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As the United States military continues to sell the idea of joining its ranks to high school students throughout the nation as the best way for many poor students to get financing for college, the will to create true social responsibility for our nation's underserved and underprivileged children is getting further out of reach.
Many democratic governments throughout Europe offer their children a free college education. Some, like Denmark, even pay their children a living allowance of around $1000 to go to college. In South America, the government of Brazil offers its students a free college education. The United States, conversely, charges students exorbitant fees for education which has forced many poorer students to either join the military and utilize the GI Bill or take out huge loans in order to go to college.
In the richest country in the world, for the people in the poor districts throughout America, the only possibility of a free college education comes with the costs of possible loss of life, possible disfiguring injury, possible increases in mental illnesses like PTSD, increased incidences of suicide both during and after military service, and if you're a female, possible sexual harassment and increased incidences of rape.
Why can countries like Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Brazil and others send their students to college for free while American students have to choose between a continued existence in poverty and debt, or death on the battlefield, the increased possibility of rape, and/or higher incidence of mental illnesses if they want a college education?
The reason is actually quite clear if you compare America to the other countries that offer free education. Unlike those countries, America has a failed economic and political system that favors enriching the elites behind the Military Industrial Complex over ensuring that America has a well-educated populace free from the necessities of wasteful spending that war making creates. Unlike the common sense shown in other countries, our representatives choose the military over education every year when they make the federal budget.
According to NationalPriorities.org, the American taxpayers will spend $598.5 billion of the discretionary spending on the military in 2015 while only spending $70 billion on education. This is 54 percent of the total discretionary budget going to the Military Industrial Complex and only 6 percent going to educate our children. Only 6 percent is going toward building a future that has an educated people to run it. Only 6 percent being used to ensure that our people are educated and able to find work in a struggling economy. Only 6 percent is being spent to ensure that American children have a brighter future.
An economic system that gives children the choice between remaining in poverty and being indoctrinated into a kill and maim or be killed and maimed situation is a very broken system. Priorities are clearly out of place when these are the only choices poorer American children have if they want to have the better future gained through a college education. In the land of plenty, that our children have to choose between these pitiable choices is both atrocious and deplorable. Have Americans really become so complacent that they will let this injustice to our children continue indefinitely? I, for one, sure hope not.
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |

As the United States military continues to sell the idea of joining its ranks to high school students throughout the nation as the best way for many poor students to get financing for college, the will to create true social responsibility for our nation's underserved and underprivileged children is getting further out of reach.
Many democratic governments throughout Europe offer their children a free college education. Some, like Denmark, even pay their children a living allowance of around $1000 to go to college. In South America, the government of Brazil offers its students a free college education. The United States, conversely, charges students exorbitant fees for education which has forced many poorer students to either join the military and utilize the GI Bill or take out huge loans in order to go to college.
In the richest country in the world, for the people in the poor districts throughout America, the only possibility of a free college education comes with the costs of possible loss of life, possible disfiguring injury, possible increases in mental illnesses like PTSD, increased incidences of suicide both during and after military service, and if you're a female, possible sexual harassment and increased incidences of rape.
Why can countries like Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Brazil and others send their students to college for free while American students have to choose between a continued existence in poverty and debt, or death on the battlefield, the increased possibility of rape, and/or higher incidence of mental illnesses if they want a college education?
The reason is actually quite clear if you compare America to the other countries that offer free education. Unlike those countries, America has a failed economic and political system that favors enriching the elites behind the Military Industrial Complex over ensuring that America has a well-educated populace free from the necessities of wasteful spending that war making creates. Unlike the common sense shown in other countries, our representatives choose the military over education every year when they make the federal budget.
According to NationalPriorities.org, the American taxpayers will spend $598.5 billion of the discretionary spending on the military in 2015 while only spending $70 billion on education. This is 54 percent of the total discretionary budget going to the Military Industrial Complex and only 6 percent going to educate our children. Only 6 percent is going toward building a future that has an educated people to run it. Only 6 percent being used to ensure that our people are educated and able to find work in a struggling economy. Only 6 percent is being spent to ensure that American children have a brighter future.
An economic system that gives children the choice between remaining in poverty and being indoctrinated into a kill and maim or be killed and maimed situation is a very broken system. Priorities are clearly out of place when these are the only choices poorer American children have if they want to have the better future gained through a college education. In the land of plenty, that our children have to choose between these pitiable choices is both atrocious and deplorable. Have Americans really become so complacent that they will let this injustice to our children continue indefinitely? I, for one, sure hope not.

As the United States military continues to sell the idea of joining its ranks to high school students throughout the nation as the best way for many poor students to get financing for college, the will to create true social responsibility for our nation's underserved and underprivileged children is getting further out of reach.
Many democratic governments throughout Europe offer their children a free college education. Some, like Denmark, even pay their children a living allowance of around $1000 to go to college. In South America, the government of Brazil offers its students a free college education. The United States, conversely, charges students exorbitant fees for education which has forced many poorer students to either join the military and utilize the GI Bill or take out huge loans in order to go to college.
In the richest country in the world, for the people in the poor districts throughout America, the only possibility of a free college education comes with the costs of possible loss of life, possible disfiguring injury, possible increases in mental illnesses like PTSD, increased incidences of suicide both during and after military service, and if you're a female, possible sexual harassment and increased incidences of rape.
Why can countries like Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Brazil and others send their students to college for free while American students have to choose between a continued existence in poverty and debt, or death on the battlefield, the increased possibility of rape, and/or higher incidence of mental illnesses if they want a college education?
The reason is actually quite clear if you compare America to the other countries that offer free education. Unlike those countries, America has a failed economic and political system that favors enriching the elites behind the Military Industrial Complex over ensuring that America has a well-educated populace free from the necessities of wasteful spending that war making creates. Unlike the common sense shown in other countries, our representatives choose the military over education every year when they make the federal budget.
According to NationalPriorities.org, the American taxpayers will spend $598.5 billion of the discretionary spending on the military in 2015 while only spending $70 billion on education. This is 54 percent of the total discretionary budget going to the Military Industrial Complex and only 6 percent going to educate our children. Only 6 percent is going toward building a future that has an educated people to run it. Only 6 percent being used to ensure that our people are educated and able to find work in a struggling economy. Only 6 percent is being spent to ensure that American children have a brighter future.
An economic system that gives children the choice between remaining in poverty and being indoctrinated into a kill and maim or be killed and maimed situation is a very broken system. Priorities are clearly out of place when these are the only choices poorer American children have if they want to have the better future gained through a college education. In the land of plenty, that our children have to choose between these pitiable choices is both atrocious and deplorable. Have Americans really become so complacent that they will let this injustice to our children continue indefinitely? I, for one, sure hope not.