Ah, college, where someone can be young and stupid with few consequences. Of course, I’d be skeptical of any job applicants with a Swathmore degree on their resume. If this is what passes as critical thinking (and civility) at Swathmore, I’d rather not bring them into my company even in the unlikely chance they had any marketable job skills.
Are they willing to walk the walk about fossil fuels (pun sort of intended)? Are they willing to live without the roughly 70% of all US electricity that’s produced by fossil fuels? That’d mean no electricity, heating or air conditioning for about 17 hours each day. Are they willing to give up their cars, motorcycles, airliners and other forms of fossil fueled transportation? Are they willing to live without the food and goods that are delivered by fossil fuel powered ships, planes, trains and trucks?
Divesting from fossil fuel companies (which are a pretty good investment) will only hurt their university’s endowment portfolio. In the end, that’ll drive up tuition even higher and make it harder to offer tuition assistance. They can then take on even more life-crushing debt to obtain their indoctrination.
What good little Democrats. Maybe they will get hired at the IRS or MSNBC to continue their intimidation campaign after graduation.
Apparently Swarthmore students are big fans of the TV show Revolution
I watched a little of that last night after the Leafs collapsed. All I can say is WTF?
I must admit never watching the show. I saw the original trailers for it as a new series. I get the premise is the world suddenly loses the capability to produce power. But even suspending belief, I can see from the trailer that there is a misunderstanding of power generation and thus inconsistencies in the effect. A plane crashes, supposedly because it lost power, but the engine is on fire because some how power loss causes fire? And since it is night time and the director wants you to see the airplane that is crashing, running lights and interior cabin lights still function.
I never watched, so I don’t know what causes the power failure (unless I read Daver’s comment); but I’m fairly certain the writers and director will consistently find implausible rational for why someone can or cannot start a fire and operate a basic steam engine, which would set mankind back only 100 years. The story in their mind will only work if people turn to savages because they can’t flip a light switch.
I haven’t watched more than a couple minutes of it, and most likely what I think is going on has very little resemblance to what is actually happening. I gather that some time back (a decade, maybe? Maybe more) some ecologist discovered how to stop electricity across the planet, except for small areas isolated from the effect. Someone (probably not clear yet who) activated the device. Of course 99%+ of the human race died as a result. Portions of the US East have been taken over by a group called The Militia which has banned non-Militia ownership of guns (death penalty, administered on the spot, for owning one). Good guys are trying to rebel. There are at least three groups of people interacting–the rebels, the Militia, the people with electricity.
Let the market decide. If it’s truly superior for a college to drop investments that aren’t “green” enough, then they’ll shine in the market. If not, well, they won’t and the then evident problem corrects itself automatically.
I don’t think it’s as simple as that. The college investment fund is kind of like its gym facilities and library lounges–advertisements to attract the proper sort of student. If they get enough of the proper sort of student they can lose all sorts of money on the market and still get enough new money to survive.
That might be, but I’m fine with Swathmore dropping investments in energy companies. Go for it. The conservative students ought to try other colleges.
Yep, it could be a useful shorthand–look to see what the college invests in; if they seem short on unPC stuff look for another college.
Of course, Bezerkeley is notoriously nutty and has been for decades, but they have a pretty good engineering program in spite of that.
I was going to add into my comment mention of Swathmore’s ROI (return on investment in terms of the money paid by the student and the future earnings gain). Here’s the latest Payscale estimates. However, I find those numbers and ranking more than fuzzy.
Swathmore is ranked 40th, but not because its ROI percentage is better, but because when you include the base cost, then the 30 year figure is better. I think payscale needs to better understand ROI, which shouldn’t look at absolute value but percent growth. Swathmore’s 6.5 ROI is barely better than putting your money in a municiple bond. Considering the starting outlay of $215,000; the conservative student should skip down from number 40 Swathmore, go to number 80 Stony Brook, pay $117,000 get a 7.9% ROI, and bet the saved $98,000 on ExxonMobile stock. In 30 years, the money you saved will approach Swathmore’s 30 year ROI Net.
I find if a bit funny that from a pure financial standpoint, one of the best investments seems to be South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. It has a sub $100k out of state tuition, with a greater than 9% ROI. I doubt the students there oppose fossel fuel.
Let see the plan is to divest themselves from one of the most popular investment sectors in history, at the same moment, historically speaking, when that sector it is poised for a huge run up. Sounds like a sound investment strategy. Oh, and that plan to crash the market with their divestments is comical, what will actually happen is shrewd investors will snap up the shares at a bargain rate. The world will go on without the hair shirts.
But Larry’s right, their hypocrisyy needs to be pointed out. Help the air in their tires to be free. Siphon away the evil fossil fuel which burdens them. Disconnect them from the evil coal burnning grid.
Take it even further. Utility companies use electricity to pump water and in the sewage treatment process. Turn those off for 70% of the day along with the electricity. No Internet, no TVs, no WiFi (all use electricity), no heat in the winter, no air conditioning in the summer. No cars, busses or motorcycles on campus.
They also seem pretty ignorant about how divestment will impact the fossil fuel companies. In short, it’ll have no effect at all. Corporations only get the revenues from the initial sell of securities. After that, any buying and selling of securities is independent of the issuing corporation. If colleges dump their fossil fuel stocks, it could depress the market price but that’ll create buying opportunities for people who invest without ideological (and idiotic) blinders. At the same time, universities will lose productive investments in their portfolios. Unless they’re able to replace those investments with equally productive securities, they’ll lose money. The result will be a decreased ability to fund tuition assistance so higher prices to students. I don’t know what they teach at Swathmore but real world economics must not be in their curriculum.
These people are likely convinced that colleges divesting themselves of South African holdings was what ended apartheid. Anyway, it allows people to think they’re doing something constructive while not actually having to do anything.
Ah, college, where someone can be young and stupid with few consequences. Of course, I’d be skeptical of any job applicants with a Swathmore degree on their resume. If this is what passes as critical thinking (and civility) at Swathmore, I’d rather not bring them into my company even in the unlikely chance they had any marketable job skills.
Are they willing to walk the walk about fossil fuels (pun sort of intended)? Are they willing to live without the roughly 70% of all US electricity that’s produced by fossil fuels? That’d mean no electricity, heating or air conditioning for about 17 hours each day. Are they willing to give up their cars, motorcycles, airliners and other forms of fossil fueled transportation? Are they willing to live without the food and goods that are delivered by fossil fuel powered ships, planes, trains and trucks?
Divesting from fossil fuel companies (which are a pretty good investment) will only hurt their university’s endowment portfolio. In the end, that’ll drive up tuition even higher and make it harder to offer tuition assistance. They can then take on even more life-crushing debt to obtain their indoctrination.
What good little Democrats. Maybe they will get hired at the IRS or MSNBC to continue their intimidation campaign after graduation.
Apparently Swarthmore students are big fans of the TV show Revolution
I watched a little of that last night after the Leafs collapsed. All I can say is WTF?
I must admit never watching the show. I saw the original trailers for it as a new series. I get the premise is the world suddenly loses the capability to produce power. But even suspending belief, I can see from the trailer that there is a misunderstanding of power generation and thus inconsistencies in the effect. A plane crashes, supposedly because it lost power, but the engine is on fire because some how power loss causes fire? And since it is night time and the director wants you to see the airplane that is crashing, running lights and interior cabin lights still function.
I never watched, so I don’t know what causes the power failure (unless I read Daver’s comment); but I’m fairly certain the writers and director will consistently find implausible rational for why someone can or cannot start a fire and operate a basic steam engine, which would set mankind back only 100 years. The story in their mind will only work if people turn to savages because they can’t flip a light switch.
I haven’t watched more than a couple minutes of it, and most likely what I think is going on has very little resemblance to what is actually happening. I gather that some time back (a decade, maybe? Maybe more) some ecologist discovered how to stop electricity across the planet, except for small areas isolated from the effect. Someone (probably not clear yet who) activated the device. Of course 99%+ of the human race died as a result. Portions of the US East have been taken over by a group called The Militia which has banned non-Militia ownership of guns (death penalty, administered on the spot, for owning one). Good guys are trying to rebel. There are at least three groups of people interacting–the rebels, the Militia, the people with electricity.
Let the market decide. If it’s truly superior for a college to drop investments that aren’t “green” enough, then they’ll shine in the market. If not, well, they won’t and the then evident problem corrects itself automatically.
I don’t think it’s as simple as that. The college investment fund is kind of like its gym facilities and library lounges–advertisements to attract the proper sort of student. If they get enough of the proper sort of student they can lose all sorts of money on the market and still get enough new money to survive.
That might be, but I’m fine with Swathmore dropping investments in energy companies. Go for it. The conservative students ought to try other colleges.
Yep, it could be a useful shorthand–look to see what the college invests in; if they seem short on unPC stuff look for another college.
Of course, Bezerkeley is notoriously nutty and has been for decades, but they have a pretty good engineering program in spite of that.
I was going to add into my comment mention of Swathmore’s ROI (return on investment in terms of the money paid by the student and the future earnings gain). Here’s the latest Payscale estimates. However, I find those numbers and ranking more than fuzzy.
Swathmore is ranked 40th, but not because its ROI percentage is better, but because when you include the base cost, then the 30 year figure is better. I think payscale needs to better understand ROI, which shouldn’t look at absolute value but percent growth. Swathmore’s 6.5 ROI is barely better than putting your money in a municiple bond. Considering the starting outlay of $215,000; the conservative student should skip down from number 40 Swathmore, go to number 80 Stony Brook, pay $117,000 get a 7.9% ROI, and bet the saved $98,000 on ExxonMobile stock. In 30 years, the money you saved will approach Swathmore’s 30 year ROI Net.
I find if a bit funny that from a pure financial standpoint, one of the best investments seems to be South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. It has a sub $100k out of state tuition, with a greater than 9% ROI. I doubt the students there oppose fossel fuel.
Let see the plan is to divest themselves from one of the most popular investment sectors in history, at the same moment, historically speaking, when that sector it is poised for a huge run up. Sounds like a sound investment strategy. Oh, and that plan to crash the market with their divestments is comical, what will actually happen is shrewd investors will snap up the shares at a bargain rate. The world will go on without the hair shirts.
But Larry’s right, their hypocrisyy needs to be pointed out. Help the air in their tires to be free. Siphon away the evil fossil fuel which burdens them. Disconnect them from the evil coal burnning grid.
Take it even further. Utility companies use electricity to pump water and in the sewage treatment process. Turn those off for 70% of the day along with the electricity. No Internet, no TVs, no WiFi (all use electricity), no heat in the winter, no air conditioning in the summer. No cars, busses or motorcycles on campus.
They also seem pretty ignorant about how divestment will impact the fossil fuel companies. In short, it’ll have no effect at all. Corporations only get the revenues from the initial sell of securities. After that, any buying and selling of securities is independent of the issuing corporation. If colleges dump their fossil fuel stocks, it could depress the market price but that’ll create buying opportunities for people who invest without ideological (and idiotic) blinders. At the same time, universities will lose productive investments in their portfolios. Unless they’re able to replace those investments with equally productive securities, they’ll lose money. The result will be a decreased ability to fund tuition assistance so higher prices to students. I don’t know what they teach at Swathmore but real world economics must not be in their curriculum.
These people are likely convinced that colleges divesting themselves of South African holdings was what ended apartheid. Anyway, it allows people to think they’re doing something constructive while not actually having to do anything.