Letter to the editor: Debt free students in 2010
Dear Editor:
GM, it seems is, emerging from bankruptcy. That was fast! And if they can do it we can do it. In Canada and the U.S. everyone is in hock up to his eyebrows. But some of us have jobs and assets. Not students.
If anyone deserves debt relief it is postsecondary students, each and every one of them. It's well said that if you owe the bank $10,000 you're under the bank's thumb, but if you owe him $10 million he's under yours. I propose serving notice to the government and the banks that students want a debt amnesty in 2010. And if we don't get it we're going to default. En Masse.
Did you know that when Argentina collapsed in 2001, CIBC lost $1-billion? So there's one bank that can afford a few million. And we're told that our rock solid banks have kept Canada clear of the financial disaster on Wall Street. Don't believe it. Our financial institutions are very deep into the American market. And come the recession, all of a sudden there's $50-billion available for ‘shovel-ready projects.' Well higher education is the worthiest project around, and you don't need a shovel.
After the Second World War, the U.S. implemented the G.I. Bill to give their veterans an education. Canada had a similar program - the late great Dalton Camp always wrote of his gratitude for the free education that launched him on his career as a political activist and journalist. And Canada is immensely wealthier now than then. How come you still have to join the military to get a free education? An education that the country needs you to get? Maybe you could shoot someone right here at home, eh? Seriously, we're just stuck in an old groove of thinking. Luckily the new groove has been practiced in Europe since…er, the war.
Then years ago I heard students claim that they were working a job 30 hours a week on top of a full course load. This is nothing to boast about. If that's your gig, you're simply not getting the education you're paying for. Why not join hands with your comrades and break the paper chains that bind you? Solon did it in Athens: Sophocles and Euripides soon emerged. Good thing they weren't paying off student loans.
As U.S. president Barack Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emmanuel said when he was hired, we don't want to waste a crisis. Now is the time. Buying on credit replaced wage increases for the last 30 years, and now the whole thing is coming unraveled. Nobody knows what anybody is worth, and people are declaring bankruptcy left right and centre. I speak from experience. Many of us Gen X'ers used bankruptcy to get out from under our impossible student debts, and then the Ontario government shut that loophole. It sucks to be you. But it doesn't have to. STUDENTS OF CANADA UNITE! YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT YOUR CHAINS!
Jack Speare
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
GM, it seems is, emerging from bankruptcy. That was fast! And if they can do it we can do it. In Canada and the U.S. everyone is in hock up to his eyebrows. But some of us have jobs and assets. Not students.
If anyone deserves debt relief it is postsecondary students, each and every one of them. It's well said that if you owe the bank $10,000 you're under the bank's thumb, but if you owe him $10 million he's under yours. I propose serving notice to the government and the banks that students want a debt amnesty in 2010. And if we don't get it we're going to default. En Masse.
Did you know that when Argentina collapsed in 2001, CIBC lost $1-billion? So there's one bank that can afford a few million. And we're told that our rock solid banks have kept Canada clear of the financial disaster on Wall Street. Don't believe it. Our financial institutions are very deep into the American market. And come the recession, all of a sudden there's $50-billion available for ‘shovel-ready projects.' Well higher education is the worthiest project around, and you don't need a shovel.
After the Second World War, the U.S. implemented the G.I. Bill to give their veterans an education. Canada had a similar program - the late great Dalton Camp always wrote of his gratitude for the free education that launched him on his career as a political activist and journalist. And Canada is immensely wealthier now than then. How come you still have to join the military to get a free education? An education that the country needs you to get? Maybe you could shoot someone right here at home, eh? Seriously, we're just stuck in an old groove of thinking. Luckily the new groove has been practiced in Europe since…er, the war.
Then years ago I heard students claim that they were working a job 30 hours a week on top of a full course load. This is nothing to boast about. If that's your gig, you're simply not getting the education you're paying for. Why not join hands with your comrades and break the paper chains that bind you? Solon did it in Athens: Sophocles and Euripides soon emerged. Good thing they weren't paying off student loans.
As U.S. president Barack Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emmanuel said when he was hired, we don't want to waste a crisis. Now is the time. Buying on credit replaced wage increases for the last 30 years, and now the whole thing is coming unraveled. Nobody knows what anybody is worth, and people are declaring bankruptcy left right and centre. I speak from experience. Many of us Gen X'ers used bankruptcy to get out from under our impossible student debts, and then the Ontario government shut that loophole. It sucks to be you. But it doesn't have to. STUDENTS OF CANADA UNITE! YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT YOUR CHAINS!
Jack Speare
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
