[ExI] the formerly rich and their larvae...

[Tom Tobin]

On 2/11/08, Rafal Smigrodzki <rafal.smigrodzki at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Feb 11, 2008 12:46 AM, Amara Graps <amara at amara.com> wrote:
>
> >
> > Do you know that this makes me feel kind of sick? Not you directly, but
> > at a culture where these kinds of expectations are part of mainstream
> > thinking. It is a philosophical issue on the other side of the Atlantic.
> > I think few people in Europe would understand why a 'civilized', western
> > society would want to burden a young person, who is just starting their
> > independent lives, with a thousands or tens of thousands of euros debt.
> >
> ### But, you know, a bit of debt works wonders to focus your mind on
> doing something useful to the rest of us, and therefore capable of
> commanding a price. Otherwise, the young person could decide to
> squander other people's money on the pursuit of trivial or useless
> credentials, wouldn't you think?

A "bit" of debt?

I'm in the hole to the tune of over $70,000 USD, and I didn't even
finish my graduate-level education.  This is from a *state* school
(State University of New York / SUNY), funded completely by a
combination of grants and loans on my head (not my parents — I was
already into my mid 20s when I went back to school).  If I were to
make the choice over again, I *never* would have gone back to school;
a degree is worthless in my current field, anyway (web development /
programming), and I'm making more than I would have had I finished
graduate school and worked in the field (library science).

I haven't even started paying back my school debt since I'd be forced
to pay over $500 a month, and, well, I still have a bunch of credit
card debt to pay off as well (mental note: if you're down to the point
where you're paying bills with your credit cards, something is wrong).
 I get to defer for another year and a half before I'm screwed.  ^_^
This brings me to the point of my little rant: quite often, young
people are *too inexperienced* and *too stupid* to realize just how
terrible a debt burden will be later in life.

Sigh.  I'm sorry for the rant, but maybe I'll serve as a warning for
others.  :p  I never wanted to focus on salary in life (as I prefer a
physically-minimalist lifestyle, have no need to "get rich", and have
no interest in parenthood), but I'm forced to by the mistakes made by
an earlier version of myself.  If only bankruptcy worked on
educational debt!