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I was on the path to Physical Therapy school and was about to have a panic attack as I attempted to reconcile spending 20-35k/yr (for a 2.5 yr program) for tuition alone in a career dependent on third party payers (ie Medicare that is facing declining reimbursement).
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These are smart people in Washington. They knew exactly what they were doing.
It sounds like you found out that PT is not a good career choice with the current reimbursements. I hope you did some research and found one of the careers that is doing well and offers a strong future.
The government is doing exactly what people want. They are helping college students to borrow. They are not running the higher education system. They leave that to the States and to private colleges and universities. They are not picking and choosing career paths for students. They are not telling students how much to borrow. Just what is it that you want those smart people in Washington to do?
If you were born around 1940, you grew up and got married, and a SINGLE male breadwinner could support a family--even without a college education. And while taxes were attached to everything, they hadn't risen to the level of being a major part of your budget.
If you were born in around 1960, you grew up and got married, and it took TWO breadwinners to support a family at the same level. But you didn't quite have the standard of living of your parents: you had to pay a ton of income to taxes (since two wage-earners in a family defines you as "rich" by IRS). And you both had to pay for the college education that got you to the job starting line (like a free high school education did for your parents). Then you both worked at least 50% more hours than your parents did at their full time jobs--after all, employers now have all the power, just like labor did in your parent's day.
No matter how many years you worked for the same prosperous corporation, neither of you got the pensions your parents had to retire on. No, retirement savings were now YOUR problem--except that anything you saved for retirement did NOT get the "magic of compound interest" that was supposed to offset the loss of pensions (Big Government over-spending and borrowing means Zero Interest rates arrived just when you started to save, and must continue until long after you die).
You can always find misleading statistics that make it look like we still have a prosperous Middle Class and thriving working class, but anyone with half a brain can look at those statistics and tell you how they are misleading the reader. But there are a thousand articles revealing the decline of the Middle and working classes over the past 50 years, and especially in the 2008 collapse--a decline that has done nothing but accelerate since Obama was elected.
"The middle class in America is declining and no longer constitutes a majority under President Barack Obama...the share of American adults living in middle-income households has fallen from 61% in 1971 to 50% in 2015...the hollowing of the American middle class has proceeded steadily for more than four decades...But the Great Recession and the housing crash especially hurt middle-income Americans..." Pew Study: Middle Class Declining, No Longer Majority - Breitbart
"In order to afford a typical new house and new car, a working stiff today would have to put in about twice as much time on the job as he would have 40 years ago." The Decline and Fall of America
The real median hourly wage for white men with no more than a high school diploma declined from $19.76 in 1979 to $17.50 in 2014...The white working class’s loss of jobs and incomes was spurred by its loss of power: the nearly complete deunionization of the private sector left those workers with no way to bargain for better pensions or pay. The doctrine of maximizing shareholder value, which corporations began to adopt in the ’80s, most commonly meant minimizing worker pay and benefits, hiring from temp agencies and eliminating programs to increase employee skills." https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...839_story.html
To be fair, it is the younger crowd crying about how hard they have it unlike the Boomers who had it so easy. Peruse the negative posts here.
Hrmm. I agree with your statement that the younger crowd is saying it is harder to find work, or they have to work harder or things in that nature, but I would say it's the older crowd that is saying the USA is going to hell and the Middle Class is done for.
Millennials are consistently optimistic in all generational studies.
There we go, we have another scapegoat in the form of the government. Yup, "they" have done it to the students. They did what everyone wanted; i.e., the government helped make loans available. As part of the deal, they made it difficult to escape paying off those loans. Otherwise, someone could borrow, declare bankruptcy and leave the taxpayer with the cost.
College education is a core government industry, a collaboration between local, state, and federal. Every high school counselor is selling college to every student. Every teacher is selling college, from elementary school upwards. At every level of government, the sales message is consistent: Anything other than college is a booby prize. Government economic policies run the same way: Schools that want more funding must push more students into college.
When hundreds of thousands of middle-aged adults lost jobs in the latter 2000s, what was there response of government to the specific problem of thousands of middle-aged adults losing their jobs? Special adult vocational training programs? No! More college for teenagers!
Quote:
As a compromise many politicians are pushing to see the student loans refinanced at low rates. Wow. Students borrowed when the rates were high and now the taxpayer is again going to make up the difference.
The government doesn't need to charge commercial levels of interest to break even--and it should not aim to do better than break even.
In addition to starting this thread, I am one of the old geezers.
I have very mixed feelings.
First I know that in spite of the "real" income charts, we have see huge increases in middle class standards of living over the past several decades. I think the notion that "real" salaries are sliding is just statistical nonsense.
Second, with low unemployment, low interest rates and a recently booming stock market, these have been the best of times. It has never been easier to find a good job and succeed in a career and to buy a house or a car at low interest rates.
Unfortunately this forum has stifled some of my optimism. There are countless young people posting about how hard life is, how bad the economy is, the loss of manufacturing jobs and all sorts of other complaints. These are typically accompanied by a list of theories about conspiracies, scapegoats, oligarchs, and on and on. We even have a huge long running thread warning that the world is about to be taken over by AI robots. No one asks about jobs and careers that currently are very positive. Or areas of the country that are affordable and booming. Instead it is a litany of complaints. Any suggestions about how to make improvements are viewed as some sort of personal attack. This forum seems to attract a huge number of people I can only call losers. They are losers because they sink into defeat and will not take responsibility to make the changes needed to succeed in life.
Next, I see further declines coming for the reasons I mentioned. We seem to have a high percentage of young people who learn next to nothing in high school. When and if they go to college they don't seem to learn much more. Whether it is after high school or after college, they eventually enter the workforce and have no clue. They don't seem to have much in the way of skills, no idea of how to find jobs and work towards establishing a career. They seem to have a poor work ethic and are not interested in changing.
Lots of young people are going to succeed. They work hard, do what it takes to succeed. Instead of pointing the finger at how bad business and bosses are, the winners will become the next generation of bosses and will be the ones starting the new businesses.
Sadly, based on things like educational attainment surveys, the losers greatly outnumber the winners. Maybe that is the way it has always been.
College education is a core government industry, a collaboration between local, state, and federal. Every high school counselor is selling college to every student. Every teacher is selling college, from elementary school upwards. At every level of government, the sales message is consistent: Anything other than college is a booby prize. Government economic policies run the same way: Schools that want more funding must push more students into college.
When hundreds of thousands of middle-aged adults lost jobs in the latter 2000s, what was there response of government to the specific problem of thousands of middle-aged adults losing their jobs? Special adult vocational training programs? No! More college for teenagers!
The government doesn't need to charge commercial levels of interest to break even--and it should not aim to do better than break even.
How many scapegoats can we name:
Local, State and Federal governments
High school counselors
Every teacher
The government
The government
The government
Apparently you cannot see the value of a college education, the huge potential return on investment, or the opportunities that knowledge can bring. Enjoy your ignorance.
If you were born around 1940, you grew up and got married, and a SINGLE male breadwinner could support a family--even without a college education. And while taxes were attached to everything, they hadn't risen to the level of being a major part of your budget.
If you were born in around 1960, you grew up and got married, and it took TWO breadwinners to support a family at the same level. But you didn't quite have the standard of living of your parents: you had to pay a ton of income to taxes (since two wage-earners in a family defines you as "rich" by IRS). And you both had to pay for the college education that got you to the job starting line (like a free high school education did for your parents). Then you both worked at least 50% more hours than your parents did at their full time jobs--after all, employers now have all the power, just like labor did in your parent's day.
No matter how many years you worked for the same prosperous corporation, neither of you got the pensions your parents had to retire on. No, retirement savings were now YOUR problem--except that anything you saved for retirement did NOT get the "magic of compound interest" that was supposed to offset the loss of pensions (Big Government over-spending and borrowing means Zero Interest rates arrived just when you started to save, and must continue until long after you die).
"In order to afford a typical new house and new car, a working stiff today would have to put in about twice as much time on the job as he would have 40 years ago." The Decline and Fall of America
The real median hourly wage for white men with no more than a high school diploma declined from $19.76 in 1979 to $17.50 in 2014...The white working class’s loss of jobs and incomes was spurred by its loss of power: the nearly complete deunionization of the private sector left those workers with no way to bargain for better pensions or pay. The doctrine of maximizing shareholder value, which corporations began to adopt in the ’80s, most commonly meant minimizing worker pay and benefits, hiring from temp agencies and eliminating programs to increase employee skills." https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...839_story.html
Some good points here. I would say that people born in 1960 had many options to get an affordable college education, where you could afford to pay for tuition and room and board working low wage young people jobs (servers, cashiers, etc.). It is the people born in 1980 and after who had to bare the brunt of crazy tuition hikes. When I started university in 1990, a semester's tuition and fees were ~$700 for in state students - very easy to afford. Now that same school has an annual price tag of $25k for in state students and is considered a bargain.
Re: the new house and car comparison, that house is typically 50% to 100% larger than the one the 1940 born person bought as a starter home in 1960 and that car will last much longer than the model in 1960, go much faster, use less fuel and offer tremendous safety advantages over the 1960 model. Also, buying a significantly depreciated 5 yr old current model may cost less than the 1960 model while still being more reliable, etc.
Going forward you will just have the HAVES and the HAVE NOTS. The people who HAVE resources, networks, and financial stability..........and those that don't. Going forward, even having a decent career/job position is going to be considered somewhat of a luxury. Having a decent benefits package is going to be considered somewhat of a luxury.
The job and economic market structure in this country has changed. Blame:
- Technology automation
- Globalization
- Croony Capitalism and The Global NWO (including the Global Central Bankers, Big Businesses, Big Media, and Big Government)
Listen, we are screwed. The ONLY solution to this is for you to try and get your way into the HAVE pile, which is going to involve yourself becoming somewhat of a supporter (indirectly or directly) of the Global NWO system that we have developed. This means:
- Majoring in IT/Computers/Engineering to make the products that are being sold
- Majoring in major healthcare specializations like dentistry or becoming a doctor, or working in some sort of way to make the drugs and devices that these healthcare professionals (including hospitals) use
- Getting into high positions in banking and finance, to have major influence on either money management, or investments, or capital circulation
- Getting into a high political position
These are going to be the people that will be in the HAVE pile going forward. Everybody else is going to be suffering with a lack of resources due to massive inflation, cost of living going up, passive investment vehicles having been destroyed by Central Bankers, technology and globalization having TAKEN away a lot of jobs that were there/paid well in prior years, etc., etc., etc.
These are going to be the people that will be in the HAVE pile going forward. Everybody else is going to be suffering with a lack of resources due to massive inflation, cost of living going up, passive investment vehicles having been destroyed by Central Bankers, technology and globalization having TAKEN away a lot of jobs that were there/paid well in prior years, etc., etc., etc.
Or do like everyone else in the world and throughout time. Work, save, invest. You don't need to be a high level doctor,lawyer,banker, etc. I have seen enough of them living paycheck to paycheck like the rest of the population.
What? You think living paycheck to paycheck while sleeping in a softer bed is what defines a comfortable life? All these "comforts" distract them from their jobs. No different than drugs and alcohol do for "working" people.
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