Done in one.

So we let them off the hook?

sigdiamond2000: [cdn.bleacherreport.net image 350x198]

Damn, beat me to it.

Wait--you mean taking out $120K in loans to major in philosophy or "gender studies" wasn't the foolproof plan for success I was led to believe?

But it's so much easier to think of them as LSD-addled unemployable dirt twirllers.

Right, FOX?.

BravadoGT: Wait--you mean taking out $120K in loans to major in philosophy or "gender studies" wasn't the foolproof plan for success I was led to believe?

That TOTALLY describes ALL the protesters!!

You are so brilliant!

Bloody William: DamnYankees: So we let them off the hook?

Actually, blanket student loan forgiveness would be a massive boost to the economy. A huge chunk of the population of 21-35 finding themselves switched from desperate budgeting to eventually pay off their loans over decades to actually having significant disposable income to spend, or at least the wiggle room for it? It would drive up demand for... basically, 80% of all products sold.

While this is all well said, I was making a jokey reference, not an actual point.

BravadoGT: major in philosophy or "gender studies"

You forgot to mention that they have iPhones.

sigdiamond2000: BravadoGT: major in philosophy or "gender studies"

You forgot to mention that they have iPhones.

They probably shop at Whole Foods.

sigdiamond2000: [cdn.bleacherreport.net image 350x198]

Crown their ass!

And here's the demography of the tea party:

(new window)

(pops to source)

Looks to me, just looking at employment, that there are more employed people (~70%) at OWS than at the tea party (~55%).

/more retired ppl with the tea party tho
//I wonder how each demographic stacks up...

Dammit! I was promised dirty hippies!

FTA:
"Highly educated
92.1% of the sample reported "some college, a college degree, or a graduate degree."

Highly Educated ≠ 'some college'

BravadoGT: Wait--you mean taking out $120K in loans to major in philosophy or "gender studies" wasn't the foolproof plan for success I was led to believe?

Hindsight is 20/20.

I was encouraged to take loans, to go to a good college for writing, etc etc. I didn't know better -- guidance counselors, teachers, even my parents... everyone encouraged me to go to the best school I could get into.

If I could go back 18 years, I'd have gone to a CUNY or SUNY school, and then gone to law school. My life would be a lot better. But what the hell did I know about any of this when I was 16, 17 years old and preparing for college? It's so easy to look back and make fun of people for the decision... I'm sure you didn't do anything you'd later regret in your late teens.

Bloody William: blanket student loan forgiveness

Fark that shiat unless I get it retroactively.

netizencain: FTA:
"Highly educated: 92.1% of the sample reported "some college, a college degree, or a graduate degree."

Highly Educated ≠ 'some college'

Huh? Based on the 2009 Census, only 56% of Americans age 25 and over have any college education.

So yes, the OWS crowd, as an aggregate, is highly educated by the standards of the country they live in.

veedeevadeevoodee: serpent_sky:

everyone encouraged me to go to the best school I could get into afford.

/ life lessons, have you learned any ?

I guess you didn't read the second half of what I wrote where I said if I had it to do over again, I wouldn't have taken that path and would have gone to law school after going to a CUNY or SUNY school -- which at the time were next to nothing. Turns out that me at 36 knows a hell of a lot more about how life works and what debt really means than 16-year-old me did.

Perhaps the people in authority positions advising minors to take on massive amounts of debt should reconsider their horrible advice to these teenagers. I worked in high school -- I took on office jobs for better hours and pay. I thought it all made sense and I'd get a good job out of college and pay off the student loans because I was told "that's the way it is." I think that's terrible, terrible advice, but what else does a high school-aged kid have to go on? Everyone kept telling me "the best schools, the best schools, the best schools" with no regard for what effect the cost would have on me and my life in the years to come.

Unfortunately, I majored in playwriting, screenwriting, and fiction, so I don't have the skills to build a time machine and tell myself to do something different. But I sure as hell tell anyone I can to not take on massive debt for an undergraduate degree.

veedeevadeevoodee: life lessons, have you learned any ?

nevermind ... just read the rest of your post. CARRY ON :)

Haha... then ignore me saying I guess you didn't read the second half.

But I agree with everyone who says we're pissed because we took advice from trusted adults and people who had been authority figures in our lives all along and accepted that was the way to go. And then we found out it really, really wasn't and there's not very much we can do about it unless someone figures out time travel.

thurstonxhowell: veedeevadeevoodee: life lessons, have you learned any ?

nevermind ... just read the rest of your post. CARRY ON :)

You couldn't get through 2 paragraphs without stopping to be a dickhole?

no no it's totally ok because he read the rest of her post later!

iollow: Don't be an ass.

Wait you know what poster you are talking to, right?

I don't understand why it's so surprising that 70% of the OWSers are identified as independents (not to be confused with Fark Independents^TM, who are really just Republicans too ashamed to call themselves Republicans after the Bush Administration).

America has a right-wing party and a VERY right-wing party. True liberalism doesn't have any actual political representation. The left of this country are forced to either vote Democrat (lesser of two evils) or not at all. This is part and parcel of what they're so upset about.