Pyramid Comment

This journal takes an alternative view on current affairs and other subjects. The approach is likely to be contentious and is arguably speculative. The content of any article is also a reminder of the status of those affairs at that date. All comments have been disabled. Any and all unsolicited or unauthorised links are absolutely disavowed.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Future Spending In The UK



The process of 'create the problem and provide the solution' is well illustrated by the need for the spending review to claw back the alleged £bns that have effectively 'disappeared'. The claims are that a huge deficit exists. Perhaps it does, but the amount is completely unverifiable. If they say so then it must be true. Mustn't it? The government wouldn't lie, would it? The rise of the political elite is on its way at the same time as the subjugation of the people happens. It's orchestrated to happen in concert. Anyone who was well 'disillusioned' with the government just gone (labels) will be wanting all the pain to return. It's a perception of 'better than' even though it's all been so crudely planned. The devil we used to know (then) is 'better than' the one we (now) have.

Now

The plan for the future is well under way by trapping the entire next generation into subjugation (debt).

It is very odd that a decade is considered reasonable before any new aircraft carriers can be delivered for possible service. Indications are that these two 'new' vessels will actually never see service. The cancellation of the building contracts would incur punitive charges and it's cheaper to continue creating the unwanted. That may be so, but overall the commissioned carriers then need virtually perpetual running costs to maintain their activity. It seems more a political justification by the coalition government to just place the blame elsewhere and still acquire at cost something that is actually still necessary. The aircraft that would be moved around on the mobile military bases would not be available either. It would seem that all potential war theatres are 'officially' suspended until 2020. When there is public unrest within a country, an aircraft carrier is totally unnecessary. A police 'service' and a military force (army) are all that's needed by the state to control its people. If financial controls don't work. Little England will get its BIG elitist stick.

Ark Royal

The navy is being reduced in size and capacity and service personnel are being drastically reduced. War is no longer 'fashionable', though the threat of terrorism continues to be escalated. A solution to this apparent paradox could be provided by proposing that governments are conspiring to just condition people with fear. There seem to be no conflicts planned so the means to deal with any 'threat' can be discarded.  Real threats, it would seem, are all internal.

Danny Alexander 'gaffe'

It's not even a new trick to so crudely pass information 'unofficially' into the public domain: Caroline Flint episode.

posted by Louis Brothnias @ 2:42 am

Friday, October 15, 2010

Tuition Fees And Alan Johnson



Nearly 6 years ago, Alan Johnson (Higher Education minister) was in charge of pushing through a controversial reform of university funding that would usher in top-up fees for students: "to pay" for tuition fees of up to £3,000. In a perverse 'twist of fate', had Johnson still been Home Secretary, he would be responsible for policing the national unrest caused by coalition government plans to raise student tuition fees and charge students with settling the debt crisis. Johnson had initiated the 'pseudo-privatisation' of an elitist education system. This could never have (logically) happened in reality, but the shadow cabinet is, nevertheless, still in denial. Labour appear to claim that they cannot be held responsible for anything in the past: it's nothing to do with them. But politicians rely on spin in the hope that people will forget the original direction of affairs. Spin involves changing the direction of truth.

Johnson may have initiated a problem, but (was) conveniently moved away from its aftermath. It's as though he is being protected. But...

This is politics

He has now been switched to shadow chancellor and it would seem is not particularly well qualified, but ministers are only the talking head (the mouthpiece) and no academic ability is required. That has been perfectly demonstrated and endured throughout Dr. James Gordon Brown's tenure.

In incredibly crude and patronising attempts at conditioning the people, everything the coalition government plans is nearly always prefixed with "to reduce the debt created by the last labour government..." as if people constantly need reminding. They don't, but they do require to be persuaded that everything this (present) government does is necessary... but not their fault.

ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING

It's one reason to be selective about which quango will be chopped, since some decisions can be left to these bodies to avoid government being seen to be responsible.

Universities: Income Source

posted by Louis Brothnias @ 3:29 am

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Student Loans




  • A word of warning: before deciding to embark on a university education, consider very carefully the difference between perceived and real benefits. That's what these pages hope to achieve. Balance. The aim is to inform and not deter. Not everybody realistically should undertake tertiary education. In a similar way that a genetically capable runner will potentially make a good athlete or a heavily built and agile individual a good higher-weight boxer, so it is with 'cleverness'. That word itself conjures up all sorts of beliefs. Intelligence and technique as in swimming can make a very capable swimmer or perhaps just an'also swum'. Retention of facts is one thing, but logical reasoning using facts is quite another. The concept of IQ is misunderstood and intelligence has many forms.
    • Be careful. Be aware. Inform yourself. Be mindful of'trust' and who you should or not believe
    • Don't let your heart rule over your head
    • It's an expensive and ultimately (for most) a 'long' road (up to 30 years). A short period of careful deliberation could avoid a lifelong regret
    • Use Your Head
    • One fact to keep in mind: 30 years = 360 months and the £27,000 (3 x £9000) loan paid back over this period will 'start' at around £75/month and this excludes any interest. Any remaining debt will be written off...  but only after 30 years. Add interest and theamount/month will continuously rise.
      • The current projected cost of an undergraduate 3-year course is slightly in excess of the average salary (probably the average life-time maximum for some. The majority of the rest will fall below thsi figure. The minority of the rest will simply be the 'elite'). But, since the system will be 'allowed' to fail, there will not be a need to increase it. Perfect.
      • A consequence will inevitably generate a class of successful 'failures' who have very low self-esteem. This just plays into the game-plan of the elite society.

The series of articles that follow
on from here can easily
be summarised:

  • The growing population creates a potentially larger work force, but within any political precept (a Label is of any persuasion) there have to be some leaders and many in a position to be led. But importantly, it is beneficial to hide the fact that there are slave-owners and slaves. Call them 'upper-class' and 'lower-class' or what you will, but there is an hierarchy of position and the student loan débâcle is highly illustrative of its structure. In a word:
  • Essentially, to maximise the number of slaves, simply place any favourable progress out of reach by price controls. The wealthy have a massive advantage simply by virtue of affordability. The'free for all' (especially those from 'poor' backgrounds - DA) university route is, of course, quite the opposite. It is a shut and locked door preventing access and in the process creating a closed shop with access only to the elite. The result is apseudo-higher education for many who will never get to university because of the cost - a 273% hike in tuition fee costs. Note that the fees apply only to eligible students in England. The pricing structure forces English students studying in a university in Scotland or Wales to pay English tuition fee rates, but a student from Scotland or Wales at an English university will pay much, much less if anything at all. This is the (UK) government concept of fairness. It's tantamount to racial discrimination:


273%

  • This is rampant hypocrisy and absolutely true-to-form of a Conservative-government approach. The LibDems are the veryjunior members in the coalition farce and have behaved as turncoats (renege on promises) as shown by their own behaviour. And it's highly notable that Dr. Vince Cable(LibDem) initially responsible for the scheming plans (schemes -DA) was replaced by David Willets - a Conservative
  • The evidence can be interpreted (strongly suggests - DA) as dismantling the education system in England. The description of university (upgraded status from polytechnic) has become synonymous with a right of passage. An essential.Without it there can be no hope of advancement. This is potentially a very unwise interpretation. A good-grounding education should be up to a secondary level. A system that improves the educational standard of a general education should be good enough to stop here. But it isn't. In many cases it betrays the students even before tertiary education is deemed absolutely necessary. If the system performs well then a secondary level should be more than adequate for the majority. The imagined 'rat-race' is driven by profit acquisition. Profit for everyone except the 'educated' student who provides the source of profit. To attract the lucrative overseas students the illusion of a high standard is the most important feature. Not the indigenous student, but the...
lucrative international student

It is quite right to reward talent and hard work from whatever the background, but it is a fact of life that wealth can enable a better education/influence/position... It becomes elitist when the reward is crudely given to the favoured and undeserving. Stepping on the'lower classes' of society from above (by the self-styled 'upper classes' - DA). The terms 'upper' and 'lower' and 'classes' are nauseating and almost certainly coined by those of a presumed higher station. The creation of a two-tier system (the rich pulling away from the poor) and maintaining and enhancing the minimum wage has enabled a low paid work-force to grow while remainingpoorly paid. The minimum wage could be viewed as forcing a ceiling to the working pay-rate to help the low-paid.


It cynically does the opposite


by legally enabling a ceiling


below which pay structures


will remain



There is no legal obligation to pay an hourly rate above this minimum. Wages do not require increasing until government forces such an increase (usually an insulting few pence - DA).


This keeps the legal


minimum wage at just that:

the maximum wage payable


The elite society strides ahead of everyone else. An extra advantagegiven to the already advantaged.


  • A reasonable prediction is that many of the 'universities' upgraded from polytechnics will revert to their earlier status since student numbers will (predictably) fall considerably. Some may even find closure inevitable. Charging the full yearly £9000 (a single and massive 273% jump from the 2010/11fees of £3290) will be recognised as a very serious (or deliberate - DA) mistake. However, the long-term plan could be envisaged as a calculated plan to reverse the status of many 'universities' that will disappear (be demoted - DA) and resurface as polytechnics and colleges. The real reason will be unnoticed, but the newly improved elitist society will rise out of the ashes.
As the arguments progress, more of a mess seems to have been created. At the outset a certain level of logical thinking was presupposed (wrongly - DA). This becomes more and more difficult to reconcile and by the end, the mess appears to be... just a bigger mess. Randomly cobbling together and plugging holes. Towards the conclusion the original theme looks like either simple greed that would raise totally undeserved revenue or a deliberate construct to dismantle the university system. This would give enhanced advantage to the already advantaged and shackle everybody else, but give the (political appearance - DA) of the opposite. This latter option looks like the clear front-runner.


This sort of attitude happens in many other situations and is more like blatant stupidity and removes any implication of intelligence by presuming people will just pay up. They won't. Energy prices are different since people have essentially no choice. Government and energy companies work with this fact. Most people don't appreciate being cold in winter even though some have no choice and suffer death as the result. Such is greed (aka commercial profit): a few deaths is a reasonable price (for somebody else - DA) to pay. Councils do it by imposing constraints (eg congestion charge) at a time when businesses are beginning to thrive. The intelligent approach would attempt to keep prices down to encourage more growth, but the idiot would imagine that capitalising on 'growth' could actually increase revenue to council coffers.


  • Interest (out of view at bottom of page = "Interest rate from September 2010 to August 2011"): between 1 September 2010 and 31 August 2011, the interest rate may change because it is linked to the rates charged by high street banks.
    • This loan# is ostensibly (the illusion) made by government, but is clearly provided by the banks as a non-commercial loan. It is out of government control. Or simply just out of control. Governments do not have 'money': they just 'spend' revenue raised through taxation - DA.
    • 'The rate will be the lower [sic] of the Retail Price Index (RPI) in March 2010, or 1 per cent above the highest base rate of a nominated group of banks' (not declared). As March’s RPI was 4.4 per cent, the maximum rate of interest you may be charged between 1 September 2010 and 31 August 2011 is 4.4 per cent. The charge for 2011/2012 and onwards:
unknowable

  • # When governments borrow money there is no problem. It is only everybody else who has the problems
  • Self-sustaining inflation. The (not very well - DA) hidden design concept for growth.
  • The rate applies to all income contingent loan customers including students currently studying (2010/2011) at university or college. The growing rate cannot be known.
  • This encapsulates the Usury And Islamic Student Loans issue: a moving target that constantly changes (and only upwards - DA). No fixed 'up front' declared profit and totally open to maximise the profiteering yield. This is regarded as unethical. But is an 'accepted (UK) business practice' (and most of the debt-based (= interest-yielding) global financial systems - DA).
The bubble has finally burst on a general university education for all as being the most important event in life. It isn't. Those with a higher intellect should be encouraged to improve it. It is a fact of human existence that some will be brighter than others. In the same way that some individuals will make better athletes than others be they runners, swimmers, gymnasts, cyclists, dancers, ice-skaters... Intelligence can be nurtured, but not everyone will benefit. Again, it's all about money and advantage acquisition. Many can thrive given the opportunity, though not everyone. Those who are unlikely to benefit should not be tricked into paying for something that will help little. The system should never, ever be abused by allowing money and position to achieve even greater advantage. This is corrupt thinking.


A silk purse can never be made out of a
pig's ear however much money
is thrown at the pig


There is a simple premise at the outset: make the acquisition of 'A' levels easier to grow the intake numbers with aspirations of university entrance. The short-term and long-term objectives are to swell the numbers (especially from poorer backgrounds) requiring a 'loan'. Nothing to pay 'up front', but a grotesque debt growing silently behind.


  • The term 'easier' does not mean a lower-grade of difficulty. The system has been changed to be more modular and so progress should be constantly monitored. A final exam does not cover the earlier course work in detail since this has already been 'done and dusted'. There is less to do at the completion of a course and the earlier work could theoretically be 'forgotten' without impacting on the overall result
GCSE
GCE Advanced Level
IBCC (International Baccalaureate Career-related Certificate)


Students from wealthy backgrounds do not require a loan and will, therefore, have nothing to pay back. The red-herring that there will be safeguards to prevent early repayment is clear. Early repayment?Not if there is never a loan.


The entire system is nasty...


What should be uppermost in the mind is that these debts are only a part of the much BIGGER (global) picture. This involves the entrapment of everyone poor enough to need a loan. Every living and working or non-working human. The parasite feeds as aparasitoid.  All cultures have some kind of monetary system and most of it based on debt. The ethos behind the greed and associated control is enslavement. This quite graphically explains why debt is encouraged and extended ultimately 'financed' by the taxpayers of any country. Taxes are a 'fact' of existence. Greece had a lot of tax avoidance and has been brought under control by forced 'loans' as a consequence.


Increasing the amount under which no payment on a student loan is required can actually increase the amount repayable. The proposed increase from £15,000 to £21,000 could sound a good idea, but the most important piece of information is the interest rate on any unpaid capital balance and this is announced annually and is supposed to remain at that rate for the entire academic year (1st September -> 31st August). This is never discussed by pontificating politicians and how the loan system can 'benefit the low earner' (below £21,000). The national average wage is laughably claimed to be £26,000. Clearly it's not and the student attracting a debt through anuncontrolled sky-rocketing tuition-fee system is not even expected to come close. Whether or not the eventual threshold requires payment, any interest rate in excess of 0% will still increase the debt.


  • Unless the rate is 0%, interest will still be added to any loan, but the repayable yield will just continue to increase. If repayment is not required (earnings fall below the £21,000), interest will continue to just enhance the debt. The least required to be paid back the most interest that becomes payable. And for longer. It’s built into the financial system.
Credit Card Debt


If you want to buy a house, car or anything that requires long-term finance, you may as well forget it. The student loan takes a savage cut into earnings. The income tax levy by itself is large and the residue just becomes smaller. Everyone ends up working for the state for a lifetime. More hours, less pay. Needing to work into old-age and then to look forward to 'enjoying' a (probably) reduced pension (eventually) for a shorter time. People can be kept alive for longer, but the quality of life is not improved. Dead people have no value. The 'living' are valuable as just existing costs money. Eating, feeding, living..., being unwell yet living a poor quality of life. Wonderful. Work your way into a retirement home and the profits from working end up paying for survival.


Live to work (and pay your taxes) so
that you can survive after work
(and pay for your keep)


Read NOW > Animal Farm < Read NOW


Anyone who accepts a politician's version of the truth probably believes in fairies. When a politician grasps power, the change (betrayal) is predictable. Not a change for the people, but a change in attitude. Go into politics and subscribe to an entirely new belief system. Virtually overnight: one moment without power, the next with unlimited power followed by...







Dr. Vince Cable (free education) as a Lib Dem has moved his position since becoming a minister in the coalition government.


Business Secretary Dr. Cable faced an angry backlash from fellow Lib Dem MPs after he binned plans for a graduate tax. Instead he and Deputy PM Nick Clegg are set to back plans for a big rise in tuition fees - something they vowed to OPPOSE during the election campaign. At the time Lib Dem leader Mr Clegg apparently even claimed a hike in tuition fees would be a "disaster".


Integrity is lacking by the bucket-load, though is replaced by buckets filled with the brown stuff. What is truly nauseatingly predictable (and politicians are nothing else) is the absolute hypocrisy of their pontificating and supremely patronising and (not very well disguised) sarcastic comments regarding their own free education that they would deny others, yet pile the misery onto everyone else. Clegg publicly communicates that he cannot decide. Privately???


  • It's very likely that the entire financial crisis has been planned and orchestrated on a world-wide basis to ensnare the people everywhere on the planet, but especially the wealthy nations. All the more to plunder. Create the problem, but instead of then providing the solution, just make the problem worse. It's about power and control and the absolute subjugation of the people.
The financial gain from amortisation must not be overlooked either. There is no student control possible and the rate is solely at government whim. Raising tuition fees targets the less well off since a loan becomes more important (and necessary) to these students. Wealthy backgrounds have the advantage of not requiring a loan in the first place or allow repayment of a loan very quickly, even deferring until just before the first interest yield can be added to the capital. It is unknown when the interest clock starts ticking: Day 1 of Year 1 or Day 1 of Year 4 (3-year degree course).


It's known now (late into 2011) and after many have committed to that academic year:


Day 1 of Year 1


Supremely cynical and incredibly nasty.


  • The debt begins to increase from this day onward for up to 30 years. So choose. Either a house to live in and ultimately ownor a degree of questionable value.
The wealthy can cynically take advantage and 'borrow' a student loan then repay in total before incurring any charges. Or at least minimal.Raising tuition fees is simply raising the level of cynicism.


  • At best the institutions (banks, building societies...) will maximise any interest on savings accounts at around 2.7%, though charging at least x3 this amount for loans. This suggests a deliberate policy of encouraging to spend and not save since interest from savings cannot overtake losses from inflation. It's crude. It's nasty. It's obvious.
Student Loan Interest Rate Rise


  • Example: "As a post-1998 loan holder, with student debts amounting to roughly £20,000, it comes as little surprise that the 0% interest rate has been removed – students had to start getting charged interest again at some point. When I wrote about this in April, I explained I had been working in a job last year (before the 0% rate kicked in) that required me to pay back roughly £30 a month on my student loan. However the interest charged monthly was £60 a month. Something needs to be changed about this system. At that rate, I will never pay back my loan."
Why change a system that is functioning

precisely how it was designed to work? It's


as bad (or worse) as an interest-only


mortgage.


Graduate Debt Trap


The most nauseating conditioning is the clear suggestion that an'educated' individual will have a greater potential for earning over a lifetime. Clearly, such 'educated' people can pay more and therefore they must. Their debt will be more affordable: affordable debt. The generation that could provide an escape for a future will be chained to the past.


In principle it's about 'market forces' and only the potential return. It's the capitalist way and is only partly about growth and selective greed. The concept of interest allows poor people to imagine they can actually become rich people. Unless the original sources of wealth can be recreated this is an impossibility. The rich-poor divide will always be the class system whatever the engineering techniques.


  • Repaying the minimum on a credit card balance is now recognised as poor money management for the borrower since the interest grows at an alarming rate. It's perfect for the lender and represents 'good' business. It's effectively legalised strangulation.
Shame of the Lib Dems


Another part of the scenario is the creation of an elitist ruling class.Tertiary education will revert to a system in reality only available to the wealthy class. This recovers the control perceived as being lost to the masses. This must scare those currently still in control: authority over the police and army. The state method of controlling the growing unrest amongst the masses and amounts to a repressive regime.


The details are not yet confirmed but the principle is already quite clear. The so-called 'middle-rich' (a meaningless and nauseating term like 'affordable') are to be the target for paying off the huge financial deficit 'inherited from the last government'. This translates to the wealthy being protected at the expense of everybody who is not 'rich'. The concept of the national minimum wage was clearly designed to restrict pay and not increase it to a reasonable level. This can benefit only the employer who now has a device enshrined in law for keeping pay levels down to a minimum. 


Cameron (Astor)
Wealth Creation


The red (Labour) attitude was always borrow now and pay later (unqualified future) in the sole interest of power and control while the blue way is to ring fence the rich by using the poor. Technically a psuedo-coalition government, but in reality a Tory one in disguise. The masses still imagine a truly compromise-style, but focus on labels. The working classes of all persuasions provide the wealth that is'collected' by the parasite. It's the basis of the aristocracy mind-set and everything is based on making someone else pay. Mostly those who cannot afford it, but that's always the goal.




  • If you're not a Tory or Labour-minded individual, then you are kicked about like a ball, but in somebody else's game.
It's the political engineering of society to

enrich the wealthy and control the poor


It's clearly been happening in America for a relatively short time, though poorly hidden for a lot longer. In the United Kingdom (England and elsewhere)?


Centuries

posted by Louis Brothnias @ 2:15 am