American College Students Overwhelmed by Debt

[opebo]

The responses of the right-wing to this situation are hilarious - the cost of college has shot up enormously, while real wages have declined precipitously - thus, their answer is 'oh these damned kids today, they spend too much and use credit cards'. 

Still, let me be the first to interject that while this is a working class problem, it is obviously a problem only of the better off working class - those who can still at least attempt to afford to purchase a higher position in the social hierarchy ('buy themselves a job').  Though these people are abused, their sufferings do seem a bit silly compared to the shocking miseries of the lower orders of the population, who will never see the inside of a college unless they take a job for $7/hour as a janitor.

[opebo]

I have to laugh at the budgetary process going on here, where most of you assume jobs paying 50-75 thousand dollars per year.  I wonder if you realize just how rare incomes like that are, even for persons with advanced degrees?  And yes even with law degrees - there are far more persons with law degrees than there are jobs for lawyers.   Keep in mind that the owners have set up a system where by the upper echelon of the working class must spend an enormous amount of money to win the right to serve them as 'house n****rs'.

In most cases it would be far more advisable to take what little upper-middle class parents can scrape together and invest it in slums - being a slumlord is much less work and far more rewarding than the servile and stressful behaviours of the house staff.

I often look back on the parents expenditures on my 'education' - they amount to a large amount for the 1980's and early 1990's perhaps $120-150K altogether.  In those days one could buy perfectly good slums - old buildings in the city, student housing in the college towns, trailer parks, etc., for astonishingly little.  Houses in St. Louis regularly went for $30-50K..  I saw big old houses cut  up into apartments for students at Columbia MO, with total rents well over a grand a month, sell for $45-60K.  Of course I realize that those years from about 1989-1996 were a unique opportunity in real estate, but the point is:  Don't assume an 'education' is a worthwhile thing for a person who will ever have to work for a living.  Such things are best left to the leisure class.

[opebo]

Why wouldn't 'public' law schools offer in-state tuition?  They are directly created and supported by the state government.

[opebo]

This thread makes me glad of the Irish system.

Though It was very hard to resist the temptation to smash the computer screen when Sam Spade went "Something useless like English or Philosophy".

He's talking about the training of servants, not subjects which may enrich the life of a gentleman, GF.

[opebo]

I think I said before on this site:  Music Composition. 

Fortunately, I got the liberal arts education with the music, something people who attend conservatories often lack.

But I thought you were just the sort of landed gentleman for whom the 'liberal arts' education was intended, SS?  You should not turn your hand to toil, man!

[opebo]

I'm willing to be[t] not a single member of any band you listen to managed to get out of the 5th grade.

haha, that's just silly.  Anyway I'm disappointed about your career choice, SS, as it is so conforming, but I have to admit it suits you.