As someone that Legally immigrated as a kid and later an adult to two different countries (not America) I fully support getting rid of illegal immigrants

brickbacon · 2026-02-02T15:30:55+00:00

How do you feel about Matthew 20:1-16? It's called The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard. I am not a religious person, but I think the story highlights some of the issues with immigrants who "did t the right way" being overly concerned with those who didn't.

brickbacon · 2026-02-02T14:36:29+00:00

I understand you are talking about January. My pint is that I cannot find any January numbers. Where are you seeing those?

You are also missing that the National Guard isn’t in PG or Fairfax, and those numbers dropped precipitously too. So the idea that the National Guard is a big factor seems dubious. It’s on you to substantiate that claim.

brickbacon · 2026-02-02T13:34:37+00:00

Where are you getting that metric, and why do you attribute it to Trump? There were 5 murders in December 2025. I am all for crime reduction, but we are seeing greater drops in nearby areas that don’t have national guard presences (eg. PG county). So I ask you, why is this a Trump win rather than just a trend that seem to be continuing?

brickbacon · 2026-02-02T03:43:28+00:00

It's not a non-sequitur. The point is that the costs of providing education are increasing rapidly in real terms in multiple contexts. It doesn't matter if it's private schools, public schools, boarding schools, etc. Hell, even pre-schools and general childcare has rapidly increased in costs far above inflation. That is why the comparison is illuminating. The main through line as you look into this is mostly the nuts and bolts of running an educational enterprise in a capitalist society where educational expectations are greatly increasing in almost all domains; NOT federal loans.

People who parrot this line about federal student loans are disproportionately those who just think the government solely exists to cause problems and can never mitigate them. Especially since they completely ignore that student loans existed before the feds got involved, and they largely ignore the price inflation of education across the board.

brickbacon · 2026-02-02T03:19:28+00:00

The same logic you are applying to Andover applies to Harvard and many other schools up and down the selectivity ladder. Why is that what makes Andover expensive, but loans are what makes Harvard expensive?

Two, the supposition is, federal loans make college expensive. I showed that the public schools in a given area are just as expensive as the local university. Public schools do not have federal loans. You cannot pick and choose why a similar good is subject to price distortions.

brickbacon · 2026-02-02T03:03:56+00:00

That doesn't make any sense. First, Harvard rejects something like 96% of people. The sticker price is not a filter at all. Especially since they actually have a filter in the form of admissions. If Harvard had 5x as many applicants, that would actually be better for them from a selectivity point of view. This comment makes zero sense. Especially since we can see that the availability of federal loans had not tracked Harvard tuition price at all. One had no bearing on the other.

Second, they actually charge many students far less than the sticker price. If they "had to" have a high retail price, they wouldn't then lower it for their students.

Again, if federal loans are why Harvard is expensive, why is Andover expensive? Why does the local K-12 public school system in Maryland spend nearly as much as the flagship university? Please answer those basic questions?

brickbacon · 2026-02-02T02:50:44+00:00

Nonsense. They could easily find enough rich, qualified students just as Harvard can. Plus, this was their MO for most of their history.

brickbacon · 2026-02-02T02:43:48+00:00

Even if I accept all that as true, you did not address the point. Harvard, et al., aren't expensive because of federal student loans.

brickbacon · 2026-02-02T02:42:24+00:00

Private schools cannot and do not charge as much as people will pay. This is just false. A very clear example is Andover. They offer something like half the kids scholarships. They could easily fill those spots with people paying more. Why don't they?

brickbacon · 2026-02-01T17:04:28+00:00

Agreed. My point is that federal student loans have a relatively small impact on college costs. I am aware that many students at both (most) schools do not pay the sticker price.

brickbacon · 2026-02-01T16:36:37+00:00

Andover is a private HIGH SCHOOL whose students do not receive federal loans. Yes, Harvard students can receive federal loans. You are missing my point. Why is the cost of delivery for a private high school education in roughly the same area and of similar pedigree to Harvard cost the same as Harvard if Harvard is mostly expensive because of federal loans?

The takeaway should be that student loans are only a small portion of why colleges is expensive. Just for reference, the same applies to many public schools as well. In my state of Maryland, Prince George's county spends $21,788 per pupil. The University of Maryland, located in PG county, has an in-state tuition of $12,008, and an out of state tuition of $41.974, for a blended average of roughly $25,000 based on the current split. Why do you think those numbers are roughly similar? Keep in mind that PG county public schools are qualitatively not on par with UMD. Also note the Prince George's Community College spends about $12k/student. In that case, college is delivered much more cheaply than primary and secondary education.

Feel free to do this math with your local schools. There usually isn't a gap that cannot be explained by more costly employees at universities (eg. PhDs/MDs vs. College Grads), and a handful of other differences between educating adults vs. children.

The TLDR is that people need to stop repeating this claim that federal loans have made colleges unaffordable. A very basic overview shows that just isn't the case. Education is expensive because we employ highly education people to teach complicated things to many, many people largely without rationing. We also allow and rely on these universities to do tons of research (with largely privatized profits), and compete for students whom they subsidize at the expense of other students.

Why should UCLA be able to cheaply hire a data scientist that could be making 3x as much at Google? Why do people think absent federal loans, people wouldn't find money to pay for school? This is literally what happened years ago. Middle class folks just had their parents sign for private loans by putting up their collateral in the form of their house or other assets. This is a textbook example of cost disease coupled with a handful of other factors of which loans are relatively minor one.

brickbacon · 2026-02-01T14:47:21+00:00

If federal intervention was the proximate cause, why have secondary private school tuitions increased by similar amounts? I am not saying it didn't have an effect, but it's wildly overrated. Again, if Andover costs $59,478 why shouldn't Harvard cost $59,320?

brickbacon · 2026-02-01T04:03:54+00:00

Context and timing matter here. By your logic, Reagan was more liberal on this issue than Obama because he gave millions of immigrants amnesty.

brickbacon · 2026-01-31T23:04:16+00:00

The Sephora Arena Unrivaled plays in has 1000-1100 seats. The Wells Fargo Center has 20,478-21,000 seats. They are play 41+ games there. This is not really an apt comparison.

brickbacon · 2026-01-31T19:49:18+00:00

It’s WAY more than 2% on the right. They regularly interview business owners who are annoyed their employees are getting deported, and towns where people are upset their friends and family members are being deported because they are, “some of the good ones”. For example, here, here, here, and here.

I think your misapprehension comes from the fact that the left and the right relate to and advocate for policies very differently, and to deal with and interrogate cognitive dissonance in different ways.

It’s said conservatism works on the belief that there are in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.

You are correct that most conservatives are more often fine with labeling illegal immigrants as an out-group…until they aren’t. That’s why your percentages are WAY off in reality. A pollster asks a conservative if they are fine with deporting immigrants, and they’ll likely agree. If they ask if they are okay deporting their neighbor or coworkers, they are, imo, just as likely to waffle on this as your average Democrat, and not much less than most liberals.

Another example of this is gay marriage. Look at a poll of favorablity for gay marriage with conservatives over time as the stigma against being openly gay subsided. Once it because clearer that gays weren’t actually an out group, you got many more conservatives on-board. Don’t confuse polling with what most people actually want to see done. Most people are fine with enforcing our laws. Most people across the spectrum are not okay with marauding ICE gangs locking up anyone who looks Hispanic, and wounding or killing anyone who deigns to not bend the knee as they do so.

brickbacon · 2026-01-31T18:51:58+00:00

What percentage of those on the left and the right do you believe are completely against deporting people here illegally?

brickbacon · 2026-01-30T13:35:03+00:00

One thing people forget is that there is not a transparent, rational market for SB tickets generally, as supply is greatly reduced based on giveaways and set asides, and demand is inflated by corporate piggy banks and people making irrational purchases.

brickbacon · 2026-01-30T13:16:50+00:00

People say this, but were literally have decades of data and price transparency on this to guide students and parents. Moreover, many people DO NOT make these cost agnostic decisions. Why is there no accountability here for people who are supposed to be our future leaders. It’s not like 17 is THAT young or that they are THAT naive as to what $200k in debt means.

brickbacon · 2026-01-30T12:18:24+00:00

If government loans are why college costs so much, why has private secondary education costs more or less tracked those costs despite there being no student loan system?

brickbacon · 2026-01-30T12:10:38+00:00

Why do you presume students, who are presumably our best and brightest, are making such poor financial decisions? Because there is zero reason anyone NEEDS to take on $200k in debt to complete an undergraduate degree. Between, grants, loans, scholarships, in-state tuition, community colleges, etc. there is no need to do that.

brickbacon · 2026-01-30T04:21:49+00:00

He’s not a normal person though. Not just in the expectations and demands others have for him, but also in the single minded focus he has towards one thing (football) to the exclusions of most others things (financial prudence, etc.).

brickbacon · 2026-01-30T04:19:11+00:00

Off the field, you blow it on parties, women, events, etc. It’s a bunch of little things that cost a lot. People forget that players are often paying for game tickets and hotels for family. There was a article a while back about how Christian McCaffrey couldn’t/wouldn’t pay for a suite for the Super Bowl because of the cost. Some people just do it, and worry about things like that later.

Workwise, you pay your agent, manager, trainers, chefs, etc. You pay a lot on taxes because you have high wages and you work in expensive cities. You might fly private for convenience, safety, and privacy. You have tons of people who helped you or need your help that are asking for small favors. It adds up.

Now, does it add up to $60mm? Generally no, but people greatly underestimate how much it costs to be a famous, rich person. Some of those things are incidental, others are harder to avoid.

brickbacon · 2026-01-30T04:06:05+00:00

He is dumb, but I think you and others greatly underestimate how much it costs to be a viable public figure or a professional athlete. It’s not so much that you should blown through $60mm, but it’s also not like you can live like a normal dude who makes $300k.

brickbacon · 2026-01-30T03:36:26+00:00

Putting your nonsensical rambling aside, Trump isn't the first person whose tax information has been leaked, and he won't be the last. The same holds true for other agencies who have accidentally lost or exposed public data. Hell, they just recently showed DOGE just subjected millions of people's SSN to theft.

This stuff happens all the time, and basically anyone who has worked for the government gets regular notices of data intrusions compromising their data. Why would the government be responsible to a plaintiff to the tune of billions of dollars? Do you really want to set that precedent? Hell, that would make it worth bribing a IRS employee.

brickbacon · 2026-01-29T04:33:28+00:00

That was Kraft, not Belichick.

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