The unofficial online home for fans of the UAB Blazers. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

So the kids should be punished because their parents made a bad decision? And what about the fact that you can't get reliable family planning services in these rural areas.

(09-25-2013 09:48 AM)mixduptransistor Wrote:  So the kids should be punished because their parents made a bad decision? And what about the fact that you can't get reliable family planning services in these rural areas.

Family planning ain't exactly rocket science...

Somebody has to be held accountable at some point. I don't know where you draw the line, but it isn't fair to me to have to pay taxes to support some person's family because they didn't have "family planning services" Like dfarr said, it isn't rocket science. I would love to have had a child when I was 23, but I couldn't afford it, so I didn't.

Your argument is that these people can't get out of their crappy area because of x, y, and z. My argument is there are ways out, it just takes some sacrifices and hard work. If you are currently working at McDonalds in the middle of nowhere, you are likely never going to be able to change the situation you are in. You are going to probably be poor forever, because working at McDonalds isn't likely to give you many options in the future. If you have children and that is one of the main things that prevent you from moving, whose fault is that. It's not mine. It's not yours. It's not anybody else's but the 2 people involved in that act that created the child.

I'm not a heartless ass that you probably think I am, I just think people need to be held accountable for their actions in this country. Instead of forcing a person to rise up and overcome obstacles, some people feel that we should just give people whatever they need at everybody else's expense.

All I reported was objective lists of factual information with no "Blame" affixed. Have the "powers that be" in our state become comfortable with these FACTS and feel no responsibility for the health and welfare of so many of its citizens? Has the state become callous to the shortages of quality of life sustaining services for so many that it would indicate a class of "people who don't matter to me" and are therefore expendable to their state's leadership?

Parallel argument; One could argue that if UAB can't have a stadium on its campus, they should move their loyalty to a campus (like the one in T-town) that has one. If we remain fans of UAB, then it is our own fault that we support a school that has no stadium instead of expecting a system BOT to support building one.

A stadium will pay itself off.

Paying for people living in very rural areas to have everything urban areas have will cost somebody a lot of money and won't pay for itself. Good try, but not even close to apples to apples.

(09-25-2013 02:59 PM)blazers9911 Wrote:  A stadium will pay itself off.

Paying for people living in very rural areas to have everything urban areas have will cost somebody a lot of money and won't pay for itself. Good try, but not even close to apples to apples.

Why do you assume that having adequate (not optimal-just adequate) medical and dental services and hospitals will not "pay off" for so many of the state's neglected citizens in the long run?(The same "long run" that an OCS might need to pay off). Why should their lives be considered more expendable than those in urban / suburban areas?

Alabama has seemed to have just taken the POV that these citizens don't matter and are not worth the effort to find out. There was talk of extending I-85 across the Black Belt counties since there is a paucity of major roads there and in the rest of west Alabama, but it has never gotten beyond the talk stage. Is it because no one they consider "important' lives there? That proposed north-south 4 lane road connecting I-22 and Mobile seems to be in similar limbo. Look at the sprawling growth of commercial businesses around many of the Interstate exits around the state.

You just don't get it. all those dark people need to do down there is learn themselves how to read and how to develop software and get in their invisible car and move to the invisible place that has jobs instead of an unemployment rate north of UAB Football's average score per game.

(09-24-2013 08:40 AM)Smaug Wrote:  

(09-24-2013 08:35 AM)blazers9911 Wrote:  I'm just curious how you have no choice but to live in an extremely rural place?

Maybe because you were born there, it's the only place you know, and you don't have the resources to relocate if you wanted to?

Just spitballing here.

MUT is right. The issue isn't forcing doctors to relocate against their will. It's finding a way to get them to want to. You're right about one thing: who wants to move to a place like that? Nobody. That's the problem. If you're already there, you suffer because of it.

I don't know what the remedy is, but I suspect the OP is going to tell us his, and it will involve relieving me of what little resources I have.

If you have difficulty getting doctors and dentists to move to such places with their guaranteed Medicaid income which could approach 6 figures, imagine how much fun it is to try to get the better quality BA & BS degree holding teachers to move there for $30,000 per year with little chance of great enhancement from the state (recent raise of 2% spread over three years - first since 2007).

(09-25-2013 04:25 PM)mixduptransistor Wrote:  You just don't get it. all those dark people need to do down there is learn themselves how to read and how to develop software and get in their invisible car and move to the invisible place that has jobs instead of an unemployment rate north of UAB Football's average score per game.

And we're done. For what it's worth, I have always assumed a large population of Alabama's rural areas was white. And if you didn't mean to be malicious that time, you should probably reread things many times before posting them.

(09-25-2013 04:25 PM)mixduptransistor Wrote:  You just don't get it. all those dark people need to do down there is learn themselves how to read and how to develop software and get in their invisible car and move to the invisible place that has jobs instead of an unemployment rate north of UAB Football's average score per game.

Of course the liberal assumes all these people are black

(09-25-2013 09:58 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  

(09-24-2013 08:40 AM)Smaug Wrote:  

(09-24-2013 08:35 AM)blazers9911 Wrote:  I'm just curious how you have no choice but to live in an extremely rural place?

Maybe because you were born there, it's the only place you know, and you don't have the resources to relocate if you wanted to?

Just spitballing here.

MUT is right. The issue isn't forcing doctors to relocate against their will. It's finding a way to get them to want to. You're right about one thing: who wants to move to a place like that? Nobody. That's the problem. If you're already there, you suffer because of it.

I don't know what the remedy is, but I suspect the OP is going to tell us his, and it will involve relieving me of what little resources I have.

If you have difficulty getting doctors and dentists to move to such places with their guaranteed Medicaid income which could approach 6 figures, imagine how much fun it is to try to get the better quality BA & BS degree holding teachers to move there for $30,000 per year with little chance of great enhancement from the state (recent raise of 2% spread over three years - first since 2007).

Have you ever talked to a doctor who has to deal with Medicaid? Just wondering.

Also, I don't think many doctors took out 6 figure loans to make less than $100k a year.

But any time the government tries to do something to reduce the cost of medical school it's decried as socialism.

(09-25-2013 10:25 PM)dfarr Wrote:  

(09-25-2013 04:25 PM)mixduptransistor Wrote:  You just don't get it. all those dark people need to do down there is learn themselves how to read and how to develop software and get in their invisible car and move to the invisible place that has jobs instead of an unemployment rate north of UAB Football's average score per game.

Of course the liberal assumes all these people are black

Have you seen the population statistics of Perry or Dallas counties lately? Take the demographics of Mountain Brook and flip them.

http://www.rupri.org/Forms/Alabama.pdf

page 3

Perry and Dallas counties aren't the only poor/rural counties in the state.

And what does the government do to try and reduce the cost of medical school? If it's pawning the costs off on someone else, then it isn't effective.

I'm just going out on a limb here, I don't think many people work for a decade to become a doctor so they can move to a county where 90% of their patients have Medicaid and it's 1 hour to the nearest nice restaurant and Wal-Mart.

(09-25-2013 10:28 PM)blazers9911 Wrote:  

(09-25-2013 09:58 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  

(09-24-2013 08:40 AM)Smaug Wrote:  

(09-24-2013 08:35 AM)blazers9911 Wrote:  I'm just curious how you have no choice but to live in an extremely rural place?

Maybe because you were born there, it's the only place you know, and you don't have the resources to relocate if you wanted to?

Just spitballing here.

MUT is right. The issue isn't forcing doctors to relocate against their will. It's finding a way to get them to want to. You're right about one thing: who wants to move to a place like that? Nobody. That's the problem. If you're already there, you suffer because of it.

I don't know what the remedy is, but I suspect the OP is going to tell us his, and it will involve relieving me of what little resources I have.

If you have difficulty getting doctors and dentists to move to such places with their guaranteed Medicaid income which could approach 6 figures, imagine how much fun it is to try to get the better quality BA & BS degree holding teachers to move there for $30,000 per year with little chance of great enhancement from the state (recent raise of 2% spread over three years - first since 2007).

Have you ever talked to a doctor who has to deal with Medicaid? Just wondering.

Also, I don't think many doctors took out 6 figure loans to make less than $100k a year.

EXACTLY.

(09-25-2013 10:28 PM)blazers9911 Wrote:  

(09-25-2013 09:58 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  

(09-24-2013 08:40 AM)Smaug Wrote:  

(09-24-2013 08:35 AM)blazers9911 Wrote:  I'm just curious how you have no choice but to live in an extremely rural place?

Maybe because you were born there, it's the only place you know, and you don't have the resources to relocate if you wanted to?

Just spitballing here.

MUT is right. The issue isn't forcing doctors to relocate against their will. It's finding a way to get them to want to. You're right about one thing: who wants to move to a place like that? Nobody. That's the problem. If you're already there, you suffer because of it.

I don't know what the remedy is, but I suspect the OP is going to tell us his, and it will involve relieving me of what little resources I have.

If you have difficulty getting doctors and dentists to move to such places with their guaranteed Medicaid income which could approach 6 figures, imagine how much fun it is to try to get the better quality BA & BS degree holding teachers to move there for $30,000 per year with little chance of great enhancement from the state (recent raise of 2% spread over three years - first since 2007).

Have you ever talked to a doctor who has to deal with Medicaid? Just wondering.

Also, I don't think many doctors took out 6 figure loans to make less than $100k a year.

What size student loans does a new teacher face having to pay off out of a $30,000 per year salary? What is the current cost for a science or math teacher's degree from a UA or AU program? Add to that the costs of additional degrees (MA/MS, EDS) that may require additional loans in order to make slightly higher salary.

Again, my wife has an elementary education degree. Work isn't easy to find in the field, but I know what a Bachelors Degree cost her for four years, because we may be paying for a degree she isn't even using for the next 60 years. It is nowhere near what some of my friends in medical school have in debt. And to be honest, I don't believe a Masters degree is worth it for a teacher, because the pay is not that much more and the cost is fairly high.

(09-26-2013 01:22 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  

(09-25-2013 10:28 PM)blazers9911 Wrote:  

(09-25-2013 09:58 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  

(09-24-2013 08:40 AM)Smaug Wrote:  

(09-24-2013 08:35 AM)blazers9911 Wrote:  I'm just curious how you have no choice but to live in an extremely rural place?

Maybe because you were born there, it's the only place you know, and you don't have the resources to relocate if you wanted to?

Just spitballing here.

MUT is right. The issue isn't forcing doctors to relocate against their will. It's finding a way to get them to want to. You're right about one thing: who wants to move to a place like that? Nobody. That's the problem. If you're already there, you suffer because of it.

I don't know what the remedy is, but I suspect the OP is going to tell us his, and it will involve relieving me of what little resources I have.

If you have difficulty getting doctors and dentists to move to such places with their guaranteed Medicaid income which could approach 6 figures, imagine how much fun it is to try to get the better quality BA & BS degree holding teachers to move there for $30,000 per year with little chance of great enhancement from the state (recent raise of 2% spread over three years - first since 2007).

Have you ever talked to a doctor who has to deal with Medicaid? Just wondering.

Also, I don't think many doctors took out 6 figure loans to make less than $100k a year.

What size student loans does a new teacher face having to pay off out of a $30,000 per year salary? What is the current cost for a science or math teacher's degree from a UA or AU program? Add to that the costs of additional degrees (MA/MS, EDS) that may require additional loans in order to make slightly higher salary.

I managed to get 4 degrees from UAB without debt, including my Master's. I was on full academic scholarship for my first degree and minor, but worked my way through for my last 2 1/2 degrees. Contrary to popular belief, you don't need a student loan to go to college. There are things called scholarships and jobs.

UAB tuition is $283 per credit hour. If memory serves me correct then 16 hours per semester should graduate you in 8 semesters. So that's $4,500 per semester for tuition, add another $1500 for fees and that's $6k a semester, $12k per year, and $48k for your degree. That's not too much for a BS, and is equivalent to 1 year at BSC or Samford probably. I know that doesn't factor in cost-of-living, but you have that whether you're in or out of school.

My point is that it's not impossible. I worked at a bar 3 nights a week during nursing school. My social life suffered, but I had money when I graduated. I worked 3-4 nights a week in the ER while finishing my Master's. It ain't that hard.

There's 20,000 students at UAB. there aren't 20,000 bartending and ER jobs.

It was great you were able to get a scholarship, but again there aren't 20,000 scholarships.

I'm on board with you regarding costs, though. UAB is very affordable compared to many/most other places, especially in Birmingham. No one, unless they are getting an MD, should be graduating with a six-digit debt.

Back in 1972 when I got my MA in Education from UAB, the "rule of thumb" was that it took 5 years at the higher pay level of certificate ("A") to break even with its costs. My oldest nephew got his M.D. from UAB and was able to pay off his student loan inside a decade after setting up his orthopedic practice. His younger brother got his M.D. from Duke but was on scholarship earned by having a record breaking high GPA in his 4 years at Mountain Brook HS. and getting a Summa *** Laude ranking for undergrad work at Duke.

The student loans for a Class B teaching certificate would be a lot less, but the income is also a lot less from which to pay on it. Starting at about $30,000 annually, after 30 years and the costs of two advanced degrees (MA/MS and an EDS), an Alabama academic classroom teacher approaches about $55,000 annually (depending on which of the 133 districts they work in). In 1996, the last printed pay matrix I saw for the city system, the difference between a first year untenured new teacher and one at "Maximum" holding an earned DEd was less than $19,000 per year. How much this has changed since then, I can't say.