People already have jobs, and they do attempt to pay their own way through college. But guess what my man, that is near impossible thanks to stagnating real wages over the past 30 or so years and budget cutbacks resulting in extortionate tuition fees throughout the higher public-education system.

Also, taking on tens of thousands of debt does not constitute payment. Upon graduation, an entire generation of young people are now in virtual debt-slavery to their creditors (whether public or private). Even with a job paying above the national average, which isn’t very high, usurious debt payments can go on for years if not decades. Is that what you mean by “paying your own way?”

I assure you that by taking on such debt, you more than pay your own way. In fact, you pay your own way a few times over thanks to skyrocketing interest rates.

Fact of the matter is, the working class and youth are at a point now where an education truly is out of reach for them. But there is plenty of money out there to fund free higher public-education for all…one just has to know where to go and who take it from.

The State of California, like most states (even some local governments), is in bankruptcy due to a wide array of reasons. First off, as this is plain for all to see, is the enormous costs associated with America’s continued occupation of both Iraq and Afghanistan and other military bases maintained all across the world, draining billions out of the pockets of working-class taxpayers to ensure Chevron and Exxon-Mobile, not to mention J.P. Morgan-Stanley and Citigroup, can ultimately increase their profit margins and pay out millions in dividends to shareholders.

Second, are the, now “bankrupt,” neo-liberal policies associated with Globalization – the latest phase of capitalist Imperialism. For the past decade, in fact, the U.S. funded domestic tax cuts, which boosted demand for imports, by running ever-larger budget deficits paid for by selling bonds to exporting nations running dollar surpluses.

Now even though American public debt stands at roughly 36.4% of GDP, it presents a huge problem for both capitalists and their government. They will now have to sell even more Treasury bonds to make up for the budget shortfalls. Thus, the United States is dependent on exporting, dollar-surplus nations buying up more of these to not only stabilize or, even, decrease the debt but also to keep down rates of inflation.

This is, however, getting more and more difficult to do, seeing how, like most of the Western European powers, the American government, banks, and finance houses, are experiencing an historical solvency crisis. This has led to the consistent inabilities of the capitalists to appropriate value through stocks, shares, or credit.

The overall expansion, therefore, of the budget deficit in the manner mentioned above, i.e., to fuel domestic consumption and boost domestic growth, testifies to the decline in value production in the American domestic economy.

This in turn has left the capitalists and their government with few options. But there is one option in which they can all agree: the working class must be made to pay the costs stemming from the systemic contradictions lodged within the global capitalist system we refer to today as Globalization. Raising tuition costs, firing teachers and staff, and upping interest rates to reign in student debt even faster, are just a few examples.

This brings me to my final point on this topic. Lastly, there is plenty of wealth out there, except the people who parasitically appropriate it will hear nothing of taxation to fund public-education programs.

That is why we say, tax the rich (those making upwards of $250,000 or more)! If they’re the ones with the money, the money to provide an education for those struggles to get by, then we should use everything in our power to re-appropriate said funds to serve our, the working majorities’, interests.

If corporations and businesses don’t like the fact that they are taxed to provide free, higher education for all and they try to “flee,” then they should have their property and assets seized with no compensation to either owners or shareholders and have their operations put under direct workers’ control (control over the processes of hiring and firing, production, distribution, deciding on working conditions and the length of the workweek, etc, etc).

If capitalism is incapable of satisfying the demands inevitably arising from the calamities generated by itself, then let it perish.

“Realizability” or “unrealizability” is in the given instance a question of the relationship of forces, which can be decided only by the struggle…

In summation, your arguments against free, higher education for all along with your conclusions regarding the origin of the budgetary shortfalls and cuts are not only erroneous but colored by your obviously simplistic and narrow-minded perspective on the subject.

It wasn’t students, working people, or unionists who caused the crisis of capitalism, it was the system itself that caused it, and now it is these strata suffering the most and are some of the greatest victims of its repercussions. Why should they be the ones who pay for it?

Grow up, you junior-grade Tea-Bagger!

ECS

And it’s absolutely right that revo USA warns of that danger in the USA – in this world recession the working class could suffer major defeats if in each country slogans such as ‘US jobs for US workers’, ‘French jobs for French workers’ etc. take off.

Protectionism and nationalism are a real danger that need to be consistently fought by internationalists now more than ever

Also, we do have comrades in the U.K. who did, in fact, relay us information on the situation dealing with the wild cat strikes. So it wasn’t as if we were just making stuff up to fill space on our web-site.

You took the time to write an article and to stick it on the internet “utterly and unequivocally condeming” a major series of wild cat strikes on the far side of the world? Did you contact the workers concerned, or their strike committee, to ask for their side of the story? Or is such basic decency beyond self-professed “revolutionaries” these days?

The problem we in the US are faced with is an ignorant population which has been brainwashed to believe that whatever anyone richer than them says must be gospel (and don’t get me started on the gospels!).