Olympics or 150,000 debt free graduates

[ccscott49]

Re: never heard of JKG, just tell it as I see it..

The private sector inherited a completely run down rail system, it will take years and a lot of investment to get it right. If ever!

 

[Martin_Billings]

We won't get either.

The first because of our climate, facilities, infrastructure. With all due respect to Blighty just ask yourself: London or LA? Birmingham or Barcelona?

The second because, since Friedmanist supply side economics, the route to electoral failure has been to offer high tax-high spend policies. Hence, at the last election the economic policies of both major parties were characterised by (relatively) low tax-low spend.

So if you want your sons and daughters to go to university (I have three) you have to pay for it. There is no public money for it, nor for the facilitiies and infrastructure we would need for a credible Olympic bid (even if we had the climate).

Continues bitter rant indefinitely.......

 

[kds]

Isn't part of the problem the political dogma that everyone should go to university ?
One result of this is to devalue non-university education and another is that the great increase in uni students just costs the Country far too much.
Not everyone is academic - thank God - and it is time we stopped pretending that we believe they are. We could afford to pay for the truly academic and still have the Olympics. How many more "Leisure Pursuit" or "Media Studies" graduates do we need ?
Those whose talents lie in other directions (have you tried to get a plumber recently - and he earns more than me ?) should be appreciated for their skills and trained to use them.
I know this is just a pet axe - but don't the top Oxbridge graduates get into top companies on the Stock Market - and just how successful have they been in recent years ?
Ken

Check out some pictures of my boat at;
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.canongrange.co.uk/boat>http://www.canongrange.co.uk/boat</A>

 

[claymore]

Blame the Americans

I've probably got this all wrong but wasn't it Reagan who introduced the Glitz into the Olympics with all those pianists at the opening ceremony? Seems that host nations have got into a money spending competition that has hiked the cost of staging the games to astro levels.


regards
Claymore

 

[Martin_Billings]

Re: Blame the Americans

IMHO the problem is that up till Montreal 76 the Olympics were run as a political promo exercise. That is, they cost a lot (in Montreal's case nearly bankrupted the city) but were seen by the countries holding them as a necessary device to show that they were world players. LA 84 changed everything as a result of an unprecedented level of sponsorship and some good old hollywood razzamatazz. Ever since it has been perceived that the Olympics were both a mark of importance in the world and a way to get new sports facilities paid for out of the surplus. This worked in Atlanta and probably to a lesser extent in the other post 84 games. Athens might find it difficult to come out ahead. After that someone's going to catch a cold.

 

[jimi]

As far as I can see the main problem with education is that it is no longer viewed as an investment process whereby the total future benefits to the spender is balanced against the current cost to the spender(taxpayer).
In the case of education then surely the investment in engineers,scientists,teachers, doctors etc gives a much wider benefit to the community as a whole rather than merely improving the earning potential of these individuals gaining qualifications? I would argue that in some cases their earning potential is in fact less.
However I totally agree that tertiary education for all is nonsense, I've never seen the merit in degrees in bricklaying,wallpapering,nursing,nursery school teaching and people that want to do these things should go off and get a good old fashioned apprenticeship with day release if appropriate.

 

[Forbsie]

I absolutely agree with you. I would however add that if we introduced carpentry, car mechanics, painting and decorating, etc into the secondary education system, where appropriate, we may find that the kids in the lower reaches of educational achievement may achieve an increase in their own self-worth at the same time as encouraging them to take more of an interest in the rest of the curriculum. It is not difficult to co-relate these skills with subjects like geometry, chemistry and physics. If kids at this end of the spectrum are repeatedly told that they are stupid and useless at school, survival instinct will kick in until they find that they are good at one thing - Stealing stuff off your boat!

I believe that manufacturing provides some, erstwhile unseen, benefits to society particularly when involving a finished product that cannot be gained working in a Call Centre or other 'service-oriented' job that we have come to know nowadays.

Rant, Rant, Rant.

Right, back to looking for a job.

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.arweb.co.uk/argallery/forbsie?&page=1>My Project</A>

 

[claymore]

That is happening through widening participation programmes - Colleges are offering programmes to the 14 - 16 group of students, often dissaffected and are getting some positive results - these courses are offering vocational skills and they seem a good attempt at engaging young people and offering them an alternative to mainstream provision and /or truancy

regards
Claymore