You Paid For College How ?
- Thread starter jerseyshorejohnny
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Class of 72
Active member
Lighten up Joe! If you do not see some of us are just pulling your chain, you must not be a regular! it is summer and some of us old gasbags need to let out some gas. Much of what we say is true, as you know. In Mahattan I have met many kids your age (I assume you are around 23-24) who have 1 or 2 roommates to pay the rent, who do not own a car and who eat a lot of pizza and chinese takeout. Eveyone picks the lifestyle they want to lead as a young adult. Most of us worked while in college and many of us relied on the GI Bill for our graduate degree. Ever think of joining the Air Force for 3 years? LOL!
I referrenced some ethnic groups in my posts not to poke fun at them but to highlight those that seem to be making bigger sacrifices than some native born who are 3rd or 4th generation rather than immigrant or first generation college students as some of us were "back in the day".
These are some of the toughest days since the great depression and some of us have lost a half million in our investments because of bankers gone wild. However, unlike those days of the great depression, we have the fattest generation in history, where a $100 per month cell phone bill is considered a necessity, where unemployed twenty-somethings take a vacation, where leasing a new car is mandatory instead of taking a bus or train, where one tat is not enough and 6 are too few, etc.
Relax! Why? Because as you can see from my examples, Americans (and the rest of the world is catching up) are habitual spenders because they do not want to miss out on any little luxuries that have become status symbols. I, for one, do not think there is anything wrong with living at home while you are in school as I am sure you make up for it with mowing the lawn and shoveling the snow, doing your own laundry, etc. Then again, maybe your parents love you enough that even if you were 34, they would love your company.
Whatever your situation, it will somehow work out in the end Joe.
You will know you are getting closer to success once your graduate from listening to Drake and Lil Wayne to Mozart and Bach. LOL!
Class of 72
Active member
Joe3 does not impress me as the white trash trailer type! That is about what you get in the south for $300. As for $1000, that will not even get you a 300sf studio in Washington Heights in NYC. This is where I empathize with Joe if he needs to live with his folks.
What is sad about what has been happening in America is that we have exported almost all out production overseas to the extend that some 70% of an American made product's components are made outside of the US. While Japanese auto makers like Subaru and Toyota are building plants in the US, US autos are being manufactured in Mexico.
Whether one lives in the NE or the SW, our global companies are fleecing citizens like never before, where greedy banks are charging unheard of fees while paying you close to 0% interest while paying obscene executive bonuses. MJ brought up a great example with cable television fees. There is no reason cable fees should have increased 1000% from the time they strung their last cable lines. Adding 90 useless community channels and 40 unwatchable other channels has given them carte Blanche to keep increasing rates just as poor Joe has complained that everything is too damn expensive today because everyone has gotten so damn greedy and self indulgent.
Something has got to give.
I'm not complaining about my situation specifically...I have a plan and am in good position. Once I graduate and get my degree I will get a job that guarantees a good salary allowing me to pay off my loans. What I have a problem with is the fact that so many older men seem to think that it's personally our fault that we are in the position we are today. As you said, these are the hardest times since the great depression...so how is that my generation's fault? It's your generation that is clogging all the jobs and pension up...it's the 60 year old workers making $130k/ year laying back who can retire at any point but choose not to blocking a young person eager to make $40k. That's not to blame your generation for what happened but baby boomers take up so many resources just through the sheer number of people.
I'm all for personal responsibility, but the fact is that it just isn't possible for most people my age to go get their own place yet. You actually think we want to live at home? What guy would want to do that? It's courtship suicide. We want our own mancaves to lure women into...am I right? I understand some people are just stupid with money. I have a friend who took out loans to buy a new car while he still had a ton of student loans...he is now $200k in debt. The fact is that you can't live this day in age on $15/hour when it costs $50 bucks to fill up a 4 cylinder Honda Civic or over $1,000/month without utilities to rent. Cell phones are essential these days even with the bells and whistles...Professors and students need to be in contact with each other thus email is a necessity for many on a phone now. No one has time to check at home anymore when everyone is running around. The internet on phones lets you read the news, check addresses and phone numbers, reviews of places, etc. These are not useless features.
Let me conclude by saying this...it's not that your generation had it "easy"...it's that ours has it much harder right now. The way it was for you guys is how it should be for us. You graduate, you get a good job, pay loans off, get your own place and start your own life and family. You have to at the very least admit that the cost of living now is much much higher than when you were in your 20's.
I'm all for personal responsibility, but the fact is that it just isn't possible for most people my age to go get their own place yet. You actually think we want to live at home? What guy would want to do that? It's courtship suicide. We want our own mancaves to lure women into...am I right? I understand some people are just stupid with money. I have a friend who took out loans to buy a new car while he still had a ton of student loans...he is now $200k in debt. The fact is that you can't live this day in age on $15/hour when it costs $50 bucks to fill up a 4 cylinder Honda Civic or over $1,000/month without utilities to rent. Cell phones are essential these days even with the bells and whistles...Professors and students need to be in contact with each other thus email is a necessity for many on a phone now. No one has time to check at home anymore when everyone is running around. The internet on phones lets you read the news, check addresses and phone numbers, reviews of places, etc. These are not useless features.
Let me conclude by saying this...it's not that your generation had it "easy"...it's that ours has it much harder right now. The way it was for you guys is how it should be for us. You graduate, you get a good job, pay loans off, get your own place and start your own life and family. You have to at the very least admit that the cost of living now is much much higher than when you were in your 20's.
Also, I love how someone suggested that I just pack up and move to the SE and find a place for $300/ month. Where would that be...Dade County in Florida where my neighbors would likely be crack dealers? Actually, most people my age can't even afford to live next to crack dealers these days. Talk about a sign of the times.
Even if there was a good place in a safe area for $300/month in the SE...you act as if uprooting everything I've known in NY along with being cut off from my entire family with my mother as a widow is as easy as 1,2,3. The south pays less, alienates me from my family and friends, etc. When you are acting as if it's normal to pack up and move to another part of the country at 23, you know times are tough. That's the problem...young people are being forced away from their native areas. Back in the day you could afford it. You should not be priced out of your own home.
Even if there was a good place in a safe area for $300/month in the SE...you act as if uprooting everything I've known in NY along with being cut off from my entire family with my mother as a widow is as easy as 1,2,3. The south pays less, alienates me from my family and friends, etc. When you are acting as if it's normal to pack up and move to another part of the country at 23, you know times are tough. That's the problem...young people are being forced away from their native areas. Back in the day you could afford it. You should not be priced out of your own home.
No doubt as a member of the most educated generation in history you've read a Modest Proposal, which saves me the trouble of spoofing it by suggesting that you kill off all the old people who are making your life so difficult by clogging up your career path and sucking up all the pension funds and taking up all those resources. But I will agree that you deserve what they have and that they should probably all just die already or move to Florida or something and clear the way for a young go getter like yourself and by go getter I mean someone who thinks that what he thinks he's entitled to should be handed to him on a silver platter. Except as a great philosopher once said: you can't have that but, a baby's arm holding an apple.
Anyway, you know what's weird about those old people? Besides the way they smell I mean. They're the ones who set the standards for the life you think you deserve - that is, they're the first generation that graduated from college, got a good job, started a family, and had careers, and they managed it all without necessities like cell phones and mancaves to lure women to. Some of them did it after having to pack up and move away from their friends, to southeast ... Asia.
I see. OTOH, there's absolutely positively no way you could afford to live on $15 per hour. And OTO, you'd be "eager" to work for 40K a year - which is $19 an hour. Now, I might not have several PhDs in Quantum Physics, which is no doubt a necessity for calculi like this, but it seems to me that a difference of $4 an hour works out to about a buck fifty a week. If I were a member of the most educated generation in history I might be smart enough to wonder why anyone would spend $200,000 on an education that earned them less a week than I spend on scotch more than a salary that it was impossible to live on.
So to recap: you have no choice but to live at home so that you can afford a cell phone with the internet, because you need to be able to read "reviews of places," which is a necessity because when you go out to eat you don't want to be spending your hard earned guaranteed student loan money on second rate sushi. Because eating is a necessity, so you have no choice but to go to restaurants - I mean, where else does one get food? And to get to restaurants you need a car, and it should have air conditioning, which is a necessity in the summer, as well as a DVR, in case you want to download a movie, which is a necessity if you're stuck in traffic, which you often are because you're so busy going to places to review.
Give a man a petard and you hoist him for a day. Give a boy enough rope and and you hoist him for a lifetime:
"You speak a lot about what ... "should" be. You are too theoretical and not grounded enough. In THEORY you break the law every time you surpass 55 MPH on the LIE, but in REALITY you usually don't get a ticket. In THEORY our government is supposed to be looking out for us, but in REALITY they are oozing with corruption and only concerned about personal gain. In THEORY someone going to college would have at least a decent idea of what they want to do in terms of a career but in REALITY most don't know for a while. "
Waaaa :sob: Waaaa :sob: Waaa :sob: I can't afford an apartment. or my cell phone, or my cool car and I can’t get a corner office starting at 85k getting out of school, they want me to work in a cubical. You had it soo easy when you were in college starting out. Get over it. You are not entitled to anything, get out and find something in the field you want to work in and pay your dues. If you work hard ( and it may be 20 hours a day) and learn whatever you can in the real world, you progress up the ladder and and start making what you think you deserve now. Change jobs a few few times to get some boost. You have the ability to make yourself very successful but no one is handing anything to you unless your dad already owns or runs a company.
I lived with my mom and dad through college, this is nothing new. I also worked one or 2 full time jobs after hours to pay for it. I worked as a caddy, stuffed credit card bills for master card and visa, entry level computer room stuff, anything I could do to get some cash. I drove a shitty car and paid for my own insurance. Yea life was not a party but you can get it done. When I got my first apartment it was in a 200 year old house in college point that could have been a slum. Yea it did not cost a lot but considering my first job out of college as 16,800 it all is in perspective.
As for having the right to live in NY get over it. There are a lot of great places in this country that the cost of living is a 3rd of what it is in NY and there are actually jobs. Houston, Dallas, Austin, Tampa bay, Charlotte, Atlanta, Greenville are just a few destinations. I moved to Hilton head because I got sick of NY. My real estate taxes are 1300 instead of 13k, My electric bill is 1/4 of what it was and car insurance with a 250 deductible is 800 for the year. If you choose to stay in NY it’s your choice not anyone elses, don't cry about the cost of living, it won’t correct itself until a lot more people and business leave to correct property values and equalize prices and taxes.
Yes, companies are greedy, they have always been. Politicians suck, they always have. NY has been corrupt back to the 1800 hundreds that has not changed. What has also not changed is this country provides opportunity for those who work hard and make sacrifices. It not a guarantee it is an opportunity. People complain about immigrant guys owning dunk in donuts or limos then going to buy houses for cash. What they don’t see is them working 20 hours a day and sleeping on the sack of flower in the back. They did not expect anything from anyone else they took their chance.
You have a responsibility to yourself to assess your own situation. Where you live, what you choose to do. The industry is crying for accountants right now. CPA's make decent money. They just said that there will be a shortage of Dr.s by 2020. The medical field is booming around much of the country. Empower Yourself!
I lived with my mom and dad through college, this is nothing new. I also worked one or 2 full time jobs after hours to pay for it. I worked as a caddy, stuffed credit card bills for master card and visa, entry level computer room stuff, anything I could do to get some cash. I drove a shitty car and paid for my own insurance. Yea life was not a party but you can get it done. When I got my first apartment it was in a 200 year old house in college point that could have been a slum. Yea it did not cost a lot but considering my first job out of college as 16,800 it all is in perspective.
As for having the right to live in NY get over it. There are a lot of great places in this country that the cost of living is a 3rd of what it is in NY and there are actually jobs. Houston, Dallas, Austin, Tampa bay, Charlotte, Atlanta, Greenville are just a few destinations. I moved to Hilton head because I got sick of NY. My real estate taxes are 1300 instead of 13k, My electric bill is 1/4 of what it was and car insurance with a 250 deductible is 800 for the year. If you choose to stay in NY it’s your choice not anyone elses, don't cry about the cost of living, it won’t correct itself until a lot more people and business leave to correct property values and equalize prices and taxes.
Yes, companies are greedy, they have always been. Politicians suck, they always have. NY has been corrupt back to the 1800 hundreds that has not changed. What has also not changed is this country provides opportunity for those who work hard and make sacrifices. It not a guarantee it is an opportunity. People complain about immigrant guys owning dunk in donuts or limos then going to buy houses for cash. What they don’t see is them working 20 hours a day and sleeping on the sack of flower in the back. They did not expect anything from anyone else they took their chance.
You have a responsibility to yourself to assess your own situation. Where you live, what you choose to do. The industry is crying for accountants right now. CPA's make decent money. They just said that there will be a shortage of Dr.s by 2020. The medical field is booming around much of the country. Empower Yourself!
As a 24 year old who knows how hard it is to find a job, I must say some comments from the older group are way off base. It's wrong and kind of dickish to just play the "you have to sacrifice and want it more" card. My grandfather came to America with the education of a 4th grader and ended up retiring with millions in the bank. My father was an educated immigrant who also is very successful in his field. I would never slight them for how hard they worked to get to where they are, but quite frankly the opportunities aren't out there for this generation like they were for theirs. Luckily I found employment recently but Joe, getting a job(not some shit job these guys are referring to because you need to "sacrifice") is all about who you know. Having connections to get your foot in the door. That's how it's done these days, ask anybody.
Class of 72
Active member
Joe3 wrote:
it's the 60 year old workers making $130k/ year laying back who can retire at any point but choose not to blocking a young person eager to make $40k.
Unfortunately, some of those 60 year olds have 24 year kids in graduate school that they took second mortgages to pay for. Add to that a government that does not want to have 60+ retire until they are 70 for social security benefits...they want folks to be closer to death before paying them. Companies reorganizing to schedule workers less than 35 hours so they can classify them as "part-time" and deny all benefits, and what we have in the making is a catch-22 for all citizens.
What is scary is a whole new generation of undereducated youth dropping out of high school with no technical skills that will suck this country dry and 50 somethings that will have no pensions, a reduced social security and outlandish medical bills whose parents in the 50's and 60's had it better.
it's the 60 year old workers making $130k/ year laying back who can retire at any point but choose not to blocking a young person eager to make $40k.
Unfortunately, some of those 60 year olds have 24 year kids in graduate school that they took second mortgages to pay for. Add to that a government that does not want to have 60+ retire until they are 70 for social security benefits...they want folks to be closer to death before paying them. Companies reorganizing to schedule workers less than 35 hours so they can classify them as "part-time" and deny all benefits, and what we have in the making is a catch-22 for all citizens.
What is scary is a whole new generation of undereducated youth dropping out of high school with no technical skills that will suck this country dry and 50 somethings that will have no pensions, a reduced social security and outlandish medical bills whose parents in the 50's and 60's had it better.
Not sure about your experience, Sirvoo, but in my experience, making and maintaining good connections is hard work. Also, once your "foot is in the door", it can be just as hard or harder getting through the door, and once you're through the door, in this environment, you need to fight like hell to stay inside, because there is always a crowd of hungry folks looking to take your spot. My point is, having just turned 40 myself with a family to support, these times are tough for everyone, not just for folks trying to crack the job market. And I'm sure my grandparents, who lived through the Great Depression, would laugh at us for thinking times are tough today relative to their experience.
I don't know if this in reference to my posts but I'm more playing the stop blubbering card, the the world doesn't owe you anything card, and the no kidding life's not fair card. I don't care who lives with their parents or for how long. What chafes my asimuth is the I don't have any choice card because the otherwise I wouldn't be able to afford my I-phone card.
This is what comes from a childhood spent playing tetherball where no one keeps score and and afterwards everyone gets a trophy. You (the royal you) seem to think that if you merely abide by certain rules you are entitled to certain rewards. Whereas there aren't any rules and about the best you can hope for is to die in your sleep.
Do you realize that you just wrote that growing up in the United States in the 21st century as the grandson of a multimillionaire you had fewer opportunities than did some penniless illiterate immigrant from 60 years ago? Is that sarcasm that I'm not getting? If so, well played. If not, perhaps you should haved moved to Botswanna or some place where you don't speak the language and you could have that same chance for success.
"Waaaa Waaaa Waaa I can't afford an apartment. or my cell phone, or my cool car and I can’t get a corner office starting at 85k getting out of school, they want me to work in a cubical. You had it soo easy when you were in college starting out. Get over it. You are not entitled to anything, get out and find something in the field you want to work in and pay your dues."
Really? You guys are acting like I'm trying to live above my means like I'm a rockstar or something. My father passed 10 years ago and his healthcare went with it. I grew up in a 100 yr old house in a 10x10 cube for a room with nothing fancy in it except some baseball cards. I drive a Honda Civic...I am not talking like I deserve a Ferrari and Beverly Hills living. The fact is that you can't even get the basics anymore for a reasonable price. If you cannot see that the quality of life for my generation is much lower through no fault of our own, then you are blind. Why do you think older people say "back in my day things were better"? BECAUSE THEY WERE!
Here's a good analogy: you walk into a room and it is totally messy and looks like a hurricane hit it...someone walks over and begins blaming you for the condition of it. How is that fair? Not everything is in your control...you are born into certain economic periods. Do you blame people who lived through the great depression for how hard life was? This is the worst since then. You older folks are coming off as extremely arrogant and ignorant. In terms of my generation being the most educated, the definition I was using was having better degrees more frequently. That is a fact. If you think the education system is a joke, well that isn't our fault. It's people your age who run that. This country is in economic crisis and you guys claim it's just laziness. Pure ignorance. Look around you at skyrocketing prices and how much debt is forced on us.
Really? You guys are acting like I'm trying to live above my means like I'm a rockstar or something. My father passed 10 years ago and his healthcare went with it. I grew up in a 100 yr old house in a 10x10 cube for a room with nothing fancy in it except some baseball cards. I drive a Honda Civic...I am not talking like I deserve a Ferrari and Beverly Hills living. The fact is that you can't even get the basics anymore for a reasonable price. If you cannot see that the quality of life for my generation is much lower through no fault of our own, then you are blind. Why do you think older people say "back in my day things were better"? BECAUSE THEY WERE!
Here's a good analogy: you walk into a room and it is totally messy and looks like a hurricane hit it...someone walks over and begins blaming you for the condition of it. How is that fair? Not everything is in your control...you are born into certain economic periods. Do you blame people who lived through the great depression for how hard life was? This is the worst since then. You older folks are coming off as extremely arrogant and ignorant. In terms of my generation being the most educated, the definition I was using was having better degrees more frequently. That is a fact. If you think the education system is a joke, well that isn't our fault. It's people your age who run that. This country is in economic crisis and you guys claim it's just laziness. Pure ignorance. Look around you at skyrocketing prices and how much debt is forced on us.
Right? Funny how they talk so much about sacrifice, yet most of them grew up, rolled out of bed and had a job waiting for them just like their morning breakfast. There was some ridiculous stat claiming approximately 50% of young people are working jobs that pay well below the value of their degrees. Back in the day you got paid for your skill level. The problem is that there are very very few jobs available to begin with and since older people are losing their jobs they had for years, they are now competing with people my age fresh out of college. Many places want candidates with experience and that's nearly impossible as a new graduate. It's a catch 22...good jobs require lots of experience but the experience isn't there for young people. Don't give me this BS about "wanting it more"...I'm sure you guys wanted to be pro athletes when you were little...well, you weren't cut out for it. Sometimes wanting it bad enough doesn't cut it. If the jobs aren't there, they aren't there...period. These old guys are like spoiled brats who already lived a full life with plenty of good paying jobs out there for those who had the degrees for them and now they condemn hungry young people like myself doing everything by the book honor's roll all through HS, dean's list all through college, now in grad school with a good GPA getting my MS, working full time, etc.
If you want to talk about whiners who think they deserve everything for no reason, bring up illegal immigration. Not honest, hungry young people doing everything the right way and still having a very hard time. As hungry as my generation is, the food is not there to eat.
It's not sarcasm fun man.. It's merely an example showing that without any form of education you could make anything of yourself in the past through hard work and determination. I was taught growing up that if you couldn't make something of yourself in this country you weren't worth jack. That does not apply any longer because working hard does not carry as much weight as it used to... You need luck..you need friends in the right places. P.s. Your wit is obnoxious dial it back a notch and be real old man.
If Fun's attitude on here is anywhere near consistent with his actual life, then he is the kind of guy who would go to Africa while eating an entire pizza pie in front of a starving village, refuse to give them a slice, and then have the nerve to tell them they didn't "want it bad enough".