“The Shocking Truth About Student Debt” is a YouTube video. In the video Professor Daniel Lin declares that government subsidies i.e. student loans “push up tuitions by artificially increasing demand.” His solution is to end government subsidized student loans for young Americans because “it would mean fewer people going to college.”
Lin argues, “students are worried about rising tuition and more debt but while they look to government subsidies as a way to cope with these problems they should realize that the subsidies themselves are contributing to the problem. And if a policy is worsening the very problem they’re trying to fix it is time to change it.” Besides, he points out that we have too many college graduates for the number of jobs available anyway.
Obviously he’s right that our government subsidies have distorted demand and driven up college costs to unreasonable levels. However, he failed to mention the biggest distortion came from subsidizing foreign students. Since 1955, foreign student enrollments in our universities increased 20 fold! This is 3 to 4 times the rate of increase in American enrollments. In 2012, a record 764,495 foreign students arrived. China sent a whopping 194,029!
Lin should have argued that since we have way too many graduates for the number of jobs available, we should stop subsidizing foreign students. A drop in demand for student visas would cause our college costs to drop dramatically. In turn, we should have plenty of jobs for Americans graduating from college.
How did we get in this mess? While Americans were kept in the dark, there has been a stealth foreign takeover of many of our graduate school programs. For example, some electrical engineering graduate programs have over 90% foreign students!
Lin is a professor at American University, a “private liberal arts and research university.” Subsidies that go to foreign students are often research jobs funded by government grants. A query showed this school has 6,648 undergraduates and 5,593 graduate students. If almost half of its students are in graduate school, that raises the question of how many are foreign students?
For decades we have subsidized foreign students from China and India. And now, thanks to offshoring of U.S. jobs, many foreign students can pay full tuition. So, college administrators say foreign student tuition payments help fund financial aid for American students. But what if the tuition paid is less than the costs incurred from the “artificial” increase in demand? Furthermore, any financial advantage gained is more than offset when foreign students flood our job market. What good is it for Americans to get a college degree if they can’t get a job when they graduate? Let’s cut the right subsidies. Then the shocking college loan crisis will be solved!
Obama’s DREAM Act amnesty will devastate our economy. We are the most generous nation on earth with regard to legal immigration. We have given enough. They claim the 'children' in our country illegally (up to 30 years old!) aren't at fault and should not be punished for what their parents did wrong. We are not asking that they be punished. Nor are we asking that they reimburse us for the billions we paid for their public education, medical, and other expenses. However, Congress wants to reward them at our expense because their parents broke our immigration laws. The only reason they are here is because their parents broke our immigration laws. And, if they are 16 years old or older they also broke the law if they got fraudulent documents to drive, go to college, or work. It is cruel and abusive to ask Americans to give up their children's future and chance at the American Dream. Illegal aliens' parents put them in this awkward position--not US citizens.
We are in the midst of a rapidly accelerating economic crisis. Amnesty can take our teetering economy over the financial cliff. Unfortunately mainstream media has failed to keep Americans informed. Moreover, it is very disturbing how our media silences and belittles U.S. citizens who demand that our immigration laws be enforced. Despite these intimidation tactics, we must have the courage to stand up and speak the truth. As Harry Truman warned, “When even one American—who has done nothing wrong—is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth—then all Americans are in peril.”
Let’s take a look at the uncomfortable economic truth about amnesty. The truth is that our economy cannot support a flood of increased ‘legal’ and illegal immigration. There are not enough jobs for them. Our own high school and college graduates are having a tough time finding jobs. Millions of Americans are desperately looking for fulltime jobs. Moreover, many illegal aliens get welfare. Amnesty would increase welfare costs even more.
What do illegal aliens cost U.S. citizens yearly? Nobody really knows the total costs. Some estimate tax funded welfare for illegal aliens costs us $200 billion dollars a year. Others estimate the cost is $300 billion a year. These costs will go up, not down, if an amnesty is granted. To add insult to injury, illegal aliens also steal billions through tax fraud such as claiming child credits for children not living in our country.
To get the 1986 amnesty approved Congress promised it would end illegal immigration. However, if Congress were being honest, they would have ended all educational, medical and other benefits for illegal aliens after the 1986 amnesty. Instead Congress increased the amount of our money it channeled to benefit illegal aliens.