[name-calling removed - KC]

I’ve allowed your comment to remain, just to show the character of the union’s supporters, but I’d say it’s a little different deleting a comment that says “u guys r ugly lol” than deleting one which says “how much did this event cost?”.

And for the record, I’m probably the most gorgeous man alive. But have some freaking respect. What sort of lowlife substitutes personal attacks for reasoned debate?

I just want to clarify. That paragraph was simply a suggestion of what the union could have put forward as a proposal of something to gain awareness for, to make the event worthwhile. My frustration is that so often our campus hosts these “campaigns”, and there’s a lot of complaining about how hard-done-by we are, and no suggestions for how to fix the problem. If University students can’t come up with ways to fix our own problems, society’s problems, who are we expecting to come up with the answers.

(I very carefully used the word “would” in the paragraph that you take issue with. Not “should” or “will be”. If it makes you feel better, you can continue to add in “would”s everywhere I seem to make an absolute statement.

“The problem runs deeper than tuition rates being too high. There would need to be a province-wide, probably country-wide change in the way we fund post-secondary education. We as a country *would* need to decide that it is in everyone’s best interests for the employed to pay higher taxes in order to fund the next generation’s education (our future doctors, caretakers, policy makers, etc.) rather than forcing students to fund their own way and enter the workplace in debt. We as a country *would* need to decide that we want to “pay-it-forward” instead of being so self-serving” – Asterisks surround words added in after the original publication.

I hope that helps. )

Policy makers are busy, and it’s really easy for them to block out long lists of complaints. It’s a lot harder to ignore someone who says “here’s the problem I’m having, and I’ve come up with these suggestions to right it. Are any of these doable? Let’s fix this.” Regardless of my stance on the “Drop Fees” campaign, or any other, I am challenging my campus to start talking about ways to fix the issues that are coming up. We are the people with the most motivation to fix them, so we are the ones who need to come up with the answers. No-one else will be motivated to do it for us.

Another of my pet peeves is today’s widespread notion that if someone is not succeeding in life, it is because they are not working hard enough. Because we like to hold on to all the things we “earn” (and for the most part we do work hard for them), we like to blame those who aren’t earning. However, part of the blame is on the structure of the system. (Agency vs. Structure) Unemployment rates aren’t as high as they are today because a record number of people are unwilling to get off the couch and work. That might be true for some people, but there just aren’t jobs for many people who are able and want to work. When society is able to find a better balance between holding individuals responsible for their place in life, and making adjustments to the structures that influence unemployment rates, tuition fees, financial aid for those in poverty, etc. we will all be better off.

If a higher tax rate were put in place to lessen the tuition burden on students, I’m not suggesting a flat rate applied equally to all people regardless of their earnings. I’m talking about people who are making more than enough to live a happy life (Princeton University did a study that found that happiness increased with a higher salary until $75,000, where it plateaus. People earning more than $75,000 assess their own lives as being better as their salary increases, but it has no measurable effect on their emotions in their day-to-day lives. A link to the full article can be found at the bottom of this page: http://wws.princeton.edu/news/Income_Happiness/) being taxed at a rate that is sufficient for helping others in society live comfortable lives. (Read shelter, not worrying about affording their next meal, feeling safe, being able to get the education or training they need to better give back to society. Not living an excessive, luxurious life off of taxpayers money.)

I would hope changes made would be reasonable, and well thought out. And while these changes may not obviously benefit everyone (those in a higher tax bracket will be displeased, I’m sure) I would hope they would make a huge difference to those who would not be able to afford to live in this world without those changes.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to live in a country that just doesn’t care about its people. All of them.

Oh, and on feeling “personally attacked”. When I posted the letter, I did not expect many people to see it, and I expected all who did to be opposed to it. I posted it only after telling myself that I was not going to feel personally attacked by the responses, no matter how personal they were, and that I would not try to hunt down every response from someone who had misunderstood my intention or didn’t like my viewpoint to try to sway their opinion. I just don’t have that kind of time, especially after how widespread it has become! I have been responding to your posts because you touch on many common ways of thinking that I believe need a little changing for society to improve, and have made a good platform for me to put out a few more of my viewpoints.

Thanks,

Amanda Davison

Thanks for your response. I’m sure you’re a bit taken back by the length and frustration in my reply to your letter. Which I will agree is a great letter. Also I want to apologize if you in any way felt personally attacked. Although I strongly disagree with the notion of your second paragraph, I am right there with you that, what the student union did was a complete and udder waste. Funny that it’s called a UNION, in my experience this is however pretty typical behavior for a Union type organization. I’m not at all familiar with how this group of people is formed but I’d assume there is some type of democratic process involved. Which means that you and your like minded peers I’d assume have the ability to choose who leads this type of group, and or are even able to join the leadership of this type of organization. Often times if max impact is to be reached joining the group you wish to change is the most effective approach. Just seeing what you wrote I think you’d be a great candidate for a strong leadership roll in such and organization.

I just want to clarify once again that my main concern with what you said in your letter is not the event but this specific way of thinking.

“The problem runs deeper than tuition rates being too high. There would need to be a province-wide, probably country-wide change in the way we fund post-secondary education. We as a country need to decide that it is in everyone’s best interests for the employed to pay higher taxes in order to fund the next generation’s education (our future doctors, caretakers, policy makers, etc.) rather than forcing students to fund their own way and enter the workplace in debt. We as a country need to decide that we want to “pay-it-forward” instead of being so self-serving”

I also want to bring to your attention as I’m sure you are now well aware that when you as a student of your school put forth a public statement such as your letter, you are acting as a representative of your peers. In my mind to call the people who as Kevin already pointed out fun 2/3 of your education, and I’d like to correct that number as nearly all of the 12 years you spend in Elementary and Secondary education are covered by tax payers regardless if they have kids or not “so self serving”. I as someone who made a calculated choice to not go to school beyond high school, seeing it as a good business decision, given the career path I chose take offence to that, especially as I’m currently looking to hire upwards of 15 of your peers to give them summer jobs in order to pay for their education. The notion that somehow I and other professional “employed” peers are being self-serving because you have to pay for a small portion of your investment in your future is quite frankly not right. Whats even more scary is that someone as intelligent, and clearly well spoken and influential as yourself and as Kevin has proven to be would promote this idea among your peers meanwhile I had to fire five people last year because their work ethics were so poor I couldn’t keep them from Texting and Facebooking during work hours. Now I ask you, if five years from now you are in mgmt. and your job includes such things as hiring, managing and firing people and this is what you deal with out of the students who are allegedly training to be the next generation of Dr. how inspired will you be to pay MORE taxes then you already do?

One final point and I’m sure you can agree with this, I’m sure you may have seen it among your peers if not you will.

I, wasn’t raised a spoiled kid. My parents didn’t buy me cars, or houses, or help me start a business. Not because they were mean and cruel or because they were greedy and self-serving. They did it because they wanted me to learn to appreciate, respect, cherish, and work hard for the things that I’ve earned over the years. I can’t tell you how many of my friends to this day ( at 30 years of age) are driving cars that their parents bought them, and they are literally so filthy and poorly taken care of that I quite honestly won’t even ride in them. The same goes for my college friends who in the past literally lived in a rat hole because mommy and daddy paid the rent but clearly never made any rules beyond get a degree. The problem is just like a student who doesn’t have to work for and pay for their education, They didn’t have a personal sense of pride, achievement, or feeling of value towards those things. Some of those guys have since bought their own cars and it’s funny to see how suddenly they are waxing them weekly, and don’t even want you to have a starbucks because heaven forbid it spilled on the leather seats. I’m sure you have friends who are out drinking, and partying, when they should be cracking a book, yea they’ll get good enough grades to get by, hopefully not though med school but who knows they, might take 5-6 years to get a B.A.

As someone who as been extremely successful over the last 15 1/2 years in the workforce, never been unemployed, and gotten every single job I’ve applied for I can tell you without a doubt I owe my success, to the choice my parents made to teach me the lessons of value, respect, and hard work. The bottom line is this, Society needs, scholars, and doctors, just as much as it needs laborers, and service people. There are literally millionaires found in ever single field of work on the planet. Education isn’t going to make or break a person driven and focused to make good life, and career choices, I doubt I need to list the billionaire University drop outs who circle the globe and span the range of industries, and have changed the world, but what makes every single one of us succeed or fail is our ability to make smart, and dumb choices, and one of the most important is to determine what your work ethic is going to look like.

I could get into a letter a mile long at this point and argue that society may even be a better place without so many people being educated to the degree that they are, I could argue that America has the illegal immigration problem that it does due to so many people being educated and not enough willing to work the lower paying jobs, I could connect the dots all the way to child labor in 3rd world countries and many other tragedies in humanity that are going on right now in this world.

My point is for you and your fellow students to see that society is doing you more good then bad by placing a burden and thus sense of responsibility on your shoulders by having to pay for and thus value your education. I’d say that if a student doesn’t see the value, and is not willing to take on the burden then they shouldn’t be there in the first place. It doesn’t matter what path you choose in life, the way a capitalist free society works is that investment, is a necessity for success. Don’t look at your tuition as a bill, or a burden, but an opportunity to invest in your future that billions of people around the world wish they could make. And realize that without us employed people being able to have enough money to make financial investments of our own you won’t have a job to look forward too upon completion of yours.

Tyler

Where do I even begin. I don’t have time to read your ridiculously long, ill-grammered response to this post but I find it incredibly offensive how condescending your reply was. What exactly do you think students are taking in school, finger painting? Many of us will work hard to become successful and will not be starting “a rung above the mail room”. I don’t know what career you hold that you seem to think puts you up on a pedestal, but let me remind you that its students who are the ones to continue into medicine or law. They are not all below you, like the tone of your response implies. If you’re going to critique the validity of someone’s complains, that’s fine, but you don’t need to be such an asshole about it. And seriously, find something better to do with your time than sitting in front of your computer, trolling a blog. Go for a run to blow off all your angst against a student issue you don’t seem to understand.