Never Let ANYONE Hold You Back
[Original content temporarily suspended as a professional courteousy until the ethical investigation is complete. Older posts that failed to make the original cut will be rotated and substituted. If you have any questions, thoughts, concerns and most importantly if you need a copy of the ORIGINAL POST please contact nick@debtorsprison.com]
I can still see the red lights on the dash. I can still feel the way it handled sharp turns. I remember the perfect control of a clutch-less manual transmission. I miss my BMW. Its not that I don’t love my Mustang…at least the Mustang was brand-spanking new off the lot. Still, the Princess looks at me different…and every time she does its emasculating, my perfect six-pack abs aside.
You would think though that I could still drive my old car in my dreams. But no. I get rudely awakened by a call at 8 AM…well maybe 830, 830ish, from my mom telling me my little sister has been defaulting on her student loans. She then has the audacity to ask me why I’m not at work and ask me for ten grand in the same sentence. What. The. FUCK!!!
For those of you losers who can’t pay your bills but CAN actually add you are probably thinking ten grand is probably the difference between a low mileage used 3 series and a new Ford Mustang. Fuck that. I told my mom she shouldn’t have cosigned for the loans (she sure as hell didn’t cosign for mine) and not to call before 11 AM. Ever. Maybe it was more like ten when she called.
All right, before you call me an asshole consider this: I could have kept my car and simply missed a student loan payment or two. I could have kept my car by asking relatives for a little cash to keep the wheels greased. And yes the Princess could have gotten her ass a job (sorry honey but its true). But no, I took responsibility for my loans and gave up the thing that mattered most. What kind of brother would I be if I didn’t impart this lesson to my little sister? I promptly picked up the phone and cursed her the hell out. Then I took the liberty of canceling her cell phone and posting her car on craig’s list. It’s a cute little miata, email if interested.
Point is kids, before you go lamenting your lack of help consider the person in your exact same position who did it all by themselves. Then instead of asking for a handout ask for a tutorial. You’re in debt? So what?! The average crack head spends their entire existence in debt, are operating with only a thimble full of brain cells and they owe money to a lot scarier people than Sallie Mae. They miss a payment and it’s a shiv in the kidney not a blemish on a credit report. Yet Benny’s on the corner doing just fine every day when I walk to work.
For all you who read this just for kicks and actually have jobs, who are probably thinking I’m a monster, can you honestly say you’ve EVER given a family member a substantial sum of money and not later resented them for it? Before you go thinking you’re better than everybody else you do realize that the average family pulls the plug on grandma after the insurance runs out lest it eat into the vacation fund? You’re not special. Your behavior is the exact same as everyone else. The difference between you and me is while you’re rationalizing your own behavior to fit in with your self-authored moral code I’m thinking about ways to get an even better car than the one I lost. Don’t be the one holding onto the bumper when I drive it off the lot.
Seriously? Am I supposed to shed a tear because you can’t have the exact car you want a few years after graduation? Please.
The worst thing about this guy is he thinks deep down everyone is just like him, except not as talented.
I can actually think of lots of people who give other family members money without resenting it. As I mentioned in the skiing in haiti post, it’s relatively common practice where I’m from, paying for your kids and they in turn pay for their own kids…allowing the prior generations to compensate for the financial shortcomings of their children until they can get on their feet, thus freeing them from debt and being able to save up enough to do the same for their own kids.
Just because you’d like to think everyone else is as selfish as you are to yourself feel better about not helping out a family member, doesn’t make it true. Though I question whether you have any guilt about it at all, but rather you know that others expect you to feel guilty about it so you came up with this charade to help make yourself seem less like a bastard.
Your sister probably does need a lesson, and making her sell her car and/or cancelling her phone probably delivers this lesson, however you forget that in doing so, you cripple her ability to stand on her own two feet and not require assistance. Back home a common practice is giving people phonecards like an allowance…they use it up, they’re done for the month unless they buy themselves more. Teach her responsibility rather than punish her for a mistake.
It seems pretty heartless to be so unforgiving…growing up is about making mistakes and learning from them, and if all she’s learned is that screwing up will cost her so dearly, she’ll never put herself out there again and, thus, will never stand a chance to live more than a mediocre life.
What a nasty, mean-spirited, and ridiculous post. Too bad your sister has such a brother; if you dislike her so much, then just cut off contact. As for debt, it is a big deal to be a young person graduating into a dead economy with $750 per month owed to Sallie Mae, which does have gangster powers. A tutorial is not neccessary–the law says there is no way out.
Honey, I think it’s hot that you tell your family members to fuck themselves and that you drive me around in your snazzy car. Maybe if they had paid for your education you’d have a little more $$ to offer. Come be lazy on the couch with me now and let’s watch something meaningless on our 52 in flat screen TV and talk about how great we are.
Yeah boyieeeeee!!!! Spoken like a true gangsta. I am glad somebody out there isn’t sitting around whining and asking for government handouts.
Heh heh, well played sir! Finally someone has the balls to say what we are all usually thinking. People always come out of the woodwork once you have a dollar, but when you’re a nickel short they are nowhere to be found.