"If there can be a lendingtree.com for home mortgages, there can be one for student loans too. Lenders should bid for student-loan business. Students would get cheaper loans. And there would be fewer incentives for the kind of unseemly activity that has been coming to light."

Kickbacks should be outlawed in every sector of business and government. It is these secret agreements that are destroying competition in this country and the economy itself.

This behavior is not only unseemly - it is unscrupulous, unsavory, unspeakable, unreasonable, unmerciful, unprofessional and unecessary. It may or may not be unlawful, but it is certainly corrupt!

Why should there be a student loan industry?

Why should our youth have to go to moneylenders to get an education?

What do I pay taxes for?

I was having breakfast the other morning in Long Grove Illinois of all places and exchanged a few words with the waiter, who, it turned out, was a recent immigrant from Latvia.

She liked the US very much, not surprising to hear from an immigrant from the former Stalinist world. But when we touched on the subject of education she had a different view. The education she received was not only better than here in the US but free at all levels.

Like the victims of the ongoing subprime mortgage crisis, students in the US are in the clutches of moneylenders and, in some cases, do not escape those clutches for many years after they have finished their education.

Except when it comes to their own interests, the capitalist class likes to leave all social issue to the market. Healthcare, education, housing, food production; let the market deal with it. When the S&L's went bust though, it was the taxpayer they turned to. To deal with climate change that will affect profits, it is the taxpayer they will turn to, the "big hand" of government.

The state, Marx argued, was merely the board of directors for the interests of the capitalist class as a whole and will not act in a way that threatens those interests. It will attempt to regulate its excesses though, when these excesses threaten the stability of the system.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is attempting to curb the moneylender's excess with regard to the student loan "market". Why is there a student loan market one must ask oneself?

Cuomo is concerned that lenders are giving kickbacks to colleges that give them a "spot on their coveted list of preferred lenders."(1) Cuomo's probe in to the market for student loans is driven by concern that schools should be recommending "preferred" lenders because they offer better rates, not because they offer kickbacks in any form. Some schools are defending the practice claiming that the revenue is put back in to financial aid. But some lenders, according to Cuomo, pay for schools financial-aid officers trips to "Pebble Beach, the Caribbean and elsewhere."

Loaning money to students so they can get an education is an $85 billion market in the US. Much of this is done through government loans, grants and other measures. Like the subrime lending market that targeted the poor, seniors, and that section of society with weak credit history, moneylenders have created new student loan startups along the same lines.

These companies are set up quickly, they're really just organizations set up for the sole purpose of loaning money to people so they can get an education, something that should be a right and a social service in any civilized society.

One of them, Education Finance Partners, was founded in 2003 and offers loans that are not backed by the US government. These institutions made $17 billion in loans between 2005 and 2006. For some of the poorest among us or those with family obligations such as a sick parent or sibling, the military might be a better choice; it's called economic conscription.

Cuomo's efforts will result at best in eliminating the biggest sharks from the student loan pond but he will not propose the only real solution; education as a social service and free at all levels like they had in a dictatorship like Latvia. He is also motivated by the subrime fiasco that is being dealt with after the fact. These crises can lead to social unrest.

(1) Wall Street Journal 3-23-07

Going into business at a young age may not work for all young people. A lot of them do not even know what path they want to pursure.
Since you cannot usually get a good job without college(a load of crape if you ask me.) Government and business have the moral obligation to provide a free education.
The college standard was actually created for downsizing.
I knew a lot of Food Salesmnen brokers who were making over $200,000 a year and more. Obviously lack of college had not hindered them from networking good contacts.
The companies just wanted to hire younger people at $20,000 a year. The corporations did not need real salespeople as they were going to control what the stores bought and sold(probablly more kickbacks). If you wonder why you cannot buy what you like because it is not there-the reason is they keep changing stock frequently.
Using the credit report is also elimination. If people are being forced into debt-they should not be forced out of the job market. The credit report tells nothing about someone-s job skill.

What the US needs is socialized, free education; not private student loan reform.

What the US needs is socialized, free education; not private student loan reform.

Exactly. Socialized free education with education taken out of the hands of the corporations.

Just for the record, there is currently over $1 Trillion in outstanding debt on "student loans" in this country.

Richard Mellor April 10th, 2007 3:31 pm
"Like the subrime lending market that targeted the poor, seniors, and that section of society with weak credit history, moneylenders have created new student loan startups along the same lines."

"Secrets of the Federal Reserve" by Eustace Mullins. He was the first person to thoroughly research and report on the Jekyll Island meeting and the ensuing crimes by the banking cartel. Read it.....if you can still find a copy!

This is one book that will change your outlook on life forever! The research is impeccable.

I just finished reading Jennifer Washburn's (2005) "University, Inc." Check it out. It details the conflicts of interest that are utterly rampant in the so-called Academic Industrial Complex, particularly between faculty, administrators and big industry (typically big pharm, genetics, biomedical engineering, etc.). It should come as no surprise that moneylenders are involved also.

Check out Washburn's latest commentary. Evidently, BP is dropping $500 million into UC-Berkley, putting 50 of its employees into proprietary labs on a public campus:
http://www.newamerica.net/publications/articles/2007/an_unholy_alliance_5134.
The Terminator Governor, of course, is on board with the whole idea.

It's another example of the corporate takeover of the public domain. Some say it's socialism when government takes over industry. There's also a word for it when industry takes over the public domain. Fascism comes to mind.

These postings are from people who have the freedom to influence elected politicians. Ask yourself if you're doing what you really could to shape your community. Robert Kiyosaki is a Japanese American who wrote a very worthwhile book called "Rich dad poor dad." In this book, he explains how his real dad was a Minister of Education in Hawaii. He conditoned Kiyosaki Jr. to go to school, get good grades with the aim of getting a good job with security in the form of a pension. Kiyosaki recalls he was taught not to make mistakes because they were bad. Now, his father didn't evolve into a real success story. In fact, he went bankrupt after running for State governor against his boss and losing. Kiyosaki's dad got into business, didn't know the ropes and had to much pride to seek help. Kiyosaki approached the financially-successful neighbour's dad who never went to university for advice. This "rich dad" told Kiyosaki making mistakes was useful so long as he learned from them. He reformed his thinking and went into the world to seek a different kind of education in business. He went bankrupt more than once, but he always learned and got back on top. Not everyone can afford to attend university with or without a loan from a corrupt shark. We would benefit from teaching children many paths exist and you aren't a failure if you don't go to college. University grads can be unemployed too. In fact, many have few survival skills and are unprepared for the real world.

"What the US needs is socialized, free education; not private student loan reform."

I agree totally. It amazes me that in what is supposed to be the "richest and best country in the world" that we expect our youth to go into debt and abject poverty just to get a degree and then label them as "losers" when they fail at it or decide to not put themselves through all of that.

I work with a kid that's working two jobs just to get through school. Why do we put people through that? Why does everything have to be struggle in this country? Yeah, it builds character, sure.

Funny how this article appears the day after I call the US Dept. of Education, and later Sallie Maes' collection agency, Great Lakes calls me last night. I'm heading in the default line baby, actually have been trying to get there since July of 2005. Sallie Mae is a liar as they told me my deferrments were all gone back in 2005, that's why default was one of my options. I offered to work it off for them, which was a no go. And of course, I asked them to just forgive or forget the rest the shark wants, as they are not out any money. I paid back what i borrowed plus two thirds of that amount in interest. You would think they could happy or at least reasonable for the sincere effort I made considering I never got a better job with my college education. Then there was that cute rip off in policy that one couldn't reconsolidate at a lower interest rate, because for years I got these notices of 3% and even less, but I was stuck at 9%. Ever slow Congress finally passes a law so students could reconsolidate. How ironic, that this happens July 2005. Well, it's far to late for me to benefit. So now, I'm an unemployed used up old lady in my mid fifties and am thinking about my own interest.
Fuck You Sallie Mae. Congress, most of you are Ass holes too.

The REAL reason there are so few decent paying livlihoods without a (in the US, substandard) college education - the destruction of UNIONS! Until the early 80's/Ronald Reagan, a job in construction, manufacturing, mining, or even a department store used to be plenty to live well and raise a family...

But, if you wanted to get a higher education, it was at least cheap. The State U. I went to was just $1050 per YEAR for full time plus $1100 room and meals. Texas and California atate U's were free to state residents.

Oh! the horrible days when those liberals ran things!

Nanoo,

It is awful to hear so many of these stories - many of those under crushing debt are middle-aged "economically-displaceed" people who "improved themselves" ecactly as the rich elites pontificated to them - only to face poor-paying or nonexistent jobs.

I am likewise in my 50's. Thanks goodness for federal government jobs; If I has stayed in the private sector, I would have faced continued lousy pay, debt, and no hope for a pension...

Some day, we'll bring their vile system down!

iwarrior asked: "I work with a kid that's working two jobs just to get through school. Why do we put people through that? Why does everything have to be struggle in this country?"

Sometimes I get the impression that having people struggle for most things keeps them focused only on those issues. Imagine for a moment if most US citizens didn't have to worry about the cost of education and medical care. The citizens would actually have the time to observer and to control their corrupt governments and corporations.

One option is to send our kids to Canada for a university degree. The tuition is very reasonable.

The more we learn about the Bush administration, the more we see unseemly tie-ins to large corporations. We know the War in Iraq is providing a huge benefit to oil companies and that extremely lucrative contracts have been given to companies like Halliburton and Bechtel. Similarly, Hurricane Katrina was a bonanza for Halliburton and Bechtel. Homeland security is being privatized; so is our election system. Diebold is now one of the owners of our democracy. The IRS has doled out much of its debt collection to private firms, even though the head of the agency acknowledges that it is a lot more expensive than doing the collecting in-house. Now we learn how the student loan industry is not only privatized but has their own monopolies at about 300 schools.

What's next?

I am a student studying out-of-state in North Carolina. After graduation I will be in debt $24,000 to these bastards! I recieve no federal grants b/c my parents earn too much money(hard to believe when they have 3 kids in college)and if it were not for generous donations/scholarships I would still be buying my books on credit(something many students do). Books are not cheap either 4-$500 a semester!
It is hard to believe we live in a society where to become a doctors,lawyer,or politician you must first get in debt up to your eyeballs...

Well, US higher education may have peaked somewhere between the GI Bill and the 1970's. Prior to then, and increasingly now afterwards, the working/middle-class didn't generally even have a chance to become a lawyer or doctor.

But that's the least of our problems. What of IT, engineering, the sciences, K-12 teaching, etc. in which a 4-year degree could at least secure a middle-class existence? Graduating with a boatload of debt in *any* discipline outside of law or medicine is arguably a great gamble at this point, relative to economic realities.

Will America increasingly be producing only two sorts of people: those suited to McJobs -- and those destined to become doctors/lawyers? I worked as a technologist at a law school for a stint, and met many idealistic law students. But with high 5-figures (or more) in debt upon graduation, I doubt Greenpeace, etc. will offer them a position that'll allow them to make ends meet. Same applies to medicine, though the doctor market is less flooded. And yet new doctors will almost certainly need to be on the dole from big pharm in order to make ends meet. It's sad commentary when you can't blame people for doing the wrong thing.

It's like everything else here in the U.S.

As we pave the way to the "globalized" future, business empresarios get their input in first: on education, healthcare, trade, labor, the media...you name it. One dollar, one vote.

For decades those pushing the "business agenda" have pretty much dictated who would run federal agencies and determine the agendas. Things have soured even faster in the Bush Regime.

Bean counters (and worse), running everything. People who hate the very notion of public education (and who likely know very little about the educational process itself) get to be in charge, and it is their vision that creates not only a declining system of public education, but the one that courts private lending agencies to finance the "higher education product."

This plutocratic game is played by BOTH major parties, harbor no illusions. The DUOPOLY has created a finely tuned machine that responds quite well to the wishes of those paying the piper. Citizens need not apply.

Only about 4% of Congressional seats are ever up for grabs in any given election. People without health insureance number 46 million and growing. Bi-partisan votes allowed bankers and credit companies to squeeze the elderly out of their homes. Pharmaceutical companies' pressures keep the aging from importing needed medicines at a discount. Why should we be surprised of loan-sharking for students? It's one big free-for-all financed by...ourselves!

Meaningless money-soaked elections only provide an illusion of participation. The country is being hijacked. We are paying with blood, money, and karma to fight wars against people who do not threaten us for resources they own and our elite covets.

The loans are merely one more visible symptom (if you look) of democracy's demise. It is up to us to name the problems and to start looking for solutions. The current setup is just that -- a setup. No remedies there.

It's all set up this way. Empire likes to stifle upward mobility, punishing those who dare with debt and limited opportunity.

This is long, but please bear with me as I believe this is yet another con being waged on students and their parents by the student loan industry.

My daughter was 3/4 of the way through her one-year massage therapy program last June, right before the student loan interest rates were set to jump from 4.7% to 6.54% on July 1st.

Congress hemmed and hawed over many of the more technical details relating to loan consolidation right up until June 15th - a mere two weeks before we had to apply for consolidation if we wanted to lock in that much lower rate. For instance, they rescinded the rule that you had to consolidate with the same lendor (you couldn't shop around, in other words) if all your student loans were with just that one lender. A pretty important point.

It was extremely difficult to get up-to-the-minute, credible information on any of this at the time. The federal student loan websites were a year out of date, and varying lenders and info sites listed widely varying rules. Since my daughter's loans were all with one lender/servicer (ACS - who happened to be on her school's "preferred lender" list), and I wasn't aware that Congress was even considering allowing us to shop lenders, we applied for a consolidation with ACS online on June 12th.

The online application thing kind of bothered me because they claimed it could be done entirely online - we would not have to send anything in. They even had an "electronic signature" for the promissary note. But because time was so short, I didn't want to risk losing out on the opportunity to lock in those lower interest rates by something getting lost in the mail.

[This brings up another point worth mentioning. When you apply for a student loan, your "application" is actually a promissary note. This means that you can't go out and shop for lenders - even when first choosing one - because if that lender does approve you, that promissary note goes into effect. It's illegal to sign more than one prommissary note at a time. Therefore, you have to wait be rejected by one lender before being able to apply with another. This means that first lender can, essentially, hold you hostage for a period of time. They're supposed to give you notice one way or another within - I think - 72 hours. But they don't. And some have been sanctioned for it.]

Because she was still in school, we had to do some extra things like ask that her last loan be disbursed early (before July 1st), and that her current loan be put into repayment and then deferred until after she graduated. [Pretty screwy, I know. It took me several days of research just to comprehend all these crazy hoops. Which is another HUGE problem with this whole system. It's definitely not for the lay person (like me) or the weak of heart!]

By doing so, she'd lose her grace period of 3 months and have to begin paying her student loan immediately after graduating, but that was preferable since her interest rate would be 4.7% rather than the 7.14% she'd be paying otherwise. That higher interest comes out to about $2,000 over the life of the loan, BTW.

So, because time was so short, and our situation was rather complex, I wanted to be sure that everything had been received and that I had done all I needed to. ACS kindly gave us 3 ways to contact them: e-mail, phone or snail-mail. The ONLY phone number I could locate was an 800 #. I waited on hold for 20 minutes one day, and 25 the next without ever reaching a human voice or being given an opportunity to leave a message. My e-mail was never returned. Finally, after a week of waiting on hold for 20-30 minutes several times each day, I got through.

The gal I spoke with assured me that all was well, that I did not have to send anything in, and that if I had submitted the application online, I should have had the opportunity to print a verification (I did) which was my proof. She told me she couldn't verify anything because they were so innundated with consolidation apps (people rushing to lock in that low interest rate like us) that it would take 4-6 weeks to process. [I didn't yet know of that 72 hour rule.]

6 weeks later, it's now early August and my daughter is going to graduate in the middle of Sept. I know her student loan payments are going to start in October (because she lost her grace period remember) and we're kind of wondering exactly how much to budget for. I also haven't gotten anything from ACS regarding the consolidation other than a notice updating her interest rate (they round up so the 4.7% was slightly higher than what it was when she was in school before July 1st).

This time it takes me almost a freaking month to get through to ACS - early September now. I don't know about you but I don't have an extra hour everyday to hang on hold. How frustrating!

You had to see this coming didn't you?

Of course, ACS claimed they had no record of our consolidation application. I went on up the line from the CSR who originally answered my call, to her supervisor, to her supervisor. They all said the same thing: No record of it on their part, therefore we were welcome to re-apply at this time (and can conveniently do it online!), but of course, the new interest rate was going to be 7.14%.

When I kept insisting I had the "proof" I was told I would need (the verification I printed out), I was put on hold while the manager's mgr. was supposedly finding out to whom and where I should send my proof. He never came back on the line.

Even though I had his phone number, the 10 messages I left for him were never returned, and the various CSR's I did get through to on the 800 line had no idea what I was talking about and would transfer me right back to Mr. Manager's voice mail.

After reading a story about this happening to other people, I contacted the Dept of Ed. Again, it took more than a week of telephone tag to speak to a live human there. Who told me they wouldn't get involved unless I had made a "good faith attempt" to resolve the problem on my own. Since I hadn't sent any documentation to ACS (I didn't know which of the 4 or 5 locations they had, or whom to send it to, for God's sake) I supposedly hadn't made good enough faith attempts. Geeesh.

This was, by now late October, and my daughter had already had to start paying back her student loan. (If we didn't get that consolidation, why wasn't she given her grace period, hmmm?) So, frankly I was just sick and tired of fighting it. I gave up.

Now my kid's on the hook for an extra $2,000 in inflated interest that is nothing but pure profit for these vultures. On a federally guaranteed loan, I might add. And, as someone noted above, she will never again be able to lock in an interest rate any lower than 7.14%, even if interest rates drop like they did awhile back.

You see the problem don't you? Why in the world would the same servicer who can collect that extra $2,000 from you ever want you to consolidate and deprive them of that easy money? Of course, they lost thousands of applications! And ACS is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) servicer of FFEL loans. I bet that little scam added up to a hefty chunk of change.

The school's FA Dept was of no help. Our lender was of no help. The guarantee agency was of no help. The Dept of Ed was of no help. Every one of them referred us back to ACS. Now I see it's probably because they're all in each other's pockets, each getting their own liitle share of the pie - legally or not.

Where does one turn to for help? This is so maddening, and really, really sad. My daughter's the first one in our family to finish any kind of educational program past high school (a four-year college is simply out of our reach - even with financial aid - and is no longer a guarantee of a secure financial future anyway), and all these major companies and institutions are feeding off her. Do these jerks really need to build their McMansions off the backs of our struggling young (or old) students?

Man, it just makes me sick. Just try to pull yourself up honestly by your bootstraps. These creeps will come steal your boots.

That story is illustrative of endemic breakdowns in our culture. A whole series of fallen dominos has to occur in order for Kafka-esque scenarios like that to open up.

I've worked at a Big-10 for the past nine years, and seen the culture noticeably erode even in that span of time. It's typical for universities to have boards, these people are basically "fixers", to hook up big money with big education. Our land grant university has a board of regents. It's a basic truism in modern industry (and academia) that managers/administrators are hired by their higher-ups, and so on to the top. So, at the top of the chain, you have people who are increasingly politically connected to the dominant paradigm.

As a result, I was left wondering whether many/most top college administrators who got their position during the Bush administration, particularly that point in which the Rethugs also controlled Congress and monkeywrenched the DoJ, these college administrators -- and loan administrators -- are probably the academic equivalents of Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rove, etc. Unfortunately in many cases, they won't lose their positions after the present batch of crooks leaves D.C.

So the upshot is that, wherever you go -- federal programs, state departments, banks, colleges themselves, you may find the same orchestrated(?) break down of rule, protocol, and accountability? It'll be their own undoing, people will begin to drop support.

For my own part, I'm considering going back for that graduate degree when my kids are of college age -- maybe in Europe.

You can read Secrets of the Federal Reserve by Eustace Mullins at: http://www.the7thfire.com/Politics%20and%20History/Secrets_of_the_Federal_Reserve/secrets_of_the_federal_reserve_TC.htm

Now, let's talk about a college education. Read the report at: www.bls.gov/opub/ooq/2000/fall/art01.pdf

This report is one of the rare government report that actually tells the truth, although watered down. Basically, there are 90,000 college graduates every year who will not get a decent/professional/paraprofessional job. They will be forced to work low-paid, dirty work without benefits. How are they to repay their college loans? Why can't they have good jobs if they've earned the right to work them? Only because Industry doesn't need them after selling dreams of equality and then bilking them for money the rest of their lives.

I have a friend in central Minnesota with two college degrees. She writes me about how hungry she and her daughter are at the end of the month because after she pays rent and payments on her student loans, there's virtually nothing left of her income. She works for Head Start and she makes $14,000 a year with benefits. She is rich compared to many college graduates who have to work for minimum-wage at grocery stores or similar places.

They say that I'm one of the smartest human beings on the planet. IQ of 200, perfect score on the Logic part of the Graduate Records Examination. That and four university degrees could not get me any kind of a decent job. I was born at the bottom and no matter how hard I tried to improve myself and my lot in life, I came from the bottom of society and thus, was disenfranchised.

I live in Holland now. Raptor American capitalism is starting to spread like cancer here and it is ruining lives like in the US. My boyfriend's uncle Leo lost his job as a tiler. At 49, he was unhireable, so he had to take a job at McDonald's. He committed suicide over this last August 3rd.

People were killing themselves like crazy before I left America because they couldn't get any decent work. And you know what? The People in Charge (city administrators, work programs, so forth) didn't care. They said "Any Job" was better than no job at all. Work either lifts us up or drags us down. Of course our noble leaders didn't have to live on minimum wage.

Owing loans and being unable to pay them will kill you fast! And if the people from the bottom who get an education but are unable to pay them because of disenfranchisment (the American society is rigidly classist-Behavior/Outcome/Benefit), they will become stressed out and will conveniently die prematurely for the ruling elite. Read my blogspot about how the American government premeditatively kills its own citizens by framing groups and communities to die early from the Axiom of Biological Stress. The address is http://hiddenmurder.blogspot.com My white paper is unbreakable and google found it so dangerous that they censored me for 4 1/2 months until some liberal groups on the internet came to my aid.

As for unemployable college grads, it goes deeper. The paper "The Outlook for College Grads" only factors in amount of good jobs vs. number of new college grads. It doesn't factor in all the college grads that have lost their jobs to downsizing, restructuring, outsourcing so forth.

I received my master's degree in 1990 and there were literally thousands of unemployed college graduates without work or with little work in Saint Cloud, Minnesota. So if you want to know how really bad the picture is for educated people getting work to pay off their school loans, then you need to start counting back to at least 1990. That's 17 years x 90,000 college graduates each year that will never got a decent job...Add in all the other displaced un- or under-employed college graduates that have been thrown in the gutter by Industry and you've got countless millions of educated workers that can't pay their basic bills. How can they pay for student loans?

But wait, the poor borrowers are crucified other ways besides threatening calls when they don't make their student loan payments: When college graduates don't "make it," the bully society blames the victims/losers. I wish I had a dollar for every time someone called me a loser, monster and/or liar because I could not find a decent job because they believed the dominant propaganda that the American system of capitalism is so sweet, so fair, so generous, so full of opportunity...If you are a valuable person, Industry will embrace you with both arms...Guess what? It doesn't work that way. It's time to WAKE UP!!! Most good jobs are awarded and rewarded along class lines. Notice how the rich or established middle-class' children are usually always employed after college graduation! And if not, they always get first chances at being a congressional aide.

My husband was raping me and almost killed me several times. Most of his anger came from the constant stream of news reports of the late 1990's where sunny newscasters spread the propaganda of the Labor Shortage Myth. This is how Clinton and his buddies from the right got their political agenda of starting civil wars (in homes, communities, so forth) and getting what they wanted ("welfare reform") by demonizing the weak and powerless. The propaganda was always the same: that there were more jobs than people to fill them, thus the poor MUST BE FORCED TO WORK. The Calvinist Christian Credo that work saves your soul was worked into the model, thus making it appear "Christian."

Years later, everyone knows that the "Gay 90's" was not that happy or prosperous for most people.

My husband "punished" me and was going to kill me because I had "failed" him by not getting one of those jobs that the news casters kept announcing about. I didn't make enough money from my 17 jobs to pay the rent for cockroach studio apartment, so there was no way I could leave my husband without ending up living under the Eastside Bridge. Sure, I could have stayed at the Women's shelter one month and then I was out on the street.

I knew I was going to end up being homeless because I was determined to leave my husband. Four university degrees, one of the smartest people on the planet, but damned to be a poor female and homeless only because I come from poor white people and because I didn't look like a fashion doll. I crashed and burned like legions.

I know how violent it is to be homeless in America, so I chose another place to be homeless in. At least here, I could sell newspapers in the street to buy my daily bread. I couldn't have done that in Saint Cloud or most places in America. When I did it, images of people selling apples in the Great Depression came to mind.

I know how violent it is to be homeless in America, so I chose another place to be homeless in. I wasn't going to kill myself like others and I wasn't going to be pubically homeless so all the self-righteous people who denied me work could pat themselves on the back for not hiring vermin. At least here, I could sell newspapers in the street to buy my daily bread. I couldn't have done that in Saint Cloud or most places in America. When I did it, images of people selling apples in the Great Depression came to mind.

There's not enough work to support college graduates, yet they are selling illusions (dreams of a better future from a good education) and handing out student loans that will take many people over a lifetime to pay. Then, when they die, the loan predators will come in and scavage everything they can to squeeze one more cent after they have squeezed all the money, blood and life out of their "customers."

Read my blogspot (http://hiddenmurder.blogspot.com). See how the patriarchal elite kills us wantonly only because their economic system can't and won't create enough jobs for every worker that needs one. Why? Because profits come before people and always will.

Please forgive any typos. I get really passionate when I write about this!!! One good job could have saved me. I looked eleven years and couldn't find anything.

What's all this nonsense about voting and influencing politicians? Working people have no political party of our own.

The capitalist class has basically two wings of one party. When the working class is on the defensive, the Republicans are used to whip them in to shape. When the working class is on the offensive, the Democrats are brought out to suck the movement in to this black hole of theirs.

But I believe we should defend the right to vote because we won it from them. It was a grudging concession from them.

As someone said above, it is the demise of Unions that is the biggest cause of the decline of working class living standards.

I recall union wages and benefits being somewhare around 30-35% above non Union. This is probably less now as the Union leadership have capitulated completely to the capitalist offensive over the past period. They are completely on board with the Team Concept and cling to the coat tails of the Democratic Party, a catastrophe for US workers. It is criminal the money and labor organized labor gives to this party of the corporations.

I have been fortunate enough to have had a public sector blue collar job that I retired from aged 55. We should all have this and more. If it was not for the public sector, there would be hardly anyone in Unions in this country due to the miserable record of the heads of the labor movement.

What has happened to auto parts, steel and the airlines with regards to their pensions is coming to the public sector. The Union leaders will not organize a fight back as they have no ideological differences with the employers, they worship the market and accept the employers' view of the world.

Helping to build a movement that rejects the employers ideas of what being "realistic" means and what is acceptable to the politicians in the Democratic Party is crucial if we are to reverse the tide. This includes building an independent political party based on workers, the middle class and our communities.

We must also return to the methods that built the Unions in the first place and led to the legislation that we enjoy today, legislation that recognized on paper what was already won in the streets and that means direct action, occupations, violating anti-union laws, not as individuals but in a mass way.

I have been involved in some rental struggles here against slumlords. We have had some major victories. We have picketed their homes, leafletted their communitites. we have occupied Mayor's offices and leafletted their churches.

We had a major victory in Alameda California, fighting with section 8 people to stop the elimination of their vouchers.

I think one of the biggest obstacles activists have to overcome is the mood in society that you cannot win. That there is nothing you can do, so there's no pointin trying. So small victories are important hurdles that are crossed along the road to changing that mood.

The reason you can't get a job without a college degree is that we let all the manufacturing jobs leave the country. Everyone wants a better deal. We are horrified at slave labour in our own country and we proclaim how good union wages are but no one wants to pay full price for honest American made merchandise. Every one of us, every day, buy or use something that was made in a country where the work is cheap and cruel. Levi's were the last of the jeans companies to go overseas and they are not to blame. The American public wants good wages but they wont pay reasonable prices for the products that would sustain good wages. In the market we live in, the purchasing public has the vote. Buying local and buying American may cost more in the short term. Having less things of better quality with nobody's blood on them and keeping the money in our own economy could turn America around.