Should colleges mandate all students take a general course about climate, food, and energy?

That is half of the equation. The other half came from the banks and lending institutions. Banks are businesses, and as such, they are in business to make money. They have an incentive to avoid bad loans, which is why they traditionally have required credit applications and down payments.

Removal of regulation changed all of this. Without regulation, the banks discovered that they could lend money to anyone without shouldering the risk, thereby tapping a large new customer base. The risky loans were packaged as securities and sold as low risk investments, when in fact they were time bombs waiting to destroy our economy.

Should we blame people who borrowed more than they could repay? Certainly. Should we blame the banks for sleazy practices? Certainly again. But the real blame should go to the American public for allowing our government representatives to strip away financial protections in the name of making a few quick bucks.

Tom

 

Sounds great, plug it in right after Bible study but before pistol practice.

 

No. Fourth grade should.

 

There is a giant gulf between having an opinion, and having an informed opinion.

 

What do you think finance 101 teaches? If Bob is a bad risk and wants a house and someone will give him the money, he's going to take it. If he loses his job he's going to default.

Sending him to a finance class isn't going to cover that. Now the Congress that pressed for subprime loans to bad risks initially had good intentions. But then they went overboard gobbling up risk like a fat kid eats cake. Congress also failed its oversight on who was buying these loans, and in many cases warnings were issued and ignored. Now those on the finance commitee, in Freddie and Fannie, and in the investment and comercial banks did go to at least finance 101 but took the country into a debt crisis.

There are and always will be people willing to borrow money for things they can't afford, but only when the government and banks gave it to them could the country get pushed into massive defaults.

 

Tom, I am not sure what the argument since I share your view. It is like eating led poisoned food, it is FDA responsibility to make sure it is not sold. But at the end it is you who eats it.

Problem with what happened with real estate bubble is those who got poisoned had no clue of what they were eating; they had no means or basic understanding on how loans work or what they get, they just wanted an instant ratification.

It is like with road accidents: no accident is attributed to a single factor, it is a combination of factors, many for most part. It would be silly to blame just one of them.

 

^^^AG this is the best answer to your post, cannot say it better.

 

Agreed. I interpreted your post as laying the blame solely on those borrowing the money.

Tom

 

then I would be a T-begger, right? /sorry for not making it clear/

There is a giant gulf between making a mistake, and making an informed mistake

 

There is a direct correlation with energy, food and climate (soils). Increasingly K-12 students must be involved in growing food and understanding where food comes from, Slow Food and other concepts. We are in Peak Everything and need to be aware.

 

You're kidding, right? Plenty of people complain about those pointless courses.

It's not just the money wasted fees and text books. It's time. It's time wasted that the student could either be studying other, relevant, courses, working or spending time with their family.

I know someone who's gone back to school to complete their bachelor's and, being forced to take some arty elective ended up doing renaissance art history. Yes, they found it interesting, but it sucked up lots of time.

And, because the college had changed one of their requirements from philosophy to some other course since they had gained their associate's years ago the college wanted them to take the required class and they had to fight them on it.

It's a nursing degree.

It's a joke. A very, very sick joke.

 

I'd rather that colleges mandated the foundation of understanding energy systems: enough physics to really understand the Law of Conservation of Energy and how it applies to everything. Climate and food are all about energy moving and transforming.

 

True.

It's one thing to have gotten all your information from "talk radio" as opposed a sampling of different venues; such as written articles from varied sources, educational programs, etc.

What I'm saying is there is no need for a formal course to educate "the best and brightest" as the OP put it. Who exactly are the "best and brightest?" (...and where does that leave the rest of us?)

 

Absolutely EVERYONE needs to know about food.
Most everyone should understand energy in its various forms.
Only those who are interested in participating in the current debate need to know about climate.

That said, no arbitrary grouping of knowledge is a good basis for determining what ought to be learned. The broader your knowledge base, the more imagination you can apply to your narrow specialty.

 

No, we most certainly do not. Knowledge is non-partisan. Genuine uncertainty can be taught as exactly that. Do we need a 'left' and a 'right' physics teacher to teach dark matter?

 

I've got to say I'm quite ignorant of your point here. Are you saying you have an informed opinion that forcing current college students into taking finance would have avoided the financial crisis? I have to disagree.

Taking finance is fine. I did it. But it won't stop jane doe from getting over extended on a mortgage so that her kids can play in a back yard. I would rather have the universities and students decide what courses they take instead of some uninformed people on a car forum. I think Jane's default after being under water $40K pales in comparison to those that lost the economy trillions. I have a friend who switched from Michigan state to UGA, and she is going to take a $100K loss on that house in east Lansing. Unfortunately being a college professor she gets a decent salary and will actually pay for it instead of defaulting.

If what I learned in school is correct we are moving away from an agrarian society. We did have field trips to farms in elementary school to see where food came from which is a good thing. This is very different from mandating things at the college level.

unfortunately those that know the least often hold office and talk the loudest.

+1

 

Economist happily think that the relative size of a market segment determines its importance. I invite them to spend a month only using their precious financial segment, while I use only the agriculture segment.

Agriculture is the foundation of everything in our society. And it has never been larger. From that foundation, we have been able to build a huge infrastructure of other markets, but they are all, 100% dependent on that foundation.

 

i remember covering the subjects of career, and spending, etc in middle school. why not start them younger so you kill the trend of reckless spending because most kids/teens/young adults have no clue as to how much things cost to make or even buy on their own.

 

I'm in total agreement with you.

I gained my agricultural knowlege through life experience by working on several types of farms: tobbacco, vegetable, grain, and crop spraying.)

Perhaps the Israels have a point by making their young people work on Kibbutzs--or has that changed? Nothing beats classroom experience than actual working in the fields.

 

Well I thought my meaning was quite clear, but obviously it is not. A much smaller percentage of the population is involved in agriculture today.

Extension

Approximately 2% versus 70%-90% in 1870. That means that not everyone needs to know how to grow food, nor do we have the land to give everyone a plot. Kids should learn where food comes from and about nutrition and sustainability. It should not be required in college. How many of those farmers in 1870 do you think went to college.

For the politically minded governments and agribusiness have the control not family farms.
They ought to show this in middle school:welcome:

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2494759449/

Once the need for food is met there are higher needs. This thread was about higher education. Perhaps we eat too much as some 13th century spanish doctor said. I don't think it is a problem that those that live in apartments in big cities don't try to move down to the farm.