The alert consumer discovers that she is not getting the same number of chips or ounces of edible stuff in the packages she routinely buys at the supermarket. The cost of the box is the same as before. The quantity is not. The company does not announce that it has raised prices.

Colleges do the same thing:

*the three hour course is now two and one half hours

*the obligatory fee formerly included in tuition is now a separate cost item on the bill without any reduction in the tuition
*advice on resume writing and interview techniques, formerly provided by the student’s advisor, now becomes a paid course

Okay, since I am complaining about higher education, let me toss in a few non-financial items:

*if a college is promoting the opportunity for a semester abroad, could it please inform students on how to juggle their prerequisite and major schedules so that the semester abroad does not screw everything up.

*when a student signs up for an in-class course, he expects physical presence, not on-line in his room. Of course, if the in-class presentation by the professor is exclusively power point, coupled with a request to not take notes, the student might as well be in his room.

*Do professors care whether tests are consistent with their self-written syllabi? Consistency in grading admittedly is a pipe dream. Years ago, when my daughter brought home a test on which she had received a 105, my reaction was “no way, 100 is the top mark.” Extra credits are like a virus, right up there with self-esteem t-shirts, ego stroking with scant evidence of substantive impact.

*An education leader of my acquaintance used to ask her professors: are you grading on the student’s life story, how hard they worked, or what they actually accomplished in the class?

The modified contemporary internalized questions of college graduates in many cases seem to be:  have you made a lot of friends, do you know how to network, is your resume current, will you contribute to the alumni association? Absent in many cases, but discovered by the professional interviewer, is a level of content knowledge that would make the student a prospective employee.

Graduates should keep in mind that a diploma guarantees nothing. Rather, it is a “ticket” which gets the graduate past the closed door and into the room for a discussion about employment. It is what happens in that conversation that tells the true story of the student’s higher education and preparedness for the real world.

As the Executive-Director of a foundation which for many years has assisted young people to attend college,
I have developed a distaste for the manner in which the purveyors of “higher education” conduct themselves
when it comes to … money! And there is no question that the vast percentage of “our”
students regard colleges with the same warmth as they view other businesses.

This snapshot is an outgrowth of that attitude.

We all know the college experience is special. One example is the innovation displayed by their accountants.
As shown, in their financial approach, they shun the absurd and highly irritating small item breakdowns favored
by their counterparts in the telephone and cable industries. Whoops, they actually are no better.

College                                  Telephone                                              Cable

Activity fee 203.00                 Federal universal service charge 1.36   Basic fee 17.95
Tuition 21720.00                   Regulatory charge 0.21                          Box fee 10.00
Room 8153.75                      Administrative charge 1.23                     Broadcast tv surcharge 3.99
Meals 3575.00                      NJ 911 System fee 0.90                         Sports tv surcharge 4.97
Co-curricular fee 217.00       NJ sales tax 4.33                                    Preferred package 57.00
Health fee 361.00                 Smartphone line access 40.00               Sales tax 0.70
Internet fee 220.00               Wireless phone protection 7.15              Franchise fee 3.76
Course fee 5.00                   Monthly charge 40.00                             State regulation fee 0.08
Health insurance 2230.00    FCC user fee 0.08
College program fee 35.00
Athletic fee 287.50
Academic Excellence fee 187.50
University fee 62.50
Recreation fee 56.00
Academic Support fee 9.50
Academic Record fee 5.00
ID Card fee 5.00

Don’t you admire a college accounting staff that in a total cost environment of many thousands of dollars can
find another 50-75 cents to extract from the student. And the diligence with which they find a way
to isolate $5.00 for fees which the layman might assume were covered by tuition.

The telephone and cable industries should be pleased. Their bills are less complex than those of colleges. At
the same time, they should be chagrined because they get labeled as bad guys while colleges still have a
residual halo effect, though it is fast diminishing, in part because of these financial shenanigans.
BobHowittbooks.com/?page_id=22

When there are nine crazies at our Senior Center basketball outings, we have one team with five players, rotating them in order to play four-on-four. This is interesting, but irrelevant. Equally unimportant is that when we have a substitute because of the above situation, we play to 11 baskets instead of 8.

What is crucial to understanding that which I am about to describe is that we play loser’s out, as in regular basketball but also dissimilar from much of New Jersey playground ball.

Ok, to finally arrive at the particulars –

The fact that we had the single best player on our team at the moment seemed meaningless, even though he was on the bench watching when the opponents took a commanding 10-5 lead.

No way we could overcome such a deficit. It would mean at least six “stops” matched by an equal number of hoops scored by our side.  But the credo in such circumstances, no matter how dire looking, is “one stop.” And then the exhortation is repeated and repeated.

Steve, Lionel, Frank D., Tom D. (sub), and myself dug in our heels against Mark, Tom M., Frank C., and Danny.  We swarmed, we fought through picks, we had hands in every shooter’s face, we grabbed rebounds from erstwhile winning shots which fortunately fell off the rim.

And it magically became 10-10.

As Steve’s teammate, you know that he wants to take the last shot (and most of the others as well); of course, this is no secret to the other team either and they proceed to surround him.

I wander to the left corner, midway between the baseline and the foul line extended, hands ready for a pass.  With no breathing room at all, Steve double bounces a pass to me, and I loft the ball quickly as Frank C. is running at me like a man possessed.

Nothing but freakin’ net!!!

We win 11-10, culminating the greatest defensive performance seen at this court in many years.

bobhowittbooks.com/?page_id=22

Many critics of the American economic system have an inch-deep understanding of its history. At the same time, they always have a long list of political “devils,” those individuals with whom they are in disagreement and who, by definition, are behind all negative policy decisions.

In the 20^th century, the average standard-of-living increased many-fold and lifetime expectancy grew significantly. During this period, it is fair to characterize the American economy as being more capitalist than any other philosophy.

In assessing the role of capitalism in the much improved standard of living, these are the observer’s choices:

Capitalism had nothing to do with the demonstrated growth

It had everything to do with the growth

The growth was despite the capitalist philosophy

Capitalism was a factor, but not as important as other factors

It brought the growth, but the price was too high

Capitalism was by far the leading contributor to the growth

Obviously line six is the best answer. At the same time, one would be hard-pressed to define our current economic model as being remotely close to pure capitalism. The United States Code of Federal Regulations has 169,000 pages. And government spending is one-third of GDP, versus 7.5% a hundred years ago.

No, the overriding philosophy is consumerism, whatever it takes to create — more stuff.

P.S. While the above was written pre-election, there is no reason to change anything. Unconnected to the election is the logic of drilling down on choice number five above. Another time.

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