This is a common theme at graduations: a call to service. I heard it when I graduated. This difference is how Obama looks upon not just public service but also the private sector. Public, good … private, selfish.
He goes further though as you will hear. He tells the Wesleyan grads, many of whom have seen their parents shell out better than $200,000 on their education, that they have an obligation, no a debt to society, that they must repay, by forgoing a job and working in public service.
Never mind the debt to their hard working parents who shelled out the cash so their children could go to a good school, and get a head start on a good job so that they might contribute in so many ways to their community. Perhaps by landing that Wall Street job, not only will they be able to support themselves and their children, but maybe their parents in their old age, make substantial charitable contributions to their community and provide jobs with their capital that otherwise might not materialize.
This banter is so 60′s and so typical of a guy who hangs out with 60′s radicals and radical professors. You owe society, not your parents. Public service good … capitalism bad. Oh brother.
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