Sajay Samuel: How college loans exploit students for profit
Professor Sajay Samuel's proposal to reduce the burden of student loans is part of his larger preoccupation with thinking beyond the conventional categories of economics and ecology. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
for their passage to the new economy.
more than one trillion US dollars.
that is secured on their person.
gets a second chance.
their student loan debts.
graduating with debt.
graduated from Colorado State University
as a public good.
from Colorado State University,
by working part-time.
was affordable, reasonable,
you paid off by graduation date.
has become unaffordable
an expensive education
that you earned from it.
meets the road.
earned 10 percent more in 2001
than a quarter of those who must
can be the best of times,
in ways that you can't ignore.
is a consumer product you can buy.
just as the economists do now,
to improve the human stock
to sort and classify people
can hire them more easily.
ranks colleges
rates washing machines.
and soccer and science,
of the student loan industry.
of 1.2 billion dollars.
and packaged and sliced and diced,
in the higher education business
that they pretend to educate?
of addiction and envy."
upgraded versions of an iPhone,
more and more education.
on certifications and recertifications,
as a status object.
of a Louis Vuitton bag,
of envy of others.
hidden by a very noisy sales pitch.
on television telling us,
to a middle-class life."
is the college premium:
56 percent more than a high school grad.
working as baristas and cashiers.
in any form of post-secondary education,
including financial.
than high school grads,
for only those who complete it.
have been cut to the bone,
of what they have produced.
a bad investment for many.
are not going to find an adequate job.
doesn't look particularly promising --
about this college premium thing.
higher education as a consumer product?
what you're paying for.
miles per gallon to expect.
to the expected income.
from a given college and major.
to the huckster's ploy,
of the additional income they earn?
to Income-Based Tuition.
to manage costs better,
the same tuition for every major.
and should change.
as a consequence,
goes on and earns more money.
buy the same product,
half or a third of the service.
servicing their student debt,
when majors are priced more correctly.
of Income-Based Tuition,
and the fact of financial ruin
that they really want to.
students in America.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Sajay Samuel - EducatorProfessor Sajay Samuel's proposal to reduce the burden of student loans is part of his larger preoccupation with thinking beyond the conventional categories of economics and ecology.
Why you should listen
Sajay Samuel is an award winning professor of accounting at the Smeal College of Business at Penn State University. He has organized seminars and lectured widely in Europe and elsewhere on a range of topics, including science and technology, the political economy of professions and decision theory.
Samuel received his Masters in Accounting and Ph.D in Business Administration from Penn State University in 1990 and 1995 respectively. Since then he has taught management accounting and related subjects to undergraduates, graduates, MBAs and Executives over assignments that included stints at Bucknell University and the University of Connecticut. He returned to Penn State in 2003 and now teaches a capstone course to all undergraduate business majors titled, "Business and Industry Analysis."
Samuel was awarded the 2006 Lester J. Shonto Faculty Award for Excellence in Accounting Education. Dr. Samuel's research has been published in such scholarly journals as Accounting, Organizations and Society, Administration Science Quarterly and Symbolic Interaction. His most recent work on accounting, technology and on the history of ideas, has appeared in three articles in the Encyclopedia of Science, Technology and Ethics (2005). His current research aims at clarifying the political implications of accounting practice. His studies in this area concern the political significance of administrative agencies and professional associations in liberal democratic polities. He has presented the early fruits of this work in France, Italy, Germany and England.
Sajay Samuel | Speaker | TED.com