Our quote for the day, this is from Alex Carey, an Australian social scientist: “the 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: The growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy.” Brilliant.

Which brings us to the topic, to a topic, that I really wanted to kick off in this first hour because I think that this is one of, not only is it emblematic, or symptomatic or whatever the word, the appropriate word is, of the larger issues that we face as a nation, whether we’re gonna have national healthcare, and you know, hoopdedoop, right? The Congressional Budget Office has done the analysis. If we get the Senate bill, if you’re a member of a large group your bill will go down a hundred dollars a year. If you’re a member of a small group your bill might go down two hundred dollars a year. Um, and the, and Stephen Hemsley and United Healthcare who’s made 700 million bucks over the last 5 years, he’ll probably make twice that in the next 5 years. That didn’t come out of the CBO, that, I just kind of pulled that out of my left ear. But it’s pretty obvious. I mean if they’re gonna add 30, 40 more customers to a health insurance, for profit health insurance company’s roster, they’re gonna make some money on it.

But all of these things I think are symptoms of a larger problem which is the corporate takeover of America. This, and it’s not just the corporate takeover of America, and this is not an anti-corporate screed. There is an appropriate place for a business, there’s an appropriate place for a company. The business model, the business form is an okay thing. But there are some areas that have to do with the future of this country and one of the most important of those is education.

And the reason I want to get into this is because there is a case going before the Supreme Court. Francisco Espinosa was working for American West Airlines, he was making $6 an hour, not a whole lot. He was single, he lived frugally. Nina Totenburg wrote a piece about this, did a piece about this for National Public Radio in fact this morning. Um he was single, lived frugally, Nina writes he drove a car worth $1200, had no debt aside from his $13,000 student loan. What was this guy's mistake? His mistake was thinking that while he was working for this Airline he could improve his lot in life by going to trade school at night and learning how to be a computer aided designer. You know, CAD/CAM stuff, learning how to use computers, and do all kinds of cool stuff on the computer.

Well, the airline reorganized, decided they didn’t need Mr. Espinosa and uh he was also unable to find a job as a result of this gee whiz education that he got and he found himself $13000 in debt. He declared bankruptcy. He wanted to get married, and he just wanted to clear the deck. He didn’t have any other debt, he had been living very carefully. He declared bankruptcy, the judge said, 'pay off the student loan minus the $4000 in fines and penalties that the for-profit student loan company has hit you with, pay off the full student loan and you’ll be fine'. They gave him a payment schedule. He paid it off. Almost a decade later the student loan company came after him for that $4000 in fines which the bankruptcy court had forgiven. This case is going before the Supreme Court. I want to share with you my thoughts on education in the United States. I think the, what is happening right now with the University of California tuition system exploding is one small symptom of a much larger rot at the core of this country which is, we’re no longer investing in America.

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Welcome back to the place where smart people get their news. Thom Hartmann radio program.

Let’s talk for a moment about what our nation is really all about. I mean I think this is what it really ultimately boils down to is what kind of country do we want to live in, what vision do we have for the country. There have, ever since the founding of this country there have been two competing visions. There has been the liberal vision that was held by the original founders of this country, the Jeffersons, the Madisons, arguably even Hamilton although I’d say he was a little bit more of a conservative. And there’s been the conservative vision of this country that was held by people like John Adams and John Marshall, the first chief justice of the Supreme Court, and Thomas Jefferson’s second or third cousin and hated enemy, by the way.

And those two visions are either you have a country where everybody can participate, everybody has opportunity, that is just absolutely wide open. Or you have a country that is very tightly locked down and you have a very rigid caste structure. And that’s pretty much what it boils down to. Thomas Jefferson was so proud of the fact that he created the University of Virginia as a free college, a free college that anybody could go to if they could simply qualify to study there, you know, academically, intellectually. If they could simply qualify to study there, anybody could go there. That on his tombstone he did not want it noted that he was President of the United States, he wanted it noted that he was the founder of the University of Virginia. He saw that as a more important contribution to democracy than the fact that he had been President for eight years, for two terms. I mean it doesn’t get more profound than that.

And so here we have, you know this guy, he declared chapter 13 bankruptcy, he paid his $274 a month for years and years. Finally paid the whole thing off, paid off the student loan and they’re still coming after him. They’re still coming after him because the bankruptcy law says you can’t get out from underneath student loans unless you can prove some overwhelming need. There’s an actual phrase for it. Um, undue hardship is the phrase that it says in the bankruptcy law. And the, a federal appeals court ruled against United, United is the loan company. But you know my question is why do we have these damn loan companies in the middle anyway? Why is somebody making money off education, just handling the money. Why is somebody making money off healthcare, just handling the money. Why is somebody making money off our prison systems, our private prison systems? We’ve got so many things that appropriately should be part of the commons, that appropriately should, so anyhow. My point is that if, you know, why are conservatives trying to destroy the future of America by only educating the rich and very often stupid students, the George W. Bush’s of the world who never would have gotten into college if it wasn’t for the fact that his father was an Alumnus. I mean it was, why?

I think the reason is very obvious. That conservatives believe in a caste system. The most conservative countries in the world have the most rigid caste systems. And the conservatives here would love for there to be a caste system. Let’s do away with corporate taxes, let’s do away with the state taxes, let’s let the rich get infinitely rich and richer and richer and richer and hold more and more and more of the assets of the country. Let the poor be poorer and poorer and poorer over time. Occasionally we’ll allow, not even allow, occasionally somebody through grit and determination will fight their way to the top and we’ll turn that person into an icon, we’ll turn them into a her, the Tiger Woods’s of the world. By the way, check out TigerWoodsDubai.com if you wanna know what’s really going on, but that’s a whole 'nother thing.

In Brazil no tuition or entrance fees to public universities. You ever heard of the BRIC countries? Brazil, Russia, India and China. You can actually buy investment funds now in the BRIC countries. The BRIC countries, these are the countries that are up and coming. In Brazil they get it. In fact, my very best friend Jerry Schneiderman has been for 30 years, one of my very, my best friend. His wife is a professor, part time in New York but most of the time down in Brazil, she’s a dual citizen. And has been, I think her whole life, US and Brazilian, and she teachers in the University system down there. There’s no tuition in the public universities. Anybody who wants to can go to college. All the public universities in Canada are publicly funded. It doesn’t mean that they’re free but they’re damn cheap. In Chile, state run universities are much cheaper than the private ones although they’re not tuition free but close to it. In China nearly all the universities and research institutions are public and publicly funded. In Europe, in Austria, most of the universities are public except for some studies, notably medicine, everybody who fills the condition of a secondary degree is allowed to attend a public university. By the way this is from the Wikipedia pages on Public University, pretty straightforward stuff.

In Finland all universities are free and public and free of charge. In Denmark almost all universities are public and are held in high esteem, higher esteem frankly than their private counterparts. Until recently tuition was free at all public universities. In France most higher education is either free or charged lower tuition fees. In Germany most higher public institutions are public and up until 2006 in Germany all universities were free. In Greece all universities are public; with the exception of the Hellenic Open University, undergraduate programs are offered tuition-free to all Greek citizens. In Ireland all universities including institutes of technology, colleges of education, the national college of Ireland, the state pays the cost of educating all of it’s undergraduates. In Italy, almost all the universities are public and very, students pay very low tuition. In Poland the government pays all tuition fees. In Portugal there’s 13 public universities. The highest tuition fee allowed in Portugal, the highest, by law, they’ve capped tuition, is $900 euros a year. That would be about $1100 a year. That’s the highest. In Spain, 73 universities, many of them free. In Sweden, most universities are public, there’s a nominal fee, it’s minimal. Why don’t we do it here?

Transcribed by Suzanne Roberts, Portland Psychology Clinic.