Thursday, December 22, 2016

Merry capitalism and happy new debt

Two friends meet and talk. Can you spot something special in this video?

Now, thére's a Christmas gift!
And if you can't afford it, just borrow from the bank and make the bank owner really, really happy!

A trillion is a million times a million. So 1,000,000 time 1,000.000. 1,2 Trillion dollars is the total amount of American student debt. Or so it was two years ago. So probably a bit more now. When a student is no longer a student and goes out into the world, he or she is in debt for about 30,000 dollars.

Suppose straight after studying he or she gets a well paid job, does not smoke or drink and refuses to go on holidays and only buys one pair of new clothes every season of the year, it will take about 15 years to pay of the debt. Since the average graduate student is 33 years old, he or she will be 48 before being able to take on a job he or she likes in stead of taking the job with the highest available income.

Suppose you want to retire at 65. That means you've got 17 years to save up some money for your pension. If you manage to save $2000 a year (don't smoke or drink, don't go out much, don't eat out, never take holidays, only buy one set of new clothes every season...) you will have $34,000 dollars on top of your company's pensionplan (if any). Not $34,000 a year but just $34,000 to spent for the rest of your life.

http://time.com/money/3829776/heres-what-the-average-grad-makes-right-out-of-college/

https://studentloanhero.com/student-loan-debt-statistics-2016/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_debt

So basically, all you do is work in a job you don't like, to pay off a debt you got for enrolling in a study you had to take on in order to provide enough means for yourself to pay off the debt you took on for enrolling in a study you...

(Appropriate lolcat found on the world wide web)

In a few weeks time Donald Trump will be president of the USA. Will he help students lower their debts? So far he has done no promises in this area. Perhaps he does not care? Perhaps he's really working hard to help the average American? Anyhow: sofar he has broken more than a few promises. And he isn't even president yet.

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