Regarding Employment and My Student Debt

[Rumckle]

You need to get a good job. You need a good job so you can afford that new TV. The one with the 150" screen, and the surround sound that will make your ears bleed. You need that TV so you can forget how shit your job is. And your job is shit, but you can't quit it, otherwise they might repossess your TV. Then what will distract you from how shit your job is?

I wish I was immune to this cycle but, alas, I am not. Last time I checked I was about ten grand in debt. I've never owned a credit card, never got a mortgage, never bought a car, but I'm still in debt.

Why? Well, I'd like to think it was because I am learning all of this neat stuff, and I am, but that's not the reason. If I just wanted to learn something I could do it for free. No, the reason I am in debt is to get a little piece of paper. A special piece of paper which says that I get to earn a slightly better wage. So I can get a slightly bigger TV, and go somewhere slightly further away on my annual two week vacation.

But once you have that nice piece of paper, and a good job, it''s not over, there are still things to learn. For example, you need to learn to like the taste of arse, because you are going to be kissing a lot of it. You need to kiss arse because if you kiss arse you will get a promotion. And if you get a promotion you can buy an even bigger TV. You'll need that bigger TV to relieve the stress of having to get a promotion.

But that's not all you get, promotions bring other benefits too. If you get a promotion you may get to move up a floor, and you definitely want to move up a floor. Not because the views are nicer (though that is what they will tell you) but because a higher floor means you are further from the ground. It means you have further to fall when you are tired of your job and want to retire.

SPLAT!

[Cainad (dec.)]

[Jenne]

Watch the movie "Into the Wild."  He had similar thoughts.  It's a delicate balance--living within the dictates that society puts on you and rejecting how far they make you give up your freedom, your soul and your joy.  I don't have the answer, but there are extremes in every case.

[Rumckle]

Watch the movie "Into the Wild."  He had similar thoughts.  It's a delicate balance--living within the dictates that society puts on you and rejecting how far they make you give up your freedom, your soul and your joy.  I don't have the answer, but there are extremes in every case.

I've actually seen it. It's a very interesting movie, but as you note it is in the extreme, and to go to the extreme that he takes it, well, I don't think I could survive going that far either.

[Epimetheus]

I like. Nice, Rumckle.

[Rumckle]

   Thanks

[Requia ☣]

I worked with a few people who had those fancy pieces of paper, and still got stuck in a call center.  One of em even had a Masters.  They had happyfuntime with trying to pay that debt off.

Good luck.

[LMNO]

I would like to propose a counter-argument.

What you're paying/going into debt for is for someone else to deal with the day-to-day bullshit of existence, while you get to spend all your time learning shit for 4 years.  You can literally spend 12 hours in the library if you wanted to.  You can spend the entire day talking to people about the color white that Melville uses to embody pure destructive evil.  You can take the weekend to break down Maxwell's equations to their very beginnings.  You can research anything you want, for as long as you want.

Do you really think you can get the same kind of intensive studying going if you have to spend 8-10 hours a day working to get just enough cash to pay the rent/shopping/power bills, then come home and make dinner, do some laundry, and get just enough rest to go back to work?

I used to read a book or two a week.  Now, it takes me more than a month.  Tuition is just paying for rent and food four years in advance.



Which now makes me think I should take out a $100,000 loan, and stop working for four years.

[Jenne]

Out of all the debt to be in, school loans are one of the best, even though it's still a hardship and the debt never goes away.  But USUALLY the debt is worth it.  I have two brothers who have serious credit card, bullshit debt, but none for school, and boy are they suffering for it.  No college degree is sticking them in dead-end positions in the IT world that they have to work 10x's harder for.  It's sticking in their craw, but they chose to not keep on with college.  It was their decision to drop out.

And now their kids and wives are paying out as well.  (TBQH, it was also the parental money truck that went off the bridge when my dad was arrested that contributed to this head-up-ass syndrome they both have about education, though.)

[Rumckle]

I worked with a few people who had those fancy pieces of paper, and still got stuck in a call center.  One of em even had a Masters.  They had happyfuntime with trying to pay that debt off.

Good luck.

And there have been some people without those nice  pieces of paper who end up with awesome jobs. I guess either way you have to keep on your toes so you don't get fucked even worse than usual.

Do you really think you can get the same kind of intensive studying going if you have to spend 8-10 hours a day working to get just enough cash to pay the rent/shopping/power bills, then come home and make dinner, do some laundry, and get just enough rest to go back to work?

I have known people who are part time doing college while working, some of them with shit retail jobs, some of them with half decent jobs that they had to work hard to get.

I think in Australia though the minimum wage is slightly better than the states, plus we are a little bit more socialist.

But I will grant you that while working your study options are a lot more limited.