Dumping is a petty crime; they pretty much dump where it is easy and they won't get caught. The bother of putting on a ski mask and mudding up the license plates is far more than going down a different road and dumping.
Which brings us to your second point, which is very correct. I have no idea how to change a person's mindset so they don't dump in the first place. If you ever figure it out, please pretty please let us know!
Note that the Federal Government is the one decided whether or not the bank is meeting the needs of low-income customers. This is not the case in practice, however. Enforcement of the CRA is done by community advocacy groups. One of the criteria that is used to determine whether the bank is CRA-compliant is the comparative number of loans made to high- versus low-income clients. If you don't make enough loans to low-income clients, then you are not CRA-compliant. Source:
This is the specific criteria:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Community_Reinvestment_Act_of_1977#Sec._804.
Note that the Federal Government is the one decided whether or not the bank is meeting the needs of low-income customers. This is not the case in practice, however. Enforcement of the CRA is done by community advocacy groups. One of the criteria that is used to determine whether the bank is CRA-compliant is the comparative number of loans made to high- versus low-income clients. If you don't make enough loans to low-income clients, then you are not CRA-compliant. Source:
http://www.frbsf.org/community/craresources/advocacy.pdf
If a bank has a bad CRA record, then the bank will be prohibited from expanding or merging. Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Reinvestment_Act
It is basic entry-level economics, but unfortunately of a failed school. Recessions happen after inflation, and are merely a correction for previous excesses. The best economic platform is a stable one, encouraging saving and reinvestment of wealth. Slow deflation increases the relative amount of everybody's wages, and you end up being able to buy more and more with the same amount of money.
Profit margins get slimmer, people become more conservative, and efficiency is rewarded over waste. I don't see that as a bad thing at all.
The current deflation is a horrible thing, because it is fast, and being both amplified and drawn out by failed monetary policies, of the same school of thought that you apparently subscribe to (John Maynard Keynes).
The best part about BitCoin is that nobody really cares about the deflationary aspect of it. The currency was developed via intelligence and not fiat. Deflation was built in, for a reason. I suspect that reason will pay off handsomely in the long run.
Parent is correct, you are not. The U.S. government did specifically direct banks to make much larger numbers of risky loans in order to service "minority" markets. Banks were required to make certain numbers of subprime and risky loans in order to avoid sanctions. Then Fannie Mae started repackaging those loans and selling them as high-grade securities. Then certain banks (JP, Goldman come to mind) started doing the same, and ended up making ass-tons of money, and then the whole thing crashed.
But it was at the directive of the U.S. government. The banks were not stupid, they knew perfectly well what was going to happen. Anybody with any understanding of finance knew what was going to happen. But the politicians trying to make sure 'minorities can experience the American Dream of home ownership' did not. And now Goldman, JP et. al. are laughing all the way to the bank, or hell, or whatever.
In my city, speed limits on the main highways are 45-50 MPH. Normal traffic flow is 68-85 MPH. These are divided, 3-5 lane highways.
If you are "doing the limit," that means you are going 50 MPH while everyone else on the road is doing 75 MPH. That makes you a moron, and an obstruction, and it's damn dangerous. I'm sorry, but you are a fool if you think the solution is to obey the law when everyone around is breaking it, in this case. You have a moral responsibility not to put other drivers at risk.
Obviously you have not been paying attention to the Republican nomination. Romney was chosen by top R officials in 2008. Individual voters have absolutely nothing to do with it, not in primaries, not caucuses, nothing. Ron Paul's unsuccessful bid for the nomination proved this, all across the nation.
If you actually get somebody with enough support to get the votes to get on the nomination ticket, these corrupt officials will change the rules, on the spot, to make sure you will not be on the ticket. The entire process is rigged and controlled.
What good is a presidential election between two parties, when neither party even knows what liberty is?
No. To me, this election has proved, beyond any shadow of doubt, that the ballot box is completely unavailable to us. I feel like I am a little late, only figuring out now that the ballot box is rigged, but it has been amazing to me how thoroughly, and nakedly, these people rig their parties.
There are many local elections, and state elections. However, these are largely similarly rigged, as far as I can tell. The campaigns are corrupt, the primaries are corrupt, and the vote counting is corrupt. This is not a "conspiracy theory," this is naked fact, on video, in public, visible to anyone that cares enough to take a look.
The jury box is a farce, and the ballot box is rigged.
The Flying Tigers were active duty airmen, not volunteers. This made their flights against the Japanese an act of war by the US government against Japan, well before the actual declared hostilities.
There are other factors, like how the US cut off Japan's oil supplies, and ferried B17's into the Philippines where the only imaginable target was Japan, but none of these were actually acts of war.
My personal experience is that people follow the speed limit if the speed limit is closer to the actual safe speed on the road. For example, the highways through Providence, RI are all posted 45-55 MPH. People routinely drive 75+, often 85+. That's 30 MPH over the limit!
In nearby areas, where the speed limit is 65, people drive 75-85. That's 20 MPH over the limit.
In the few areas I have seen with 75 MPH speed limits, people drive 75MPH. They will drive 80MPH in a 65, then SLOW DOWN to 75 when the speed limit is posted 75.
I am not sure why this is the case, but it is my repeated observation. If the speed limit is raised to the ACTUAL maximum safe speed, people seem to follow it!
Legally, you are not obligated to tell the truth to a police officer. The answer to the question, "Do you have cash or any other form of money on you or with you?" is, "Are you detaining me, or am I free to go?" At least in the United States, that is the case. Other countries, not so much. If I were carrying more than $500 in cash for ANY REASON, legal or otherwise, I would NEVER admit it to a police officer during a traffic stop.
I'm happy that you don't have any reason to use BitCoin. BitCoin is a way to partially escape the system, without resorting to hermitage. Like you, I have no actual need to use BitCoin at this point in time. It is purely a novelty.
However, I feel it is a very good idea, as a citizen of the world, to get to know how it works, and how to use it safely, before it becomes actually necessary.
Just like farmer's markets. I can buy all my food at chain supermarkets. It's cheap, reliable, and perfectly fine to eat. However, I choose to buy as much of my food as possible at farmer's markets, to the point of patronizing remote farmer's markets that are near my travels. I do this simply to support local food production, before the factory agricultural system actually breaks down. It costs me (some) money, (some) time, and definitely extra hassle, but I consider it a worthwhile investment for the future.
Taxes are always confiscatory. Disagree? Try not paying taxes.
Confiscation of a BitCoin stash requires that they be able to actually find the account. You can hide $1,000,000 in cash-equivalent BitCoin sewed in the hem of a shirt, or if you are really good, you can memorize it. Try transporting $1,000,000 in actual cash, or gold. It is very hard.
You acknowledge that police confiscation of cash as "drug money" is bad. BitCoin is becoming a viable answer. Have you ever tried using it?
I would never wish for the Silk Road marketplace to be shut down. On the contrary, it is through the black market that BitCoin will achieve worldwide penetration. If you use BitCoin to buy pot, then it is not so foreign when suddenly the local farmers' market starts accepting BitCoin as well.
Your post is very emotional. Are you rabidly anti-drug?
If we all switch to an anonymous currency BEFORE our fiat currencies break, then we will actually have a chance of not actually reaching the "hungry mobs roaming the streets" situation. I read that in Europe, BitCoin is experiencing enormous demand, due to the rampant instability. If everyone has BitCoins, then how long can it be before they start using BitCoins to conduct everyday business? Once that happens, then who cares if the government-backed currency goes belly-up? You can still buy bread.
Everything a fax machine did, you could do before they were invented. Xerox a document, drop it in the mail. In fact, people still do that. Yet fax machines had their place. The "new" thing about fax machines was that you could do it instantly.
The "new" thing about BitCoin is that it is decentralized, and cannot realistically be regulated or tracked. Do you have any real comprehension how valuable that is, in this day and age? A form of value transaction that cannot be confiscated, tracked, or reported?
Methinks you underestimate the power of this idea.
Bitcoin is very much backed by a society. That society just doesn't happen to be defined by geographical, religious, class, or race boundaries the way most societies in the world are defined.
No sovereign society backs it? Sounds like a good thing, with sovereign societies self-destructing one by one over this debt fiasco.
Well, because everything we do is currently tied to the inherent value of oil? All food production, all transportation, all manufacturing, all mining and extraction of any kind, all of it is a function of oil. Everything. As the cost of oil goes up, so too must the price of everything else go up, unless you happen to live in a self-supporting situation. Any realistic currency will mirror the price of oil, because everything else mirrors the price of oil! Oil is the true expression of value in our civilization, because that is what the entire civilization is built on.
As to your point about dollars; I have very little faith in the "most wealthy and powerful national economy on earth." It is being looted and emptied of its wealth and power, and will collapse. The "handwriting is on the wall," so to speak. All fiat currencies are backed by nothing more than faith. That "national debt" you speak of is a promise to repay; a promise backed by faith. If that faith is broken, as it surely will be, the currency will immediately collapse. It is not within the realm of most people's imagination to comprehend how quickly that can happen, since most of us have never experienced it.
Such is not the case with BitCoin. To the contrary, every indication is that BitCoin will continue being used for shadow economy activities, thereby gaining silent penetration throughout the world. BitCoin's strength is in the number of people using it, and right now, that strength is growing by the day. That is an important distinction: "MONEY" is backed by "FAITH IN GOVERNMENT", while "BITCOIN" is backed by "NUMBER OF PEOPLE USING IT." One changes with the stroke of a pen, the other changes as people change. Neither is 100 percent safe.
Which do you feel is more worthy of your trust? Your peers, or your government?
True, and that will continue to be the case until it takes over the world.:)
The same way Linux has taken over the personal computing world, via Android, a software stack that only a handful of people even knew existed barely 5 years ago.:)
I have been in countries where the local currency is in the middle of being re-valued. I was unable to exchange local currency for any other, even immediately on the other side of the border. It is tough, for people trapped in that.
On the other hand, you cannot tell me that the actual cost of gasoline fluctuates whole percentage points based on old men in the Federal Reserve making reports on their money-related activities. No, that is the value of the U.S. dollar fluctuating, while the cost of gasoline remains steady. Price of gas drop because the stock market dropped? That's because the base currency gained in value, not because any actual factor relating to gasoline extraction/production/transportation changed.
The price of gasoline cost $0.25 SILVER per gallon a century ago, and it still costs $0.25 SILVER per gallon today. The rise in apparent price is due entirely to local currency fluctuations.
Because BitCoins are not directly tied to any single currency, and are not manipulated by fiat, and are instead a representative of time and number of users, BitCoins will likely become a far more stable monetary unit than government-issued currencies. When you see the exchange rate graph of BitCoins begin to mirror the price of oil, that day will have come.
If you look at the 1M graphs of BitCoins and oil, that mirroring has already begun.
I guess I didn't state fully what was in my head. Sorry!
The head of the Bio department at my school has a clearly-stated, emphatic opinion that college is NOT "job training." She is frustrated that many students, and their parents, seem to think that college is "job training." I think she is right. The knowledge you learn at school is absolutely horrible "job training."
In my field (programming), 4 years' professional experience will land you a job much faster than a B.* in Computer Science. My current employer actually discards degrees in favor of even short-term professional experience. This doesn't seem to be unusual.
Vocational schools are job training. Universities like North-Eastern that do work-study programs are kinda job training. Apart from that, it is the job of the university to turn you into a well-rounded individual, with enough breadth of education that you can make your way socially and economically in a variety of fields.
I guess I'm saying, don't go to a university for job training, because that's not what they are about. The flip side of that is, don't complain when they want you to take a wide breadth of courses, because that IS what they are about.
Remember that most people do not engage in a career linked to their college majors. When they graduate, they pick up whatever jobs they can find.
If they are not reasonably well-rounded in their education, this becomes much harder. Why would you want to lock someone in to their youthful decisions, perhaps made without a full understanding of what is actually needed in the world?
Slashdot Mirror
Dumping is a petty crime; they pretty much dump where it is easy and they won't get caught. The bother of putting on a ski mask and mudding up the license plates is far more than going down a different road and dumping. Which brings us to your second point, which is very correct. I have no idea how to change a person's mindset so they don't dump in the first place. If you ever figure it out, please pretty please let us know!
Place signs around the area (they do not have to be large) saying, "Video Surveillance in Use." Make sure you clean up any existing trash.
If dumping persists, use a game camera to take pictures, then tack up some large prints of the perps dumping.
Something like this: https://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=video+surveillance+signs&hl=en&prmd=imvns&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&biw=1173&bih=640&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=8862164393585909605&sa=X&ei=okp0UO2UPMWXiAKB-YHAAQ&ved=0CGsQ8gIwBg
People really pay attention to little cues like this when they are doing something nefarious. Good luck.
This is the specific criteria:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Community_Reinvestment_Act_of_1977#Sec._804
Note that the Federal Government is the one decided whether or not the bank is meeting the needs of low-income customers. This is not the case in practice, however. Enforcement of the CRA is done by community advocacy groups. One of the criteria that is used to determine whether the bank is CRA-compliant is the comparative number of loans made to high- versus low-income clients. If you don't make enough loans to low-income clients, then you are not CRA-compliant. Source:
http://www.frbsf.org/community/craresources/advocacy.pdf [frbsf.org]
If a bank has a bad CRA record, then the bank will be prohibited from expanding or merging. Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Reinvestment_Act [wikipedia.org]
This is the specific criteria: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Community_Reinvestment_Act_of_1977#Sec._804. Note that the Federal Government is the one decided whether or not the bank is meeting the needs of low-income customers. This is not the case in practice, however. Enforcement of the CRA is done by community advocacy groups. One of the criteria that is used to determine whether the bank is CRA-compliant is the comparative number of loans made to high- versus low-income clients. If you don't make enough loans to low-income clients, then you are not CRA-compliant. Source: http://www.frbsf.org/community/craresources/advocacy.pdf If a bank has a bad CRA record, then the bank will be prohibited from expanding or merging. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Reinvestment_Act
It is basic entry-level economics, but unfortunately of a failed school. Recessions happen after inflation, and are merely a correction for previous excesses. The best economic platform is a stable one, encouraging saving and reinvestment of wealth. Slow deflation increases the relative amount of everybody's wages, and you end up being able to buy more and more with the same amount of money. Profit margins get slimmer, people become more conservative, and efficiency is rewarded over waste. I don't see that as a bad thing at all. The current deflation is a horrible thing, because it is fast, and being both amplified and drawn out by failed monetary policies, of the same school of thought that you apparently subscribe to (John Maynard Keynes). The best part about BitCoin is that nobody really cares about the deflationary aspect of it. The currency was developed via intelligence and not fiat. Deflation was built in, for a reason. I suspect that reason will pay off handsomely in the long run.
Theft. Hold specific people criminally liable for their crimes.
"Regulation" is merely an obfuscated way of saying, "You can steal whatever you want, as long as you follow these rules."
Deregulate, then prosecute criminal theft.
Gambling on FEAR, no less! :)
Parent is correct, you are not. The U.S. government did specifically direct banks to make much larger numbers of risky loans in order to service "minority" markets. Banks were required to make certain numbers of subprime and risky loans in order to avoid sanctions. Then Fannie Mae started repackaging those loans and selling them as high-grade securities. Then certain banks (JP, Goldman come to mind) started doing the same, and ended up making ass-tons of money, and then the whole thing crashed.
But it was at the directive of the U.S. government. The banks were not stupid, they knew perfectly well what was going to happen. Anybody with any understanding of finance knew what was going to happen. But the politicians trying to make sure 'minorities can experience the American Dream of home ownership' did not. And now Goldman, JP et. al. are laughing all the way to the bank, or hell, or whatever.
In my city, speed limits on the main highways are 45-50 MPH. Normal traffic flow is 68-85 MPH. These are divided, 3-5 lane highways.
If you are "doing the limit," that means you are going 50 MPH while everyone else on the road is doing 75 MPH. That makes you a moron, and an obstruction, and it's damn dangerous. I'm sorry, but you are a fool if you think the solution is to obey the law when everyone around is breaking it, in this case. You have a moral responsibility not to put other drivers at risk.
You're so cute, thinking laws are in place to protect people.
Do you know how speed limits are set? Do you know how or where to lobby for increasing the speed limit in your locality?
I'll give you a hint; it is NOT the legislature.
Obviously you have not been paying attention to the Republican nomination. Romney was chosen by top R officials in 2008. Individual voters have absolutely nothing to do with it, not in primaries, not caucuses, nothing. Ron Paul's unsuccessful bid for the nomination proved this, all across the nation.
If you actually get somebody with enough support to get the votes to get on the nomination ticket, these corrupt officials will change the rules, on the spot, to make sure you will not be on the ticket. The entire process is rigged and controlled.
What good is a presidential election between two parties, when neither party even knows what liberty is?
No. To me, this election has proved, beyond any shadow of doubt, that the ballot box is completely unavailable to us. I feel like I am a little late, only figuring out now that the ballot box is rigged, but it has been amazing to me how thoroughly, and nakedly, these people rig their parties.
There are many local elections, and state elections. However, these are largely similarly rigged, as far as I can tell. The campaigns are corrupt, the primaries are corrupt, and the vote counting is corrupt. This is not a "conspiracy theory," this is naked fact, on video, in public, visible to anyone that cares enough to take a look.
The jury box is a farce, and the ballot box is rigged.
The Flying Tigers were active duty airmen, not volunteers. This made their flights against the Japanese an act of war by the US government against Japan, well before the actual declared hostilities.
There are other factors, like how the US cut off Japan's oil supplies, and ferried B17's into the Philippines where the only imaginable target was Japan, but none of these were actually acts of war.
cej102937
My personal experience is that people follow the speed limit if the speed limit is closer to the actual safe speed on the road. For example, the highways through Providence, RI are all posted 45-55 MPH. People routinely drive 75+, often 85+. That's 30 MPH over the limit!
In nearby areas, where the speed limit is 65, people drive 75-85. That's 20 MPH over the limit.
In the few areas I have seen with 75 MPH speed limits, people drive 75MPH. They will drive 80MPH in a 65, then SLOW DOWN to 75 when the speed limit is posted 75.
I am not sure why this is the case, but it is my repeated observation. If the speed limit is raised to the ACTUAL maximum safe speed, people seem to follow it!
cej102937
Remind me, how is this a bad thing? :)
Legally, you are not obligated to tell the truth to a police officer. The answer to the question, "Do you have cash or any other form of money on you or with you?" is, "Are you detaining me, or am I free to go?" At least in the United States, that is the case. Other countries, not so much. If I were carrying more than $500 in cash for ANY REASON, legal or otherwise, I would NEVER admit it to a police officer during a traffic stop.
I'm happy that you don't have any reason to use BitCoin. BitCoin is a way to partially escape the system, without resorting to hermitage. Like you, I have no actual need to use BitCoin at this point in time. It is purely a novelty.
However, I feel it is a very good idea, as a citizen of the world, to get to know how it works, and how to use it safely, before it becomes actually necessary.
Just like farmer's markets. I can buy all my food at chain supermarkets. It's cheap, reliable, and perfectly fine to eat. However, I choose to buy as much of my food as possible at farmer's markets, to the point of patronizing remote farmer's markets that are near my travels. I do this simply to support local food production, before the factory agricultural system actually breaks down. It costs me (some) money, (some) time, and definitely extra hassle, but I consider it a worthwhile investment for the future.
Taxes are always confiscatory. Disagree? Try not paying taxes.
Confiscation of a BitCoin stash requires that they be able to actually find the account. You can hide $1,000,000 in cash-equivalent BitCoin sewed in the hem of a shirt, or if you are really good, you can memorize it. Try transporting $1,000,000 in actual cash, or gold. It is very hard.
You acknowledge that police confiscation of cash as "drug money" is bad. BitCoin is becoming a viable answer. Have you ever tried using it?
cej102937
I would never wish for the Silk Road marketplace to be shut down. On the contrary, it is through the black market that BitCoin will achieve worldwide penetration. If you use BitCoin to buy pot, then it is not so foreign when suddenly the local farmers' market starts accepting BitCoin as well.
Your post is very emotional. Are you rabidly anti-drug?
If we all switch to an anonymous currency BEFORE our fiat currencies break, then we will actually have a chance of not actually reaching the "hungry mobs roaming the streets" situation. I read that in Europe, BitCoin is experiencing enormous demand, due to the rampant instability. If everyone has BitCoins, then how long can it be before they start using BitCoins to conduct everyday business? Once that happens, then who cares if the government-backed currency goes belly-up? You can still buy bread.
cej102937
Everything a fax machine did, you could do before they were invented. Xerox a document, drop it in the mail. In fact, people still do that. Yet fax machines had their place. The "new" thing about fax machines was that you could do it instantly.
The "new" thing about BitCoin is that it is decentralized, and cannot realistically be regulated or tracked. Do you have any real comprehension how valuable that is, in this day and age? A form of value transaction that cannot be confiscated, tracked, or reported?
Methinks you underestimate the power of this idea.
Bitcoin is very much backed by a society. That society just doesn't happen to be defined by geographical, religious, class, or race boundaries the way most societies in the world are defined.
No sovereign society backs it? Sounds like a good thing, with sovereign societies self-destructing one by one over this debt fiasco.
Well, because everything we do is currently tied to the inherent value of oil? All food production, all transportation, all manufacturing, all mining and extraction of any kind, all of it is a function of oil. Everything. As the cost of oil goes up, so too must the price of everything else go up, unless you happen to live in a self-supporting situation. Any realistic currency will mirror the price of oil, because everything else mirrors the price of oil! Oil is the true expression of value in our civilization, because that is what the entire civilization is built on.
As to your point about dollars; I have very little faith in the "most wealthy and powerful national economy on earth." It is being looted and emptied of its wealth and power, and will collapse. The "handwriting is on the wall," so to speak. All fiat currencies are backed by nothing more than faith. That "national debt" you speak of is a promise to repay; a promise backed by faith. If that faith is broken, as it surely will be, the currency will immediately collapse. It is not within the realm of most people's imagination to comprehend how quickly that can happen, since most of us have never experienced it.
Such is not the case with BitCoin. To the contrary, every indication is that BitCoin will continue being used for shadow economy activities, thereby gaining silent penetration throughout the world. BitCoin's strength is in the number of people using it, and right now, that strength is growing by the day. That is an important distinction: "MONEY" is backed by "FAITH IN GOVERNMENT", while "BITCOIN" is backed by "NUMBER OF PEOPLE USING IT." One changes with the stroke of a pen, the other changes as people change. Neither is 100 percent safe.
Which do you feel is more worthy of your trust? Your peers, or your government?
cej102937
True, and that will continue to be the case until it takes over the world. :)
The same way Linux has taken over the personal computing world, via Android, a software stack that only a handful of people even knew existed barely 5 years ago. :)
I have been in countries where the local currency is in the middle of being re-valued. I was unable to exchange local currency for any other, even immediately on the other side of the border. It is tough, for people trapped in that.
On the other hand, you cannot tell me that the actual cost of gasoline fluctuates whole percentage points based on old men in the Federal Reserve making reports on their money-related activities. No, that is the value of the U.S. dollar fluctuating, while the cost of gasoline remains steady. Price of gas drop because the stock market dropped? That's because the base currency gained in value, not because any actual factor relating to gasoline extraction/production/transportation changed.
The price of gasoline cost $0.25 SILVER per gallon a century ago, and it still costs $0.25 SILVER per gallon today. The rise in apparent price is due entirely to local currency fluctuations.
Because BitCoins are not directly tied to any single currency, and are not manipulated by fiat, and are instead a representative of time and number of users, BitCoins will likely become a far more stable monetary unit than government-issued currencies. When you see the exchange rate graph of BitCoins begin to mirror the price of oil, that day will have come.
If you look at the 1M graphs of BitCoins and oil, that mirroring has already begun.
How is that any different than regular government-issued currency?
cej102937
I guess I didn't state fully what was in my head. Sorry!
The head of the Bio department at my school has a clearly-stated, emphatic opinion that college is NOT "job training." She is frustrated that many students, and their parents, seem to think that college is "job training." I think she is right. The knowledge you learn at school is absolutely horrible "job training."
In my field (programming), 4 years' professional experience will land you a job much faster than a B.* in Computer Science. My current employer actually discards degrees in favor of even short-term professional experience. This doesn't seem to be unusual.
Vocational schools are job training. Universities like North-Eastern that do work-study programs are kinda job training. Apart from that, it is the job of the university to turn you into a well-rounded individual, with enough breadth of education that you can make your way socially and economically in a variety of fields.
I guess I'm saying, don't go to a university for job training, because that's not what they are about. The flip side of that is, don't complain when they want you to take a wide breadth of courses, because that IS what they are about.
Remember that most people do not engage in a career linked to their college majors. When they graduate, they pick up whatever jobs they can find.
If they are not reasonably well-rounded in their education, this becomes much harder. Why would you want to lock someone in to their youthful decisions, perhaps made without a full understanding of what is actually needed in the world?
cej102937