I hated UC Berkeley. Loathed it. Despised it. Couldn’t shake the dust off my feet fast enough after I graduated. But graduate I did, and pretty well too, if my Phi Beta Kappa key has anything to say about it. Knowing my feelings about UCB, my daughter asked a good question: “Why didn’t you transfer out?”
I had an equally good answer, although one that was virtually impossible for a well-to-do suburban kid, in a day and age of vast student loans, to understand: “I didn’t have the money.” My parents had no wealth; I had no wealth; my scholarships were real, but small; and — this is the important point — my student loans were minimal. The latter reflected the fact that, because I knew that my parents had no wealth, I had no wealth, and my career options as a history major were limited, I was unwilling to hunt around for a different school that would, inevitably, have been more expensive.
It never occurred to me to take on a debt load that I might not be able to repay. My college choice and student loans were calibrated to my expectations. I even chose an affordable (albeit marvelously wonderful) law school. By the time I graduated, after 7 years of higher education, I had only $15,000 in debt, which I paid off within three years.
For me, being prudent in my financial obligations was a no-brainer. I mean that. My brain never raised the possibility of taking on a larger debt load than I could reasonably handle. Instead, when I needed more money for pesky little things like tuition and textbooks, I got a job. Several jobs. Summer jobs. School year jobs. Evening jobs. Whatever. I also lived at home when I could, which wasn’t fun (although my Mom, bless her heart, did my laundry). My parents charged me rent (don’t ask), but I paid them less than I would have a third party landlord. All in the name of going to school the old-fashioned way: affordably.
Nowadays, of course, student loans are de rigueur. How do I know that? Because it seems as if every one of the loopy Occupy Wall Street dudes and dudettes interviewed complains about those students loans. (See here, for example.) Two out of thirteen of the demands on the Occupy Wall Street website focus on student loans:
Demand four: Free college education.
[snip]
Demand eleven: Immediate across the board debt forgiveness for all. Debt forgiveness of sovereign debt, commercial loans, home mortgages, home equity loans, credit card debt, student loans and personal loans now! All debt must be stricken from the “Books.” World Bank Loans to all Nations, Bank to Bank Debt and all Bonds and Margin Call Debt in the stock market including all Derivatives or Credit Default Swaps, all 65 trillion dollars of them must also be stricken from the “Books.” And I don’t mean debt that is in default, I mean all debt on the entire planet period.
It’s pretty clear that a core issue animating these protesters is the ridiculous debt obligations that they voluntarily assumed. It’s therefore almost funny to see the working class union types leaping on board to help out kids whose demands, if acceded to, will pile ever greater debt on the ordinary working stiffs in America.
The original article, by Bookworm, takes an unrealistic and single-minded view.
Boy!
Talk about UNrealistic!
Have you seen those 13 ”demands?”
Minimum wage of at least $20/hour.
But better than that: Guaranteed living wage income regardless of employment. (I’m assuming that means regardless of employment OR unemployment.)
Free college. (I’m sure people work hard to become PhD’s so they can be slaves to kids who have no real interest in their expertise.)
Immediate across the board debt forgiveness for all.
Outlaw all credit reporting agencies.
Sounds like a guy who is deep in debt wrote all this.
And he threw a few bones to the anarchists, commies and socialists, illegal aliens and gays just to cover his agenda.