3 ms·

>from article> Having graduated from a top-10 law program, I'm now making $36,000 a year and have $165,000 worth of student debt. This is the kind of stuff sca

>from article> Having graduated from a top-10 law program, I'm now making $36,000 a year and have $165,000 worth of student debt. This is the kind of stuff scares me about the economy moving forward. For those that are not familiar with student loans, one cannot their shed student loans under bankruptcy protection. (I do not think one should be able to back out of a student loan, because unlike a house which can be foreclosed on and resold, it's kinda hard to repossess knowledge and as the loan holder resell it... but moving on) Anyways, in order to get away with not paying them or having your wages garnished, you have to die and that of course has it's own problems. There are programs that are set up to help those having a hard time, but that's not helping the situation in aggregate. Last year, US students borrowed $100 Billion[1]? The weight of student loans is going to cripple this country over the next 10-20 years. It is unsustainable. [1]-http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/college/story/2011-10-19/student-loan-debt/50818676/1 http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/college/story/2011-10-19...

drats 15y ago
Don't forget to add the $50k per capita share of the national debt, or the more uplifting calculation of $90k per actual tax-paying worker. So that person is working towards $255k of unavoidable debt on $36k a year before they can even start thinking about a house or retirement savings. And lawyers don't really make anything the world wants to buy, in the domestic market they are competing with a glut of other lawyers in similar situations. Nor do they even have the romantic "starving artist" narrative to console themselves with like the MFA grads. Maybe the boomers will offer good money for healthy organs, or maybe selling a kidney will just get some surplus MREs from WWIII to eat as people huddle around the campfire in the badlands. Ok the last part's a joke, but it's not a brilliant scenario.

drats 15y ago

Don't forget to add the $50k per capita share of the national debt, or the more uplifting calculation of $90k per actual tax-paying worker. So that person is working towards $255k of unavoidable debt on $36k a year before they can even start thinking about a house or retirement savings. And lawyers don't really make anything the world wants to buy, in the domestic market they are competing with a glut of other lawyers in similar situations. Nor do they even have the romantic "starving artist" narrative to console themselves with like the MFA grads. Maybe the boomers will offer good money for healthy organs, or maybe selling a kidney will just get some surplus MREs from WWIII to eat as people huddle around the campfire in the badlands. Ok the last part's a joke, but it's not a brilliant scenario.