[I_Like_Plants]

Look up a book about the Iks, must-reading to understand modern 'Merkan culture.

Tuition in the US can range from a couple thousand a year to $40k. If you are poor, you can get a Pell grant that will generally pay tuition for a state university. However, if you are young and non-minority, just try getting that Pell grant! It's generally impossible until you're 25, then it's just nearly-impossible.

Then you have to live, too.

So you need some kind of hellacious skill to go to college on your wages. Or to live in some Neverland where the min. wage pays enough to work moderate hours and go to school.


Then there's what I theorize as "never-never land" which is a mythical land where a kid is allowed to keep any money they make, and put it into a college fund. I've never seen it happen, but if it did, a kid would be able to start saving for, and fund, their college education since most kids come up with something to make a few bux from puberty on. But in 'Merka, kids don't get to keep their earnings to save for college, it gets taken by parents to pay for parents' cigarettes, etc. Sometimes just plain to feed the family, as my meagre earnings did.

Folks, we're heading into a deeper, darker, Depression than our forebears did, and rabble-rousers come from both college and non-college backgrounds. Hitler for instance, went through about the equivalent of Jr college (Gymnasium). Dunno about Eugene Debs, but I don't think he was a college boy. Con't count on college to make a good life for you. Work on basic skills that are useful in a place like war-torn Falluja or mid-1800s America or any place where the struggle is for basic survival.

[TWilliam]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('I_Like_Plants', 'B')ut in 'Merka, kids don't get to keep their earnings to save for college, it gets taken by parents to pay for parents' cigarettes, etc. Sometimes just plain to feed the family, as my meagre earnings did.

[max_power29]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jack', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Baldwin', 'H')ow do parents throw their children into the world with no experience and no money? A high school education is worth $20k if that. On long island, you'd starve to death if that was your salary.

[TT]

Studying Latin??? What's the chosen career path here? How much per year is it costing for you to learn a defunct language? Who's idea was it and who's paying for it?

[lawnchair]

The other thing that occurs to me is that you (and even their son) may not be clued in on their actual financial situation. They may be externally keeping up appearances (newer cars, kid in private school), but be in debt up to their eyeballs. The words "owns a small firm" really make it seem possible. It is more likely to lose all your personal savings trying to get a small business going than it is to make money at it.

Times have changed. My grandfathers, both high school dropouts with stay-at-home wives each put three kids through college and retired semi-comfortably. My parents, masters' degrees each (teachers cum bureaucrats) really couldn't afford to send one child through, nor retire comfortably on their own (some inheritance made it possible, but tight). Me... like most modern college graduates I know... not planning on kids at all.

The American dream peaked along with American oil, American savings and the dollar, circa 1970.

[dissimulo]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('I_Like_Plants', 'L')ook up a book about the Iks, must-reading to understand modern 'Merkan culture.

[emersonbiggins]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('I_Like_Plants', '
')Tuition in the US can range from a couple thousand a year to $40k. If you are poor, you can get a Pell grant that will generally pay tuition for a state university. However, if you are young and non-minority, just try getting that Pell grant! It's generally impossible until you're 25, then it's just nearly-impossible.

[dinopello]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dissimulo', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', '
')That sounds very cool clinical and detached. You're either a robot or an Ik.

[strider3700]

HE should not go to school and get some experience in a field he's interested in for the next 2 years. After he knows something he then should borrow the 160K and instead of schooling start a business/invest it Really 160K used correctly would give you a huge leg up on society in many parts of the country.

The other option is go out and get a McD's job. Make sure he shows up at every social event his parents will be at in his dirty uniform looking like a bum. Have him constantly talk about how his parents can't afford for him to go to school and ask the other guests if they could spare a couple of bucks. The parents will be shamed into paying him off in no time.

[TWilliam]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dissimulo', 'T')his seems like the point of view of someone a bit spoiled.

I've observed that people who earn what they have tend to do better in life and whine less.

[Baldwin]

For those of you living in fantasy land (or the past), putting yourself through college was possible at one time. I believe my grandfather paid $20 per credit at Pace University in NYC. He worked in a cork factory. It was possible.

By my parents' time (late seventies), it was rather difficult but possible to put yourself through college. Parents kicked in some money. Today, it is impossible.

What job will hire and pay an 18 yr old $30-40k and allow him to work part time (providing he is like 99% of American teens with no desired marketable skill)? Also, remember that he will be competing with our friends from south of the border for jobs who will work for less (but speak no English). Get a job holds little water.

While the law says you are an adult and all that at 18, you are still dependent on your parents until you get that degree or go into a trade (which many boomer parents would rather see their kid at McDonald's than as a carpenter or plumber).

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')ait until you actually face some real problems in life.

[max_power29]

This thread reminds me of Tony Soprano's son.

[max_power29]

This thread reminds me of Tony Soprano's son.

[lawnchair]

160k in debt is absolutely, positively, totally normal. Sorry bout that.

As for the cost of living, the Greyhound counter is on the main floor of the Port Authority.

Again, I wouldn't be surprised if his family was actually near-broke. But, he doesn't seem interested in extorting them, either. If his parents are anywhere near as "New Yorker" as your posts have come across, a course catalog from Central Missouri State University left around and a few offhand comments about talking to Army recruiters might get them worried about their reputation.

[Baldwin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('lawnchair', '1')60k in debt is absolutely, positively, totally normal. Sorry bout that.

As for the cost of living, the Greyhound counter is on the main floor of the Port Authority.

Again, I wouldn't be surprised if his family was actually near-broke. But, he doesn't seem interested in extorting them, either. If his parents are anywhere near as "New Yorker" as your posts have come across, a course catalog from Central Missouri State University left around and a few offhand comments about talking to Army recruiters might get them worried about their reputation.

[HEADER_RACK]

SCREW COLLEGE !!!

I droped out at 16 and got a GED. Got a job and now make apox 80 a year. Thats damn good for the deep south. My friend graduated High school only and what he makes puts me to shame.

Of course we both work in the OIL FIELD!!!!!!

So NO college and no starting debt work 8 months out of the year. The upper crust can have it. I'm happy being Oil Field Trash !!
Besides I believe working your ass off for your money instead of sitting in a cozy little cubicle makes you a little more appreciative of what you have.
We have a saying in the oil field, WORK HARD...PLAY HARD

[basil_hayden]

Back when I was making $6.50 an hour ($13K per year) out of college with a $15,000 bill for a BS ($9K in grants/scholarships, about $24K total 4 years), I thought it would never get paid off.

Things changed. Now they hire wet behind the ears kids for the same salary I waited 10 years for. So cry me a river. And the majority of you have zero work ethic.

It all got paid, early. The cars, house, etc. etc. all came. I worked for it.

That same education (same school, degree) would cost $64,000 today. By the time you get out of school, depending on what you do, that will probably be the annual average salary for your major (or it could be if you don't choose latin and stick to science or engineering at a minimum).

Just like it was for the rest of us without silver-spoon filled mouths.

Borrowing $160K for school? You're crazy. $60K? Entirely doable.
I could have done it in my sleep working at a fast food joint if I had to, it just wouldn't be as comfortable as working in my field.

[Baldwin]

I don't know who started the rumor, but I am not going to major in latin. I'm just taking it as a high school language because I appreciate Roman history. I will choose a field of study that has the word marketable in the description.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')hings changed.

[I_Like_Plants]

Baldwin you're in a good city for "busking" which means being a street musician. If you can play the pipes, great. Funerals etc., go for it!

A friend of mine and I have been hitting a local farmer's market, not in it but next to it, he plays his viola and last weekend made very decent money in a couple of hours. Me, I'm realizing that things are crumbling too fast for me to become a competent violin player in the requisite time, so I'm falling back on something I have a lot of "depth" in, art. I drew a couple of people, OK my buddy (who gave me $5!) and some Indian guy's little kid, which earned me $4, so I was up $9 for the day lol. Better than the violin though, I set up a couple of weeks ago outside the big book store in Palo Alto and only got $1.25 lol! I'm new at drawing people now, was mostly doing landscapes/seascapes back in the day, but if I were a little bit better and hustling more, I'm sure I'd have made good money too.

I like the PRINTS HIS NAME IN ALL CAPS poster here's idea though, GED, and git out to the oil fields.

Pick something that will be needed - oil workers are going to be, in spades! Also medical, carpentry, all the basic stuff.

Are artists needed? Ha! - are they ever?? OK, there's tons of trashy art out there, but people really do respond to good art. Decent caricaturists make "bank". No school needed, you can go to art school, but not necessary. I have tried to convince myself all my adult life that art = useless but that's just not true. Art is needed for how-to books, signs, propaganda, education, etc. My idea of the artist = the Norman Rockwell painting of the Colonial US artist painting tavern signs and the odd landscape and portrait. That's about it and yes I've done a few signs.

The point is, college is not necessary, nice if you can swing it, but not necessary.

[cynicalheretic]

How does one get a job working in the oil field anymore and have a shot at that 80,000.00 per year? Hell I will sign up today, I have never been afraid of hard work.