It's The University Business Model Stupid, Not Interest Rates

It’s The University Business Model Stupid, Not Interest Rates

            The New York Times feature story on student loans (A Generation Hobblied by the Soaring Cost of College) was sheer idiocy – focusing on the capillaries (student loan interest rates) not the heart of higher education costs (personal financial ebola) that indentures students and or canabalizes or defers the work free retirement of their co signing or borrowing parents: the damn incompetent featherbedding arrogant inefficient effete normative pompous recklessness of the university business model based to tenure and collegiality rather than the  cost benefit ratio to the student and the learning delivered.

            And the Times and its douche bag writers (sorry Vince this was a political agenda in search of a story) accomplices to a political agenda as they know better. And yes, I’m maligning their motivation – which journalists practice daily – but are thin skinned when it is their ass.

            My assertion is illustrated by the numbers below:

Higher Education Personal Financial Ebola

            The example below assumes:

• Private school 4 years – room board tuition books starting at $40,000 a year
• Higher ed inflation of 9% versus the overall inflation of 3% (300%+ has been the higher education inflation cost historically)
• Graduation in 4 years (when less than 25% overall graduate in 4 years)
• Reinvestment rate in a 401K of differential @8% which is conservative given PERA uses 8.5% and Calpers 7.75%.
• Without reinvestment the differential in higher education costs in $482,000 and with the difference reinvested $546,000 ($818,000-$272,000) is the cost per child that otherwise could go to the parents’ retirement for example

160,000@9%	new value	160000@3%	new value	inflation diff	'infl diff invest 8%
14400	174400	4800	164800	9600	35520
15696	190096	4944	169744	10752	36835
17109	207205	5092	174836	12016	38116
18648	225853	5245	180081	13403	39367
20327	246180	5402	185484	14924	40587
22156	268336	5565	191048	16592	41781
24150	292486	5731	196780	18419	42946
26324	318810	5903	202683	20420	44085
28693	347503	6080	208764	22612	45201
31275	378778	6263	215027	25012	46295
34090	412868	6451	221477	27639	47368
37158	450026	6644	228122	30514	48421
40502	490529	6844	234965	33659	49456
44148	534676	7049	242014	37099	50472
48121	582797	7260	249275	40860	51471
52452	635249	7478	256753	44974	52457
57172	692421	7703	264456	49470	53427
62318	754739	7934	272389	54384	54384
inf diff + reinvest					$818,189.00
infl diff	$482,349.98

            So while politicians are fiddling with student loan interest rates, unaccountable effectively un-terminable tenured holier than thou professors and their administrative enablers like former University of Colorado President and now Ohio State President Gordon Gee Whiz (On Your Wallets) making serfs out of indentured students and or delay or waylay parents work free retirements.

            It was Gordon Gee Whiz On Your Wallets, making reportedly high six figures (1) who said in the May 12, 2012 New York Times article A Generation Hobbled by the Soaring Cost of College “I readily admit it. I didn’t think a lot about costs. I do not think we have given significant thought to the impact of college costs on families.”

            Duh

           

(1)   In addition, Ohio State has spent at least $844,000 on the school president's travel since 2007, including more than $550,000 in the past two years that included two trips to China plus two other international trips to Iceland, Turkey, France and the United Kingdom, according to a report by the Dayton Daily News. And according to Wikipedia “Gee's base salary is $802,125, with a total compensation package of $1.6 million, making him the highest paid public university president in the United States”

The Question of More vs Enough - Having It All

WHEN DID HAVING ENOUGH STOP BEING ENOUGH?
AND, WHY?

(IF YOU HAD ‘IT ALL,’ WHERE WOULD YOU PUT IT?)
Public Storage(tm)?

Equations: More vs Enough vs Meaning

MORE ≥
MORE ≥ MORE ≥ MORE ≥ MORE ≥ MORE ≥ MORE ≥
MORE ≥ LE$$
(the less-on)

ENOUGH(sm) = Enough to live for ÷ Enough to live on


Meaning = Calling X(Intention + Authenticity + Perseverance)÷(Pain+Resistance)

Enough = healing personal financial anxiety, puttin’ money in its place to transcend to significance (meaning)

The MORE Response

The MORE response©

There are many so called ‘responses’ not the least of which are the following:

• The Relaxation Response (made famous by Dr. Herbert Benson): a group of physiologic changes that cause decreased activity of the sympathetic nervous system and consequent relaxation after stimulation of certain regions of the hypothalamus. (In others, this response de-stresses one).


• The Fetch Response: the repetitive happy presentation of object (in particular, tennis balls by Her Majesty Goodie) to retrieve after toss or soulful eyes presentation of ball engendering Jewish guilt so as to continue More throwing the retrieving process ad infinitum if she had her way – as this never Enough fetch.

• The Kfetech Kevetch Response: bortzing, complaining, whining but particular by this Jewish companion animal guardian (reality – serf) for Her Royal Highness’ incessant unending (if allowed) desire for fetch and yet he continues to give in. (She loves fetch, he must love kevetching better than the relaxation response.)
……………………….

My standard poodles,Goodie and Elle and I would play fetch in the backyard twice a day – the first time, in the morning and secondly late afternoon.
(Moses, my faithful male black standard poodle chevrutah (study partner), still prefers being first on the chair with me when I study to ball).

I would throw three to four balls. And invariably Goodie, still without success, tries to put two rubber balls in her mouth. And even when she has a rubber ball in her mouth, the one Elle is fetching looks better – MORE .

I can only wonder through osmosis if the proclivity and preference towards MORE has been transferred in domesticating our dogs, as Goodie, with tennis ball already in her mouth, would go after Elle’s ball in a ‘burning bush’ because it might better.
………………………

Announcing (drum roll please), now for the first time - alluded to but unnamed here to date is for your personal financial taxonomy classification: The MORE response©

The MORE response©: Stimulated/motivated by the delusional quest to overcome inevitable extinction of the physical (which one identifies as ‘himself’), the The MORE response©, is a derivative of acquisition (Cain), which seeks to gain THE permanent, THE certain, and THE continuous thus, overcoming the inevitable physical extinction (a delusion) or at least palliating oneself in the interim.
Practitioners (whether consciously or unconsciously, lay or professional) of The MORE response© are affectionately referred to as MOREONs.
The MORE response© masquerades and is exemplified as follows:

• If only, if only, if only, if only, if only
• But what if, but what if, but what if
• Yes but, yes but, yes but
• I’m too busy getting more so I’ll have enough (which I don’t have time to calculate)

The MOREON response©:

1. Sacrificing what one needs for what one doesn’t need
2. MORE, Better, Now…

The MOREON response© ReBUTTal:

1. MORE, Better, Now… which typically becomes LE$$, worse, later.
2. “The More fat, the More disease. The More possessions, the More worry. The More wives, the More rivalry. The More maids, the More frivolity. The More butlers, the More theft.”
Rabbi Hillel, Pirke Avot 2:8

The ENOUGH Response ©:
Enough to live on; Enough to live for

The ENOUGH Irony©

More vs ENOUGH from Ecclesiastes to Talmud To New Testament

More vs ENOUGH – January 22, 2012

The More fat, the More disease. The More possessions, the More worry. The More wives, the More rivalry. The More maids, the More frivolity. The More butlers, the More theft.
Rabbi Hillel, Pirke Avot 2:8

The More you have
The More you have to maintain
Ecclesiastes 5:10

I have seen a great heartache in this world;
you hoard your wealth to guard against the future
only to lose it all in a deal gone bad
Ecclesiastes 5:12-13

If you are clever in the ways of finance
yet lack the capacity for contentment (enoughness – jds)
are you at all superior to the financially ignorant?
Is a contented pauper less than a discontented financier
Ecclesiastes 6:8

Once there was a rich man who lad lots of money and he said, ‘I willinvest my money so that I can sow, reap, plant, and fill up my silos with crops so I won’t lack anything’ So he thought, but that night he died.
Gospel of Thomas

If you are clever in the ways of finance
yet lack the capacity for contentment (enoughness – jds)
are you at all superior to the financially ignorant?
Is a contented pauper less than a discontented financier
Ecclesiastes 6:8

More, better, now becomes less, worse, later
Jim Schwartz

Money can’t buy happiness but it can’t buy you poverty either
Ellis Schwartz

Mephistos, More, Enough, Wisdom & Folly - A Jewish (Cobbled) Tail (With A Bite)

Mephistos, More, Enough, Wisdom & Folly
A Jewish (Cobbled) Tail (With A Bite)

(My first pair of Mephistos shoes bought in 1973 – soled and resoled – 3 times – finally died today -a tear in the leather- at the age of 38. There was nothing MORE I could do. Another sole is lost. I feel like a ‘heel.’ Nothing is permanent.)

I bought MORE field hands and house slaves, MORE stewards and maids, MORE cattle and sheet than anyone who lived before me. I hoarded coins both silver and gold, raided the treasure houses of kings, and stripped caravans of their precious cargo. I filled my homes with singers and musicians. I piled crate upon crate stuffed with the most prized luxuries. I grew wealthier than any of my predecessors in Jersusalem and yet none of this satisfied me, nothing but wisdom alone
Ecclesiastes 2:6-9 Rabbi Remi Shapiro Translation
Fonts by Schwartz

I bought slaves – male and female – and I acquired stewards; I also owned MORE possessions, both cattle and sheep, than all of my predecessors in Jerusalem; I amassed even silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and the provinces; I provided myself with various musical instruments, and with every human luxury – chest and chests of them. Thus I grew and surpassed any of my predecessors in Jerusalem; still, my wisdom stayed with me.
Ecclesiastes 2:7-10 Stone Edition Tanach (Orthodox)
Font by Schwartz

I bought male and female slaves, and I acquired stewards. I also acquired MORE cattle, both herds and flocks, than all who were before me in Jerusalem. I further amassed silver and gold and treasures of kinds and provinces; and I got myself male and female singers, as well as the luxuries of commoners- coffers and coffers of them. Thus, I gained more wealth than anyone before me in Jerusalem. In addition, my wisdom remained with me
Ecclesiastes 2:7-9 JPS Tanakh (Conservative Judaism)
Font by Schwartz

And here this writer use to mock The Rabbi Establishment with ‘where there is a Rabbinic will there’s a halacha (legal) way’ when the above ‘renderings’ are at best interpretative translations rather than literal translations. At a minimum, these interpretative translations should have a Judaic Warning label ‘Translation May Be Hazardous To Your Conclusions.”

The above stipulated, there is a common thread between these interpretive translations: that wisdom is preferable to MORE MORE MORE.
But even the wisdom balloon bursts with:

• If the fool’s fate is the same as mine, has wisdom any lasting advantage? And I concluded that wisdom, too, is empty (Ecclesiastes 2:15, Shapiro)
• So I realized: “The fate of the fool is also destined for me; to what advantage, then, have I been wise?” And I came to the conclusion that that (wisdom) too was futile” (Ecclesiastes JPS 2-15)
• So I said to myself: The fate of the fool will befall me also; to what advantage, then, have I become wise? But I concluded that this, too, was futility. (Ecclesiastes Stone Edition Tanach 2:15)

But neither MORE, the folly of ignorance is bliss, nor wisdom can overcome the ephemeral, impermanence, the emptying (hevel)!

In the end both wise and foolish are forgotten
The death of one is identical to that of the other
Ecclesiastes 2:16

Thus, when the game is over, the king, pawn, the wise, the foolish all go in the same box.

Is it any wonder most (99%+ see self interest past entry) have continued to seek t MORE MORE MORE better now financially (despite denials to appear selfless) and or continue to pursue MORE MORE MORE better now in other currencies (awards, knowledge, wisdom etc) despite MORE MORE MORE yielding in time LESS, WORSE & LATER foolishly repeated. Why – it is what we know, and this hardwiring is culturally reinforced by ‘hope & the pursuit of happiness’ which palliates the delusion or hole in the soul. MORE as Enough merely reminds of the impermanence – hevel of all including wisdom and folly – which at least initially depresses with in the face reality of ‘what next if not MORE MORE MORE?

Continuity, certainty, permanence is futile.
But this life – futile – no it’s a matter of accepting the ephemeral with equanimity (rising above the good and the bad) while holding to the faith that this life is a soul curriculum exercise for character development to merit to a-gain for again.

In the interim, if lucky, we are blessed with dogs -Ambassadors from God, Chaverim (friends) of The Soul- during midterms and finals easing the ephemeral, the impermanent, and the uncertain

Well, ‘enough’ of this‘sole-ful’ rendering. Like the physical demise of my 38 year old Mephistos – that’s shoe business – a hit today, tomorrow in the recycle bin.

I give you good leather, it’s up to you to make good shoes
Guirjieff

More Than A Mouthful: Fetching More vs Enough

More Than A Mouthful: Fetching More vs Enough

Despite repeated efforts, over and over and over and over again, each day and every day twice a day when we play fetch, Goodie attempts unsuccessfully to put not only the ball thrown for her into her mouth but also Moses’. And with each attempt to place two balls into her mouth, pawing, pushing & batting as she might, Goodie inevitably drops the ball already in her mouth and is frustrated.
More than a mouthful is a waste in ‘more’ ways than one.

In seeking more, more, more it’s not unusual to the drop the ball we already have. More better now has a habit of becoming ‘worse, less, later’ whether in Goodie playing fetch, in personal financial planning or other life experiences.
One ball never seems to be ‘enough’ for Goodie (regardless of frustration) nor is enough seem to ever be enough for us in personal financial planning or life in general as if ‘there’s got to be more.’

MoreOnic behavior.

So we sacrifice what we need for what we don’t need.
Why do entrepreneurs make it lose it make it lose it – ad infinitum -despite advice to become independent of their independent businesses by having ‘enough’ in diversified passive protected assets regardless of their entrepreneurial ups and downs?
The question is why?

Having enough would cause an assessment of finding meaning IN one’s life?
More is hard wired and reinforced culturally to become habitual?
More validates in an external comparative sense to others?
More diverts, deflects from dealing with fear of extinction (which most identify as their physical body) while palliating through acquisition?

When Ben Franklin rhetorically asked ‘what is rich?’ and answered himself with ‘he is who is content,’ followed with the question, ‘who is that?’ and answered himself, ‘nobody!’

And so, again today, in attempting to secure both balls in her mouth, Goodie paws, pushes, and bats to no avail – and neither ball is secure in her mouth.

Yes, more than a mouthful is a waste.