A couple friends of mine are currently deep in debt and so they sent out this email with a link to sign a petition for the student loan forgiveness act. My friend got this angry response from a relative that was on the email by accident. She had asked me if she should be ashamed at their unveiled jabs at her under the guise of attacking her "generation". I dissected this statement to try to understand the mind of the modern right wing american.The demographic is that this is being written by a wife who has not gone to college or had a job outside the home. Most likely the wife is being dictated too by the husband who is a successful surgeon.
Original Email:
so 25% of those who don't pay taxes, don't pay taxes because they are barely earning enough to survive. If they paid taxes they would become indigent meaning the job they work would have nobody working it. So in a world where these 25% pay taxes and end up living on the street or forced to.....take predatory loans to survive another month. You actually might kill off a large portion of a neccesary workforce in the economy.
Here is another 12% of that 50%: "The second reason is that for many senior citizens, Social Security benefits are exempt from federal income taxes. That accounts for about 22% of the people who pay no federal income tax."
Then heres another big chunk: "The third reason is that America uses the tax code to provide benefits to low-income families, particularly those with children. Taken together, the earned income tax credit, the child credit, and the childcare credit account for about 15% of the people who pay no federal income tax."
That is 90% of the 46% who don't pay their taxes: ppl too poor to pay taxes, seniors who only have social security as a source of income, and tax benefits which attempt to make having a family possible for working class people. Obsessing about this statistic is weirdly fascist considering that to raise taxes on these people might actually kill them. I'm sure this is a talking point on clear channel or news corp owned talk radio stations, because to understand that statistic as anything related to the "occupy"/"arab spring" movements is tarded. It displays such an ignorance that it is physically making me angry that such people continue to survive in this world and perpetuate a way of knowing the world that keeps so many in poverty.
The "mortgage meltdown" and "financial crisis" are the same thing. I don't know why they're being mentioned separately except as an attempt to appear intelligent to an ignorant audience. I'm sure they blame the recession on like lesbians or Chinese people or something and ignore the deregulation.
Original Email:
Hi, Friends and Family:
Since 1999, average student loan debt has increased by a shameful 511%. In 2010, total outstanding student loan debt exceeded total outstanding credit card debt in America for the first time ever. In 2012, total outstanding student loan debt is expected to exceed $1 trillion.
In response to this crisis, U.S. Representative Hansen Clarke of Michigan has just introduced H.R. 4170, the Student LoanForgiveness Act of 2012, which would extend a helping hand to those struggling under massive amounts of student loan debt.
In response to this crisis, U.S. Representative Hansen Clarke of Michigan has just introduced H.R. 4170, the Student LoanForgiveness Act of 2012, which would extend a helping hand to those struggling under massive amounts of student loan debt.
,That's why I signed a petition to the U.S. Senate, House of Representatives, and President Barack Obama, which says:
"Total outstanding student loan debt in America is expected to exceed $1
TRILLION this year. Millions of hardworking, taxpaying, educated
Americans are being crushed under the weight of their educational debts,
while the economy continues to sputter. Support a REAL economic
stimulus and jobs plan. Support the Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012
(H.R. 4170)."
Will you sign this petition too? Click here:
Thanks!
Response:
Sorry! Not very sympathetic on my end. I didn't go to college
because I couldn't afford it. I worked instead. Uncle X went to
medical school and we paid off his school before we could to have kids
and buy a house. College is a choice, not a "right". It should be an
investment. Not a right of passage. Most people who go to college
shouldn't be there. It is not an extension of high school to continue
partying while you "find yourself." College is essential for the hard
sciences, engineering, and to develop critical thinking skills. The
first thing you should learn is to budget. It is stupid to take out
loans and amass unaffordable debt so that you are prepared for a career
as a Starbuck's barrista. The "occupunks" are not hardworking and are
unlikely to pay taxes (50% of the population pay no taxes). The 1
trillion dollars you cite is GOVERNMENT debt that must be paid back at a
market interest rate. The tax payers will have to pay this down ( the
other 50% of the population). The govt admits to 16 trillion debt but
the unfunded liabilities of social security, Medicare/Medicaid, and
government workers pensions (which is bankrupting municipalities and
states) is 145 trillion dollars. This debt will destroy our economy,
opportunities and standard of living as well as our country as a
constitutional republic. This situation was created by the political
class that uses govt spending to buy various factions/special interests
(eg people with large student loans) in order to get their votes.
Therefore, I think people should learn from their mistakes, engage in
productive enterprise, and earn the income to pay off their debt like
responsible adults have done throughout history. That's the view from
the "real world."
P.S. For an in depth discussion of the educational
bubble, mortgage meltdown, financial crisis, and the political rules to
rule by call Uncle X and get a useful education.
P.S.S. As a law student, you should know that a loan is a contract.
Contracts must be enforced for an economy to function. If laws can be
arbitrarily enforced or changed for the benefit of one party to the
detriment of another party the result is tyranny. Arrogant fools like
Hansen Clarke have been undermining the rule of law and wrecking the
economy for decades.
My dissection of the text:
"Sorry! Not very sympathetic on my end. I didn't go to college
because I couldn't afford it. I worked instead."
-She COULD
have taken loans they WERE available. And most people who attend college
work at the same time. She thinks they're mutually exclusive lol.
"Uncle X went to
medical school and we paid off his school before we could to have kids
and buy a house. College is a choice, not a "right". It should be an
investment. Not a right of passage. Most people who go to college
shouldn't be there. It is not an extension of high school to continue
partying while you "find yourself." College is essential for the hard
sciences, engineering, and to develop critical thinking skills. The
first thing you should learn is to budget. It is stupid to take out
loans and amass unaffordable debt so that you are prepared for a career
as a Starbuck's barrista. "
-This chick needs to get a job and
see what its like to live off what people pay in the service industry.
The way out of those jobs is education just as it was for her
benefactor, errr husband. This next statement solidifies the fact that
she just has disdain for working class people.
"The "occupunks" are not hardworking and are
unlikely to pay taxes (50% of the population pay no taxes). "
-As
has been the case since the industrial revolution the working class
makes up most of the population. In fact the economy wouldn't work
without these people. Here is interesting stuff on her statement about
the 46% that don't pay taxes. Half of them are in this situation: "A couple with two children earning less than $26,400 will pay no federal
income tax this year because their $11,600 standard deduction and four
exemptions of $3,700 each reduce their taxable income to zero. The basic
structure of the income tax simply exempts subsistence levels of income
from tax.". so 25% of those who don't pay taxes, don't pay taxes because they are barely earning enough to survive. If they paid taxes they would become indigent meaning the job they work would have nobody working it. So in a world where these 25% pay taxes and end up living on the street or forced to.....take predatory loans to survive another month. You actually might kill off a large portion of a neccesary workforce in the economy.
Here is another 12% of that 50%: "The second reason is that for many senior citizens, Social Security benefits are exempt from federal income taxes. That accounts for about 22% of the people who pay no federal income tax."
Then heres another big chunk: "The third reason is that America uses the tax code to provide benefits to low-income families, particularly those with children. Taken together, the earned income tax credit, the child credit, and the childcare credit account for about 15% of the people who pay no federal income tax."
That is 90% of the 46% who don't pay their taxes: ppl too poor to pay taxes, seniors who only have social security as a source of income, and tax benefits which attempt to make having a family possible for working class people. Obsessing about this statistic is weirdly fascist considering that to raise taxes on these people might actually kill them. I'm sure this is a talking point on clear channel or news corp owned talk radio stations, because to understand that statistic as anything related to the "occupy"/"arab spring" movements is tarded. It displays such an ignorance that it is physically making me angry that such people continue to survive in this world and perpetuate a way of knowing the world that keeps so many in poverty.
" The 1
trillion dollars you cite is GOVERNMENT debt that must be paid back at a
market interest rate. The tax payers will have to pay this down ( the
other 50% of the population)."
-So if you are going to pay back
your debt...how will the taxpayers have to pay that down...This is just
senility. By market interest rate she means they adjust the interest
rate according to the change in value of the "90 day treasury bill"
rate. I think it is a good thing the government caps the interest rate
even though its such a dangerous intervention in to the "free" market!
Otherwise there would be widespread usury for anyone who wanted to go to
college. It would make it untenable for anyone to go to college(much
like the tuition is now). I think she means that if they forgive the
loans that the government will be short the money it was owed.Which is
the same old bullshit refrain that the right wing practices to be
completely ignorant of the percentage of gdp we spend on defense vs.
social needs. Its our government, to forgive that debt will free up
future entrepreneurs and professionals to find their niche in the
economy. This will be better for everyone in the country than another
contract for boeing or lockheed.
"The govt admits to 16 trillion debt but
the unfunded liabilities of social security, Medicare/Medicaid, and
government workers pensions (which is bankrupting municipalities and
states) is 145 trillion dollars. This debt will destroy our economy,
opportunities and standard of living as well as our country as a
constitutional republic."
-The "unfunded liabilities" wtf? I'm
pretty sure there is funding. This is where people have really become
drones check this out. They already have this like picture of government
health care so then they're too stupid to remember the history of
social security and this generation of right wingers are often 1st or
2nd generation immigrants who are like "i got mine, now fuck everyone
else". They think social security must be the same as medicaid and
medicare! and then government pensions must also be the same!! I don't
know how these conclusions are drawn from one another, but clearly to
lump these very different things in together just displays ignorance.
Medicaid is a mostly state run program that provides health care to
people that are too poor too afford it. Medicare is a federal program
that supplies seniors with some health care coverage. These two things
are fundamentally different than social security and pensions. Social
security and pensions have been paid in to for our entire lives. To
eliminate medicaid would take health care away from people that paid in
to taxes to get it. To eliminate medicare would take health care away
from seniors that have worked their whole lives and paid taxes. To
eliminate a pension would steal the money someone invested in
themselves. To conflate these things is so ignorant its insane.
Corporate shills get elected because tards like this believe corporate
news and loot pensions from people who have been having it subtracted
from their check for years. Then they turn around and say "amg the
pensions are so untenable, we don't have enough money! I totally didn't
use that money to fund MYYYY pet projects". The reason we're having
trouble paying this shit back is because we don't have real journalism,
we don't have government transparency, and so shitty politicians use it
for other things and don't get ousted next election because people
believe corporate media bullshit like this. This is more evidence that
the right wing is just becoming more distanced from reality. The
spectrum swung hard right after 9/11 but people are coming to their
senses and most of this bullshit falls on deaf ears now. You should see
the skew on women voters for obama vs. romney its like 54-36 or
something crazy. And ignorant right wingers always come with some esoteric definition of what our government is. And to be technical we are a democratic-republic (because of our bicameral legislature). So if you want to include the "constitution" part for shits and giggles(maybe to sound smart to ignorant people again?) you would say "constitutional democratic-republic". I'm sure these "big" words work for this guy at his local watering hole, but for a person like yourself with an education in politics they're the words of an elementary schooler pretending he knows what hes talking about.
"This situation was created by the political
class that uses govt spending to buy various factions/special interests
(eg people with large student loans) in order to get their votes.
Therefore, I think people should learn from their mistakes, engage in
productive enterprise, and earn the income to pay off their debt like
responsible adults have done throughout history. That's the view from
the "real world.""
-Lol the shut-in is right about it being
created by politicans vying for speial interest, but i'm pretty sure
people with large student loans are not a key demographic lol. This is
hilarious. Your relative thinks that politicians want votes from people
with loans, but they're living in like the 1800s in terms of their their
knowledge on elections. Politicians appease factions that have, can you
guess?, MONEY! lol if this demographic is too poor to even pay off
their loans why the fuck would a politician want them! lolololol, are
your relatives aware of the correlation between campaign funding and
campaign victory in modern america? Politicians spend public money to
get wealthy supporters who will give them private money to fund their
campaign. LOL thats something most americans learn like the first
election they're lucid for like around age 12. This statement just makes
me pity such ignorance, that her twisted and blind view of the world
which seeks to kill off the working class is characterized as the "real
world". I think people should engage in politics as they have done
throughout history and use the state to help a large amount of people
rather than build the next aircraft carrier or hand out a trillion
through corporate tax breaks.
"P.S. For an in depth discussion of the educational
bubble, mortgage meltdown, financial crisis, and the political rules to
rule by call Uncle X and get a useful education."
-K. it
may be obvious by now, but your education has come from books,
periodicals, etc. Their education has come from whatever the Karl Roves
of the world have decided is the next big lie. You have far more
epistemological justification for your knowledge claims. And your stance
on politics doesn't distance it from the self and make politics just
the mechanism by which corporations rule us,as hers does. The
"educational bubble" sounds like a critique of undergraduate education
we can all agree with that there are many problems with the price and
product of undergraduate education. I think we would probably disagree
that they are so hardcore positivist they actually disdain the social
sciences, even though metaphysics ALWAYS comes before science:) You are
way smarter than whoever wrote this letter and your knowledge is far
less dangerous to other people than their knowledge(when evangelized or
reproduced through discourse). The "mortgage meltdown" and "financial crisis" are the same thing. I don't know why they're being mentioned separately except as an attempt to appear intelligent to an ignorant audience. I'm sure they blame the recession on like lesbians or Chinese people or something and ignore the deregulation.
"P.S.S. As a law student, you should know that a loan is a contract.
Contracts must be enforced for an economy to function. If laws can be
arbitrarily enforced or changed for the benefit of one party to the
detriment of another party the result is tyranny. Arrogant fools like
Hansen Clarke have been undermining the rule of law and wrecking the
economy for decades. "
-Lol first of all its "p.p.s." and I'm not even from a generation that wrote letters. DIctionary.com:
tyr·an·ny
[tir-uh-nee] Show IPA
noun, plural tyr·an·nies.
1.
arbitrary or unrestrained exercise of power; despotic abuse of authority.
2.
the government or rule of a tyrant or absolute ruler.
3.
a state ruled by a tyrant or absolute ruler.
4.
oppressive or unjustly severe government on the part of any ruler.
5. undue severity or harshness.
So the definition of tyranny is either an abuse of power or rule by one person. I do not understand how forgiving loans would fit either of those definitions. The reason the loans are there is to provide the opportunity for college so that people can get what is NORMAL in the MODERN "real world" not in this chick's kitchen: a B.A.. B.A.s are as common as high school degrees were when your relative was our age. Contracts can be changed by the sovereign whenever and whereever, thats why its the sovereign: it can do whatever the fuck it wants. If the intention of the loans was to provide an education than forgiving the loans does NOT arbitrarily go back on the intention of the law. I feel like this is going to be how the election breaks down this year it will be a referendum on our construction of gender. In order to have a country which supplies the social spending necessary to make social mobility possible we need full employment(including women!). In order to get full employment and a good economy we need to ensure that our population is well educated. How do you do that? Send them to college. In nortern Europe and like Scandanavian countries there is health care and free education. But in order to accomplish this they don't spend huge percentages of GDP on defense and they require full professional employment so there are is a robust middle class to tax. What do the women of this country want for themselves? What does everyone want for their daughters and sisters? Do they want a woman whos stupider and more reliant on men's money? Do they want a woman who cannot afford birth control? This email is good evidence of how the right wing has alienated moderates in the United States and barring some catastrophic collapse in the economy will lose the election to Obama.
There are some people out there who want to help a generation experiencing a pretty rough recession with their debt so that they can have more disposable income to kick start the economy with.
There are others who don't give a shit, because their husband says empathy is for pussies. And if I don't do what my husband says I don't have any other way to survive.
They should be ashamed of their own greed and lack of empathy.
So the definition of tyranny is either an abuse of power or rule by one person. I do not understand how forgiving loans would fit either of those definitions. The reason the loans are there is to provide the opportunity for college so that people can get what is NORMAL in the MODERN "real world" not in this chick's kitchen: a B.A.. B.A.s are as common as high school degrees were when your relative was our age. Contracts can be changed by the sovereign whenever and whereever, thats why its the sovereign: it can do whatever the fuck it wants. If the intention of the loans was to provide an education than forgiving the loans does NOT arbitrarily go back on the intention of the law. I feel like this is going to be how the election breaks down this year it will be a referendum on our construction of gender. In order to have a country which supplies the social spending necessary to make social mobility possible we need full employment(including women!). In order to get full employment and a good economy we need to ensure that our population is well educated. How do you do that? Send them to college. In nortern Europe and like Scandanavian countries there is health care and free education. But in order to accomplish this they don't spend huge percentages of GDP on defense and they require full professional employment so there are is a robust middle class to tax. What do the women of this country want for themselves? What does everyone want for their daughters and sisters? Do they want a woman whos stupider and more reliant on men's money? Do they want a woman who cannot afford birth control? This email is good evidence of how the right wing has alienated moderates in the United States and barring some catastrophic collapse in the economy will lose the election to Obama.
There are some people out there who want to help a generation experiencing a pretty rough recession with their debt so that they can have more disposable income to kick start the economy with.
There are others who don't give a shit, because their husband says empathy is for pussies. And if I don't do what my husband says I don't have any other way to survive.
They should be ashamed of their own greed and lack of empathy.
