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

[valenzuela]

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sitting on your ass and reaping profits from someone else's sweat and blood

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this sounds more like socialism to me.

[Case Closed]

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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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In high school I had a teacher who played a bunch of those episodes of that show Michael Moore had for a while. Also one of my professors is a admitted socialist, but he never really says capitalism is bad or that socialism is the preferred system.

[Max Raker]

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dvault,
I'll try to explain it another way.

People who are obedient enough to be very successful in school are more likely to be socialist (and I'm not going to get into a debate about the definition of socialist. It should be obvious what the OP was talking about, even if he used the wrong terminology). They are also more likely to be attracted to, and qualified for, the profession of teaching.

Success in school does not neccessarily mean that you have no creativity. The successful students who also have those skills/talents are more attracted to jobs like software development, I-banking etc. Professors tend to be the ones who don't have the other skills to do those jobs well. Then they teach the students their socialist ideas, and I believe those socialist ideas are mainly a product of their obedient personalities.

The students in the professor's classes are more open to believing these socialist ideas, because the fact that they made it into a prestigious college, means they are at least somewhat obedient.

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I don't see why a person who does well in school is likely to be a socalist. The number one reason I see that seperates good and bad students is the desire for skills which will lead to wealth which would seem to be very capatalist.

People who tend to become professors also tend to be the least obedient. Do you actually know any profs? I mean somebody who you know as a friend who happens to be a prof? Many of them pick that path because of a lack of obedience which would make it tough for them to succeed in a 9 to 5 button down shirt world.(They also are usually very very bright and want to spend their lives working on very difficult problems which almost always require great amounts of creativity.)

I think you may have just had a bad time in college. Almost every prof I had was brilliant to the point where they could have done almost anything they wanted.

[ianlippert]

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I never encountered anything like that.


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Are you in math or engineering? Prolly wont hear them there.

[ianlippert]

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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?

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Thank god for the division of labour!

[ianlippert]

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which I see as pretty plainly less hypocritical than an ACist attending state-funded school.

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I'm an athiest. If I thought telling people that I was a catholic would get me ahead in society I would do it. If telling people im a socialist gets me government grants I would do it. I'm not going to sacrifice my economic well being because people are ignorant.

[ianlippert]

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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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'Hey I'm providing you a product voluntarily' 'I'm against voluntarism and am going to get it from another voluntary souce' = hypocritical

'Hey I'm forcing you to buy my product' 'well I guess im screwed and have to accept your product if I want to lead a better life' = realistic

[ianlippert]

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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.

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Do I get my tax money back? If not, its not voluntary.

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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.

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So why do ppl attend college? To get better jobs. So those that dont attend college are subsidizing those that do? Great arguement. Why should people that dont want to go to college (aka not support college through the market) support those that do? Why should people that are intellectually capable of succeding in university do so at the expense of those that arent?

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Wanting to obtain money has no special bearing on capitalism.

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Spending money on consumer goods is what free market capitalism is all about. You know why? Because consumer goods are voluntary by definition. Voluntarism, aka free trade, is what free market capitalism is all about.

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You've already done so just by attending university.

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wrong! see above! majority rule for the win! it must me moral!

[ianlippert]

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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?


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Mabey cause I'm damn rich and want a better education than the public schools can provide. We know as a fact that private schools are better because people are willing to pay twice for their services. Seriously, you shouldnt even argue this anymore.

[ianlippert]

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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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Free Market Capitalism is defined as individuals trading on the free and open market. If the only thing you have to trade is your labour, well you get compensated precisely what your labour is worth. I doubt you are sweating and bleeding these days.