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But that is not how it works. From the way she described it to me, she only has to pay a percentage of her income. Since she isn’t working right now, her payments are basically 0 and the government is going to be on the hook for funding part of her lifestyle (hundreds of thousands of $’s) over the past decade. If she gets married, plays housewife, and files separately, she will never have to pay anything. Interesting strategy. Have the government subsidize your single non-working Sex and the City life when you are in your 20’s and then marry into the money and leave the Chinese and federal treasury with the tab.
There are an awful lot of "what-if's" involved in that, way too many things that have to go right.
One; her parents have to put up with her. If they pass away, hope there are no siblings that are tired of her ish ready to sell the house.
Two: finding that husband, not always a sure thing
Three: Long term, if the above doesn't work out, she'll have to pay the piper eventually...
But that is not how it works. From the way she described it to me, she only has to pay a percentage of her income. Since she isn’t working right now, her payments are basically 0 and the government is going to be on the hook for funding part of her lifestyle (hundreds of thousands of $’s) over the past decade. If she gets married, plays housewife, and files separately, she will never have to pay anything. Interesting strategy. Have the government subsidize your single non-working Sex and the City life when you are in your 20’s and then marry into the money and leave the Chinese and federal treasury with the tab.
But that is not how it works. From the way she described it to me, she only has to pay a percentage of her income. Since she isn’t working right now, her payments are basically 0 and the government is going to be on the hook for funding part of her lifestyle (hundreds of thousands of $’s) over the past decade. If she gets married, plays housewife, and files separately, she will never have to pay anything. Interesting strategy. Have the government subsidize your single non-working Sex and the City life when you are in your 20’s and then marry into the money and leave the Chinese and federal treasury with the tab.
Um, no. Under current rules at least, at some point the government will come calling -- and it might be when they garnish her SS check (which has happened and frankly I didn't see a darn thing wrong with it). If she is in an "income contingent" repayment plan, some of her interest is simply being deferred -- it's not being canceled.
And I seriously doubt that it was "hundreds of thousands of dollars" unless she went to some diploma mill (and actually, how would you know, anyway? Do you and your friends sit around and talk about exactly how much debt you're in? ).
I haven't worked in 3 years and i don't care. I've been raising kids. I don't plan on working for another 4. I was on Gov assistance when working though because it just didn't pay enough.
For the record, the Sex and the City characters were all 30-somethings (or 40-something in the case of Kim Cattral's character) who had successful careers. Much of the show is about balancing their career lives with their personal lives.
They were well out of college.
The person described in the OP, by definition, does NOT live a "Sex and the City" lifestyle. While they would date rich men for the luxury, none of the characters in the show depended on men for their basic living costs. In fact there are episodes where they chose career over relationships and much is made over their maintinance of their careers. Someone without a career is not playing out SATC.
She lost her job in 2009 and lived off 2 years of unemployment. She lived at home and traveled a lot with that. After that, she earned two graduate degrees. She know has a lot of student debt, but she doesn’t pay much because she is on some sort of income contingent plan. She has benefited from free living with her parents and various boyfriends, but most of her income has come from the US government in the form of unemployment and government loans.
I think your post is somewhat of an exaggeration. No state has had unemployment benefits that lasted two years. The current max is 26 weeks and it has never been longer than 73 weeks in any state, and many states were a lot less. I can't imagine being able to afford much traveling on unemployment benefits, even for someone living at home without rent or a mortgage payment.
There are many people who continue to live with their parents for one reason or another. My wife has two cousins who never married and live with their widowed mothers. Both are nearing retirement age. The one is now the primary caregiver to his mother.
Anyone who is living off of loans and deferring payment will eventually have to pay their debt or not live long enough to pay it off. She was entitled to the unemployment benefits or she wouldn't have received them. The government loans are not income since they will have to be repaid. She chose to go to graduate school and I'm sure the loans did not cover much beyond her school expenses.
Are you jealous of her lifestyle?
Quote:
Originally Posted by ny789987
I am not passing value judgements here, this is an Economics forum. I am just noting that this whole individual’s lifestyle has been funded by Chinese debt over the past few years. Things will get interesting.
Chinese debt? Where did you come up with this? The government gavve her loans to go to graduate school. Millions of people borrow money for their education. Did she earn her degrees?
Quote:
Originally Posted by ny789987
But that is not how it works. From the way she described it to me, she only has to pay a percentage of her income. Since she isn’t working right now, her payments are basically 0 and the government is going to be on the hook for funding part of her lifestyle (hundreds of thousands of $’s) over the past decade. If she gets married, plays housewife, and files separately, she will never have to pay anything. Interesting strategy. Have the government subsidize your single non-working Sex and the City life when you are in your 20’s and then marry into the money and leave the Chinese and federal treasury with the tab.
Getting married will not make the loans go away. Bankruptcy will not make them go away. Even death does not necessarily make them go away.
I have a similar male friend (and a few acquaintances in similar situations).
He was working as a full time accountant for 12 years, and then was laid off in 2008 with a compensation package. He used the time right after getting laid off for travel and vacation. Nothing very fancy, and I understood why he was doing it. With a typical US position only offering 2-3 weeks of paid vacation, why not enjoy a thing or two that you won't be able to do once you're back at work.
Anyways, he also applied for unemployment. And then after that, an extension was offered for unemployment due to the downturn. He took that as well and did not seem to be looking too hard for a new position.
Long story short, I think he got so accustomed to the oceans of free time that he just couldn't get into the cadence of a 40 hour workweek again. He tried a few contracting positions over the last several years but has not been able to hold down anything.
I think this profile describes a whole class of Americans nowadays. We've made it relatively easy to get by without working much.
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).
Where did you come up with this? The government gavve her loans to go to graduate school. Millions of people borrow money for their education. Did she earn her degrees?
