6 ms·

Oh what the hell people? Is this what it's come to? Am I now expected to feel bad for the guy who, after making as much as $255,000 up until the age of 55, on

Oh what the hell people? Is this what it's come to? Am I now expected to feel bad for the guy who, after making as much as $255,000 up until the age of 55, only has enough savings to live for 2 or 3 years? Who, with a business degree, chose to move to New York of all places. The heart of the financial industry and the hardest hit area probably in the world? I have a lot of sympathy for people who have lost their job and if you were making $30,000 a year I can understand not having a nest egg. But for this guy I have no sympathy.

TriinT 17y ago
"Am I now expected to feel bad for the guy who, after making as much as $255,000 up until the age of 55, only has enough savings to live for 2 or 3 years?" Well, the article says he asked his wife for divorce. If the divorce did materialize, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that his savings were drastically slashed ;-)
- gommm 17y ago
  Yes but he still got $188,000 severance package... More than enough to find a good business idea and get the ball rolling...
  - TriinT 17y ago
    Maybe the severance package he got was used to pay for the divorce lawyer ;-) My initial comment was facetious. Honestly, I can't feel sorry for a guy whose career was raping gullible college students. If he jumps off the Brooklyn Bridge, I shan't shed a tear.
    - litewulf 17y ago
      I think that wishing death/suicide kind of crosses the line for me. I agree that I think the college loan industry is a bit ridiculous, but something about this comment just went a bit further than I'm comfortable with.
      - TriinT 17y ago
        I am not wishing anyone death. I am just saying that I don't care if he jumps off the Brooklyn Bridge. I didn't say I hoped he would jump... Ruslana Korshunova's death [1] was disturbing. If this guy committed suicide, it would not bother me the least. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruslana_Korshunova http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruslana_Korshunova
        rogerthat 17y ago
        Are you saying her death was tragic because she was a hot young model while he would just be a dead old loser? That's the vibe I'm getting from this thread generally.
        TriinT 17y ago
        I am implying that the death of a young person is more tragic than the dead of an old loser, yes. Ruslana had a life ahead of her. This guy is in his late 50s, he has already exceeded the life expectancy of a few decades ago. He made a career as a parasite. Now he has no job. He could have moved to some remote place in Central or South America, or Asia where his savings would allow him to live (albeit frugally) for a few years and start a new life. Instead, he moves to NYC, which is not exactly cheap, tries to get a job in the dying financial sector, tries to publish idiotic novels, and when that all fails, he goes whining to the NYTimes, thus humiliating himself in front of everyone. Newsflash: the world does not owe him anything. He made bad life decisions, now he's paying a price. To each, his own.
        randomtask 17y ago
        Your attitude here is very naive. Did it occur to you that perhaps he doesn't want to live in Central or South America? Sure living expenses are cheaper there, but the fact would remain that he's still unemployed. Now in addition to that he has to potentially deal with the language barrier and a higher rate of unemployment and if you're not happy living somewhere then what good is a bit of extra cash? To me it makes more sense, if he can live for 2-3 years off savings in NYC, to live there. Also, he didn't just seek a job in the "dying financial sector" (are we really naive enough to think it's dying?), but rather applied for over 600 jobs in a range of areas including supervising admissions at a college. Applying for jobs can be soul destroying. A good friend of mine has applied for a lot of jobs in the past 6 months, but when there are only a few in your chosen field with a large number of people applying for them, and applying gets you no replies it can feel like pouring time into a black hole. It's easy to point out what somebody should be doing, but it's several orders of magnitude harder to actually do it yourself.
bayareaguy 17y ago
From 2001 to 2008 he was a senior vice president for a private student-loan company I might feel more sympathy for this guy if he were one of the many recent graduates unable to find the kind of jobs they need to pay off private student loans (with exorbitant rates) instead of being part of an industry that profited from them while ignoring their employment predicaments. What sympathy do guys like these ever show for their unemployed debitors?
ca98am79 17y ago
I agree. This is a little over-dramatic, and made me roll my eyes: "Mr. Blattman cannot walk by a street person now without wondering if this could be him."
stse 17y ago
Yes, you are. He didn't know this was going to hit him. Just imagine the psychological impact of having everything you know change, and basically being told that 30 years of experience is worthless. How many years of savings do you really expect someone to have?
- hnal943 17y ago
  I object to his sad-sack attitude. I agree that 2 years is a ton of savings. So why the drama? I'm actually shocked that this guy is in such disarray. If he's so in touch with the reality that "the world has changed," why doesn't he get another job doing something? Even delivering pizzas earns more than nothing - it would also get him out and talking to people. Why move to new york, instead of a place with a lower cost of living? Why write a novel? The story certainly didn't give me the impression that novel writing was something he loved to do. Also, writing a novel about your own life seems not only self-absorbed but uninteresting. Escpecially if you believe - as he does - that your situation is so common?
shard 17y ago
He did raise two kids, the youngest of which is just about to enter college. Kids aren't cheap, especially if you lavish high quality education and extra curricular activities on them.

TriinT 17y ago

"Am I now expected to feel bad for the guy who, after making as much as $255,000 up until the age of 55, only has enough savings to live for 2 or 3 years?" Well, the article says he asked his wife for divorce. If the divorce did materialize, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that his savings were drastically slashed ;-)

gommm 17y ago
Yes but he still got $188,000 severance package... More than enough to find a good business idea and get the ball rolling...
- TriinT 17y ago
  Maybe the severance package he got was used to pay for the divorce lawyer ;-) My initial comment was facetious. Honestly, I can't feel sorry for a guy whose career was raping gullible college students. If he jumps off the Brooklyn Bridge, I shan't shed a tear.
  - litewulf 17y ago
    I think that wishing death/suicide kind of crosses the line for me. I agree that I think the college loan industry is a bit ridiculous, but something about this comment just went a bit further than I'm comfortable with.
    - TriinT 17y ago
      I am not wishing anyone death. I am just saying that I don't care if he jumps off the Brooklyn Bridge. I didn't say I hoped he would jump... Ruslana Korshunova's death [1] was disturbing. If this guy committed suicide, it would not bother me the least. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruslana_Korshunova http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruslana_Korshunova
      - rogerthat 17y ago
        Are you saying her death was tragic because she was a hot young model while he would just be a dead old loser? That's the vibe I'm getting from this thread generally.
        TriinT 17y ago
        I am implying that the death of a young person is more tragic than the dead of an old loser, yes. Ruslana had a life ahead of her. This guy is in his late 50s, he has already exceeded the life expectancy of a few decades ago. He made a career as a parasite. Now he has no job. He could have moved to some remote place in Central or South America, or Asia where his savings would allow him to live (albeit frugally) for a few years and start a new life. Instead, he moves to NYC, which is not exactly cheap, tries to get a job in the dying financial sector, tries to publish idiotic novels, and when that all fails, he goes whining to the NYTimes, thus humiliating himself in front of everyone. Newsflash: the world does not owe him anything. He made bad life decisions, now he's paying a price. To each, his own.
        randomtask 17y ago
        Your attitude here is very naive. Did it occur to you that perhaps he doesn't want to live in Central or South America? Sure living expenses are cheaper there, but the fact would remain that he's still unemployed. Now in addition to that he has to potentially deal with the language barrier and a higher rate of unemployment and if you're not happy living somewhere then what good is a bit of extra cash? To me it makes more sense, if he can live for 2-3 years off savings in NYC, to live there. Also, he didn't just seek a job in the "dying financial sector" (are we really naive enough to think it's dying?), but rather applied for over 600 jobs in a range of areas including supervising admissions at a college. Applying for jobs can be soul destroying. A good friend of mine has applied for a lot of jobs in the past 6 months, but when there are only a few in your chosen field with a large number of people applying for them, and applying gets you no replies it can feel like pouring time into a black hole. It's easy to point out what somebody should be doing, but it's several orders of magnitude harder to actually do it yourself.

bayareaguy 17y ago

From 2001 to 2008 he was a senior vice president for a private student-loan company I might feel more sympathy for this guy if he were one of the many recent graduates unable to find the kind of jobs they need to pay off private student loans (with exorbitant rates) instead of being part of an industry that profited from them while ignoring their employment predicaments. What sympathy do guys like these ever show for their unemployed debitors?

ca98am79 17y ago

I agree. This is a little over-dramatic, and made me roll my eyes: "Mr. Blattman cannot walk by a street person now without wondering if this could be him."

stse 17y ago

Yes, you are. He didn't know this was going to hit him. Just imagine the psychological impact of having everything you know change, and basically being told that 30 years of experience is worthless. How many years of savings do you really expect someone to have?

hnal943 17y ago
I object to his sad-sack attitude. I agree that 2 years is a ton of savings. So why the drama? I'm actually shocked that this guy is in such disarray. If he's so in touch with the reality that "the world has changed," why doesn't he get another job doing something? Even delivering pizzas earns more than nothing - it would also get him out and talking to people. Why move to new york, instead of a place with a lower cost of living? Why write a novel? The story certainly didn't give me the impression that novel writing was something he loved to do. Also, writing a novel about your own life seems not only self-absorbed but uninteresting. Escpecially if you believe - as he does - that your situation is so common?

shard 17y ago

He did raise two kids, the youngest of which is just about to enter college. Kids aren't cheap, especially if you lavish high quality education and extra curricular activities on them.