11 Likes
As a STEM person who’s worked in both academia and industry, let me take this chance to voice my own frustration with this attitude. It’s one I’ve fought to enlighten its benighted holders against whenever I can. But let me also say that there are many of us who do appreciate the arts and humanities. Ultimately those who don’t, seem to do so mainly because of Dunning-Kruger. They wrongly assume that because they’re experts in one field and people listen to them on it, that their opinion is just as valid in any field of knowledge, so if they don’t automatically understand the value, it must not exist. Many of them can be enlightened, especially when someone in their own or a related field is trying to get them to see their blinders, and I do try.
I would say though that most of the people who are that way mean no ill-will, they’re just embubbled. Which isn’t to defend them or apologize for their blindness, but only to explain why they wind up that way and one way we can fight against it.
9 Likes
I just looked for an opportunity to derail the discussion towards something fun and amusing. 
4 Likes
Not a fan of Jeff Dunham, but he’s made a successful career for many years on ventriloquism. More power to him for that because i’m quite sure it was not easy.
Also Lamb Chop. I wasn’t the hugest fan of the show but i did enjoy it quite a bit.
Also i just rewatched Labyrinth over the weekend at the movie theater with a friend. It was awesome. Hell yeah puppets.
8 Likes
Well, that’s trouble. So many people think that getting a job in your field is the only thing that matters. The world you describe, where there are no Medieval literature experts, is not one I want to live in.
Used to be, the GF could work at Starbucks while getting her degree, and pay for it off the proceeds, maybe with a small interest loan from the goverment and a small scholarship. But I guess that won’t pay for the new pool the educational corporation university needs to attract more high-paying students, or the hundreds of administrative drones needed to run the educational corporation university, or the new stadium, or . . .
14 Likes
Did you know Shari Lewis wrote a Star Trek episode? I learned that in Mark Cushman’s “These Are the Voyages” books. She aspired to do a lot more than puppetry. She had a lot of energy and talent which couldn’t find an outlet.
4 Likes
I ain’t mad at ya.
I wouldn’t call myself “a fan” either, but the original condescending query to which I did not deign to reply was asking how many puppeteers aside from Henson could be named… and the answer appears to be many.
3 Likes
Someone post a link? I’m clueless about Sheri vs. Shari Lewis.
1 Like
Scrolling through this thread is immensely frustrating for me. I don’t even know where to begin, so I just don’t argue with anyone on the told-you-so and study-something-applicable side and just weep in my pillow.
Good night to you all. And I hope you don’t have my nightmares and daymares.
4 Likes
That’'s really interesting! I must say that i don’t know much about Shari Lewis, might have to do a wikipedia dive later on.
1 Like
I realize it’s impossible to tell satire from honest opinion these days, but comments like the one I made are in my blood and I can’t get rid of them.
I just find the idea of graduate tax to be so bizarre. Why don’t we have a healthcare tax, where people who need healthcare get taxed but only if they make above a certain income? Or a road tax where people who use roads and sidewalks get taxed but only if they make above a certain income? To whatever extent graduate tax makes sense (people who accrue benefits from a thing ought to pay back in), simply having higher income tax brackets to cover everything makes sense. Plus it avoids having a sprawling tax code that gets more complicated by the year.
Yeah, rightwing governments have had this strategy of reducing revenue and increasing debt to starve off social programs and justify their removal. I think the left should be employing similar long-term thinking about how to permanently damage the ability to profit off the public sector whether they are in power or not. If I were in power I’d be poisoning several wells in this regard (never let me have power, by the way).
8 Likes
I’m not particularly in favour myself, but if the choice is between that and student loans, I’ll choose the one that doesn’t penalise you for the next 30 years if you can’t finish the course.
Britain does have a road tax, but it is based on emissions. More expensive cars tend to pay more than cheaper ones, but electric cars don’t pay anything.
2 Likes
Ontario sort of works this way, with the Trillium program covering medical expenses below certain income levels. We had a Federal surtax for awhile, too, along the same principles.
2 Likes
The world that existed when I graduate high school was one where a college credit hour cost $25, and there were tons of semi-skilled, no degree-necessary jobs at the type of wage where you could support yourself and a small family.
The world that existed when I went back (the first time) was one where I did the ROI, took engineering classes (and a small student loan), and dropped out after 3 years to take a well-paying help-desk job. After 5 years, the student loan was paid off.
When I couldn’t get promoted because I didn’t have a degree, I went back to school. I did the ROI. The credit hours cost over $300, the books cost several hundreds per semester, and add on whatever fees the state decided on. I couldn’t hold down a full-time job to pay for living expenses, so student loans were necessary, and since I’d be making an even-better living when I got out of school, they were easy to take on.
Then chronic illness derailed me while doing my master’s degree studies.
ROI goes out the window when shit like that happens.
10 Likes
I think people can major in whatever. But my position is that society doesn’t owe you a job or a living in whatever you love, it’s your job to look around and say What can I do to be useful to people? How can I help? What skills are needed to do that? And that should factor into your college (or not) choices.
Sure it does. The actual evidence on this has very mixed conclusions. For example, if you get a degree in social work you are likely to get a job right out of college, but never earn very much money. If you get a degree in nursing you are likely to sit unemployed for 8 months to a year, then have full employment at a good salary for the rest of your life. The top 25% of history majors earn more than the average business major.
There is an institute at Georgetown that puts out analysis on this every couple of years, and their evidence-based conclusions are often not in step with conventional “wisdom.”
8 Likes
As I said at the beginning, if you take a loan, you should pay it back. No one should go into a loan with the expectation it should be forgiven - where does that end? Oh, the mortgage industry is predatory, so those people shouldn’t have to pay back their loans? After all, having housing is a human right. Oh, car loans charge too much on their 84 month loans, so those people should be forgiven too? Because mobility is a human right?
Here’s a great example of this exact thing. Person got a master’s in something completely worthless, and is now $75k in debt with no job. You can’t tell me s/he wouldn’t have been better off becoming an apprentice plumber, for example.
3 Likes
According to Leviticus, slaves and prisoners would be freed, debts would be forgiven, and the mercies of God would be particularly manifest.
8 Likes
Why?
If I get out of high school, start working in real estate and 20 years later I’m making 50k, and you spend 4 years in college, start working in IT and end up on the same 50k, why would you expect to pay a higher tax rate?
1 Like
