What @louise_seamster does in our conversation about student loan debt is an exemplar of public intellectualism and sociology at work. She connects observations about how tired her students are to macro wealth inequality.
Why are so many traditional aged students in fairly selective traditional 4 year colleges so exhausted? They are taking course overloads to double major and add a certificate or three to an internship and business incubator and a job.
Why are they doing this opportunity hoarding? Because the pressure of indebtedness shifts their relationship to time and achievement. They are trying to individually turn their debt into “good” debt, or the kind that will pay off.
That experience of debt is not an individual experience. But the nature of debt is that it feels like it is only happening to you. Louise then pulls us out to the institutional context of the debt: how universities are funded and engage in their own opportunity hoarding.
She links this process of institutions using debt to other domains - for housing to governance - and takes us to a very big idea: how debt has replaced the responsibility of the state to us, its citizens. We now “earn” our citizenship through taking on debt.
She moves elegantly from experience to analysis, micro to macro and keeps the thread the entire time: student loan debt is a public problem. If we do this work really well, this is what it can look like.
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I am thrilled to talk to @louise_seamster for my guest host stint w/ the @ezraklein show. A lot happened as we tried to capture lightening in a bottle. But like all good sociology, context prevails. The Life-Altering Differences Between White & Black Debt nytimes.com/2021/11/02/opi…
The Biden Administration’s Build Back Better plan would increase PELL, limit 4profits’ access to the means-tested program, but drops things like free community college.
On debt forgiveness, the long rumored memo on whether the President can cancel debt without congressional approval has existed for months. A redacted version released just this week. newyorker.com/news/news-desk…
The latest installment touches on two things that are very important to me 1. your creative lifespan may be longer than that of a contractor but it isn’t infinite. Protect it. 2. If you go to court, you already lost. A court “win” is like winning an expired case of cheese.
Unless you’re part of some kind of class action suit, there is rarely such thing as a symbolic win in a civil case. And that’s the kind of case you are generally bringing in these matters.
It sucks so hard but number one is the baseline. Your future earnings are far more resilient than your past earnings. You know why? Your future earnings reflect what you learned from your past earnings. If given a choice, I always choose to protect my future earnings
I feel like bragging about my class discussion a bit. We were talking about how and why information communities ask questions and judge new information. Really relevant, right? #vax#etc
Well, I started class with a "current events" item, which I try to do almost every week. This week it was close to home (which is more true than I would like these days). UNC is cutting $5 million dollars from its library budget. wunc.org/education/2021…
I may know more than the typical professor about higher education funding and structural changes in higher ed finance. You will also want to look for a new book from @CharlieEatonPhD on financialization of higher ed press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/auth…
For those new to the Hallmark Christmas Movie Universe (HCMU, as it were), don’t fall for the early start. They dump all the duds early in the season with a few exceptions to tease you. It’s starts getting good next week.
One notable HCMU event:
Christmas in Harmony has to be the first time the romantic leads are two dark-skinned Black actors
You will also notice Luke James, which is way out of the HCMU comfort zone. You also get Loretta Devine and Michelle Williams. Totally out of HCMU league
Another HCMU tidbit: a generous schedule of all Black holiday content from @ReadInColour
I know I’m repeating myself, BUT I LOVE YOU BLACK NASHVILLE
This is my Uber driver. He wasn’t sure about where he was dropping me SO HE GOT OUT OF THE CAR & WALKED THE BLOCK UNTIL HE FOUND THE HOUSE. Once he found it, I released him with many thanks. “I will wait until you are inside”, he says. I’ve had marriages with less care.
This man has googled me, watched all the YouTube content, brought me pig feet and would, I believe, kill you over me.
While @phontigallo is talking about the rap game, this is true of any creative endeavor. If you do not have leverage, then any fiduciary is just there to explain the big words to you.
@phontigallo I get the question about needing an agent a lot. And I always ask, "well, do you need the publishing contract?" if you need it to, you know, keep your job then you will really don't have a ton of leverage. What we really need is a Zoom type package for contracts in his mid-tier
Also, hiring an entertainment lawyer and securing certain types of representation is a pact. You are promising to work enough to keep those folks fed. Is that consistent with your goals?