A friend recently commented how the Democrats are so free with our money when it comes to their claim that America’s children have a right to free college, while imposing costly regulations on business, that must in turn reduce the number of new hires, leaving graduating students with no job prospects.
President Obama took over the student loan business in 2010 and has since promoted free community college education. Hillary Clinton, as did Bernie Sanders, wants to provide even more aid.
I have often criticized our colleges and universities as being the breeding ground for leftist thinking, but there’s more. My friend’s observation came at a time when other interesting related pieces came to my attention.
In his new book, Fail U.: The False Promise of Higher Education, Charles J. Sykes writes about the $1.3 trillion student debt, while reviewing tuition costs that leave most students more than $30,000 in debt.
Sykes points out that 53 per cent of college graduates under 25 years old are unemployed or underemployed, working part-time or in low-paying jobs that do not require college degrees.
In addition to exploring the staggering costs of a college education, Sykes, too, writes about tenured liberal professors, but offers suggestions for a more affordable and productive approach to higher education. He asks, why does it take four or five years to earn a degree? Why can’t it be done in two or three years?
Most of these graduates have become big government “free stuff” advocates and are oblivious to how business must operate to stay afloat, and heaven forbid, make a profit.
Take the lucky individual who lands a salaried job with a firm, one that gives him flexibility, job security and consistent income. But because of the new overtime rule, he is bumped down to hourly pay, and must limit his hours to 40 per week. When sales dip, his hours are cut to 35 to save money.
Like the issue of the minimum wage, graduates are unaware of what happens when businesses are hit by costly regulations. Operators are faced with raising prices or cutting labor costs.
The regulations imposed by the Obama administration amounts to a regulatory tax of $2,294 on every American, according to The Wall Street Journal. This eventually shows up in higher prices, or few jobs created, or reduced profits and wages.
Some years ago, syndicated radio commentator Neal Boortz wrote a commencement address* that has gone down as the best commencement address never given. He wrote it in view what he has witnessed happening in those institutions of “higher learning.”
“I realize that most of you consider yourselves liberals. In fact, you are probably very proud of your liberal views. You care so much. You feel so much. You want to help so much. After all, you’re a compassionate and caring person, aren’t you now?” he wrote.
“Over the next few years, as you being to feel the cold breath of reality down your neck, things are going to start changing pretty fast,” Boortz continued. “There are some ideas you need to expunge as soon as possible. These ideas may work well in the academic environment, but they fail miserably out there in the real world.”
“We also need to address this thing you seem to have about ‘rights’ … the right to a job, the right to a place to live, the right to a living wage, the right to health care. Forget those rights! You have a right to live free and to the results of 60 to 75 per cent of your labor,” warns Boortz.
He writes that if the graduates make the right decisions in life, “something absolutely terrible may happen to you. Something unthinkable. You might become one of the hated, the evil, the feared, the filthy, the successful, the rich.”
A recent study reveals that graduates with student loans are less likely to start a business of their own. Individual debt capacity prevents them from financing a start-up business, according to Phyllis Korkki, writing in the New York Times. If you consider that 60 per cent of jobs are created by small business, and eliminate the ability to create a new business, the economy is ultimately harmed.
Consider also that student debt is affecting home purchasing trends. It’s why more graduates have returned home to live.
- The full text of Neal Boortz’s commencement address can be found by Googling him on the Internet.
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