In The News

[unforth]

GM, Chrysler and Ford Ask for Billions of Taxpayers Dollars, Again - should we bail out the automakers? Discuss. (I, personally, don't think we should, even though I'm very scared of the repercussions if when they fail.)
College Tuition Increasing At Much Higher Rate than Family Incomes - this article would be a lot more helpful if it gave more of an idea of WHY this is happening.
Chambliss (R) Now Senator of Georgia - for those who were hoping for the Dem 60 (which was damned unlikely) - it's now gone for good.
Episcopal Church Likely to Split Over Ordination of Gay Bishop - apparently, this is the culmination of 5 years of bickering.

Comments

[ozziel.livejournal.com]

I think it could be described rather simply:

Less jobs to be had -> More competition for jobs -> College degree required to be competitive -> Colleges understand necessity of degree -> Degrees increase in price.

Or, to simply it further:

Step 1: Degree; Step 2: ?????; Step 3: Profit

[unforth.livejournal.com]

And, unlike the underpants equation, there are a whole lot of potential items that count as ?????. :)

Really, though, that makes a lot of sense. It's relatively straightforward supply/demand situation, now that ya point it out. I knew that the reason that state degrees have gone up in price is because of less state funding - and schools are trying to take more students with less $$$ for support, so students have to make up the difference. But I think that some of it is priorities - the case in point I always use is that while I was at Binghamton, SUNY fronted the price of a multi-million dollar sports complex while my department (History, not exactly a minor area!) had so little money that students had to print their own copies of the syllabus because the department couldn't afford xerox paper and toner. And you know, when I think college sports, I definitely think SUNY Binghamton Binghamton University.

In the end, though, what I fear is that there divide between the haves and the have-nots will continue to grow if it becomes increasingly difficult/impossible for students from lower and lower-middle class backgrounds to go to college. And that's not right.

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

Well, at least they're asking for loans, not outright handouts. I'm friendlier to loan or equity bailouts. And while market discipline is good, there's also the issue of how much economy is tied up in them. And in Canada too -- weak automotive there is eroding Ontario's status as a fiscal bedrock.

If they did fail, the government would be out a lot of money as well, in unemployment benefits and possibly outright welfare, plus the drop in taxes and possible erosion of the social and physical infrastructure of a large chunk of the US.

And yeah, the Anglican thing has been a long time thing. You'll note at the end of the article that women priests are also a problem, but gays have been the highlight. The English and North American churches are generally a lot more liberal than the African ones.

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

As for colleges, the article mentions falling state budgets, for public universities. As for private ones, there's the tumbling stock market:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28031648/

Of course skyrocketing tuition has been going on for a while (modulo things like Princeton doing away with tuition) but endowments collapsing won't help.