[lbo-talk] Amid tougher times, spending on payroll soars at Michigan universities

c b cb31450 at gmail.com
Fri Apr 8 13:55:27 PDT 2011


Alan Rudy

On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 4:49 PM, c b <cb31450 at gmail.com> wrote:


> ^^^^^
> CB: We should consider whether there is any motive for the Freep to
> tell half-truths on this. But in general, I also send articles from
> the Wall Street Journal and NYT from time to time. It was the agents
> of Big Finance who told us that US financial institutions
> too-big-to-fail were failing to the tune of many, many billions (at
> least). It was the Detroit News that reported Detroit unemployment at
> 45 % about a year ago. The Mackinaw Center is a civil fascist
> think-tank. It's just that sometimes the bourgeois information
> services just confess.
>
> Hasn't tuition been going up steadily for decades, at Michigan's state
> schools, pushing them further and further from the reach of the lower
> incomed ?

Is anything more coming or is this the extent of your response? The fact that you forward articles from other sources says nothing about the historically right-wing labor practices and editorial character of the Freep... unless you have an argument rather than a claim of "hey, sometimes I send stuff from more reputable sources than this, so this one's probably OK."

^^^^^^^ CB: Hellooooo. The NYTimes and Wall Street Journal are just as right-wing, anti-labor in theory and practice as the Detroit Free Press. My statement is that I sometimes send stuff from sources as _dis_reputable or more disreputable than the Detroit Free Press . And I said "It's just that sometimes the bourgeois information services just confess, " which is another reason to read right-wing sources. Surely, you are not saying that everything in even right-wing sources is false ?

For what it's worth, the Free Press is the liberal local paper. The Detroit News is the the local right-wing newspaper. Of course, they are in a JOA, so their independence from each other is a sham. Both busted the newspaper guild union in the late 90's. "No News or Free Press wanted here".

^^^^^

Tuition costs have been going up, it must be right that the Freep is correct that the cause is growing college administrations and faculty salaries rather than fiscal crisis exacerbated by Republican intransigence and anti-ecology, anti-labor, anti-community, anti-education, anti-health, anti-infrastructure, anti-tax, anti-tenure and pro-temporary and adjunct exploitation policy? And the voice in that last sentence is my old left Democrat voice, its not even my actual voice.

^^^^^^^ CB: How does Republican intransigence, and that list of anti's cause tuition to go up ? How does fiscal crisis cause tuition to go up ? By cuts in state aid to institutions of higher learning ?

^^^^^^^

We DON'T have to ask anything about the Freep's interest in half-truths on this front, we have to ask why you're willing to listen to their 1/64th-truths.

^^^^^ CB: What is the 1/64th truth ? That profs and admin's pay is going up ?

^^^^^^^

Unless you're willing to actually respond to all the reasons I gave relative to why this is NOT one of those times the bourgeois get something right, all you've got is a repetition of an utterly dissected claim.

^^^^^^^ CB: I don't agree to that. I've responded cogently to your post. I think the bourgeois press may be making an accurate claim that profs and administrators' pay is going up when so many others , including teachers in secondary and elementary school, face cuts.

^^^^^^^

If you think these kinds of points and arguments are correct because they start with a seeming fact - rising tuitions - that then utterly misdiagnose and politically manipulate data in favor of reactionary policy then it would seem that you'd be also willing to accept the arguments they make after they point to the poor and especially about the disproportionate numbers of poor African- Americans... the arguments you call fascist.

^^^^^^^ CB: Well that's a non-sequitur. The newspaper article's main seeming fact is that profs and administrators' pay is going up. I introduced as a question on this thread tuition rising for decades. It's a lot higher than when I was in college and law school (even considering inflation I think)



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