Old and Broke

[Albert Hidel]

No, not a story about Gus.

Old and Broke

Nicholas von Hoffman
Old and Broke
Posted September 29, 2005 | 08:31 AM (EST)

People of non-rich circumstances and middle class beliefs know what the choice is. Face a very low-income, not so golden retirement or put the kids through college.

College tuition is rising faster than incomes and has been for some time. Only the very nicely fixed can pay for their children’s college and put away enough money to retire on. For most of us college for the kids means working until they tell you that you can’t cut the mustard any more and then hoping the kids you sacrificed so much for will return the favor.

Damon Darlin in the New York Times business section says the smart move is to tell the kids they are going to have to get through college by working, negotiating with the bursar’s office on price and taking out loans. Young people can borrow money on their futures. Older people cannot do the same for their retirement.

Love of offspring aside, putting a kid through college is something you do if you want to hold your head up in your circle. People who don’t pay for their kids’ college education live in trailers and spend their Saturday nights consuming alcoholic beverages with outrageous NASCAR sounding brand names.

Modern middle incomers do not have it in them to remind their whelps every day that it is up to them to find a college and get through it. Such behavior is more embarrassing than admitting that we didn’t go on a vacation this year because we couldn’t afford it.

Otherwise stable, job holding semi-professionals will choose a mate but not have kids. They may not know the precise numbers as Mr. Darlin does but they have the general idea and their answer is no kids. Or kid. The people who have kids in America are the people who never went to college themselves and don’t worry about it.

There are a dozen ways college could be made affordable again, but we live in a time when university presidents get paid upward of a million bucks a year, not counting the car and driver. The basketball coach gets twice that and the upshot is that the families with the socially most valuable traits to pass on to the next generation are virtually childless. Sterilization by economics.

[Ben Johnson]

I had three taxpaying kids. They will pay for all the services and pensions I will draw before I take the big sleep. They will also pay for all the childless people who didn't spend hundreds of thousands of dollars raising a family. Mind you they'll die old and alone.

[ham]

and distance learning?
Non-wealthy people will be increasingly pressured into making a choice:
brick&mortar schools with outrageous tuition fees, or distance learning cutting the cost in half, if not to a fraction.
It basically boils down to what 'going to the university' means for the applicant:
1 if it means dorms, parties, sex and 'making friends', I'm afraid the price to pay will be increasingly high and not worth it to me.

2 if it is meant to maximize one's learning, distance education is best. People can spare lots of money and can therefore have say 'rewarding vacations' now and then to pamper their ego.

I think degrees are a good thing in itself, but no longer are a golden key to glamour jobs, fame and money. Non-wealthy people whose relatives/friends don't own companies, have no millions in the bank or can not 'make things happen' might (and very likely will ) end up with sub-par jobs; not every lawyer, accountant or physician ends up like those affluent people from cable TV tripe, yet the vastest majority of students is left with huge school debts and/or had to work macjobs to keep going.
Save money and invest wisely in safe long term deposits: in 20/30 years you will have more there (fact, not fiction ) than counting on hypothetical pay increases or golden opportunities; come think of it, even in the smallest banks you get one branch manager for every 8, 10 or 12 simple employees.

DE choices are expanding daily and now cover even postgraduate studies.

Worried about what employers might say?
Face it...Harvard & co. are for the few...who don't 'need' the degree from there to start with.
Realize you'll never make an employer or recruiter fully happy:
some will tell you you need to learn Spanish, but you know French; or you know both French & Spanish but the boom is taking place in India so Hindi is the choice.
Others will require many academic degrees, but then reject you because you haven't n years of teaching under your belt; another has been teaching for 20 years but has no doctorate, so he's out as well.
Some will require experience in the private sector in order to teach; others will see private sector experience as 'jack of all trades and master of none'.
Finally, none of them is going to give you one cent for what has been in your past; you may have a million in unpaid loans but still your wage is the same as the guy who has no debt.

[Little Arminius]

No, not a story about Gus.

Old and Broke

Darn, I thought it was going to be about Gus.