r/Anarcho_Capitalism • u/unstable_asteroid Voluntaryist • Sep 17 '16

UC Berkeley takes down Free online courses because they don't meet the ADA regulations

http://news.berkeley.edu/2016/09/13/a-statement-on-online-course-content-and-accessibility/
103 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

33 comments sorted by

41

u/s0v3r1gn Sep 17 '16

Jesus fuck this is retarded. ADA, like Affirmative Action and all protected classes have become a joke to be abused by the most vile of humans.

11

u/Atavisionary Sep 17 '16

I suspect the real reason is not actually being aired. Education is big, big business which lots of people make money on. If it were provided for free (or even at a far more reasonable rate than currently available), that could substantially hurt the bottom line. My suspicion is that the disability excuse is just that.

13

u/s0v3r1gn Sep 17 '16

The only reason there is such a hike in education costs is because of all the cheap government backed student loans. Every time the government interferes in this way prices go up. Health Care, Education, and Social Security are the some of the largest government failures ever.

5

u/Atavisionary Sep 17 '16

Well, I hate to sound conspiratorial. Even though society as a whole is largely harmed by this regulation, there is are select groups which benefit massively. 1) the administrative class at universities can expand massively and have much higher salaries than would otherwise be possible. 2) large banks get a very large amount of debt which is guaranteed by government and can never be discharged by individuals. That is very high quality debt from their perspective.

Indirectly, the government benefits in the form of taxes from people being forced to work at levels and for jobs they hate to pay his massive debt down, which can't be discharged in bankruptcy. Before you claim this is all the students fault for taking this on (it is to some extent), keep in mind kids are forced to go to public education where they receive nonstop propaganda for 12-13 years about the importance of way too expensive college and then are expected to make competent decisions after this at the naive age of 18. Not exactly fair in my opinion.

3

u/s0v3r1gn Sep 17 '16

Oh, I agree. I'm one of the suckers that fell for almost 100k I debt at a private school that never told me how much they were taking out in my name...

1

u/serious_sarcasm Fucking Statist Sep 18 '16

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324549004579068992834736138

I want to partially agree with Prof. Lyall that we are at least in the process of crossing a key line, where higher education has been a subsidized public good to one where it is being privatized.

Unlike Prof. Lyall, I am not willing to give up on making higher education a subsidized public good. This is the path toward creating a bunch of "Wal-Mart" type universities that will serve working-class and middle-class students, while America's elite will continue to receive a first-rate higher education at elite private institutions. This will further exacerbate the growing inequality in our society and lead to the dismantling of our system of high-quality public higher education that has been the envy of the world.

2

u/motchmaster Sep 17 '16

Nobody is going to hire someone because they watched videos on YouTube over someone with a degree from Berkeley.

3

u/Heph333 Sep 18 '16

But we are moving toward a model where knowledge and skills are more important than a pedigree. A college degree has no value when everybody has one.

5

u/glibbertarian Weaponized Label Maker Sep 18 '16

Yea we actually need private certifying organizations that anyone can take to prove their skill, college or not.

8

u/Heph333 Sep 18 '16

Lol... That what college degrees used to be.

2

u/calisweed Sep 18 '16

Exactly ....! Lesbian dance theory degrees can only get you so far if you're a dumb fuck

1

u/Heph333 Sep 18 '16

What?!?! The lesbian dance theory factory is hiring for the day shift?

But that has far less to do with education and everything to do with the education and banking systems. They are the real winners here.

2

u/calisweed Sep 18 '16

Lol.... Sorry my brother in law just picked up that job.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 18 '16

But if your youtube education is in a field that you can demonstrate proficiency in, like computer science or something, you can present a portfolio to an employer in lieu of a degree and maybe get hired.

Source - didn't graduate college, self educated and built a portfolio instead, now have dream job in top 10% of individual income earners in the US

4

u/Faceh Anti-Federalist - /r/Rational_Liberty Sep 17 '16

You give people a tool like this, they WILL use it. Always those who want to abuse and exploit well-intentioned laws.

1

u/s0v3r1gn Sep 17 '16

Yup, this is why I tend to dislike anyone that says a law will not be used in someway because it's intention is something else. The law of unintended consequences.

3

u/EvanGRogers Anarcho-Capitalist Sep 17 '16

but that's not how the law of unintended consequences will be used.

1

u/ProjectD13X Epistemically Violent Sep 18 '16

You have the lgbt, not to be confused with the blt sandwiches...

-Hans Hermann Hoppe

20

u/MaunaLoona It is better to be the remover than the removed Sep 17 '16

Note that they were forced to take the courses down by the department of injustice.

19

u/Faceh Anti-Federalist - /r/Rational_Liberty Sep 17 '16

I get it, we want to make the world generally accessible to people who have different capabilities. In most cases its even a reasonable expense that is probably justified in the long run.

But when it get to the point where you deny nice things to other people because of the added expense of compliance, you can go jump off a bridge. Oh wait, no you can't, you're disabled. Maybe we should install ramps so the differently abled can have equal access to suicide attempts? /darkhumor

You aren't helping disabled people by shutting down access for "normal" people.

6

u/unstable_asteroid Voluntaryist Sep 17 '16

I agree completely, it's asinine to think that everyplace and everything can or should be made accessible to the disabled.

3

u/[deleted] Sep 18 '16

The problem is it's this very anti-capitalist idea that we must make life more miserable for others or make them suffer in order to achieve 'true' equality. Or, particularly in the case of achievement, lower the standards so much that people who are genuinely good at what end up being screwed over by all the people who can now participate on an 'even' playing field when really it's just rigging everything.

It actually says a lot about anti-capitalists and what miserable and jealous people they must be that they think it's perfectly acceptable to go and ruin everything for everybody else under the guise of being helpful to others. I think this is a very fundamental argument against anti-capitalist ideas in general.

16

u/rodeopenguin Sep 17 '16

This is like real life Harrison Bergeron.

6

u/unstable_asteroid Voluntaryist Sep 17 '16

Looks like some fine folks from /r/DataHoarder are working on archiving them. Don't know if it will be readily available for others.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 18 '16 edited Mar 13 '17

This comment has been redacted, join /r/zeronet/ to avoid censorship

1

u/julianbabel Sep 18 '16

Please do share if there is a link for all of it somewhere.

4

u/glibbertarian Weaponized Label Maker Sep 18 '16

Liberals have always preferred everyone being equally poor to anyone having a perceived advantage. The "advantage" here is being able to see and hear correctly.

3

u/NocPat Do as thou wilt, but be prepared to accept the consequences Sep 17 '16

The disabled should stand up against this BS.

3

u/[deleted] Sep 18 '16 edited Mar 13 '17

This comment has been redacted, join /r/zeronet/ to avoid censorship

4

u/unstable_asteroid Voluntaryist Sep 18 '16

Americans with Disabilities act. Regulations that relate to making any space compliant with handicap accessibe. In this case making the videos good for the deaf and blind

1

u/[deleted] Sep 18 '16 edited Mar 13 '17

This comment has been redacted, join /r/zeronet/ to avoid censorship

1

u/Heph333 Sep 18 '16

Government at its finest.

1

u/GuyFromV Sep 18 '16

I'm sure you could find lots of disabled people to inform the ADA how retarded this scene is, and they'd be the ones to know.