Why are so many college students far-left liberals or socialists?

[TomCollins]

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Has anyone heard one of these "capitalism = bad" lectures from a professor? I looked through the first half of this thread and didn't see any examples. I suspect this whole anti-capitalism bent is an urban legend.

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I did. Actually, it was "ownership is bad".

[bobman0330]

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Has anyone heard one of these "capitalism = bad" lectures from a professor? I looked through the first half of this thread and didn't see any examples. I suspect this whole anti-capitalism bent is an urban legend.

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I never encountered anything like that.

[Vagos]

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Has anyone heard one of these "capitalism = bad" lectures from a professor? I looked through the first half of this thread and didn't see any examples. I suspect this whole anti-capitalism bent is an urban legend.

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Hah, if you really don't believe me, go to take classes at the University of Massachusetts. You will hear several such lectures. I just don't see how the notion of professors pushing their political agenda, and that political agenda being of an anti-capitalist world view, is so far-fetched or unbelievable to you.

[jogger08152]

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Exactly where should they purchase their lunch, in order to best avoid capitalism?

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Grow your own, LDO.

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Where?

[jogger08152]

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Exactly where should they purchase their lunch, in order to best avoid capitalism?

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Ummm, the school provides a meal plan and dining halls that are owned and operated by the school (not an outside company). The school is operated by the state.

Or, yea, he could grow his own.

And even if you throw out the food one, why does he need the XBox and iPod if he hates capitalism? Oh, right, you ignored those.

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I did ignore them. I was fixated on the food issue, which I see as pretty plainly less hypocritical than an ACist attending state-funded school. The XBox/iPod is more on par, hypocrisy-wise.

[jogger08152]

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Exactly where should they purchase their lunch, in order to best avoid capitalism?


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Where am I supposed to get educated in order best to avoid the government?

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So you're saying both complaints are non-hypocritical?

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One is, one isn't. But of course, this doesn't make any difference, and is just yet another attempt of yours to hijack and derail the conversation. Don't worry about the actual arguments, because you know you can't win them, just re-focus the conversation on (perceived) character defects of the people making the arguments.

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PVN -

You're objecting to my post, which was simply a response in kind to an ACist's previous post, but failing to object to his. You could transposed the target groups of our respective posts and lost nothing, content-wise.

If and when you elect to exhibit enough intellectual honesty to "voluntarily" apply this sort of criticism equally to identical posts, whether offered by political ally or not, whether criticizing inconsistant behavior of ACists or not, perhaps I'll start to maybe think about considering whether or not I should contemplate potentially someday taking you seriously, maybe.

But I won't hold my breath in the meantime. DUCY?

Best regards as always,
Jogger

[jogger08152]

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OP said he was annoyed by people bashing capitalism whilst benefiting from it. I asked if he was also annoyed by people bashing mixed economies whilst benefiting from them.

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I'm not because it's two different situations. Who's to say I "benefit" from the government running the education market? I paid a ridiculous amount in tuition on top of my tax dollars. Believe me, I'd be perfectly fine hanging onto my taxes and being left to handle my own education. That option is violently being taken away from me, whereas no one is stopping the college liberal from not buying iPods and Big Macs and XBox games.

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I'm not sure I understand your comments about college.

Clearly, you could have handled your own (post-secondary) education had you wished to. There are entirely private, non-state funded colleges and universities in the United States. In fact, assuming you genuinely believe that state-funded schools are morally reprehensible (and/or educationally vacuous), why ever would you attend a government-funded school that required you to pay a ridiculous amount of your own tuition? Please explain your reasoning.

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Wow man, I mean I know pvn already said it, twice and now I'll say it for the 2nd time. I guess maybe if we both repeat it to you 3 or 4 times each, you will get the picture and perhaps even address the point!

I CANNOT OPT OUT OF FUNDING PUBLIC SCHOOLS! You want to take my money and then crucify me when I want a very tiny amount of the thing I'm being forced to pay for. Come on.

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I think you're missing a couple of details.

The first is this: You said you paid a ton of money IN ADDITION TO your taxes. You didn't have to do that. There are private universities in the US, some of which don't cost a lot to attend. Yet you chose a government-sponsored school anyway. So did you attend it because you believed the government-sponsored school could provide you a better education? In other words, are you saying universities in the private sector are inferior to their public-sector counterparts, thus making it worthwhile to pay a premium to attend the latter? Or did you have some other motive in attending an expensive state-funded university?

The second is this: most Americans did/do not attend college. If you did choose to do so, you in effect accepted a subsidy from somebody. Yes, you paid for part of your education, but not all of it. Other people, some of whom did not attend, paid for the rest. How could you, in good conscience, attend a public school under such circumstances, knowing as you must have that you were a net beneficiary of the coercive system? Especially in light of the fact that you were going to have to pay a large sum of money out of pocket?

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My capitalism argument just plain isn't the same thing. College liberal students literally PURSUE capitalism and all it has to offer. They seek to obtain money so that they can trade it for iPods, XBOX games and Family Guy DVD's and then turn around and say "capitalism is evil, it's destroying our society."

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Wanting to obtain money has no special bearing on capitalism. The Soviet Union had money, as does the PRC and every other command economy in the world.

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Who, I ask you, is forcing them to make these choices?

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Your question makes no sense. All states use money, as noted above.

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You have dodged this question numerous times, so I'll just answer it for you. No one.

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Thanks for the "help". Please see above.

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How about this, if someday I decide to lobby Congress to force people to pay for my goods and services, THEN you can call me a hypocrite, ok?

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You've already done so just by attending university. You told congress to plan for one extra body each fiscal year you attended, and you accepted involuntary subsidies from others who were unable to attend. You can post 100x, for all I care, about how "you" paid for it. The ugly truth is that you paid for less than you took. You didn't take what you were entitled to. You took what you were entitled to AND what some other guy was entitled to.

[jogger08152]

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I'm not sure I understand your comments about college.

Clearly, you could have handled your own (post-secondary) education had you wished to. There are entirely private, non-state funded colleges and universities in the United States.

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Not entirely true. Even at these institutions there is some level of government research funding, etc.

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In fact, assuming you genuinely believe that state-funded schools are morally reprehensible (and/or educationally vacuous), why ever would you attend a government-funded school that required you to pay a ridiculous amount of your own tuition? Please explain your reasoning.

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Because one can't take the money that one pays towards the "state" funded option and apply it to a private option. There's no opt-out mechanism. Unlike Big Macs, which you don't have to pay for if you don't consume.

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Your comments have no bearing on the question. Here is the question again, mathematically:

Government school, which you've already paid for, costs X dollars AFTER taxes.

Private school, costs X-Y dollars AFTER you pay taxes for the government school you aren't attending.

Assuming both X and Y are positive integers, why would you attend the government school?

[Brainwalter]

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Private school, costs X-Y dollars AFTER you pay taxes for the government school you aren't attending.

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You're assuming private school costs less than its subsidized competitors? What private schools cost less than state schools?

Not that it validates your point even if you use X+Y.

[owsley]

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Capitalism consists in deriving income from OWNERSHIP instead of LABOR (i.e. sitting on your ass and reaping profits from someone else's sweat and blood).

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sweat blood, is that really so?