Student Loans

I went to a private college back in 1982.

That first year, I took out a student loan, and paid most of one semester. My Mom and Dad covered the rest.

The second year, I paid for the entire tuition cost because I had spent every break working as a union laborer. I made more than $20 an hour.

Unheard of wages for a young man back then.

A union laborer, 40 years later, now makes the same wage that I made then!

Years three and four were paid out of 3 pockets. Mine, my unbelievable parents, and a couple of more student loans.

When I was done I owed a total of $7,500.

I had a Bachelor of Arts Degree that allowed me to adapt to where I wanted to be…

…back in the construction field, but not lifting blocks onto a scaffold.

I also started writing books, and I almost immediately began repaying those loans.

It took me ten years, but I paid back every nickel.

If student loan debt is forgiven now…

…I won’t begrudge anyone who catches a break.

Because of a number of factors:

1). America has bailed out the auto industry, bailed out the banks, and forgiven unbelievable airline debt. A lot of well-off people were allowed to skate because of mismanagement and greed.

Those people didn’t deserve debt forgiveness.

2). College costs are ludicrous!

The $6 grand a year I paid from 82’ through 86’ would be $40 grand a year now at the same school!

No kid could possibly get through that school with $7,500 in loans, and it certainly wouldn’t matter how many hours that kid could work during summer break…

…he wouldn’t be helping Mom and Dad all that much…

…because WAGES have been stagnant for decades!

3). The interest rates they charge the kids is akin to loansharking!

And when they get out…

…those high-paying jobs are nowhere to be found!

A Bachelor of Arts degree?

Teachers make $40 grand a year…about what they made 30 years ago!

The world is up in arms about $15 an hour for fast food jobs…

…do the math!

That’s below the poverty rate at 40 hours per week!

“Those are starter jobs,” someone mentioned to me.

“Other jobs aren’t paying much more than that!” I said. “We made law after law, from the 80’s on with trickle down being the operative term, and nothing trickled down!”

I’ve said it before, but the money never trickled down! It stayed right at the top. 

CEO pay?

Check those figures.

Education costs?

Taxes?

Car prices?

Housing prices?

University costs?

Groceries?

Those all went WAY UP!

Wages went DOWN!!!

Back in 1983, I had healthcare free of cost with that union job. There was a pension fund. I worked all the overtime I could handle.

There are no jobs like that waiting for a young man or woman.

The wage for that work now…

…is less than what I earned…

…40 years ago!

“I got out of school with $120,000 in loans,” one woman wrote on Twitter. “Ended up taking a job, out of my field, that paid me $20 an hour. I’ve paid back $50,000 so far. I’ve never missed a payment. I now owe $135,000. I will die before I ever pay it back.”

I’ve heard every argument about how irresponsible it was for people to take out that much…

…but it was done with the hope that there would be a job there.

Those loans were taken by kids! Kids!! Who had zero idea about the outrageous interest, or the bottoming out of the living wage.

The federal minimum wage?

Check when the last time that was raised.

You can’t buy a coffee and a donut with an hours wage.

Think of where the money will go if it is not being dumped off to the banks as the principle of the loan doesn’t ever go down.

Regular working people would be able to buy things like food, or homes, or cars.

They may not stay generationally poor.

And men and women, who worked for years, might actually save for retirement instead of spending their savings so that their children can afford an education.

Broken.

That system has been broken for a long, long time.

Oh, one more thing:

While researching things think about how many other nations have free college for their kids.

That’s an investment in the future of the country.

Time we do that.

No?