[ExI] the formerly rich and their larvae

spike spike66 at att.net
Tue Feb 12 03:36:34 UTC 2008


> Tom Nowell
...
>  Now, small grants towards living costs have started coming 
> back for students from the poorest families...

Thanks for this Tom!  Very insight-producing.

>... as they realised 
> many kids from poor backgrounds were terrified of too much debt...

How well I can relate to that.  When I finished my undergraduate work in
1983, I was about $5000 in debt and my future wife was a little over $11000.
I was so appalled by that sum of money.  I had no idea how in the hell I
would *ever* pay off such a pile of dough.  

I had a sub-minimum wage job at the time (on campus wage of $2.90/hr).  But
things got better.  When I got my first salary job that year, I was amazed
at how easy it was, and how much money I was paid for it, delightfully
astounded.  Both debts were paid off inside of two years. 

> ...So you see Spike, some countries do feel it 
> worthwhile to offer students financial support, so they think 
> getting an education is worth more than going straight into 
> the workplace to get money and work experience straight away... Tom

Tom you may have hit on something important there.  Most Americans have at
one time or another in their lives worked at some lousy McJob.  Perhaps
working crummy minimum wage jobs and working one's way up causes people to
be thrifty, industrious, motivated and admirably libertarian.  So then,
poverty really *does* build character.

spike






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