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stylo-renn · 2 years

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How does bidens canceling of student debt differ from the larger subsidies that universities especially public used to recieve?

There's lots of talk about biden and university debt lately and I think education is a human right. Additionally those burdened with university debt and no way to reasonably pay it off and live a normal life deserve some financial help.

Iirc, and I need help re-finding sources, but the cost of college has skyrocketed over the last ~40 years, far outgrown the costs of like inflation etc. I also think there's been a significant reduction in grants and state funding to public universities especially, from a generic pool. Research based funding is a discussion for another time.

I'd love to look at/generate a hypothetical projection looking at efficient use of taxpayer dollars towards public institutions. What would be a better use of public dollar- continuing to pay off loans after the fact, or returning to the days of generous state and federal funding for universities? How would our choice impact enrollment (i.e. people could choose to enroll bc they would be averse to loans but be ok if they got large need based scholarships schools could hypothetically offer with higher subsides)?

Idk. This is brain dump/idea dump and im looking for feedback and refining it

#university #college #student loans #student debt #fiscal #taxation #grants #scholarship

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stylo-renn · 2 years

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Something I’m really intrigued by for the Vacuo arc is the prospect of Mercury being super out of his depth and in over his head. I mean, he and Emerald were shown to be fairly in over their heads being part of Salem’s whole Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum Death Cult as early as Volume 6, and things only got worse for them in Volume 8.

And while Emerald was smart/lucky enough to get out and join the heroes, Mercury was neither so lucky or smart to have done the same. And now he’s stuck at the bottom of this death-cult totem-pole working under Tyrian of all people. Plus he’s going to be having to fight a group of heroes who are increasingly desperate and likely to have zero patience for any possible redemption arc with Emerald as pretty much the ONE exception. Basically, I can imagine that Mercury is going to be stuck between one hell of a rock and a hard place. Plus that nice, convenient anonymity that kept him under the radar at Beacon and Haven? TOTALLY out the window now that Emerald switched sides and probably straight up told the heroes that Mercury and Tyrian are headed for Vacuo.

And that’s not even getting into what insane escalation shit Team RWBY might be bringing back with them from the Ever After. Note that we could very well be seeing Team RWBY dropping the ‘Hey, so Salem isn’t our biggest problem anymore’ and ‘Turns out the real big bads are the Gods themselves’ revelations. Our heroines may very well be gearing up to take the fight to Salem herself while figuring out how to take on something even stronger, and that’s who Mercury might have to fight.

I mean, imagine a hypothetical rematch between Mercury and a Post-Volume 9 Yang, who’s unlocked/received/awakened strange and crazy otherworldly powers in her time beyond Remnant. A Yang who’s maybe swapped out her boring metal prosthetic arm for some crazy astral or magic-based draconic claw prosthetic and might just be able to transform into some giant phoenix/dragon hybrid that can channel the fires of the sun itself. A Yang who could now be scaled to reliably take down Maidens in a one on one fight and is part of a team who has a good chance of taking down SALEM.

And then there’s Mercury. With his metal gun-feet. Somehow I don’t see that fight lasting very long.

I think this is what makes Mercury’s character particularly interesting going forward. He represents an exploration of the ‘Villain Forgot to Level-Grind’ trope. Here we have this guy who was a serious threat in the early days of the story, but by this point things have escalated so much as to leave him in the dust. With villains of far greater power being revealed and the heroines being forced to grow to match that power, someone like Mercury is left feeling very small indeed.

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