Current Affairs The Labour Party

[Bruce Wayne]

Thanks, Bruce, but unfortunately my mum is literally on her death bed and my dad has diabetes.

There's another timebomb brewing with the amount of people my age with tiny or no pension, too. One thing I'll credit the coalition government with is pretty much forcing me to pay more into my company pension. 5% it is now I think. Too little too late though I fear, as it will be for many.

I'm sorry to hear that mate.

 

[Number_25]

how does your degree benefit me

Sure thing.

• My research has found 4/5 bacterial and molecular biomarkers that are currently being exploited in the NHS for the management of late-stage COPD.
  
  
• I have developed a suite of tools that facilitate the high-throughput exploration and exploitation of metabolomic experiments, and released it free of charge to the public which has enabled researchers in the NHS to explore molecular fingerprinting for early diagnosis. Last time I checked, it had around 18,000 downloads in the two years since its release.
  
  
• I have released, to the public, completely free of charge, 95,000 computationally validated molecules. The identification web service (that I've wrote) currently gets in excess of 50,000 queries a week - mainly from European researchers.
  
  
• I am currently developing a biobank information management system, that will be released free of charge and replace an existing BIMS that currently costs two health boards in excess of £60,000 a year to lease.

 

[nsno-chris]

Sure thing.

• My research has found 4/5 bacterial and molecular biomarkers that are currently being exploited in the NHS for the management of late-stage COPD.
  
  
• I have developed a suite of tools that facilitate the high-throughput exploration and exploitation of metabolomic experiments, and released it free of charge to the public which has enabled researchers in the NHS to explore molecular fingerprinting for early diagnosis. Last time I checked, it had around 18,000 downloads in the two years since its release.
  
  
• I have released, to the public, completely free of charge, 95,000 computationally validated molecules. The identification web service (that I've wrote) currently gets in excess of 50,000 queries a week - mainly from European researchers.
  
  
• I am currently developing a biobank information management system, that will be released free of charge and replace an existing BIMS that currently costs two health boards in excess of £60,000 a year to lease.

well you seem like a very intelligent person, your degree seems worthwhile to the betterment of our society. And to learn all that you have rightly paid for it

 

[Number_25]

well you seem like a very intelligent person, your degree seems worthwhile to the betterment of our society. And to learn all that you have rightly paid for it

All degrees add value to our society.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

well you seem like a very intelligent person, your degree seems worthwhile to the betterment of our society. And to learn all that you have rightly paid for it

To be fair, @Number_25 probably does more important work than the rest of us bloviating weirdos put together.

 

[Brennan]

Sure thing.

• My research has found 4/5 bacterial and molecular biomarkers that are currently being exploited in the NHS for the management of late-stage COPD.
  
  
• I have developed a suite of tools that facilitate the high-throughput exploration and exploitation of metabolomic experiments, and released it free of charge to the public which has enabled researchers in the NHS to explore molecular fingerprinting for early diagnosis. Last time I checked, it had around 18,000 downloads in the two years since its release.
  
  
• I have released, to the public, completely free of charge, 95,000 computationally validated molecules. The identification web service (that I've wrote) currently gets in excess of 50,000 queries a week - mainly from European researchers.
  
  
• I am currently developing a biobank information management system, that will be released free of charge and replace an existing BIMS that currently costs two health boards in excess of £60,000 a year to lease.

That still doesn’t explain why everybody else should pay for it.

If it really is that beneficial to society, shouldn’t you be happy to pay for it ?

Of course the real issue with your stance is that most degree courses are not contributing to the greater good of society in the way you describe, they are vehicles for people who study them to earn more money and progress their own careers.

I know people who did Law degrees and went on to work in finance or events management. Why should people working in restaurants or office admin roles fund that ?

For reference I say this as somebody who sits with a considerable student loan repayment, but I’d never dream of asking society as a whole to fund my career advancement.

 

[nsno-chris]

All degrees add value to our society.

they don’t

 

[orchard]

they don’t

Like?

 

[Blue 1]

People with graduate jobs generally earn more money so pay more tax, thereby benefitting society as a whole.

I'd have thought that a better educated population being a good thing was a given, but apparently not.

 

[peteblue]

Sure thing.

• My research has found 4/5 bacterial and molecular biomarkers that are currently being exploited in the NHS for the management of late-stage COPD.
  
  
• I have developed a suite of tools that facilitate the high-throughput exploration and exploitation of metabolomic experiments, and released it free of charge to the public which has enabled researchers in the NHS to explore molecular fingerprinting for early diagnosis. Last time I checked, it had around 18,000 downloads in the two years since its release.
  
  
• I have released, to the public, completely free of charge, 95,000 computationally validated molecules. The identification web service (that I've wrote) currently gets in excess of 50,000 queries a week - mainly from European researchers.
  
  
• I am currently developing a biobank information management system, that will be released free of charge and replace an existing BIMS that currently costs two health boards in excess of £60,000 a year to lease.

excellent......

 

[Minimeister]

Maybe, but hopefully your parents will live for a little while longer yet. The maths have changed fundamentally since state pensions were introduced, both in terms of the life expectancy of people, the demographics of the population as a whole, and even the kind of jobs people typically do (with a huge shift towards service-related work). It's responsible to revisit the equation and see if it still makes sense, but politicians generally don't because those near to retirement age kick up a stink because they think that 'they've been paying in all their lives' (when that's not how pensions are funded), and older folk vote way more than younger folk, so they're quite happy to shift the burden for paying for the pensions onto the younger, working age generation.

I presume they 'kick up a stink' because they've planned for retirement and then the goalposts move.

 

[dannyboy]

That still doesn’t explain why everybody else should pay for it.

If it really is that beneficial to society, shouldn’t you be happy to pay for it ?

Of course the real issue with your stance is that most degree courses are not contributing to the greater good of society in the way you describe, they are vehicles for people who study them to earn more money and progress their own careers.

I know people who did Law degrees and went on to work in finance or events management. Why should people working in restaurants or office admin roles fund that ?

For reference I say this as somebody who sits with a considerable student loan repayment, but I’d never dream of asking society as a whole to fund my career advancement.

Always strikes me as funny that so many other countries find a way to fund their young people through university. They also have a lot less inequality than us. I'm sure the two aren't linked though.

 

[tsubaki]

That still doesn’t explain why everybody else should pay for it.

If it really is that beneficial to society, shouldn’t you be happy to pay for it ?

Of course the real issue with your stance is that most degree courses are not contributing to the greater good of society in the way you describe, they are vehicles for people who study them to earn more money and progress their own careers.

I know people who did Law degrees and went on to work in finance or events management. Why should people working in restaurants or office admin roles fund that ?

For reference I say this as somebody who sits with a considerable student loan repayment, but I’d never dream of asking society as a whole to fund my career advancement.

The argument that why should everyone else pay for a persons degree is a valid one, though of course the current system relies far more on everyone else paying for it (directly and standing as guarantor) than a flat graduate tax would, or even the old system.

 

[dannyboy]

The argument that why should everyone else pay for a persons degree is a valid one, though of course the current system relies far more on everyone else paying for it (directly and standing as guarantor) than a flat graduate tax would, or even the old system.

The worst thing about it is the absolute robbery that is £9000 per year. People can talk about the rights and wrongs of tuition fees but what isn't up for debate is the disgrace that is average universities charging that much.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I presume they 'kick up a stink' because they've planned for retirement and then the goalposts move.

Shaky ground planning your retirement based upon the state pension, but the reality is that it would never change in that case as there would always be people in this situation.