Thread: Ultimate Ghost? "He moved to a jungle in India to escape his giant student debt . . ."

"The philosophy major concedes that his student loan balance of around $20,000 isn’t as large as the burden shouldered by many other borrowers, but he said his difficultly finding a college-level job in the U.S. has made that debt oppressive nonetheless. “If you’re not making a living wage,” Haag said, ”$20,000 in debt is devastating.”https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/26/he-moved-to-a-jungle-in-india-to-escape-his-student-debt--and-hes-not-alone-.html

Commenters: This guy majored in philosophy and he can’t wax philosophically about how stupid he was to major in a worthless venture??

I went the blue collar route out of high school. After 1 year working at a photofinishing firm, I got on with the telephone company. Stayed there 37 years, relocating twice in order to keep same level of income and work opportunity. Always was a technician, never in management. Never married, no kids, I power-saved starting in my twenties. Retired at age 56 with both pension and 401k. I never have to work again, and in a few years I add Social Security to my income. My only issue nowadays is maintaining my physical health. Things happen when you get older. Age waits for no man.

I remember telling myself in my twenties that, because I did not go to college, I would probably have a tougher life, meaning I'd have less money to live on, but it wasn't bad, neither at that time nor in looking back. I just had to pay attention to my finances, easy for me to do. And now that I relax every day, and read of all of this college debt going around, I can't help thinking what an exploitative racket it is. I wonder if it always was a racket or did they used to counsel the students about the job market versus the major they were seeking? Do they counsel them today about this? With all of the publicity around this student debt problem, what is not being said? Who is keeping quiet all the way to the bank? Besides an obvious answer being "the banks, dummy!", maybe there are others who won't accuse in detail because they do not want to be the one to rock the boat. Because their hands are unclean, too?

I've always thought that young people are exploited by society. In a number of ways. Even when I was young, I believed this. And now it's becoming too obvious regarding this college debt thing.

If I had stayed with the photofinishing firm, I had ideas to advance to a job at Kodak. Who knew that digital cameras were in the future as a death knell to Kodak? I'm good with what happened to me.

Originally Posted by Unboxxed

I went the blue collar route out of high school. After 1 year working at a photofinishing firm, I got on with the telephone company. Stayed there 37 years, relocating twice in order to keep same level of income and work opportunity. Always was a technician, never in management. Never married, no kids, I power-saved starting in my twenties. Retired at age 56 with both pension and 401k. I never have to work again, and in a few years I add Social Security to my income. My only issue nowadays is maintaining my physical health. Things happen when you get older. Age waits for no man.

I remember telling myself in my twenties that, because I did not go to college, I would probably have a tougher life, meaning I'd have less money to live on, but it wasn't bad, neither at that time nor in looking back. I just had to pay attention to my finances, easy for me to do. And now that I relax every day, and read of all of this college debt going around, I can't help thinking what an exploitative racket it is. I wonder if it always was a racket or did they used to counsel the students about the job market versus the major they were seeking? Do they counsel them today about this? With all of the publicity around this student debt problem, what is not being said? Who is keeping quiet all the way to the bank? Besides an obvious answer being "the banks, dummy!", maybe there are others who won't accuse in detail because they do not want to be the one to rock the boat. Because their hands are unclean, too?

I've always thought that young people are exploited by society. In a number of ways. Even when I was young, I believed this. And now it's becoming too obvious regarding this college debt thing.

If I had stayed with the photofinishing firm, I had ideas to advance to a job at Kodak. Who knew that digital cameras were in the future as a death knell to Kodak? I'm good with what happened to me.

I think it is a racket because they always say there is a stem shortage and yet many stem graduates have to fight tooth and nail for a job. That contradiction is one of many that is made abundantly clear when I graduated from college with my stem degree.

Fortunately, stem degrees offer great flexibility in that it opens many doors into other job industries and that includes the trades.

A degree in philosophy requires to stay in academia to leverage and that requires a lot of butt kissing and years of toiling away as a grad student on a ramen noodle diet just to emerge on the other side with pedestrian results. A kid working at Burger King with no debt but small saving will surpass that grade student within 20 years. That grade student with a philosophy degree has to strike it rich by becoming a tenured professor or else he will be forced to teach on the side at a community college for an hourly rate.

A friend of mine is an Archeologist. He's got a great job doing something he believes in. But without that diploma Smokey Bear would of never let him in the door. He's a success, but the guys starting to get grey hair, and is still paying off student loans. I had less security than my pal, and worked far harder for less money, but there were no loans to pay off. I was lucky too, a lot a boss's would a hung me out to dry.

My pal says he'd pick a trade over a six year college program if he was doing it over. I tend to agree that's a good choice. My problem was I picked the wrong trade to start with, thus wasting time and money on a skill I was never going to use.