The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
You have to wonder how people become so self-centred and have no problem what so ever in demeaning people they don't even know.
In particular, young females who spit out words such as loser, you can't get a job and it must be because you did an arts degree.
Hearing such talk from intelligent young women in a large city is concerning. These people didn't care about a decent society, they only cared about the fact that they didn't have to pay any more tax.
The topic? Free education. Why? Because it's election year here and the celebrity which drew the crowd of 1000 at the university was the prime minister.
These women expressed laughter at the words decent society, and expected to have a well-paid job. That way they would be able to pay off their student loan so there was no problem.
In contrast, two young medical students (male I must say) advised they each had $50,000 student loans after four years. They too however felt it (the loan) would be ok in the future as they would be earning enough to pay it back.
But one of them did express that yeah, perhaps people do not know how their student debt will affect the in the future.
And this is the point.
People, young and old, good, bad and ugly have to pay to get a university or polytechnic education. It can cost thousands, and does.
But surely we have been sold a dud. Employers have been told to hire people only with degrees. Therefore, people will want to go to university to make sure they can get a job, therefore young people will pay for it, and gosh, the government gets let off the hook and doesn't have to fund education as much.
Lots of students at university helps the unemployment rate appear down. The bonus is not as many people are on the dole.
Therefore the dole is scrapped for students or made harder to get, means-testing is brought in and bingo you've hit the jackpot. (The government that is).
What's worst, feminism has been taken over by capitalism. Women have been sold the line of going to work. Be a man.
All this has done has increased the number of people seeking work to keep wages low. People have to compete, and to compete and actually get a job, you have to have a decent education.
While more women in work means more tax paid to the government. And as women are the majority of the population, here lies the key to power and votes for any campaigning party.
So what does this all mean? Who cares? I do.
I resent the fact as a woman I have been sold a lie to get me working, that I have spent my entire life trying to get ahead because that is what I should be doing, and that I should be out there in the workforce.
Families are going on hold, and because of our user-pays system it has enfranchised an entire generation into debt. Forget about saving up to buy your first home, you will be renting, and delaying motherhood until you are in your late 30's or at 40.
It's the student debt that componds the problem!
Cast your eyes back 50 years, and women didn't always work. Women used to stay at home, and look after their children.
Women are the ones who reproduce the next species, not males but the fact remains no major parties in New Zealand have decent family policies. Everyone wants women in the workforce, and this is shown by child-care subsidies. Some women may want to work, some can't have children, but you can never get away from the fact that parents looking after their children from birth is healthy. It may not be possible for every parent, and women may want to work but we should have proper family policies to encourage families to stay at home if they want to. Policies should be so good that the majority do. This has happened in the past with left government coalition in New Zealand from 1999-2002. One key policy pushed by the Alliance was paid parental leave. It is now at 14 weeks however while it can be transferred to a partner, if this option isn't elected, men only get 2 weeks unpaid. The paid parental leave needs to be dramatically increased. In fact supporting parents to stay at home to take care of their children is one policy which would be a winner. Currently if you are not working you get less than paid parental leave. I heard a suggestion this week of giving the 20 hours free childcare to mothers directly who wish to stay at home.
Things need to desperately change. The self-centred, individualist approach is frightening. But you can't blame the young people. This generation have been sold out by New Zealand, sold into a slavery of debt for the next twenty years when the decision-makers creamed it in the 1970's and 1980's. People are not being told the facts.
In the 1970's and 1980's, there was no student debt, and university must have been "quality" as all of these baby-boomers are running the country now. So the fact you have to pay for "quality" is a pure PR line.
In fact it was Labour who brought in student fees in 1989, and National doubled the rate when it took power in 1990.
But on campus no one seems to know or care. And no major party is certainly telling the young students.
All they tell them is we will control fees, and give you interest-free loans, and an allowance.
Big deal. I don't wish a student debt on anyone. Education was free, and must be free in the future.
Because all this country is left with is a bunch of really ugly individualistic attitudes coming out of the mouths of young women.
That to me is the most scariest thing of all.