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The Student Debt System: a Critical Juncture in the Production of Inequality

The following article contains thoughts that I would have liked to have shared on Democracy Now!, but didn't have time for.  Here's the clip of the interview with the article below:

 

 

For most Americans student debt is a simple matter: you got the education, you agreed to pay for it, you can't give back your brain, so suck it up and get to work.  Unfortunately, this sort of logic fundamentally misunderstands the systemic sources by which so much student debt has been incurred, and the long term inequality this debt is creating.  The misunderstanding most Americans have of the student debt cycle is particularly dangerous now that the amount of education debt is about to pass the 1 trillion dollar mark, which amounts to about four thousand dollars for every man, woman and child in this country.  According to the Project on Student Debt, of the class of 2008, 41% are either delinquent or in default.  Many recent reports have already begun to theorize student debt as the next bubble about to burst.  Unfortunately, this bubble has the potential to slowly ooze, causing unrelenting suffering for a generation, and even greater economic disparity for the 99%.

When you look carefully at the student debt crisis, you can see that it has been caused by complex relationships between four distinct types of entities:  governmental agencies, lenders, educational institutions and consumers.

Now is the Time to Refuse Student Debt (Part 1)

Later on today, the #OWS Empowerment & Education Working Group will launch a national campaign that will challenge and draw attention to the growing problem of student debt.

Student loan debt represents the largest portion of all "consumer" debt, and will exceed 1 trillion dollars by the end of the year. Currently, about 67% of students incur debt at the college level. In 2008, approximately 1.4 million seniors graduated with an average of about $26,000 dollars of student loan debt.

In spite of widespread use of loans to finance education, most Americans are unaware of the true nature of these loans, and some of the important issues around our pay-for-diploma education model. The layperson views student loans as a benevolent government program designed to help citizens move into the middle class by attending college. Unfortunately, the sad reality is that student loans have helped to create an education industry that now operates at the expense of our society.

The Ironic Shadow Cast by Steve Jobs' Death

The irony of Steve Jobs dying on the same day as the major Occupy Wall Street protest and march in New York City can’t be overstated, even though it has been completely overlooked by both mainstream and alternative media.  News stories celebrating Steve Jobs as the creator of a technological revolution trumped even local coverage of thousands of OWS supporters marching in the streets.  Of course, Steve Jobs' death and the occupation of Wall Street are unrelated events, yet together they represent the fundamental tension currently at play in American society today:  the crisis in our understanding of who we are as individuals and who we are as part of society. 

The underlying idea behind the OWS protest is that economic inequality, produced by the belief in the individual as able to function separately from the human collective, is misguided, unethical and unsustainable.  The cultural battle being fought at OWS seeks to reprioritize collective needs over individual desires by arguing to end the exploitation of the lower and middle classes by a small elite.  It is this exploitation that has produced economic pain in the form of lack of jobs and loss of economic resources for all but the top 1%.  It is this “failure” of capitalism to produce happiness and security for the majority, as well as its ability to camouflage the relationship between the 99% and the 1%, that calls attention to irreparable problems with the system, itself. 

Why it's Time for New Yorkers to Demand that Mayor Bloomberg to Step Down

I have started a petition demanding that "Mayor" Bloomberg resign from his position as mayor of New York City in hope of drawing attention to and remedying the fascism we are living under here in the Big Apple.  Fascism sounds like a strong word, but it is actually the most accurate description of what has happened in New York City.  We typically view fascism as a kind of nationalistic regime that happens at the point of a gun.  But in reality fascism is something that happens slowly.  Fascism can be described as a tendency toward autocratic control.  In our neoliberal capitalist world, often times guns are unnecessary to achieve control, because money can be used instead. This is what has happened in New York City.

New Yorkers had a law limiting any elected mayor to two terms.  In fact this law was voted on twice in recent elections.  Unfortunately, this law did not apply to Bloomberg.  Why not?  Because he believed he was above it, and had the money to thwart it.  Bloomberg was able to convert his billionaire level economic status to political power by influencing the City Council to change the law.  He argued that his leadership was necessary to restore economic order to the city and nation due to the economic crisis on Wall Street.  Evidently, in the minds of the individual City Council members, the consequences of resisting a change to the term limit law outweighed the consequences of going along with the billionaire Mayor.  But why was the City Council able to change a law voted on by the people of New York City?  The intellectual history of this law is actually quite fascinating.  Since the French Revolution, laws have been carried forth to prevent violent revolution except when absolutely necessary.  The law that allowed the City Council to make this change originated with the need to prevent an arrogant and powerful leader from taking over a government in a violent coup d'tat.  The calculation was that by granting an additional term, the leader might be persuaded to step down at the end of that period, and if not, then violence might be necessary to maintain democracy.

Even though he was able to thwart the two term limit, many New Yorkers were so against Bloomberg's manipulation of the system, that he was forced to spend millions of his billions of dollars in personal wealth to drown out his democratic opponent.  Not surprisingly, some of that money was spent in possible violation of campaign finance laws.  And in the end, he spent so much money that even President Obama did not bother to take a strong stand for his democratic opponent, who most certainly would have won had Bloomberg not been able to use his personal wealth to spend $102 million dollars - about $174 per voter - to win the campaign.  To put things in perspective his opponent spent less than $10 million.  In other words, Bloomberg had no problem using his economic power to change the law to enable himself to run for a third term, and also to use incredible amounts of personal wealth to further subvert the system by drowning out his opponent.

Exposing American Power in a Networked World

If nothing else, the ongoing Wikileaks event has certainly been fascinating.  The recent event highlights the dynamics of power in a networked world, from the inside look at the arrogant manner in which our diplomats perceive their colleagues in other nations, to the exposure of corporate influence on state business such as in the case of Mastercard and Visa in Russia, and Shell in Nigeria, to the manner in which the US government has used its influence to persuade "independent" corporations throughout the world to deny access to services including commerce and web hosting to Wikileaks.  Following are my preliminary thoughts on the essence of the events unfolding around the release of Wikileaks from the perspective of changes we are seeing globally as network society grows.

The Corporate State

In the case of Russia, we can observe the infiltration of the corporate into state functions, where President Obama has intervened on behalf of Mastercard and Visa in an attempt to thwart the creation of a Russian owned credit processing agency.  The potential loss of business for globally dominant credit card processing agencies was not only a matter for the state, but for the president, himself.  In the case of Nigeria, which happens to be the 8th largest supplier of oil internationally, Nigerian government interests (which at least claim to operate on behalf of its people) are shown to have been subverted by the installation of Shell executives at all levels of governance. 

And the reverse operation, using state power to influence corporate actions, is also in full operation.  Senator Lieberman brashly intervened with Amazon such that they have refused to host the Wikileaks website, a Swiss Bank is pursuaded to close the Wikileaks account, apparently for legitimate reasons that may or may not have been exposed without US state intervention, Visa and Mastercard are likely encouraged to refuse service to Wikileaks, while continuing to allow donations to organizations such as the KKK, and PayPal openly admits that they were caused, via a letter they received from the US State Department, to view Wikileaks actions as illegal, and thus, in violation of their service agreement, in spite of the fact that there are still no charges against the organization.

Whatever Happened to Free Speech?

It's hard for me to understand the argument against net neutrality regulation.  It seems so obvious that restrictions on communication impinge on the "free speech" our democracy was based on.  The media corporations that control access to the internet have stated clearly that they intend to control traffic online, allowing some communication to move faster based on how much one is paying.  So many on the Republican side don't seem to appreciate that if money allows one voice to be heard (and causes another to be squelched), there is no freedom of speech in any practical sense in spite of us all having the ability to speak.  This is, of course, the same problem we're dealing with due to the Citizens United Supreme Court decision.  The fact that the FCC has not taken strong and bold actions to protect the vast majority of "the people" from corporate domination online is a symbolic of where we are really at in the the United States. 

Chris Hedges says it best quoting Hannah Arendt:

“For a considerable length of time the normality of the normal world is the most efficient protection against disclosure of totalitarian mass crimes,” Hannah Arendt wrote in The Origins of Totalitarianism. “Normal men don’t know that everything is possible, refuse to believe their eyes and ears in the face of the monstrous. ... The reason why the totalitarian regimes can get so far toward realizing a fictitious, topsy-turvy world is that the outside non-totalitarian world, which always comprises a great part of the population of the totalitarian country itself, indulges in wishful thinking and shirks reality in the face of real insanity. ...”

How Democracy Dies: Lessons From a Master

The time for compromise has passed on net neutrality

The Feeling of Fascism

I don't watch late night TV, but I saw the clip of David Letterman commenting to Bloomberg that he must be embarrassed to have appeared on the famous Forbes list as the 10th richest man in the world.  But Bloomberg stole the joke by saying that he wasn't embarrassed at all.  This actually stumped Letterman.  I don't know how rich David Letterman is, but I'm betting he's in the top 1%.  But even for someone with that kind of wealth, Bloomberg's unabashed greed was stunning.  Yes, Dave, he really is "laughing all the way to the bank".  What would he have responded if he were asked how he felt about being in a group that made 1.13 TRILLION dollars the same year that 10 million more Americans lost their health coverage and that 1 in 7 were classified as below the poverty line.  I think he probably would have said the same thing - after all his unique qualities as a human being got him there.  This is why he should be a third term mayor of New York, in spite of the fact that a two term limit was voted on by the actual people of this city.  Yet, anytime I use the "f-word" (fascism) people seem stunned - as if that's an extreme statement, when in reality it simply describes exactly what's happening.

I'm reading Paul D'Amato's The Meaning of Marxism and thinking a lot about the way that American society is today.  Has it really changed?  Has it really changed so much that there's cause for alarm?  When work was more plentiful and the stock market going up up up, were things really any different - in reality?  Or did they just feel different, like the way you feel different like after eating too big of a meal. The hunger is gone - replaced by a feeling of fullness that makes it seem like you'll never be hungry again.

It seems to me that many of the ideas about how the world we live in works are not really connected to reality.  I grew up at a time when the ideals of class mobility and meritocracy were hammered home in middle class families.  But there's no denying that those with a leg up, regardless of merit, fared better.  Have things really changed?  Or were these just a convenient beliefs we clung to?  Who was it really convenient for?  Ridding myself of these ideas, is like jumping into a bathtub filled with ice - it's hard, and painful, but the kind of sobering truth that the doctor ordered.  So, the question becomes what to do next?  What to do when we face that American fascism feels just like democracy and capitalism does...that in reality, they are actually the same.

Sharing and Generosity: the Future of Society

Network technology is fundamentally changing social relationships and dynamics toward the human needs of sharing and generosity.  As we witness and participate in the breakdown of the current social order, it's possible to envision a totally new future for humankind, in which society will be less rigid and formed based on communities coming together as collectives working toward shared goals that impact all humanity.

Why Can't We Face Reality?

Once again, we have employment data that shows fewer working Americans, and once again, we've immediately gone into denial.  The private sector isn't hiring, because they are not making their money off of exploiting labor time, but rather by exploiting capital.  Yes, it will help to strengthen manufacturing industries that are more dependent on labor, than service industries that are more dependent on brand, but this is a long term prospect -- one that's unlikely to be accomplished in a decade.  In Empowering Cities Through Service, Dr. Judith Rodin and NYC Mayor Bloomberg write:

Henry David Thoreau wrote that, "City life is millions of people being lonesome together." Viewed from afar, city life can indeed appear impersonal and isolated. But that view, to turn a rural cliché on its head, misses the trees for the forest. Most cities are really a collection of local neighborhoods, with their own identity, their own traditions, their own sense of community. And the values that are traditionally associated with small towns -- looking out for your neighbors, pitching in at local events, supporting civic causes -- are finding new footing in America's cities, thanks in part to President Obama's call for "a new era of service." In 2009, New York launched NYC Service, a program designed not merely to increase volunteering, but also to direct volunteers to the city's toughest problems -- and measure our success in addressing them. In just over a year NYC Service helped the city train over 50,000 New Yorkers in CPR, administer 160,000 H1N1 vaccinations, educate 4,400 students on emergency preparedness, send 3,500 care packages to New Yorkers in the Armed Forces serving overseas, and paint over 225,000 square feet of roof tops with reflective paint to help buildings reduce their carbon footprint. And our team of 175 specially trained AmeriCorps VISTA members -- the NYC Civic Corps -- mobilized more than 50,000 volunteers who served more than 700,000 of their neighbors. New York City was able to do more, better, and faster thanks to the help of volunteers, who often worked alongside city personnel to extend the reach and impact of city government. And especially during these tough budget times, having extra sets of hands is enormously valuable.

Well, what if we simply changed the paradigm of employment/unemployment?  Cities like NY could spearhead a movement that turns what has been considered "unproductive" labor into productive labor simply by paying "volunteers".  How are we going to have full employment in the new economy?  It's not likely that we will without a change to our attitude about what can and should constitute employment itself.  Wouldn't it be more productive to have a citizenship fully engaged in working for the betterment of our communities, rather than comprised of millions of discouraged workers?  Wouldn't a safety net of paid work that improves communities be better than living in denial?

Growing Disparity in the New Economy

One of the most under reported stories of the financial crisis is its impact on the disparity between African-Americans and whites.  Last fall, I had the fortune to hear Congresswoman Maxine Waters speak on the issue of how the mortgage foreclosure crisis would likely impact African-American communities by striping them of years of hard earned gains, and making it difficult if not impossible to rebuild.  But recently, Brandeis University published findings depicting an even more disturbing account showing a fourfold increase in the wealth gap between whites and blacks created over the last 23 years.  From 1984 a 20K disparity between blacks and whites ballooned into a 95K gap by 2007.  In real terms, this 75K differential is a child's college tuition or the savings to weather a job loss.  So, African-American communities were clearly in crisis before the crisis.

The disconnect between income and work that has culminated in the recent financial crisis has no doubt influenced this trend, and will no doubt widen the gap.  Since in our neoliberal capitalist society money is no longer primarily generated from labor, but rather money begets money to extreme degrees, the luck of birth will increasingly be the determining factor in an individual's future, unless we turn this tide and collectively figure out ways to stand against this type of social order.

The Racial Wealth Gap Increases Fourfold

White Families Now 95K Richer Than African-American Families on Average, According to New Study

Don't Blame the Dream of Homeownership