Pell grants paid for my tuition. I had a part time job and got some loans.
Maybe $30K loans for 4 years. Not oppressive as I recall. Loans pretty much
covered rent and food. Part time job was for spending money. I was married
with 2 kids when I started and 4 when I left. This was mid 1980s. I was late
to university. But I had been to two community colleges starting in the late
70s. I think it took me 6 colleges and universities to finally graduate.
From: Bill Prince
Sent: Sunday, October 11, 2020 3:36 PM
To: af@af.afmug.com
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] OT good to be a boomer
It's because subsidies and pell grants have almost evaporated and college
tuition costs have gone through the roof. These days, it's not unusual to see
student loans well into 6 figures. A real go-getter can still probably generate
a hand full of scholarships, but that is the rare student who knows how to work
the system.
bp
<part15sbs{at}gmail{dot}com>On 10/11/2020 2:27 PM, Ken Hohhof wrote:
Here’s one I don’t understand. Not pointing a finger, I genuinely don’t
understand. Student loan debt. Is that the huge issue that people say? And
if so, is that a new phenomenon? Why?
I assume my dad went to college on the GI Bill after WWII. I worked 20 hours
a week all through college making pizzas and burgers, and had a coop job every
third quarter or so until the coop jobs disappeared due to a recession.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recession_of_1969%E2%80%931970
Plus my parents helped out. I don’t remember my friends in college talking
about student debt, but maybe they had it and it just wasn’t talked about.
I can speculate some possible reasons for a student debt crisis now:
- Tuition has gone up
- Part time jobs and coop jobs unavailable or don’t pay enough
- Less financial assistance available
- Predatory for-profit schools
- Lots of kids who couldn’t find jobs in the Great Recession went to school
or pursued advanced degrees instead
None of these seem like adequate explanations. College is too expensive, not
sure how much it has gone up adjusted for inflation. You’d think with online
instruction and extensive use of low paid adjunct professors they could keep
costs down. Certainly dorms, food and other amenities are a lot fancier than
when I was in college, maybe those costs have gotten out of hand. You’d also
think state schools and especially community colleges would be affordable
options, Harvard and Yale aren’t the only places to get a good education.
But if there’s genuinely a huge student debt crisis, what is causing it, and
how do we fix it? Is “free college for all” really the only solution?
I understand with the pandemic, people out of work can’t pay their student
debts, but supposedly this problem predates the pandemic.
From: AF mailto:af-boun...@af.afmug.com On Behalf Of Bill Prince
Sent: Sunday, October 11, 2020 3:54 PM
To: af@af.afmug.com
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] OT good to be a boomer
Yah. Even though I'm a boomer, I think attributing the current state of the
economy entirely on boomers is missing the mark somewhat. There are a whole
raft of issues that are squeezing millenials like globalization and extreme
automation. You keep adding barriers, and getting or creating a good paying job
just gets more difficult. If all you can do is flip burgers at Micky D's or
pour coffee at Starbucks, maybe you need to think a bit more creatively.
bp<part15sbs{at}gmail{dot}com>On 10/11/2020 11:52 AM, Ken Hohhof wrote:
Obviously I’m prejudiced, but I don’t think this whole trope about all the
problems young people today face being the fault of the baby boomers (and
wishing they would die and stop hogging all the good jobs) is quite accurate.
Yes we had a long recession starting in 2008 (but of course there were
recessions back in the 1970’s as well), but I saw a lot of parents dipping into
their 401K savings and taking out loans on their paid-off houses so their adult
children could live with them, or to pay for their kids to go to college
instead of being unemployed.
Baby boomer 401K plans were a big cushion for millennials and the economy in
general during the “Great Recession”. I think what will actually hit the
millennials is when the boomers do die, they won’t be inheriting as much money
because those retirement funds got drained. Also, don’t kid yourself that 70
year old boomer greeting people at Walmart or bagging groceries at Kroger is
just continuing to work for the fun of it, or that a millennial wanted that job
anyway. As far as the “good” jobs, age discrimination kicks in around age 50.
I don’t think Google and Facebook have a lot of boomers writing code. How many
boomers does Elon Musk have designing Teslas and SpaceX rockets?
Still a funny skit, but I run into millennials who totally blame all their
woes on boomers screwing their generation over. And the “why don’t they die
already” viewpoint spills over into Covid discussions. Lots of anti-maskers
say things like “if they don’t feel safe going out, they are free to not go
out”. Or there aren’t that many deaths if you ignore the old people who were
going to die anyway. People at least didn’t used to say stuff like that out
loud.
From: AF mailto:af-boun...@af.afmug.com On Behalf Of Robert
Sent: Sunday, October 11, 2020 12:25 PM
To: af@af.afmug.com
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] OT good to be a boomer
very apropos...
On 10/11/20 10:04 AM, ch...@wbmfg.com wrote:
https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/millennial-millions/3867395
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