Massive student strike in Quebec

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Government should work for the people. Making the government more responsive is a good thing.

Kuci, yes, I agree it is absurd. But it works for some reason.

Because their government is ****ed up.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
You're missing the point. Whether or not free schooling is a good idea, the students STRIKING for more money is simply absurd.

Nope. Students are the first targets of free education, and they use what little pressure means they can. When the government provides a free education, it doesn't do so out of charity, but out of national interest: the aim of the government is to have an educated population. The only way the students can pressure the government (save for intermittent votes) is to not behave as the government wishes. Strikes are maybe the only way to do so.

[Kuciwalker]

As I said, it's like senior citizens striking because of proposed SS cuts.

[Fake Boris]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Giving into student demonstrators so easily does NOT benefit everyone in the long run. They will notice the trend and exploit it.

Student strikes are notorious for being ineffective, right, but right now it's the largest strike since '68, facing a weakened and unpopular government, desperate to find a way to be reelected in two years.

Students are not idiot neither, they wouldn't have taken the risk to waste a semester and take the streets without first smelling the blood.

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
As I said, it's like senior citizens striking because of proposed SS cuts.

Only that in the eyes of a typical government (or, atleast, the economist side of the government), senior citizens are the past and students are the future.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Oncle Boris
If they are to use more provocation against students and unions, they'll be facing a general public strike very soon

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Spiffor
Nope. Students are the first targets of free education, and they use what little pressure means they can.

It's absurd that them striking should create pressure! The government should fail them and get new students!

[Imran Siddiqui]

Government should work for the people. Making the government more responsive is a good thing.

And what makes you sure that giving the students more free money is what is best for 'the people'? Perhaps there are social programs which are underfunded which need the money more than the students. I believe OB said that there is a financial crunch right now in Quebec.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
It's absurd that them striking should create pressure! The government should fail them and get new students!

Draw a line in the sand. Sacrifice one school year children for the greater good.

I guess that's the main difference, Kuci. In Quebec, if the government doesn't give in, the government is gone. In the States, if the government gives in, the government is gone.

I perfer our model. Being pushed around by a student strike, pffft!

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
It's absurd that them striking should create pressure! The government should fail them and get new students!

1. In Canada, a great many people from the usual age range are already students, or are done with their studies. Unlike the private sector, the Canadian academia doesn't have a huge "reserve army" of would-be students that have been rehected, and that would accept any working conditions.

2. A student is typically high in human capital. Right monetarily, every three-years' student you fire is a waste fo tens of thousands of dollars. It's completely absurd.

3. Canada rightly wants to have an educated population.

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

I guess that's the main difference, Kuci. In Quebec, if the government doesn't give in, the government is gone. In the States, if the government gives in, the government is gone.

Yeah, that's deference between free and authoritarian societies.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Because their government is ****ed up.

It works in the U.S. also.

[Fake Boris]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui




Draw a line in the sand. Sacrifice one school year children for the greater good.

I guess that's the main difference, Kuci. In Quebec, if the government doesn't give in, the government is gone. In the States, if the government gives in, the government is gone.

I perfer our model. Being pushed around by a student strike, pffft!

Well, if they manage to convince the public opinion that the cuts were a good idea in the first place (which is not the case), then they would still have to convince people that sacrificing 200,000 students is also about "public good".

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Sacrifice one school year children for the greater good.

That would not increase the greater good. In fact, it would do the opposite. It would hurt the future of the province. These students are striking for the greater good.

[Fake Boris]

I love Imran's conception of greater good. Is it about neoliberal autocrats pillaging social-democracy to lower taxes, and macing students?

Popular will has gone a sad long way if it's nothing more than voting every five years. What's the right to demonstrate? a useless fanfare?