Super bump. What is happening in the US with this? I haven't really heard much about it apart from stuff here in Belfast:



and i guess this guy from my University lone wolfing it:



LOL how did i forget this. Not entirely related but meh. Pretty much this American tv network interviews this old Irish guy about the financial crisis in Ireland, Hilarity Ensues.


Also if you don't know, the Celtic Tiger was basically when Ireland was an economic powerhouse in the early 2000s but the property developers fucked it up and were greedy selling property which basically led to the existence of hundreds of ghost estates which were never finished.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_estate

In my degree in planning it's often called upon as an example as the failure of capitalism. Especially under marxist critique.

There's a few up North here but it's more prevalent down in the Republic.

The man is a God.

Honestly i expect this all to die out soon. They were never going to make a difference, you had to be a fool to think that. I do think that there attempts were admirable and i agree with them on a lot of points. I do think capitalism has a lot of flaws but i don't see it going anywhere soon. Especially such a small group of people.

Greg the White wrote:

It's the message that "you need college or else no matter what" that's causing a lot of trouble.

I can't agree more with this.

Everyone goes to University these days. I can't speak for the American system but here the education system is becoming fucking ridiculous.

Basically to go to University here you have to do your GCSEs and then A levels. Everyone does GCSEs you have to do them to basically function in society.

You do your A levels in 3-5 subjects (normally take 3) and there's the whole thing here that my parents would always joke to me about: "oh back in my day exams were hard".

The thing is that isn't far from the truth and it's getting worse even since i left school. Unless you don't answer half the fucking paper the pass rate (C or above) is extremely high - it's in the high 90s across the country.

The asking grades for Universities range from Ds up to A*s and a huge amount of pupils get As.

Now ask yourself is the system really functioning well if basically everyone is coming out with A grades? No there's a severe disproportionate.

Everyone is going to University and it's actually dragging University down. They are dumbing down exams and everyone is just drifting through. Like it really is to the extent that (me and my mother did geography at the same university - 30 years apart). The stuff she was taught in the 80s in secondary school is now taught in third year university and the stuff she was taught at university is no longer taught because it's "to hard".

Personally i found the work extremely underwhelming and not challenging at all at University. Basically what i am saying and i am hoping i have conveyed is that University isn't worth a fucking damn anymore because everyone goes.

Everyone goes to University and it's because they have dumbed down the system so everyone passes. University used to be for the highly intelligent and If i had my way they should make the exams harder and allow less admittance because all they are doing so far is driving up the asking grades and that isn't having any effect at all.

EDIT: On student loans: it's all changed again like i said back in the 80s when my mother went to University:

1. Less people went.
2. There was NO fees. You went to university because you were intelligent not because it's a mandatory part of life.