College (Today) ≠ Education?

College (Today) ≠ Education?

Education – e-duct-o (Latin) to lead out of

(ex- from; ducere – bring out, lead forth)

            If anything, College has become IN-ducto - INdoctrination rather than educto – education.

And yet despite the facts below, we conflate college with education, learning, knowledge and or skill transference.

            If anything today’s colleges hold themselves out as educating when in reality they are merely a camouflage brand. The Collegiate masquerade engages in the frauds of misrepresentation as well as bait in switch harming students and parents – economically and education wise with its personal financial ebola and indoctrination.

            The question is: is College worth it on a cost benefit basis given private College cost for 4 years or more being over $200,000+++ and public colleges being$80,000++ (1) when all is said and done.

Cost / Benefit (To Whom????) Analysis of ‘College’

To Students & Parents

Cost

• $80,000- $200,000 +++
• Opportunity cost? (1)

• Personal Financial Ebola: i.e. tuition at the University of Denver in 1967 $1500, today over $43,000 when inflation adjusted the tuition at DUh would be $10,300 (and over just 4 years $120,000  over inflation at the expense of student indenture and or parent Personal Financial Ebola)

DU 1500 to $10, 300 to 43,000+ = 120k personal financial ebola

• Deferral of first time homeownership
• Tuition increase on average from 1978-2012 of 1125% per Bloomberg
• Bait and Switch (fraud???(2)) as 70%+ of courses are taught by teaching assistants
• Dishonest publication of average class size using average versus mean (akin to same Oreo’s package with less cookies – let alone ‘stuff’ – for the same price)
• Teaching loads on average of the professors of less than 11 hours per week
• Second class teaching: there is a teaching  monetary disincentive as research payoffs at Colleges moreso than teaching students paying $80,000 - $200,000+++
• Suppression of freedom of expression by the Political Correctness
1. Speech codes
2. Safety zones
3. Micro aggressions
4. Trigger Warnings (& without Roy Rogers’ Trigger)

• Snowflake, Cupcake & Crybully enabling – “in loco (weed) progressives” for the perpetually aggrieved & offended
• Academic welfare (Tenure) for Scholar Barrens on the Honor Dole
• Tenure in the name of Academic Freedom & Freedom of Expression when now there is wrongful termination laws for protection
• Tenure in the name of Freedom of Expression while practicing PC censorship and indoctrination

• Academic gibberish

Benefit:

• Supposedly higher earnings?????? (emphasis supposedly given % of graduates living in their parents basements – unlike previous graduate experiences).

Is The Cost Benefit Ratio of Today’s College – Economically & Education Wise Worth It

To Students & Parents?

Or, In Reality, is Today’s

A Rip Off, at be$t, A Fraud (2), at wor$t?

(1)    Opportunity cost – had the student worked, interned, and or done apprenticeship during the 4 or more years earning a degree – and not working while investing part of their earnings (even while living at their parents) that would add to the cost side to determine the true cost benefit ratio.

(2)    Fraud = deception, scam, racket, hoax, smoke and mirrors, sham

           

Mooching Free Tuition Begs (Literally & Metaphorically)

The Question & Problem

Good Old F.U!: Rah, Rah, Siss, Boom, Flimflam Bah– Personal Financial Ebola

Good Old F.U!: Rah, Rah, Siss, Boom, Flimflam Bah– Personal Financial Ebola (2)

(EpiPen has nothing on Good Old F.U.)

What is college for?

Is it for:

• Personal Financial Ebola: i.e. tuition at the University of Denver in 1967 $1500, today over $43,000 when inflation adjusted the tuition at DUh would be $10,300 (and over just 4 years $120,000  over inflation at the expense of student indenture and or parent Personal Financial Ebola

• Tuition increase on average from 1978-2012 of 1125% per Bloomberg
• Bait and Switch as 73% of courses are taught by teaching assistants
• Dishonest publication of average class size using average versus mean
• Teaching loads on average of the professors of less than 11 hours per week
• Teaching as monetary disincentive versus research
• Suppression of freedom of expression by the Political Correctness
1. Speech codes
2. Safety zones
3. Micro aggressions
4. Trigger Warnings (& without Roy Rogers’ horse  Trigger)

• Snowflake, Cupcake & Crybully enabling – “in loco (weed) progressives” for the perpetually aggrieved & offended
• Academic welfare (Tenure) for Scholar Barons on the Honor Dole
• Tenure in the name of Academic Freedom & Freedom of Expression when now there is wrongful termination laws for protection
• Tenure in the name of Freedom of Expression while practicing PC censorship and indoctrination

• Academic gibberish

           “At the heart of the current crisis (in higher education costs) is the higher educations complex’s:

• Addiction to “the law of more” (1)
• Administrative bloat
• Edifice bloat
• More spending
• More students
• Higher tuition.

 The corollary has been academia’s ‘law of less.” In return for all of this spending, academia has been

• Giving less in return
• Lower teaching loads
• A Swiss cheese curriculum
• Dumb-down standards
• Mediocre education masked by inflated grades

 The result is:

• Generation Debt
• Expensive degrees of dubious value”

Fail U, by Charles J. Sykes, p242-243

            So what is college for for?

Knowledge transference?

            Skill acquisition?

            Learning?

            Critical thinking?

            And then answer the reality of what has college become???

            An Accredited Fraud: Merely A Brand – like for detergent, underarm deodorant, or scratchy toilet paper – all hat no learning – lots of stinky unclean skid marks – playing students, parents and legislators as ‘marks.’

Rah, Rah, Sissy, Boom, Fraud On The Public, BAM

Good Old F.U.

Good Old F.U. Uppa U S Ah

Providing your children’s college educations. The hell with it.

Dave Barry

(1)   Bowen’s law “ revenues tend to drive costs higher in both public and private research universities” aka Parkinson’s Law of Parasitic Collegiate Costs  – institutions of higher education will always spend all the money they can possibly raise

(2)   Author is self educated despite graduating Magna cum Laude in Finance, Wall Street Journal Outstanding Senior Finance Student, 1971, and an MBA as well from the University of Denver (DU) where I was very schooled and minimally educated. And by all accounts it’s even worse now. & the new Chancellor wants billion dollar endowment. *** Note The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education gave DU “the speech code rating Red. A red light university has at least one policy that both clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech” DUhhhh.

EpiPen College Education Costs: The Personal Financial Ebola©

EpiPen College Education Costs: The Personal Financial Ebola©

            From 1978 thru 2012 alone, the cost of a college degree rose 1,125%  -  400% of the inflation rate during the period. (Cost of College Degree in Us Soars 12 Fold, Bloomberg, August 15, 2012)

            Question was the college degree worth 400% over inflation in terms of value – be it earnings, learning, skill acquisition? Was it worth 400% over inflation with the quality of the education devalued by reduced teaching loads, increased substitution of graduate students and assistant professors, grade inflation etc.? Or is the acquisition of the degree just a ‘Brand’ -all graduation hat no job (or employment as a Barista at Starbucks living at home with the parents?)

            By comparison, computer power, value & usefulness has risen 10x -50x+ fold (more bang for the buck) at reduced prices during the same period as the cost of the degree  grew 1125% for a devalued diluted product at the expense of  parents’ work free retirement, students effectively indentured to mounting debt with other societal impacts such as deferring traditional first time homeownership & the extension of adolescence & resentment having to live with one’s parents.

            Metaphorically, this ‘higher’ education product is reminiscent of the same size cookie box with 50% less cookies – even worse - “more snowflakes less filling” due to evaporation.

            Whereas the EpiPen price gauging extortion which escalated the price over 500% to $600 for two (when in Canada a two pack sells for $120 and a competitor in Europe, Jext, sells for $30-$60, where is the comparative outrage – at the shakedown by Good Old ‘F.U.’? (*) Instead, the focus is for bailout (the effect not the cause)  by these ‘snowflakes, cupcakes & PC crybullies’ demanding college ‘be free’ (which means someone else is being extorted err paying & forgetting ((due to lack of education)) the most expensive things in life are free) just reinforcing their ‘give me, buy me, take me’ entitlement self absorption. Instead, the structural problems of higher education mooching (theft by personal financial ebola) should be addressed: tenure, subsidized cheap loans incentivizing administrator incompetency, bloat, and lack of unaccountability  , accreditation (rigged accruditation based to process not results), the exemption from taxation of the huge collegiate endowments (which should be going into reduction of tuition) and the cup (buildings, ‘the brand’ & the bureaucracy) being more important than learning & skill acquisition.

            Really, the University of Denver in 1967 had a tuition of $1500. Today, tuition alone is $43,500. Per inflation during this period, the tuition would be $10,300. Thus, the $30,000 a years difference or $120,000 for 4 years (not including earnings on the saving during the period) is a heck of a down payment on a home, and a large chunk going to parents’ work free retirement

            Higher Education’s Personal Financial Ebola is the EpiPen geometrically extrapolated and yet  where is the outrage. If anything, comparatively, there isn’t ‘even a smidgeon’ of fury let alone calls for Congressional Investigation of even the tax exempt status of The Jesse James Edutariat Scholar Barron Shakedown Artists & Moochers: ‘summa cum personal financial ebola.’

Higher Ed EpiPen Personal Financial Ebola: you hold ‘em

 we’ll shtup ‘em for Good Old F. U.

* yes, in part – but the Epipin episode illustrates  – the FDA can make it extremely difficult to get in a generic (hiding behind efficacy and safety) not that there is a revolving door and influence to slow down, delay – keep out generics by the Drug Co. FDA Complex – also using distinctions without a difference. Not that the fact that Mylan’s CEO was formerly its lobbyist in Washington DC, and the same CEO is the daughter of Democrat Senator Joe Manchin has any influence - which I’m sure is just a coincidence.)        

The Confusing of ENOUGH, ‘Enoughness,’ & ‘Being Productive

The Confusing of ENOUGH, ‘Enoughness,’ & ‘Being Productive is Counter Productive

Not only as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof sang, ‘when you’re rich they really think you know’ but ‘when you’re rich – better yet, richer’  you are ‘special, better, better than, worthy – more worthy.’

            ENOUGH is a tool; Enoughness is a state. And MORE often than not becomes synonymous with ‘worthiness’ as  MORE  is typically measured by ‘net worth’ ergo ‘worthiness.’

Enoughness also becomes pair to productivity (MORE) – continuing to be able to  contribute i.e. ‘cut the mustard’ and being ‘up to snuff.’ Reinforcing the imperative to contribute is dread of being ‘indebted, obligated, taking’ which relegates one to ‘having AND being less’ in one’s self appraisal. (1) Therefore, I produce therefore I am (worthy, Enoughness). And so when one is no longer ‘productive’ – he or she recycles back to LACK – Lacking – not Enoughness in often both having AND being.

No one leaves this world with even half his desires fulfilled. If they have 100 they must have 200. If they have 200 they must have 400

Eccl. Rabba 1:32

            Now the psychobabbaltariat has tried to cash in on this question of a state of Enoughness – self worth – with their self esteem products (trophies for all, certificates of participation). The self esteem business (which the lack thereof was excused with victimhood) has been repackaged and rebranded into the happiness business. (Alas, that’s another story. A better ‘half life’ remedy: get an emissary from God: a dog).

When the day comes that I must account for my life, I will not be asked, “Why weren’t you Moses?” I was not equipped to be Moses. But I dread the question, “Why weren’t you Zusia?

—Reb Zusia of Anipoli

            A state of Enoughness is not one of ‘finished, completed’ given we are created incomplete. (1) Enoughness is, materially wanting what you have, and, spiritually, a commitment to continues to develop one’s chalek, discovering and realizing meaning IN on’e life – actualized or not -  inside out. And yes, while  there isn’t 100% completion in this life – maybe not even 50%, the spiritual standard/metric is not ‘productivity’ or cutting the mustard to ‘earn one’s keep’ but being able to answer as Reb Zusia was asked, ‘why weren’t  you, Reb……’ (besides answering NOT YET).

            And that is no half-assed question to ponder relative to one’s Enoughness

 Enough Already!

Answer To Riva Pomerantz's Biblical Justification Enough Is Never Enough

Answer To Riva Pomerantz’s Enough Is (Not) Enough

  respectfully in practice and theory I disagree with your underlying premise and assumptions in "Enough Is (Not) Enough' which confuses the task of completing our incompletions to justify Enough is Never Enough

For starters - Shaddai - per Rabbi Twerski et al - means G-d, G-d Almighty, G-d All Sufficient - ENOUGH... Of course there is Dai as in dai, dayenu  - 'it was enough' which is sung on Passover. And per Twerski et all there is no word for Hashem relative to More. And the argument of abundance as 'more' is incorrect  JEWbonics(c) (my term as where is there a Rabbinical will there is a halacha ((Jewish Law)) way)

More, Better, Now has a habit of becoming Less, Worse, Later. More, More, More what are we all morticians - e.e. cummings and the ideology of a cancer cell is more - Edward Abbey

As to dissatisfaction created by Hashem - first, the Latin for enough - is satis - so dissatisfaction is not enough. The question isn't we wouldn't go forward if we 'had enough' (though the only Enough in the end is God given 'Shaddai') - the question is enoughness - our enoughness - completing our incompletions -rather than more as the panacea .

More is a derivative from Acquisition. And Ms. Pomerantz what was the first story of more vs enough? Cain versus Abel. And what does Cain mean in Hebrew - acquisition. And man identified with his body as his sense of self - and therefore fearing extinction - has a strategy - acquisition - Cain - to delude and or palliate (though it takes higher and higher dosages). Recall Abel gave off the top the yearlings as God, Shaddai - was enough. And really the meeting finally of Esau and Jacob - whereby Jacob sought to payoff Esau - to which Esau said, 'I have plenty' but Jacob said 'I have all' - Enough Shaddai...

There are huge problems with Enough - that are avoided - which comes down to meaning IN one's life, developing one's chalek (one's portion), and like a candle using the parafin - the material for the light - the wick (the spiritual) to illuminate - as more has become acculturated and hard wired (just look at advertisements...

The pattern of using Enough for More as 'there is Never Enough': First, okay - what is enough? Ok I need a cushion just in case. Then the Sam Levinson, I finally got the means to the ends and they move the ends apart. Then there is the 'someday things' which peter out in 6 months - throwing pots in Vail till the spouse says 'for better for for worse but not for lunch' Then there is diversion - getting into adventuresome capital to make more to give (really or get a testimonial dinner), running in politics, trying to get to know the kids one didn't know for 18 years ...

But the challenge of Enough - of Shaddai -- then really isn't MORE (by the way all personal financial planning is about MORE which is why planners are MOREons) but meaning IN one's life - enough to live for enough to live on

So while we are in agreement in some of your commentary - as to fundamental premise and foundation - I couldn't disagree More - - Hashem didn't create more - because otherwise we would be fat, lazy etc - but rather finding meaning IN our lives, developing our chalek we are created ORIGINALLY INCOMPLETE (not original sin nor original dreck) and via finding meaning IN our lives - inside out (the real Tikkun Olam ) we continue to complete these incompletions and therefore inside out - procreate - contribute - earning our return.

The more, more, more anxiety is competitive, comparative - covetous - trying to fill holes in the soul by acquisition - rather than inside out continuing to complete our incompletions inside out to earn the return with enough to live on enough to live for.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH understood as above  

PS: my definition of ENOUGH (other than Shaddai) ; a process of healing personal financial anxiey, puttin' money in its place, to connect (Tzavta), elevate, align and transcend to one's significance/assignment - what one is meant to do - meant to be - 'enough' to live for; enough to live on (c)

ENOUGH vs COVETING

ENOUGH vs COVETING

Coveting is the only sin that isn’t fun

Charlie Munger

            Identification with the physical body as ‘our sense of self’ and fearing the body’s extinction – thus ‘our extinction’ – man’s primary delusional strategy – to overcome ‘his extinction’ – has been acquisition. (Cain, as in Cain & Abel, personified in the classic movie The Citizen Kane, means acquisition in Hebrew).

            LACK (immortality) motivates ACQUISITION from which MORE is a natural consequential derivative seeking to secure the IF ONLYs. (If I Only have this or that) to satisfy the LACK (which is futile and Never ENOUGH). From the IF ONLYs – typically an external sought - COVETING is a result.  

            Coveting implies having less and worse being less by comparison externally to others.

           

            Thus, The Lack-tose Intolerance No Fun heuristic sequential formula (L.A.M.I.C.):

LACK > ACQUISITION > MORE > IF ONLYs > COVETING

            In contrast to this acculturated hardwired L.A.M.I.C. heuristic is the ENOUGH mind-set derived spiritually from Hashem and resulting materially in the sense of ‘enough to live for; enough to live on.”

            Each of us, born incomplete with the purpose to continue to complete the incompletions of the soul (the soul curriculum) in the material, is given a spark of the divine and a chalek – a portion to develop inside out for:

• Creation: to manifest inside out  dovetailing with meaning IN one’s life
• Tzavta:  connection (Tzavta) to be earned/merited for the return to Hashem

I give you good leather. It’s up to you to make good shoes

Guirjieff

Given the process of materializing the spiritual (the spark of the divine) (*), the material, akin to the paraffin of the candle, is the leather (note: not Golden Calf skin). The paraffin is the material from which light of the wick (the spiritual) illuminates and thus manifesting the spark of the divine to make good shoes in our travel to return. How we as shoemakers cobble our leather determines whether one becomes ‘a shoe in’ or not.

(Note: coveting others’ Jimmy Choos™ & Allan Edmunds is the triumph of the paraffin ((the material))snuffing out the light ((the spiritual)) emanating from the wick – resulting in a  ‘wicked’  knock off with faux upper soles/souls).

Shaddai means ‘God, God Almighty, God All Sufficient, Enough’

Rabbi Mordecai Twerski to this writer in the early 1990’s

ENOUGH,  to have the potential of ‘enlightening,’ is about: healing personal financial anxiety, puttin’ money in its place, to elevate – transcend – align & connect (Tzavta? Dat?) to one’s significance/assignment what one is meant to do, meant to be with “enough to live on; enough to live for.”

And while ENOUGH is a tool for the development of one’s chalek and meaning IN one’s life in the process of creation and tzavta, some will argue – and rightfully, that the pursuit of  ENOUGH in the context of ‘when I have ENOUGH, then I’ll’ shows a lack of faith in Shaddai as l ‘ENOUGH’

And yes, while:

·         Abel gave the first yearlings – off the top – irrespective of profits (even meeting his ‘nut’ – his overhead) to Shaddai as a sacrifice, and

·         Yaakov offered a king’s reparation to Esau (who said ‘I have plenty’) stating ‘I have all’ (Shaddai – enough), and

·         ‘This land is mine you are but wayfarers’ (Leviticus) thus all is on divine lease

Man, fearing his physical demise as his extinction, thus seeks certainty, permanence, and continuity via acquisition – and therefore, isn’t at the level of Abel’s and Yaakov’s faith – with very very few exceptions.

You don’t get rid of shtick

Rabbi Henoch Dov

            Recognizing the above and the derivative habituated tendency toward MORE MORE MORE (making us  MOREons), yet the primacy of manifesting faith, creation & tzavta via chalek development & meaning IN one’s life inside out through deeds – ENOUGH – may become & provide the fence – the buffer  from MORE MORE MORE  towards faith in Shaddai as ‘THE’ ENOUGH.

            Of course, usual and typical, the fence may expand seeking additional territory (even territory of others – coveting) rationalize as ‘there is never enough’ – which is just making ENOUGH another variation of MORE. This chained link fence just displaces  for MORE. (Picture a squeezed balloon. The amount of air hasn’t changed it’s just been displaced in this case in the name of MORE  for ENOUGH which is Never ENOUGH. Suppression not only displaces but also further distorts – though the hot air remains the same.

By creating the fence/limitation of ENOUGH – though not getting rid of the shtick of MORE - there is a potential of slowing the revolutions and or reversing the speed of never ending hamster wheel of L.A.M.I.C. , its external comparisons and coveting.

MORE : an outside in comparative to other which typically never ENOUGH

ENOUGH an inside out comparison – for creation and tzavta – ‘enlightening’

Thus to contrast the heuristics:

ORIGINAL INCOMPLETION VS (LACK) >

 CHALEK + MEANING IN ONE’S LIFE VS (ACQUISITION) > 

 ENOUGH VS (MORE,  IF ONLYs & COVETING)

More Vs Enough vs Abundance (Reprise) Part III

"Who is rich, he who is satisfied with his lot" also translated as "Who is rich? The one who is appreciates what he has…"

(Talmud—Avot 4:1)

Daat – in Kabbalah meaning ‘connection’ also ‘knowledge’ which exchanges  between creation and development (in the former) or attaches between wisdom and understanding in the latter

Tzavta – connection. Tzavta is the Aramaic origin of 'mitzvah' (which did not mean 'good deed'). Mitzvah is a changing from the origin Tzavta to mean 'commandment' as in Bar Mitzvah - son of the commandment.

*******

Let us not confuse 'abundance' (in the biblical sense) with more. More rarely if at all relieves anxiety - there is always another risk to invent or elevate - to rationalize the need for More. More itself habituates and ironically with its free floating never ending only momentarily tamped down anxiety actually comforts (with familiar habituation) as an altered state not having to deal with 'why I am" - one is meant to be - meant to do. And ironically, more better now has a way of becoming, in time, less worse later' while the anxiety and habituation are the placeholders.

Also note more is reinforced by concept of 'haves and have nots' with the unstated underlying behavior of- have a little want some more (and not smores....).

More goes to 'I did it. Mine. 'Ownership' whereas enough owns UP to connecting (yes, Tzavta/daat?) maybe to 'what one is meant to be; meant to do.'

That doesn't mean enough solves (as Sowell said, 'there are no solutions only tradeoffs') - if anything 'enough' confronts - the question of meaning IN one's life (unless the individual circles back to more - being a MOREon.)

However, enough may give the opportunity as to 'enough to live for; enough to live on' - developing one's chalek (one's portion – or as Rush Limbaugh would state ‘one’s talents on loan from God’) - in continuing to complete one's incompletions.

Abundance, in contrast, goes to enough to being satisfied with one's lot, developing one's chalek, wanting what one has --- abundance is enough - not more.

Finally, if you the reader will excuse my Judaic reference & orientation, it is no coincidence - (God’s way of winking that there is no word for God connoting the word more in Hebrew as in the 100 plus names and or references. However, I believe the third name for God in Genesis if not mistaken is Shaddai - containing the root word – dai – meaning enough. And ‘in the beginning’ after each of  5 of the seven days - the reference at the end of each of those days was 'it was good' (as in it was good enough'. I don't recall in nomenclature the translation the phrase 'it was good more'.

One may take the connection (Tzavta) from enough (especially functioning as daat as well connection, attach, exchange) especially in development of character, chalek, and meaning IN one life -- abundance. It is questionable that more facilitates connection/daat mode other than  plaques, and recognized in the society columns for a contribution to CUPS (monuments, buildings) rather than Coffee (the actual cause – direct dollars in).

And so abundance as --More, better, now (more, for more's sake) has a habit of becoming  less, worse, later - AND that's the LESSon increasing personal financial anxiety, as I see it.

*******

Finally, the above said there is a question of distribution (being a distributor of the community – a Judaic concept). Distribution is OWNing UP and is extremely difficult given the preponderance of 'displacing bodily fluids down one's leg' by so called self serving charitable institutions ‘dissipating abundance.’ The self aggrandizing holier than thou charitable institution bureaucrats masquerading as ‘do gooders’ do not understand nor wish to understand social entrepreneurship, accountability, output - preferring its own perks, salaries, perpetuation CUPS giving good lunch and shiny plaques (sans Prevacid and or beta blockers) rather than accomplishing its mission (which would put the bureaucrats out of business). Thus March of Dimes is still taking quarters (excuse me ‘reinventing itself.’)

Being content with one’s portion (chalek)– developing your portion rather than coveting (which is externally comparative) - is Judaic.