Reason No. 752 to Support Sanders: Bernie wants to make people college-smart, for free.

[Octafish]

It’s Time to Make College Tuition Free and Debt Free

In a highly competitive global economy, we need the best-educated workforce in the world. It is insane and counter-productive to the best interests of our country and our future, that hundreds of thousands of bright young people cannot afford to go to college, and that millions of others leave school with a mountain of debt that burdens them for decades. That shortsighted path to the future must end.

As President, Bernie Sanders will fight to make sure that every American who studies hard in school can go to college regardless of how much money their parents make and without going deeply into debt.

HERE ARE THE SIX STEPS THAT BERNIE WILL TAKE AS PRESIDENT TO MAKE COLLEGE DEBT FREE:

1.) MAKE TUITION FREE AT PUBLIC COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES.

2.) STOP THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FROM MAKING A PROFIT ON STUDENT LOANS.

3.) SUBSTANTIALLY CUT STUDENT LOAN INTEREST RATES.

4.) ALLOW AMERICANS TO REFINANCE STUDENT LOANS AT TODAY’S LOW INTEREST RATES.

5.) ALLOW STUDENTS TO USE NEED-BASED FINANCIAL AID AND WORK STUDY PROGRAMS TO MAKE COLLEGE DEBT FREE.

6.) FULLY PAID FOR BY IMPOSING A TAX ON WALL STREET SPECULATORS.

Details: https://berniesanders.com/issues/its-time-to-make-college-tuition-free-and-debt-free/

[TeddyR]

1. Nothing is free

I'm a Bernie supporter and this plan isn't free and can't be paid for by taxing the rich.

[Octafish]

3. Maybe so. Doesn't mean we shouldn't try.

And that includes taxing the rich.

Wanna know where a lot of the money "lost" in the great Bankster Bailout has gone? Switzerland.

Check Out Who's Hiding $32 Trillion in Offshore Tax Haven Accounts

EXCERPT...

Some $32 trillion has been hidden in small island banking hubs which host a bevy of trust funds, shell corporations and other tax havens, the Tax Justice Network estimates.

SNIP...

The information is still being sifted through, even as it's being released to the public, but here's some of what's been found so far:

■ American Denise Rich, ex-wife of pardoned tax cheat Marc Rich, has been uncovered as the settlor and beneficiary of two large trusts based in the tiny Cook Islands. The ICIJ found that Denise Rich gave up her American citizenship in 2012. Her citizenship was convenient enough when President Clinton had the authority to pardon her ex-husband.

■ French President Francois Hollande, ardent socialist and tireless champion of the 75% marginal tax rate, appears in these documents, mostly by association. His campaign co-treasurer, Jean-Jacques Augier, has been forced to reveal the name of his Chinese business partner in a Caymans-based distribution company. Augier says he used his offshore company to make a large investment in China.

■ Australian actor Paul Hogan, of "Crocodile Dundee" fame, has lost about $35.3 million from an account that he used to offshore his "bonza" film royalties. His once-trusted tax adviser Philip Egglishaw ran off with Hogan's sizeable hidden offshore stash.

■ French banking scion Elie de Rothschild, of the famous banking family, has been named in the leaks. He was instrumental in setting up some 20 trusts and 10 holding companies in the Cook Islands, all extremely opaque in nature. His heirs have, not surprisingly, refused comment.

■ Brigitte Bardot's third ex-husband, Gunter Sachs, a millionaire industrialist, has been revealed as the owner of a huge, obscure wealth-masking machine: trust upon shell company upon holding company, almost ad infinitum, mostly based in the Cook Islands. The ICIJ has constructed an interactive map of Sachs' extensive offshore holdings and business networks. The network is fairly representative of the steps that many on this list have taken to hide their wealth away. You can marvel at its imponderable complexity here.

And these names are barely the tip of the iceberg. The shockwaves have already begun to spread through the corridors of wealth and power all over the world.

How Much is $32 Trillion?

It bears repeating: $32 trillion has been stashed away, off the books, by corporations and wealthy individuals.

CONTINUED...

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article40250.html

Offshore loot also represents money made from trafficking in drugs, guns and people. So...what can we do about it?

On My Mind

Tax Offshore Wealth Sitting In First World Banks

James S. Henry
07.01.10, 09:00 AM EDT
Forbes Magazine dated July 19, 2010

Let's tax offshore private wealth.

How can we get the world's wealthiest scoundrels--arms dealers, dictators, drug barons, tax evaders--to help us pay for the soaring costs of deficits, disaster relief, climate change and development? Simple: Levy a modest withholding tax on untaxed private offshore loot.

Many aboveground economies around the world are struggling, but the economic underground is booming. By my estimate, there is $15 trillion to $20 trillion in private wealth sitting offshore in bank accounts, brokerage accounts and hedge fund portfolios, completely untaxed.

SNIP...

This wealth is concentrated. Nearly half of it is owned by 91,000 people--[font color="green"]0.001% of the world's population[/font color]. Ninety-five percent is owned by the planet's wealthiest 10 million people.

SNIP...

Is it feasible? Yes. The majority of offshore wealth is managed by 50 banks. As of September 2009 these banks accounted for $10.8 trillion of offshore assets--72% of the industry's total. The busiest 10 of them manage 40%.

CONTINUED....

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0719/opinions-taxation-tax-havens-banking-on-my-mind.html

So yeah: Not only would that money pay for college, it would balance the budget, erase the debt and fix the nation and world's problems from hunger and homeless to energy and education; it would free humanity to do better things than make war all the time. Might even help pay for saving the planet. But, no. We can't go taxing the rich.

[Peace Patriot]

6. TeddyR, I think you're confusing pooling resources for the "Common Good" with "free."

Public college still won't be free, with free tuition, but it will become much more affordable AS IT USED TO BE, before Reagan. In California, we had NO TUITION at the U.of C., at Cal State U. and at Community Colleges. Students still had to pay for housing, food, books, clothing, equipment, transportation and other living costs, but the lack of a tuition fee eased this burden. Adding ever increasing amounts of tuition and other fees has made all of these PUBLIC institutions less affordable or unaffordable for many people. The tuition that students paid at private colleges was, the case of public colleges, paid by all taxpayers for "the Common Good." The goal was that NO qualified student would be denied a college education because of poverty.

Free tuition (lack of tuition costs) at public colleges was viewed much as a fire department is viewed, or public elementary and high schools, or free lending libraries, or police departments, or street cleaning, or the U.S. postal service (before escalating costs occurred), or government-run scientific studies and monitoring (for instance, for environmental protection, or food safety). We all pay taxes, according to our incomes (in a progressive tax system, which we had back then, pre-Reagan), to serve these common goods.

It is Reaganism that views college education in a hostile way--as a privilege for those who have the money, or a great burden of debt for the poor--and the reason is hostility to knowledge itself and to a well-educated citizenry. Uninformed people would support the rich getting richer, at their expense, by calling it "trickle down" economics or some such rot. People can be sold on all kinds of bad policies if they lack education and get bombarded by constant propaganda from the media.

And that's another thing Reagan did--he got rid of the "Fairness Doctrine," which was followed by Bill Clinton and his infamous "Telecommunications Act," which, together, ended news reporting as we knew it then--a highly competitive institution that actually did great investigative journalism, on a routine basis, and furthermore was required to provide "equal time" for opposing political views, if the broadcasters dared to express a political opinion. The airwaves were considered a vital PUBLIC resource, capable of great harm, if monopolized.

These two things are related: ending easy access to higher education; dumbing down the public with corporate propaganda on TV and radio.

I don't know why you think that a RETURN to tuition-free public colleges can't be paid for by a small tax on Wall Street's casino. It certainly can be. And why shouldn't it be? Do we provide welfare to Wall Street, to the tune of billions of dollars, when their casino goes bust, and give them a FREE ride afterwards? THEY are the ones getting something for nothing!

[ljm2002]

7. Well if you're a Bernie supporter...

...then you know that his plan is paid for by a tax on Wall Street speculation, and that the numbers add up, and that the same sort of scheme has been successfully implemented in other countries.

From the berniesanders.com site issues page on free college tuition:

https://berniesanders.com/issues/its-time-to-make-college-tuition-free-and-debt-free/

FULLY PAID FOR BY IMPOSING A TAX ON WALL STREET SPECULATORS.

The cost of this $75 billion a year plan is fully paid for by imposing a tax of a fraction of a percent on Wall Street speculators who nearly destroyed the economy seven years ago. More than 1,000 economists have endorsed a tax on Wall Street speculation and today some 40 countries throughout the world have imposed a similar tax including Britain, Germany, France, Switzerland, and China. If the taxpayers of this country could bailout Wall Street in 2008, we can make public colleges and universities tuition free and debt free throughout the country.

[whatchamacallit]

2. Idiot unicorn rancher

Who's going to clean toilets and flip burgers?

[Octafish]

4. That's what the Donald Trump Jr.s of the world are for.

Not everyone is dumb enough for GOP brain surgery school.



Donald Trump Jr grants radio interview to prominent white supremacist

[whatchamacallit]

5. Haha

yep