A bird's eye view of the vineyard
Alternative Copy of thesaker.is site is available Thu May 25, 2023 14:38 | Ice-Saker-V6bKu3nz
Alternative site: https://thesaker.si/saker-a... Site was created using the downloads provided Regards Herb
The Saker blog is now frozen Tue Feb 28, 2023 23:55 | The Saker
Dear friends As I have previously announced, we are now “freezing” the blog. We are also making archives of the blog available for free download in various formats (see below).
What do you make of the Russia and China Partnership? Tue Feb 28, 2023 16:26 | The Saker
by Mr. Allen for the Saker blog Over the last few years, we hear leaders from both Russia and China pronouncing that they have formed a relationship where there are
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Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.
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Christians Slam Paris Opening Ceremony for Woke Parody of ?Last Supper? Sat Jul 27, 2024 13:00 | Richard Eldred
Awful audio, bizarre performances, embarrassing gaffes and a woke 'Last Supper' parody that has outraged Christians turned the Paris Olympics opening ceremony into a rain-soaked disaster.
The post Christians Slam Paris Opening Ceremony for Woke Parody of ?Last Supper? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Victorian Laws Against Priests Meddling in Politics Are Now Needed More Than Ever ? To Prevent Imams... Sat Jul 27, 2024 11:46 | Steven Tucker
The Muslim Vote wants Labour to abolish Victorian ?spiritual influence? laws that prevent religious leaders from swaying voters, but Steven Tucker argues that in cities like Leicester these laws are more vital than ever.
The post Victorian Laws Against Priests Meddling in Politics Are Now Needed More Than Ever ? To Prevent Imams Doing the Same appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Live and Let D.E.I. Sat Jul 27, 2024 09:00 | Dr James Allan
Law professor James Allan has had a bet on Donald Trump to win the Presidency for two years. He's even more confident of winning now that Kamala Harris has become the Democratic nominee.
The post Live and Let D.E.I. appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Three Generations of Waughfare: Alexander Waugh (1963-2024) Sat Jul 27, 2024 07:00 | James Alexander
Politics professor James Alexander pays tribute to Alexander Waugh, the grandson of Evelyn Waugh and master of non-fiction prose who died aged 60 last week.
The post Three Generations of Waughfare: Alexander Waugh (1963-2024) appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
News Round-Up Sat Jul 27, 2024 01:48 | Toby Young
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
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If the platform is for free education for all, then I don't think it is one that I will be supporting. Those who can afford to pay to go to third-level education, should have to pay for the privilege. Our Universities have become more and more semi-privatised education production lines. Fees should not have been abolished. We cannot and could never afford to subsidise the wealthy to attend college. Those who can't afford it, should be helped. To say that education should be free to all is hopelessly naive and just serves to maintain the status quo and exclude working-class people form colleges. Going to college is not easy nor should it be, however, there are many who can afford to pay for it. Common sense should prevail.
Currently the poor subsidise the rich attending college.
In practice figures show that free fees and the grant scheme have not significantly helped change the imbalance of people attending college from socioeconomically disadvantaged groups vs the wealthy sectors who continue to benefit from free fees. There are other issues here as well it seems. Maybe to do with social culture, hidden registration costs (stealth fees currently 2k+) and possibly the actual application procedures.
But money is still also an issue. It seems to me that a compromise is in order here.
There should be a base level under which you pay no fees then above that, a graduated scale and a cutoff point whereby the state no longer subsidises you either through fees or grants.
Thereby, helping poorer people to attend, whilst not subsidising the rich. Same principle should apply regarding childrens allowance.
If the 'free fees' initiative should be abolished because the 'poor subsidise the rich', isn't the logical extension that free primary & secondary education should also be abolished on the same basis?
College fees exist. At €2,000, they're the second highest in the EU.
They're not there for equity reasons - as fees have been increased in recent budgets, the maintenance grant has been cut. It's naive to believe that increasing fees will provide additional funding for third level institutions, or student support schemes. They will be (and currently are) used to reduce public funding. Increases in fees have already coincided with reductions to the core block grant.
Unwittingly, those that support fees on equity grounds are supporting the extension of the neoliberal model which fuels inequality - a model which despises public services, and seeks to reduce public funding by shifting the costs burden onto to individual, in order to maintain low taxes on wealth & profits. This is the same underlying process affecting water charges, the health service & other public services. The application of these neoliberal principles to tertiary education is not the answer to improving equality of access. It's this economic model itself which needs to be opposed.
The reason the 'free fees' initiative has had limited success is because the barriers to education don't suddenly arise on the day a student receives their CAO results, they arise through the cumulative effects of inequality in a multitude of areas from the moment they're born. The child of a 'professional' can expect to get about 92 points more Leaving Certificate points than the child of a 'manual worker'. Attempts to address this at third level are always going to have a limited effect.
Educational disadvantage doesn't exist in a bubble - class still matters. It's only by addressing inequality, both inside and outside of education, that equality of access can be genuinely improved.
One of the primary methods for achieving this - within capitalism - is through progressive tax reform. The additional public funding gained through taxation could be used to target educational disadvantage at all levels, through funding areas like pre-school education, special needs assistants, retention initiatives, reducing pupil-teacher-ratios, maintenance grants which reflect the cost of living, and the Back to Education Allowance. Additional public funding, based on taxation of those who can afford it, can be used to reduce inequality in areas outside the education sector.
As for the argument that 'we can't afford it' - most companies either don't pay pay corporation tax, or pay an effective rate of between 4-7%, according tho the head of Trinitys School of Business [1]. Companies like Google uses tax avoidance schemes such as 'double Irish' to only pay €5.6 million in corporation tax on a turnover of €10 billion. [2] Taxes on wealth/capital, like CGT & CAT, also remain low.
The other typical argument is that higher taxes would 'damage competitiveness' . Higher tax economies, such as Sweden & Denmark, outperform Ireland in competitiveness rankings, according to the right-wing World Economic Forum. Part of the reason for this is that they use taxation to invest in areas like education, health, & infrastructure.
Shifting the cost burden onto students is not an economic necessity, it's a policy choice.
[1]http://www.tcd.ie/iiis/documents/discussion/abstracts/I...5.php , and another good article on corporation tax can be found at http://www.progressive-economy.ie/2011/04/125-per-cent-....html
[2]http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/google-paid-on....html
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