I'm tired of talking to young people and always hearing the same ol story about how much they can't stand their student loans. One kid worked with me for three weeks and said he was in debt $50,000 after graduating UVA. He couldn't/can't find a job in his profession so he's trying to become a police officer or firefighter. I know another kid $20,000 in debt and still has a semester left at ODU before he graduates. I'm sorry,! But that's insane.Gadianton wrote: ↑Wed Oct 13, 2021 10:12 pmI don't have great answers for the growing inequality problem but here's a start.
stuff is cheap thanks to decades of outsourcing, and anything that can't be readily outsourced: land, education, healthcare is expensive. A pair of Jeans costs more today than when I was a kid (depending somewhat on brand). But a pair of jeans given the massive scale of production should be almost free. Well, in real terms, clothes are almost free.
In addition:
property -- everyone's heard about institutional investors buying up SFH's. 1/3 are foreign investors.
healthcare -- in addition to the real value of healthcare, I think insurance drives costs up higher when in theory, it shouldn't.
education -- beyond real value, not sure about any additional factors.
One option is to move to Mexico. I'm becoming increasingly aware of both left and right wingers moving to Mexico -- I've heard is it's way safer than the press lets on and healthcare is pretty good; great vets.
I have to partially agree with A-Mike's sentiment about college. Even when I went to school, the value was questionable in terms of future income and I paid for everything with a part-time job. Another bad: Since I went to BYU, I was brainwashed with conservative ideas.
A hammer, oversized stapler, and a razor knife with hook blades will run less than 50$ and you'll be in the black the first day. College just might be a really bad choice these days for most kids.
On the other hand, kids may be factoring in the ability to get away with not paying the government back. I can totally support kids taking that risk; assuming they understand it is a risk. Look, I recall many, many years ago, my parents grumbled about some extended family of ours using Medicare benefits. Uber conservative and TBM and the couple both lived over 100, and so that's a lot of years of benefits. Best guess is that they were easily worth over 100M$. If anyone on the rich scale at all can use Medicare to pay for their healthcare, I'm all for giving the thumbs up to kids today with diminishing prospects turning the tables a little, stiffing the government on their education bills if they can get away with it.
A plumber can make $80 to $120 an hour. HVAC the same. Hell!! I know a guy who caulks windows for a living and makes $500 to $600. I know another guy who quit his job as a CPA so he could build tables out of his garage. He makes over $100,000 a year. It seems like so many people are going to college then finding a job that has nothing to do with the degree they got. There are so many jobs out there especially now that the internet has made it possible to sell anywhere in the world. All it takes is imagination and Common Sense and it really isn't that hard to succeed. The reason I love the construction industry so much is there aren't any young people interested in manual labor anymore. I mean, it's bad because I can't find anyone young that wants to work hard, but it's really good because i can price jobs fairly high right now because homeowners are desperate to fund a contractor that's trustworthy and dependable. I've probably finished 6 or 7 jobs this year that another contractor started and was fired. There just isn't a lot of dependable contractors and if you find one you'll be waiting for ever. It's only going to get worse, good for me I guess.