Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Cry me a river, Sunshine

The state of Michigan is removing 30,000 college students from its food stamp program in order to save $75 million that could be put to a better use or not spent at all.  In a cash strapped state, this makes sense.  If a student can show true financial need, such as an inability to work, then they can still be considered for assistance.  Otherwise, the little darlings get a chance to live in the real world a bit.

Some students don't believe that this is fair:

"College students have so much debt as it is in the United States. It's hard for them to be able to pay all their bills....
Kids these days, I tell you.....

OK, sparky, let's have an adult conversation here.  Put on your skin thickener, because you're about to be treated like an adult.  By the look on your face, I can guess you've never had that happen before?  Well, do your best.

Ready?  OK.

Seriously?  You think you're owed free food at the taxpayer's expense because you chose to go deep into debt in order to get a piece of paper that certifies that you can parrot back the pablum that your tenured professor shoveled into your brain containment unit for a few years?

Let me make this perfectly clear:

If you are a fully functional human being, meaning that you can be trusted with matches and don't make messes on the floor, and are 18 years of age or older, then no-one owes you a darn thing.  Not your parents and certainly not the taxpayer.  Life doesn't reward you for your best effort, and it certainly doesn't reward you for just showing up and having a pulse.  Get off your butt and find a job.

Got that sweetcakes?

Want to go to college so you can get a good job after graduation?  Good for you.  The world needs more people like you, and I wish you luck in this economy.  The line to fill out applications to flip burgers so you can feed yourself forms to the right.

Want to get a degree in advanced navel gazing and politically correct sophistry so that you can be a leach on the nutsack of society for the rest of your life?  Follow the other guy. He's one ahead of you in the pile of apps to work the midnight to 6 AM shift at the stop and rob.

I got my degree while working full time, and I expect that all of my kids will have to work at least part time in order to support themselves while in college.  I provide Junior with a food care package or a gift card to the grocery store every month, but he's having to earn a bit if he wants to eat more than ramen noodles and tuna fish.  The same will go for all of my kids, and it should be the same for all kids.  A government that teaches these young people that it's OK to take money from a program that was supposed to be only for the truly destitute is doing them no favors.

7 comments:

Irish said...

WOW...that left a mark! ;) and one that she should remember.
Well said DB.

Josh Kruschke said...

DB can you name one skill or knowledge that you learned in College that couldn't be had for free with a library card?

Hmmmm...,
Josh

Josh Kruschke said...

Ps. I wonder what the left professors would think if all the students went on 'Strike' for a year or two.

Oh, the irony,
Josh

DaddyBear said...

Josh, for the first two years worth of classes, I can't really name a class where I either learned something useful or didn't get past the "That's interesting, but when is the final?". The last two years worth of classes had a lot of direct bearing on my job.

As to whether or not I could have learned these skills outside of college, I have to say that if I was dedicated enough to go to the library and seek out good references, then yes. College was a way to concentrate my mind and efforts towards a goal that doing it as an autodidact wouldn't have done.

I was a bit older when I went to college and paid for it using GI Bill and tuition reimbursement from my employer, so I didn't take a lot of the "fun" courses that have no bearing on my degree and job. So I may skew a bit more towards the "degree for job skills" end of the scale.

Mike W. said...

" I expect that all of my kids will have to work at least part time in order to support themselves while in college."

The same applied for me when I was in college too. I also never even considered asking mom or dad for a handout. I figured they were paying my way so I should at least work for my own spending money.

I was shocked at the number of kids who got an allowance and gas money from mom & dad while in college. No wonder so many ended up leeching off the gubmint later on, they learned it from mom & dad.

Josh Kruschke said...

Ah, but did you have relearn it, as it's actualy done, when you got to the job and actualy applied it?

College is a business and it's business is to make money; not educate your kids. God forbid they actualy teach our kids to think for themselves.

The greatest trick that Colleges ever pulled was convincing the world that they teach our kids how to think for themselves.

Right now there are two books I think every kid should read:

1. "De Bono's Thinking Course" by Edward de Bono. Just needs to be read!

2. "The Fifth Discipline" by Peter M. Senge. Same!

The ability to think and make decisions is the greats gift and skill we can give our children. Knowledge is useless with out the ability to apply it in a way that works for them.

Just my 2 cents,
Josh

Ruth said...

I'll admit my parents paid the base fee to get me into the school cafeteria, but if I wanted anything different to eat I had to come up with my own cash. I worked two part time jobs almost my entire college career to pay for gas money, extra food, car insuance payments, and anything else I might want, and it never occured to me to ask for a .gov handout just cause I was going to have to pay off student loans too. Hell, I've never been on food stamps, and cause I've always had a good job either (cause I haven't). I don't mind those who've honestly hit some hard spot of life taking advantage of the program to help get their feet back under them, but college students??

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