Thread by @17cShyteposter

More and more I find that following day-to-day politics is irrelevant to my understanding of what's true, even harmful to it, but watching the Dem debates has been instructive for just how out of touch with reality modern democracy has become

Simplest example is the College Question. Almost every Dem candidate agrees with student loan reform, or full forgiveness, and many propose free college for all

Not a single one asks why, if college is so beneficial, students are increasingly underwater in student loan debt

There are of course several angles to this, ranging from colleges are excused from $ responsibility to "education is an idiotic cargo cult that, like psychiatric medication, only meaningfully helps a small fraction of the people it's prescribed to, yet is seen as a cure-all"

But the underlying *assumption* of every single candidate, without exception, is that, despite the increasing failures of higher education to financially provide for the people who indebt themselves to it, is this:

"Well we just need more of it, and to make it free for all."

Here's an alternative question: What if college *can't* benefit every single human being? What if it's become a bubble?

Could that maybe be the reason that, financially, it's ACTING like a bubble? That costs more + more despite leading to worse outcomes for its participants?

Of course not a single Dem candidate (outside of, to his credit, Yang) would ever entertain this question. Likely not a single Republican candidate would entertain it either, just mumble something about bootstraps and small gov or whatever

But everything points to it being true.

There is a very real chance that our entire political stance on this issue is wrong. But there's not a single politician who will say as much.

Instead, they universally promote "solutions" that will only make the problem worse while wasting more + more resources on garbage.

To circle back:

All of their assumptions are based on things that are probably wholly false. All of their solutions are thus doomed to fail.

Every now and then, it is useful to listen to what they say, and remember how far our politics are from anything that will help any of us