A curse-laden rant as college students are complaining about their student loan interest rates going up to almost 4%.
Remember, inoculate your children against this horrible disease. Buy them the book "Worthless." It will make sure they're immune to living at home at 30.
6 comments:
Captain, my understanding is that a large portion of the readers are part of the Millennial Generation. While you're in your 30's, your arguments about the economy and college with attacks on the Baby Boomer's "wisdom" does strongly resonate with the generation. What you bring up fits right-in with Millennial conversations about cost of college and the future after. If you're not aware, "Old Economy Steve" seems to fit right with your writings and what's on the minds of the Millennial.
I am not disagreeing you have a point that in the grander picture, 3.8% interest is low. Nor if 3.8% hurts that much, perhaps the money borrowed is not worth its cost.
In short, I get your main point.
However, the rant sounded just like every baby boomer's article or joke of the Millennials. The baby sounds for Millennial whinniness, the mock pot smoking for Millennial laziness, and the exact same "man-up" advice of any Baby Boomer article.
Old Economy Baby Boomer Steve: 3.8%?? BAHAhaha... That's less than my old mortgage rate! You lazy-ass, pot smoking loser of a bum! Fuck you! When I was your age, I paid my way through working at my summer part-time job! What you mean it doesn't pay enough? You even got these amazing loans now!? I never got that! Man up you loser!
Yeah, those articles from Baby Boomers don't taste well. It part of why the meme came up and why readers (myself included) finds resonance. Regardless of major. This post has that same taste.
Yeah, I get taking issue of the small change of interest has a sense of absurdity. But this is part of the growing recognition of the growing worthlessness of college. We reach to a point that even a .01 increase make it a whole lot more worthless than before. Part of the same vein as your writings about college and realization encapsulated in that meme.
And that video sounded in the same vein as the Boomers making the same arguments (though, to be fair, their conclusion is to say to keep going to college with any major you liked).
Yes, they are lucky. My interest rate for a loan was around 8% until they started falling. That was about 10 years ago or so.
Seems to me these guys are just representing their own economic interests. Certainly no worse than Boomers voting for their retirement benefits or corporations encouraging low taxes/subsidies. Not necessarily in the interest of the nation, but honestly who cares about that anymore?
In all fairness though, it's probably people in Art History or some other crappy major complaining the most. I'm at an engineering college, and while there's the usual complaining about rising tuition, very few people care overly much for the loan interest hike.
Captain, if you think the millennial generation is whining now, wait till the economy implodes and that 3.8% interest rate turns into 50%.
Talk about a monkey on your back............
Millennials enjoy the decline.....................
On the same topic of useless college grads and govt programs:
http://www.salon.com/2010/03/16/hipsters_food_stamps_pinched/
I just bought "Worthless" and "Enjoy The Decline" for a friend of mine's son. He is 26 and recently out of the Air Force. I hope they will be a good influence on him.
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