George Carlin was right.

A Facebook posting has made me think of an old bit from George Carlin. I was about 10 years old when I first watched him perform on HBO back in the day, but in this 1:30 rant about the public makes a lot of sense right now. Think about it this way, how many times have you read a Facebook posting from someone that rejects facts, but yet they keeps asking for facts? Social media is soaked with this type of talk, which shows our own ignorance when it comes to talking about and dealing civic matters both local and federal. Here in the US we have forgotten how our own government is structured. If you don't believe then ask a random person to name the 3 Branches of the US Government or to explain the Electoral College.  

Is Image Really Everything?

I found an interesting nugget of civil rights history a few days ago while hearing about NPR news story. 9 months before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus, there was a black teenager by the name of Claudette Colvin also did the same and who also aided with her testimony to the US Supreme Court in Browder v Gayle, that would overturn Montgomery's bus segregation policy.  But because she didn't fit the image of what the NAACP wanted so she left out of the very fight she help started. My question why discriminate against your own? If you're fighting against segregation, then discount a person just because of their age and social station? She laid the foundation that gave for the protest that got MLK to speak in Montgomery, AL and yet we hear little about her in history. Years later this teenager would leave Montgomery for New York and later become a forgotten side note of a major event in civil rights history. A book by Phillip Hoose called Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice was published in 2009 that tells more of the overlooked backstory of the events leading to the Montgomery Bus Boycott not just from her point of view but others as well. When being to cross and alienate the very people you claim to help, you are not helping them for the right reasons. This also makes you a hypocrite, which added another question. Why is image so important when we have been told since childhood to never judge a book by it's cover.

Preparing for failure

We live in a country where the cart is too often put ahead of the horse. Meaning that we are pushing for more kids to get a college education, but are not laying the foundation for college or life after. High school classes have been cut to focus more on reading and math leaving a lot to be learned outside of the classroom. Long gone are the true Health classes, where we learned how to eat healthy or better take care of our body. The Arts and Music programs have been get by on table scraps while Sports programs tend to be the better feed. Trades paths are something that's been easily pushed to the side in favor of having more college bound students. We want more CEO's, Doctors and Athletes instead of Nurses, Mechanics and Musicians, forgetting that college is not the only form of education available, but remains the most coveted and expensive. There are questions that we are not asking any more. What are some equal alternatives to a college education?  Why does a career require a degree? What happened to Trade/Vo-tech education? Where are the classes that will help prepare a kid for life after High school and College? and If education after high school is so important, then where are the steps and courses that can help a young person, plan, prepare, perform and pay for it? We allow our leaders to spend too little on education, but too much on the military. Yes, power can protect you, but it takes knowledge to control and use that power correctly.



Take a look for yourself here's a link to a website that has the Past Federal Budgets

Yesterday's education at next month's prices.

College an institution that was at one point put in place for the enlightenment and advancement of mankind, has been mutated into a cash grab and degree clearing house. Where it was once meant to be a life changing learning experience, where a person finds some kind of direction. Landing a good job was just a by-product, a bonus or that something extra. But the focus has changed to just getting a better paying and fast track online learning. With online education becoming multi million dollar industry, just look at the University of Phoenix. An institution that has gained so much revenue from the fast track and online degree programs to where a Pro stadium bears their name. A college that doesn't even have an Division 1 football program, but it's name was on one of the biggest sports venues of the year and it along with other for profit online based schools were able to buy advertising time for the night of the big game. Keep in mind that a 30 second ad on average cost 4.5 million dollars and that U of P has to 154.5 million dollars over a 20 year span just to have it's name on an area. Which makes me question the government oversight of higher education in America, we now have a system in place that has people racking up debt similar to home mortgages for an education that in many ways can be inadequate in today's changing career landscape. Another thing to point is that for years these places take federal financial aid like many state run schools, but may not take many of their accredited hours when student transfers for one of these online schools. Which postures another question, if an institution must meet certain standards to receive federal aid, then why is it so hard to transfer credits? To make things clear I'm not just picking at the U of P, there are a lot of other Career Education based institutions out there. Just a few months ago Everest and ITT Tech where at the heart of their own scandals, with Everest being forced to shut down a few of it's campuses. The D.O.E. is trying to bring in more transparency by releasing reports on schools that have accreditation, program and financial reporting issues but is this too little too late? I been hearing reports that enrollment in for profit schools is starting drop, but only time will tell as more and more people weigh in on this.

 Here's that report I was speaking about:
Schools on HCM1 or HCM2
 and
Ed.gov

        

Changing Credit

The Fair Isaac Corporation or FICO is talking about making changes to the way credit is scored. The changes will allow FICO to use things like your cable, cell phone and utility bills as sources for increasing the score, which in my opinion is long over due. But this is not just the only changes being proposed in the arena of consumer credit. Transunion, Equifax and Experian the credit bureaus are also considering making changes to their own reporting and disputing processes. Changes that would that would make it easier to dispute items on your credit, extending the reporting of non-paid medical bills to 6 months instead of 30 days. All of this makes me ask "Why did it take so long?" We all know how flawed the credit system is and how a lot things in our lives revolve around our FICO score, which has a ripple effect on both the ability to save and spend money. Look at this way if need a car loan, but are only allowed one with a high interest rate, it's going to cut into your budget. Meaning that $18,000 car financed at 17.9%  for 5 years could in the end cost you $28,000. That's $166.66 a month and $2000 a year, money that could be placed in a savings/401K account or used to pay for other wants and needs. For the past 30 years our credit system has been used as an economic weapon, only allowing a few to gain from it. The system as it stands now allows almost any business  to report negatively on you, but only a very small amount can report positively on your behalf. The fact that you have to incur a certain type of debt to gain credit is another off balanced problem, that neither FICO or the 3 credit bureaus are willing to tackle. At the end of the day if can't find a way to make the credit system better and balanced, then the gap between the haves and have nots will continue to widen.        

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