Education Trial Balloon: Let the Struggle Begin
by Rodger Malcolm Mitchell, www.nofica.com
The Ten Steps to Prosperity first was posted on Oct 7, 2011 and more recently has been included in every post.
It contains:
Step 4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
and
Step 5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
You can read the rationales for each step by clicking the links.
Now, the White House has posted on Facebook a short video in which President Obama proposes making “two years of community college free for anyone who’s willing to work for it.”
He doesn’t explain why just two years of community college. And he doesn’t explain what “who’s willing to work for it” means. But let us speculate.
He may really want to implement Step 4, but knows he will run into all those people who will say, “We can’t afford it.” Even his tentative step will be challenged on sustainability of deficits and debt.
Of course, those who are not ignorant of Monetary Sovereignty know full well the federal government can afford anything, with the only limit to federal spending being inflation.
But because the masses have been brainwashed into believing the Big Lie that federal finances are like personal finances, you can be sure “affordability” will be the first objection. This will be difficult for the President to overcome, because he is one of those who has been spreading the Big Lie.
So he will be hung with his own petard.
Add that to John Boehner’s famous lie, “Let’s be honest. We’re broke,” and it becomes quite difficult for either party to backpedal to the truth.
Then there’s the mystery, ” . . . for anyone who’s willing to work for it.” I speculate this anticipates the right-wing’s predictable, mean-spirited response that those lazy, good-for-nothing poor have things too good, and are given too much, so should be made to work for whatever they get (and be drug-tested, too).
Never mind that the lazy, good-for-nothing rich kids are sent to college by mommy and daddy, who mail checks from their yacht in the Caribbean. And never mind that federal spending does not cost anyone anything.
The biggest fear is that poor kids will prove to be as smart or smarter than the rich kids, and will be able to pull themselves up, thereby narrowing the Gap between rich and poor.
No one, but absolutely no one, wants to look down at one’s “inferiors,” and discover that those “inferiors” are closing the Gap, and perhaps even (gasp!) passing.
So, between the “we can’t afford it” lie, and “they already get too much” lie, it will be a tough slog for anyone, but particularly for a President who has not distinguished himself as a slogger.
He, and the rest of America’s federal leaders, simply have not shown the courage to do what the monetarily non-sovereign state and local governments already do (free grades K-12 for everyone), by providing free grades 13+ for everyone.
I predict that just like the complex, convoluted mess called Obamacare, which was an “affordability” compromise (should have been free Medicare for every man, woman and child in America), Obama’s community college gambit will turn out to be an equally complex, convoluted mess.
It will have more regulations than the tax code, and will require recipients to jump through hoop after hoop after hoop (Think: The HARP mortgage refinance disaster of past years.)
But, to maintain competitiveness, America needs educated people, and quality of education must not depend on students’ wealth (or lack of it). The more Americans we educate, the more chances we have of developing great scientific, political and business leaders.
The question should not be whether our government can afford to educate our people (we can), but whether we can afford NOT to (we can’t).
It’s not a gift to the poor; it’s a gift to our nation’s future.
Let the struggle begin.
Mitchell’s laws:
- Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
- The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes. .
- Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.
- Austerity is the government’s method for widening the gap between rich and poor.
- Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
- To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
- Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap.