Student loan debt can't be discharged in bankruptcy.
But it might get rid of other debt (such as credit cards, mortgage and outstanding medical bills), and thus, free up income that can be redirected to student loan payments.
Coming from your background, that's fine. Here's my story: my dad worked at Merck, and was earning well over 100k a year. I was told that my student loans wouldn't be a worry, and thanks to being a mediocre student in high school combined with his earnings, I didn't get much financial aide (not for want of talant, but because I was frequently sick and missed a lot of school). My parents wanted me to go to a highly ranked local private college for my CS degree. I didn't want to go, but they refused to sign my financial aide papers (FAFSA) if I didn't go where they wanted. I applied early admission, which barrs me from applying elsewhere. A quarter way through my junior year, my father has a series of heart attacks, is diagnosed with cancer and lyme disease. My mother is diagnosed with uterine cancer. Neither one lasted long. All of their money? Gone in an instant from medical bills. His pension? Merck decided to fire him after due to frequent illness thanks to the cancer, so it was lost. My situation? Newly graduated with over $100,000 in student debt thanks to interest rates peaking at 8%. Now, this is all my fault, I knew that money was racking up, but honestly it never clicked. Pair that with an utter lack of money management skills being taught in my school or by my parents, and it was a recipe for disaster. It was something I never knew I needed to know, or even thought to learn about it.
I'm sorry to hear about your parents' illness, but sorry to break it up to you. They were fucking stupid and they fucked you up. They projected their own ideals of life into you in a manner that only served to indulge their shallow, narrow-minded (and I dare say arrogant) world view (a particular trait in our culture which is what is putting us in the fucked up place we are right now). Their interests, their pushing their agenda on you, that never represented your best interests. I'm sure they loved you dearly, but love is not enough. I mean, what kind of parent would refuse to sign FAFSA papers for his children just because his children do not want to go to a private university?
I mean, think about it. In that aspect, they fucked up in their parental duties, they played God, and as a result, they have loaded your life with $100K in debt that cannot ever be defaulted by the normal venues of bankruptcy. Sorry pal, I am not the one risking being branded as shallow and ignorant.
And speaking of world views...
Not everyone has something "seriously wrong with them" and that sort of world view will get you branded as shallow and ignorant.
I'm sure that in your college education you were exposed to the concept of reading comprehension, and reading skills in general. This is what I wrote. Tell me how the "something fundamentally fucked up with you" passage applies to you (who went to a private university for a STEM degree):
one should only get over $60K in student loans if you get a degree in medicine or law or STEM degree (in particular from a private university.) If you have $40K or more in student loans with only a B.A. degree in History from a public university, there is something fundamentally fucked up with you.
So. Read.
Some people honestly get screwed by student loans.
No. People do not get screwed by students loans. People screw themselves with the decisions they make with them (or in your case, your parents screwed you up with them.) Your case does not represent a general case, and doesn't even represent the general case described in my description of things, so I don't what sort of mechanisms you are using when extracting meaning from written passages.
Having said that, I have to say I sympathize with you. I do not know your situation (I also went through a terrible period of disproportionate personal debt - private credit debt - due to a lack of sound money skills.) But, unless you are facing health issues, or you are already married
I have a hard time sympathizing with anyone who has voluntarily taken on large amounts of debt
With almost any decent job these days requiring a 4-year college degree, what the hell do you expect?
1. Not buy brand new Macs (really, you don't need them to do your studies.)
2. Not go to a distant university if there is one within commuting distance.
3. Not go to a 4-year university for your freshman and sophomore years if there is a community college near you.
4. Get a A.S. degree first (what I should have done.) Then go to a 4-year university, even if it takes you an additional year to get your B.S/B.A degree. That will better prepare you for eventualities.
5. Not go to a dorm if you can live with your parents (yes, there will be less booze and less sex, but you get the drift, plus that's not the reason to go to a university anyways.)
6. Not live solely on student loans if you have a chance to work part-time in school or flipping burgers.
7. Don't get any degree just because you don't know what you want. Due your due diligence in your freshman and junior years to find out what you want. IT CAN BE DONE. And if you can't, then take a break, possibly study part-time and go to work. Allow yourself time to explore and understand what you want out of life (economically and emotionally.)
8. Don't get a B.A. degree in History or Psychology (or similar degrees) and stop there. You might as well go to grad school (as B.A. degrees in those fields are pretty much worthless.) If you are going to invest in an education, you might as well go to a level that gives a better chance to get a job with it.
9. Don't use money of student loans and pell grants to finance a Spring Break trip to Cancun (I've seen it happening, and it is not a rare occurrence... sadly.)
you cant just walk away from a student loan like you can a house.
You have to declare bankrupcy & be able to show 'undue hardship'.
This of course turns the students into indentured servants to the banks or government, but let's not worry about the young. After all, we all know it is the baby boomers who really matter
Err... bankruptcy does not eliminates one's student loan debts. You can't bankrupt your way out of it, even if you prove 'undue hardship' (as it is typically understood). The only way to get out is if - God forbids - you get permanently disabled or some other horrific event of that magnitude.
Just wait until you see what happens if THIS group starts going en masse into default. At least with houses, there is some collateral there. What are you going to foreclose on when little Johnny goes into default on his $100,000 loan debt because he can't find a job? You going to foreclose on and resell his worthless degree?
With that said (and something that should be said more often), even with rising costs in education, one should only get over $60K in student loans if you get a degree in medicine or law or STEM degree (in particular from a private university.) If you have $40K or more in student loans with only a B.A. degree in History from a public university, there is something fundamentally fucked up with you - that Mac laptop wasn't something you really, really needed, for example. Or you really, really, really didn't need to go to a university in another state (and rack up dorm expenses) when a suitable university was closer by and you could have stayed with your parents. And so on and so on.
Personal responsibility is something not being considered, with the assumption that all expenses covered by student loans are/were legitimate educational expenses.
Just as with the real state bubble, there is also a lot of personal responsibility lying out there when it comes to student loans. The current situation is untenable, and there needs to be a solution. What a solution might look like? I don't know. But whatever shape a solution takes, I sure hope that it does not involve extrication of an individual's financial responsibility.
It's hard to understand how Iran or any other country with the same level of technology have trouble reverse-engineering and producing systems that were first built in the 60's. Iran like all the other 2nd or 3rd tier countries when it comes to developing technology have more than enough scientists and engineers (most of whom were educated in the West) capable of working on this type of technology.
Reverse-engineering and re-building up to specs (including testing in - duh - adequate testing facilities) is not cheap and it is extremely time consuming. There are a lot of qualified scientists in many countries, but they are forced by necessity to carry out experiments with a higher risk of failure. Without the wherewithal with which to carry their R&D to a degree sufficient to minimize error, one might as well ask them to re-build Persepolis with nothing more but spoons and silly putty mixed with buggers and poop. Technical know-how can only take you so far.
Nope. I've never heard of this. Now maybe I just had my head under the sand all this time, but I'd still like to read an article from a reputable source that backs this claim. That's not too much trouble is it?
Not at all. Short summary. Your state might (or might not) require you to write a check for an unpaid sale/use tax (specific to your state and county) whenever you order something online (unless the seller/retailer collects that tax for you.) An even shorter summary: if the seller (either in person, online or through a sales/order magazine) doesn't collect a sale/use tax from your purchase, chances are you are obligated - by the laws of your location - to calculate that tax and mail it to your local/state tax collection agency.
Google to the rescue:
At the federal level, with the onus on the seller:
Internet Sales are Taxable
Misinformation about laws such as the prohibition of the taxation of Internet access (Internet Tax Freedom Act) and limiting sales tax on interstate sales have lead some to incorrectly believe that Internet sales income is not subject to income tax.
An online business may be subject to liabilities for income tax, self-employment tax, employment tax, or excise tax. Your sales may result in capital gains, nondeductible personal losses, or you may have ordinary business income.
At the state/local level, similar sales taxes on income might apply to an online seller. In addition to that (and unlike the federal level), a state or local government might require a *sales* or *use* taxes on the purchaser (including on online purchases of items), *and might require the seller* to collect that on the state/county's behalf. In our case here in FL, we pay a between 6% and 7% depending on the county.
Each sale, admission charge, storage, or rental is taxable unless the transaction is exempt. Sales tax is added to the price of the taxable goods or service and collected from the purchaser at the time of sale. Florida's general sales tax rate is 6 percent.
Use Tax
Use tax is due on the use or consumption of taxable goods or services when sales tax was not paid at the time of purchase. For example:
If you buy a taxable item in Florida and didn't pay sales tax, you owe use tax.
If you buy an item tax-exempt intending to resell it and then use the item in your business or for personal use, you owe use tax.
If you buy a taxable item outside Florida and bring or have it delivered into this state and you didn't pay sales tax on the item, you owe use tax.
Although this particular, state-specific tax regulation does not make any explicit mentioning of online sales or purchases, it is inclusive for all state sales and purchases unless explicitly stated as exempt.
Just because there isn't a Florida sales tax charge on certain online purchases doesn't mean the buyer doesn't owe the tax.
Though many buyers don't know it, they are on the hook to scratch a check to Tallahassee for 6 percent of the purchase or pay it online. Consumers voluntarily paid about $8.7 million last year - pennies on the dollar compared to the $1 billion to $2 billion some estimate goes uncollected every year.
Being audited is not the same as being busted. It means that the IRS has sufficient reason (or rather, an automated program inside the IRS has sufficient reason)may owe more money than they have paid. Innocent until proven guilty applies to audits as well.
This. For people like/. posters who think themselves quite smart, it is incredible how little they know about these things.
Agreed. I went back to school after 4 years in the workforce and finished the last year of my 4 year degree entirely online. And to be perfectly honest, while lacking the true social element, I learned just as well, if not better in the online courses. Having said that, I don't think there is a university that will allow you to complete an entire degree online yet, aside from University of Phoenix and a few others I know nothing about, I referring to a traditional university. I was lucky to even do a year online, and it almost didn't work out. I am a firm believer that the right teachers, with the right tools can make an online school just as good as a traditional one.
Purdue. WPI. Georgia Tech. University of Florida. Florida Atlantic University. Arizona State University. Just off the top of my head, and with respect to 100% online master degrees in a variety of engineering fields (mostly CE/ECE and Systems Engineering) and Computer Science.
I'm sorry to hear that. So far our experience (my wife and I) with it has been good. Except for one are in the northeast corner of Broward County (FL), we have never seen any interruption or problems with GPS down to the driving block. YMMV.
In all that ranting, you didn't even touch upon why you hate Samsung so much... maybe its common knowledge among Android users (though I don't think so, most seem to really like the Galaxy S from what I hear), but I have no idea what issues you had w/ your Galaxy...
Indeed, talking about random, off-the-tangent borderline-lunatic rants. BTW, my wife and I own a Samsung Galaxy S (a Vibrant) each, with T-Mobile as the carrier. We simply love the gadget. It's good for what it is, excellent display (my 2-year old baby girl watch Avatar and assorted TV channels on them.) Before, we used to carry our dumb phones, ipods and cameras with us. No more, one single device that gives all that, and with beautiful enough display capabilities. As for mine, I've also installed other stuff for work (ssh terminals, unix tools and the like) and I'm thinking to get a USB keyboard (nice to have when wanting to VPN'ing and rebooting server from anywhere you have a signal.)
And before that, most of my dumbphones were manufactured by Samsung as well... no complains. To the uber-off-the-tangent ranter, that's my experience. YMMY (something I wouldn't necessarily have to give a shit for.)
Most of the "We are the 99%" stories I have seen have been more along the lines of someone blaming the state of the economy for their own bad decisions.
There are problems with big business and some of the truly rich, but those problems are not really the reason for many of the things these protestors are claiming.
Sounds like the Tea Party to me, or people on the short end of the stick in general.
Ever seen their discussions online (or in person as I've sadly come to witness), with references to the Ubamalatto, the Kenyan who is bringing Shariah to America, the muslim rule in Detroit (whatever the hell that means) and vile crap of that nature? This is the group that is being pandered by "God-can-cure-the-gay" Bachmman and who rabidly listen to Glen Beck saying that 10% of the Muslims are terrorists (and bovinely agreeing to it.) A movement with a sizable number of people that happily stomp their feet (as George Wallace once put it) when a politician or someone close to him/her calls for Christians to vote Christian.
One has to be blind or dishonest to not see this for what it is.
I was actually in favor of the Tea Party movement when it was nascent, but quickly opposed it, not because of the because of the core grievances (which I believe are valid and pretty much in tandem with the grievances professed by the OWS movement.) I moved away because the entire group seems more than content pandering to a sizable subgroup of grouchy suburbanites who wouldn't wear a white pointed hood because it is no longer fashionable, mingling with other subgroups that are more than happy to carry a rifle at a political rally called by Beck to "restore honor" and establish a "new civil rights movement."
Yes, we have a certain number of minorities in the Tea Party, but it is horrific to see how they are more than complacent (or even agreeable) with the horrid anti-Muslim, fundamentalist Christian parochial bigotry that pervades the rank and file of this movement. You got to be horrendously subjective to believe there are no sizable numbers of suburbanite closet-bigots in the Tea Party, with all the public evidence laying in front of us.
There's nothing I can say without provoking someone on the "other side" into an ad hominem attack. Dialog, or what remained of civil dialog, on any of these matters is pretty much suspended until after the 2012 elections.
That was Buffett, a billionaire, in 2005-2006, expressing views that predate that date, that predate the Obama administration. Newsflash for ya: You have been having a class warfare, or more appropriately put, a degradation of the standards of livings for the working class for the last 3 decades, and only morons choked up in GI-Joe kool aid seem oblivious to it.
To what ends? How far down the drain must things slide before they become worth fighting for?
Bingo. Myself coming from the second poorest country in the Western hemisphere, I find it appalling that Americans criticize other Americans because they are fighting for greater equality, accountability and the preservation of the standard of living which is what makes living in the developed world great.
Like yourself, I'm not exactly sure what the hell these holier-than-though-we-have-it-good morons expect. Should things slide till things degrade to the point the average standard of living is no longer what it should be in a developed country?
The total student loan debt in the country is now surpassing credit card debt. When you used to be able to get a college degree with no more than $15K in debt, now you have to acquire debt 2-3 times that amount at least!. Social mobility is decreasing. There are 14 million people unemployed. People who worked hard for years, decades, are now unemployed because their jobs moved to China, and these same people get derided because they never got additional skills - with what money, with what education system, and if you are over 50, with what opportunities to get hired in a new field again?
You can finish college owing $50K and still not have a chance to get a job. And you have no other educational alternative since we do not have a state-funded post-HS vocational education system. Unemployed are being derided for not being entrepreneur and small business owners, but those who deride them conveniently ignore the little fact that capitalism (or any economic model for that manner) cannot absorb a population entirely made of entrepreneurs.
It is a sad indictment that it is cheaper for someone to travel to a third world country to get basic medical care than here. One would imagine that a country with the highest living standards would provide affordable health care for people making the minimum or close to the minimum. You need to make at least 2.5 or more of minimum wage just to afford medical and dental for yourself, let alone your family if you have one.
This might be a country with a very high standard of living, but you can still be poor and live a shitty live. It is an arrogant thing to say the poor in this country that they still have it better. They do, but just marginally with respect to the cost of living in this country. This from someone (myself) that comes from a country (Nicaragua) where there is still people looking for food and recyclables in garbage fields.
I would dare to say that in my old country, so long as you live within walking/commuting distance to a medical center (that is, you don't live in a remote village up in a mountain), you get a better chance to get basic medical care on a regular basis than a poor person in this country.
And that is the saddest indictment of all. People who deride the protesters, claiming that they have nothing to complain, they really don't know what the f* they are talking about.
Stallman could have, if he had sense of decency, kept his mouth shut for a few weeks. To start attacking the man days after he died doesn't further any cause, and makes Stallman, and the FSF by extension, look like immature mean-spirited twats.
But those of us who have followed Stallman's career know very well that he is an astounding asshole whose best days were two decades ago.. There's no doubt that Jobs' walled-garden concept is at odds with the FSF, and I'm no fan of it, but I do believe people have the right to spend their money where they want, and if they want to spend it on iPhones and iPads, then so be it. It isn't any of Stallman's business.
He was no more instrumental in shaping 21st century society than any other fashion designer.
So, if there was not Steve Jobs, do you really think we had now afordable music for download?
I don't know that, and neither do you. I understand what you are trying to say, and I agree with your disagreement (no pun intended) towards "Have Blue"'s post. But that sentence of yours right there is quickly approaching a "gambler's fallacy" (not quite, but similar in nature.) I would also argue that the gates of affordable music got open with Napster (or sites like mp3.com back in the day), the ability to publish stuff on the Internet in conjunction with P2P clients, and MP3 technology in general.
It is hard to imagine affordable music downloads to exist at all haven't there being companies and *underground* groups with the technology that brings ripping, publication and sharing of musical content to anyone with an internet connection.
iTunes, and Amazon Music among others, simply capitalized on the market opportunity (with iTunes being the best implementation.)
I got an email a little while ago saying that it was now a requirement for any papers written on EPSRC grants, meaning most science and engineering papers from UK universities. It always seemed to be more of a problem with individuals than institutions though. Pretty much all journals allow you to put the preprint (same content, just without the journal's formatting) online on your own web site, so it doesn't matter if the journal is open access or not as long as you bother to put the PDF on your web site. For some strange reason, a lot of academics - whose reputation is based largely on how many people read and cite their papers - choose not to do this simple step.
They don't know how to put a PDF file on a server and make a link to it. Seriously, I'm not kidding. This is understandable from non-tech academics, but for CS/CE/EE, this is no exaggeration:/
Obviously, there should be a department web master and a department server and web page in which department research is published. But at the very least, one would expect academics (specially in technical fields) to maintain their university home pages with their current and past research for posterity.
Even more surprising is the absence of earlier versions of published articles that have been presented in conferences, distributed to peers, and the like. I keep expecting to find "working papers" versions of published articles on the websites of academics but rarely can find them. (I'm an ex-political-scientist, so my interests tend to that field or to related social sciences like economics. Perhaps it's different in the other sciences?)
It is not:/
The academic web sphere is littered with broken links, links to defunct research projects, themselves also littered with broken links to previous publications at best (and at worst, with no mention of any prior work at all.) In general (purely personal observation of mine), many academic researchers don't give a rat's ass when it comes to making their older research accessible to the masses. The focus is entirely on what they work on right now and on their current funding.
Sad indeed because the later does not preclude the former. It would be nice if universities in general provided some sort of database containing every publication, thesis, dissertation, technical report and presentation, by department. After all, all of that content was created by taxes, and, in general, should be made available to the tax-paying population.
No, there shouldn't be any requirements for private businesses....let them do as best as they can in the market.
To encourage jobs IN the US, however, I'd say the Feds could lower taxes to corporations, for every documented US citizenand legal resident they hire to give incentive and make it easier to hire US citizens and legal residents
There, fixed for you. The problem is not US citizens hiring vs offshore hiring, but one of
1. hiring numbers - within US soil- of people already (and legally) in US soil vs
2. hiring numbers outside US soil (or worse, the premeditate and systematic preference of H1 visas over US workers, for US jobs, in US soil!).
We do not want to put artificial burdens on private businesses. After all, what is a manufacturer to do? Hire an assembly line worker that puts a head on a doll for $0.50/hr in China vs the same worker at $10/hr? But as you said quite correctly, the Feds can provide tax incentives as a function on the ratio of hiring in US soil...
... with the correction that it should not, it cannot be just US citizens. Any tax-paying legal resident (most likely a candidate for citizenship) that is capable of doing the job should also be counted for. An unemployed legal resident is equally a burden to society as an unemployed citizen (not to mention that such a situation creates additional barriers towards citizenship, which is what everyone should want with its legal, tax-paying residents.)
Obama: Makes George W. Bush look good. Obama's unemployment rate is twice the "horrible" Bush years. Obama's deficits are 10 times the "unsustainable" Bush ones.
I'm a Republican who voted for McCain (and oh the shame, Palin), and I've voted GOP almost all my life, but I even call bs on this. The likes of you got to stop with this bullshit (same goes to left-wing lunatics for whom conservatives can never do good, you know who you are!.)
Current unemployment rates and the general economic malaise are a function of pre-existing conditions that have been brewing for decades now, not solely a function of the Obama's administration. This isn't rocket science.
Unilateral war? Obama in Libya is the archetype for THAT.
So? At best it was a master diplomatic stroke in that the US engagement is extremely limited, and done only on a support role for NATO (being led primarily by France and the UK), and for the first time ever, with the backing of every single Arab state, the result being the dethroning of a world-wide despised tyrant. It was certainly better than the Bush/Rumsfeld's fairy tale of a flowery reception in Baghdad, and with (so far) cleaner outcomes.
Bush never lied about closing Gitmo or extending his tax cuts - Obama LIED about both.
But he lied about WMDs, and Obama hasn't. So what's your point? That politicians lied when they have to and only for those subjects that they found strategic to lie about? Welcome to life dude.
Bush also never summarily executed American citizens...
Are you referring to Anwar al-Awlaki? You better be kidding. Bush didn't because he didn't have the chance. And to be honest, I don't see what's the problem of launching a predator against an Al Qaeda operative, American or not, that is actively plotting terror attacks against the US (and pretty much any other country should they deem it collateral damage). What did you want? An FBI agent knocking down his tent with an arrest warrant????????????????????
What does this has to do with hardware manufacturers
Hardware manufacturers make the choice as to whether or not to cryptographically lock down the products that they sell.
1) They make their choice because it's theirs, it's their right. 2) What does this has to do with the Kindle Fire?
There are several devices marketed for consuming that would be capable of being used for creating if not for such lockdown.
So?
Hardware manufacturers also make the choice as to how they segment the market and price their products. Video game console manufacturers, for example, charge an order of magnitude more for the creation device than for the consumption device.
Ever heard of terms like non sequitur and red herring?
At prices like these, nobody at home will be able to afford tools for creating;
People with a certain income level can. So your argument is false right there. therefore, nobody at home will have tools to create.
See above. You are simply taking a nice-to-have (not even a necessity) and you are trying to morph it into some sort of human right. But in reality, all you have is not an argument of ethics, but an argument of convenience based on your own biases and technical interests and predilections.
The sad part is that you (which I'm assuming is a college-educated person) don't even know the flaws in your logical arguments.
Nice how you ignore the possibility of a HS kid going to work part-time
I declined to mention this possibility because high school freshmen, sophomores, and juniors are under age 18 and therefore have severe state-imposed restrictions on how, where, and when they can work. Many states allow no employment at all for children under 16.
From personal experience, none of those restrictions stop a HS student to work at a cash register and save to buy his shit. Back in my day, that's how I saw kids buying their Apple II's and commodores (and later their 8086's). Now they do the same and buy their electronic modern equivalents. Some kids just work during the weekends, others (where states permit it) work full-time during summer.
And regardless of anything on the impositions between parent-children finances, hardware manufactures have no responsibility or obligation to care for meddling in them or to alleviate a minor's alleged financial hardship that prevents him from pursuing a nice-to-have (not necessary but a nice-to-have) ability to do content creation.
You keep bringing this as if this is proof enough that hardware manufactures must do something (is-ought meta-ethics problem?). Repeating this does not turn this opinion of yours into a logical consequence, especially when we consider the . Surely you should have learned this is college (on the laws that govern logical arguments and the epistemological nature of ethics.)
Slashdot Mirror
Student loan debt can't be discharged in bankruptcy.
But it might get rid of other debt (such as credit cards, mortgage and outstanding medical bills), and thus, free up income that can be redirected to student loan payments.
Coming from your background, that's fine. Here's my story: my dad worked at Merck, and was earning well over 100k a year. I was told that my student loans wouldn't be a worry, and thanks to being a mediocre student in high school combined with his earnings, I didn't get much financial aide (not for want of talant, but because I was frequently sick and missed a lot of school). My parents wanted me to go to a highly ranked local private college for my CS degree. I didn't want to go, but they refused to sign my financial aide papers (FAFSA) if I didn't go where they wanted. I applied early admission, which barrs me from applying elsewhere. A quarter way through my junior year, my father has a series of heart attacks, is diagnosed with cancer and lyme disease. My mother is diagnosed with uterine cancer. Neither one lasted long. All of their money? Gone in an instant from medical bills. His pension? Merck decided to fire him after due to frequent illness thanks to the cancer, so it was lost. My situation? Newly graduated with over $100,000 in student debt thanks to interest rates peaking at 8%. Now, this is all my fault, I knew that money was racking up, but honestly it never clicked. Pair that with an utter lack of money management skills being taught in my school or by my parents, and it was a recipe for disaster. It was something I never knew I needed to know, or even thought to learn about it.
I'm sorry to hear about your parents' illness, but sorry to break it up to you. They were fucking stupid and they fucked you up. They projected their own ideals of life into you in a manner that only served to indulge their shallow, narrow-minded (and I dare say arrogant) world view (a particular trait in our culture which is what is putting us in the fucked up place we are right now). Their interests, their pushing their agenda on you, that never represented your best interests. I'm sure they loved you dearly, but love is not enough. I mean, what kind of parent would refuse to sign FAFSA papers for his children just because his children do not want to go to a private university?
I mean, think about it. In that aspect, they fucked up in their parental duties, they played God, and as a result, they have loaded your life with $100K in debt that cannot ever be defaulted by the normal venues of bankruptcy. Sorry pal, I am not the one risking being branded as shallow and ignorant.
And speaking of world views...
Not everyone has something "seriously wrong with them" and that sort of world view will get you branded as shallow and ignorant.
I'm sure that in your college education you were exposed to the concept of reading comprehension, and reading skills in general. This is what I wrote. Tell me how the "something fundamentally fucked up with you" passage applies to you (who went to a private university for a STEM degree):
one should only get over $60K in student loans if you get a degree in medicine or law or STEM degree (in particular from a private university.) If you have $40K or more in student loans with only a B.A. degree in History from a public university, there is something fundamentally fucked up with you.
So. Read.
Some people honestly get screwed by student loans.
No. People do not get screwed by students loans. People screw themselves with the decisions they make with them (or in your case, your parents screwed you up with them.) Your case does not represent a general case, and doesn't even represent the general case described in my description of things, so I don't what sort of mechanisms you are using when extracting meaning from written passages.
Having said that, I have to say I sympathize with you. I do not know your situation (I also went through a terrible period of disproportionate personal debt - private credit debt - due to a lack of sound money skills.) But, unless you are facing health issues, or you are already married
I have a hard time sympathizing with anyone who has voluntarily taken on large amounts of debt
With almost any decent job these days requiring a 4-year college degree, what the hell do you expect?
1. Not buy brand new Macs (really, you don't need them to do your studies.)
2. Not go to a distant university if there is one within commuting distance.
3. Not go to a 4-year university for your freshman and sophomore years if there is a community college near you.
4. Get a A.S. degree first (what I should have done.) Then go to a 4-year university, even if it takes you an additional year to get your B.S/B.A degree. That will better prepare you for eventualities.
5. Not go to a dorm if you can live with your parents (yes, there will be less booze and less sex, but you get the drift, plus that's not the reason to go to a university anyways.)
6. Not live solely on student loans if you have a chance to work part-time in school or flipping burgers.
7. Don't get any degree just because you don't know what you want. Due your due diligence in your freshman and junior years to find out what you want. IT CAN BE DONE. And if you can't, then take a break, possibly study part-time and go to work. Allow yourself time to explore and understand what you want out of life (economically and emotionally.)
8. Don't get a B.A. degree in History or Psychology (or similar degrees) and stop there. You might as well go to grad school (as B.A. degrees in those fields are pretty much worthless.) If you are going to invest in an education, you might as well go to a level that gives a better chance to get a job with it.
9. Don't use money of student loans and pell grants to finance a Spring Break trip to Cancun (I've seen it happening, and it is not a rare occurrence... sadly.)
That's just off the top of my head.
you cant just walk away from a student loan like you can a house.
You have to declare bankrupcy & be able to show 'undue hardship'.
This of course turns the students into indentured servants to the banks or government, but let's not worry about the young. After all, we all know it is the baby boomers who really matter
Err... bankruptcy does not eliminates one's student loan debts. You can't bankrupt your way out of it, even if you prove 'undue hardship' (as it is typically understood). The only way to get out is if - God forbids - you get permanently disabled or some other horrific event of that magnitude.
Just wait until you see what happens if THIS group starts going en masse into default. At least with houses, there is some collateral there. What are you going to foreclose on when little Johnny goes into default on his $100,000 loan debt because he can't find a job? You going to foreclose on and resell his worthless degree?
With that said (and something that should be said more often), even with rising costs in education, one should only get over $60K in student loans if you get a degree in medicine or law or STEM degree (in particular from a private university.) If you have $40K or more in student loans with only a B.A. degree in History from a public university, there is something fundamentally fucked up with you - that Mac laptop wasn't something you really, really needed, for example. Or you really, really, really didn't need to go to a university in another state (and rack up dorm expenses) when a suitable university was closer by and you could have stayed with your parents. And so on and so on.
Personal responsibility is something not being considered, with the assumption that all expenses covered by student loans are/were legitimate educational expenses.
Just as with the real state bubble, there is also a lot of personal responsibility lying out there when it comes to student loans. The current situation is untenable, and there needs to be a solution. What a solution might look like? I don't know. But whatever shape a solution takes, I sure hope that it does not involve extrication of an individual's financial responsibility.
It's hard to understand how Iran or any other country with the same level of technology have trouble reverse-engineering and producing systems that were first built in the 60's. Iran like all the other 2nd or 3rd tier countries when it comes to developing technology have more than enough scientists and engineers (most of whom were educated in the West) capable of working on this type of technology.
Reverse-engineering and re-building up to specs (including testing in - duh - adequate testing facilities) is not cheap and it is extremely time consuming. There are a lot of qualified scientists in many countries, but they are forced by necessity to carry out experiments with a higher risk of failure. Without the wherewithal with which to carry their R&D to a degree sufficient to minimize error, one might as well ask them to re-build Persepolis with nothing more but spoons and silly putty mixed with buggers and poop. Technical know-how can only take you so far.
Are you kidding?
Nope. I've never heard of this. Now maybe I just had my head under the sand all this time, but I'd still like to read an article from a reputable source that backs this claim. That's not too much trouble is it?
Not at all. Short summary. Your state might (or might not) require you to write a check for an unpaid sale/use tax (specific to your state and county) whenever you order something online (unless the seller/retailer collects that tax for you.) An even shorter summary: if the seller (either in person, online or through a sales/order magazine) doesn't collect a sale/use tax from your purchase, chances are you are obligated - by the laws of your location - to calculate that tax and mail it to your local/state tax collection agency.
Google to the rescue:
At the federal level, with the onus on the seller:
http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/industries/article/0,,id=209348,00.html
Internet Sales are Taxable Misinformation about laws such as the prohibition of the taxation of Internet access (Internet Tax Freedom Act) and limiting sales tax on interstate sales have lead some to incorrectly believe that Internet sales income is not subject to income tax.
An online business may be subject to liabilities for income tax, self-employment tax, employment tax, or excise tax. Your sales may result in capital gains, nondeductible personal losses, or you may have ordinary business income.
At the state/local level, similar sales taxes on income might apply to an online seller. In addition to that (and unlike the federal level), a state or local government might require a *sales* or *use* taxes on the purchaser (including on online purchases of items), *and might require the seller* to collect that on the state/county's behalf. In our case here in FL, we pay a between 6% and 7% depending on the county.
http://dor.myflorida.com/dor/taxes/sales_tax.html
Sales Tax
Each sale, admission charge, storage, or rental is taxable unless the transaction is exempt. Sales tax is added to the price of the taxable goods or service and collected from the purchaser at the time of sale. Florida's general sales tax rate is 6 percent.
Use Tax
Use tax is due on the use or consumption of taxable goods or services when sales tax was not paid at the time of purchase. For example:
If you buy a taxable item in Florida and didn't pay sales tax, you owe use tax.
If you buy an item tax-exempt intending to resell it and then use the item in your business or for personal use, you owe use tax.
If you buy a taxable item outside Florida and bring or have it delivered into this state and you didn't pay sales tax on the item, you owe use tax.
Although this particular, state-specific tax regulation does not make any explicit mentioning of online sales or purchases, it is inclusive for all state sales and purchases unless explicitly stated as exempt.
http://jacksonville.com/news/florida/2011-08-11/story/florida-wants-collect-its-sales-tax-online-buys
Just because there isn't a Florida sales tax charge on certain online purchases doesn't mean the buyer doesn't owe the tax. Though many buyers don't know it, they are on the hook to scratch a check to Tallahassee for 6 percent of the purchase or pay it online. Consumers voluntarily paid about $8.7 million last year - pennies on the dollar compared to the $1 billion to $2 billion some estimate goes uncollected every year.
Still, the chance of Fl
Being audited is not the same as being busted. It means that the IRS has sufficient reason (or rather, an automated program inside the IRS has sufficient reason)may owe more money than they have paid. Innocent until proven guilty applies to audits as well.
This. For people like /. posters who think themselves quite smart, it is incredible how little they know about these things.
Every time you fail to pay use tax on an Internet purchase, you are practicing tax evasion. This is illegal.
/citation needed
Are you kidding?
Didn't Amazon just have a huge fight with CA to avoid paying internet sales tax? I imagine if it had been illegal they would have lost.
Amazon's issue with CA wasn't on paying internet taxes, but about collecting sales taxes on behalf of CA. Two. Very. Different. Things.
Agreed. I went back to school after 4 years in the workforce and finished the last year of my 4 year degree entirely online. And to be perfectly honest, while lacking the true social element, I learned just as well, if not better in the online courses. Having said that, I don't think there is a university that will allow you to complete an entire degree online yet, aside from University of Phoenix and a few others I know nothing about, I referring to a traditional university. I was lucky to even do a year online, and it almost didn't work out. I am a firm believer that the right teachers, with the right tools can make an online school just as good as a traditional one.
Purdue. WPI. Georgia Tech. University of Florida. Florida Atlantic University. Arizona State University. Just off the top of my head, and with respect to 100% online master degrees in a variety of engineering fields (mostly CE/ECE and Systems Engineering) and Computer Science.
I'm sorry to hear that. So far our experience (my wife and I) with it has been good. Except for one are in the northeast corner of Broward County (FL), we have never seen any interruption or problems with GPS down to the driving block. YMMV.
No, Windows is written in Visual Basic.
I hope this is a joke. Can't tell among the cloudy clouds of the cloudy interweebz.
In all that ranting, you didn't even touch upon why you hate Samsung so much... maybe its common knowledge among Android users (though I don't think so, most seem to really like the Galaxy S from what I hear), but I have no idea what issues you had w/ your Galaxy...
Indeed, talking about random, off-the-tangent borderline-lunatic rants. BTW, my wife and I own a Samsung Galaxy S (a Vibrant) each, with T-Mobile as the carrier. We simply love the gadget. It's good for what it is, excellent display (my 2-year old baby girl watch Avatar and assorted TV channels on them.) Before, we used to carry our dumb phones, ipods and cameras with us. No more, one single device that gives all that, and with beautiful enough display capabilities. As for mine, I've also installed other stuff for work (ssh terminals, unix tools and the like) and I'm thinking to get a USB keyboard (nice to have when wanting to VPN'ing and rebooting server from anywhere you have a signal.)
And before that, most of my dumbphones were manufactured by Samsung as well... no complains. To the uber-off-the-tangent ranter, that's my experience. YMMY (something I wouldn't necessarily have to give a shit for.)
Most of the "We are the 99%" stories I have seen have been more along the lines of someone blaming the state of the economy for their own bad decisions. There are problems with big business and some of the truly rich, but those problems are not really the reason for many of the things these protestors are claiming.
Sounds like the Tea Party to me, or people on the short end of the stick in general.
"moderately racist suburbanites"
Evidence?
Ever seen their discussions online (or in person as I've sadly come to witness), with references to the Ubamalatto, the Kenyan who is bringing Shariah to America, the muslim rule in Detroit (whatever the hell that means) and vile crap of that nature? This is the group that is being pandered by "God-can-cure-the-gay" Bachmman and who rabidly listen to Glen Beck saying that 10% of the Muslims are terrorists (and bovinely agreeing to it.) A movement with a sizable number of people that happily stomp their feet (as George Wallace once put it) when a politician or someone close to him/her calls for Christians to vote Christian.
One has to be blind or dishonest to not see this for what it is.
I was actually in favor of the Tea Party movement when it was nascent, but quickly opposed it, not because of the because of the core grievances (which I believe are valid and pretty much in tandem with the grievances professed by the OWS movement.) I moved away because the entire group seems more than content pandering to a sizable subgroup of grouchy suburbanites who wouldn't wear a white pointed hood because it is no longer fashionable, mingling with other subgroups that are more than happy to carry a rifle at a political rally called by Beck to "restore honor" and establish a "new civil rights movement."
Yes, we have a certain number of minorities in the Tea Party, but it is horrific to see how they are more than complacent (or even agreeable) with the horrid anti-Muslim, fundamentalist Christian parochial bigotry that pervades the rank and file of this movement. You got to be horrendously subjective to believe there are no sizable numbers of suburbanite closet-bigots in the Tea Party, with all the public evidence laying in front of us.
Obama wanted a class war and now he's got it.
There's nothing I can say without provoking someone on the "other side" into an ad hominem attack. Dialog, or what remained of civil dialog, on any of these matters is pretty much suspended until after the 2012 elections.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/business/yourmoney/26every.html
That was Buffett, a billionaire, in 2005-2006, expressing views that predate that date, that predate the Obama administration. Newsflash for ya: You have been having a class warfare, or more appropriately put, a degradation of the standards of livings for the working class for the last 3 decades, and only morons choked up in GI-Joe kool aid seem oblivious to it.
To what ends? How far down the drain must things slide before they become worth fighting for?
Bingo. Myself coming from the second poorest country in the Western hemisphere, I find it appalling that Americans criticize other Americans because they are fighting for greater equality, accountability and the preservation of the standard of living which is what makes living in the developed world great.
Like yourself, I'm not exactly sure what the hell these holier-than-though-we-have-it-good morons expect. Should things slide till things degrade to the point the average standard of living is no longer what it should be in a developed country?
The total student loan debt in the country is now surpassing credit card debt. When you used to be able to get a college degree with no more than $15K in debt, now you have to acquire debt 2-3 times that amount at least!. Social mobility is decreasing. There are 14 million people unemployed. People who worked hard for years, decades, are now unemployed because their jobs moved to China, and these same people get derided because they never got additional skills - with what money, with what education system, and if you are over 50, with what opportunities to get hired in a new field again?
You can finish college owing $50K and still not have a chance to get a job. And you have no other educational alternative since we do not have a state-funded post-HS vocational education system. Unemployed are being derided for not being entrepreneur and small business owners, but those who deride them conveniently ignore the little fact that capitalism (or any economic model for that manner) cannot absorb a population entirely made of entrepreneurs.
It is a sad indictment that it is cheaper for someone to travel to a third world country to get basic medical care than here. One would imagine that a country with the highest living standards would provide affordable health care for people making the minimum or close to the minimum. You need to make at least 2.5 or more of minimum wage just to afford medical and dental for yourself, let alone your family if you have one.
This might be a country with a very high standard of living, but you can still be poor and live a shitty live. It is an arrogant thing to say the poor in this country that they still have it better. They do, but just marginally with respect to the cost of living in this country. This from someone (myself) that comes from a country (Nicaragua) where there is still people looking for food and recyclables in garbage fields.
I would dare to say that in my old country, so long as you live within walking/commuting distance to a medical center (that is, you don't live in a remote village up in a mountain), you get a better chance to get basic medical care on a regular basis than a poor person in this country.
And that is the saddest indictment of all. People who deride the protesters, claiming that they have nothing to complain, they really don't know what the f* they are talking about.
Stallman could have, if he had sense of decency, kept his mouth shut for a few weeks. To start attacking the man days after he died doesn't further any cause, and makes Stallman, and the FSF by extension, look like immature mean-spirited twats.
But those of us who have followed Stallman's career know very well that he is an astounding asshole whose best days were two decades ago.. There's no doubt that Jobs' walled-garden concept is at odds with the FSF, and I'm no fan of it, but I do believe people have the right to spend their money where they want, and if they want to spend it on iPhones and iPads, then so be it. It isn't any of Stallman's business.
Bingo.
So, if there was not Steve Jobs, do you really think we had now afordable music for download?
I don't know that, and neither do you. I understand what you are trying to say, and I agree with your disagreement (no pun intended) towards "Have Blue"'s post. But that sentence of yours right there is quickly approaching a "gambler's fallacy" (not quite, but similar in nature.) I would also argue that the gates of affordable music got open with Napster (or sites like mp3.com back in the day), the ability to publish stuff on the Internet in conjunction with P2P clients, and MP3 technology in general.
It is hard to imagine affordable music downloads to exist at all haven't there being companies and *underground* groups with the technology that brings ripping, publication and sharing of musical content to anyone with an internet connection.
iTunes, and Amazon Music among others, simply capitalized on the market opportunity (with iTunes being the best implementation.)
I got an email a little while ago saying that it was now a requirement for any papers written on EPSRC grants, meaning most science and engineering papers from UK universities. It always seemed to be more of a problem with individuals than institutions though. Pretty much all journals allow you to put the preprint (same content, just without the journal's formatting) online on your own web site, so it doesn't matter if the journal is open access or not as long as you bother to put the PDF on your web site. For some strange reason, a lot of academics - whose reputation is based largely on how many people read and cite their papers - choose not to do this simple step.
They don't know how to put a PDF file on a server and make a link to it. Seriously, I'm not kidding. This is understandable from non-tech academics, but for CS/CE/EE, this is no exaggeration :/
Obviously, there should be a department web master and a department server and web page in which department research is published. But at the very least, one would expect academics (specially in technical fields) to maintain their university home pages with their current and past research for posterity.
Even more surprising is the absence of earlier versions of published articles that have been presented in conferences, distributed to peers, and the like. I keep expecting to find "working papers" versions of published articles on the websites of academics but rarely can find them. (I'm an ex-political-scientist, so my interests tend to that field or to related social sciences like economics. Perhaps it's different in the other sciences?)
It is not :/
The academic web sphere is littered with broken links, links to defunct research projects, themselves also littered with broken links to previous publications at best (and at worst, with no mention of any prior work at all.) In general (purely personal observation of mine), many academic researchers don't give a rat's ass when it comes to making their older research accessible to the masses. The focus is entirely on what they work on right now and on their current funding.
Sad indeed because the later does not preclude the former. It would be nice if universities in general provided some sort of database containing every publication, thesis, dissertation, technical report and presentation, by department. After all, all of that content was created by taxes, and, in general, should be made available to the tax-paying population.
Seriously, this is a major violation of HIPAA regulations (major as in "complete brain fart").
Well, I'd say the answer is "it depends".
No, there shouldn't be any requirements for private businesses....let them do as best as they can in the market.
To encourage jobs IN the US, however, I'd say the Feds could lower taxes to corporations, for every documented US citizen and legal resident they hire to give incentive and make it easier to hire US citizens and legal residents
There, fixed for you. The problem is not US citizens hiring vs offshore hiring, but one of
1. hiring numbers - within US soil- of people already (and legally) in US soil vs
2. hiring numbers outside US soil (or worse, the premeditate and systematic preference of H1 visas over US workers, for US jobs, in US soil!).
We do not want to put artificial burdens on private businesses. After all, what is a manufacturer to do? Hire an assembly line worker that puts a head on a doll for $0.50/hr in China vs the same worker at $10/hr? But as you said quite correctly, the Feds can provide tax incentives as a function on the ratio of hiring in US soil...
Obama: Makes George W. Bush look good. Obama's unemployment rate is twice the "horrible" Bush years. Obama's deficits are 10 times the "unsustainable" Bush ones.
I'm a Republican who voted for McCain (and oh the shame, Palin), and I've voted GOP almost all my life, but I even call bs on this. The likes of you got to stop with this bullshit (same goes to left-wing lunatics for whom conservatives can never do good, you know who you are!.)
Current unemployment rates and the general economic malaise are a function of pre-existing conditions that have been brewing for decades now, not solely a function of the Obama's administration. This isn't rocket science.
Unilateral war? Obama in Libya is the archetype for THAT.
So? At best it was a master diplomatic stroke in that the US engagement is extremely limited, and done only on a support role for NATO (being led primarily by France and the UK), and for the first time ever, with the backing of every single Arab state, the result being the dethroning of a world-wide despised tyrant. It was certainly better than the Bush/Rumsfeld's fairy tale of a flowery reception in Baghdad, and with (so far) cleaner outcomes.
Bush never lied about closing Gitmo or extending his tax cuts - Obama LIED about both.
But he lied about WMDs, and Obama hasn't. So what's your point? That politicians lied when they have to and only for those subjects that they found strategic to lie about? Welcome to life dude.
Bush also never summarily executed American citizens...
Are you referring to Anwar al-Awlaki? You better be kidding. Bush didn't because he didn't have the chance. And to be honest, I don't see what's the problem of launching a predator against an Al Qaeda operative, American or not, that is actively plotting terror attacks against the US (and pretty much any other country should they deem it collateral damage). What did you want? An FBI agent knocking down his tent with an arrest warrant????????????????????
What does this has to do with hardware manufacturers
Hardware manufacturers make the choice as to whether or not to cryptographically lock down the products that they sell.
1) They make their choice because it's theirs, it's their right. 2) What does this has to do with the Kindle Fire?
There are several devices marketed for consuming that would be capable of being used for creating if not for such lockdown.
So?
Hardware manufacturers also make the choice as to how they segment the market and price their products. Video game console manufacturers, for example, charge an order of magnitude more for the creation device than for the consumption device.
Ever heard of terms like non sequitur and red herring?
At prices like these, nobody at home will be able to afford tools for creating;
People with a certain income level can. So your argument is false right there. therefore, nobody at home will have tools to create.
See above. You are simply taking a nice-to-have (not even a necessity) and you are trying to morph it into some sort of human right. But in reality, all you have is not an argument of ethics, but an argument of convenience based on your own biases and technical interests and predilections.
The sad part is that you (which I'm assuming is a college-educated person) don't even know the flaws in your logical arguments.
Nice how you ignore the possibility of a HS kid going to work part-time
I declined to mention this possibility because high school freshmen, sophomores, and juniors are under age 18 and therefore have severe state-imposed restrictions on how, where, and when they can work. Many states allow no employment at all for children under 16.
From personal experience, none of those restrictions stop a HS student to work at a cash register and save to buy his shit. Back in my day, that's how I saw kids buying their Apple II's and commodores (and later their 8086's). Now they do the same and buy their electronic modern equivalents. Some kids just work during the weekends, others (where states permit it) work full-time during summer.
And regardless of anything on the impositions between parent-children finances, hardware manufactures have no responsibility or obligation to care for meddling in them or to alleviate a minor's alleged financial hardship that prevents him from pursuing a nice-to-have (not necessary but a nice-to-have) ability to do content creation.
You keep bringing this as if this is proof enough that hardware manufactures must do something (is-ought meta-ethics problem?). Repeating this does not turn this opinion of yours into a logical consequence, especially when we consider the . Surely you should have learned this is college (on the laws that govern logical arguments and the epistemological nature of ethics.)