Ted Talk Summary

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“How College Loans Exploit Students For Profit”, a Ted Talk by Sajay Samuel (2016), discusses the many problems with the education system in America, namely the cost and student loans. For example, Samuel (2016) talks about how more and more students finish college with incurable debt, increasingly lower salaries, underemployment or unemployment, diminished family incomes, and loans that are nearly impossible to default while any other loan can be defaulted. However, Samuel (2016) discuses all of these problems to explain his main point: Education has become a consumer product and educational institutions have become businesses that exploit students for profit. Samuel (2016) ends his Ted Talk by explaining a solution to this problem—if educational …show more content…
Overall, all of the problems with education costs discussed in this Ted Talk tie into Marxism and how it critiques capitalism. These relations between the Ted Talk and Marxism will be discussed throughout this paper. One way in which this Ted Talk portrays Marxist ideas is that it talks about the lack of free education and perpetual debt (Samuel, 2016). Firstly, Samuel (2016) states that there was a time when higher education was free, and when it was not free, it could be paid off by a simple part-time job. However, Samuel (2016) points out that nowadays education tuition has become unaffordable for almost every American, meaning that students are forced to take out loans and will consequently end their education with debt. The problem is further exacerbated because, as Samuel (2016) states, a college graduate made 10 percent more in 2001 than they did in 2013. So not only are college graduates ending their education with exorbitant debt, but they are not making enough income to help pay off their debt in a systematic, efficient manner. In relation to Marxism, Karl Marx critiques capitalism the same way that Samuel is critiquing the education system (Romkey, 2017). For instance, Marx believed in free education and recognized that …show more content…
For example, Samuel (2016) explains that education has become a consumer product, and institutions are trying to sell students this product while hiding many truths through false advertising. For example, every student is made to believe that they need to receive higher education so that they can work jobs that allow them to live the middle class life (Samuel, 2016). However, as Samuel (2016) explains, two out of three people who enrol in college are not going to find an adequate job, and thus, higher education certainly does not guarantee the middle class life that seems to be so prominently promised by educational institutions. Meanwhile, as mentioned before, students who finish their education are left with debt which is profitable, but only for the student loan industry and from colleges and universities that gain interest on debt (Samuel, 2016). Therefore, Samuel (2016) critiques the American education system because students are exploited over and over again. Similarly, Marx critiques capitalism because it is built on conflict between the bourgeoisie (such as universities) and the proletariat (such as students) (Romkey, 2017). Ultimately, Marx believed that capitalism leads to exploitation due to servitude, just as students become slaves to
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