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We really need a way to protect ourselves against what the rich are doing to the rest of us.
by praptak 5y ago
We really need a way to protect ourselves against what the rich are doing to the rest of us.
- TigeriusKirk 5y agoI blame the administration at least as much as the donor in this case. It's their responsibility to say no, and they failed in that job.
- ctdonath 5y agoYou have a way: freedom. You're free to not associate. You can choose alternatives to UCSB, Apple, Facebook, lousy jobs, high tuition, etc. Sure you won't get the benefits those offer, but nobody is compelling participation. That's why Americans (at least some of them) are so fiercely adamant about their rights, to a degree that puzzles many: the right to choose differently, however foolish it may seem to others, is the right to choose and is the right "to protect ourselves against what the rich are doing to the rest of us".
- ripe 5y agoSorry, that's like saying that the people of Flint, MI were free to move somewhere else when their water was polluted.[1] No, the university is responsible for providing safe housing for the students, and if they accepted this lunatic's plan, they would be breaching that trust. When parents and students look for colleges, they assume a certain level of due diligence has been done for them, and they will be leaving their teenager in a minimally safe environment. You can't let people off the hook because of some right-wing idea of "freedom". [1] In April 2014, during a budget crisis, Flint changed its water source from treated Detroit Water and Sewerage Department water (sourced from Lake Huron and the Detroit River) to the Flint River. Residents complained about the taste, smell, and appearance of the water. Officials failed to apply corrosion inhibitors to the water, which resulted in lead from aging pipes leaching into the water supply, exposing around 100,000 residents to elevated lead levels.
- dantheman 5y agoYep, incompetent bureaucrats instead of raising prices for water decided to try and save a buck without understanding anything.
- ctdonath 5y agoThey are. The alternative to “move” is toxic water. My area is developing its own problems, so I’m looking to get out. I certainly wouldn’t send my kids to live in an oppressive uberprison dorm.
- mschuster91 5y agoThe easiest way would be to do it like in most of Europe and fund universities properly with tax money so that they do not need to waste half their professors' time chasing grants and depend on wealthy donors to fund basic operations.
- dec0dedab0de 5y agoIn this case it's simple, just don't take the money.
- gbronner 5y agoDo you have any idea how criminally expensive housing is in SB??? This will provide low-cost accommodations nicer than any Ivy league dorm I've ever seen and enable 4500 people/year (or roughly 15% of Goleta CA) to live on campus. Good luck building that much housing off campus with CA Nimbys...
- tclancy 5y agoIt would require a system other than one designed around how the market clears.
- JackFr 5y agoWell, in this case (and frankly many others) simply saying "No" would be the best start.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- bob1029 5y agoThis is really difficult when a large part of the population is either apathetic or actively sympathetic to the policies of these insane people.
- api 5y agoThe solution to this is for someone else to offer a more compelling vision of the future that is also practical and achievable. Take Elon Musk for example. His vision of the future is more compelling than anything I hear any politician of any political party in the USA (or most other nations) putting forward. I find the standard issue right-wing vision of the future repugnant and the standard issue left-wing vision completely impractical and divorced from reality. (Aspects of it are repugnant too, but much less so than the right.) What other non-billionaire visions of the future does humanity have? Xi Jinping's smile-or-die panopticon? Putin's theocratic mafia state? The billionaires are leading humanity by default because they're on balance the only class of people offering practical workable visions of the future that are at least incrementally better than the present.
- phone8675309 5y agoIf he wasn't sucking at the US Government's teat for funding for SpaceX, tax breaks for Tesla, and evading income taxes then I might admire the guy, but as it is, he's the same corporate grifter in a new set of clothes.
- ceejayoz 5y agoI mean, compare SpaceX against, say, SLS, and it looks like a pretty cost-effective form of government spending.
- phone8675309 5y agoThere wasn’t the political will in Congress to make SLS a success because it’s not a voting issue for most of their constituents. This is the fate of any ambitious tech development unless that technology can be used to incinerate half of the world in nuclear-fueled hellfire (moon race), spy on the American people without a warrant, kill brown people in the third world, or be give secondhand to the police to fight the war on drugs. However, never underestimate Congress's undying political will to give bucketloads of American taxpayer dollars and money the government borrowed to rich people with no accountability. Really makes you think…
- ep103 5y agoThere is power... in the union...
- sourthyme 5y agoIt is scary how far this made it. All because of money, and the thought of losing it.
- macinjosh 5y agoIndeed, those greedy administrators that accepted money from Munger should be let go.
- BiteCode_dev 5y agoLet go? Sued.
- macinjosh 5y agoWhat are they doing? Giving money to public educational institutions? The horror! If a donor is as unreasonable as this one seems to be the university should not accept the money. Nothing is being forced on anyone here. Calm down.