WHY COLLEGES COST TOO MUCH

-->WHY COLLEGES COST TOO MUCH (1)

Vaden Burns Hargis was named President of Oklahoma State University in Dec 2007 taking office March 10, 2008. His compensation was set at $350,000 annually plus a $20,000 annual car allowance  and rumored memberships in two exclusive country clubs with golf courses.

In Sept 2008 Hargis was named to the Board of Chesapeake Energy Co. His compensation in 2011 was $565,465 and he owned 56,441 shares of Chesapeake stock.

In their 2012 Stockholders meeting, Hargis received only 26% of the votes in favor of his retention on the board. This was the lowest total vote ever received by a sitting Board Member of a Fortune 500 Company. What makes this so egregious is that Mr. Hargis is trained as an accountant and a Lawyer and a major part of his duties as a board member was oversight the financial operations of the executive leadership.  The very things that Aubrey McClendon is being investigated for are clearly in Mr. Hargis arena of expertise. The stockholders smelled a rat.

QUESTION:

Since Vaden Burns Hargis was a full time employee of the State of Oklahoma, by whose authority did he accept a part time job on Chesapeake’s Board? When I worked for a major oil company I was considered to be a professional and therefore not hourly. This meant that I was not available to work in my “off” hours for another company and indeed was forbidden to do so. How does President Hargis pull this off.

ANALYSIS:

This is a great example of “good-ole-boy” politics at work. I doubt that Oklahoma State benefited much from Mr. Hargis’ expertise. He was a figure head and an expensive one. The tuition increases under him have been painful and I doubt he spent any sleepless nights trying to avoid them.  This is a “TIP OF THE ICEBERG” story and is only one of the many reasons that college tuition has become ridiculously expensive

The Differences Between Liberals and Conservatives

 The Differences Between Liberals and Conservatives

These comments are based on my own readings and observations of people over the length of my 74 years. Contrary to most Political discussions of this subject, I divide the spectrum into 4 quadrants: Liberals, Liberal Libertarians, Conservatives, and Conservative Libertarians. I would add to this the “Independents” who are a hodgepodge of disinterested non voters and voters, and people who have a bone to pick with both parties.

Liberal Libertarians

This group of people contain many sub groups but are predominantly people who don't believe that laws pertain to them. This is very common among youth who advocate media piracy and drug freedom. Some Unions fall in this category as well as they advocate freedoms and rights for their members that are not available to the general public, This is best demonstrated by public employee Unions Cadillac health and retirement plans that are much richer than those available to the working man. Our Congress and Executive and Judicial branches are the worst example of rich rewards at tax payer expense. We are all created equal but some are more equal than others. The rights of the masses (common good) trump the rights of the individual. Liberal Libertarians are spiritually similar to the bomb throwing anarchists of Europe and the revolutionaries who took over right after the French revolution. Remember Sarajevo?  Remember the Haymarket bomb thrown at a labor rally in Chicago May 4, 1886 that killed 7 policemen? Remember the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA)? Remeber that the Maoist SLA assassinated the Superintendent of Schools in Oakland, shot and wounded several people, kidnapped Patty Hearst, and ended in a huge shoot out in LA in which several were killed by gunfire and fire.

Liberals

Liberals are feeling people who make decisions with their heart. Most are agnostic or downright atheists but have co-opted the Judeo-Christian ethic as their world view. This is ironic since almost all of them are Darwinians who frown on unbelievers without understanding that the Darwinian Theory of Evolution is founded on the idea of Survival of the Fittest (most well adapted to the current environment}. Darwinians make a huge effort to cover this up but it is to no avail, we all know that the strong eat the weak. Therefore, Liberals, are in a constant war with Natural Selection and expend huge amounts other peoples money to try to save the poor from their plight. This usually means food and medicine aid which leads to rapid multiplication of the poor and an even worse problem. General George Marshall was a Liberal and he spent what would now be several trillion dollars of our money rehabilitating the European economy after WWII (even the Communist countries). His goal was to create a group of friendly neighbors who would forever be beholden to us. We all know how that turned out. To fund their grandiose Social Programs, Liberals have subscribed to Keynsian Economic Theory which advocates printing money backed by Treasury Bonds. This scurrilous technique forces the economy to grow by deflating the dollar thus wiping out the retirement of the elderly on fixed income. Liberal are spiritually similar to Eastern Europeans in their world view.

                                                   Independents

Independents are interesting because there is no "Independent" Party and therefore they don't get any say in who will be either parties candidate. This means that most of the election is settled without their input. Independents are often split ticket voters and single issue voters. They also tend to have grudges against both parties for things that happened long ago. The two houses of our Government rarely have members who were elected as independents and even they caucus with one party or  the other. Many Independent voters feel that they are somehow "balancing" the scales between the Liberals and Conservatives. In truth, they are just shrinking from the political fight.

Conservatives

The core of the conservative group are the owners of small businesses who are constantly at war with Government over taxes, fees, and regulations. The next largest group are the religious conservatives who see the Government as an opponent and a hinderance. Conservatives feel that they are the ones who have to pay for the grand schemes of the Liberals and they resent it. Conservatives believe that Social Progrrams must have a SUSTAINABLE financial basis and that Governments should live within their means rather than borrowing printed money. These people are spiritually similar to our founding fathers and pioneer fore fathers.

Conservative Libertarians

Conservative Libertarians are a varied group. They include neo-Nazi's and White Supremecists but there are also business men and bankers and stock brokers who chafe at Government interference in their lives. Spiritually they are similar to some of our cherished heroes, Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, and the Mountain Men of yesteryear who lived lives of exploration and discovery. They were not fit to live in a modern metropolis. Whereas Liberals do not generally believe in private ownership of property, these Conservative Libertarians are grasping for it. Their view of Government is that it should be as small as possible and cost little. Private rights trump the rights of the masses.