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In reply to the discussion: How I would solve the job problem. I would introduce a totally new program [View all]limpyhobbler
(8,244 posts)39. debt, it stinks
I've put gasoline and groceries on a credit card just to get by to the next payday. Needed it to get to work so I could keep the job. Paid doctors and pharmacies with a credit card to get healthy, so I wouldn't miss work and lose pay. Car died, no money, took on debt for a car, so that I could work to get money to pay off my credit cards.
Debt is a trap for many people as they need to borrow money just to be able to work and make money. Sometimes when you are lucky you can climb out. But with just a little bit of bad timing and bad luck, this becomes a lifelong treadmill of misery.
It's like a modern form of slavery or serfdom. All for the benefit of being able to maintain a very small super-rich class in lives of unimaginable excess and luxury. And then they think they earned it.
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How I would solve the job problem. I would introduce a totally new program [View all]
CK_John
May 2012
OP
Interesting suggestions, but my 1st reaction is that they're politically unrealistic beyond the pale
Scuba
May 2012
#1
So you basically force high school grads to put their lives on hold for five years,
MadHound
May 2012
#3
1 out 2 grads can't get a job and carry at least 80,000 in loans. Sad thing is jobs
CK_John
May 2012
#6
while you're at it how about reducing the standard workweek down to about 30 hours....
limpyhobbler
May 2012
#4
I believe you are relying on false facts. Technical advances has cut the number of jobs
CK_John
May 2012
#16
the rich get richer because they start out rich and poor get poorer because they they are poor
CreekDog
May 2012
#37
you can be debt free and still lose your job, your shelter, your health care, your means to eat
CreekDog
May 2012
#42
If you can pay off your credit cards every month you obviously don't need credit cards
lunatica
May 2012
#31
I don't think so, we have lots of regulated brokers, stocks,real property, planning,etc..
CK_John
May 2012
#24
True but the OP does identify an issue that few are willing to acknowledge
TheKentuckian
May 2012
#33
I don't think it would solve anything except provide fodder for a Dostoyevskian plotline.
aikoaiko
May 2012
#34
Horrible idea. People have a right to a higher education, if they can afford it.
Honeycombe8
May 2012
#43
Higher ed has never been about education but for providing a qualified workforce for
CK_John
May 2012
#46
This is true. It is about providing discussion and thinking of a myriad of ideas and topics....
Honeycombe8
May 2012
#52