We used to live in a society in which hard work and fair play could take you to the top, but it appears that society has started to wither away. Hard work and fair play still play vital roles, of course, but now you also need money.
The average student graduates from college with nearly $20,000 in student loan debt, according to the Public Interest Research Group. And as if student loans didn't already cause enough headaches, Republicans in Congress have another migraine in store for America: A plan to cut student loan programs by $12.7 billion, according to an article on Business Week's Web site.
Though the Business Week article gives some tips on how to survive the hike in interest rates that will result, many prospective students will probably find themselves priced out of a future.
While corporate leaders outsource all the high-paying union jobs overseas, their friends in Congress cut taxes for them so they can replace those jobs with low-wage service jobs, which many people mistakenly interpret as a sign of economic growth. Then, they remedy the huge budget deficit the tax cuts create simply by cutting off extra fat - particularly, programs that help all those pesky poor folks.
While these pigs guzzle champagne, however, they shortsightedly fail to realize the long-term damage they cause when they take our money.
A function of financial aid for college students is to increase upward mobility in society. It doesn't take a doctorate in economics to know upward mobility is essential to maintaining economic health. The Ball family recognized that when it founded this university, as did Andrew Carnegie when he used his fortune to build libraries all over the country.
But today's Republican leaders just don't get it.
To market their greed to the public, current Republican leaders pretend that anybody can be Andrew Carnegie by working hard, while they conveniently forget that Carnegie lived in a time when the road to success had a cheaper toll than it does today. Even when our parents were our age, not only was college cheaper, but more financial aid came in the form of grants.
Republicans have convinced a lot of Americans - even many poor Americans - that any economic benefits for low-income people constitute some form of Socialism, which they have successfully made into a four-letter word in American politics. But rarely do the media attach such a label to welfare for the rich or the prices the rest of us pay whenever millionaires and billionaires get their checks in the mail.
If we continue to allow the rich to keep raiding the coffers, we can expect fewer opportunities for poor people to improve their situations. With that, the middle class will keep shrinking, and the gap between the rich and poor - which, according to The Associated Press, is already growing in this country because of a stagnant federal minimum wage and a decline of labor unions - will continue to get bigger. Our crumbling physical infrastructure will continue to crumble, while lack of funding forces public schools to cut almost everything but the Three R's. Meanwhile, our debt to foreign countries will continue to send the value of the dollar spiraling downward.
When that happens, rich folks and their Republican friends can sit and relax. Even if we go the way of Argentina, they will still have plenty of money and investments to live comfortably on.
As for the rest of us, maybe we should see if Wal-Mart has any openings for greeters.
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