Debt Peonage, American Style

One of the standard techniques used by aristocracies to turn themselves into oligarchies is debt peonage. The general idea is to somehow get the lower classes so deeply in debt that they owe their souls to the company store. A big area of success for the American plutocracy is our university system. A generation or so ago, a student could get an education even at a private school for a lot less than the price of a nice house, but no longer. Many students now come out of school with debts so large that they are forced into a kind of peonage for their most productive years - a good deal for American corporations but a bad deal for innovation and entrepreneurship.

It seems like a lousy idea to me, and just another way the blankety-blank bankers control the country. Now if you would just stand back out of the way, Mr. Obama, I think we have some torches for them right handy.

Europe seems to be quite different, with a university education being free or heavily subsidized. Anybody with experience care to comment?

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