A few years ago I was on retirement savings panel at a conference. My designated role was to be the "MOOOOAR SOCIAL SECURITY" guy because of course. But the point I was trying to make to the more private savings folks was...how do you expect people to start their careers with a hundred thousand dollars in debt, and then save for a downpayment, and then save for retirement. This is unpossible even with high paying jobs, which most people don't have. It's true that the magic of compound interest works really well if you start saving at age 21 and continue until retirement, but it's also true that it's stupid to save if investment returns are lower than the interest rates on the
absurd amount of debt that you were supposed to rack up to enter civilized life. Really no one should go into this much debt to go to college, but The Kids Today don't even have the option of cheap public universities like The Kids In My Day did. They're cheaper then private schools, but not by much.
Democratic presidential hopeful Martin O’Malley plans Wednesday to put forward an ambitious five-year goal of allowing students to graduate debt-free from public colleges and universities across the country.
The proposition is deeply personal for O’Malley: Aides say he and his wife have already incurred $339,200 in loans to put the two eldest of their four children through private universities. And college affordability was a leading priority for O’Malley during his tenure as Maryland’s governor.
Those who mock The Kids Today enrage me. Us olds had access to cheap public universities and we took that away from them. Also, too, gave them a shitty job market. Still let's laugh about their beards and their tattoos and their ipods and their hippity hop and how lazy they are! Silly Kids Today. So lazy. Such silly interests. And all that debt! So irresponsible.
