NOT arguing with the premise of all this, but - I did work my way thru college, graduate with no debt, and buy a house by the time I was 40. But those were different times. I worked, but mostly had my college covered by Pell and state grants - which were sufficient to cover tuition at a local college (I passed on attending Antioch, my first choice, because I would've graduated with a then-whopping $10k in debt - yep, that would've been the total for four years). I bought a house because my slum landlord conveniently dropped dead and I got it for under $15k.
I also would never dream of holding these things over my kids heads. I'm actually embarrassed that my younger has college debt I'm unable to help her with - these days, she makes as much as I do. I'm scrimping & saving for a house to retire in and hopefully pass on to my kids as I won't have much else to leave them, because I (think I) can, and know they won't likely have the same opportunities. And that fucking blows because they're amazing people who deserve much better.
I took out loans to compete a masters and a PhD both to improve my knowledge and capabilities as an instructor and to earn a higher salary. I did not expect to find myself paying alimony which siphons off a decent chunk of my earnings. I am reconciled to the fact I will die before I pay off my student loans. In my early seventies, I have really ceased to care if I do or not. I will not default, but they will get only what I can afford after negotiating them down to a minimum level. It is not that I planned to game the system, but just the way things are. No one will die from this, so I figure I need to take care of me and mine as best I can as long as I can work, retire when I can no longer stand it, and after that, well...we'll see.
I'm sittin' at about 140k here... RISD and Brown U. Chained to a major city where I can ask for the kind of salary that pays for 13% interest. No consolidation options because my credit is shit. Checked my credit and the only accounts on it are my student loans, which are up to date. Banks told me they won't consolidate because the amount of loans are too high... so I've been in NYC instead of wearing white linen and raising six chickens in the forest, which is my only fantasy anymore after living for 15 years with poor air quality and the shit MTA system.
It's been so long since I was an undergrad that I don't remember the exact dollar figures, but with the help of a scholarship, my dad was able to pay my tuition, room and board and even a tiny bit of fun money out of pocket. I worked a few hours a week during the school year (nothing like the hours so many of my students work now) and found full-time summer jobs to augment the fun money. My father was a mid-level sales manager at a medium sized company, making a decent living, but hardly pulling in the big bucks. I even went out of state—I couldn't have done that without the scholarship, but we could have managed an in-state school without financial aid. This was actually the norm then for middle class families.
Some of my high school friends had to work more hours in a part-time job than others, and some of them put in a couple of years at junior college before transferring to the local state university, and no one went to Harvard, but none of them was worried about affording college or taking on massive debt. And their parents weren't, as a rule, any better off than mine. I do realize that not everyone was so fortunate, but this, again, was pretty common, if not universal.
The congressman claimed three of his kids graduated from four-year colleges with "zero debt" and "no scholarships."
Did anyone ask the good Congressman if that's because HE PAID FOR IT? People get loans because they don't have rich parents or a rich uncle to cover all their costs. FFS.
"Okay, how much did you and your wife contribute to your children's college expenses? (Gonna go out on a limb and guess the answer is at least "Most of it.") What do you propose we do about the millions of students whose parents don't have enough $ to put 3 kids through a combined 12 years of college—including room & board, books, whatever else—without scholarships or loans?"
Youngest Bro has a Computer Science degree from Northeastern - a 5 year program - and 120K in loans. He makes nearly 6 figures, but to pay off his loans, he lives in one room in a shared house in Bahstan with a bunch of people in essentially the same boat.
His kids probably went to Wisconsin state colleges, too, which aren't all that expensive for in-state tuition, which he likely claimed by virtue of being a state "resident". Nice try, Sean.
I lasted a year working for one of these student loan companies. I ran their call centre in Canada, and had no idea they were shady as f. The owner was this cat. https://philanthropynewsdig...
She had a private jet that had 3 rules:
1) If you were a man you weren't allowed to use the bathroom2) If you dropped food in the plane, you were fired3) No shoes
Her CEO used to call me once a month and demand that I fire the bottom 20% of my staff.
Thus the student workers' methodology of snagging the cleanest copies *when they were sold back* and hiding them in the store. We could consult the next term's booklist and have a pretty good idea what we needed for each quarter's classes. I hear what you're saying, though; we just found a way around it.
NOT arguing with the premise of all this, but - I did work my way thru college, graduate with no debt, and buy a house by the time I was 40. But those were different times. I worked, but mostly had my college covered by Pell and state grants - which were sufficient to cover tuition at a local college (I passed on attending Antioch, my first choice, because I would've graduated with a then-whopping $10k in debt - yep, that would've been the total for four years). I bought a house because my slum landlord conveniently dropped dead and I got it for under $15k.
I also would never dream of holding these things over my kids heads. I'm actually embarrassed that my younger has college debt I'm unable to help her with - these days, she makes as much as I do. I'm scrimping & saving for a house to retire in and hopefully pass on to my kids as I won't have much else to leave them, because I (think I) can, and know they won't likely have the same opportunities. And that fucking blows because they're amazing people who deserve much better.
I took out loans to compete a masters and a PhD both to improve my knowledge and capabilities as an instructor and to earn a higher salary. I did not expect to find myself paying alimony which siphons off a decent chunk of my earnings. I am reconciled to the fact I will die before I pay off my student loans. In my early seventies, I have really ceased to care if I do or not. I will not default, but they will get only what I can afford after negotiating them down to a minimum level. It is not that I planned to game the system, but just the way things are. No one will die from this, so I figure I need to take care of me and mine as best I can as long as I can work, retire when I can no longer stand it, and after that, well...we'll see.
I'm sittin' at about 140k here... RISD and Brown U. Chained to a major city where I can ask for the kind of salary that pays for 13% interest. No consolidation options because my credit is shit. Checked my credit and the only accounts on it are my student loans, which are up to date. Banks told me they won't consolidate because the amount of loans are too high... so I've been in NYC instead of wearing white linen and raising six chickens in the forest, which is my only fantasy anymore after living for 15 years with poor air quality and the shit MTA system.
The Ivies invented the SAT and ACT to keep out mere peons in the first place.
It's been so long since I was an undergrad that I don't remember the exact dollar figures, but with the help of a scholarship, my dad was able to pay my tuition, room and board and even a tiny bit of fun money out of pocket. I worked a few hours a week during the school year (nothing like the hours so many of my students work now) and found full-time summer jobs to augment the fun money. My father was a mid-level sales manager at a medium sized company, making a decent living, but hardly pulling in the big bucks. I even went out of state—I couldn't have done that without the scholarship, but we could have managed an in-state school without financial aid. This was actually the norm then for middle class families.
Some of my high school friends had to work more hours in a part-time job than others, and some of them put in a couple of years at junior college before transferring to the local state university, and no one went to Harvard, but none of them was worried about affording college or taking on massive debt. And their parents weren't, as a rule, any better off than mine. I do realize that not everyone was so fortunate, but this, again, was pretty common, if not universal.
This is all about the wealthy keeping their wealth within their families. They do not care about the working poor.
The congressman claimed three of his kids graduated from four-year colleges with "zero debt" and "no scholarships."
Did anyone ask the good Congressman if that's because HE PAID FOR IT? People get loans because they don't have rich parents or a rich uncle to cover all their costs. FFS.
Right? That would have been my first follow-up.
"Okay, how much did you and your wife contribute to your children's college expenses? (Gonna go out on a limb and guess the answer is at least "Most of it.") What do you propose we do about the millions of students whose parents don't have enough $ to put 3 kids through a combined 12 years of college—including room & board, books, whatever else—without scholarships or loans?"
Youngest Bro has a Computer Science degree from Northeastern - a 5 year program - and 120K in loans. He makes nearly 6 figures, but to pay off his loans, he lives in one room in a shared house in Bahstan with a bunch of people in essentially the same boat.
His kids probably went to Wisconsin state colleges, too, which aren't all that expensive for in-state tuition, which he likely claimed by virtue of being a state "resident". Nice try, Sean.
I lasted a year working for one of these student loan companies. I ran their call centre in Canada, and had no idea they were shady as f. The owner was this cat. https://philanthropynewsdig...
She had a private jet that had 3 rules:
1) If you were a man you weren't allowed to use the bathroom2) If you dropped food in the plane, you were fired3) No shoes
Her CEO used to call me once a month and demand that I fire the bottom 20% of my staff.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...
https://uploads.disquscdn.c...
William Mitchell College of Law.St. Mary's University of Minnesota.Mitchell Hamline School of Law.
Apparently Duffy isn't smart enough to go to Harvard, either. Nor were his parents rich enough to bribe his way in.
Thus the student workers' methodology of snagging the cleanest copies *when they were sold back* and hiding them in the store. We could consult the next term's booklist and have a pretty good idea what we needed for each quarter's classes. I hear what you're saying, though; we just found a way around it.
Does anyone know the time stamp of the Right Honorable Dufus's statements?
ETA: 2:58:00