Earlier today, a live BBC news feed showed an English student dressed as Santa being arrested. The arrest arose from the student protest against the UK Parliament’s vote to triple the higher education tuition fees to 9000 Pounds annually, an amount that many students cannot afford. The English youth are rioting because they’ve been taught for decades that the best preparation for a prosperous economic adulthood comes via a college degree, and now their hopes of actually obtaining a degree are moving inversely to their tuition costs. They’re not stupid and see the writing on the wall. Precisely what does England make? What do they produce, apart from good soccer teams, BBC America and fearsome hooligans? There will always be a need for good plumbers and craftsman, but not in the scale that would be required to absorb that kind of labor surplus.
This is also a portent of what’s to come as more American states raise their in-state tuitions and higher education is effectively removed from a larger and larger segment of our children.
To be honest, I’m inclined to go ahead and riot with them since some of what ails England ails us as well.