the cost of a college degree is now out of reach of all middle-class American family's, unless of course the student goes in debt for the rest of his life with government backed, private bank brokered loans. we will see more students from Asia, since the colleges are recruiting them, College is a business it must make money to stay open, it can no longer rely on American students, their family's are broke, taxed out, in debt, and income flat for the last 30 years. bye,bye American pie.

I'm so glad I graduated May 2011, I can't believe the in-state tuition prices I was paying for a State University just for the Professors to reuse tests/labs/homework assignments.

Textbook prices were ridiculous as well, it was especially frustrating when they would release "new editions" every year (with minor changes, same homework problems - slightly different numbers). This sucked because the next set of students taking the course couldn't use older books from their friends/classmates and the latter couldn't sell them to make a fraction of what they paid back.

At least with the textbook issue I found a way around it though, if you buy international versions they're like 1/5 of the English prices. Only variations would be the occasional SI unit instead of American.

Yeah, the college system in the US is pretty broken...I was a Civil Engineering major BTW.

Yea bro that pearson but try to download the books illegaly from the internet, thats how you fight that war

Free VLE (Virtual Learning Enviroment) and post secondary education. It is an obtainable goal if the US would stop supporting the world and start being concerned about their own citizens and their education.

Spot on Chris. Where as the vast majority of students receive forms of Aid to attend institutions that cost $30,000 to $50,000 per year, Chinese Students pay full boat. Universities, in need of money may be more likely to accept full paying tuition students than our own American hopefuls.

It is time to way up. Free Trade has benefited the Chinese Population, and not only taken our good paying jobs overseas, but is now taking precious spaces in universities.

Time for Fair Trade, time for Tariffs. Time to rebuilt American from the inside. Time for the middle class to be given a fair shake.

to have fair trade you would first need a government that represents the american people not corporations.too much money is being made destroying the middle class.china had a free trade agreement with india and when jobs started leaving china for cheaper indian labor china cancelled the agreement.thats what a government does that cares about its people.ours made more free trade agreements.you see where we stand

bubb besides finally leaving iraq whats obama done to warrent us wanting to reelect him.his change looks exactly like more of the same

There is no doubt those Chinese students are going to be better than most American , because our current level of education is terrible we are 42 now, and the only way to compete is having better teachers and better programs like they have abroad. Those Chinise are coming to get certain degrees only, the ones they can benefit their country.

When I was in college, riding the bus to campus was like going to Asia. I almost never heard English. Instead it was either Chinese or Japanese. Don't ask me which cause I can't tell the difference. But who can blame colleges for seeking students from all over the world? The hardest working, most dedicated, best grade getting students were not from America. K-12 in the states is a joke compared to how it is in other countries. In other countries, you either bust your butt to stay in a good school, or you get dumped into a school of "go nowhere." Kids learn to compete from an early early age in other countries. In our country, we say everybody is a winner so nobody feels bad about not being the best in their class. Little Johnny can't handle being told he bombed his exam cause he was lazy, so we pass him on to the next teacher who gets a student who can't figure out what half of 5 is. Here is a hint Johnny, it is 2.5!

They probably should say students with rich parent's. I somehow doubt the factory worker at Foxxcon China is paying for thier childs college education in the US in full in advance.

And Richard they want them because they can charge more money than in-state attendees. It's love of money not love of diversity.

Face it. The majority of us in the US have been thrown under the bus so a select few can continue to get richer and richer

I absolutely hate free trade, it's resulted in two things here in America

1) Corporations increasing their profit margins

2) The average citizen buying "goods" at cheaper prices

Now, (2) might sound nice, but do you really care if you saved $50 on that TV when you or a friend just lost your JOB? Corporations doing business in China are paying the price for their short sightedness for quick profits as well via Chinese companies stealing intellectual property and duplicating the technology/knowledge at cheaper rates (see trains).

I absolutely hate NAFTA and other free trade agreements. It doesn't help that China has absolutely terrible working conditions for their manufacturers - just the other day I read about 300 of Foxconn's workers (produces Microsoft/Apple/etc. goods) threatening mass suicide over compensation they never received.

The USA has it's issues, but I'd much prefer it leading the world than China. We just need to clean house / throw the book at our corrupt politicians. This is the opinion of a 23 year Vietnamese Civil Engineer who moved to the USA at 5. Make no mistake, China DOES NOT CARE about you or it's own population.

The University system doesn't care where the money comes from. They are willing to educate foreign students to enable them to take American jobs whether in the US or back in their home countries in competition with American business. This is a self defeating process for Americans, it is all about money now, never mind any consequences down the road.

As for textbooks, some schools now offer rentals. Though the solution now really is for all of the schools to utilize kindle technology.

Hahahaha!

From the article:

the IIE argues adding mainland Chinese students is helpful for diversity. “Most Americans will not study abroad. On the other hand, their careers will be global,” observed Blumenthal. “They need to learn how to interact with professionals from other countries, and many of them will be from China. There are very few industries or business not affected by China.”

I had TONS of Asian foreign exchange students in my classes in both undergrad and graduate school.

The Asian undergrad exchange students kept to themselves and just hung out with others from their same nationality, never bothering to interact with others. They weren't even terribly welcoming and terminally shy when approached by us westerners.

Working with them in my courses wasn't bad. Most were very hard workers and very intelligent, they just tended to lack the ability to improvise, but their technical knowledge was 5x5.

However, after graduation, NONE ever bother to keep in contact. All of my colleagues and myself included have tried to reach out to these people we worked with in school to maintain our professional networks.

Few even bother to return e-mails.

Diversity-arguments are nonsense, these US schools are doing this for one purpose only, MONEY. They want to maintain their bloated staff and life-long pay for their high level administrators and tenured professors!

How do you think Pakistan and China have the bomb? Their scientists all trained in US schools!

We are just giving away knowledge that is not going to come back to benefit the US. It's not enriching the US labor pool, it's in fact taking up a seat in a US school, and raising the prices of tuition by increasing the demand for seats at US universities.

I'm all for having exchange students, it's a good political gesture to make-nice with foreign powers. But hosting well over 100K students from just one other nation?! WTF?!

For anyone that has gone to a "brand-name" university will know that the more they are made up of foreign exchange students, the more their "family-network" erodes. USC and UCLA for example. Those are both fantastic universities, but unlike back even as recently as the 1980's where graduates were practically guaranteed a job right out of college thanks to a strong and cohesive alumni network, these schools now just dump out their graduates and offer little in the way of opportunities other than slinging them into job fairs with all the other universities. There are so many fewer graduates from these schools that stay in the US and help to support a strong alumni network for newly minted graduates to find their feet!

The Asian exchange students as far as I've seen (anecdotal evidence warning) enjoy their US-education, but have little regard for their alma mater and just cast it aside once they get their diploma and make their way home. The European exchange students however were VERY professional and have all strived to keep in touch as we have with them.

I'd be willing to cut the number of eligible Chinese nationals down to 25K and bring in more Europeans ANY DAY!

Let's huga some more my Danes!

It's easy to see why universities do this - IT'S THE MONEY.

The poor and minorities get grants and scholarships, the rich get in on their parents money, and the middle class, which doesn't qualify for grants and scholarships, get the shaft.

I'm glad I got my degrees back in the 1980s - I doubt that I could afford them now.

roy wilson; My final degree was a LLB (JD), in 1966; with help from my family ,and part time work, i was able to cover the University costs , about 4 thousand per year then; before I retired part of my job was to review applications from recent graduates, some had student loans of over 250 thousand dollars, with interest around 7% then and now, they are going to be paying back around 700 thousand dollars for the next 30-40 years; how can they afford to buy a home, car, get married raise a family, save for retirement, they can't, we have reduced our middle class to a feudal society.

right on, Saxon. And when you say "We have reduced our middle class to a feudal society", I'd like to add our politicians have through Free Trade. All so we can buy our jeans at wal-mart for a few bucks less. Of course, the middle class jobs went overseas with the savings.

Result of Free Trade: Fewer well paying jobs, more US debt, class warfare, Foreign full paying students taking up precious space in our university classrooms, etc.

Time for Fair Trade, time for Tariffs. Time to rebuilt American from the inside. Time for the middle class to be given a fair shake.

Middle class can easily get into college, they receive great high school educations in most areas. Junior Colleges are not very expensive and are a great way to get you two years of college education. I did this, then transferred to a major University. Worked night through all four years, had partial academic scholarship and graduated with debt which I paid off on time- this included loans from family above what I could get through school.

Don't tell me it can't be done by the middle class I did this in the 90's. I come from a large family, with middle class income. I have a very hard time believing this is much different from your time, my time, or now. I just don't see the willingness to work nights, or to start at Jr College. Everyone expects Northwestern for free or less than $15k a year...not gonna happen. But academic scholarship, working nights and starting at Jr College can be done- by anyone.

saxon

Get current with the news. One of Obama's power grabs was for the government to take student loans away from banks and have them administered by the government. Loosely interpreted that means those "needy" students will get first pick at the money and in the end won't have to pay their loans back if this rip off artist stays in office.

There is nothing wrong with foreign students coming here if they pay the right tuition. How about those foreign students, many from countries that hate us, that are recruited to come here for a FREE education. Didn't you know that happens?

Did you know there is a law on the books in Washington that allows our tax dollars to fund research at a University, then have the discoveries turned over to a pharmaceutical company to make us pay through the nose for what our tax dollars were used to discover? Get with the program, we are being screwed six ways from sunday by the government and all the give aways that have been added over the years. Now they want to kill off the seniors to prevent giving them what they made them pay for and so they will have more money for buying votes of idiots with give aways.

One thing you have to say about the CHinese students, they will make our kids in college look like dummies because they are dedicated to the principals of education and knowledge and were not brought up in liberal screwed up schools.

Wasn't Obama just attacked for his hubris for suggesting that all American kids should be able to go to college? The conservatives in America, or any country for that matter constantly attack education. It is immoral, it is elitist, etc etc etc.

We cut funding for community colleges and increase defense spending. We vilify public educators and glorify sports heroes.

Having spent spent several years living in Asia, Asians value education far more than we do, they save money for it (along with saving money in general), and it is ridiculous for us to blame them for coming to our universities, which, by the way, are still excellent. Look at what gets cut first in America when tax revenues go down, it is not defense spending or entitlements for older people, it is funding for education.

shaking my head; not a bad analogy, we have dumbed down our high schools so much, our students can barely read and write , those that graduate from our government run (public ) schools.

jesuswillbrb

The attack against education isn't the importance of it. It is the ever rising costs per student with embarrassing results when compared to the rest of the world that spends a fraction per student than we do. It is the lasting belief that simply throwing money at the problem will solve it, without some sort of metric measurement to attempt justifying the money spent.

And the article is pretty specifically referencing the number of full tuition paying Chinese students taking up spots in our educational universities, (and the good ones), leading one to be concerned that as more foreigners take up those spots, less are left for US students. Even less are left for non-full tuition paying students. Meaning, the middle class is left in the cold.

It was not meant to point out the comparison on defense spending vs. education-as you added. And, Obama was attacked because he said that all US students have a right to a government paid college education. I'm on board with the attack, in asking "How are you planning on paying for it?" Or is the statement a pathetic attempt to sucker in people to voting for you, when in reality you never actually meant it.

If you keep shaking you'll hear that loose screw.

Obama comes into office after most of the damage done by Republicans is well entrenched. He took loans away from banks after it became obvious to all but the right that banks were profiting while actually doing nothing but enforcing predatory loan rates and failing to service the loans fairly. The "needy" won't have to repay? More right wing class warfare, screw-loose?

You won't have to worry about university research . . . responsible for much of the innovation that powers american commerce 'cause the moronic right is against . . well . . everything. As for the pharmaceutical research issue . . yep, we ought to demand much more in return from big pharma. Are you really going to claim that the right wing corporate toadies are ever going to let that happen? You're delusional.

Kill off seniors? Friend, you've got to turn off Fox News or talk radio. They fill you right wing folks with venom that dulls your minds. It's not healthy.

If the schools are screwed up, you can thank several decades of the destruction of K12 by the right in an effort to avoid paying for free education for all. This is a crime committed by the conservatives and America will never forget or be confused as you obviously are. Schools need reform, they don't need a testing protocol that has no other purpose than to deprive the average American of a good and free eduction . . . that same education that powers innovation, medical care, and new products that the world wants to buy or acquire from us. Odd isn't it?

Shame on the right and shame on you for the lies you tell.

T-Rex: I too went to school in the 90's. It's the 90's anymore. Costs are much higher now and classes have been cut. The kids I know are working, but unfortunately, the education costs they now bear make it very hard to actually get ahead afterwards. This has a chilling effect on the rate of grads.

FYI, I have put off going back to school for a few years because it's crushingly expensive and I can't afford it. I have to work full-time. Is that good for the country?

Nothing good came from China yet. Why do we want to educate their people from what we worked so hard to get? There will be no return but more conflict, cheating, copying, and stealing - as China always did.

No more Chinese students!

"Obama comes into office after most of the damage done by Republicans is well entrenched"

That is a lie. Democrats inherited 4.6% employment and a booming economy when they took over congress Jan, 2007. Whatever Obama inherited, it was democrats that created it.

Bill-Austin and P111.

I believe that it is neither, but a Republican/Democrat effort to push free trade agendas that padded the profits of large corporation, which in turn donated to campaigns. From Bush I to Obama both sides push free trade with the message of opening the world's population to our manufacturing. I'll buy that once we balance the trade deficit. Until that happens, I'd simply like to prioritize selling to our own population instead of importing 600B per month.

With regard to education, simply putting more money each year into the system hasn't worked. Every year we try to do the same thing, and the results continue to disappoint. The crime is a lack of accountability or direction. I challenge you to define decades of education destruction, because funding isn't part of that. Funding continues to rise each and every year.

http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/spending_chart_1990_2014USr_13s1li111mcn_20t

I recommend that American universities develop more tuition tiers: lowest for in-state American citizen residents who would qualify for the most financial grants; increasing rates for other levels of American students who would qualify for student loans; and VERY high tuition rates for foreign students who would not be eligible for American grants or loans.

Foreign students should also be very limited in the amount they can earn as tutors, graduate assistants, and doctoral candidates. American students should have first come at those positions and earn twice that of foreign students.

If the Chinese (and other foreigners) value our university education so much and are dramatically increasing their enrollment here, then it's time to dramatically increase how much they must pay for the opportunity.

p111

Keep telling the lie, one day it will become thetruth. It is a shame there is such ignorance in this country.

p111: are you kidding?

It is remarkable to complain about the spaces these students take up... or the cost of a US college education... considering how absolutely miserable so many of the students are. Don't do assignments, don't show up for class, want to know "is this going to be on the test".

People who think college is a rip-off should think about what their own darling slackers are doing with their time.

P111, then why did Bush start TARP? Unemployment was on the rise in the last months of Bush's administration. You do realize it wasn't goint to go from 5% (Bushes last number to 10% in a month right? Things take time. What was the deficit before Bush? What was the deficit Obama took over from Bush? Who sat motionless while New York was under attack? Who failed to get Bin Lauden? Who has deported the more illegal aliens? Using your logic the Democrats screwed up everything in two years 2007-2008. So why hasn't the GOP fixed everything in the years since when they have had a majority in the house and a effective number in the Senate?

So, in effect what were doing is allowing the Chinese to study here, take what they have learned back to China, and then use it against us later?!

You're kidding yourselves if you think they all suddenly achieve an epiphany that the US is their ally.

You're also kidding yourselves if you think that now the US thinks that these Chinese are our allies.

things government can do to improve the public education system:

- stop subsidizing loans for students who major in fields that are less in demand (such as art, history, social sciences). when you give people free things, they'll take them even when they don't need/want them. STOP GIVING FINANCIAL AIDS AND LOANS TO ART STUDENTS WHO WILL LIKELY SPEND ON THEM CLOTHES, CARS AND IPHONES AND MAKE $24K A YEAR WHEN THEY GRADUATE.

- no student aids for under-performing students. 2.9 GPA? NO LOANS FOR YOU!!

- if the school wants to receive assistance from the government, the students MUST be able to rate the teachers. based on the students' evaluations, under-performing teachers need to be fired. CONFUSING LECTURES? YOUR FIRED!!!!!!!

HEY everybody - F China !!!! The devils just want to pirate our products and Copy or technology !!!! Limit their VISAS !!!!

p111 ... please tell us what the Democrats did to the economy? And, if they did such terrible things, why didn't the president veto them? They also didn't hold a fillibuster proof majority, so the Republicans could've stopped them, too.

So, the intelligencia have created a vacuum for their higher education. Keep paying the elitists more and more for their indoctrination of our children until it becomes an unattainable goal for most. Now we have previous third world nations sending us their students to fill the void.

Has anyone wondered why the cost of a college education keeps skyrocketing? Do they rebuild their infrastructure so often? Do their overhead costs spiral continuously? Do they provide more options for lower income prospects for a higher education? Do the professors and their unions demand more and more for their contributions to society? BINGO!

Where private businesses cut prices for consumers and costs to themselves through efficiencies that increase profits and incomes, universities lack those motivations.

The typical successful university president views his or her key interests not to be the customer (students and their parents who pay tuition charges or the granters of research funds), but rather others -- the faculty, important alumni, key administrators, trustees and occasionally, of course, politicians. They please these constituencies by raising, and then spending, lots of money.

This is not by mistake. Our K-12 education system is an embarrassment. Most Americans read at an 8th grade level. Our high school graduates have been ranking in the bottom third of all OECD countries in math, science and reading for decades. And we believe that somehow we will "Win The Future"?

WTF!

In essence most of our current problems, economic, social, moral and cultural stem from the fact that we are graduating illiteracy from our schools. If they're graduating at all. When you read a graduates writing and find most don't know how to use - there, their and they're - in a sentence, we have a problem. When you ask a student to calculate 20% of 330 in their head and they stare at you blankly for 5 minutes, we have a problem. Sixty percent of American's spend more than they make, this is a problem. When half of Americans pay fewer taxes but consume more of the benefits from our social programs and entitlements provided, we have a problem. Illiteracy is the driving engine of most of these concerns.

According to a Government Accountability Office report, the U.S. government has more than 82 programs monitoring teacher quality, 90 early childhood development programs; 75 programs funding international education and 26 small extraneous K-12 school grant programs.

Government auditors spent the past five years examining all federal programs and found that 22 percent of them–costing taxpayers a total of $123 billion annually–fail to show any positive impact on the populations they serve.

How can other countries teach their students the basics for a higher education, along with the English language to comprehend the teachings, and then send them here to increase their earning potential, and we can't? Our Department of Education is another example of unconstitutional government intrusion into what should be a vibrant, efficient and affordable industry, in the private sector. States should define the goals of education and develop the programs necessary that provides the most competitive and exceptional results.

Our education system is a mess. We will no more be able to compete in the global markets without a solid education foundation than we will be able to fix our economy if we allow government to run roughshod over every single aspect of our lives. If you don't believe government isn't involved in everything around us, name one thing that isn't taxed, regulated or subsidized.

Doesn't take a PhD to figure that affect on us all, does it?

Well, while for Americans Money is GOD, this is a nother way china is spying in the USA

Just as a preemptive to anyone that might get offended at my prior post, when I was referring to Asians I was referring to the region, not the race. There were plenty of European exchange students of Asian descent in my schools, and just like the majority of the American students, they not only were enthusiastic and sociable, they understood the value of NETWORKING with the other students.

That's the thing that really amazes me!

All of these Asian countries like India, Singapore, Thailand, Thaiwan, China, and even Japan seem to all instruct their exchange students to just focus on the schoolwork and keep their heads down. The technical knowledge they get in college is so limited, but these countries seem to put a huge emphasis on it over everything else.

Education is only 25% of the value of a good school!

In most lucrative fields, the stuff you learn in school is outdated either when you learn it, or at best, 5 to 8 years after you graduate and start work in that field. The real value of being educated in a good school is NETWORKING with the other people who were also able to make that cut! Those connections will grow and become incredibly valuable.

Perhaps the people coming over from these other countries don't have that "old boys network"-understanding because their networks were based on lineage and castes rather than professions (like the US and Europe of today).

Just as a word to the wise people, if you aren't in a top university, GET INTO ONE, and when you are there, make friends with the other people who are hard workers and very professional. You will each become successful in your own right and you will each be able to support the other in some way down the road.

Connections are priceless...it's the education that can be bought!

If you ask me, textbooks are a thing of the past. It's just another racket for the banksters to make money off of. The internet is free and instantaneous. We need to utilize it.

College should be on the internet, that way we could cut down a lot of the cost.

@ Thel4ugh!ngm@n

Perhaps just from the mechanical aspect of learning material and becoming qualified for a marketable profession.

But there's more to college than just the basic education.

Getting into a good university provides you with an opportunity to meet other extremely talented and brilliant individuals that can (and should) be a connection of yours into the future.

The people that get the least out of college come in 2 varieties,

1) The party-goer that picks an easy degree, sails through classes without a care, and finishes with only the memories of getting crazy-drunk at parties and banging college girls/guys (not bad memories, but only in moderation)...just don't forget, I like 2 creams and 1 splenda in my coffee...get it right or no tip!

2) The anti-social book worm. Sure, they do very well in their classes, but they finish college with only a piece of paper and some outdated knowledge taught invariably by a professor who was either out of the field for over 10 years or by someone who couldn't hack the real world and now they teach the subject instead. These people can and often do become successful, but if they ever lose their job or find that they have no room for advancement, or cannot find adequate investment for a venture of theirs...it's a very cold and lonely world, and they're on their own.

It's more fleecing of America. Taxpayers pay to support state univerities but their kids often can't get admitted anymore because half or more of the slots are reserved for foreign (yes, mostly Chinese) students, plus they prefer the out-of-staters who can pay the higher tuition. This is just wrong on so many levels. Our state's land grant university, which prides itself on being a Big Time/Big Ten research university, actually brags that they still accept a whopping 50% of in-state kids, as if they're being overly generous. If they didn't have that land-grant designation, I doubt they'd probably take hardly any in-state applicants.

What a perfect opportunity to get a little revenge. China has been pirating American technologies forever. From cars to software to elevators, now it's our turn. Simple: Segregate the Chinese students on the ruse that they will feel more comfortable for the few year that they are here to be with other Chinese students, then teach them "bad math", inventory "is good", it's"debit not credit", leaches are a far better way to cure disease. You get the idea, have fun with it!

@ Barry.

I agree that Bush was the worst president ever, lied about getting us into Iraq and spent this country into oblivion, just to start with. I am concerned about the Dems ramming healthcare through, without reading the bill, just to get it passed before a republican got elected to stop it. Doesn't seem to me to be the way to govern. (And the Republicans are worse, in my opinion). And I'm concerned about the cost side of the equation and how to pay for it when the bills become due in 2016. Like the insane Bush II program for drugs that is completely under water.

However, I take issue in the statement that the Dem's couldn't govern because they didn't have a "super-majority" in the Senate. If you need 60% of the seats to govern, then there is something wrong with your agenda, party or the system. The Republicans never had 60% either, and using that as an excuse is politically partisan, and lame. No matter what side uses it.

Wonderful, more non-english speaking TA's. It's in the US's best interest to fill university seats with US nationals, not foreign nationals. Diversity my ass. The US is already a diverse nation and Americans alone can fill almost every demographic.

I cannot speak for all colleges but I just went through all of this with my daughter. She graduated from Singapore American School as we lived in Singapore when she was in high school. Although we are Americans, our daughter could not get in-state tuition anywhere in the U.S. The state-supported schools offered 20% of their incoming freshman slots to both out-of-state appliants and foreign applicants. 80% of the slots had to go to students from that particular state. So my daughter was competing with some top notch applicants to get into one of these state-supported universities (we paid U.S. federal tax but no state income tax while living abroad). The competition is tough for those slots. Once we moved back to the U.S. and we had established a domicile in a particular state, she was able to get in-state tuition after a year but the first year we paid out-of-state tuition.

The Chinese are very dedicated to education. The adult population understands and appreciates that you do not get very far without an education. It is not just the wealthy Chinese that send their kids to college in the U.S. I've spoken to many Chinese laborers (taxi drivers, construction workers, etc) who have scrimped and saved every bit they could in order to send their kids to college in the U.S. Over there, the old people do not go into nursing homes like here; multiple generations live together and the kids take care of the elderly in their own homes. So for the parents, it is also an investment in their own future to invest in their children. The Chinese study very, very hard. Many of them hire tutors for their children as soon as they enter kindergarten and they have tutors for the rest of their primary education experience. After the school day is over, the kids are with the tutors and study for 3 to 5 hours more every day. Education is extremely important to everyone... children and kids.

While we lived in Hong Kong, many young Chinese students (12, 13, 14 years old) would commit suicide if they got bad grades on their yearly exams... they thought that was the end of the world for them. And it probably was the end of a promising education in the U.S. or other highly sought after locations.

There should be a happy medium between our educational aspirations and those of the Chinese... we are raising a bunch of lazy kids who may or may not care anything about an education. The Chinese almost reach the point of obsession and torture with their emphasis on education.

The Chinese own most of America and we are so indebted to them. They are going to rule the USA if we do not put a stop to all this spending in government.

I also think this is going to be another way of getting the Asian population to grow and eventually take over a few large states like Ca, Florida, New York and Texas. Then when the timing is just right, the American people will be at war within our own country and attacked from the sea borders as well.

We need to limit the amount of foreign people into our country before the Americans become instinct.

FINALLY, I guess we must be doing something right here in this country!

Markl323, I take issue with this:

- stop subsidizing loans for students who major in fields that are less in demand (such as art, history, social sciences).

There is nothing wrong with these degrees as long as demand is there. There's the problem. With school budgets cut and higher education becoming more unattainable, less teaching jobs are available. If we as a society care about education and knowledge, we would celebrate those who educate us about our past, teach us how to be citizens in a democracy, and educate about the world around us.

Maybe, if we did, we would make decisions as voters, based on knowledge, not sound bytes and propaganda. A society of corporate drones with no understanding of history, civics, or the arts is ignorant, easily manipulated and not a society most of us want to live in.

If you think things aren't ridiculous I graduated from UW Milwaukee in 1971 the tuition per semester was $165. Anybody know what it is now? My factory worker mother had no trouble with the tuition.

THIS is why we need to fix education, and fix it NOW. I have faith that we will succeed, but the problem is WHEN will we have a competitive education system. I am sure that we will eventually, but I hope that it is sooner rather than later. If it is sooner, we can recoup our losses from the free trade debacle. If it is later, we will have to work 2x to recover our economic superiority.

Smart move and no wonder Dr. Paul wants to end the Education department and Wall Street Gordon Gekko better known as Mitt Romney. The GOP motto is if you can't afford education hard labor is always available and those farm jobs picking crops. College will now get cash money for Foreign students and full the class rooms. Just think in a short time Americans will be working for China, right here in the USA. The sign went out in 2001 America for Sale. As Iowa/NH rushed to vote Wall Street Gekko/Mitt Romney in office to assure we get to the two Class System. The other candidates only want to make enough money to be in the upper class.

Areius: I was a manufacturing manager for years and you're wrong. This problem has nothing to do with government spending or a growing Asian population. You're a racist but I'll skip that one.

Greedy CEO's like Romney, who looked for lower labor costs and fired whole departments of people did this. I know, I was there.

It's extinct, not instinct.

If you elect me, my fellow Americans, I will fix our education system, from Pre-K to college. I am beginning to think that we need a centralized education system, or at least have the feds initiate nation-wide education policies that ACTUALLY work (not No Child Left Behind).

FRESHIEEE 2012

I graduated from the University of Washington in 2005. I won't lie, it was a huge struggle. Books were extremely expensive, and while they have a buy back program, you only get a tiny fraction of what you paid back, and if they aren't using those books anymore, or if a new edition's come out, then forget it; you get nothing but a big paperweight. I knew I couldn't put myself through all 4 years at the UW, so I did my freshman and sophmore years at a community college (who's tuition was half that of a 4 year and offered the same required classes as the University), and transferred my credits over to the UW. Saved a ton of money that way. It is do-able, but only if you plan ahead. It ended up taking me 7 years to get through, starting right after high school graduation. As far as our K-12 schools; they're a joke. The education system needs a major, major overhaul. I read comments from grown adults on a daily basis who have no idea how to use proper grammar, and can't figure out when to use the words: their, there, or they're, and you're and your. That's just for starters, too. Come on, that's basic stuff! No wonder people can't get into colleges. They can't do something as basic as reading and writing, colleges will continue to give the seats away to foreigners. We need to buckle down on the real subjects, otherwise all our colleges will be good for is to educate our rival countries. We're so worried about certain countries being better than us, yet we're schooling them, right? How's that for ironic?

Chinese students attend classes five or six days a week from early morning (about 7am) to early evening (4pm or later). On Saturdays, many schools hold required morning classes in science and math. Many students also attend 補習班 (buxiban), or cram school, in the evening and on weekends. Much like tutoring in the West, these schools offer additional Chinese, English, science and math classes and one-on-one tutoring.

Their school year is 38 weeks for elementary 39 for middle school and 40 for highschool.

We don't need to pick and choose what majors to subsidize, or cut off.

I say we take a more market-demand approach to government subsidized tuition.

Here's the formula

The maximum a student can borrow for college from subsidized loans must be no more than 1.5x the median income from graduates working in that major's entry-level field.

ex.

Engineering Major - median income = $62K x 1.5 = $93K maximum allowable subsidized tuition

Nursing Major - median income = $41.5K x 1.5 = $62K

Political Science Major - median income = $27L x 1.5 = $40K

Sociology Major - median income = $20K x 1.5 = $50K

Thoughts?

As you can see, no matter what the person majors in, they will only be able to borrow with help from Uncle Sam up to a range that they can't help but be able to pay off even if they worked as a barrista at Starbucks.

No more drama majors racking up $100K+ in debt.

This too will change how colleges structure their acceptance for majors, as they won't be able to get such easy dollars by coasting through boatloads of people in the less lucrative majors who will mostly be unemployable, particularly in that major.

There's very little demand on the open market for a bachelors in history/philosophy/sociology. The demand is high in colleges because the kids want easy classes and the parents just begrudgingly want to send their kids to college, and best of all, these classes are cheaper to support since the teachers of these majors cannot do anything else, which must greatly hamper their ability to negotiate better pay compared to the Medical/Engineering/Business/Science classes.

Students still can go for these majors, just not on everyone else's dime, and schools won't be able to cash in on stupid slobs that will borrow 100K to attend useless classes that will get them nowhere.

I see students with 100K+ in tuition debt for sociology majors like I see Boeing charging the Pentagon $50K for a toilet seat

I went to state university system in the early 70's. Let me tell you, they would take full fare from anyone back then. In state residence students got lower tuition, same as now. There were tons of scholarships, loans, grants available back then. I'm not sure what the blah, blah, blah is about from many of you regarding the government. This is a new scenario, it's been around since well before my time. Find some other worthy topic to whine about.

Arieus, maybe you don't recall that in the late 80's and early 90's that there was a "white" panic that the Japanese were going to own America, because they were buying up real estate, Wall Street stocks and educating their children here as well as relocating here to work for the Toyotas, Mitsubishis, Hondas, etc. of the world. The reason being, that the US dollar was basically worthless and interest rates were well north of 10%. Fear not, it is cyclical. We won't be speaking Mandarin anytime soon......

These Chinese students are not coming here to study here and "stay" here as some have suggested. Their government wants these well-educated kids back in China but they recognize the best education they can have is in the U.S. They are not subsidized by our government... the out-of-state and international tuition is double the in-state tuition. These parents have to "prove" they have the "cash" to pay the way for these students. Without at least 20% of the incoming freshman slots going to these students, the colleges could not afford to operate. With the educational budget cuts, some colleges are now allowing more than 20% of the slots to go to out-of-state and foreign students... if they didn't, none us us could afford to send our kids to college. And even at that, they still raised tuition for next year.

The cost of college tuition is so high... if you try to "provide" your child with an education, you will go completely broke! I know this from experience! We need affordable education in this country. Many countries have free college educations for their kids and those countries are in a whole lot better situation than we are in this country. Of course, the tax rates for taxpayers are also much higher because these same countries also offer free health care. Of course if this is even suggested in this country, it is called socialism. But hey, how is this capitalism working out for everyone??? Getting rich and socking away savings every day, right???

@shaking my head

One thing you have to say about the CHinese students, they will make our kids in college look like dummies because they are dedicated to the principals of education and knowledge and were not brought up in liberal screwed up schools.

Their parents have been on their cases about their education from day one, as there is no Social Security system to support them in their old age. That one child (or two children, in some areas or if they were twins) is the whole future. The kid(s) succeed, and they will live well; fail, and there's a sad tomorrow.

Unfortunately, most U.S. parents are just figuring out that the kid in the basement playing video games and working at Fast Food will be the one picking out their nursing home.

Another example of the dumbing down of America.

Something radical needs to happen to the public and higher education system in America otherwise we are all doomed.

A nation where the citizens simply cannot afford to educate their children is a nation destined to fail.

Chemist,

Hey, it worked quite well for Alaric I of the Visigoths. First he leaves his Germanic tribal homeland and joins a Roman legion...next, he learns all he can about the Roman way of life and how their military operates...then, after returning home, he eventually invades Italy and sacks Rome, which ultimately leads to the fall of the Roman Empire.

I'm betting folks elsewhere around the world are better at learning from history than we seem to be capable of here in the States.

What a crude and ethnocentric view of the world...

Economic activity is not a zero-sum game, and globalized education benefits everyone. The tuition money that's coming into our economy is coming from middle class parents working all those rough manufacturing jobs that our corporations "shipped" to China over widespread whining from the economically illiterate, returning some of our money and emphasizing our competitive advantage as a nation. Those Chinese students absorb our culture as well as our knowledge and sometimes settle in the United States rather than taking their training back to China; they start up companies, create jobs, make fortunes. You know, the whole American Dream thing that we've been pitching to immigrants since forever.

Even those that don't often keep contacts in America that they use for business, increasing trade and enriching BOTH American and Chinese companies.

It's absurd to think of China and all Chinese people as our enemies. With the amount of trade and financial activity between our countries, our fates our intertwined; protectionism will hurt both nations, and pointlessly cut off opportunities for thousands of regular people who just want to make a living at no one else's expense.

SF accountant, what you say would be true if the 'returns were not diminishing' so much at this point. And the San Gabriel valley in L.A. has thousands of the asians who have decided to stay for the 'whole American Dream thing'. But most of them are just suffering through our Great Recessions with us.

K Man - you got that about nailed. They have undermined our manufacturing industry, they control trade, we are in dept to them, and they are winning educational placements in our best schools. Hey I'm hoping for a peaceful takeover, what about you?

SF accountant - Oil production and UN resolutions, look it up.

@ SF accountant

globalized education benefits everyone.

Oh? If there's a finite number of seats in US universities, and US universities are world renowned, and said universities are giving preferential treatment to foreign students thanks to non-subsidized tuition rates (the US negotiates down tuition just like health insurers negotiate rates with doctors). What does that do to the cost of tuition for everyone.

Think of supply and demand. There's a very limited annual supply of available seats in US universities, and there are countries with middles classes that outnumber the entire population of the US.

What does that do to the cost of tuition and the availability of a top-level education for someone who would stay in the US and utilize their education in the US market?

There's already plenty of evidence to show that the quality of ones professors is directly correlated with the student's future earning potential. If fewer capable American students are able to attend these professor's courses because foreign nationals are taking n-number of seats while the American students are being turned away...how again does that benefit the US?

Seriously.. bingo!

Relax people,

Few years from now, and CEO from education will outsource it abroad. To China, as it happened with industry... or to India, as it happening now with services (Hi Peggy : ) ). Or US educated Chinese business people will start some new schools down there.

@ Foreignner

US Educated Chinese are starting universities in China. The Chinese government gives EXTREME preferential treatment to Chinese citizens over all other applicants. At least their country recognizes the value of retaining knowledge within their borders and getting as much as possible from outside.

Sf accountant,

Yes, it's nice to see some of our financial capital being returned to the States via Chinese student college tuitions. How much do you figure will wind up locked away in college endowments rather than helping lower tuition costs that have been outpacing inflation rates for some time now?

Interesting to see we're even outsourcing to China the creation of the defacto plutocracy / oligarchy that is rapidly becoming American society.

I guess lower / middle class kids won't have to worry about being strapped with college debt for a large chunk of their post-college adult life...they simply won't be able to get into college to rack up the bills in the first place.

Just as easy government money over inflated housing prices and easy government money over inflated health care, easy student loans have over inflated the cost of college. If everybody could only afford $25,000 that's what college would cost. If everybody can afford $25,000 and borrow $100,000 college will cost $125,000.

Throw in the fact that most jobs require a college education whether you use it or not, and it's a sellers market.

You don't have to take out large student loans to go to school. It is entirely possible to work at least part time, obtain scholarships/grants, and take out small student loans (or none at all). I graduated in 2009 with $35k in student loans, I currently make $50k a year. I would say my education was well worth the loans, even though I will be paying some of them off for the next 15 years. The only reason I had to take them out anyway was to pay for living expenses, as I was not one of the fortunate ones that got to live at home with mom and dad.

As to your idea that everyone should train in a technical school, I think you are missing the point of a college education. With a 4-year degree, you learn a little about many topics, building upon your base of knowledge that will help you become a well-rounded individual. At a technical school, you miss this experience entirely, learning little, if any, skills outside of the narrow field you choose to study. While this may churn out people that can work "right away" in their field, their skill-set will be so narrow that if they are unable to get a job in that field, they will need to re-enroll in another tech school to learn something else. On-the-job training would be a better option (at least they get paid while learning).

Want to be a welder Jenna126 you need certification only available at the junior college nearby. Most companies don't do certification training because it's good everywhere so the employee doesn't have to stay after getting it. College students shouldn't speak about that which they know nothing. Most so called technical schools are actually 2 year colleges. And girl the point is job training not art ed.

If you think the world will be a better place with the decline of American power and the rise of China you are either deluded, brainwashed or mad.

America - for all it's recent follies and mistakes is still a net force for good and its demise will throw the world into anarchy.

And China - that's a country that gives me the hibbdies jibbdies ...

May god bless America and the world.

Warren - China murdered 15 million of their citizens and has let millions more die from disease and poverty. China is not a model of the kind of government that we want to be part of the international community. The majority of the people that China is sending to the US are spies. They will get a degree here in the US. Some will go back to China while others will get jobs in the US and continue their roles as spies for the glory of China.

1 in 2 USA citizens are poor Michael.

China's wishes for competently educated citizens falls well within their ability to think far into their future. A future designed by their totalitarian, dogmatic, Communist government. This poorly written article does not cover what I expected to see. The types of educations being sought. I would bet that many of the higher engineering courses including Nuclear sciences, Chemistry, Advanced Computer Sciences and Advanced Biology courses would be some of the biggest. We're basically training our enemy to destroy us with our own weapons engineered by students taught here. On the other hand we also have "Chinese Tourists" coming here in droves to bear their children on U.S. soil to create "Automatic American Citizens" too. Our Congress sits with its thumb up its ass and fights the 'good' partisan fights with themselves (showing their constituents "who the Boss" really is!) while our country continues to grow Cancers brought by the 'soft' invasion from China. Then again Billionaires Like Billie Gates and the recently dead Steve "the I Guy" Jobs would want all the cheap foreign labor they could get at the expense of AMERICAN KIDS and employment here.

And you would rather teach Chinese than American kids. :)

My daughter deals with international relations between many Asian countries. She often tells me about her dealings with Chinese business people and Japanese business people. I asked her to describe the Chinese in One word and the Japanese in one word. China= "Animals." And the Japanese= "Considerate."

America's greatest problem, which will ultimately bring it down, is thinking that simply being American is enough, that they are inherently superior that don't need to try anymore. Perhaps all empires reach this state that they forget the work it takes to be on top. The fact is that America cannot be top in science and technology and have the greatest military if the people don't study and excel; China and India will demonstate this and America better wake up and get off Facebook and football and back to the books.

Communists used to say the West would hang itself and communism's "irresistable logic as a superior system" would be the rope that would do the job.... WRONG! The offer of sweat shop labor to American companies (and the greed of the one percent and the resultant huge profit of allowing them to re-sell into the American market) turned out to be just the "rope" those old commies dreamed about! So why should universities be different from manufacturers? It's trading with the enemy folks. And knowledge from our universities is a much more dangerous commodity to arm the Chinese with than even an IBM chip foundry in Shanghai.

whats the point of getting an expensive education here.the jobs have been and still are being exported to third world countries for their cheaper labor.i ran into 3 girls working at a chevron station making minimum wage that had graduated with chemistry degrees.the plant they expected to be working at was relocated to india.now their stuck with huge student loans and no where to use their education

I think they were trying to sell you something other than gas.

MrIndia

You should know that the US isn't a country that can offer any good to the world either. We have been behind destabilizing democracies around the world and have recently begun invading countries without a declaration of war. Not only that, we have hundreds of bases around the world.

If China does become the next superpower, I hope they don't itch for wars as much as the US does.

Warren.....It's time you re-patrioted. It is one thing to learn about and absorb China cutlure, but it sounds like you have been gone from home too long. I know how your feel because I almost had that same feeling after 5 years in China. Get a plane ticket man before you are too far gone.

3 girls with chemistry degree all working at chevron station making minimum wage? Some body must have gone to Meth Uninversity. But seriously if this was true... it's just a temporary shuffle. They will find a job soon and will be making at least $50K again with the degree.

Warren, you are a fruitcake pure and simple! You just may get your wish and if you do, you'll see what the world will be like with a country like China running the show, a country that has no regards for people, even their own people!

Wishful thinking. There is an otherwise homeless man living in a shed on our property. He has more than one engineering degree, spent four years working at Bell Labs, got caught up in the dot com bubble and is now a casualty of the dot com bust. He has been in my shed over three years now.

Good one Warren... stir the pot!

Of course they want to come here...so they can steal our industrial and manufacturing secrets and copy everything they can get their hands on

I wouldn't trust the Chinese as far as I could throw them underwater.....

Yeah, it's not like America was founded on people coming here to make a better life . . .

Perhaps. However, there is nothing to be founded anymore.

Yeah, it's not like America was founded on people coming here to make a better life . . .

Sorry, I have no interest in helping Chinese citizens make a better life for themselves when it will eventually be at the cost of additional American jobs, dollars and livelihoods. They're not immigrating to the country, they're just coming here for a college education before heading back home. Why would anyone but college admission department support this?

Colleges will support this because it is all about the money. Nothing else! College is a huge racket.

Anyone and everyone should support this. Education is for EVERYONE, not just the people we deem "fit" for it. Do you honestly believe that the Chinese's entire goal of coming over here for school is to run back to China and take all of our jobs? Go put your tinfoil hat back on and GTFO. This is the entire problem with our country. We care nothing about the outside world. I honestly can't wait for the downfall of this country, maybe it will teach the citizens a much needed lesson in humility.

@Infin1ty- You and the ones you care about will be going down with the ship.

it is called capitalism and people gotta get paid Sono.

It seems that American men do not mind that the Asian women come here.

Alex - While you are at it, ask the average American student also WTF they are thinking ?

Great point.... How long until they unionize over there? WHen that happens the Communists will start shooting and the people will revolt. How do they go back to living in a 1 room house with 12 relatives and no income after living in a dorm in California?

This phenomenon has been reported in past years. Even a wage of pennies improves standard of living in some places. As time goes on, just like anyone, the workers begin to ask themselves how much more they are worth. After extracting a series of wage increases from a company, the company then just finds another country to move to.

And, just like it started in the steel mills and auto factories in the US, the same is happening in China. Just last year, they went through worker strikes for higher wages in those two industries, and it is now spreading to other industries. That will soon hurt China's balance of trade, hehe. That is why they are trying to go to a more domestic oriented market. They will soon learn that you don't develop the domestic market if you aren't paying wages that enable the people to buy what they are making. That is exactly what happened here in the US over the past 5 decades and why we suddenly were buying everything from China. Americans couldn't afford the products they were making because of their demands for higher wages and benefits. It is the old chicken and egg or horse and cart story of days gone by. When one group of workers demand higher wages, the price of their goods goes up. If those goods are parts for some finished good, then that raises the price of that finished good, and you get the domino effect. And yes, THAT is part of capitalism.

Demands? In china? I dont think so lol. Have you seen that picture of the guy standing in front of the tank?

I don't think it is the American people's government anymore

I don't think you have this right. Let the schools be overrun foreign students. Let then pay 100% of the education costs to keep costs down for those that live here. With their 100 cents on the dollar tuition, that should free up scholarship money for good students that could use a break.

Can't get an academic scholarship? Don't blame foreigners...study! Competition is global- for jobs, manufacturing and education. Don't expect just because you live in the US, and don't expect to get in to a school in California just because you live there. You need to earn the job, and the acceptance letter. If someone is more qualified and willing to pay full rate- so be it.

They could get a Ph.D for free.

Would you please show us exactly where you got that statistic.

They work hard to go to the colleges and pay their way through, while American kids take out loans, piss their time away, then protest out in the streets that they're in debt.

My daughter would love to work hard and pay her own way through college. Problem is, if she could find a job at all without a degree, the pay is low enough that she'd be 45 years old before she graduated.

Agreed, Severed Head.

5 Years ago, I paid $500 per semester for full-time enrollment at a community college, plus about $300-$400 per semester in fees and books. At that time, minimum wage was $5.15 per hour. I worked 1 full time and 2 part time jobs to house and feed myself on top of school.

To enroll in the same college for this spring semester, I would have to pay $1,000 per semester, another $400-$500 per semester in books (since they make sure the editions are updated EVERY semester and used is not an option) PLUS "technology" fees for another $100-$200. Don't forget that a personal computer with the latest software editions and home internet access are REQUIREMENTS for most classes now as well. Compare that to a minimum wage of $7.50.

The cost of living and educational expenses have doubled, but wages are a far cry. I can tell you first hand, running off of 4 hours or less of sleep and spending the remaining 20 hours behind a computer screen for two years straight has severe repercussions on your long term health, so there's nothing wussy about avoiding that.

And last I checked, a petrochemical engineer in China that is paying tens-of-thousands of dollars just for an advisor to get her child into a US college says more about the mother's work ethic than the student's. Comparing the two students doesn't really work here. There are plenty of unmotivated Chinese students as there are American students, they just aren't featured in this story for obvious reasons.

Been there done that. Then the RN is useless because you are "too old might hurt your back" but they hire a 4'11" H1b visa. hey they are bilingual...

I am glad that you can see one of the more serious symtoms. And this is one of the reasons why some (not all) groups from other places in the world are more successful than many Americans. A much greater sense of community exists amongst them.

Ho Chi Mihn.

It has been about 40 years already when we kicked out the legitimate Government of all of China in exile in Tai Pei from the UN in favor Genocidal Communists Occupation Forces of Death(Chair)man Mao.

Germany and Japan and Italy were our enemies 70 years ago. Did we make a mistake allowing Italians to study in the US?

The Chinese are not our enemies. They are our competitors. Big difference.

No Adam, the mainland Chinese Government is our enemy. It is STILL the same Party of Mao which committed the largest genocide of the Chinese people (and any peoples) history in terms of raw numbers. To acknowledge the current Communist Occupiers in Beijing is to justify the largest genocide in world history in terms of numbers killed.

We'll go bankrupt caring for our elderly, whereas China will simply send theirs out to the fields or ignore them.

They think in terms of centuries, were we think in terms of next quarter's profits.

Our corporate greed and consumer culture will be our undoing, and China will be there to buy up the mess at ten cents on the dollar, with the money we sent them for cheap consumer goods while we put our own citizens out of work.

Genius, don't you think?

Just one thing. Please explain how ignoring the elderly facilitates thinking in 'terms of centuries'?

It is not the fault of the American consumer. Consumers are you and me. We have only so much control on what we buy. Some of us who are really inspired may go from store to store looking for American made goods but most of us neither have the time nor the inclination. Too busy with our lives.

Also, if it is a one off thing you can do so. But how are you going to ensure that every product you buy - hundreds of them on a daily weekly monthly basis is US made ? And then there is the money aspect of it. Sure many of us would like to buy American. But if the Chinese made product is comparable and cheaper a lot of people are eventually gonna buy what their wallets allow - regardless of any lofty ideals.

It is a the fault of the industry leaders and the politicians and planners of this country. They are not realizing that in pursuit of their short term bottom line, they are mortgaging the long term future of their country and the world to a really really scary nation with imperialistic history.

Stop blaming everyone but yourselfs. We the Consumer are the ones buy these inferior Chinese Products. I have never brought a single clothing article made in China since June of 1989 after the genocide at Tiananmen Square. Until either Consumer stops buying mainland Chinese or the Communists Occupation forces in Beijing hand over power to the legitamate Chinese Government in exile in Tai Pei, those of us that are still buying Chinese products (including me) are idiots.

I'm not to blame.

Try buying something that isn't made in China.

If it's not made in China it's another country.

You're pretty much forced to buy China and other country's product.

Take a half a day over the weekend, go to Lowes or any other hardware store and see how many American made products are on the shelve for purchase.

I needed some hedge shears for my second job. I spent twenty minutes trying to find hedge trimmers that were not made in a foriegn country.

I thought I found two but when I looked closer at the packaging it stated American Company but when you read the smaller print further down it stated made in ... insert any country but America.

So no, the average American is not to blame.

Corporate executives and CEO's are to blame.

They offshore production and supply to cut costs to INCREASE profit margin, and then their own pay and bonuses.

Sooner or later, after putting enough Consumers out of work, the whole thing collapses.

While the 1% laughs!

You are right about that. I can't tell you how often I have purchased something because it said "made in USA" only to find out on the "fine print" that it was only assembled in USA but parts were made in China. It's sad when you cannot afford or even buy something 100% American made.

Just as they have nutrition labels for our food, I wish we had labels detailing more clearly what parts of an item is made in the US and what is not. Online stores and packaging should display this information. In economic times such as this, where is the consumer watchdog on this?

Overseas manufacturing became attractive to American companies because without government regulations Chinese manufacturers can undercut any operation in the USA.

One answer is to make it expensive for US companies to manufacture overseas, so expensive that the cost of manufacturing a product overseas will be on-par with what it would cost here in the USA. Companies should be profitable because their products are good, not because they can make them for less.

There really is no one to blame, why is it that 'someone' needs to be blamed? It's just common sense.

We can make things here in the U.S. Ask yourself, how much will you charge for making this? Then ask someone in China how much they would charge to make the same thing? The answer pretty much makes it a no brainer choice. Living standards are just different in every country.

If corporations don't get greedy and keep the high margins, how are they going to pay us (I'm assuming non of us are asking our employers to pay us less). To keep the high margins, they need to find cheaper labor. Just the circle of life and common sense.

goes both ways, just like how we seek them to bail us out

It is alarming that there are so many foreign students, especially Chinese, attending American upper education institutions. It is generally accepted that US colleges are regarded as some of the finest in the world. Chinese, as well as other foreigners, will take the education they earned here in the US and then return to their home countries and then use the education to compete with the very same nation they were educated in. There is a major problem here in a country that is crumbling before our very eyes. Higher education should be a priority for this nation (as China and some other nations recognize). These nations provide education at little or no cost to it's ciizens. Educated citizens at the very least provide for themselves as well as become productive citizens by holding higher paying jobs which result in an additional tax base for our government. In addition, college educated citizens provide innovation and jobs for the US through new start-ups whether if the product or service is made in the USA or at the least designed and engineered in the US but foreign made. The United States seriously lacks in graduating math, science and engineering students which poses a national security risk. The higher education system here in the US needs a serious overhaul as many Americans (including myself) who desire to attend college cannot afford to do so which results in lost opportunity for them and this nation. Areas which the US lacks qualified and in demand graduates who can assist this nation in staying competitive with the rest of the world such as science, engineering, math and other critical areas shoud be provided higher education at little or no cost. Our miitary depends on sophisticated weapons systems as well as computer science to remain number one in the world. If the US cannot provide itself enough higher educated individuals in needed fields it will eventualy fall away to another country such as China who graduates far more engineers, science and math related degrees which benefits that nation in a modern and sophisticated military and an industrial base which can support that nation militarily or economically which is something that the US is losing.

Bob, in post 24, is correct. Most US innovations and advanced systems are developed by either foreign or foreign born citizens particularly of Asian decent who recognize the extreme importance of a higher education and, without sounding racist, are particularly proficient in advanced areas such as engineering, science, and mathematics. Citizens from India are also gifted n computer science and the medical field. What most Americans dont realize is that foreign citizens who attend hgher education here in the US are in demand by this country because of the lack of qualified Americans and are being courted to remain in the US as demonstrated by the push for a change in the H1NB visa rules to allow foreign nationals who obtain higher education here in the US additional time to remain here in the US and possibly elect to become US nationals.

Perhaps the US citizens should take a note from the Chinese. If you really want to get in to a form of Higher Education then work you ass off to get it and stop complaining.

I disagree with you illegals want to stay here, the chinesse wanna go back to china and kick our ass. Illegals in fact help because they are not going anywhere

Alex, they don't go anywhere because they send money home. A dollar earned her, but spent in Mexico does not help our economy a bit.

Ah so.All chinaman looking for American gravey train.Infiltrate suround and destroy??????

"Illegals help because they are not going anywhere?" Oh my god... They are bilking every social program in our country dry. They say it costs the State of California 8 Billion a year for their illegals. That is just the State, not the Fed.

Wake up!

The issue is that Americans cannot afford education. Unfortunately, university and college education are not social security entitlements. They are in fact businesses for profit. So if Americans cannot afford it, why not give it to the foreigner who can? They pay more than the local student and they pay in full. If you block them who will pay in full then? The power of the dollar, something that was taught to me working for an American Corporation.

And those who say that it should be a social security entitlement, I agree that is ideal, but the US is a little late in terms of coughing up dollars for that initiative. Your national debt is abhorrent and ridiculous. I do not know how your government will find any more money to spend given the size of that debt.

And those who are touting economic protectionism as the solution to the middle class American's financial problems, with the unemployment so high, how are any of you going to afford to "buy American" - especially since your goods would have a subsidy brokered by your labor unions. And the person who said it is time to return to trade tariffs and sanctions, you don't comment on the repercussions against the United States. In a trade agreement two can play the same game. No foreign imports also means no American exports. Again, is your domestic economy healthy enough to support its own demand?

Face it, you need the foreign investment and any in-flow of cash - Americans are not in a state to single-handedly support domestic investment. Foreigners buy stock in American companies, countries like China and Saudi Arabia buy large amounts of US government debt. Also, You need US corporations to continue making money in all markets (as opposed to the domestic market) otherwise the overall situation becomes even more bleak - eg. less revenue means unhappy shareholders and then more job cuts. This is the Pandora's box of Multi-nationalism, global economy, and borderless trading. In the 70s and 80s America was ecstatic about opening this box. "Greed is good". Now the box is open and it cannot closed, every American is crying foul as if they had not gained from the previous economic booms. Any country that attempts to shun this box and forego the profits of the inherent dilemma to think they can survive without it.