Standard has gotten boring for me because it has transitioned into just creatures smashing into each other. I wish more of the game was played on the stack. Not to mention the incredible amount of value lost unless you trade out 6 months prior to rotation.
Obamacare is corporatism. People are being forced by the state to purchase a service through a middle man. It is increasing dependance on insurance to receive medical care which will inevitably increase the cost of it as it already has increased leading up to it. The idea of insurance is to protect yourself from rare and catastrophic events, this idea has been perverted.
I got my degree in a California State School that faced a huge budget shortfall when the college education budget from the state was reduced. They had to increase tuition and cut a bunch of services to make ends meet. Less money available doesn't always translate to cheaper school.
I'd be interested to know the amount it was increased by but my guess is was a drop in the bucket compared to what the overall tuition is. Tuition will continue to rise as more students get access to easy money and bid up the price to the current and future astronomical levels. If the average student requires what ~30k in loans to pay for a degree? If that was taken away colleges would have to make cuts and lower tuition or have empty classrooms.
The poor have to exist though. Someone has to flip burgers and someone has to dig ditches. The problem is that you don't really learn skills at those jobs that are transferable to higher paying jobs. What liberals want to do, is recognize that these people exist and they have just as much a right to have a family as everyone else and to also make sure they don't live in abject poverty. Hence, minimum wage. The problem is that it has stagnated over the past 30 years.
Also, the reason we have federal loans for college education is that we want an educated workforce. You know, the "highly skilled" workers that everyone keeps talking about here. If it was up to private institutions only to give out loans with no government competition, you would expect the interest rates to be super high since there is no collateral like that for a car. It would essentially be a personal loan which have going rates of....$30k loan, 60 months to pay off is about 9.25% interest. With an additional 1% for every additional year you want to take to pay it off. https://www.wellsfargo.com/pi_action/rate_calc
We aren't communists with a 5 year plan, we let students decide what they want to do. If you wanted to do anything, the best thing would be to make kids sit through a lecture on job prospects for their job when they elect a major.
I imagine without as much loan money available, colleges would have to cut costs to focus on their product... education that people need. Tuition would decrease and education would be more affordable.
The amount of loan money given out and your interest rate would probably be determined by your performance in high school, on entrance exams and your field of study. If you are smart and are going into a profitable field you would be eligible to get the loans you need at a better interest rate since you are a less risky investment.
We're actually starting to get into a secondary debate. The big thing about the shift towards college education is that it's being enforced in the high school level. High school even when I was in school a decade ago was all "What college are you going to? Go to College. Go to College. You need it" with no mention of the fact that we also need people to go into the skilled trades. We need to take a step back and remind people that college isn't necessary. You can go to a trade school and (potentially) make more than you would if you got a College education.
Private education loans have existed forever Undi. They're common with some demographics in fact - problem is that they do tend to only give them out for a handful of fields tied in with financials - banking and accounting degrees being the most commonly offered loans by private lenders.
Many even try to slip in better rates with a hiring contract tied to the rate improvement.
I know they exist, but it's difficult to compete with the government who is giving out more money at a lower interest rate to pretty much whoever wants it.
Its far from a great primary form of education loans without more regulation to prevent such 'guidance' that focuses on the benefit to the loaning agency rather than the nation.
It's not great when a 18 year old who probably doesn't really know what they want to do for the rest of their life has the ability to ruin it by taking out ridiculous amounts of money they won't be able to pay back and become a debt slave. The person loaning you money should care that you do well so they get their money back while in the process you get a decent job. I know too many people who have useless degrees and will be on the 25 year repayment plan.
Don't forget that we have a bigger glut of unskilled than normal due to people having the wrong skillset. There is nobody to tell them.. "Hey you know what that college degree from NoName U you are getting is crap if it isn't medical, engineering, accounting et. You need to be a plumber or HVAC tech if you want to make money".
Big time this. I am a contractor plumber for the state of Indiana and a college drop out (although I'm back in college now to finish my degree). And the company I'm associated with (and actually other companies in the area) are ready to hire plumbers and plumbers helpers right now, today, but alas we cannot find anyone qualified to hire.
At least in my region there is a void so to speak of qualified skilled laborers such as plumbers or trained helpers.
This is why it's ridiculous to have a federal loan program that will fund whatever degree you want to pursue, regardless if it makes money or not. It's not rational to loan large sums of money to people pursuing a degree that will never be able to pay it back in the end. There are too many people going to college and there are little to no market forces acting on the the types of programs pushed in college because it doesn't matter if the degrees students pursue are profitable or not.
I have long believed that student loan applications should include the major the student is interested in and the school they are going to... you got a 4.0 GPA in high school and you got into a top notch art school? ok you can get a loan for an art major... you got a 2.0 in high school and you are going to small city State school... sorry but you are not getting as much. You got a 2.0 and you want to go into IT, here is your money.
Is it "fair" that kids who like computers get more assistance than kids that like art and music? Maybe not... but it also isnt all that fair that we give them the same resources and then they get hit with that harsh reality of the situation after they spend $20K-$40K on degrees they can't use. I am not that old and dont work in that big of a company and I have already met several people that got music/arts degrees and then went back to school for Computer Science after they couldnt get a job. Seems to me that it would be better to just make it clear up front that unless you really really really want to be in music you should probably pick something else.
There is a mechanism that can already accomplish this without the added cost of red tape... the free market. If all loans were private and those providing the loans don't get bailed out when they aren't paid back. They would care a lot more about your performance, where and what you are going to school for.
My sister is in the process of going back to school because her first degree was in Art History... 30k later she wishes she listened to her older brother now.
Don't forget that we have a bigger glut of unskilled than normal due to people having the wrong skillset. There is nobody to tell them.. "Hey you know what that college degree from NoName U you are getting is crap if it isn't medical, engineering, accounting et. You need to be a plumber or HVAC tech if you want to make money".
Big time this. I am a contractor plumber for the state of Indiana and a college drop out (although I'm back in college now to finish my degree). And the company I'm associated with (and actually other companies in the area) are ready to hire plumbers and plumbers helpers right now, today, but alas we cannot find anyone qualified to hire.
At least in my region there is a void so to speak of qualified skilled laborers such as plumbers or trained helpers.
This is why it's ridiculous to have a federal loan program that will fund whatever degree you want to pursue, regardless if it makes money or not. It's not rational to loan large sums of money to people pursuing a degree that will never be able to pay it back in the end. There are too many people going to college and there are little to no market forces acting on the the types of programs pushed in college because it doesn't matter if the degrees students pursue are profitable or not.
Not being useful in the ridiculous enviroment of legacy and modern does not make them "bad cards", it means that the powerlevel of those formats is obscenely high. Personally I play more kitchen table than anything else. I still get to use my heroe of oxid ridge and stromkirk nobles there even though they really aren't playable in an eternal format.
And the cost of standard gets a lot easier when you get good at limited. If you want a format that proves whether or not you are good player, then draft is where it's at, having a big wallet helps you only in getting practice, and a lot of stores will let you bank packs for future drafts, making continued limited play more affordable. And after enough limited you should have the bulk of the stuff you need for standard.
And yeah, standard currently lacks a lot of stupid infinite combos. That's intentional on WotC's part, they want you to keep your idiotic uninteractive crap to yourself. It's not "stifling your creativity" it's making you play magic instead of forcing people to watch you play solitaire. Stupid durdle durdle win decks annoy everyone but the pilot.
I agree drafting is really fun, in that aspect I'm glad standard exists so that there is demand for the cards when I decide to draft. Getting all the cards you need for a competitive deck strictly from drafting isn't very realistic though (unless you are an exceptional shark).
How bad or good a card is subjective I suppose, but in the long term most standard cards are bad from a value perspective. The maintenance cost for me just isn't worth it.
It's actually perfectly justifiable, it's called basic economics. The demand is high, the supply is low, the price will therefore be high.
The first competitive standard deck I played was MUC where the only "expensive" card was vendalken shackles topping out at around $20 at the time. Decks these days require multiple playsets of chase rares, which in reality are bad cards that will never see play in any other format and plummet after rotation. Just seems silly to me.
Standard is just annoying to keep up with because you have to trade out of it at least 6 months prior to rotation to not lose a ton of value. With the amount of money spent playing standard over the years I could have just owned a couple legacy decks or modern/eternal staples in general.
There are companies currently with entry level positions that are already paying more than minimum wage. There was a point when the average wage for entry level workers was above the minimum wage. People would not be paid pennies if no minimum wage existed. Because capitalist pigs are in competition with each other and would bid up the price of that labor until it is no longer profitable to do so. The damage caused by the minimum wage doesn't really occur on a large scale until it's raised above the equilibrium point. You cannot mandate that someone be paid above their level of productivity. You are just killing jobs in sectors that were able to utilize unskilled labor and shift it toward skilled labor that is more productive.
Abortion is the removal of a trespasser from the mother's body. The trespasser should be removed alive if possible (whether or not it can survive on its own - there's no right to life). But technology permitting it should not be killed if possible. So basically my position is pro-choice transitioning into pro-life as technology increases, allowing developing fetuses to be removed without being killed and possibly sustained outside of the womb.
I'd prefer something more versatile than Creeping Corrosion for the affinity matchup, which is why I go with Engineered Explosives. But it isn't without problems - it non-bos with Stony Silence, which is why I only run 1 Silence in my Sideboard, and it doesn't answer Etched Champion unless you have a mana dork and are willing to trade EE just for the champion.
If I'm really worried about Affinity, there's always a handy bunch of Kataki's lying around... now made super cheap by Modern Masters.
Everything is reasonable, though. You never really want to get locked into sideboard decisions anyway as sideboards are ALWAYS meta dependent.
Anyway, here is the list that I'm putting together (just ordered some cards). The one change that I made that I haven't tested yet but is kind of a necessity at this point is maindeck Spellskite. It just feels right, and I need more spaces in my sideboard for niche cards, instead of cards that I noticed tend to come in against pretty much everything.
The one big question that I have is whether or not Lieges are worth it at this point. I still don't have Voice of Resurgence - I was borrowing them last time, and I'm not sure if they are worth being in the deck without Liege. If I were to cut Lieges, Crusaders (possibly more than 2) would probably come into the main deck. A pridemage or two would more than likely take their place in the sideboard. Is Liege just plain overcosted and not as effective as Crusaders with Swords and exalted triggers? I'm starting to think that way. Liege and Sword of War and Peace share similar roles - helping to dodge Pyroclasm / Bolt and close games out. But sword turns any creature into a large threat, whereas Liege is a lot slower to get online and only edges sword out because of that awesome discard clause.
Baneslayer (and possibly an extra land) becomes an option as well, even if the BSA is just in the sideboard. There is also the possibility of running Voice of Resurgence without Liege, possibly cutting a manland to add another basic for another land that comes into play untapped (and to help against Blood Moon, which is brutal for this deck)
I feel overwhelmed by potential decisions, but I'm still pretty happy that this deck has a ton of potential and isn't "solved" yet.
I'm trying out 4 Lieges 1 Baneslayer this week in a similar list. But I know that I will be playing against jund so I suppose I value liege more. I'm probably also going to have 4 Kitchen Finks in the 75 because I've had problems getting run over by zoo and burn.
I'd be interested to know the amount it was increased by but my guess is was a drop in the bucket compared to what the overall tuition is. Tuition will continue to rise as more students get access to easy money and bid up the price to the current and future astronomical levels. If the average student requires what ~30k in loans to pay for a degree? If that was taken away colleges would have to make cuts and lower tuition or have empty classrooms.
I imagine without as much loan money available, colleges would have to cut costs to focus on their product... education that people need. Tuition would decrease and education would be more affordable.
The amount of loan money given out and your interest rate would probably be determined by your performance in high school, on entrance exams and your field of study. If you are smart and are going into a profitable field you would be eligible to get the loans you need at a better interest rate since you are a less risky investment.
I agree with you college is pushed far too much.
I know they exist, but it's difficult to compete with the government who is giving out more money at a lower interest rate to pretty much whoever wants it.
It's not great when a 18 year old who probably doesn't really know what they want to do for the rest of their life has the ability to ruin it by taking out ridiculous amounts of money they won't be able to pay back and become a debt slave. The person loaning you money should care that you do well so they get their money back while in the process you get a decent job. I know too many people who have useless degrees and will be on the 25 year repayment plan.
There is a mechanism that can already accomplish this without the added cost of red tape... the free market. If all loans were private and those providing the loans don't get bailed out when they aren't paid back. They would care a lot more about your performance, where and what you are going to school for.
My sister is in the process of going back to school because her first degree was in Art History... 30k later she wishes she listened to her older brother now.
This is why it's ridiculous to have a federal loan program that will fund whatever degree you want to pursue, regardless if it makes money or not. It's not rational to loan large sums of money to people pursuing a degree that will never be able to pay it back in the end. There are too many people going to college and there are little to no market forces acting on the the types of programs pushed in college because it doesn't matter if the degrees students pursue are profitable or not.
I agree drafting is really fun, in that aspect I'm glad standard exists so that there is demand for the cards when I decide to draft. Getting all the cards you need for a competitive deck strictly from drafting isn't very realistic though (unless you are an exceptional shark).
How bad or good a card is subjective I suppose, but in the long term most standard cards are bad from a value perspective. The maintenance cost for me just isn't worth it.
The first competitive standard deck I played was MUC where the only "expensive" card was vendalken shackles topping out at around $20 at the time. Decks these days require multiple playsets of chase rares, which in reality are bad cards that will never see play in any other format and plummet after rotation. Just seems silly to me.
I'm trying out 4 Lieges 1 Baneslayer this week in a similar list. But I know that I will be playing against jund so I suppose I value liege more. I'm probably also going to have 4 Kitchen Finks in the 75 because I've had problems getting run over by zoo and burn.