It's All About the Hamiltons, Baby

hey, you don't know me. don't accuse me of not doing anything to help or not benefitting from my education. just because i'm upset about the tuition hike (which is really what this is about), it doesn't mean that i don't do my part for the environment or for children or for society, or don't care about the future of america. i could expound on my awareness and caring lifestyle, but i don't really think i need to prove anything to you. the thing is, i (and my colleagues at UT) strive to improve america by working towards becoming an educator, which i feel really has potential in changing the way people think, and thus act. you, on the other hand, choose to do your part by engaging in some smart shopping.

One last thing, I find it disheartening that someone who is proud and excited about her education (and the importance thereof) appears to think that just because America has always done something a certain way, America will continue to do so.

To have the awareness of a problem, but not the interest to work towards a solution -- even if the solution might be near impossible (ie, changing American consumerism habits) -- is a fundamental flaw with how people are educated.

I did not vote for Bush.

I do not consider education a commodity. I'm interested in knowing why you think that; In fact, I believe its not such a commodity that I've argued previously that the 8-10x more an individual pays for an Ivy League education is actually worth 8-10x more than a state school education. Clearly, if I believe that there's value in paying $40k vs $4k, I also don't believe that education is like toothpaste or milk. It's not a commodity, but I also don't think the educational system is (in many cases) prepared to teach young Americans anything other than how to get a job and work for 40 years.

As for your statements that people aren't going to set aside their consumer based lifestyles -- exactly. They're not going to do it voluntarily, which is exactly why the aforementioned scenarios are going to happen. It'll be too late for those people who haven't planned ahead and at least considered the consequences of their lifestyles and almost every person will be forced to make drastic lifestyle changes.

We're already seeing a lot of those changes. SUV sales are down. Retail sales, in general, are not growing at the expected rate. Consumer confidence in general remains down. What happens when oil costs continue to skyrocket? Do you really think Americans are going to continue to buy iPods at the clip they currently are?

In general, the statement of "America has never been like that" is part of the problem. America has always been like this because the nation was birthed at the dawn of the industrial revolution. America hit its stride as a power at the dawn of the energy revolution; The first coal (fossil fuel) powered engine was in 1853 if I remember correctly. As a country, we've grown up believing these resources are part of our destiny and that they'll never run out. We've powered our own technology growth on the oil infrastructure. Without coal and oil, we don't have electricity. Without electricity, we don't have phones. Without phones, we don't have computers. Etc etc etc.

How do we make the next great leap forward and continue to grow at this rate -- without regressing -- if in a decade or two, we don't have enough power to cheaply fuel these innovations?

I think you're continuing to misconstrue my comments as anti-capitalism and anti-consumer goods. I believe both of those systems will continue to exist, but they will not be as hyperactive as they have been in the past 50 years.

For what I'm doing (and planning) to do; I'm going to continue to try to shop and buy local. Supporting local producers of food (and by this I do not mean Guerros, I mean the farmers market, etc) means that those enterprises will continue on. It means that instead of a tomato field outside of Austin becoming houses or a Best Buy, they'll continue to keep their farm. I'm also working on a business plan of my own for a 'green' venture. In the meantime, I'm doing simple things -- like instead of getting my haircut at Aveda, I get my haircut by a local barber. I pay the few extra dollars for local (or Texas made) products and I encourage my circle of friends and coworkers to do the same. Finally, I do the most important thing which is continue to network and socialize. Instead of hiding in my suburban McMansion, I'm beginning to work with others to motivate and educate.

At some point, how does Coke -- as a mega company -- continue to exist? How do they run their centralized plants? How do they get sugar cane from the caribbean islands imported to Atlanta, mix it with water from hundreds of miles away, and pour it into a bottle made from expensive oil products? How does Coke manage to sell said product to a consumer in California for 50 cents?

Do you honestly think that there's a renewable supply of energy just waiting to happen that can provide for the miracle of Coke?

ok, I get your point. I got it from the beginning. But for whatever reason, you think that education is just a commodity. (Did you vote for Bush? He thinks that, too). What I don't really get is what you're doing to improve this class hierarchical crisis you see as inevitable. How are you going to get Americans to toss off the consumer-based lifestyle that we have had since before America was even an independent country. People aren't just going to set aside their desires for cheap things and cheap thrills and go off and live in private, self sufficient communities. We're not Iceland. America has never been like that. How about I make you a deal. If, in our lifetime, America becomes a nation where people don't care about status objects and can live in a consumer free society where brand name capitalism is nothing but a distant memory, then I'll buy you a coke.

It has nothing (and everything) to do with the tuition increase and I wouldn't have thought twice about it were it not for Nate's comment on the middle class.

What I was originally getting at (and still stand by) is that a growing gap between the middle and upper classes is unstoppable because of how the middle class came to be. Therefore, its pointless to have the woe-is-the-middle-class comments because its inevitable.

If you want to get technical, everything is going to cost more because (unless we fundamentally change how our current society works) oil is going to cost a boatload more. That includes tuition because building new buildings, buying new books, hiring new teachers, etc all currently require cheap oil.

As for the library costs; The UT library would technically cost me $4000/6 months usage (according to the new tuition rates) because I'm not a student (unlike Deb). :) I suppose I could take a night class or something to get access though!

ok, but i just don't see what this has to do with the price of UT tuition going up a few dollars. maybe i have not traced the thread well enough. btw-everoyne knows the library doesn't cost you a penny, declan, no need to be catty or flip.

Deb, it has absolutely nothing to do with living in a dream world and wishing for the 'olden days'.

The reality is we're past the oil peak for America. We're likely past the oil peak for the world too, but you can only know that in retrospect -- so when the actual global oil peak is passed for sure won't be known for a few years after the fact.

We're past the natural gas peak (and declining quickly) in America. Canada (where we import a lot of natural gas from) is approaching their oil peak. We run the vast majority of our electric plants on natural gas.

Most of our crops are grown with the benefit of oil based fertilizers. Without those fertilizers, an acre of land yields significantly less food than we currently manage to generate.

What do you think is going to happen when the oil and natural gas runs out? How are we going to feed the people in our country? If we're growing 20x more food than is naturally possible because of oil based fertilizers, we're living on borrowed time. We're feeding 20x more people than the planet can sustain naturally. How do oranges grown (with those fertilizers) in Florida make it to Oregon? How does wheat grown in the midwest make it to Europe, Africa, India, etc? How does food -- in general -- get from whereever its grown to Austin, NYC, Chicago? It doesn't walk; It flies, drives, and rides railcars all powered by oil.

And, how do you think all those things get built? (Cars, planes, supermarkets, etc) Do you think a crane to build a modest building (5-10 stories high) runs on fairy dust? What happens when gasoline is $30/gallon? Is it economical to build a building that is higher than a story or two?

Further, I'm not sure you understand what the 'pre-service industry economy' is but its not the middle ages. It's only about 50 years in America's past -- there was a time when the majority of Americans actually did work. They lifted stuff, the moved stuff, the built stuff. Now, we sell insurance, we wait tables, we manage hedge funds, and we outsource labor intensive processes to other countries. At some point, not knowing how to make a pair of shoes is going to be a problem.

So, if you'd like to continue to live in your dream world, be my guest. Like I've previously stated, I'm quite aware of my own hypocritical tendencies. I am using a computer and love my toys; I don't live in a tent in the forest eating berries. But if you're delusional enough to think that suburbia -- or even the vast majority of American cities -- isn't in trouble, you haven't been paying attention and you're completely uneducated on the reality of the situation.

It's coming. Do yourself a favor and actually read one of the books I suggested before. I'm sure they have them all at the UT library. It won't cost you a penny.

i guess we all live in our own little dream worlds. for some, it's an idealistic revival of the "olden days" and the notion that things were better before modern technology (remember when we didn't have cell phones and the internet and you actually had to speak to people face to face? or better yet, remember when we didn't have sanitation or modern medicine?). personally, i like to lose myself in studying the remains of ancient latin american civilizations, when people would extract the hearts out of their still breathing enemies, light fires in their gaping chest cavities and sacrifice the smell of burning flesh to the sun gods in order to maintain the natural order of the universe. ah, things were so simple back then, when people lived in small, self-contained communities, thriving off regionally grown crops, local artisans, and a pre-service industry economy.

Just added it to my Amazon wishlist so I don't forget about it. Thanks for the recommendation Lisa.

(And trust me, I know I'm being a hypocrite by mailordering -- or just buying -- books because the cheapness of said books could not be facilitated by cheap oil for making paper, transporting paper, printing the books, transporting the books, keeping the lights on in the warehouse/bookstores, allowing my computer to work, and finally, delivering said books to my doorstep. :))

Recommended Read: "Strapped" by Tamara Draut. She has an excellent analysis of the disappearance of the middle class that goes beyond one factor (oil). Her chapter on postsecondary education is very interesting. She notes that the problem is a combination of rising costs of education and falling government assistance for education.

Deb, are you kidding me? Have you driven through UT's campus area in the past 5 years? It's not a hotbed of mopeds and rollerblades. Who the hell is driving all those SUVs with plastic silver longhorn logos on the back? What about those educated masses who are driving up and down Mopac every day with Texas Ex stickers on the backs of their Pathfinders?

Just because you and your group of friends don't own SUVs doesn't change what a large percentage of the population *is* driving.

As for my solution, no it has nothing to do with a socialist colony on the moon. We're not going to be able to afford to get to the moon effeciently, so we can disregard Bush's 2003/2004 talks about colonizing Mars as well.

I'm more interested in seeing a movement back to small local communities (and, I think that's exactly what you'll see). Regionally grown crops (bye bye organic tomatoes from Chile!), local artisans making your clothes (bye bye Diesel jeans from Bangladesh), and a return to the pre-service industry economy. I don't think we're going to see a return to 1835 living standards, but Target isn't going to exist to sell you a hairdryer and HEB isn't going to be able to sell everything under the sun because it won't be economical to import that shit from around the world anymore.

John-- Agreed that I'm not sure exactly where Nate was going with his aside regarding the widening wealth gap.

Also, I'm not sure if you were mocking me with the first half of your message, but if so-- I suggest you do some reading about Hubert's Peak, American Suburbia, and the clusterfuck we're about to experience. Start with Twilight in the Desert, Beyond Oil, The Long Emergency, and Powerdown. Doomsday or not, it's irrational to believe that a technological singularity is right around the corner that will allow us to avoid this disaster. Things are going to change and they're going to change in the next decade or so. China isn't getting less populated, less industrialized, and less in need of oil products.

Okay, so that comment by Declean up there really offends me. I don't have an SUV. In fact most of my colleagues at UT cannot afford SUVs, or cars at all, because we spend all our money on our education. Now, tell me again why broadening our minds so that we can then teach America's future feeds into the consumerist wealth gap that you were talking about? It seems to me that spreading knowledge is really the only way to get this country on track. What's your solution to inevitable stratification of America? Starting a new socialist colony on the moon?

I agree, we are going to run out of oil in a few years, Suburbia America will lose their jobs, and it will be complete lawlessness as we start killing eachother for drums of oil and fresh water. Really though, I can see your point about the middle class shrinking, or the wealth gap widening, but I don't really know what a widening wealth gap has anything to do with UT increasing tuition. Wouldn't charging those who can get loans or pay upfront for higher tuition to help financial aid programs for the 'really poor' work against the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer? Maybe I should go to UT and get a degree in sociology, but it sounds like bullshit to me. I think the only good argument to be found here is, 'shit, my tuition went up, that sucks for me." And yes it does.

documentaryworth checking out (among many, many others): "The End of Suburbia"

http://imdb.com/title/tt0446320/

The middle class was an anomaly created by 200 years of cheap oil. It's going away (and the gap Nate speaks of is growing) because human society has always existed with a small ruling elite class and a large poor feudal/slave/peasant class.

Cheap oil enabled the so called middle class to rise up, buy suburban houses, work for themselves, and amass minor amounts of wealth in the form of cheap consumer products (plasma TVs, H2s, I'm looking at you!). That oil is about to go away and so will the middle class. Suburbia is the worst resource allocation in the history of the planet; We spent millions of years of solar energy (trapped in the form of crude oil, natural gas, and coal) over the course of 200 years to build a sprawling wasteland that can not survive without more cheap energy.

Bottom line is: The middle class is going to go away. Sooner rather than later. The hike of tuition costs is the least of your worries. Wait until the housing bubble bursts for real and you're stuck in Round Rock where you can't grow your own food and getting to and from the HEB costs you $20 in gas for a $13 gallon of milk.

My personal belief (the collapse of the middle class put aside for the time being): The fact that some people have to pay more for their tuition doesn't bother me one fucking iota. Those same people don't mind paying for their SUVs and the gasoline to fuel them, so let them make the hard choices -- education or hyperreflexive spending on material goods.

a growing trend across the US. it seems as if the gap between our top 2% and middle class is steadily increasing also.

a growing trend across the US. it seems as if the gap between our top 2% and middle class is steadily becoming larger.

FYI - the new *President* Bill Powers is referred to as "Dean" in this piece. He is the former Dean of the Law School and now the new president.

Finally, I can plan on an even more oppressive debt-load. Thanks UT Regents!

The best part of the article is where they describe the "consensus" on campus regarding the need for the tuition hike. Did they ask you?

don't these people know that i'm poor? that tuition increase must be for in-state students. i wonder what they're gonna charge us yankees. they should just hike up the price of burnt orange paraphanalia, so it's like a voluntary tuition increase.