Yea, this is what gets my panties in a twist (I'm 22). It seems that a "hipster" lifestyle, whether its disparagingly described in Salon or stated without the yellow journalistic froth, is a viable alternative to "go to college and get that job" to an increasingly larger amount of people from my generation. I don't want my future to be devoid of meaningful contribution to society, a life I spend sarcastically making coffees or pretentiously waiting tables and looking down at the Wall Street Banker's MILFy wife, but it seems that it's getting harder and harder to make a meaningful contribution to society and make a living from it. And it'll only get harder. This may be one of those things you wrestled and figured out "ten years ago" with a skill (mixing and audio engineering) that rests at the sweet intersection of avocation and vocation, and I'm genuinely happy for you, but me and (I believe) my generation want an outlet for all this pent-up empathy. I'll ask then: you bought 12 months of deferral for 100,000 dollars? Wha... How is that income? Are they assuming you borrowed 130k to further lend out at an even higher interest rate? OK, my head is spinning. Private school is going to cost about half a mil a year by 2030? That's completely unsustainable. College isn't power, it's the trappings of power. And people are (slowly) realizing it already, when school costs a tenth of that. In the beginning you referred to the social safety system that's ad-hoc and powered by distaste. Read this, which certainly deserves it's own hubski post but I'm having trouble getting anyone to read it.For another, the United States is busily dealing with "structural unemployment" - a lovely technical term for "jobs that are not coming back ever."
My wife's doctorate cost $130k. She had a full ride to undergrad, as did I, so that's all the debt we got. Putting it on deferral for 12 months pushed it to $220k. So that's $100k in debt the "government" (more on that if asked) earned just by letting us get on our feet.
Here's the funny thing: the financial institutions we bank with consider that $2.6m income for purposes of banking.
So we run some calcs to see how much 4.5 years of private school education is expected to cost when she's ready, and how much we need to set aside right now to get her there. The answer?
"$2 million dollars" and "$1200 a month."
Sure looks that way, don't it? Except that money is never going to be actualized. It's a made-up number. My wife has a former colleague who hasn't paid a dime on her student loans since graduating in '97. They're just up there being deferred forever. Not easy, but it can be done. Not our income… their income. They own these loans. Fully paid off, they're worth this much. Behold: the makings of a financial crisis. Just wait until some clever fuck starts selling derivatives on student loan debt. I was off by a bit - I misremembered it scarier than it was. it's still terrifying. Run it yourself: head here. Go "4 year private" "7 percent" "5 years" and "100%." Pick "18 years." Worst-case? Sure. But that's me sending my daughter to a decent private college for an extra semester or two and paying for the whole thing out of pocket. I got $820k. 7 percent wasn't a guess, by the way, it's a historical average. 1) Put a social worker through grad school 2) Whose father was an inner-city psychiatrist 3) Whose best friend (and father of the social worker's sister's boyfriend) was a VA social worker and 4) Whose aunt and uncle were 100% disability SSI schizophrenics. No news here, cuz. I lived this shit from '96-01. Now talk to me about my buddy with Lyme, who's 100% disability, which means when he is feeling well enough to work we have to pay his dad.I'll ask then: you bought 12 months of deferral for 100,000 dollars?
Wha... How is that income? Are they assuming you borrowed 130k to further lend out at an even higher interest rate?
OK, my head is spinning. Private school is going to cost about half a mil a year by 2030?
Read this, which certainly deserves it's own hubski post but I'm having trouble getting anyone to read it.