Photo credit: Glenn Dornbaum
On Thursday, Cornell students and some faculty members took to Ho Plaza to protest issues like the minimum wage and student loan debt as part of the national campaign called the Million Student March.
The protests began their demonstration outside Willard Straight Hall, taking turns to deliver speeches. Some carried signs reading “No justice, no peace! No racist police!” and “Abolish the Board of Trustees” as well as a large banner reading “Total Liberation From Domination.” Afterwards, the protesters marched to Day Hall while reciting chants calling for divestment from fossil fuels and against so-called poverty wages.
One unidentified student said that “intense competition and ruthless individualism has replaced shared humanity” and that “this is about retaking our democracy from the subversion of capitalism.” Quoting Matt Taibbi of the Rolling Stone, he called capitalism “the great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.”
Another said that a $15 minimum wage was a step in the direction towards the “abolishment of the wage system.” This rhetoric shouldn’t be entirely surprising given the overwhelmingly one-sided political leanings of the campus. There was also extensive discussion and condemnation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, with students noting the lack of transparency surrounding its origination and terms and criticizing the potential loss of American jobs as a result of its adoption.
The protestors here at Cornell and on campuses across the nation specified four demands: tuition-free public college, cancellation of all student debt, a $15 minimum wage for all campus workers, and immediate divestment from all fossil fuel companies. These demands echo the national economic agenda of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who has similarly called for tuition-free public colleges and a national $15 minimum wage. Like Sanders, the protestors failed to mention how to pay for all of their demands.
In reality, these proposals are very expensive. As of now, there is about $1.3 trillion in outstanding student debt. Free public college is estimated to cost about $750 billion over 10 years. In addition, it is hard to predict the costs and other negative consequences of a $15 minimum wage, and fossil fuel divestment has been shown to be a complete sham. Such a high minimum wage is sure to put many low-income Americans out of work and increase the barriers to getting entry-level jobs, making upward social mobility even more difficult. Given all of this, how exactly do these students propose to pay for the trillions of dollars their demands will cost and justify the undue negative social repercussions?
The answer is that they have no idea. It is extremely easy to demand free stuff, but hard to figure out how to pay for it or work to earn it. Demanding freebies is a road that leads to nowhere.
Eventually it will be universally known that Jesus would have us now flee to Him in faith from the destruction of hell and to His Kingdom coming on the whole earth.
Cancelation of student debt equates to a bail-out, something these students universally abhor when provided to persons they do not like.
Furthermore, the $1.2 trillion student debt forgiveness dwarfs the minimum wage increase, which is earned hour by hour. Seems like the Million Student Marchers are primarily advocating their own self interests. From the Million Student March website:
“As students and workers we must fight for social progress, equality . . .”
http://studentmarch.org/what-is-millionstudentmarch/
If indeed greenhouse gases contribute to “climate disruption”, then why is the most abundant greenhouse gas never mentioned by the Million Student Marchers, the mainstream media, and the politicians they love?
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/vapor_warming.html
Don’t believe the NASA? Then perhaps the EPA will convince:
http://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/kids/basics/today/greenhouse-gases.html
I say: Save the Earth. Protect the Environment. Divest from Water.
Way to quote the most extreme, leftist parts of the protest to paint the movement as radical. Fantastic journalism. 10/10.
What parts of the movement do you not consider to be radical?
I dont think any of the aims were exceptionally radical (with the exception of cancellation of student debt… lol). But the article immediately cites very extraneous, radical opinions that were not at all central to the protest, like abolish the board of trustees, abolish wage system, abolish capitalism which paints the wrong idea of what the protest was about.
I would say the opinions quoted were central to the protests. Most of the protesters applauded for these opinions. I wouldn’t say that the other 3 demands are extremely radical, but they are clearly very bad ideas which will not help those who it is supposed to help.
one milllion armpit hair strand march