Government investing £2mill in Blackpool Illuminations, but not maintenance grants?

Spend taxpayer money on drawing tourist revenue to cities or blow it on teen booze filled university adventures? Gee what a hard choice.

Reply 2

OP

Original post by Plutonian

Spend taxpayer money on drawing tourist revenue to cities or blow it on teen booze filled university adventures? Gee what a hard choice.

Have you even been to Blackpool?

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 3

Original post by LoveToArgue

Have you even been to Blackpool?

Why is that relevant to this discussion?

Reply 4

username1494226

Well because its a tourist attraction that will almost certainly generate money. Compare this to students who are a financial drain on the government. Feels like these days being a student is no longer worth it. I used to revere the universities, I now look at them(especially thr American system) with utter contempt

Reply 5

OP

Original post by Plutonian

Why is that relevant to this discussion?

It's hardly the tourist hotspot of the North that it used to be. Money could be better spent elsewhere

Reply 6

OP

Original post by marco14196

Well because its a tourist attraction that will almost certainly generate money. Compare this to students who are a financial drain on the government. Feels like these days being a student is no longer worth it. I used to revere the universities, I now look at them(especially thr American system) with utter contempt

Students could go on in the future to earn more money, pay more back to the government in terms of jobs and tax. However, Blackpool has tried to reinvent itself many many times and it hasn't really worked. I just think students have more potential

Reply 7

Asolare

20

4real at you calling students a "drain" on the economy, when it is those very students who will be the future workforce and who will be driving the economy :facepalm:

Reply 8

username1494226

Original post by LoveToArgue

Students could go on in the future to earn more money, pay more back to the government in terms of jobs and tax. However, Blackpool has tried to reinvent itself many many times and it hasn't really worked. I just think students have more potential

Well given that students are borrowing huge amounts in loans each year that they never end up being able to pay back in addition to the employment market for many of these degrees not being there, the value of that investment to the government is questionable at best when only the universities benefit. Look at the USA. What is the benefit to the government of providing tens of thousands of loans on students just to have many default on their loans(over 7 million have defaulted). I laughed and felt sorry at the same time when I heard a kid had borrowed 100K in loans to study philosophy. I laughed at the banks and fed for lending him that money with no guarantees or checks and I felt sorry for the kid because he's screwed for life because he's jobless and a philosophy degree is worth precisely nill, he'll have that debt until his last breath with the interest he's incurring. And this is a true story as well I listened to on the radio. Whole systems a bust.

Reply 9

Original post by LoveToArgue

It's hardly the tourist hotspot of the North that it used to be. Money could be better spent elsewhere

This is exactly why money should be spent on it. Even if it's too far gone spend it on another city not damn students. Students are important but you can't knee-jerk rage out at the government whenever they cut student spending to fund something else maybe they have a good reason and not 10 seconds of thinking has caused me to realize that it's probably to boost tourist revenue. I read an article about the government ring-fencing foreign aid while cutting student finance. Everyone predictably got angry but I was clever enough to see that foreign aid enables us to a) keep pro-British regimes around the globe stable and doing what we want and b) get first dibs on trade contracts.

Original post by Inexorably

4real at you calling students a "drain" on the economy, when it is those very students who will be the future workforce and who will be driving the economy :facepalm:

Original post by LoveToArgue

Students could go on in the future to earn more money, pay more back to the government in terms of jobs and tax. However, Blackpool has tried to reinvent itself many many times and it hasn't really worked. I just think students have more potential

Students don't need the money. If you stay at home and don't party you don't even need more than your tuition fee. You have your bedroom, your mum cooking you meals and a library at university what more could you want?

Reply 10

OP

Original post by Plutonian

This is exactly why money should be spent on it. Even if it's too far gone spend it on another city not damn students. Students are important but you can't knee-jerk rage out at the government whenever they cut student spending to fund something else maybe they have a good reason and not 10 seconds of thinking has caused me to realize that it's probably to boost tourist revenue. I read an article about the government ring-fencing foreign aid while cutting student finance. Everyone predictably got angry but I was clever enough to see that foreign aid enables us to a) keep pro-British regimes around the globe stable and doing what we want and b) get first dibs on trade contracts.

Students don't need the money. If you stay at home and don't party you don't even need more than your tuition fee. You have your bedroom, your mum cooking you meals and a library at university what more could you want?

Independence. To have moved out of my mum's house before I'm 30. To be able to fund an education and then progress onto a respectable job and support myself.

Students are as much a financial commodity to a city as tourists are. And students are there for more than just a long weekend.

Reply 11

username1221160

There are better ways to improve Blackpool than spending money on illuminations, such as nuking it from orbit.

Reply 12

username1494226

Original post by Inexorably

4real at you calling students a "drain" on the economy, when it is those very students who will be the future workforce and who will be driving the economy :facepalm:

Because in lala hypothetical land that all students seem to live in, they're all high flying important people each individually critical to the economy....when the sad reality is that only maybe 30-40% actually get to well paying positions that make a difference whilst the rest end up as minimum wage slaves. Everyone had a right to an education but please wipe the the sunshine out of your eyes and get a reality check. University education doesn't qualify one to be somehow important and productive. Its saddening to me that young people today with so much ambition and years spent in the educational system end up not being able to get their worth out of their degree. Thats what riles me up. A degree shouldnt end with the majority carrying nearly 50K of debt with little work place skill and little prospects after, it should have been the opposite and its not students fault

Reply 13

Original post by LoveToArgue

Independence. To have moved out of my mum's house before I'm 30. To be able to fund an education and then progress onto a respectable job and support myself.

Students are as much a financial commodity to a city as tourists are. And students are there for more than just a long weekend.

Then get a ****ing job! how dare you demand the government pay for your first bachelor pad? The entitlement of today's kids is off the charts.

Students are not always a financial commodity, they are usually broke and stay in their walled off campuses anyway.

Reply 14

Original post by marco14196

Because in lala hypothetical land that all students seem to live in, they're all high flying important people each individually critical to the economy....when the sad reality is that only maybe 30-40% actually get to well paying positions that make a difference whilst the rest end up as minimum wage slaves. Everyone had a right to an education but please wipe the the sunshine out of your eyes and get a reality check. University education doesn't qualify one to be somehow important and productive. Its saddening to me that young people today with so much ambition and years spent in the educational system end up not being able to get their worth out of their degree. Thats what riles me up. A degree shouldnt end with the majority carrying nearly 50K of debt with little work place skill and little prospects after, it should have been the opposite and its not students fault

This. Students think they are god's gift to the world with their sociology degree. They should bring back apprenticeships in order to make potential students prove that investing in their further education will benefit the economy through previous work in that sector

Reply 15

OP

Original post by Plutonian

Then get a ****ing job! how dare you demand the government pay for your first bachelor pad? The entitlement of today's kids is off the charts.

Students are not always a financial commodity, they are usually broke and stay in their walled off campuses anyway.

I already have a job, volunteer, am at sixth form, and work so hard to get the grades I need. I'm not after a bachelor pad, just financial aid to fund a degree which I will undoubtedly get into lots of debt for anyway!

Reply 16