One of my frustrations that relates somewhat to your post, there-there, is the idea that since some people did it "right" they have no patience for others doing it differently. This isn't what you said, I'm just using your post as a departure point. There are all these FB pics of people holding up cards - is this the 53% thing I've heard of? - saying that they worked through college, lived within their means, etc. so they are now NOT asking for a handout and only lazy hippies do.
Good for all those people that live within their means, that didn't rack up debt, that did do it "right". But the point is Wall Street and banks did not do the same thing. They lied to get money, gambled with that money on bets they knew they could not repay, used it to ensure the failure of other companies at their own profit, denied to regulators that any of this was happening, and bought lawmakers to loosen regulations. For this they were not only NOT subject to any criminal penalties, they were bailed out by the money paid in taxes by the people who did everything "right".
Again, I hesitate to use the word fair, but it's not right or fair that our money is being used to purchase policies and actions that go directly against us.
Here's the thing about student loan forgiviness. It would completely be unfair, that's correct. However, life is completely unbelievably unfair. Is it fair that I was born in America and my cousin was born in Mexico? No. Is it fair that you were able to save your money and someone else had to deal with family illness, or no extra money to save? No. So the unfair thing, to me, is a non-starter.
For me, it's more important to look at the big picture. And the big picture is that, as it currently stands, an entire generation is shackled to massive amounts of student loan debts - debts that can never be discharged. These debts prevent them from:
- job mobility
- buying a house
- investing
- starting up a new business
- consuming more goods
- contributing to their neighborhoods
- investing in further education (for example, I've been toying with the idea of a career change in order to make more money (a.k.a. be a more productive member of society), but I can't, because I can't afford to add more debt to my load and can't afford tuition otherwise
...this means that, in one generation, our whole economy is going to start feeling very bad side effects of an entire segment of its population unable to invest or to spend.
When you look at the problem of massive student loan debt in the aggregate, you begin to see the loan-holders (the 1%) becoming insanely rich while the rest of the entire country slowly slides back into low-incomes and ultimately, you get GDP stagnation.
So the question is not whether it would be fair (of course not), but whether it would be better for the long-term stability of our country's economy.
And I would actually double this up and reverse it, too. As in "mobility" to a job.
One thing about companies who are still hiring are having problems with is that they know candidates do exist elsewhere but many of these potential candidates are unable or unwilling to relocate for work.
And while student loans may not be considered truly burdensome, i.e., a "first world problem," someone who has difficulty paying them may have a significantly impacted credit score that would prevent them from qualifying for a new apartment lease, a short-term personal loan or a new mortgage.
something missing off your list manta is that it also prevents many from having children, or when/if they have them, is likely to prevent them from affording to educate those children because they'll still be paying for their own education in 20 or 25 years so can't possibly save for someone else's. Our student loans are going to become an issue again in 18–25 years when those of our generation who manage to have kids find that they can't help to educate them.
This was the second night in last 3-4 weeks I went to some event 24 hours too early!! Check the dates man!
Observed: definitely feel the economy from dimmed down outlook of usually bustling Sunset Plaza of Los Angeles. I don't think the place can survive with just a weekend traffic. There were a lot of vacant storefronts and recently changed business names, if the glam biz is down, imagine the rest.
hahaha, no you're not. Your comment history makes you a likable person. You're that really cute girl you recently met, and by third date you find out she's a member of the nazi party. :) Still cute. For a nazi.
I still can't figure out what your previous handle was.
"Our student loans are going to become an issue again in 18–25 years when those of our generation who manage to have kids find that they can't help to educate them." the idea is that they get loans too, ain't it? or maybe we just go the way of idiocracy (great movie)
my parents never offered to pay for uni. isn't that the norm in NA anymore? here in japan parents are expected to pay for school, so loans are not so big a deal. 18 year saving plans that start when kids are born are pretty big though. not sure if that is a good thing. i do feel kids should pay their own way somehow. or at least some chunk of it....
lol orhan, must feel like you visited the future when you go next day again.
btw, i hear there are lots of jobs in north dakota. it was on the news and everything.
there-there, you are extremely smart but sometimes hold views different from mine. That doesn't make you an asshole, but from my perspective it means you're not thinking things through completely, and from your perspective it means I'M not thinking things through completely, and discussions is how we get to see where each other's perspective is coming from.
manta that's why I don't like to use the word fair when making these arguments: life is NOT fair, and there's a somewhat valid argument that it's dog eat dog and if poor people suffer so rich can have more well that's just life. But it's not the life or community I want to be part of, and for now I'd rather fight to make the existing structure MORE fair than just give up.
another major issue for unemployment is the ridiculous idea of being "over educated"... this is a reason that a lot of the "dirty hippies" at the occupy events don't have jobs... my wife has been unemployed for extended periods of time on three different occasions over the past 3-4 years... she is a lawyer... she applied for every type of job under the sun with absolutely zero luck because she was "over educated and over qualified"... she applied to be a cashier at IKEA... she applied to be the person that cleans airplanes between flights... she applied to be assistant manager at a convenience store... she applied to be an office manager, a secretary, a personal assistant, etc., etc., etc... although she never really complained too much about it, i know that this was absolutely humiliating for her... at one point we actually decided that she should essentially erase half of her resume so that she might have a shot at some of these service level jobs...
THE PROBLEM WAS NOT THAT SHE WASN'T WILLING TO TAKE ONE OF THESE JOBS, IT WAS THAT THEY WERE NEVER OFFERED BECAUSE SHE WAS "OVERQUALIFIED"
[not to interrupt this fascinating discussion about the crippling impacts of student loan debts (as I feel that pain everyday), but:]
eek! my dean just emailed me with the following request (and he wants a reply by this afternoon):
Could you give me the names of five leading figures in the world of the environmental design disciplines who have demonstrated creativity in thinking about the future?
Not sure where to start - Bruce Sterling, William Gibson, Ray Kurzwell are not designers... Foster seems to be on a roll, but who else?
i actually like the federal employee student loan forgiveness plan... it limits your payments for your federal loans to a percentage of income, if you pay 120 payments on time without default, the rest of your loan is forgiven. so, it's certainly not a drastic as loan forgiveness really sounds, you're still paying a healthy amount for your 10 years. But it offers an incentive to the student to pay back the loan on-time, it also has an idea that lenders maybe should be evaluating our prospects, though it's treated like an employer incentive with this approach, keeping people in the public service for 10 years to qualify.
so, the loan forgiveness that people talk about is not as drastic as it seems. It's not like people are looking to wipe 100k off their credit rap sheet. I don't think that's realistic.
Donna - agreed that we should work to make life as fair as possible. However, when folks use the "we can't forgive mortgage default / student loan debt / etc. because it's unfair" line, I find it a specious argument - because frankly it was unfairness in the first place that caused a lot of those problems. It was unfair that mortgage loan officers lied to get people into homes they couldn't afford. It is unfair that universities raise tuition costs while you're still in school, trapping you into paying more than you had planned you could afford. So bringing up the "unfairness" of it all only when it suits your argument is specious. - and more importantly, it's not germane to the point, since the question of debt-forgiveness is one of the economic functioning of society as a whole, not a question of morality.
However yes, I agree that yes, we should work to make the world more fair. But I know a lot of people who say that in the abstract but when it finally comes down to brass tacks, and they discover they are in fact on the side of the "haves", suddenly they're not so keen on fairness.
It doesn't make your loans go away, and it certainly doesn't address the cause, but it does help to lower payments while you aren't making any money (for an architect, that means your entire career). Also, they've quit subsidizing private banks and put direct loans into the hands of the dept. of education which I think is a big step.
Phillip: "another major issue for unemployment is the ridiculous idea of being "over educated""
Well, you DO become a flight risk if you are working in a position you are overqualified for. It only makes sense. The second you get an offer for a position in your own field, you will leave whatever puke scrubbing job you currently have.
Best way to remedy this (in lieu of lying on the resume) is to look for contract and short term gigs. Easy to honor without anyone feeling gipped. Once your wife has few of such gigs under her belt, then she will receive stronger consideration for full time positions that may be outside her field.
I'm one of those "over-qualified, and unemployed" people. I am also, because I make no money personally, curious about the percentage of income loan paybacks, but I figure they would just look at Husband's income, and disqualify me. It can be a rough point of contention for him to be paying back MY student loans, and me not having any tangible benefit from the education.
I feel there should be some sort of rule that locks student tuition at the rate when they enrolled, at least for the first 5 years (I could see those that continue undergrad for 8+ years being an issue)
And if they were to wipe out just the interest on loans, would that be before or after the re-consolidations? I mean, I've got nearly 10 grand in capitalized interest alone.
Truly, this discussion is fascinating. The only thing that would make it better is a big table, and a glass of wine/beer!
"down-and-out good against respectable evil." It was used in reference to Hunter Thompson and the character he created in The Rum Diary. But it strikes me as a good fit for most of the struggles which go on in the world, not the least of which frequently involve the working poor. . .
A friend posted this today at Facebook....the plight of the working poor is a bit more evident here in Connecticut this past week...as there are still alot of people without electrical power...and the nights are getting colder. This is six days without power for many people.
gotta be alive - the dean want's to invite somebody for a week long residency. Hmmm, Brian McCutchen does nice 'environmental' work. As I posted to FB, I'm trying to avoid the grey-haired boomers like Mazria & McDonough to give a young-up-n-comer a shot. So far my short list includes Phillipe Rahm and the Landartgenerator initiative folks. Maybe Cameron or Tim Beatley...
OK, VisionDivision. Try them. Their most recent piece "The Patient Gardener" is all about the future! VisionDivision.com Their entire oeuvre is about bizarre approaches to landscape and nature; the Cancer City project - cancer meaning crawfish - is really great.
Donna, I love novel "man-made" approaches to nature like that. Although I think they make people a little uneasy because it borders into that "playing God" domain that seems to have an underlying creep factor to it.
I do like the demarcation through between nature for humans and nature for nature. Surprisingly, the Medieval era saw a lot of experiments in 'landscape urbanism' where people became pretty adept at manipulating nature in perceptively cruel ways.
barry, i received the same e mail after midnight and sent in about 7-8 names in the wee hours. do you think we were duped to give out names in a chain mail scheme? btw, i had a completely different list but similar perimeters.
@ barry, if it's design side how about mason white and lola sheppard ? they just won the holcim award and did that pamphlet publication last year...young and interesting and being recognised but the recognisers out there, which must mean something. AND there is the archinect connection as well, which is cool.
I'm not a fan of both too, Joachim doesn't seem to understand biology or gravity, and fritz isn't exactly original (or a good garden designer either). But done, after wasting over an hour.
rusty! "I'm telling you, you need an iPad. You can even use knuckles to input data. Finally a computer for the rest of us."
this made me chuckle.
Also re: the Obama recent student loan repayment announcement. I had the exact same reaction. why aren't more people excited about it. seems to me it will be quite helpful. at least in my house. my understanding of the original IBR law from a few years ago was that it was pushed threw by people wanting to make it easier for best and brightest to go into public service/nonprofit work not just going after money.
can't imagine how blanket loan forgiveness would work. in terms of effect on the economy. would govt just make it a tax write-off or somehow subsidize the loss?
switching topics entirely i just wanted to say somewhere that the new design as well as the tools and bits and bobs that paul (and his crew) put into the new version of archinect are impressive as hell.
i keep stumbling on stuff that i didnt know was there and love (like how my address for our office is automatically turned into a google map on the contact page). i guess in the age of social media this is normal but i find it all very coolio.
nam - I would have cared more when I was in my 20s and struggling to make my student loan payments. I think it's good for other people who are in the same situation I was, but it doesn't really affect me anymore.
I changed my profile picture. Possibly the most productive thing I've done in the last 48 hours. it's been a one step forward two step back kind of a day.
Thankfully my parents are coming to stay with me for a week! Mom and dad are so fun and love to hang out, cook, drink, and laugh. Plus Angus gets super happy when he's around them!
Nam, the reason I'm not more excited is that using that plan would make me pay more on my student loans over the total life of the loan because it's stretching it out so long. A standard loan repayment is 10 years—doubling that only hurts in the long run.
My loans are all 30 year notes. We aren't planning on paying for Abram's college because we will still be paying for mine. He does have 529 acct, though, so that's something.
So after a very busy summer of picking up various contracts things have dried up. Significantly. Good news is that I'm following a number of very promising leads and I just picked up a part-time on-site project manager gig. Two or three months. Never did any significant on-site work before. I'm also hoping for some bigger spec work to fall in my lap. Things are never stable in work-for-yourself world.
In other news, I think I done goofed myself on archinect again. Not sure what I did this time around, but peeps are not happy. Too much humor is inappropriate. Just few more complaints to Paul and I'm outta here! Hear that gang? Time to participate in democratic process that actually works (in silencing someone, but that's besides the point).
Earlier today, my union (yes, the faculty of the CSU system are unionized like most public employees in cali) voted for a one day strike as our contract negotiations were going poorly! Cal Poly will just have informational picketing, while CSU East Bay and CSU Dominguez Hills will be shut down on Nov 17th. Life is getting more interesting...
erin the main reason i am exited is the repayment provision wherein if you work for a 5013c nonprofit and pay taxes for 10 years (i believe non-consecutive) than any remaining balance is cleared.
with my current line of work in academic health care and possible work in future teaching this would help include me and is a nice reason to stick to public/non-profit sectors.
toast, did you have loans and have simply repaid all of them? if so how long did it take you?
rusty I'm the one who should be booted lately - someone on the Occupy thread is bringing out my inner grumpy monkeywrencher. Things are changing, and I'm seeing inequalities more and more. Example: I'm very unhappy with the reality of my current status - adjunct - at the university I'm at. This is the reality of low-paid, insecure adjunct work, but it sucks, and it is more and more common for teachers (and all workers) to be adjunct than in any kind of secure position. For the moment the regular work is overly busy, but I'm more aware lately of how quickly the plentiful work can disappear. Fingers crossed for a decent spring.
"I'm very unhappy with the reality of my current status - adjunct - at the university I'm at. This is the reality of low-paid, insecure adjunct work, but it sucks, and it is more and more common for teachers (and all workers) to be adjunct than in any kind of secure position."
I'll second, third, and fourth that comment. I went through about a week of extreme grumpiness about this issue earlier this semester. I still have a problem with the fact that I could make more money as a TA for a class at Penn than I make teaching a 3-credit lecture course at Temple.
i can understand that donna. it is a difficult kind of position that really works great for the university but not so good for teachers. mixed feelings about whether it is good for students...
nam I loved that provision - and totally would have taken advantage of it if I were just a few years younger. That's the field I really wanted to go into, anyway (and figure out how to combine it with architecture) but couldn't do it, precisely because of my loans. I mean that was literally the only reason - I was set for every other requirement, but the Peace Corps and other similar programs provide a monthly living stipend that is not high enough to pay monthly student loan premiums. Thus only the people I knew with no loans were going into it.
Anyway, obviously that didn't work out for me, which is fine - I have enjoyed my work history nonetheless. But anyway - as I recall, that new law only applies to super recent grads and I missed the cutoff by a chunk of years. Seems like there's a segment of folks who graduated from about '96 to about '05 that kind of have fallen between the cracks in these student loan propositions. Tuition/student loan amounts were already crazy high then but the legislation/current discussions all seem to be revolving around recent grads, not those now in their 30s.
.....this year's most inspiring professor in an architecture school had to collect unemployment during the summer break.... and his current salary is about the same as unemployment insurance pay... adjuncts are academy's day laborers. they are definitely on the dark side of this educational system, yet in most cases they bring much needed professional experience, excitement, expertise and color to departments.
Thread Central
One of my frustrations that relates somewhat to your post, there-there, is the idea that since some people did it "right" they have no patience for others doing it differently. This isn't what you said, I'm just using your post as a departure point. There are all these FB pics of people holding up cards - is this the 53% thing I've heard of? - saying that they worked through college, lived within their means, etc. so they are now NOT asking for a handout and only lazy hippies do.
Good for all those people that live within their means, that didn't rack up debt, that did do it "right". But the point is Wall Street and banks did not do the same thing. They lied to get money, gambled with that money on bets they knew they could not repay, used it to ensure the failure of other companies at their own profit, denied to regulators that any of this was happening, and bought lawmakers to loosen regulations. For this they were not only NOT subject to any criminal penalties, they were bailed out by the money paid in taxes by the people who did everything "right".
Again, I hesitate to use the word fair, but it's not right or fair that our money is being used to purchase policies and actions that go directly against us.
Here's the thing about student loan forgiviness. It would completely be unfair, that's correct. However, life is completely unbelievably unfair. Is it fair that I was born in America and my cousin was born in Mexico? No. Is it fair that you were able to save your money and someone else had to deal with family illness, or no extra money to save? No. So the unfair thing, to me, is a non-starter.
For me, it's more important to look at the big picture. And the big picture is that, as it currently stands, an entire generation is shackled to massive amounts of student loan debts - debts that can never be discharged. These debts prevent them from:
- job mobility
- buying a house
- investing
- starting up a new business
- consuming more goods
- contributing to their neighborhoods
- investing in further education (for example, I've been toying with the idea of a career change in order to make more money (a.k.a. be a more productive member of society), but I can't, because I can't afford to add more debt to my load and can't afford tuition otherwise
...this means that, in one generation, our whole economy is going to start feeling very bad side effects of an entire segment of its population unable to invest or to spend.
When you look at the problem of massive student loan debt in the aggregate, you begin to see the loan-holders (the 1%) becoming insanely rich while the rest of the entire country slowly slides back into low-incomes and ultimately, you get GDP stagnation.
So the question is not whether it would be fair (of course not), but whether it would be better for the long-term stability of our country's economy.
- job mobility
And I would actually double this up and reverse it, too. As in "mobility" to a job.
One thing about companies who are still hiring are having problems with is that they know candidates do exist elsewhere but many of these potential candidates are unable or unwilling to relocate for work.
And while student loans may not be considered truly burdensome, i.e., a "first world problem," someone who has difficulty paying them may have a significantly impacted credit score that would prevent them from qualifying for a new apartment lease, a short-term personal loan or a new mortgage.
Wow. I guess I am a total asshole.
something missing off your list manta is that it also prevents many from having children, or when/if they have them, is likely to prevent them from affording to educate those children because they'll still be paying for their own education in 20 or 25 years so can't possibly save for someone else's. Our student loans are going to become an issue again in 18–25 years when those of our generation who manage to have kids find that they can't help to educate them.
This was the second night in last 3-4 weeks I went to some event 24 hours too early!! Check the dates man!
Observed: definitely feel the economy from dimmed down outlook of usually bustling Sunset Plaza of Los Angeles. I don't think the place can survive with just a weekend traffic. There were a lot of vacant storefronts and recently changed business names, if the glam biz is down, imagine the rest.
"Wow. I guess I am a total asshole."
hahaha, no you're not. Your comment history makes you a likable person. You're that really cute girl you recently met, and by third date you find out she's a member of the nazi party. :) Still cute. For a nazi.
I still can't figure out what your previous handle was.
"This was the second night in last 3-4 weeks I went to some event 24 hours too early!! Check the dates man!"
I'm telling you, you need an iPad. You can even use knuckles to input data. Finally a computer for the rest of us.
"Our student loans are going to become an issue again in 18–25 years when those of our generation who manage to have kids find that they can't help to educate them." the idea is that they get loans too, ain't it? or maybe we just go the way of idiocracy (great movie)
my parents never offered to pay for uni. isn't that the norm in NA anymore? here in japan parents are expected to pay for school, so loans are not so big a deal. 18 year saving plans that start when kids are born are pretty big though. not sure if that is a good thing. i do feel kids should pay their own way somehow. or at least some chunk of it....
lol orhan, must feel like you visited the future when you go next day again.
btw, i hear there are lots of jobs in north dakota. it was on the news and everything.
there-there, you are extremely smart but sometimes hold views different from mine. That doesn't make you an asshole, but from my perspective it means you're not thinking things through completely, and from your perspective it means I'M not thinking things through completely, and discussions is how we get to see where each other's perspective is coming from.
manta that's why I don't like to use the word fair when making these arguments: life is NOT fair, and there's a somewhat valid argument that it's dog eat dog and if poor people suffer so rich can have more well that's just life. But it's not the life or community I want to be part of, and for now I'd rather fight to make the existing structure MORE fair than just give up.
another major issue for unemployment is the ridiculous idea of being "over educated"... this is a reason that a lot of the "dirty hippies" at the occupy events don't have jobs... my wife has been unemployed for extended periods of time on three different occasions over the past 3-4 years... she is a lawyer... she applied for every type of job under the sun with absolutely zero luck because she was "over educated and over qualified"... she applied to be a cashier at IKEA... she applied to be the person that cleans airplanes between flights... she applied to be assistant manager at a convenience store... she applied to be an office manager, a secretary, a personal assistant, etc., etc., etc... although she never really complained too much about it, i know that this was absolutely humiliating for her... at one point we actually decided that she should essentially erase half of her resume so that she might have a shot at some of these service level jobs...
THE PROBLEM WAS NOT THAT SHE WASN'T WILLING TO TAKE ONE OF THESE JOBS, IT WAS THAT THEY WERE NEVER OFFERED BECAUSE SHE WAS "OVERQUALIFIED"
[not to interrupt this fascinating discussion about the crippling impacts of student loan debts (as I feel that pain everyday), but:]
eek! my dean just emailed me with the following request (and he wants a reply by this afternoon):
Could you give me the names of five leading figures in the world of the environmental design disciplines who have demonstrated creativity in thinking about the future?
Not sure where to start - Bruce Sterling, William Gibson, Ray Kurzwell are not designers... Foster seems to be on a roll, but who else?
i actually like the federal employee student loan forgiveness plan... it limits your payments for your federal loans to a percentage of income, if you pay 120 payments on time without default, the rest of your loan is forgiven. so, it's certainly not a drastic as loan forgiveness really sounds, you're still paying a healthy amount for your 10 years. But it offers an incentive to the student to pay back the loan on-time, it also has an idea that lenders maybe should be evaluating our prospects, though it's treated like an employer incentive with this approach, keeping people in the public service for 10 years to qualify.
so, the loan forgiveness that people talk about is not as drastic as it seems. It's not like people are looking to wipe 100k off their credit rap sheet. I don't think that's realistic.
Donna - agreed that we should work to make life as fair as possible. However, when folks use the "we can't forgive mortgage default / student loan debt / etc. because it's unfair" line, I find it a specious argument - because frankly it was unfairness in the first place that caused a lot of those problems. It was unfair that mortgage loan officers lied to get people into homes they couldn't afford. It is unfair that universities raise tuition costs while you're still in school, trapping you into paying more than you had planned you could afford. So bringing up the "unfairness" of it all only when it suits your argument is specious. - and more importantly, it's not germane to the point, since the question of debt-forgiveness is one of the economic functioning of society as a whole, not a question of morality.
However yes, I agree that yes, we should work to make the world more fair. But I know a lot of people who say that in the abstract but when it finally comes down to brass tacks, and they discover they are in fact on the side of the "haves", suddenly they're not so keen on fairness.
Have you student loan problem people looked at recent and pending legislation?
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/10/25/fact-sheet-help-americans-manage-student-loan-debt
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_Care_and_Education_Reconciliation_Act_of_2010
It doesn't make your loans go away, and it certainly doesn't address the cause, but it does help to lower payments while you aren't making any money (for an architect, that means your entire career). Also, they've quit subsidizing private banks and put direct loans into the hands of the dept. of education which I think is a big step.
Phillip: "another major issue for unemployment is the ridiculous idea of being "over educated""
Well, you DO become a flight risk if you are working in a position you are overqualified for. It only makes sense. The second you get an offer for a position in your own field, you will leave whatever puke scrubbing job you currently have.
Best way to remedy this (in lieu of lying on the resume) is to look for contract and short term gigs. Easy to honor without anyone feeling gipped. Once your wife has few of such gigs under her belt, then she will receive stronger consideration for full time positions that may be outside her field.
curtram, yes, but that law was signed by Obama, so clearly it never happened.
I'm one of those "over-qualified, and unemployed" people. I am also, because I make no money personally, curious about the percentage of income loan paybacks, but I figure they would just look at Husband's income, and disqualify me. It can be a rough point of contention for him to be paying back MY student loans, and me not having any tangible benefit from the education.
I feel there should be some sort of rule that locks student tuition at the rate when they enrolled, at least for the first 5 years (I could see those that continue undergrad for 8+ years being an issue)
And if they were to wipe out just the interest on loans, would that be before or after the re-consolidations? I mean, I've got nearly 10 grand in capitalized interest alone.
Truly, this discussion is fascinating. The only thing that would make it better is a big table, and a glass of wine/beer!
"down-and-out good against respectable evil." It was used in reference to Hunter Thompson and the character he created in The Rum Diary. But it strikes me as a good fit for most of the struggles which go on in the world, not the least of which frequently involve the working poor. . .
A friend posted this today at Facebook....the plight of the working poor is a bit more evident here in Connecticut this past week...as there are still alot of people without electrical power...and the nights are getting colder. This is six days without power for many people.
Barry: Bucky Fuller, of course. Bill McDonough. The Eames. Ed Mazria. Do they all have to be alive?
gotta be alive - the dean want's to invite somebody for a week long residency. Hmmm, Brian McCutchen does nice 'environmental' work. As I posted to FB, I'm trying to avoid the grey-haired boomers like Mazria & McDonough to give a young-up-n-comer a shot. So far my short list includes Phillipe Rahm and the Landartgenerator initiative folks. Maybe Cameron or Tim Beatley...
OK, VisionDivision. Try them. Their most recent piece "The Patient Gardener" is all about the future! VisionDivision.com Their entire oeuvre is about bizarre approaches to landscape and nature; the Cancer City project - cancer meaning crawfish - is really great.
barry - urban think tank? although they're more social justice...
Donna, I love novel "man-made" approaches to nature like that. Although I think they make people a little uneasy because it borders into that "playing God" domain that seems to have an underlying creep factor to it.
I do like the demarcation through between nature for humans and nature for nature. Surprisingly, the Medieval era saw a lot of experiments in 'landscape urbanism' where people became pretty adept at manipulating nature in perceptively cruel ways.
barry, i received the same e mail after midnight and sent in about 7-8 names in the wee hours. do you think we were duped to give out names in a chain mail scheme? btw, i had a completely different list but similar perimeters.
@ barry, if it's design side how about mason white and lola sheppard ? they just won the holcim award and did that pamphlet publication last year...young and interesting and being recognised but the recognisers out there, which must mean something. AND there is the archinect connection as well, which is cool.
mason was in my list too. i quoted their "future does not exist" ...
seems that the dean emailed all the faculty and didn't let anybody know. LOL!
i found that little insincere. quite frankly.
nobody answers mails sent to 20 people. smart dean. productively sneaky ;-)
barry... i don't necessarily care for his work, but maybe mitchell joachim... or the edible estates guy...
I'm not a fan of both too, Joachim doesn't seem to understand biology or gravity, and fritz isn't exactly original (or a good garden designer either). But done, after wasting over an hour.
Barry, How about Brian Ost. His landscapes are so dream like.
Barry,
You might want to also think about : patrick blanc http://www.verticalgardenpatrickblanc.com/#/en/projects/geographical
rusty! "I'm telling you, you need an iPad. You can even use knuckles to input data. Finally a computer for the rest of us."
this made me chuckle.
Also re: the Obama recent student loan repayment announcement. I had the exact same reaction. why aren't more people excited about it. seems to me it will be quite helpful. at least in my house. my understanding of the original IBR law from a few years ago was that it was pushed threw by people wanting to make it easier for best and brightest to go into public service/nonprofit work not just going after money.
can't imagine how blanket loan forgiveness would work. in terms of effect on the economy. would govt just make it a tax write-off or somehow subsidize the loss?
also love the knuckles comment.
switching topics entirely i just wanted to say somewhere that the new design as well as the tools and bits and bobs that paul (and his crew) put into the new version of archinect are impressive as hell.
i keep stumbling on stuff that i didnt know was there and love (like how my address for our office is automatically turned into a google map on the contact page). i guess in the age of social media this is normal but i find it all very coolio.
nam - I would have cared more when I was in my 20s and struggling to make my student loan payments. I think it's good for other people who are in the same situation I was, but it doesn't really affect me anymore.
I changed my profile picture. Possibly the most productive thing I've done in the last 48 hours. it's been a one step forward two step back kind of a day.
Thankfully my parents are coming to stay with me for a week! Mom and dad are so fun and love to hang out, cook, drink, and laugh. Plus Angus gets super happy when he's around them!
Nam, the reason I'm not more excited is that using that plan would make me pay more on my student loans over the total life of the loan because it's stretching it out so long. A standard loan repayment is 10 years—doubling that only hurts in the long run.
Donna,
That sounds like a good time....I guess you could always walk backwards....to you would be making progress.
I have been billing clients today...hoping someone coughs up some mmmoooola.!
My loans are all 30 year notes. We aren't planning on paying for Abram's college because we will still be paying for mine. He does have 529 acct, though, so that's something.
So after a very busy summer of picking up various contracts things have dried up. Significantly. Good news is that I'm following a number of very promising leads and I just picked up a part-time on-site project manager gig. Two or three months. Never did any significant on-site work before. I'm also hoping for some bigger spec work to fall in my lap. Things are never stable in work-for-yourself world.
In other news, I think I done goofed myself on archinect again. Not sure what I did this time around, but peeps are not happy. Too much humor is inappropriate. Just few more complaints to Paul and I'm outta here! Hear that gang? Time to participate in democratic process that actually works (in silencing someone, but that's besides the point).
Umm, bye?
Earlier today, my union (yes, the faculty of the CSU system are unionized like most public employees in cali) voted for a one day strike as our contract negotiations were going poorly! Cal Poly will just have informational picketing, while CSU East Bay and CSU Dominguez Hills will be shut down on Nov 17th. Life is getting more interesting...
erin the main reason i am exited is the repayment provision wherein if you work for a 5013c nonprofit and pay taxes for 10 years (i believe non-consecutive) than any remaining balance is cleared.
with my current line of work in academic health care and possible work in future teaching this would help include me and is a nice reason to stick to public/non-profit sectors.
toast, did you have loans and have simply repaid all of them? if so how long did it take you?
i am in my 30s now but still.
rusty I'm the one who should be booted lately - someone on the Occupy thread is bringing out my inner grumpy monkeywrencher. Things are changing, and I'm seeing inequalities more and more. Example: I'm very unhappy with the reality of my current status - adjunct - at the university I'm at. This is the reality of low-paid, insecure adjunct work, but it sucks, and it is more and more common for teachers (and all workers) to be adjunct than in any kind of secure position. For the moment the regular work is overly busy, but I'm more aware lately of how quickly the plentiful work can disappear. Fingers crossed for a decent spring.
"I'm very unhappy with the reality of my current status - adjunct - at the university I'm at. This is the reality of low-paid, insecure adjunct work, but it sucks, and it is more and more common for teachers (and all workers) to be adjunct than in any kind of secure position." I'll second, third, and fourth that comment. I went through about a week of extreme grumpiness about this issue earlier this semester. I still have a problem with the fact that I could make more money as a TA for a class at Penn than I make teaching a 3-credit lecture course at Temple.
i can understand that donna. it is a difficult kind of position that really works great for the university but not so good for teachers. mixed feelings about whether it is good for students...
nam I loved that provision - and totally would have taken advantage of it if I were just a few years younger. That's the field I really wanted to go into, anyway (and figure out how to combine it with architecture) but couldn't do it, precisely because of my loans. I mean that was literally the only reason - I was set for every other requirement, but the Peace Corps and other similar programs provide a monthly living stipend that is not high enough to pay monthly student loan premiums. Thus only the people I knew with no loans were going into it.
Anyway, obviously that didn't work out for me, which is fine - I have enjoyed my work history nonetheless. But anyway - as I recall, that new law only applies to super recent grads and I missed the cutoff by a chunk of years. Seems like there's a segment of folks who graduated from about '96 to about '05 that kind of have fallen between the cracks in these student loan propositions. Tuition/student loan amounts were already crazy high then but the legislation/current discussions all seem to be revolving around recent grads, not those now in their 30s.
I know what you mean, Donna. But isn't there an up-side to not being dragged into tenure politics?
.....this year's most inspiring professor in an architecture school had to collect unemployment during the summer break.... and his current salary is about the same as unemployment insurance pay... adjuncts are academy's day laborers. they are definitely on the dark side of this educational system, yet in most cases they bring much needed professional experience, excitement, expertise and color to departments.
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