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Old 03-24-2014, 07:35 AM
 
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
1,106 posts, read 1,156,813 times
Reputation: 3070

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Quote:
Originally Posted by zip95 View Post
"most stupid" is clunky as heck, but I don't actually care... I was just amused by the irony
How is it irony if both are correct? I assumed you were making a joke.
The only thing worse than correcting grammar on the internet is incorrectly correcting grammar on the internet...
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Old 03-24-2014, 10:50 AM
 
Location: roaming about Allegheny City
654 posts, read 941,040 times
Reputation: 655
Quote:
Originally Posted by zman63 View Post
Why cant this be a good place for high school grads or those that just go to a trade school? Cant we have a diverse local economy where there is something for everybody?

This also makes sense because we are not diverse either. Latino immigrants do not have a college education. The living conditions and economic opportunity for african americans is one of the worst in the country. Not to mention the pay gap between men and women in pittsburgh.

So there are more people living here with college degrees now than in the year 2000. Nevermind our county ( minus 60,000) and city ( minus 29,000) have less people living here now than in 2000.

People without degrees work, pay taxes and have families just like the rest of us who have a degree.
In 2014, no place in America is a good place economically for those who possess only a high school diploma. Trade school is always a good option for those who are cut out for that sort of work.

Don't generalize and say Latinos don't have a college education, because plenty of them do. Also, things have significantly improved for African Americans in Pittsburgh. A myriad of opportunities exist today that have never before existed. Society is quite egalitarian, at least in the Northeast.

My concern is one related to the debt associated with an advanced education. If a student pursues an advanced education and either doesn't have parents who pay for it or doesn't earn scholarships or receive some form of financial aid, then that student is left with only one option to fund the education: loans. With the cost of education being so exponentially high (and ever increasing), it's not surprising that many students, upon graduation, are left with $100,000 or more in loans to repay. Unless the individual has a very marketable degree (i.e., a graduate or professional degree in medicine, healthcare, law, engineering, computing, accounting, or finance) that will enable him or her to earn a very handsome living, that student loan debt, along with credit card debt and car payments and all of the other expenses necessary for living, will preclude him from purchasing a home in Pittsburgh, despite the affordability of housing here. That's my hypothesis, and the reasoning behind why I believe that the rate of homeownership may decrease, even if only slightly.
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Old 03-24-2014, 11:08 AM
 
Location: Washington County, PA
4,240 posts, read 4,889,657 times
Reputation: 2859
Quote:
Originally Posted by zman63 View Post
Why cant this be a good place for high school grads or those that just go to a trade school? Cant we have a diverse local economy where there is something for everybody?

This also makes sense because we are not diverse either. Latino immigrants do not have a college education. The living conditions and economic opportunity for african americans is one of the worst in the country. Not to mention the pay gap between men and women in pittsburgh.

So there are more people living here with college degrees now than in the year 2000. Nevermind our county ( minus 60,000) and city ( minus 29,000) have less people living here now than in 2000.

People without degrees work, pay taxes and have families just like the rest of us who have a degree.
That is incredibly stereotypical and racist. Before you keeping telling us to change, maybe its time you look inward.
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Old 03-24-2014, 11:28 AM
 
Location: Manchester
3,109 posts, read 2,897,302 times
Reputation: 3718
I have a graduate degree and own a home. My debt on my student loans is about 10k less than what I owe on my house. My monthly student loan payment is 1.5x that of my mortgage payment. It's not an ideal situation to find oneself in, but not sure what I can do about it. My only real option would be to sell my house, which is now worth approximately 40k more than I bought it for, and use that cash to pay down my student loan debt. If my home value ever reaches enough to pay off the student loan debt, I would consider it. I would have to start from scratch in the home ownership dept but it may be worth it.

If you buy an affordable house you can make it work, however I do not have cable tv and drive a 7 year old car, so there is always something that needs to give.
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Old 03-24-2014, 11:31 AM
 
Location: ɥbɹnqsʇʇıd
4,599 posts, read 6,691,417 times
Reputation: 3521
You have to wonder what will happen to the region over time when such a huge number of people have massive student loan debt.

I know, ithappenseverywherezomgroflburgerwtfbbq. But right now I'm seeing my peers entering their 30's and they have barely chewed down 1/4th of their student loan debt. What's going to happen over time? It's really an uncertain period for the United States and apparently for Pittsburgh too.
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Old 03-24-2014, 11:34 AM
 
Location: North by Northwest
9,316 posts, read 12,920,013 times
Reputation: 6163
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl View Post
You have to wonder what will happen to the region over time when such a huge number of people have massive student loan debt.

I know, ithappenseverywherezomgroflburgerwtfbbq. But right now I'm seeing my peers entering their 30's and they have barely chewed down 1/4th of their student loan debt. What's going to happen over time? It's really an uncertain period for the United States and apparently for Pittsburgh too.
That's certainly the million dollar question.
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Old 03-24-2014, 11:39 AM
 
1,051 posts, read 2,603,310 times
Reputation: 638
Quote:
Originally Posted by charisb View Post
How is it irony if both are correct? I assumed you were making a joke.
The only thing worse than correcting grammar on the internet is incorrectly correcting grammar on the internet...
"Most stupid" is not correct... Copa Misread the post

Also, I have never in my life corrected grammar on the Internet until I saw a thread about educational attainment where a poster says the "most stupid people are the one with a degree"

I guess I'm the only one who finds that hilarious... I'm lol right now :-)
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Old 03-24-2014, 11:42 AM
 
Location: Manchester
3,109 posts, read 2,897,302 times
Reputation: 3718
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl View Post
You have to wonder what will happen to the region over time when such a huge number of people have massive student loan debt.

I know, ithappenseverywherezomgroflburgerwtfbbq. But right now I'm seeing my peers entering their 30's and they have barely chewed down 1/4th of their student loan debt. What's going to happen over time? It's really an uncertain period for the United States and apparently for Pittsburgh too.
Maybe it will lower the cable viewership rates and increase the public transportation rates in the area.

It has for me.
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Old 03-24-2014, 11:50 AM
 
Location: roaming about Allegheny City
654 posts, read 941,040 times
Reputation: 655
We're a culture of debt and unnecessary consumption, and a people who can't, or won't, distinguish a need from a want, Pittsburghers included. Perhaps the student loan debt crisis will help us identify our true priorities.
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Old 03-24-2014, 12:43 PM
 
Location: Marshall-Shadeland, Pittsburgh, PA
32,606 posts, read 77,315,783 times
Reputation: 19072
Quote:
Originally Posted by The King of Um View Post
We're a culture of debt and unnecessary consumption, and a people who can't, or won't, distinguish a need from a want, Pittsburghers included. Perhaps the student loan debt crisis will help us identify our true priorities.
With that being said I don't want to ONLY see people pursuing degrees that will result in above-average salaries. Conventional wisdom says that one should only study engineering, medicine, science, accounting, finance, etc. because these science/technology/education/mathematics (STEM) degrees (plus legal degrees, of course) have the best chance of affording a graduate the opportunity to rapidly pay down student-related debt and enjoy a comfortable standard of living. Imagine how mindless, boring, and sterile our country would be, though, if we didn't have brilliant "thinking outside of the box" eccentric types to enrich us with their expertise in the humanities and the arts. If everyone was a surgeon, nuclear physicist, CPA, brokerage firm executive, etc. then who would provide these "analytical" types with the opportunity for creative enrichment, enjoyment, and recreation on their off-hours?

I'm not saying we need students to pursue a Master's Degree in Taiwanese Fairy Tales. I AM saying we need to stop calling people foolish for pursuing the arts, history, design, etc. in general, accumulating the same amount of debt as their "STEM" counterparts, and then being unfairly disadvantaged throughout life as student loan debt burdens them for a longer period of time. I believe institutions of higher learning should analyze the average earnings potential for graduates of certain programs and charge tuition based upon a sliding scale. It SHOULD cost more to study software engineering than to study European History if the former has an average graduate earning a $90,000 salary after five years as they work for Google while the latter has the average graduate earning a $35,000 salary after five years as they work for the Carnegie Museums. If it cost $25,000/year for each graduate to pursue their Bachelor's Degrees, then obviously the engineer will have to struggle less and be able to pay down their loans more rapidly than the docent or historical cataloguer or researcher.

A prime example as to why we need more than just STEM people around would be how the city now has to have a beautiful portrait restored by the Carnegie Museum staff after it was damaged during the Ravenstahl "bro-a-thon" administration. The experts who will patch it up and make it "good as new" are probably paid less than the STEM types, but without them we'd have lost a treasured artifact.

I'm an advocate of people pursuing their own dreams---not conforming to what society (or the know-it-alls here on City-Data) tell them their dreams should be.

Last edited by SteelCityRising; 03-24-2014 at 12:57 PM..
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