I Worked Full-Time In College
Mollie Hemingway, Ed. ·
April 25, 2012 at 4:45pm
so that I would graduate with no debt.
Do tell me more about how President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney want me to subsidize those who didn't.
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Comments:
Apr '12
Re: I Worked Full-Time In College
No kidding, Mollie. I worked in a mine for seven summers to pay for my university and actually learnt more than from my degree. Well wait until you know you ate your veggies but now you are subsidizing the "health" care for fat slobs. I was recently in Vegas and the people shocked me as so many looked unhealthy.
Jan '11
Re: I Worked Full-Time In College
Its the same thinking behind making those of us who bought homes we could afford subsidize those who overextended themselves. He probably won't get our votes in any event and may get theirs - if bought with our money.
Aug '11
Re: I Worked Full-Time In College
The issue I have this-- as the grants and aid to students increases, the cost of college increases. We are basically establishing a price floor for all the colleges. The colleges can raise their prices and someone in Congress will call for more money to students because "education is a right."
I'm not saying that the price of college would normally be continually driven down, in the same manner of say, computing technology or cars. What I am saying is that we've distorted the market and made college a lot more expensive in an effort to make it more affordable.
Jan '11
Re: I Worked Full-Time In College
oops - repeat
Edited on April 29, 2012 at 10:54pmApr '12
Re: I Worked Full-Time In College
College has gotten a lot more expensive over the years, while the market value of a degree has dropped. It isn't always feasible to pay your way through. On top of that, many kids today were urged to go to college (because that'll be the ticket to a great upper-middle-class life), and not to worry about the debt (because you'll be able to pay it off once you get that great job)... and then there were no great jobs.
The trends are unsustainable, and I think the university system will have to shrink. (I say this as someone who has buttered my bread off the university system for most of my life, so I'm not exactly cheering, but I think it's inevitable.) But yes, Mollie, I think you (and everyone) should be concerned about all these heavily indebted and unemployed young people. We need them to be marrying and raising the next generation, but instead they're just trying to keep up with their debt. That's a problem for society as a whole.
Sep '11
Re: I Worked Full-Time In College
I'm in college now, your alma mater actually (if I remember my first post correctly), and while I'm not working a full 40, I'm working far more throughout the year than most of my peers and consciously decided on a state school over a private one for this reason precisely and opted to commute from home rather that stay on campus.
Obama was just on campus a week or two ago and I cringed as everyone around me talked about how "Obama is going to keep interest rates low for our tuition" - how magnanimous. Blech. No, you, me, all of us, are paying for that subsidy and we're going to pay even more dearly when we see entrepreneurship stifled by "assetless-backed mortgages" carried by an ever growing proportion of the population and the necessary reduction in risk taking that will imply.