Tomorrow is 1T Day - Break the Link Between Wall Street and Education: Abolish Student Debt!
Posted 11 years ago on April 24, 2012, 9:45 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tomorrow, April 25th, the total amount of student loan debt in the U.S. will top 1 trillion dollars. This marks a momentous victory for Wall Street—much to the despair of student loan debtors across the country. On this date, the profiteers on Wall Street will be popping champagne bottles, eating caviar, and sneering at the debt-burdened students and graduates who lug around this 1 trillion dollar ball and chain.
Occupy Student Debt Campaign is hosting a party of its own. Throughout the country we will be taking direct action to raise awareness about this crisis as part of a new movement to make education a right.
If you are in NYC join us at 4PM in Union Square, where Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir will preside over a debt jubilee - an emancipatory student loan debt write-off for all! Join the Plus Brigades, Billionaires for Debt, and more OWS perfomers to mark this historic day. Dress as the banker of your choice or as a convict from Debtor's Prison, if you'd like. Then, let's march to Wall Street banks and watering holes to spread the news about student debt and drink up the joys of our new-found freedom.
Not in NYC? Solidarity actions will be taking place in over 20 cities. Find a 1T Day solidarity action near you.
More from 1TDay.org:
The student loan industry has profited from borrower vulnerability through predatory lending practices such as compounding interest rates, high collection fees, and few consumer protections. Inflating tuition costs have been financed through student debt that will soon exceed 1 trillion dollars. The morality of perpetuating this unjust system by continuing to pay these predatory loans is questionable. In times of fuller employment, the student loan debt system has yielded no end of private suffering and humiliation for at least two generations of debtors. In a time of chronic underemployment–and the worst may be yet to come–the burden is beyond tolerance. Immediate forgiveness in the spirit of a jubilee, where the injustice of an unpayable debt is redeemed through a single, corrective act, is the only just response to this crisis.
Follow on Twitter: @1TDay, @StdntDebtPledge
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So if someone is an investment banker after graduation with massive loans from NYU, Stanford, UVA, etc. We support debt loan forgiveness?
I do, investment bankers are part of the 99% too. They're just trying to make a living like everyone else. Now lets say that investment banker makes her/himself a millionaire by selling shitty derivatives to hardworking folks who don't know the first thing about investing. If this was the case, then he wouldn't need debt forgiveness in the first place, but then I would not support him/her in any endeavor
Who cares if the person can afford education and makes millions. Forget all loans for everyone. That would be the only fair thing. I am not for this but if you forgive loans you need to do it for everyone.
Yeah def, there needs to be some kinda debt forgiveness program soon. Not only are American households going under water, but whole nations are. The Bankers are sucking the life out of the global economy, and something needs to be done about it. I mean money is just paper, there's no reason why we can't just rewrite the rules of finance.
I believe you are correct. We need to adapt a different viewpoint.
http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/
How would anyone know if they did sell shitty derivatives? I guess I was thinking should we bail out everyone? Like students who work as management at Walmart or work for BP? Yes they don't make much to qualify as being in the 1%, but don't they make decisions that impact the 99% negatively. But I guess the fair thing would be to forgive everyone. I just have a bad taste in my mouth sbout forgiving somebody's MBA loan or someone's undergraduate loan for Harvard who ends up a VP at some bank as a Mortgage Manager who is part of the problem.
Well from a Marxist perspective, anybody who works is a proletariat. The real enemy is the bourgeoisie, the owners of the means of production. So while someone who works at Goldman Sachs selling derivatives is a cog in the machine that led to the financial crisis, it was the shareholders who steered it down that destructive path. I am by no means a Marxist, but he did outline the inherent problems within the capitalist system of economic production. My main problem with Marx is his emphasis on revolution, I personally prefer evolution. I think a Nordic model state is the next step in the evolution of society. Marx really didn't go into detail about his utopian vision of the future, but I believe this fits with his "to each according to their needs, and from each according to ability" ideology.
College was originally intended for those pursuing advanced knowledge on a subject. Science, philosophy, the arts, technology.
Not this bullshit "You must go to college so you can get a good job someday" As long as everyone, even the inept, less intelligent working class all feel the need to go to college, the price will stay high. Why? Because you don't have to go to college. Because to grow food, build a house or otherwise make money, you do not need college. You need only training. The colleges easily realize this and will feed you propaganda that encourages the idea that college is necessary. Why? It makes money. Of course, you may argue with me. But you are wrong. The only purpose for college is to attain knowledge. Not a job.
If you do not truly seek knowledge, but rather a job or career, then college is wrong for you. If you go to college anyways, then you must accept your debts. The cost of knowledge is high in this world. Respect that.
it isnt colleges that feed you that propaganda. its your parents, teachers,relatives and neighbors. and really,, what parents wouldnt be embarrassed if their kids dont make it to college?
Don't be squirrels - If you want to abolish your debt - stop paying it collectively it will send the universities and banks a message. But don't ask the working poor to cover you - when you ask for debt forgiveness (you're asking for the government ie the working poor to pay for it.) You went in eyes wide open - get out of it the same way, not as squirrely cowards demanding that you are entitled to a free education when so many others can't get one. You're entitled to revolt - so do that instead - there are always consequences for our convictions and we must prove them. Not ask others to bare it.
That is a horrible idea. If you stop paying student loan debt they can charge you a default rate, which is criminal. And you can't file bankruptcy on student loan debts and it doesn't come off your credit report. Do what Elf says and you can ruin yourself financially.
or you can ask others to take on your burden
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All of this crap being pushed forward by the greedy corrupt only helps to strengthen the movements against them. They do not seem to see the fact of their throwing fuel onto the fire. They shorten their days in power by each act. They help the movements grow in common cause.
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Just stop paying the loans - collectively default - !! What are they going to do then? But If you want change make it and risk consequences - but don't ask the working poor to pay for something you went into knowingly. Don't do this in such a cowardly fashion - do you have convictions and balls and numbers - or are you squirrely cowards lacking in integrity?
The working poor would benefit the most from free education. You could go to school, and then make twice your salary. I think we should also double the minimum wage. In some countries it's as high as $16, and studies have shown that this wouldn't have much effect on the demands of labor. My pipe dream is to have a Basic Income Guarantee, but I don't really see that happening in the near future. It really goes against the principles of the Protestant ethic, and Americans would never embrace it.
Raise wages watch corporations raise cost - they will always have their status quo - unless people have the courage to take away their power. But it takes self sacrifice - someone has to be first and others have to be brave enough to follow.
Hey Mikey. Any links to studies about the minimum wage you referred to?
I am having a similar discussion on another thread and can't remember where the I found the research. (I think they were in textbooks I once had that are long gone.) Would appreciate a point in the right direction.
http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2010/12/01/minimumwagejobs/
Here is link to an article talking about a study done at Berkeley. I just Googled it to be honest, lol.
Thanks very much.
CRAPITALISM AGAIN!
private schools have been raising their fees because they know there are huge pools of money for loans public schools have had support cut because we are spending more on tax cuts we want to keep building weapons systems - funding Xe & Haliburton
How much does Student Loans cost the government?
less than having too many uneducated unskilled unthinking lemmings
Lol. Fair enough.
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this is so ten minutes ago
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On education - interesting :
Chris Bowers, Daily Kos (campaigns@dailykos.com)
Our old friend Bill Halter is running for governor in Arkansas. Please join with Daily Kos in endorsing his plan to create the first statewide program to provide free tuition to in-state public universities for all high school graduates with a 2.5 GPA or higher. Click here to add your name to the endorsement petition.
"Mom, I'm going to college."
That was the call dozens of students at El Dorado High School made to their parents after they were told at an assembly about the creation of a new scholarship fund, the El Dorado promise, that covers college tuition costs for all graduates of this public high school in Arkansas.
Moments like these should not be flukes. Access to higher education should not be dependent on you or your family's income, especially since a college degree has increasingly become the only path to the middle class.
Click here to join Bill Halter's campaign to make universal higher education a reality.
Universal funding for higher education isn't something we are going to make happen just by electing a better Congress, or by getting rid of the silent filibuster in the Senate. This isn't even something that is on the radar in Washington, DC, and it will remain that way until it happens in at least one state.
Because of the long, hard campaigning of former Lt. Governor Bill Halter, Arkansas could very well be that first state. In 2006, he won a statewide campaign to create a scholarship fund that has already reduced the cost of college for tens of thousands of Arkansas high school graduates with good grades. Now he is running for governor of Arkansas, and the centerpiece of his campaign is The Arkansas Promise, the first plan to make universal higher education a reality in an entire state.
In order to make this nationwide, we have to start by making it happen in one state. Please click here to endorse the first statewide program to provide universal access to higher education, and join Bill Halter's campaign to make it a reality.
Keep fighting, Chris Bowers, Daily Kos
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I dont think the loans are as big as a scam as the shitty amount of knowledge you get in a field over the course of four freakin years.
doesn't matter
I do not have the money
did you see your doctor yet?
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That would be awesome! Then instead of my getting a Used Honda Civic, I could get a Lexus instead. I mean I deserve it right?
Something to think about is if everything was essentially free what would be the incentive to innovate? Why not make everything a commodity like one car manufacturer that makes just one type of car. And every family is entitled to one car.
U deserve a box just big enough for U to be comfortable in, and the rest of the space, filled to the extreme, with dirty money. One hundred to 3 hundred pounds of dirty money, impacted, all around you, tight. And then buried. For you to think about.
In other words, you want stuff for free on the backs of other people.
Nope.
Do you work for free?
The powers that be will never sit back and allow the 60s and 70s happen again. They have made sure that educated brats are fully indentured servants.
What was so great about the. 60s and 70s? Bell bottoms? I don't see how this is even relevant. I agree with indentured servants, but it's not like someone held a gun to my head and said go to colleage. And most my friends were on some dirt of university scholarship. Just saying.
Stopped a WAR, terminated two presidencies, gave equal rights to minorities, legalized birth control and abortion rights, brought you the Beatles, Iggy Pop, Roxy Music, The Residents, and computers, etc. What more do U want??? What have U done????
I am a millennial. I wasn't even born then. Lol! But you racked up the deficit, propped up Oil dependency, etc. what war are you talking about? I thought there were only conflicts.
You have time to learn.
Yes, we haven't been in a declared war since WW2.
You R spurting RW talking points, R U a Con? A Zombie? A Troll? Juz zayn.
That comment sounds like are just trying to start a debate. Nice one. Someone doesn't agree with you and they are a troll.
What's wrong with debate? If the parties are honest, learning can ensue.
Hey, is that Roger Daltrey!!??