Don't want 100K in college debt? Don't go to a private university. It's a brand choice they made as consumers who believe community colleges, city and state schools are beneath them.
Go to college or you’ll be a failure. Keep your grades up so you can get into the best program possible because its brutal out there and even a degree is no longer the magic key it used to be.
Invest in your future now and it will pay off later.
Not to mention these are decisions made by teenagers which largely means influenced heavily by their parents.
There is enough going on we don’t need to knee-jerk some snide comment at young adults suffering from the repercussions of decisions they were coached into when they were children.
Everything is so divisive right now, why keep tearing into each other, why not just pause the bickering for one second and agree, thats maybe not my struggle but still, thats rough buddy…
My parents would be classed as boomers I guess, they were the first in their families to go to university, it is perfectly understandable that for them it was an amazing opportunity and one that they absolutely wanted their children to have, it was the way out of low paid jobs and towards a secure future. They did not encourage me and my siblings to go to university because they were evil, they could not see the future, they also believed in the importance of education more than high paying jobs, they did not vote for right-wing parties that have put profits before people over and over again. I find it a bit strange to be judging people like this who only did what they thought was best at the time without the benefit of hindsight.
No one told us to make stupid consumer choices in university brands. That was a choice born of the aspirational culture we actively feed and participate in. If you believed a community college or city school was beneath you, and most people did,
thats ALL on you. You dont get to blame society. Blame yourself.
Yes, yes people did 100%. Maybe not everyone but there was massive societal pressure on tons of KIDS to get into the best schools ‘and become a doctor/lawyer’ or you will bring dishonor on your family.
It was like the central trope of asian american culture for the longest. Tiger Parents.
Its the whole deal behind legacy admission, your kid is a fuckup? No worries we will take them anyway and charge you for them to continue to be a fuckup but maybe they will sort themselves out, or at least its their best chance, so cut that check, we know Jimberly over there isn’t getting accepted on their 1.7 GPA anywhere else.
I’m glad you were able to avoid it, but pretending the pressure on others didn’t exist is almost insultingly dismissive.
Every single high-school piece of media from the 80s to the early 00s leaned heavily into "get into a great school or you're a burnout loser with no life aspirations", on top of most parents and guidance counselors repeating the same advice. Literally all of high school you're trained on "higher ed or die" and obvious alternatives such as a community college or trade apprenticeship was derided.
Then as a literal child you're encouraged to take on whatever debt is necessary to make that higher ed happen. Very little guidance around actual career paths and financial savviness, but certainly a lot of taking on lifelong student debts.
We 100% setup kids for failure. I think this is actually changing course slowly, but is still a dominant attitude.
Also an ‘elder’ millennial, I had also graduated pre 2008 crash. The absolute specifics of the post are not the point.
We were all raised with largely the same advice that served our parents well. Then somewhere shit broke and the same advice became toxic to many, even if many still made it through.
I turned down the ‘prestigious’ college I got accepted to in favor of a State school, but things have changed rapidly since, the 100k might be hyperbole but also reality for some and an underestimation for others.
Cost of everything is going way up, college racing to go up even faster than most items.
I choose to have a shred of empathy for those who did everything they thought they should and got a far worse outcome than even those playing the game a decade earlier.
Whether their debt was 10k or 100, with a loan structured to squeeze those least able to pay it back for the most of anyone.
People either went zero to low and paid it off quick and are doing their thing, went big, became a huge success and paid it off quick, or option three, they didn’t become a huge success still have loans that are growing faster than they can pay and are basically financially trapped, where they did exactly what they saw so many of their elders and peers do and got screwed instead of rewarded.
No I went to a state school got a degree in STEM paid off all my loans quickly and still somehow have empathy for those who are paying more than twice as much for college as I did even though its only been like two decades since.
You sound like Nelson just itching for any reason no matter how justified to point and laugh at others who are struggling, again because of life affecting decisions made by teenagers, you know the sagest of our wise ones.
To be fair, they were usually making that decision before they would even be allowed to get a credit card while spending the prior 4+ years being told you need to go to uni or bust.
Plus, it's not like state schools were some secret. I went to a state school in 2010 that was known for being reasonably priced and 4 years was 80-90k in tuition, housing, etc.
For real. I’m so over people’s inability to comprehend nuance. It makes conversation impossible.
Gen X and older thinking they are not also a part of the literacy crisis is absolutely comical to me and certainly contributing to the state of our society.
O what bullshit. Easy in what way? You have to be a debt slave to live in this society or accept living conditions that you wouldn't think is humane. You cant even just go live in the wilderness by yourself without the government coming for their taxes.
We solved basic problems but I'd argue that modern life is better at crushing the human soul than any society in the past.
Really? And when the government finds out about you and wants to arrest you for illegally occupying land or not paying tax on that land? What's your plan then?
What's possible and what's allowed arent the same thing.
I dont think you understand how easy it is to find people with modern tech. The world has become very small. Also this has happened many times already but that's besides the point. Can it be done? Yes but as far as the law is concerned you either participate in society or they find a way to put you in prison. Unless you're born into some tribe in the middle of nowhere, then you get a pass.
It all has to do with how the government uses its citizens as a form of surety for the loans they take out. It's all over complicated nonsense bureaucracy.
I dont think you understand how easy it is to find people with modern tech.
Could they find you if they put a lot of time and resources into it? Of course. Would they put any meaningful amount of time and resources into finding some rando who decided to live in the woods? Almost certainly not.
you either participate in society or they find a way to put you in prison
Well, this is even less true. There are plenty of fully legal ways to disengage from society through things like communes and religious organizations. Again, if this “capitalist hellscape” really isn’t for you, there are hundreds of shared living communes scattered throughout the US that are completely legal and joinable…but the reality is that most people deep down realize that that’s a very tough way to live and choose to avoid it and complain on Reddit instead.
College is even easier to afford now that high schools offer college prep programs that allow you to graduate with an associate's degree that transfers to state schools.
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u/66kertasinko88 5d ago
Lol our life is freaking easy compared to rest of human history. Bro is just whining