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Madam Toastmaster, fellow toastmasters and guests.
USA is a place where smart people can easily prosper and we exceed every other country in R&D activity and patent filings. Number of Nobel Laureates from USA proves that. There’re total 326 Laureates from USA. The closest country behind us is UK with 116. The Total count of next five countries (UK, Germany, France, Sweden, Russia) is 330.
But there's also an ugly side. The poor, down trodden, uninformed strata of our society. Today I want to talk about two socio-economic issues which touch all of us.
The creamy layer, smart people, they've been innovating, making difference in this country and all over the world. But we also have the poor, uninformed society. Kids from these neighborhoods are struggling in basic reading comprehension, math etc. Reasons are many.
If you'd observed, respect for intellectuals has been dwindling. More alarming is contempt for educated and deriding' em as elitists.
I can’t recall where I heard this or read this.
Of two top tier NCAA basketball teams, people hate Duke cause it's private university with smarty pants graduation rate 91%. But people idolize U Conn where graduation rate is so low, 31% as they're keeping it real. Daughter of a famous politician, the only reason she's on TV now is cause of her teenage pregnancy. Many youngsters now think that their ticket to fame is athletics, reality shows.
Reality shows...that’s the first issue which I want to talk.
I don't know how many realty shows or on air now, but few names are really baffling.
Extreme Couponing
I didn't knew I was pregnant
Tool academy
Jersey shore (this is like avatar of realty shows)
I don't know how many reality shows are there with the royalty, Kardashian sisters.
All they do on these shows is have sex out of wedlock, objectify women, quarrel with house mates. If this ends at reality TV, I'm fine. But reality stars started venturing into businesses to rob people of their money. Reality shows are just making money off the audience's ignorance.
Exhibit A
Kardashians pre-paid credit card ?
Why would anybody apply for this card, laden with hidden fees?
250 applied for this pre-paid credit card. It took a warning letter from CT attorney general to take that card off the market.
No body talks about these, and I want you to caution your neighbors, nieces, nephews, cousins who ever is vulnerable to these kind of things.
You might say, oh well all these people are poorly educated and they're susceptible for that kind of predatory lending.
Did I just say education, oh well reality shows got you covered on that also.
Carmen Mendez, 59, is a public school teacher in Brooklyn. She spent 35,000 to get real estate diploma from Trump University. Donald, he declared bankruptcy thrice, while running casinos. Who'll become bankrupt while running a casino? And she paid 35K to get a diploma from his school, hard to sympathize with her. And she’s a school teacher. She’s an easy target for our jokes. But she’s un-informed, and she got fooled by Trump name on big towers in Manhattan.
This brings to my second issue today, for profit colleges!
USA and most of Western civilization followed this noble motive. Education should never be profit based. But things are changing and recession which started in ‘07 benefited' em immensely. You’ve all these suddenly unemployed people trying to comeback into job market.
You've public schools like "Univ of South Carolina" my alma-matter. Or a non-profit private universities like Harvard or Stanford. Now we've Private educational Institutions with profit motive, like
University of Phoenix
DeVry University
Art institute
Are they helping? Answer is harsh, no they’re not.
Let’s look at six year graduation rate of top 3 colleges in enrollment.
University of Phoenix 9%
DeVry Institute 31%
Art institute 41%
These colleges follow a specific pattern, they prey on minorities and low income groups. It’s just another form of sub prime lending, just the bait changed. Then it was a home, now it’s a college degree. People who join these colleges are getting loaded with student loan debts up to 60,000. Who’s lending this money, Federal government in the form of federal loans, Pell grants etc. So it’s you paying for this.
People who’re fortunate enough to graduate, these diplomas aren’t helping’em any way in this job market. All they’re getting is student loan debt.
Student loan debt is different from regular debt. Student loan debt is not dischargeable in bankruptcy, so it can follow a student for a lifetime. Defaulters can have their wages garnished, their income tax refunds intercepted, and their Social Security payments withheld.*
I'm not saying "don't spend on college" Pay for it, but don't get into 30K debt for a diploma in Asian studies.
So Federal govt wanted to put a leash on these colleges, but due to lobbying and pressure from few law-makers administration watered down the regulation and gave' em 4 more years...so how many people has to get bankrupt. There's a bright side, Apollo group stock went 10% up.
Point I want to make is, Ignorance is not bliss.
Please inform your loved ones and neighbors about the disadvantages of these schools. You’ve to protect your own interests and your family’s interests. And educate or inform people whom you care about.
Government might not help you. Problem with free markets is, there’s always a sleazy guy trying to exploit ignorant and poor people. Regulators are always in catch-up mode.
People like Railroad baron Vanderbilt in 19th century, Industrialist Henry ford in 20th Century and Bill gates, Steve jobs in our age, they all became rich and made people around them rich by working hard, adding value to life and by contributing to society. It's not just the industrialists, even your Hollywood icons...they all worked hard to be there.
Please convey it to the youngsters who just graduated or about to graduate.
Thank you.
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