Headline, March03, 2014

''' HI-.!..HI ^ .... O" STUDENTS > 

THY COLOURS OF RAINBOW?! "'

Rhetoric,  -just too often crowds out the facts in any discussion on the Ecosystem for the students of the world.

Be that it may,  -here is an imaginative sweep for you, to begin the post:

When Elisha Otis stood on the platform at the 1854  World Fair in New York and ordered an  axeman   to cut the rope  and hoist him aloft, he changed cityscapes for ever.

To the amazement of the crowd his new safety lift dropped only a few inches before being held by an  automatic braking system.

This gave people the confidence to use what Americans insist on calling elevators. That confidence allowed buildings to rise   higher and higher:

"'O' World Students......."'WLCOME TO !WOW!  -the World Students Society: Computers-Internet-Wireless :   Your Life, blood, sweat and tears! So stop dragging your feet and get a move on

HELPING YOUNGSTERS to sell stakes in their future, is a great Start me up. -But both Upstart and Pave are in their infancy:

Dave Girouard  - the boss of Upstart, says that more than  50 people have raised a total of  $1.4 million using its platform. But they are confident they can grow fast, for several reasons.

One is that,  unlike interest payments  on traditional loans, repayments fall if a person's earnings decline.

Another is that young graduates who dream of launching a business or writing the Great American Novel  can use the cash to pay off their student debts:

Without having to take a  mind-numbing  corporate job.  Grrrrr...Argh..........!!!

A third attraction is that investors have an incentive to mentor people they back- although the sites do not make this easy to do online yet.

Shahnaz Chowdhery,  who has used Upstart,  says one of her backers even sent her a free subscription to study materials she needs to get into law school.

"'The social benefits of this approach to raising money are  50%  of the equation",  says Sal Lahoud,  another Pave founder.

Not everyone is impressed. Jonathan Frutkin, a lawyer in Arizona who has studied crowdfunding, worries that young people lack the  nous   to make wise financial decisions:

"'The  penalty  for being  younger,  more desperate  for money and less experienced is going to get a  bum deal.'" he wrote in a post about Pave and Upstart.

Yet both  Mr Kulp  and Ms Shahnaz Chowdhery have clearly thought carefully about the trade-offs involved.

Shahnaz even built a  spreadsheet  to model her likely future earnings under different scenarios before deciding to choose   crowdfunding  than a bank loan.

As Pave and Upstart get bigger,  they may scoop up less discerning student customers. For now,  the young people using them deserve more credit than Mr Frutkin  is willing to give them.

With respectful dedication to the Students of the World. See Ya all on the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

"' Sunshine At Midnight "'

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless