Viewpoint

Drilling Down: The Student Loan Crisis

For months, there has been a television, radio and newspaper blackout across this country regarding the “Maple Spring” in Quebec, right on New York’s border. Since Feb. 13, a student strike has closed colleges throughout the province. Hundreds of thousands have participated in peaceful rallies and nightly marches. The spark was tuition increases. The Quebecois government refuses to negotiate and has attempted several times to brutally break it up. This is front-page news around earth, except here.

Debt To Society

1. Since 1985, college tuition and fees have gone up 559 percent. Let’s start there.

2. Since 1999, student debt in this country has increased over 500 percent, to $870 million if you believe the Federal Reserve’s estimates, or to $1 trillion if you believe everyone else. Student debt now exceeds total credit card debt. Our federal government, which backs most outstanding loans, is on the hook for hundreds of billions of it.

Public Option

Much of the map of Nassau County was drawn by sewage and garbage. Villages were hastily thrown together and incorporated, city charters were drawn up, special districts created and everything was rearranged either to keep sewage plants and incinerators out or to keep the highly-profitable enterprises in.

Sewage plants, incinerators, subways, turnpikes, sports arenas, bridges and bus lines are licenses for local agencies to print money, until the equipment ages or needs expansion. All of these things, and almost every water supply district in Nassau County, started out as private enterprises or as public investments managed by private contractors, until the low-hanging profits were picked off. Then, as service deteriorates and rates go up, the public itself steps up and sets things right.

Being Green

1. Only in heaven does anyone know how many hundreds of tons of shiny Earth Day newsletters, postcards and brochures our government officials have sent out recently, all proclaiming how green we are.

2. My bank says I’m green if I order their credit card with a picture of Earth on the front.

Don’t Fear Long Island’s Future

They are here, right now. Many of us who grew up in Nassau County were taught to be scared of them, instructed in many ways subtle and not-so-subtle that their very presence in our neighborhoods would bring down property values and lead to blight and degradation. Now they’ve quietly been let in. There aren’t as many on Long Island as other suburbs, but more are coming.

And it turns out that it’s not so bad. In fact, whatever Long Island is going to be next, whatever backbone the next Nassau County will have, they are going to be part of it. They. Them. The other.

The Point Man

ALEC is back in the news, where it probably doesn’t want to be. ALEC is the American Legislative Exchange Council, until recently virtually unknown to the general public. People are starting to understand.

Made up of about 2,000 legislators representing all 50 states and about 300 representatives from corporations and foundations, ALEC creates “model legislation,” hundreds of bills which are introduced in state legislatures across America each year. Exactly which bills were from ALEC and a lot of other details were once shadowy subjects, but since last year have been repeatedly dragged into the spotlight thanks to the work of several government and media watchdog organizations, and the independent media.

When Things Get All Blurred

$154,000 in Albany…$183,000 in Syracuse…$152,000 in Rochester…

Scrutiny, oversight, accountability and integrity are all twisted up together. Pull one thread out and really bad decisions can get made. Lines blur, and it becomes very hard to pick out the bad guys from the good guys, who is for you from who is against you.

The Goldfish Bowl

In the wee morning hours of March 15, long after most observers had left, a massive pile of legislation was dumped on the desks of state legislators in Albany. As Thursday wore on, New Yorkers learned that new deals were cut and legislation passed making significant, precedent-making changes to the state pension system, to casino gambling policy, to the creation of state and federal legislative district boundaries, to the system of collecting DNA from convicted criminals. Most of the legislation did not appear until 3 a.m.

Fixed

The world held its breath last night. Now it’s exhaling a little, on this Friday morning. As of this moment, enough investors have agreed to swap out their old Greek bonds for new bonds worth less than half the current face value. This will wipe about 100 billion Euros from a Greek debt pile of 350 billion Euros and probably allow Greece to make some upcoming payments.

The world can pretend that this is not an official or “hard” default, even though it’s the very definition of it. Already, markets are rising. Brent crude oil hit its highest price in three years since there will be no global reduction in demand. This week. Greece probably still can’t sustain its debt load for very long.

On the Subject of Oil

In the train wreck that is our national politics, a new generation of candidates and political operatives has decided that “building consensus” means saying whatever will generate immediate applause, followed by checks and online contributions. If it’s outrageous, extreme, unrealistic or contradicted by something that’s said at the next destination, there is no significant public penalty. Four decades ago, Michigan Governor George Romney went from frontrunner to joke because of one poorly worded phrase that today wouldn’t rate a four-second sound bite.

The corrosion of our public standards has oozed down into the local level. The flood of publicly financed mailings continues. I haven’t received one that has expressed a meaningful vision of where we’re supposed to go from here. This is a country and a county loaded with personal talent and a growing craving to be asked to help. We are failed not only by our leaders, but by the people who are supposed to be watching our leaders on our behalf.