Student Debts Cartoon

As someone looking into colleges, I have always considered scholarships and other monetary offerings when looking at schools.  Why? Well, this cartoon rather aptly explains the reasons why.  College education in present times is very expensive, and many students have to take loans.  The poor man weighed down with a rather huge load in the cartoon has a five-figure student loan debt -and he has not even finished college yet.  This is a huge issue that Americans are dealing with in present times, that many college-educated students are laden with huge debts before they even finish their schooling.  Combined with the present job-market issues, does not bode well for these students.  

Of course, we have people who don’t believe this is that much of an issue, as shown by the parents standing in the doorway in the cartoon saying “we started out with nothing!”.  Well, better to have started out with nothing and having nothing to lose, and everything to gain, than starting with huge debts that must be paid first before ever gaining anything.  To view these people are irresponsible is to be incredibly short-sighted to the troubles that comes with debts and new times, and is irresponsible of the viewer themselves.  Jeff Parker makes a statement with this cartoon, that perhaps we should not blame the kids for coming back home, be a bit more understanding to their troubles, and maybe actually do something about the issue that is student loan debts.  There is, in fact, a reason why money is a HUGE thing I note when checking out colleges.  I, for one, do not want to be weighed down like that kid in the cartoon with huge debts and other problems.  

Wanted: Talented, driven. Pay: $0

Are unpaid internships an exploitation of students, or are they gaining valuable experience?  There’s a huge list of internship jobs, and as the article makes very clear: “Compensation: ‘non-pay’”.  Except, perhaps, a stipend for travel.  So, the rhetorical question is this: “Is is out-and-out exploitation, or a beneficial opportunity to work closely with mentors in one’s future field of endeavor?”  To me, with a sister working unpaid internships, it’s an issue not to be taken lightly.  Is she gaining real-world knowledge and useful contacts?  Or is she being taken advantage of as an unpaid worker?  

The article lays side-by-side the complaints and benefits, including examples of lawsuits where unpaid interns won millions of dollars for their trouble.  There aren’t many of them, though, simply because people are hesitant to file complaints -after all, they're relying on the company to provide a reference.  The defendants in the article say that they give their interns valuable information and that they leave with something useful.  They also mention that profit company internship programs must pass a test that emphasizes training.  They also placate their workers by saying that the intern does not replace the employee.  Both arguments sound good, especially since their juxtaposed with each other.  But the question is, which one is the truth?  It seems with the last sentence, our article supports the idea that unpaid internships are not all that great -especially when one needs to pay the rent.  

The Missing $20 Trillion

It's a well-known secret that many large corporations use tax havens to avoid paying their taxes. It makes them very unpopular, reducing their bills to the countries they serve in.  It is quite admirable of our legislation to attempt to get those companies to pay their dues, but it is a notion that's rather hypocritical, as noted in the article.
         Take for example Mitt Romney, who has holdings in the Cayman Islands, or Jack Lew, who once had interest in a Cayman fund.  The imagery of countries working on cleaning up their own backyards and reforming their tax systems is a powerful and humorous one, considering the sarcasm this article loves to include.
         Of course, the argument is that politicians are hypocritical and are going about this wrong, and the article explains why, by naming several places that are tax havens within countries, such as Delaware and the City of London.  So the point is made that reform should not just focus on isolated islands.  Of course, tugging at the heartstrings and moral values of the readers helps get the point across that everyone should be helping prevent wrongdoing, in this case by being transparent.
         The argument that lowering the tax rate will result in more tax money initially does not make any sense...until the article mentions that having high tax rates only spur tax avoiders.  It's and interesting and convincing logic; lower the tax rate so fewer companies will attempt to avoid them, without completely abolishing the tax, or raising the taxes so high that it actually harms business and thus encourages tax avoidance.