It’s been a while.  When you’re a doctor you end up saying that a lot, especially around friends. Like most black folk, after the initial rage at the Trayvon shooting subsides we reflect on our lives and blessings start thinking about other shit we’re mad about. Mine is health disparities.  Perhaps they are related.  I mean if you had a statistical reason to believe that any meal could be your last before being gunned down by a cop or being wrongfully incarcerated perhaps chicken and ribs would be an appropriate diet.   I have no idea what Simon eats (I am a lousy girlfriend) but subconsciously I am sure I don’t worry about it as much because he’s white. How messed up is that?

As I slave away at my fellowship, becoming a full-fledged doctor in my chosen field is within site.  But I am 32. And I am still poor.  My finance major friends are at a point where there investments yield interest that is equivalent to my salary.  But hey, at least I am helping people right? Well sorta.  Patients.  One at a time. Who would be helped by someone else who would have gotten this spot in this fellowship if I didn’t exist.  I would have preferred to work in policy where my work had the potential to help many people and couldn’t have been accomplished by some other shmuck willing to stay in school until they were 40.

I talked to my Mom about this once.  Going into public health.  She replied that a B+ inorganic chemistry was no big deal (in fact it was and I lost the car for a semester).  I mentioned the same thing to my dad who referred me back to my mother. But taking up Benito’s mantle of re-inventing oneself I decided, at this EXTREMELY late time in the game to go back and see if it wasn’t too late.

It’s too late.  Public health folks, particularly those who work closely with Medicaid and other programs don’t much care for doctors.  That’s because Medicaid doesn’t reimburse doctors at as high a rate as private insurance and doctors are forever bitching about it.

Now as I said, I’m poor.  I’ll be 35 before I start making six figures. My financial friends have been making close to seven and my lawyer friends are either dead or close to making partner. It’s time for me to get mine, and hell yes I picked my specialty based on the number of routine procedures I knew insurance wouldn’t question and hell yes I’ll run some unnecessary tests and hell yes I do have my first Mercedes picked out.

When I met a friend from college who still views me as a person and not a doctor we finally got down to some real talk.  Med  school is too long, but it ain’t like law school where you can just lop off a year and nothing happens. To make the medical path shorter college (and perhaps even high school) would need to be severely truncated. Also the government needs to pick up that tab for schooling and offer us docs a couple tax credits on the back end.

But its whatever.  Nothing puts a single death in context like thinking about millions of deaths.  The Supreme Court is about to condemn millions to death because they have a grudge against the President. At least Trayvon’s killer has to live in hiding. Those evil, faux-pious bastards will be lauded for their despicable ruling. I also love how six hours of oral argument over three days is a huge deal and they complain that going through the entire law EVEN THOUGH THEY HAVE CLERKS.  But again, it’s whatever.  It’s not like lives are at stake. Oh wait.  Wow, I really hate them.

Not sure if you can see my icon.  Obviously we are experiencing technical difficulties.  rest assured I’m KF Li.

Checking in. Just studying for the CA bar.  Currently the plan is to pass the CA bar (which if you recall doesn’t require a JD) and then in Feb sit for the NJ bar using my CA law license in lieu of a JD.  I figure the chances of both the CA and NJ folks showing borderline competence at the same time and thereby discovering my ruse are pretty slim.  Then yeah, hang out in law school while searching for that lottery client who can get me verdict I need to clear my debts, invest the remainder and live off the interest.  I have nothing by the way of infrastructure to actually litigate a case, so it’s going to have to be one heck of a demand letter.

I wonder why more folk don’t do this.  It seems the only sensible way to go about the attempted practice of law.  But it’s unorthodox and it’s unsafe and that means that most people have something to lose.  Despite what Benito said, surely someone who does everything right and gets screwed gets at least one iota of sympathy not afforded to someone like me who the conventional wisdom states is doing things ass-backwards.

But I’ve been the shut-in with no credit living on his mother’s couch and I am prepared to back there if need be.  If it all goes to hell it’s been one heck of a party.  And if I am successful someday I’ll buy toilet paper made from strips of Harvard degrees awarded to the chronicly unemployed.  I’ll make one exception for a degree of sligtly lower pedigree in Benito’s case.  I’ll even pay him the going price.

Roy Jones Jr. is a 16 year-old engineering protege who decided to attend The Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, an HBCU, over ivy-league institutions and since has suffered ridicule for his courageous, brilliant and right decision. He exemplified honor, discipline and pride throughout the ordeal and has responded admirably to his critics. It is high time someone commended this young man and help him up as an example of someone who has acted with audacity, pride and power.

The implication for this blog is obvious. Mr. Jones chose the school that offered him the best scholarship, education and experience. He demonstrated wisdom beyond the grasp of 18 and 19 year-oldsters, citing the quality of his specific program and his recognition that many of the schools that accepted him are prestigious in name only. Mr. Jones is not a clown or a performer. He is not here to amuse or impress you because you don’t have a job for him. You can’t afford his services. Mr. Jones has impressed Lockeed Martin. Perhaps you’ve heard of them – they are one of the many employers unimpressed with your over-academic pedigree and has yet to respond to your unsolicited job application.

So why all the hate? Let me tell you why. Mr. Jones scares the mediocre/marginally above average establishment that uses student debt and prestigious schools to weed out minorities and then hunt down and destroy the ones who are so bright that the system has to let them in the front door.  Why, if our best and brightest who happen to be black choose their own institutions free of daily exposure to virulent racism and prejudice that stunts their youthful minds from developing while simultaneously keeping themselves off our radar until they are strong enough to withstand our attacks then we are in serious danger of developing into a pluralistic society.

Detractors of Mr. Jones expected him to pay more money and travel further for an inferior education that he’ll have to earn amidst a student body and faculty that will credit affirmative action for his presence there – and make sure he knows it – only to plop the credential on a potential employer’s desk and find out his attitude is pretty much the same.  You’d like that wouldn’t you? Sorry. Mr. Jones is too smart for that. You’re just going to have to compete with him. Guess who my money is on?

Dear Mr. Tyler:

My name is Benito Mario and it is my humble request that you pay my student loans.  You may wonder why I am writing you specifically for this undeserved handout.  Mostly its because your decision to forego your senior year of HIGH SCHOOL not college is causing your name to trend highly on yahoo at the moment I am sitting down to write this before I get to a more serious post.

There are other reasons though.  You and I are actually alot alike.  Read on to find out how.

You and are alot alike Mr. Tyler.  We both realize the limits of education.  You will forego school to make a fortune, I paid a fortune to go to school.  You are foregoing a high school diploma for paper worth something, I paid alot for several graduate level diplomas worth nothing but the value of their paper.  We have mustaches.  Both are perhaps ill-adviced.

We’ve also faced adversity.  After working hard for almost 20 years to excel academically, I find myself over-qualified for most jobs, unemployed and drowning in debt.  After…living for almost 20 years to excel at basketball you find yourself under-qualified for the NBA and college ball since you failed to graduate from high school.  I owe about 210k and you made 140k, both divisible by 70k.  Ok, that’s a stretch.  I actually owe 213k, well 212k and change.  While that’s more than what you’ve made to date technically, I am sure you’ll meander your way into the NBA before any of these other celebrities who have already made it will actually do me the courtesy of returning my letter.

Well keep your chin up.  As a fellow grown-man having gone back to living with his mother after failing in his first outing into the real world I can tell you that you eventually get numb enough to the shame that you can at least function on a daily basis.  We are a part of a special brotherhood.  And that’s why you should pay off my debt and invite me to join your entourage once you make it big.

Hi Kids. People have been commenting that there has been less useful information and more paranoia, idiocy and douche-baggery in recent posts SO yours truly has decided to start at the beginning with this simple principle: You are taxed on what you make, and you pay interest on what you borrow. If this simple truth does not inform your big picture than you are hopelessly at risk of over borrowing.

Now I know what you’re thinking, if you got into a school good enough to merit borrowing to attend, then you should be able to add and subtract right? I am sure each of us has made decisions that are different from what we would have chosen as our answer if our situation had been presented to us as a word problem on the SAT.

Let’s take the following example. Most students, generally speaking would be willing to borrow twice as much money for an education where graduates typically earn twice as much. After all debt is a one time expense and you can enjoy your higher salary for the rest of your life right? Now let’s apply our new Golden Rule.

Turns out the take home of someone who makes 100k isn’t twice that of our buddy making 50k. Uncle Money Bags is taxed at a much higher rate. Now let’s turn to the debt. Turns out Uncle Money Bags had to take out private loans with a much higher interest rate and his monthly payments are well over twice that of our buddy making 50k.

But still things will even out right? Eventually Uncle Money Bags will win out, I mean he wants his money so…badly. Maybe it does and maybe it doesn’t. The heavy borrower is much more likely to pay several times the principle over the course of the loan. Also Uncle Money Bags could get laid off at which point he has no bankruptcy protection. In theory he has the option of forebearance. However a bank or loaning institution is less likely to trade money for a sob story as the tooth fairy is to trade a quarter for eight inches of used floss. Turns out a debt is a lifetime expense while your income is tied to the job security in your field and the economy as a whole.

I realize I am biased. My main source of income has just switched from snow shoveling to washing the undercarriages of cars with my new invention “hose on a stick” and I live at home. My own mom is ashamed of me and rather than recite my sad saga just tells church members I have a drug problem.