TED英语演讲：压榨学生的大学贷款

1、TED英语演讲：压榨学生的大学贷款 曾几何时在美国上大学不需要背负债务，而现如今高等教育已然成为了消费品，价格高昂，让人无力承担。但与此同时学校和发放贷款的银行却因为学生的贷款而获得巨大的利润。演讲者Samuel提出了一个针对如此现象的解决方案，下面是我为大家收集关于TED英语演讲：压榨学生的大学贷款，欢迎借鉴参考。 演说题目：How college loans e_ploit students for profit 演说者：Samuel Today 40 million Americans are indebted fortheir passage to the new economy. T

2、oo poor to pay their way through college,they now owe lenders more than one trillion US dollars. They do find what jobsthey can get to pay off a debt that is secured on their person. In America,even a bankrupt gambler gets a second chance. But it is nearly impossible foran American to get discharged

3、 their student loan debts. 现在，四千万美国人为了奔小康而背上债务 穷到无法支付自己的大学学费，这些人的负债总额已超过一万亿美元。的确，他们能找到工作来偿还以个人名义担保的债务。在美国，即使是破产的赌徒也有重来的机会。但是一个美国人 想要还清其助学贷款却几乎是不可能的。 Once upon a time in America, going tocollege did not mean graduating with debt. My friend Pauls father graduatedfrom Colorado State University on the G

4、I Bill. For his generation, highereducation was free or almost free, because it was thought of as a public good.Not anymore. 以前在美国，上大学不意味着要负债毕业。我的朋友保罗，他的父亲 在退伍军人法案的帮助下，从科罗拉多州立大学毕业了。他那个时代，高等教育基本上是免费的，因为当时高等教育被认为是一种公益事业。现在不是了。 When Paul also graduated from Colorado State University, he paidfor his Eng

5、lish degree by working part-time. 30 years ago, higher educationtuition was affordable, reasonable, and what debts you accumulated, you paidoff by graduation date. Not anymore. Pauls daughter followed in his footsteps,but with one difference: when she graduated five years ago, it was with awhopping

6、debt. 当保罗也从科罗拉多州立大学毕业时，他是通过兼职才拿到了他的英语学位。30年前，高等教育的学费定价合理，大多数人都能支付得起，你欠下的债务在毕业的时候也能还清。现在就不可能了。保罗的女儿遵循父辈的足迹(也去了科罗拉多大学)，有一点不同的是，五年前，她毕业的时候 就背负了巨大的债务。 Students like Kate have to take on a loanbecause the cost of higher education has become unaffordable for many if notmost American families. But so what?

7、 Getting into debt to buy an e_pensiveeducation is not all bad if you could pay it off with the increased income thatyou earned from it. But thats where the rubber meets the road. Even a collegegrad earned 10 percent more in 20_ than she did in 20_. 像凯特那样的孩子只能贷款 因为高等教育的费用 对于大多数家庭来说都难以承受。但那又怎样呢?如果将来可

8、以赚更多的钱来还债，现在借钱来读书也是不错的。但是事实上，20_年的毕业生 都比20_年毕业的她收入多出10%。 So . tuition costs up, public fundingdown, family incomes diminished, personal incomes weak. Is it any wonder thatmore than a quarter of those who must cannot make their student loan payments?The worst of times can be the best of times, becaus

9、e certain truths flash up inways that you cant ignore. I want to speak of three of them today. 所以，学费越来越贵，公共资金支持越来越少，家庭存款越来越少，个人收入越来越低。所以这也难怪为什么有四分之一的学生 肯定没有办法还清他们的助学贷款了吧。最坏的时代也可能是最好的时代，因为你无法忽视很多血淋淋的真相。我今天想说三点。 1.2 trillion dollars of debts for diplomasmake it abundantly obvious that higher education

10、 is a consumer product you canbuy. All of us talk about education just as the economists do now, as aninvestment that you make to improve the human stock by training them for work.As an investment you make to sort and classify people so that employers canhire them more easily. 1.2 万亿的助学贷款债务 非常明显地证明了

11、 高等学位已经变成了 可以购买的消费品。与经济学家一样，我们把教育看成是一种通过培训 来提升人类的投资。是一种将人排序分类从而 帮助雇主挑选人才的投资。 The U.S. News World Report ranks colleges justas the consumer report rates washing machines. The language is peppered withbarbarisms. Teachers are called service providers, students arecalled consumers. Sociology and Shakes

12、peare and soccer and science,all of these are content. 美国新闻与世界报道对大学进行排名，就像顾客为洗衣机排名一样。往往措辞犀利教师们被称为提供服务者，学生们则是消费者。社会学、莎士比亚、足球和科学 所有这些都是(商品的)内容。 Student debt is profitable. Only not onyou. Your debt fattens the profit of the student loan industry. The two800-pound gorillas of which - Sallie Mae and Nav

13、ient - posted last year acombined profit of 1.2 billion dollars. And just like home mortgages, studentloans can be bundled and packaged and sliced and diced, and sold on WallStreet. And colleges and universities that invest in these securitized loansprofit twice. Once from your tuition, and then aga

14、in from the interest on debt. 学生贷款是有利可图的，但不是通过学生来实现利润 你的债务则增加了学生贷款市场的利润。两大学生贷款供应商 Sallie Mae and Navient 去年一共赚取12亿美元。就像房贷一样，学生贷款也可以捆绑或分割并在华尔街出售。那些投资于证券化贷款的 大学和学院便可从中获利两次，首先是从你缴纳的学费 然后再从债务利息中获利。 With all that money to be made, are wesurprised that some in the higher education business have begun to e

15、ngage infalse advertising, in bait and switch . in e_ploiting the very ignorance thatthey pretend to educate? 有如此可观的利润，那么一些高等教育企业 开始打虚假广告，通过引诱或偷换概念 来剥削那些毫不知情的，这些企业假装去培养的学生，就毫不稀奇了 Third: diplomas are a brand. Many years agomy teacher wrote, When students are treated as consumers, theyre madeprisoners

16、 of addiction and envy. Just as consumers can be sold and resoldupgraded versions of an iPhone, so also people can be sold more and moreeducation. College is the new high school, we already say that. But why stopthere? People can be upsold on certifications and recertifications, mastersdegrees, doct

17、oral degrees. 第三，学位是一种品牌。许多年前我的老师写到 当学生被当成消费者，上瘾和嫉妒就会应运而生。商家可以不断将最新款的iPhone卖给消费者，学校也可以向人们兜售教育。大学是新的高中。我们早已深知这点。但是我们就此停止吗?人们想考取证书、认证新的证书取得硕士、甚至博士学位。 Higher education is also marketed as astatus object. Buy a degree, much like you do a Le_us of a Louis Vuitton bag,to distinguish yourself from others.

18、So you can be the object of envy ofothers. Diplomas are a brand. 高等教育是一种地位象征。购买一个学位，与买一辆雷克萨斯轿车或一个路易威登包一样，都能彰显你的与众不同。这样你就可以成为别人羡慕妒忌的对象。文凭是一种品牌。 But these truths are often times hidden bya very noisy sales pitch. There is not a day that goes by without some policyguy on television telling us, A colleg

19、e degree is absolutely essential toget on that up escalator to a middle-class life. And the usual evidenceoffered is the college premium: a college grad who makes on average 56 percentmore than a high school grad. 然而这些真相通常都被嘈杂的商业宣传所掩盖。每一天都有一些讲政策的人 在电视上说：拥有大学学位是过上中产阶级的生活的必需品 通常此言论的证据是大学溢价：大学毕业生的收入平均

20、比高中毕业生的收入高出56% Lets look at that number more carefully,because on the face of it, it seems to belie the stories we all hear aboutcollege grads working as baristas and cashiers. Of 100 people who enroll in anyform of post-secondary education, 45 do not complete it in a timely fashion,for a number of

21、reasons, including financial. Of the 55 that do graduate, twowill remain unemployed, and another 18 are underemployed. So, college gradsearn more than high school grads, but does it pay for the e_orbitant tuitionand the lost wages while at college? 让我们更仔细地看一下统计数据。因为这和我们平时听到的版本不太一样 我们通常听到的是大学毕业生 在咖啡店

22、打工或是做收银员 每一百名受过中学后教育的人中，有45名学生未能及时毕业，原因各一，也包括经济因素 而在55位顺利毕业的人当中，2位将找不到工作、 18位的才华得不到充分施展。大学毕业生的确比高中毕业生挣得更多，但这真的能支付高昂的学费、抵消大学时期本可用来工作的收入吗? Now even economists admit going to collegepays off for only those who complete it. But thats only because high schoolwages have been cut to the bone, for decades n

23、ow. For decades, workers with ahigh school degree have been denied a fair share of what they have produced.And had they received as they should have, then going to college would havebeen a bad investment for many. College premium? I think its a high school discount. 现在经济学家甚至都承认 只有对能完成学业的来说，大学才是值得的。但

24、这仅仅是因为几十年来，高中毕业生的工资少的可怜。几十年来，拥有高中学历的人们无法按劳取酬。如果他们得到了自己应有的报酬，那么对许多人来说，上大学不是个划算的事儿。我想，大学溢价其实是高中折价。 Two out of three people who enroll are notgoing to find an adequate job. And the future, for them, doesnt lookparticularly promising - in fact, its downright bleak. And it is they who aregoing to suffer

25、the most punishing forms of student debt. And it is they,curiously and sadly, who are marketed most loudly about this college premiumthing. Thats not just cynical marketing, thats cruel. 三分之二的大学生并不能找到适合的工作。前景也并不光明，甚至是彻底的灰暗。而正是这些大学生们，他们将承担助学贷款的重担。正是这些大学生们，好奇又有些可悲地，大肆宣扬大学溢价。这样的市场营销不仅是讽刺的，更是残酷的。 So wha

26、t do we do? What if students andparents treated higher education as a consumer product? Everybody else seemsto. Then, like any other consumer product, you would demand to know what yourepaying for. When you buy medicines, you get a list of side effects. When youbuy a higher educational product, you

27、should have a warning label that allowsconsumers to choose, make informed choices. When you buy a car, it tells youhow many miles per gallon to e_pect. Who knows what to e_pect from a degreesay, in Canadian Studies. There is such a thing, by the way. 那么我们应该怎么做呢?如果学生和家长把高等教育看成消费品怎么样?其他人都是这样看待的 然后，就像其

28、他的消费产品一样，你会想要知道你到底购买了什么产品。当你购买药物的时候，商家会标出一系列的副作用。当你购买高等教育这个产品时，学校也应该设置提示标语，以供消费者选择，从而理性购物。当你买汽车时，汽车经销商会告诉你每加仑油可以行进的英里数。比如，就学位来说，谁都不知道加拿大研究能带来什么呢。这仅只是一个例子而已。 What if there was an app for that? One thatlinked up the cost of a major to the e_pected income. Lets call itIncome-Based Tuition or IBT. One o

29、f you make this. 如果有一个专门的应用呢?应用将专业的花费和估计的收入联系起来，取名为收入基准学费或IBT。在座的就做过类似app。 Discover your reality. 评估你的现实条件。 There are three advantages, three benefitsto Income-Based Tuition. Any user can figure out how much money he or she willmake from a given college and major. Such informed users are unlikely to

30、 fallvictim to the hucksters ploy, to the sales pitch. But also to choose wisely.Why would anybody pay more for college than lets say, 15 percent of theadditional income they earn? 根据收入决定学费有三个好处。任何人都可以判断出 大学学位或专业能够带来多少收入。这样，人们充分了解后，就不会陷于过度的宣传和推销中，做出更加明智的选择。如果大学的学费比将来收入要高出15% 那何苦还要上大学呢? Theres a seco

31、nd benefit to Income-BasedTuition. By tying the cost to the income, college administrators would beforced to manage costs better, to find innovative ways to do so. For instance,all of you students here pay roughly the same tuition for every major. That ismanifestly unfair, and should change. An engi

32、neering student uses moreresources and facilities and labs and faculty than a philosophy student. 第二个好处是，将花费与收入相连 也能迫使大学管理者们更好地 想出更多新办法来控制费用。例如，不同专业的学生学费大概相同 这很明显是不公平的，需要进行调整。学工程的比学哲学的运用更多资源和设施、 需要更多实验室和教职工。结果就是哲学专业的学生在补贴着工程专业的学生。 But the philosophy student, as a consequence, is subsidizing the engi

33、neeringstudent. Who then, by the way, goes on and earns more money. Why should twopeople buy the same product, pay the same, but one person receive half or athird of the service. In fact, college grads, some majors, pay 25 percent oftheir income servicing their student debt, while others pay five percent. Thatkind if inequity would end when majors are priced more correctly. 但是，谁又挣得更多呢?为什么两个人付相同的费用、 买相同的产品，却有一个人只能获得一半或三分之一的服务呢?实际上，一些专业的毕业生要拿出25%的工资付学生贷款，而其他专业的学生只需拿出5%。只有将不同专业更适当地定价才能结束这种不平等现象。 Now of course, all this data - and one ofyou is going to do thi