5 ms·

Ya this is the point where I stopped reading. People seem to have a misconception about the poor: that they can live on next to nothing. In reality, the poorer

Ya this is the point where I stopped reading. People seem to have a misconception about the poor: that they can live on next to nothing. In reality, the poorer a person is, the more they work just to survive. Not to mention that the world is profoundly less allowing of entrepreneurship than it used to be. I graduated from college in 1999 with about $25,000 in student loans with a $340/mo payment and my rent was $250. I was able to get by on a $10/hr seasonal furniture moving job. Today those numbers would be at least $50,000, $500/mo loan payment and $750 rent, so a person would need $20+/hr just to survive. Which means a real job and 40 hour workweeks with no time or motivation left over for a side business. Same city, double the population, half the independence. Trapped. I'm disillusioned with it all because nobody ever solved the funding problem. Kickstarter is opinionated in what it will fund. Crypto turned into a Ponzi scheme instead of a way to fund startups. So it's probably over, and I'm just waiting now for AI to disrupt society so completely that it's forced to adopt UBI or face 50% unemployment.

Xeoncross 4y ago
Yet another reminder not to take on debt. It's better to put the extra work in to pay for stuff upfront then move the burden to after college unless you have the network and guarantees to know you have a job lined up.
- sealeck 4y ago
  There are two things I want to say. First, this is one of those things which is easy to say but for many (most?) people hard to implement. Sure, some people's family may be able to give them the money they need to go to university but this is not the case for most people, and in this case it is really hard to earn enough money _before starting_ to pay for your university education. The second is that debt can be good (our society is literally built on it) in many cases (e.g. home loans, provided you can afford to pay them off) if you are not in a highly asymmetrical power relationship with your lender.
  - Xeoncross 4y ago
    While I don't disagree with you, I want to say that this idea of it being impossible to go to collage without taking out loans is not true. I know multiple people who worked, applied for grants, and used cheaper/affordable colleges first before uni. > debt can be good (our society is literally built on it) I would argue that our countries increased reliance on debt over the past 50 years has decimated the lower class and harmed the middle class while the wealthiest class has seen their influence and ownership percentages surge.
  - burnished 4y ago
    Student loan debt is typically not the good kind - its doled out in far larger amounts than the lender can typically acquire because it cant be discharged like other forms of debt.
    - sealeck 4y ago
      Agreed.
- wintogreen74 4y ago
  >> Yet another reminder not to take on debt. This isn't terrible advice for dumb new grads who don't know better, but there are very different types of debt. Consumer debt is almost always bad, but capital debt can be good, preferred or necessary. The challenge is something like a college education could be either.

Xeoncross 4y ago

Yet another reminder not to take on debt. It's better to put the extra work in to pay for stuff upfront then move the burden to after college unless you have the network and guarantees to know you have a job lined up.

sealeck 4y ago
There are two things I want to say. First, this is one of those things which is easy to say but for many (most?) people hard to implement. Sure, some people's family may be able to give them the money they need to go to university but this is not the case for most people, and in this case it is really hard to earn enough money _before starting_ to pay for your university education. The second is that debt can be good (our society is literally built on it) in many cases (e.g. home loans, provided you can afford to pay them off) if you are not in a highly asymmetrical power relationship with your lender.
- Xeoncross 4y ago
  While I don't disagree with you, I want to say that this idea of it being impossible to go to collage without taking out loans is not true. I know multiple people who worked, applied for grants, and used cheaper/affordable colleges first before uni. > debt can be good (our society is literally built on it) I would argue that our countries increased reliance on debt over the past 50 years has decimated the lower class and harmed the middle class while the wealthiest class has seen their influence and ownership percentages surge.
- burnished 4y ago
  Student loan debt is typically not the good kind - its doled out in far larger amounts than the lender can typically acquire because it cant be discharged like other forms of debt.
  - sealeck 4y ago
    Agreed.
wintogreen74 4y ago
>> Yet another reminder not to take on debt. This isn't terrible advice for dumb new grads who don't know better, but there are very different types of debt. Consumer debt is almost always bad, but capital debt can be good, preferred or necessary. The challenge is something like a college education could be either.