TED英语演讲:压榨学生的大学贷款

2023年12月1日发(作者：福特新款suv车型)

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，下面是小编为大家收集关于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 exploit students for profit

演说者：Samuel

Today 40 million Americans are indebted fortheir passage to

the new economy. Too 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 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 Paul\'s father graduatedfrom

Colorado State University on the GI Bill. For his generation,

highereducation was free or almost free, because it was thought

of as a public 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 English 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. Paul\'s daughter followed in his footsteps,but with one

difference: when she graduated five years ago, it was with

awhopping 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? Getting into debt to buy an

expensiveeducation is not all bad if you could pay it off with the

increased income thatyou earned from it. But that\'s where the

rubber meets the road. Even a collegegrad earned 10 percent

more in 2001 than she did in 2013.

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，2001年的毕业生 都比2013

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, because

certain truths flash up inways that you can\'t 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 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 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 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

Shakespeare 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 Navient -- 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 again 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 engage infalse

advertising, in bait and switch ... in exploiting 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, they\'re

madeprisoners 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, master\'sdegrees,

doctoral 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 Lexus of a Louis Vuitton bag,to

distinguish yourself from others. 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 college 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 比高中

毕业生的收入高出56%

Let\'s 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 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 exorbitant 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 that\'s only because high

schoolwages have been cut to the bone, for decades now. For

decades, workers with ahigh school degree have been denied a

fair share of what they have had they received as

they should have, then going to college would havebeen a bad

investment for many. College premium? I think it\'s 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, doesn\'t lookparticularly

promising -- in fact, it\'s downright bleak. And it is they who

aregoing to suffer the most punishing forms of student debt. And

it is they,curiously and sadly, who are marketed most loudly

about this college premiumthing. That\'s not just cynical

marketing, that\'s 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 what 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 you\'repaying for. When you buy medicines,

you get a list of side effects. When youbuy a higher educational

product, you 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 expect. Who knows what to

expect 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 expected income. Let\'s call itIncome-Based

Tuition or IBT. One of 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 fallvictim to the huckster\'s ploy, to the sales pitch.

But also to choose would anybody pay more for

college than let\'s 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?

There\'s a second 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

engineering 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 engineeringstudent. 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

this, right? All this data has to be well designed, maybeaudited

by public accounting firms to avoid statistical lies. We know

aboutstatistics, right?

当然，定价的数据，在座的会有人做这个，对吧?定价需要合理设

计，也许需要公共会计师事务所来审计 避免统计失误。我们都对统计

略知一二。

But be that as it may, the third andbiggest benefit of Income-

Based Tuition, is it would free Americans from thefear and the

fact of financial ruin because they bought a defective product.

尽管如此 收入基准学费的第三个，也是最大的好处是，即便人们

买了有缺陷的产品 也不会产生消费恐惧或者巨大的经济负担。

Perhaps, in time, young and old Americansmay rediscover, as

the gentleman said earlier, their curiosity, their love oflearning --

begin to study what they love, love what they study, follow

theirpassion ... getting stimulated by their intelligence, follow

paths of inquirythat they really want to.

也许，最后 美国人会重新发掘，就如人们之前所说，自己的好奇

心和对知识的渴望，会开始学习自己热爱的，热爱自己学到的，追随

自己的热情，用他们的才智，去探索他们真正想了解的。

After all, it was Eric and Kevin, two yearsago, just exactly

these kinds of young men, who prompted me and worked with

me,and still do, in the study of indebted students in America.

毕竟，两年前正是Eric和Kevin，这样的年轻人，给我鼓励、与

我并肩作战直至今日，研究美国负债学生的情况。

Thank you for your attention.(Applause)

感谢您的倾听。(掌声)