How many ______ could your debt buy? Student Debt in Perspective

This is an amazing visualization tool from The Young Invincibles.

click it

h/t to my dear friend Ingrid.

[Music] The Whole F**king Thing Is Coming Down

Lyrics:

Hedge funds, derivatives, tea pot dome
wall street gambling, using your home
congress isn't gonna do a single fucking thing
because their campaign contributions all come attached to strings
The Democratic Party is a failing institution
what we need now is a real revolution

The United States is a global empire
The Factory owner is a fucking vampire
sucking wealth from the poor
committing wage theft
who will work for you when we've starved to death?

CHORUS: And the whole fucking thing is coming down x4

I work full time in a factory
but that doesn't mean I can afford to eat
I've got student loans, but no degree
so I'm gonna die working at a machine
No health insurance, we're all temporary hires
so if we get sick we'll just hurry up and die

wages so low we can't afford the rent
so we have to rely on the government
but the rich man doesn't want to pay his taxes
so the social programs, they'll all get the axe
we don't complain, we don't bitch
the only thing we've got left to eat is the rich

CHORUS: and the whole fucking thing is coming down x4

Default: The Student Loan Documentary

In the film “Network” the protagonist, Howard Beale’s makes a to arms: “First you’ve got to get mad. You’ve got to say, ‘I’m a human being goddammit-- my life has value!’ I want you to get up now, I want all of you to get up out of your chairs, go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell, ‘I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!’”

If you’re like me, you’re a twenty something who has gone to college in the USA, and are currently trying to pay thousands of dollars of student loans, have been in forbearance on multiple occasions, and have paid in interest the value of some of your loans multiple times over. You probably have floating around in your subconscious an unfocused notion that you and everybody you graduated with, everyone you work with, is getting swindled.

Default: The Student Loan Documentary draws on the stories of individuals like you, expert testimony, and simply runs the raw numbers to bring that unfocused notion into crystal clarity.

This film takes the elephant in the room that has been invisible right in front of our faces, and highlights it with neon orange spraypaint. YES you are getting swindled! YES our higher educational system is broken. YES the USA is becoming a debtors prison. YES it really was easier to get a college degree and a good paying job when your parents were your age. What’s more YES there is something you can do about it!

Just as Howard Beal’s call to arms rallied a nation, Default: The Student Loan Documentary has the potential to be a flashpoint for an entire generation to organize around. It is my hope that this film it will spawn a generation-wide economic justice movement.

Check the trailer:

I have a homework assignment for you

Yup.

15 year old kid tells establishment to suck it

h/t No Cure For That



This 15 year old kid speaks at a Student Union meeting.

Inspiring!

In the UK, students prepare to Kill And Eat the Rich

Live Stream of the UK protests from Fox News (no audio)

Footage of the riots as they unfolded. Students say, "This is just the begining."

Live Newsticker from the Guardian.co.uk

Despite the raging fires, and the smashing of windows, the protesters at large have managed to keep fairly cool heads, as demonstrated by the crowds reaction when one student who made his way to the top of the building threw a fire extinguisher down onto riot police:


Now some may think that these protests are a bit extreme.


But I admire these student protesters in their restraint, as they have not yet Killed And Eaten the Rich.