Wednesday, July 12, 2023

College, Loans, And Reality

 h/t McThag























Angus has some oft-repeated thoughts on the college loan debacle. Give it a gander. Our reply was far too long to post there, so we post it here:



I think you're yelling at the wall. And you should probably let it go. And this is me talking. Just saying.

You learned a hard truth, and you got screwed over hard in the process. But your story is not every kid on the hook for $100-200K, who thought majoring in kick boxing or Vogon poetry at night school at Wossamotta U. would get them first dibs in interviews for Harvard Law, Silicon Valley, or Wall Street.

Last I looked, Congress took over student loans, mainly as a boon to leftist colleges and universities, during Obama's first term, with a Democrat congress.

Nobody's parents voted for it, and neither they nor students sure as hell didn't ask for college tuition to skyrocket 500%, which it's done continually after Uncle Fed took over the whole thing.

(The list of things that didn't turn to shit 5 seconds after the feds got involved could be written with a Fat Sharpie inside a thimble. But you know that already, because you've got VA health care.)


This is the mortgage crisis all over again, except with college tuition.

Let it crash.

Stop trying to float a lead balloon.

Colleges will take a dive. Good.

Idiots who majored in stupid majors will eat a fat one too. Boo frickin' hoo.

TANSTAAFL applies, in spades.


I got the degree I have now as an adult, for pennies, from the local JC.

The same programs are available now, and with five times as many slots.

I only delayed that because I hadn't figured out what to be when I grew up earlier in life, and because despite having other choices, I decided to sign up to potentially kill people for Uncle when I could have ridden the wave from college into corporate America. I don't regret either choice. The one college loan I ever took out I got deferred, first while serving in the Corps, and then being a full-time student.

I paid it off after that with a minimum wage job in about two years.

I could have paid it off in 8 months while I was still in the Corps, years before it was due, but I didn't have to, so I didn't.

But anyone, any time, anywhere, who can't figure out that taking out $200K in loans for a job that pays a quarter of that per year is too stupid to go to college to begin with.

Is that predatory? Hell yes it is.

Let the whole silly-assed program die, and let the banks and the universities take it in the keester.

It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of loan sharks.


And as you mentioned a couple of posts later, apprenticeships in the trades are begging for candidates.

So don't give away squat.

Let the smart and hardworking kids who got worthless degrees go learn plumbing or welding on their own hook, and pay their own damned loans back themselves, with no further assistance. Like the smart ones will.


The lazy millennials who thought they were going to get a Ph.D. in Victim Studies and get rich, and are waiting at Starbuck's until that tenured professorship opens up?

Fuck them, sideways, with a rusty chainsaw.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.


Caterpillar trains people to repair heavy equipment every year, and the salary two years after graduation is well into six figures.

And they haven't filled all the training slots once in any year in the last 30 years.

(That's an example straight out of Mike Rowe's message, btw.)

Because it's hard, and dirty w-o-r-k, and you have to go where people are using heavy equipment to build things, which is generally hundreds of miles from Hipsterville, and with lousy internet. Boo frickin' hoo.


The government fucked up something it touched? And they lied to people?

Stop the presses.

I see 50 "Help Wanted" signs every day.

The only kids I see taking entry-level slots at McDonald's and Burger King are Asian kids, working their way through college. I can count the hispanic and black kids I see in those jobs on my thumbs.

What I never see are "French Poetry and Victim Studies majors needed" signs.

That hasn't been news to anyone paying attention since...ever, AFAIK.

OTOH, the friend I went to school with, who got kickedTF out of high school in our junior year the day after they found out he signed up for the GED test?

He both entered and graduated college a year ahead of any of us with a degree in electrical/electronic engineering from the local JC and State U., at 1/10th the price of private tuition-based schools, went to work for Texas Instruments, and he's retired years early, after making senior VP. After getting rich over decades of hard work.

I'm pretty sure he never voted to have Uncle Sugar hand out fat college loans to every swinging dick who thought they could be president of Warner Brothers or Activision at 23, or sign with the Celtics or the Cowboys in the first round.


And the total college loan takeover? That kicked in in the 2010, and the kids who signed up for that - as legal adults - were almost completely Millennials*. And that's exactly who's crying about their current situation now. Color me shocked.

The Boomers and even Gen Xers had graduated long before that happened.


People who owe money and aren't lazy, stupid, or both, will ultimately pay it off.

Those who won't are neither bright, nor industrious.

That's just how it is, no matter how big the pitfall that was set before them.

Dean Wormer's advice to Flounder is timeless.




*(That's before we get into the ocean of difference between Boomers from 1946 versus 1964. Generalizations on arbitrary "generations" are ultimately specious. I have more in common with John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, or Tom Selleck - not a one of whom is a "Boomer" btw, than I do with most of those who are. The only thing kids in a given generation share across the board is similar birthdates, in 20-year swaths. Like you'd expect.)

19 comments:

  1. I got into drafting by taking a BOCES manual drafting course in 1983, then interned at GE in central NY. The boss brought me on for two reasons: I worked hard, and I was a veteran(US Air Farce). Stayed there until I was laid off in 1993, and went to Kodak, where I learned the wonders/horrowshow of Unigraphics solid modeling software. I went to a two year school for my AAS degree, took out a loan for living expenses, and paid it off in two years while looking for professional work. I worked two full time janitorial jobs and was taking classes towards my Masters in Byzantine History.
    Now that I'm reluctantly retired, I'm going to complete my degree, and possibly go for the PhD. I won't be borrowing any money; pay as I go, and I know that I won't become a professor, not at @68. My only debt is for various bangsticks(I have a weakness for Anschutz rifles), and my bank is my wife, who has put up with me for some 44 years.
    The real banks keep trying to get us to take out loans, but we aren't biting into that hook.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I hate being in debt. My wife and I bought a $1.1M house in February 2021, with about $300K of borrowed money. We paid it off two weeks ago and now own the house outright.

    We paid off the debt by working our arses off, foregoing luxuries and putting every spare penny against the mortgage. When we tell people we bought and paid for a house in 2.5 years they look at us as though we're from Mars.

    So many people out there are making stupid decisions and then expecting the gummint to bail them out.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nobody seems to understand that student loans are one of the reasons that college tuition is so high to begin with.

    If .gov promised that virtually every 18-year-old in America, who has never held a job, could get a $100,000 loan, backed by Uncle Sam, for just having a pulse....what would happen? Why, automobile dealers would immediately jack their prices into the stratosphere because the idiot who couldn't afford a $300/month car payment suddenly had a hundred gtand 'line of credit' with Uncle. So the dealer yanks the car prices up and the the idiot kid doesn't even blink because, after all, its not his money.

    Same with college.

    Take away the loans-for-everybody-for-any-degree circus that is the student loan scam and youll see college tuition rates fall.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I've been saying this for a while. No bailouts for anybody. None for students that took out the loans. Also none for the banks that gave them or the schools expecting them. They tried to game the system with big daddy government too. So fuck'em. Letting it all crash and burn would be a turning point in the culture war.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Please anybody, bronze this post like a pair of baby shoes. I am in the college education biz and I have a general rule for those who have not decided on a major --

    "If the total gross income you could make in the occupation per the BLS website over 5 years cannot match the cost of the education don't select that as a major."

    A degree in Submarine Racing Studies would not meet the metric.

    At my institution, we are geared up to handle 30 HVAC students a semester. We have 8 in the program. This in Texas where the temp will be 114 at noon today. $55-60k apprentice, $80k+ in two years, could be running their own shop in five.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Monk @ 12:22,

    Sir, don't let age be a barrier. I will be 72 in November and I teach college level. Not likely to receive tenure of course but institutions are always looking for qualified adjunct professors. Besides it keeps you sharp. There is always that 2-3 students who are at the top of their game that ask the right questions. Come in handy for those boom boom sticks you like.

    ReplyDelete
  7. First a note to the statisticians: I was born in 1960, but have nothing in common with the Hippie/NLF Loving/Woodstock crowd. So keep your stinking intellectually lazy and arbitrary group names the hell off me you damned dirty number crunchers.

    I got a degree in the 80s because you needed one to get commissioned and go to flight school. Worked my way into an ROTC scholarship and supplemented that with loans that were paid off 4 years after graduation. (I was still in the deferment zone, but CINCHOUSE Select wanted them paid off before the wedding)

    In-laws started a college fund when Darlin' Daughter was born. She graduated from a state school with zero debt and had a a job in her chosen field within 3 months.

    I'm not that smart, but I managed to get a degree that's got me into the door of every job I've had without mortgaging my future, and so has Darlin' Daughter. If I can figure it out, then anyone who can't seriously needs to not look at going to college.

    If I was starting over and decided not to join todays New Action Military, I would be taking a long look at electrician as a career path. Or learning how to repair the machines that will take over the minimum wage jobs at fast food joints.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh, and LawDog had what I consider a brilliant idea for clearing up student loan debt with the burden falling on the colleges that hiked tuition rates and suckered in students to take loans to pay them. One word: "Endowments"

    ReplyDelete
  9. P. Monk,
    Anschutz rifles...I...know this guy that has eight at last count. Prefer'a the model 64's. Haa one with iron sights, one with Burris glass, one with a Litton 2+gen scope, one with a Burris Thermal. All Anshutz rifles will stabilize CCI Stinger ammunition...you'd think you were using match ammunition...give it a try.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I linked LawDog's suggestion to an earlier Angus post on the topic.
    His reply stated he had no objections to the plan.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Community Colleges in Florida are currently around 3 grand a year.
    If you pay more than that you deserve to have to pay back any loans you take out.

    ReplyDelete
  12. My son became a HVAC technician without a degree. My daughter is a tattoo artist. It doesn't pay much but it is her dream job.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I went to a college that didn't, and still doesn't accept student loans. (For many reasons). It's tuition was less than in state at most state schools.
    The banks they work with are picky about majors, grades, etc and they usually require work study (which was widely available on campus.
    Within 4 years of graduating, I was making more per year than my degree cost.
    I currently have NO debt of any kind and want to stay away from it.
    The Bible has a great verse that sums up my view:The borrower is slave to the lender.
    JH

    ReplyDelete
  14. I took an NDSL loan for the last year of my bachelor degree. Paid it off teaching middle and high school kids science.
    My master’s degree paid off within a couple of years due to the pay jump. Everything after that was gravy.
    My brother got a two year community college degree. He was paid a six figure salary for years, until he retired.
    My son, with just about 1 years coursework, works at a place making industrial equipment. He started as a part timer, and is now running the place for the owner, who is the designer of the equipment. Makes between 70-80 thousand, depending on bonuses.
    His teacher sister with a masters was shocked that he outearned her. Almost twice as much money.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Folks who want a long term career need to rethink their desires/abilities. An RN/Doctor/Surgeon will be employed forever. My mother (RN) was turning down work at 70. An electrician/plumber/farm equipment repair guy will be banking $100,000 in no time. A lineman/tool & die/machinist are in dire need by businesses. HVAC/Boilermaker/Tank drivers (truck drivers who operate specialty rigs that contain liquids and gases, particularly hazardous materials such as gasoline or propane) all make great money. How-ev-er, it requires that folks actually get training, show up on time, and DO THE DAMNED JOB! We have created a world of entitled, over-privileged, self indulgent pussies who want to play and sleep 24/7. Believe me when I tell you, just because someone actually has working hours scheduled 12:30-8 does not mean you will see them. Whether it is CVS or Costco or the supermarket-it is always a crap shoot if they show up. No sympathy for the Starbux barista who owes $200,000 for a masters degree in music. For that amount of money they could have had a real job!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Back in the early eighties I owed several thousand dollars for student loans. After I got married and my wife and I got on our feet a bit, we went into the college’s financial aid office and paid the loan off in crisp brand new hundred dollar bills. We still get smiles on our faces when we reminisce about it. I can still see the look on the financial aid staffer’s face as we counted out the money.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Great post and great comments. There's one route that nobody has mentioned so I will.

    Graduated high school in '72 and started out working toward a degree in biochemistry but f*cked up and got married. I had to drop out to pay for life in my junior year, but had been a radio hobbyist since 13 and got a job as an electronics tech. Long story short, I found out that many companies did tuition reimbursement if I went to school at night, so I worked full time and took two classes every term to get my engineering ticket. For an A they reimbursed 100%, for a B it was 90, for a C it was 70. A strong incentive to work hard and I finished with a 3.9-something.

    I had student loans from the biochemistry years and paid them off when I was a technician.

    I'm fairly sure that the companies reimbursed tuition because they got a tax break for doing so. That's more evidence that the only times tax policy does anything worthwhile is when they cut taxes.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Stealth Spaniel,

    The govt has so F'd up the medical system I suspect that before long they will just 'we have to burn it down to save it' and just take it over. A doctor will end up being just a GS17 rated pill pusher. Hope to God I am wrong, but the tea leaves read that way.

    ReplyDelete
  19. We have a neighbor with a teenage son. The kid has a job with the local Caterpillar plant and wants to attend the local tech school and become a welder. He has talent and determination shown by making swamp buggies out out of a couple of trucks in his dad's driveway. He'll make it. We have two grandsons. One is brilliant and it's hard to imagine him not going to college. At the moment it's not clear what he will want to do. He doesn't show any particular interest in STEM, though he's beyond me in computers which is embarrassing since that was my career and my hobby. The other grandson would be a perfect candidate for tech school but it's not clear if his parents could stand it.

    ReplyDelete