Goran Maric on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:22:45 +0100 (CET) |
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Re: <nettime> How a Library Saved My Life. - what can be done in regard to an unsustainable system of student loans |
Hello, Margaret, well in regard to a very good question, "what is being or can be done in regard to an unsustainable system of student loans," I believe that the answer to that question shouldn't be searched individually in itself. Rather, It should be a part of a broader restructuring of the society. 1. It should rather be the part of the question of how to move society in accepting the idea of free public universities, as well as free and high quality child care schooling from the toddlers all the way to K12 to substituted by the government in full in whatever form it could be done. 2. The only part I see that some type of loans might be issued would be in regard to life expenses. And also those loans shouldn't be of such a predatory nature, as we see them to be today. 3. If anyone was military service they should be allowed to a full scholarship in any institution of their choice. Of course we should work and help them get prepared to be able to attend classes if they lack a good basic education. 4. The health care should be universal single payer system, something like Medicare for all,l that would cover also dentistry as well as mental health. 5. Housing should be organized in a similar manner as to what is done in Scandinavian countries. The ones who are in economical hardship, should be covered under a very strong social protection system. 6. Those who cannot afford $200K for a house, shouldn't have chance to buy it through a kind of predatory loans we have experienced taking place here in the US in last decade. 7. People should be taught to live in withing their economical means. 8. Also the US, read our, government shouldn't be allowed to give $300 or so million of dollars to Ukraine and other countries for creating "free medias." Rather some amount of that money should be issued to all these independent and alternative medias here, in the US, which are chronically struggle on an everyday basis. We have to develop a real strong independent media accessible to all population at home before even considering doing similar to other countries. Once these suggestion would take place, the expense for these programs would not allow the US, our, people's government, financial, due to the lack of thereof to get engage in military activities they have been engaged with in pretty much for the last 100 years or so. As the result of such actions, the world would be much better place; imperial capitalism wouldn't be unleashed in such an amount as we see it today. 8a-9. Of course, we must disassemble NATO and the rest military posts throughout the world. I believe once we would successfully execute the suggestions from the above, as I mentioned earlier, we wouldn't be able to spend money on the military and other undercover atrocious activities hidden behind the misleading terms like Humanitarian Wars by NATO. All of this mentioned are not the rules egraved in the stones, they are rather a broad brainstorming, but neither we should move that much away from them. Does this seems as utopian solutions, yes, and no, depending on our willingness not to look for the excuses in others but rather fully get engaged in challenging our dogmas, here, at home. We should dedicate all our mental, physical and any other possible attention to getting these problems solved, and as we are solving these issues, we should wholeheartedly support other struggles throughout world, but mustn't ever ignore our home for the sake of other homes. I believe that concurrently while we are working on these challenges, here, at home, the rest of the progressive world would be less oppressed by our, the US, government, and would be more able to positively engage with their own problems. Best, gORAN # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mail.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org