Democratic Primaries

the cost of car insurance and a car loan was high. Also, the pay was very very low. Our rent for a one bedroom apartment in the Hudson Valley was $875/month and we had no furniture. One Thanksgiving we ate turkey loaf ends from the deli I worked in. We had one car and I walked to work and we racked up credit card debt in car repairs. I had student loans then and made about $6/hr. There was no chance of moving in with parents. I went to secretarial school with student loans to get a better job that ended up paying $2/more an hour but felt it might lead to more predictable guaranteed hours. I also did extra work as a server at banquets/weddings for a $50 + tips a few times a month.

When we bought a house (in my early 30s), our mortgage rate (in 1998) FHA was 8.4% and that was considered low. We closed right before Labor Day weekend. In late October, we turned on our furnace and it died 2 weeks later. We were broke ass broke. We refinanced to a 15 year mortgage 10 years later at 5%.

Mostly, I think people make mistakes financially but it should not be the responsibility of the government (the rest of us) to bail you out. It is about being responsible. I think liberals are responsible, thoughtful people. It's one thing to provide equal opportunity for the poor. Most of these young people making such large debt are not "poor", they come from middle to upper middle class families who engage in magical thinking, who are not exactly people with a lived experience of having their power cut off or just $40 to feed a family for the week. They are comfortable. I think financial lessons happen either early or late and the late ones are harder. I also think most colleges charge too much money and if people would stop signing up and borrowing to pay them, they would have to reduce their tuition to be competitive for students.

We have a local university that now charges more than $50K/year for tuition. I am sure it is a wonderful school but it is either a wealthy or stupid person that majors in social work there.