Democratic Primaries
In reply to the discussion: Why Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren Will Win the Presidency with Robert Reich [View all]TexasTowelie
(113,557 posts)I did not intend to disrespect you and I commend you for obtaining further education and degrees, but I think that both of us will agree that the situation has changed since that time.
I do believe that there is a larger percentage of students who are attending college that probably are not college material as the number of remedial courses offered at universities increases. As far as the bankruptcy law changes that occurred while Biden was in office, the student loan debts weren't being paid and that financial burden was passed along to all taxpayers as banks wrote off those losses. While I have some sympathy for those students who were lured into college, I wasn't responsible for incurring that debt so why should I be expected to pay something that provided no benefit to me? If the students are intelligent enough to get into college, then they should also be intelligent enough to read and understand the contract they are signing. Those students gambled and it didn't pay off for them; however, that should not absolve them of the responsibilities they committed to.
I graduated with a BS degree in math from a private liberal arts college in 1987 and also held two part-time jobs while I was a student. I couldn't find employment when I graduated because the economy in Texas was decimated after the oil bust. My professors urged me to get a post-grad degree, but it wasn't feasible since my father was more or less forced into taking early retirement while my brother quit his job and couldn't find work--the entire family was scraping by. I returned to a public university the fall after I graduated and started to work on a teacher certification since it would pretty much guarantee that I could find employment. The faculty at that university asked why I didn't go into the post-grad program and I told them that getting a degree in math which concentrated mostly on theory wouldn't get me job, while the teacher certification would. I withdrew from the public university at Thanksgiving because I finally received a job offer at the state insurance department, I was burned out being in the classroom, and I was going to have to either find another roommate or move from where I was living, plus my heart wasn't in it to become a teacher. Even though the job only started at $16K a year, it was a better financial choice than incurring another $15K in debt and staying in college for another 1.5 years. It was a shame because I had a 4.0 GPA during the three months that I attended school, but I couldn't ask my parents to keep supporting me financially while I obtained either the certification or a post-grad degree.
About four or five years later, I thought about getting my masters degree but it wasn't possible with the full-time work schedule and the fact that I would have to commute 35 miles each way in rush hour traffic to get to that same public university I attended after I received my bachelors degree. That university was not well-respected academically (it was considered the party university of Texas) and a cost-benefit analysis of the situation lead me to believe that I would have been throwing away my money. I also served as the treasurer and regional president of the public employees association as an unpaid volunteer so it isn't as though I was being selfish.
I felt that it was a better investment to take the classes in computer training offered at work rather than incur student debt and my decision was correct. Looking at the situation in hindsight, I would have served myself better by getting a degree in software engineering since that is what my career morphed into; however, those programs weren't very widespread--degrees in computer science were the rage then and the classes that would have benefited me weren't offered in the evenings while I had a daytime work schedule.
It's a shame that some students were lured into taking classes where they did not have the aptitude to succeed or they entered into fields with poor prospects of finding work. However, is it really fair to ask the rest of society to pick up the tab for the decisions made by others who accumulated that debt? That was what occurred prior to the change in bankruptcy laws that removed the ability to discharge student debt. I'm sorry that those people suffered, but should I be made to pay the price and suffer along with them? It's not as though I was making a lot of money myself and I actually had the potential to succeed, but I couldn't further my dreams without quitting my full-time job to take the risk that everything would work out a few years later. In addition, the work I was performing did have a positive effect on the economy to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, including businesses, municipalities, physicians, hospitals and the public overall when connecting the dots.
Again, my intention was not to disrespect anyone but to point out that each of us are called upon to make sacrifices. How much is too much to ask for people to sacrifice? As a Democrat, I do believe in fairness, equality, economic and social justice. Those were the values instilled into me by my parents and during my education. I even gave money to the poor when I knew that I was only a few months away from being homeless myself. I was so committed to my beliefs that I tried to kill myself several years ago because I believed that I had nothing else to contribute and that I became a burden on society. I've withstood a lot of physical, verbal and mental abuse before and afterwards; however, I think that I'm on the correct path now so I'll pray for, sympathize and attempt to help others as I try to pay my debts forward. However, I have limited tolerance listening to people whine about student loan debt and bankruptcy laws when they are responsible for their own predicaments.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden