DRACULA IN THE OPERATING ROOM

Dracula in the operating room.

Dracula is the United States government. The operating room is the college student loan program.

A college education today is a costly thing. It has been for the last 30 years. Becoming increasingly more expensive each year. There was a time a young person eager for a college degree could work his/her way through school. A decent summer job and two to four part time jobs while in school. One or two small scholarships along the way helped.

I know. I and many like me did it. Of course back in 1953-57 when I was in college, the cost of room, board and tuition was $2,400 a year. A lot of money at the time. However, no where near the dollars involved today. A gallon of gasoline was 17 cents and a loaf of bread 10 cents.

The cost today of a higher education degree has gone through the roof. The cost of one year at a private college is $50,000 to $60,000 for room, board and tuition. The cost at a public university between $20,000 and $35,000 for room, board and tuition.

Public institutions of higher learning are obviously cheaper. Eighty percent of all American students attend publicly funded universities and colleges. The reason being that such schools are cheaper to attend.

As States have become squeezed economically, public assistance budgets have been cut dramatically. State schools receive less and less assistance each year. Public institutions have had no choice but to raise room, board and tuition charges. Administrators compelled to order increases across the board.

The federal government came to the rescue. A college student loan program. Every one could then afford to go to college. Borrow now and pay later.

Later became a problem. An unforeseeable one initially. A well known one today. Young people cannot afford to pay back the loans. The job market is down. Salaries for those college grads working much lower than anticipated. The where with all to pay non-existent.

The college student loan debt today is $1.1 trillion. Impressive. Any thing with a trillion dollars at the end is. Note that the U.S. debt to China is $1.3 trillion. The comparison made to show how extremely large the student loan debt has become. I read some where that it is even larger than all the credit card debt in the United States.

It has been recently discovered that the government gets a piece of the pay back dollars. A fee of some kind. There is a new statute in the works to help the student debtors. However, it will not eliminate the government receiving a piece of the action.

The government profited in 2012 $44 billion. In 2013, a bit of a slide. Only $41.3 billion. 

Two corporations world wide made more profit in recent years. In 2012, Exxon Mobile profited $44.9 billion and Apple $41.7 billion.

If the government's profit in either of the two years mentioned were to be paid out in Pell grants, maximum level payments of $5,645 would be paid to 7.3 million college students.

The government denies a profit is involved. It claims the accounting makes it appear to be a profit. I do not buy it, nor do many others. The $40 billion plus profit goes from a federal college loan fund account into the general fund. From the general fund, it is used to pay all sort of government bills. The government is running a for profit business which subsidizes other government activities.

It gets worse.

Federal legislation prevents a college student loan debt from being discharged in bankruptcy. A tough situation for the college graduate who cannot find a decent paying job in today's society.

The government hires bill collectors. The government is under the impression that 76 to 84 cents will be recovered by pursuing those who have not or are not any longer paying. Good luck! The government will be lucky to recover 25 cents on the dollar.

The government has retained collection firms to pursue college loan debtors. They are referred to as collection specialists. One is NCO Group Inc. NCO is owned by JP Morgan. The same JP Morgan who helped give us the 2008 mortgage debacle and recession for several years.

The college student loan program is another example of how government takes care of its people when the weight of the economy causes them to  bend over. 

YOU SHOULD KNOW.....

Average/mean corporate CEO salaries hit $10 million for the first time last year. $10.5 was the actual figure. The highest ever. Two CEO's made more than $60 million.

CEO salaries have risen by more than 50 percent since 2009. The rise last year alone was 8.8 percent. Bank CEO's were up 22 percent. Workers, 1.3 percent.

While this has been happening, CEO's in general have opposed raising the minimum wage.

Does not make sense to me.

General Motors finally admitted to knowingly manufacturing cars with an ignition switch defect for 10 years. The GM hierarchy appeared before Congress and promised to sin no more. The Department of Transportation fined General Motors $35 million, the maximum permitted under the law.

Thirteen people were killed over the 10 year period and many many more injured. 2.19 million cars were involved. General Motors promised a recall to correct the defect. That was three months ago.

Only 47,000 cars have been fixed so far. 47,000 out of 2.19 million. Why the delay? Why are these dangerous cars going unfixed? 

General Motors says their are two reasons. The first is that they do not make the ignition switch. It is made by a supplier named Delphi. Delphi can only get them so many new ignition switches at a time. The other reason is that people who have received the recall notices, are slow in bringing their cars in to be repaired.

Both excuses suck.

He who pays the fiddler calls the tune. GM has to be a major account for Delphi. GM should insist that Delphi work three shifts, overtime, whatever, to get the switches out. You want my business, you dance to my tune. Additionally, consider the extra money Delphi would make over a relatively short time.

I cannot believe that only a small number of the car owners have thus far responded to the recall notice. Especially in view of the publicity this particular defect has received.

GM is passing the buck in both instances. Poor excuses. Over 2 million cars with the defective ignition switch are still on the roads. How many more people have to die or be injured for GM to move its ass?

Sears is in trouble. Sears has been for a number of years. Things are getting worse by the day. Sears lost $402 million in its last quarter. Last year, its loss for the whole year totaled $279 million.

Why is Sears going down the tubes?

The real reason is that the buying power of the American public is consistently being reduced. While the 1 percent spend money every which way, they do not shop at Sears. The 99 percent do. The dollars available to them are less and less each day. Ergo, major retailers who supply the 99 percent are in trouble. Many on the verge of going under.

Military suicides are on the rise. We hear about the suicides, but rarely the numbers. The numbers recently disclosed are shocking!

Since January 1 of this year, 1,982 active military persons committed suicide. Additionally, the VA estimates that veterans are committing suicide at the rate of 22 a day. For shame! 

Equally shocking, the waiting lists at VA hospitals. What began as one isolated incident in Phoenix has turned into untold numbers of hospitals involved. VA officials were cooking the books to hide the long waits veterans were experiencing.

A solution has been put into effect. No vet will have to wait more than 30 days to be seen at a VA facility. Crazy! Who wants to wait 30 days when they are sick to see a doctor? The solution does not make sense.

Further, I am sick of hearing our congressmen always saying we must and we are taking care of our veterans. Bullshit! They talk the talk, but do not walk the walk.

College loans have been in the news. This year for the first time, the dollar amount of the loans involved exceeds $1 trillion. Sounds like a national debt number!

What we rarely hear is that the government benefits from the loan program. Last year to the tune of $41.3 billion. Profit. There are only two other entities that made more profit wise last year. Exxon Mobil and Apple.

The government should not profit from the college loan program. Not when students graduate owing $50 thousand to $150 thousand. Now adults, they cannot afford to be part of the American dream. Assuming they can get jobs, how can they buy a home and pay a mortgage if they are paying off that kind of debt. The government should waive the profit. It would benefit students significantly in many ways. An example involves Pell Grants. $41.3 billion would provide maximum-level Pell Grants of $5,645 to 7.3 million college students.

Edward Snowden. He blew NSA secrets. He now lives safely in Russia. It came out recently in an NBC interview that he was also trained as a spy. Snowden claims he served as an undercover and overseas agent for the CIA and NSA.

My question: Why didn't the government tell us of Snowden's spy activities when this scandal broke more than a year ago? He was represented to the world as a computer geek. Nothing more. Now, the warts are surfacing.

Food for thought.