Another day with Barack Obama as President of the United States, and another media report on how he is going to save us from ourselves.
On NBC's May 14 "Nightly News," NBC identified a new problem facing society: credit card companies that use marketing gimmicks and low interest rates to lure in young borrowers. The solution, of course, is to continue the evolution toward a government that protects the individual womb-to-tomb.
"It is commencement season, which brings to mind all the joys of college graduation, and these days all the debts," "Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams said. "First, the student loans. But so often now, graduates enter the world with awful credit card debt and a chum - a crummy job market. President Obama talked about the problem today, urging Congress to crack down on companies that make the credit cards so enticing to students in the first place."
ABC chief investigative correspondent Lisa Myers explained college graduates were entering the work force with high amounts of credit card debt due to their "inexperience."
"A recent study found that college students with credit cards graduated with an average of $4,138 in card debt," Myers said. "Critics accuse companies of targeting the financially inexperienced."
One of those critics - Michigan Democratic Sen. Carl Levin, who recently said credit card users facing higher fees and interest rates under the current economic malaise were facing a "double whammy" in the May 13 New York Times.
"Everybody ought to be doubly troubled when anybody takes advantage of a consumer who is underage," Levin said to "Nightly News."
But, according to the lone spokeswoman for the banking industry, Nessa Feddis of the American Bankers Association, at age 18 you're able to enter a contract, join the military - "but you're not competent to have a credit card?"
Nonetheless, government under Obama will save the unsuspecting college student from credit card companies.
"Today the president criticized universities, some of which get fees when students sign up for cards," Myers said.
"And we also need to clean up practices at universities to protect students from getting stuck in debt before they even get started in life," Obama said in a speech aired on "Nightly News. "That's important."
The "victim" in the story - Sarah Fightmaster, was shown throwing away credit card offers. She claimed to have learned her lesson about credit cards because her parents were forced to extend their working years beyond retirement to bail her out of credit trouble.
"Fightmaster still gets lots of card offers and takes responsibility for her own plight," Myers said. "Her advice to students - think twice before you swipe."
But that begs the question - if Obama is going to save us all, why even bother thinking.
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"Everybody ought to be
Fri, 05/15/2009 - 11:34 ET by MidAmerica"Everybody ought to be doubly troubled when anybody takes advantage of a consumer who is underage," Levin said to "Nightly News."
hhmmm... but these same underage consumers also vote on who is to be President. Perhaps their 'inexperience' should prompt us to raise the voting age back to 21.
This is exactly what we don't need!
Fri, 05/15/2009 - 11:42 ET by gmaniac1I work for a state guaranty agency for student loans and I can tell you, our motto is "borrow as least as you can." The problems with student loans is that a student can cover all their expenses with free money, i.e. Pell Grant, scholarships, other grants, and they can STILL ask for the maximum amount of student loans, both subsidized and unsubsidized, each term.
The government needs to put a limit on this and they tried to lather over it by extending the Pell into the summer months, as well as increasing the alottment, so that students will take out less student loans. Do you think that will stop certain people from taking out loans if they are STILL elgible? Hardly, they'll keep sucking the blood like a vampire.
They also increased the student loan maximum amount, which will be steadily increasing until 2012. The subsidized student loan interest rates will go from 6.0% this year to 3.9% in 2012. They change the interest every July 1st in a calendar year. This is great considering that the approximate outstanding student loan debt is 90 billion dollars, of which 5% is defaulted. However, the majority of student loan defaulters are ones that don't graduate, but they are still required to pay back what they have taken out to that point.
Has anyone ever got on Big Education? You know tuition has gone up almost 500% since the 70's. Compare that to Big Business, where sometime prices have gone down in certain alienated industries, i.e. oil. No cry from the media or Baby Boy on that one. I wonder why?
When the people fear the government it's called tyranny, when the government fears the people it's called liberty!
The Right to Education
Fri, 05/15/2009 - 12:49 ET by KC MulvilleCompare colleges, and see what the difference is.
I went to St. Joseph's in Philadelphia, and I studied philosophy. You might be surprised to hear this, but in my philosophy classes, we studied the same things as did the students at Harvard. I mean, let's face it: Plato is Plato. We even used the same textbooks. So what's the difference between Harvard and St. Joe's? It isn't the topic. It isn't the quality of the desks in the classroom.
In most businesses, price follows product, meaning that the price of the product rises as the product improves in quality. In education, since "prestige" is the chief differentiator, that equation is reversed: product follows price. The more expensive the school, the higher the class of people who attend and become alumni, which is what makes one school "better" than another.
But see what happens when you declare education to be a right! Once the government declared that higher education is a "right," it multiplied the number of schools exponentially, which in turn, accelerated the pressure on each school to be more attractive. And in the education market, attractive means more expensive.
Watch the connections. Declaring higher education to be a "right" simply multiplied its cost. Never mind the abstract speculations about what rights are, the moment you declare something a right, you multiply the costs dramatically. And now we're facing Obama's agenda for the country, which is to declare three things to be rights: healthcare, education, and energy. Triple whammy.
I wonder if GE Capital, the
Fri, 05/15/2009 - 11:47 ET by fitzfongI wonder if GE Capital, the beneficiary of a $140 Billion federal bailout, was responsible for signing up some of these "victims". Hmm, GE getting taxpayer money to subsidize them for their malinvestment, then turning around and acting as That One's propaganda instrument in presenting a "solution". Yeah, no conflict-of-interest there.
"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." -Winston Churchill
Critics accuse companies of
Fri, 05/15/2009 - 11:49 ET by Dan The Man 2Critics accuse companies of targeting the financially inexperienced." .... She claimed to have learned her lesson about credit cards because her parents were forced to extend their working years beyond retirement to bail her out of credit trouble
So she never learned the lesson and her parents bailed her out. The lesson would have been better if she had taken the hit. Responsible people do what they need to do to repay debts and if they are bailed out like the car companies and banks and fill in the blank then the lesson is not learned.
Her parents should have let her pay the consequences, but I am sure she has been bailed out many times in the past and this was just one of many.
God had it right when he said his people were stiff necked, He understood the natur of humanity. Occasionally we do but only if we eliminate the liberals first.
Haha. That jumped out at me
Fri, 05/15/2009 - 12:27 ET by freecitizenHaha. That jumped out at me too. "It was really hard on me watching my parents do all that work."
Liberal: remove all that's Right, and this is what's Left.
Don't jump to conclusions.
Fri, 05/15/2009 - 16:44 ET by danebramageDon't jump to conclusions. Depending upon your feelings toward your parents, hurting them can be even more painful than taking the hit yourself. You're assuming this girl is an ungrateful, habitually selfish turd, and the evidence just isn't there for you to make that judgment.
I did not jump to any
Fri, 05/15/2009 - 17:35 ET by Dan The Man 2I did not jump to any conclusions. It is evident her parents bailed her out and she most likely learned nothing about sacrifice. If her parents had let her make poor choices during her upbringing and taught her lessons about her choices then most likely she would not have gotten into debt.
The very fact she got into the mess she was in demonstrates as you put it a "habitually selfish turd". Remember you said it not I and if she was not one then she would have settled the matter without her parents help. In otherwords been a responsible adult.
I can tell you are just like her and her parents. Especially in your comments about credit companies luring people to make poor choices. People dont need to be lured because they are prone to make poor choices. And if you dont learn from them then you will make teh same ones. Just look at the USA and the choices our leaders are making now, they have not learned any lessons or the wrong ones.
The idea is a simple one
Fri, 05/15/2009 - 12:19 ET by c5thenThe government will save all the stoopid people from the eeeeevil credit card companies and then own their debt. To pay it off all you have to do is work at one of these pre-approved organizations that do community service. See. All fixed, now.
Now put on this brown shirt and take this club, er sign handle, and do what this guy here tells you.
Hey, I got the wrong "CHANGE"!
www.loyaltoliberty.com
The formula is simple . . .
Fri, 05/15/2009 - 13:26 ET by GalvanicThe liberals want to lower the minimum age for making critical decisions on everything from credit to unplanned pregnancies, and establish government-run remedies for the bad decisions.
Don't forget the vote. Some
Fri, 05/15/2009 - 13:44 ET by mattmDon't forget the vote. Some of them even want the voting age lowered to 12.
Of course they would never
Fri, 05/15/2009 - 13:42 ET by mattmOf course they would never "crack down" on government funded schools whihc over inflate thier tuition costs and then "sell" the students on easy loans. Nor will they "crack down" on text books which cost $300 and become "out-dated" every year, or tenured professors making six figures while minimum wage student aids actually teach the classes....... Nooooo, it only those evil capitalists who need cracking down on.
Welcome to the Former U.S.A.
Wow
Fri, 05/15/2009 - 15:03 ET by DuymonBefore Dems start cracking down on "evil" companies that offer a completely voluntary service to college students who might be a little too spend-crazy, they should set a good example for these kids and show some fiscal responsibility by actually living within their means.
...
Fri, 05/15/2009 - 16:48 ET by danebramageAmen. Talk about an institution that emits a siren song of pretty lies in order to entrap people and separate them from their money and freedom...
If Big Business deserves a slap on the wrist, Big Government deserves the death penalty.
Government: the Inflation Touch
Fri, 05/15/2009 - 16:42 ET by deerjerkydaveWhy is it that everything government touches goes up in price?
Education is no different. Public K-12 schools spend more money per student than private schools and yet they consistently underperform.
Government bailouts in the form of tuition assitance to college students only causes tuition prices to rise as school administrators know that they can do so with confidence that the government will continue to bail out the students.