2016 USA Presidential election thread I: The warm-up

[Acevalefor]

TIL I don't have the most kids on BG.

TIL that there are other BGers here who have more than 1 kid and still succeed at life.

[Hada]

That being said, did none of y'all have parents who socked away a grand a year for your college while you were growing up?

I screwed that up by being in my early 30's when I decided to go back to college. I'm not in that bad of a situation though because the community college that I got my associates from had a policy of any credits between 12 and 18 cost the same as 12 credits.

It sucked taking that many credit hours but the savings was worth it.

The absolute best thing though is that in my field you can get paid to get a masters. My PI is going to pay half of the tuition for grad school and an give me assistantship.

[Roranora]

That being said, did none of y'all have parents who socked away a grand a year for your college while you were growing up?

nope. i got poptarts for 18 years tho

i paid off my student loans too, but i'm not gonna anecdote it up with the details; student loan debt is clearly a huge issue for too many

[Xantavia]

And then there's the expectations put up: that "Hey, get your degree, and the world's open to you!" Nah. Get your degree, get a job at the bottom, and work your way up. The degree will open doors, but sometimes you need to take that crap starter job first, and there are a lot of millenials who aren't willing to do that-- the whole, "I'm pissed, because I got a degree so I wouldn't have to flip burgers, and now I'm not willing to". Well, fine, but everyone starts somewhere, but you don't end there. College is A step, but not the only step, toward a career. That is also not stressed, particularly as kids are going into school. It's seen as a way to skip the grunt work, rather than as a way to escape it later, by having that edge over others.

And you know what happens while flipping burgers right after college? You are lucky to get 25 hours at minimum wage. That's not enough to make any kind of dent into student loans, likely not leaving you enough to make the minimum monthly payment with any other expenses you could have. So you end up taking another part-time job. So congratulations, you are now making $500/wk before taxes. You know what else you have? No free time because your schedule is erratic week to week so no plans can be made. That really cuts into time that can be spent searching for that bottom rung job that will eventually lead into a career. And the whole time, you are getting yelled at that if you had just worked harder in school and bootstrapped it up, you wouldn't be in the position you are in. It gets demoralizing real quick when you are busting your ass to maybe get by and some guy who never had an ounce of debt keeps saying its because you don't try hard enough.

[Sho]

Back ro the race though, Jindal low on cash:

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/1...ow-cash-214848

[Blubbartron]

In regards to the student loan/personal anecdotes stuff, I was reminded of this really great video with Robert Reich that people should watch. It's long, but explains how we got into this shit, and why, despite the raw numbers looking decent (in terms of median wage adjusted for inflation and such), people are really feeling squeezed like they haven't in a very long time.

[Gredival]

Addressing the cost of college is only one half of the equation. The fact is that the economy isn't completely comprised of jobs that need or should need college degrees. Anyone that gets stuck doing minimum wage isn't doing anything that their degree helps them in.

The whole idea of your kids getting a college education to get a better job is that it was supposed to give you access to those better jobs that needed a degree, or make you super competitive. Well guess what, now everyone has one so it's not special. Those who can afford it are now going into even more debt to get exclusive masters and graduate degrees that still give you a degree of distinction. But even those are starting to saturate the market (JD's are a dime a dozen right now btw, esp. from all the crappy tier 3 degree mills)

No politician wants to talk about that though because telling people "Maybe a college education is a waste on your kids..." isn't going to play over well. The idea that everyone who wants to go to college should be able to go to college is an easier motto to sell than making colleges exclusive again.

But eventually we are going to have to confront the fact of reality (and the economy) that the bachelor's degree is the most overpriced and oversold product in America today. Instead of making college more affordable so that people are wasting less money on a worthless lambskin, we should focus on making sure that there's a livable wage so that people that end up in these careers can afford to live decent lives.

Getting rid of crappy for-profit degrees is a good start, but even legitimate non-profit college degrees are beginning to accumulate at a massive surplus.

[Ragnus]

Hell, the job I'm working right now calls for a Bachelor of Life Sciences and 3 years experience. I used to work with an older woman who said the job used to be a High School Diploma + Certification job.

[thetruepandagod]

Addressing the cost of college is only one half of the equation. The fact is that the economy isn't completely comprised of jobs that need or should need college degrees. Anyone that gets stuck doing minimum wage isn't doing anything that their degree helps them in.

The whole idea of your kids getting a college education to get a better job is that it was supposed to give you access to those better jobs that needed a degree, or make you super competitive. Well guess what, now everyone has one so it's not special. Those who can afford it are now going into even more debt to get exclusive masters and graduate degrees that still give you a degree of distinction. But even those are starting to saturate the market (JD's are a dime a dozen right now btw, esp. from all the crappy tier 3 degree mills)

No politician wants to talk about that though because telling people "Maybe a college education is a waste on your kids..." isn't going to play over well. The idea that everyone who wants to go to college should be able to go to college is an easier motto to sell than making colleges exclusive again.

But eventually we are going to have to confront the fact of reality (and the economy) that the bachelor's degree is the most overpriced and oversold product in America today. Instead of making college more affordable so that people are wasting less money on a worthless lambskin, we should focus on making sure that there's a livable wage so that people that end up in these careers can afford to live decent lives.

This was always my view on it. College has became what high school once was and an already over saturated market would be completely depreciated if something like free college became a reality. College should not be a right or a necessity even though saying otherwise resonates so well.

Also related

[Sho]

Best.

[Ragnus]

The only problem with that is saying that a required part of life has to come with the cost of a taking on a luxury car loan on average.

Also, has the gaffe to end him finally happened?

http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpo...m_content=2040

Donald Trump interrupted an Asian American student this week to ask if he was from South Korea. "I was born in Texas," he responded.

[Fiye]

If that gaffe ends donald trump I'll eat my boot. I doubt anything could stop Trump campaigning to the end aside from his desire to do it. Not saying his numbers won't change, but I doubt he'll up and quit anytime soon from that. I'm still waiting for Ben Carson to disappear off the face of the earth (ala Herman Cain).

Honestly though, I really wish Biden would finally put a fucking nail in the coffin for him running for president. I don't know why anyone would seriously vote for him. And on top of everything, I'm really surprised (But I shouldn't be) that 3 of the 4 frontrunners for the republican party are not politicans. (Trump, Carson, Fiora, and Rubio). This whole election cycle has been a fucking joke and I'm still half wondering if Sanders can make a dent to Hillary.

[Tyche]

I don't really see anything wrong with what trump said in the context. It's an Asian kid from Harvard that asked a question about an obscure trump quote on South Korea. I probably would have assumed there were Korean attachments as well.

[Dimmauk]

The only problem with that is saying that a required part of life has to come with the cost of a taking on a luxury car loan on average.

Also, has the gaffe to end him finally happened?

http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpo...m_content=2040

Donald Trump interrupted an Asian American student this week to ask if he was from South Korea. "I was born in Texas," he responded.

Trump has already lost the Hispanics and Asians. Hillary will name Castro as her running mate, and it will be all over. Did Bernie name Warren as his running mate yet? That would be great.

[Serra]

I'm so confused by all the talk about how Biden's leaning towards running and is going to decide in the next three days. I really felt he was waiting on the first debate to see if Hillary had any glaring weakness, and she didn't -- Biden's window closed on Tuesday.

[notorious bum]

I'm so confused by all the talk about how Biden's leaning towards running and is going to decide in the next three days. I really felt he was waiting on the first debate to see if Hillary had any glaring weakness, and she didn't -- Biden's window closed on Tuesday.

Cuz politics iz boring.

Trump's comments about rounding up the immigrants (i.e. the brown kind) en-mass wasn't controversial enough, this "what kinda Asian are you?" comment is peanuts.

[BerenTebogo]

There are thousands and thousands of people posting under their real names on Mike Huckabee's FB page in support of his tweets during the dem debate.

This is literally nothing.

[Quicklet]

Trump or Carson winning the GOP nomination would be the RNC's worst nightmare. Both men would be disasters in a general election and would be completely exposed in the debates. Although, I wouldn't be shocked to see Trump tacking to the middle in the general if he got the nomination.

[kuronosan]

I'm so confused by all the talk about how Biden's leaning towards running and is going to decide in the next three days. I really felt he was waiting on the first debate to see if Hillary had any glaring weakness, and she didn't -- Biden's window closed on Tuesday.

What? She has a huge weakness. She flip flops.

[Tyche]

If that's her huge weakness, she should go ahead and start decorating the Oval Office lol.