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Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield
One of the things that converts an angry idealist to a pragmatist is age. The other, which goes along with age, is the recognition that massive entrenched interests such as Big Oil or Big Education cannot be tackled through policy. We will continue to burn fossil fuels for a long time to come, and the environment will get worse, because we can’t and won’t go cold turkey, and even if we did, the rest of the developing world will not ( https://www.carbonbrief.org/mapped-w...l-power-plants). |
You have it exactly backward. We will keep dying, uncompetitive fossil fuel industries alive via policy (subsidies) even while wind and solar are cheaper, because they are entrenched, have a lot of money to spend and people fear change. The end will come only when we're sick of paying for them.
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As for Big Education, do you really think Democrats would discipline that sector?
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The problem with student debt isn't Big Education. It's the financialization of education funding. The problem is Wall Street and our collective decision that kids should leverage their future earning rather than pay for it directly. Yes, I think the Democrats can discipline the education debt financing industry. It's not easy or cheap, but it can be done.
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If they forgive loans, it’d be a great sugar high for the economy. But that’d be temporary.
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Debt forgiveness is a reset. Kids took out loans based on conditions that didn't anticipate the Great Recession or the pandemic. They just need a bailout, just like lots of others got. And they will get at least some after Biden is sworn in.
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The real fix must be in tightening student loan lending and allowing clawbacks from Universities who give out useless degrees at outrageous costs. The bullshit arguments behind a lot of the looniest progressive policies are written by professors.
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The professors aren't underwriting the loans. The problem is/was a lack of jobs, not useless degrees. If the problem was useless degrees, you think Wall Street wouldn't have gotten itself to the power to say no to them?
