Million Student March organizer, Darletta Scruggs, appeared on Fox news to talk about taxing the 1% to pay for free college for students. The appearance can be seen in an 18 minute interview available on Youtube, but the more popular video on social media was only a few minutes long. The video went viral as people thought she "owned" the Fox news anchor because it only shows her making seemingly strong arguments. When you see the short version video of Darletta Scruggs on Fox news it seems like she destroyed Neil Cuvato, the Fox news anchor. Let's just look at some of her main points used to promote free college and break them down piece by piece. You can see the short version of the video below.
She makes some good points. I'll give her that. Free college seems reasonable considering how much the government spends on war. The government does spend far too much on war. I agree with that. I can see how someone who hasn't thought about it much would agree with her thinking she dropped the knowledge bomb on TV. Especially in the edited version with only her talking points and the Fox news anchor cut out. However, the short video gives an unfair representation of the conversation. When you watch the full 18 minute interview it looks quite different. Neil asked her good questions several times and every time she skates around the questions. Watch the full version of the interview to see what I mean. I used to have it linked here but it was taken down from the Youtube channel I used.
The Dark Side of Darletta Scruggs on Fox
As you can see, he opened up the news segment being very respectful of her. He even complimented her saying she's "remarkable whether you accept her view or not." Nevertheless, she has a mean look on her face from the beginning. The Fox news anchor is pretty patient with her and allows her to voice her opinion on national TV, yet she approaches it as if he's the enemy.
To be clear, I'm not a fan of Fox or any mainstream news station for that matter. This is just my unbiased opinion of the interview. I think it's an important topic and lots of people saw the 2 minute Facebook version of only her points so I think it's important for people to hear the other side of the story. Not only do we need to be concerned about mainstream media's slant, we need to be aware of slants in social media too. The way they edited down this interview and posted it on Facebook can get can millions of impressionable young minds believing the government should give them more "free stuff."
By watching the full video she looks more annoying than intellectual. Neil asks her fair questions and she skates around them by saying the same thing over and over. Neil tells her several times that he understands we're spending too much on war. She just keeps pointing out that that money should be spent on education. It's like she's a kid's toy that is only programmed to say a few lines when you hit the button.
Two Wrongs Don't Make A Right
While she's right that the money would be better spent on education, that still doesn't mean that the government should provide college education for everyone. Just because they're blowing money in one sector doesn't mean they should blow it on another sector instead. I think we should spend far less money on "defense" but that doesn't mean we should provide tuition-free college. We put too many people behind bars for victim-less crimes, and pay far too much for it in the process, but that doesn't mean we should provide free college. Two wrongs don't make it right.
Darletta Scruggs Avoided Neil's Questions
Darletta Scruggs avoided several key questions Neil asked her, including:
- If we taxed the top bankers (Rothchilds, etc.), would it pay for all this?
- Wouldn't colleges keep ratcheting up the price for college?
- What do you think the highest tax rate should be?
Darletta Scruggs on Hillary Clinton
One of the first things they talked about was Hillary Clinton. Scruggs says, "I think Hillary Clinton is the perfect representation of what corporate politicians stand for." This part tickles me because when she said that she had no idea that Bernie Sanders would be endorsing her in the near future. I already didn't trust Bernie Sanders because of the way he ruined Ron Paul's Audit the Fed bill, which was the first sign to me that he can't be trusted and that's why I wouldn't vote for Bernie Sanders.Now that Bernie Sanders has teamed up with Hillary Clinton I hope she's changed her views on Sanders, to say the least. I hope that now she sees the election and politics in general is just a sham. This push for socialism is nothing new. They've been working on making America socialist/communist for a century or two. A good place to dig deeper into this story is to learn more about the work of former Senior Policy Advisor for the U.S. Department of Education, Charlotte Iserbyt.
Scruggs fails to see that she's falling for a trap that will only exacerbate the problems now coming to light in America. They're playing her and the American people like a chess game, and they're thinking several moves ahead. She's merely a pawn in the game, which may even be why Fox news had her on. Ultimately, the government wants to get its hands on education, so they have more power to control us.
Don't Beg The Government To Help Us
Scruggs is making a pathetic cry out to the government for help. You can't expect the people who created the problem to fix it. The billionaires who aren't paying taxes (I'm against them too) aren't keeping students from attending school. They're not the reason students can't afford to attend college. The government is!
What she doesn't realize is that it's because of the government subsidizing school loans that the tuition rates are so high. Government guarantees school loans, which artificially gives students easy access to the money. This creates more demand because more people can now go to school. Schools can increase their rates because the students can easily get the loans and pay for the inflated costs over a long period of time.
College education used to cost much less. In the past, people could pay for their education out of pocket without accumulating large amounts of debt. If people are able to get loans to pay for tuition, they can pay more for the education. If you have to pay for college out of your own pocket, you can only pay so much. But if the government offers to loan you the money you can pay much more. This why a college education has become so expensive in the first place. Otherwise many people wouldn't even need loans to get a college education.
Darletta Scruggs on Capitalism
At the 3:40 mark, Scruggs says "this system (of capitalism) cannot produce any substantial quality of life. No matter how hard you work." She specifically mentions capitalism again later in the interview. She's also wearing a shirt to promote socialism. She clearly doesn't understand capitalism. It's ironic because capitalism is what increased the standard of living for everyone in the 20th century. In the 19th century we didn't have cars, airplanes, air conditioning, or other luxuries we now take for granted. Even poor people in America have cell phones, cars, computers, air conditioning, and much more. The richest people in the world didn't even have all of that just 100 years ago.
She's blaming our problems on capitalism, but we don't have capitalism. We have crony-capitalism. The government is the problem. They're bailing out the banks. That's not capitalism.
Why We Don't Need Free College
There's lots more to be said on this currently popular topic. We've just scratched the surface with my thoughts on this one interview. If you'd like to hear more about why government shouldn't provide tuition-free college read our post here.