand is part of nature.
Low wages for low skill jobs give incentives for people to strive for higher wage jobs. For example, working construction with aspirations of becoming contractor/project manager.
Rain is also part of nature, that's why we build roofs. Unless we're conservatives, then I guess we sit around in a field pontificating on the cruelty of nature.
Your comment on incentives isn't relevant, unless you're suggesting that in the 50s there was no incentive to strive for higher wage jobs. I'm pretty sure project manager jobs didn't go unfilled due to the acceptable blue collar wages of the time.
To answer the question...We have all stolen their future and it's been done in a variety of ways, debt being only one symptom. Here are just a few of the things we've allowed to happen over multiple generations. Slowly, steadily, bit by bit we:
--Accrued more debt
--Fought in dubious wars
--Thought that just because we're a democracy (supposedly..actually we're
republic, but I digress), that voting once a year would be enough to take care of everything (Newsflash: It isn't).
--Allowed both government and big business to accrue more and more power over us.
--Collectively closed our eyes to the rampant corruption in government, or only looked at the corruption from the "other team" but not our own team's.
--Generally emphasized security and comfort over liberty/freedom, waiting for / wanting the government or some "magical other" to take care of the icky parts of life (like saving for retirement, among many other things) that we don't like doing.
--Generally have a very short term outlook on things and not willing to endure any short term pain/sacrifice for long term benefit.
We believed the lie that democracy / democratic forms of government is supposed to be easy & convenient. As a matter of fact, it's the opposite of convenient. Democracy isn't for the faint of heart. When the people get wimpy, they lose their liberties/freedoms.
Good post. I think most people think that all the hard work of democracy has already been put in by the Founding Fathers and all of those people killed in wars.
Things have gotten pretty out of hand, but the "Tea Party" nuts aren't a good alternative either in my opinion.
There is a lot of corruption, but nobody seems to really care much.
Some of these lobbies these days are so big and powerful and they get away with a lot. Most Americans don't even seem to realize how this all works either.
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As Raquel Welch said
