I was having lunch with a bunch of 30-something people I work with. After a couple of minutes, it occurred to me I have practically nothing in common with any of them. So, I mostly just sat, listened, and thought to myself, “been there, done that”.
Which was a good thing. Because I found out moments later that other than me, the entire room was filled with people who were most definitely NOT Conservative.
The conversation touched on how there should be stronger gun laws. I just sat there thinking about how they would completely freak out if they knew about the 9mm I had concealed beneath my untucked shirt.
Then they talked about how hard things are right now, what with the cost of housing, gas and pretty much everything else being through the roof. But not one mention of anything negative about the Biden regime.
One guy told a story about how he had done something I didn’t care enough to pay attention to, and his credit rating went up 200 points. That got my attention. I get upset if my credit rating is anything less than 850. And this guy’s credit was so low that an increase of 200 points was possible. He didn’t mention what it currently was but I’m pretty sure that even after going up a couple hundred points it still wasn’t anywhere near perfect.
About 10 years ago, my son had just graduated from college and was looking for his first car. He wanted a new one but couldn’t afford to buy one outright, so he decided to lease it instead. After spending the entire day with the salesman (I don’t know why it always seems to take an entire day to buy a new car) they sat down to talk financing.
They ran my son’s credit and came back with some bad news. No surprise, he didn’t have enough credit to lease the car unless someone else co-signed for the loan. Also no surprise, that someone was going to be me.
My son was nervous that he wouldn’t be able to get the car. I just looked at him, smiled and filled out the form. In less than 5 minutes, they came back and said that because of my outstanding credit rating, they’d be able to give him the best possible rate on the lease. I looked back at my son and said, “THAT’S why good credit is important.”
That lesson sunk in. He paid his bills on time, worked to pay off his student loan, and kept up with his car payments. And, two years later when the lease was up, he was able to buy a new car using his own credit. Not too long after that, he made the final payment on his student loan. Years ahead of schedule.
Now, back to the work lunch.
One of the women was complaining that it was too difficult to buy a house because prices were too high. She said this right after she showed us pictures of her shiny new car on the screen of her top-of-the-line iPhone. And after she had just finished telling us about how she’s the sole breadwinner in her family so that her husband could focus on his “art”.
Now, you and I can see from a mile away what the problem here is. There are two main reasons she can’t afford to buy a house. One, she’s spending all her money on other shit. And two, because her deadbeat husband isn’t contributing anything to the family budget.
But that’s not what she thinks the reason is. She believes the reason that she can’t afford to buy a house is because of her student loans. Which may be part of the problem but certainly not all of it.
Then the conversation moved to a discussion about how expecting people to pay back their student loans is unfair. They kicked around ideas about how the problem could be solved. To be honest, some of their ideas were good ones. Some sort of finance reform is probably a good idea. But, not one of them suggested that they cut back on their expenses and make payments on their loans.
I kept my mouth shut but I thought this really loud: You signed the fucking contract! Unless you’re a complete moron, you had to know that eventually you’d be required to pay back what you borrowed. And now you’re expecting someone else to pay for your mistakes? Don’t be ridiculous.
My son is a good example of how it’s possible to pay back a student loan. In fact, he paid it off early. And now he has the financial freedom, and good credit rating, that comes with paying your bills on time.
But he also has a degree in Computer Science. So, there’s that.
When I graduated from high school, a college degree was something nice to have, but it wasn’t mandatory. If you knew what you were doing, and could prove it, you could get a pretty good job. As time went on, companies started using a college degree as a determining hiring factor. Those with degrees were more likely to find employment than those with just a high school education.
It wasn’t right. And it wasn’t fair. It’s just the way it was.
It didn’t matter what field your degree was in. It only mattered that you had a degree. So, instead of getting an education in something that would help you do your job, people started getting degrees in things like Art History because they were “following their passion”.
A while back, I mentioned my friend Eric. Eric has a degree in Art History from Yale. That degree, as Eric puts it, makes him qualified to drive any cab in Boston. When I first met Eric, I was interviewing him for a $10 per hour entry-level position. He found out the hard way that his education wasn’t practical. His degree was from one of the most prestigious schools in the world, and it wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on.
Because, somewhere along the line, what field your degree was in became important. When most candidates have degrees, just having a degree is no longer enough. You need to have an education in something that’s at least partially related to the job you’re looking for.
Which is rarely going to be something like art history or anthropology or ethnic and civilization studies.
And all these people who had useless degrees suddenly found themselves with no real prospects because employers started to realize again that what you can do with what you know is far more important than just simply knowing something.
The problem with student loans has less to do with having to borrow money to pay for your education and more to do with the education for which you borrowed the money to receive. Well, that and the fact that these instant-gratification college graduates don’t seem to realize that they might have to sacrifice a little up front to gain benefits on the back end.
Instead of wasting college credits learning about diversity and inclusiveness, they would have been better served if they had been taught a lesson in basic finance and household budgeting.
My son was able to get a great job because his college education taught him something useful. He was able to gain financial freedom because I taught him something useful.
