The hacker group Anonymous who is responsible for the Occupy Wall Street protests and other city occupations set to begin today has called for college students to walk out of their classrooms because of high student debt and rapidly rising tuition.
There are several lessons here. First, we can understand something about Anonymous and their flock: They have no understanding of market economics (human nature). Walking out of a classroom will not help their debt concern, only make it worse. Paying tuition and walking out of class is like buying a movie ticket and never walking in the theater. Due to the overrated value placed on attending college in addition with displaced workers that have decided to take this time to go back finish degrees, demand has soared. The supply of degrees has always remained the same. Thus, tuition goes up. However, since there is more fancy parchment on the street, a simple four year parchment is no longer in high demand as it once might have been. In addition, there are displaced workers with real world experience and knowledge of the world who have just printed themselves a parchment. Competition is now fierce.
Second, they do not understand the root cause of their surface problem. Their surface problem is the lack of jobs, competition to get those jobs, mounting debt, and inflation. Like all progressives, they cannot find fault within themselves or their sacred cows of universities or government. Most in my generation chose to believe that a parchment will lead to lasting employment that would someday make them wealthy. It does not. Hard work leads to wealth. Most of these kids do not understand that concept. Capitalism has allowed our society to advance to a place where the average human need not feel certain pressures. However, it is pressure that makes coal into a diamond. What we have here are graduates who are finally feeling the pressure of their decision to get a Master of Fine Arts in musical theater writing, with a minor in German. Any old degree will not do get you a $250,000 job. But they cannot blame their university for charging them so much and they cannot blame government for spending us into recession. They blame the banks because that is what in vogue. However, blaming the rich, who are most likely their parents, does not resolve the root cause: YOU HAVE NO PURPOSE. Free markets do not necessarily make us happier; they just ensure misery will come by our own hand and not by force.
An open letter to students considering a walkout:
Dear Sheeples,
If you want to send a real message, not just to colleges, but also to Wall Street, you drop out of college and never return. By walking out, you tell us that you believe that your degree will something and you do not know why, but you know you need it. By dropping out, you tell us that know that your degree is worthless and that you really have no idea what you want from life. The current path leads to your mothers couch anyway. Skip the lecture you will most likely Facebook through and just get the mixing bowl and Captain Crunch going, it will save you plenty in the long run.
There is a vast right-wing conspiracy to keep people fed and housed through meaningful work, perhaps even work on Wall Street. Thanks to the choice that capitalism allows you, you do not need to participate in that if you do not want to. Think for yourself, if you walk out the college keeps your tuition. Most of you are still early enough in the semester that you can recoup most of your loan money if you quit now. Do not protest in the streets and crap in a depends for six months just because a Guy Fawkes mask with a digital voice scrambler tells you should. You followed that logic once and it lead to the debt and insignificance you now suffer from. Will it be any different this time around? No.
Hearts & Handguns,
Daniel K. Thomas
P.S. You are all stupid. Get bent.
P.P.S. When you do not hit you kids, they grow up and leech off of you and then protest your place of work. Moral of the story? Beat your dang kids.
