Students protest against the new GOP tax bill
The following is excerpted from Amy Osika’s essay, “Debt Comes For Us All: Students protest against the new GOP tax bill,” available in full from Public Seminar.
“A colleague and I walk over to a group of policemen, asking them what they think about the new tax bill. One officer states that what protesting students are doing is unnecessary. He didn’t need to finish his own college degree and even if he had wanted to, there are many affordable options. The only two options that readily come to his mind are the armed forces and the police academy.
What he may have forgotten is why the armed forces offer to pay for undergraduate education in the first place, as the very means to attract new recruits. Recent education trends display a significant alteration in what is now considered a sufficient amount of education for the workplace. While only a few decades ago it was possible to get a fairly decent job after finishing high school, people today who are unable to obtain a college education are left at a much greater disadvantage in the contemporary job market. They suffer from less hiring opportunities, less upward mobility within positions, and much lower wages. It has become increasingly evident that undergraduate degrees have evolved into the new equivalent of a high school diploma, becoming a required credential on many resumes. Despite the fact that the majority of Western countries provide major assistance to their citizens obtaining degrees, the United States government has consistently refused to jump on the bandwagon for many decades. This brings us to the central issue that students and their families face today: students have become a cash cow of the American capitalist system, both in the private sector and the federal government. Today, student loan debt exceeds 1.4 trillion. These new tax protocols, courtesy of the GOP, enhance this exploitative relationship.”
