When your life is in shambles and the road from ruin is uphill and rocky there is a tendency for our brethren to convince themselves that the flatter road with smoother terrain also (might) lead to a safe place.  In other words, once we discover the real villain, we often decide this person is too powerful so we instead decide to pick on the gimpy blind kid who was just minding his own business.  It happens. We’re not perfect. However, sometimes we see two knights in battle, one for us and one against us, and we side with the one against us…not because we are frustrated with our own knight’s performance (which is what we claim) but because we can hurt our own knight more and we yearn to matter, or at least feel like we do. Now THIS is dangerous.

It is becoming somewhat chic for debtors, hipsters and young people to criticize Obama, essentially for not being the biblical messiah.  They use this criticism to justify their lack of participation in the political process and when criticized are quick to tell you how many doors they knocked on in 2008 and what Obama owes them, etc, etc.

Well that was 2008.  Where were you during the route of 2010? Where were you in 2009 when the public option was on the line? How many doors did you knock on then? Did you knock on doors before or after Obama won the primary? Were you there for Kerry during the swift boat smearing? Did you protest the invasion of Iraq? Bush v. Gore?

No, you didn’t. You just wanted a story to tell your grandkids. Well here’s news for you, regardless of what you did THEN your grandkids will be more impressed if you can have an intelligent dialogue about what’s going on NOW (the future now) and have made a positive contribution towards it.

As lifelong academics we are conditioned to achieve through short bursts of effort like those required to ace tests or write papers. We don’t do the multiple round fights. We don’t even like to be hit. Well we are going to have to change that. There’s no glory in knocking out the gimpy blind kid and there is shame in betraying a guardian protector when he is crossing swords on your behalf.

So I am aware that there are alot of blogs like this one, particularly ones that focus more on law school. I realize that these, like most blogs and radio talkshows before them are cynical, preachy and well…crazy. But am I a “Scam Blogger?” aka am I a blogger whose primary goal is to encourage individuals not to go to law school because I perceive it to be a scam?

Believe it or not I designed this blog to have balance. We have a conservative voice in Mike Triforce who loves the practice of law. We have someone who went the MD route, the PhD route, the MA route and someone who cut their losses. But there are some damning trends…

There are two JDs and if you count KF Li, two individuals on their way to the JD. Most of the blogs we link to have to do with the law. Is this because I am a lawyer and lawyers have it particularly bad and tend to like to write more than others or is there something else?

The answer is I don’t know. Who knows why I do anything? Maybe ai will link to some of the anti-scam blogger blogs and maybe I won’t. Am I mad? No REALLY mad? Yeah! But when push comes to shove I still think this blog’s primary goal is to discuss the trials and tribulations of the student loan boomerang generation. Like any writer however, the perspective that shines through is my own.

Please Take What is Left of Me
Though I Must Admit
It’s Not Much

I Cannot Take Care of You
In the manner you deserve
I owe so much

I Cannot Promise You That
Things Will Improve
The Principle Does Not Shrink

My Family Loves You They Want to Help
But my education bankrupted them
And Still I Was Forced to Borrow

I Was Promised A Job Several in fact
I studied diligently so I would be ready
The Job Was Not There

I Wander The Earth – You are My Only Compass
The uneducated and the rich mock me
I am humiliated

I labor intermittently for those younger and without my knowledge
They smile at me and whisper when my back is turned
I am labeled a failure

Generations past marveled at my opportunity due to their sacrifice
Now they turn their face from what I have become
I am a disappointment

I cannot ask you to make this burden yours
The feather cannot become one with the rock
So I stay silent

What is Left of Me is Yours
But I Stay Sikent for You
And it Breaks Your Heart

Making My Failure Complete

Here at Debtor’s Prison, we’re not big on posting links within articles.  But here’s one

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/29/your-money/student-loans/29money.html?pagewanted=1&adxnnlx=1275242514-wCTp6UtEV1S1hPtiShkU6Ahttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/29/your-money/student-loans/29money.html?pagewanted=1&adxnnlx=1275242514-wCTp6UtEV1S1hPtiShkU6Ahttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/29/your-money/student-loans/29money.html?pagewanted=1&adxnnlx=1275242514-wCTp6UtEV1S1hPtiShkU6A

I could respond to this point for point but that wouldn’t be fair to our readers too lazy to click the link and in order to provide themselves with the necessary context SO instead I will give the opposite scenario so my post stands alone.

Johnny and his parents approached college with a grim determination: to get through the process with as little cost and effort as possible.  Like many parents with their own lives Mr. and Mrs. Johnny were anxious to get another body out of the house and college savings weren’t what they could have been if certain cars hadn’t been leased and certain boats hadn’t been purchased.  But you only live once.  Besides, if Johnny possessed any particular gifts there would be scholarships.  There were no scholarships.

Johnny was going to state school.  But state school wasn’t free.  It ended up being cheaper to set Johnny up in his own place and let him get that Associate’s Degree before moving on to State.  When their friends asked where Johnny was attending school they said he was taking some time off to visit Europe.  Reluctantly, they sent him to Europe for a month to substantiate their story and so Johnny would do well enough to transfer to state after two years.

While getting his Associate’s Degree Johnny met working adults with children who had gone back to school.  After babysitting for one such parent, he’s offered a part-time job in a real office getting real experience in IT networking.  Johnny continues to work there summers after transferring to State and one Winter after his parents inform him they are only paying for three semesters.  Johnny gets college credit for his work and graduates in the same class as his peers. 

On the night of his graduation Johnny becomes intoxicated and hits and seriously injures a minivan filled with the relatives of a fellow graduate from out of state who paid more for a single class than Johnny has paid for his entire Bachelors.  Because Johnny befriended the son of a cop in community college he is able to name-drop his way out of any citation.  Instead the mother of the other graduate is charged.

Johnny goes to work for the IT shop full-time at a starting salary of $65,000.  His parents paid a total of $19,000 for his entire education.  During his college years Johnny was able to save $27,000.  Two years later his company pays for his MBA where he meets Lyla.  They fall in love, date, and eventually get pregnant.  Johnny considers proposing when he discovers that Lyla owes close to $150,000.  He cites that, not the kid, as the reason for their break-up.  He is currently 28, making six figures, and romantically involved with a young medical resident, a local waitress, and a 19 year-old high-school senior who hopes to attend his community college (where he lectures) after finishing summer school.

…Is this the new American Dream?

Being a mother is tough today.  Particularly if you are the mother of an inmate in debtor’s prison.  At a stage in life when you the parent should be looking forward to weddings and grandchildren, to eating holiday meals in the first homes of your children, and to finally receiving a little financial help, whether its to take a dream vacation or simply so you don’t have to worry about coming up short when the mortgage is due…you instead are finding yourself financially supporting your children.  And let’s be honest, you’re not “giving them a little help” like a down payment so they can afford a nicer home for their young family, you are providing them with all the essentials, shelter, food and transportation.  Just like when they were 10.

However here’s the difference.  Even a parent of a ten year-old who is doing rather poorly in school expect said child to be relatively self-sufficient by the time they are in their mid-twenties.  However if you are the parent of a child in their late twenties or early thirties with no job prospects and a crippling debt load you must deal with the uncertainty of whether that child will EVER be self-sufficient even if they have been academically successful all their lives. 

A running joke on this blog is the, for lack of a more eloquent phrase, the crap I take for living at home with my Mom.  Underneath that delightfully dysfunctional surface however there are deep, deep issues as I believe there are for all mothers.  Seeing your child’s life on pause, seeing them battle depression, low self-esteem and general sadness is heartbreaking for any parent.  It is particularly heartbreaking when that parent feels somewhat responsible. 

If you have a mother worth her salt she pushed you, challenged you and demanded the very best of you in everything you did, particularly with respect to your education.  Your mother then probably encouraged you to go to the better (and probably more expensive) of your college choices.  She encouraged you to go to graduate school.  And if that choice hasn’t worked out perfectly no doubt she feels somewhat to blame.

Look kids, here’s the deal.  You are not dead yet.  Not even close.  Nobody knows what will come of your degree over the course of your lifetime.  Remember, going to school was about more than the paycheck you would get when you came out.  It was about pride.  It was about confronting an elitist world, standing toe-to-toe with the best and saying “I am.” You did this, and nobody can take it away from you or from the woman who sent you.

Finally, I will leave you with this – the way you got into and through college was by bonding with your mother.  You guys were a team.  You fought through the financial aid red tape, the application process, and the endless issues of crazy roommates who somehow always got invited to dinner when your mom was in town.  Remember, going to college wasn’t just about you, it was about moving forward as a family.  That still ought to be your collective goal.  Moving forward as a family.  Some battles have been won, others have been lost, but the war rages on and the alliance is strong.

Hello my name is Benito Mario. I am a fan of the original Star Wars and Indiana Jones trilogies. Due to the gross incompetence and sheer inadequacy of recent films, in addition to a personal written apology I would also like you to pay my student loans. It really is the least you can do.

By way of background:Back when my life had hope I used to enjoy such classics as The Star Wars and Indiana Jones trilogies. A classic nerd, in addition to memorizing large chunks of dialogue I also had all the books from the Young Indiana Jones chronicles and the Heir to the Empire series…therefore I knew where Indiana Jones comes from and I knew what happens after Anakin finally restores balance to the force. What I didn’t know was how Anakin became Vader or what became of Indiana after he rode off into the sunset after finding the greatest treasure of all time. I spent literally 20 years thinking about the answer to these questions. It would have been nice if George Lucas and Steven Spielberg had spent say, 20 minutes thinking about it.

I am not going to even attempt to break down the numerous failures of the recent films. There are entire websites devoted to that. Instead I am going to talk about how these failures have affected me.  I used to use the films as an escape from the world of school, a break of sorts. But back then I was a kid who had nothing to worry about but school and bullies and the former was more forte. In other words life wasn’t all that bad.

By the time the new films came out life wasn’t so simple. I had a debtload I was just beginning to realize was going to be a crippling burden even if I found and maintained employment on the higher end of the employment spectrum. I went to these movies because I wanted to be inspired and reminded of a time when I didn’t wake up everyday scared. Then I saw the films and the only way it would have been complete would have been if one of you took a big steaming crap in my overpriced popcorn.

As I always promise but is particularly appropriate here if you have the basic decency to fork over the 212k I won’t use it for my own debt, I will set up a trust for student debtors so that they can get some level of relief over time. You owe us at least that.

So as my vacation began to wind down I asked myself how all the overpriced coffee shops, dive bars posing as pubs and tiny bookstores with the selection you would expect from any the shelf of an eighth grader with a C average stay in business during the other 11 months and two weeks when I never deviate from the from the well-worn path between the apartment and the hospital.  The answer of course is hipsters.

So what is a hipster? A hipster is a self-righteous individual well into adulthood who rationalizes living off an income they do not generate while contributing nothing to society.  The individuals are plagued by an almost crippling insecurity and the need to validate their existence by constantly talking about their own achievements real, exaggerated or imagined.  Hipsters tend to be very selectively judgmental, priding themselves on their ability to adhere to a personal code of ethics based upon a celebration of their own appetites and a condemnation of others who prefer different vices.  They are also self-absorbed. Facebook.  Twitter. Myspace.  Need I say more?

Is it possible for a student debtor to be a hipster? Am I…a hipster? Read on to find out

Yes, a student debtor can be a hipster.  It’s just the income they do not generate are loans.  So what you might ask? You have fun in school, get out, get a job and you grow up FAST and drive a Kia until you are 40.  Or do you? The problem with being a student-debtor hipster is this: even if you get a job that allows you to both pay your loans AND spend your money the way an eleven year-old might spend his allowance (can’t get to the bargain stores on your bike after all) you begin to get lazy.  Here’s why.  The hipster lifestyle is based on sleeping twelve hours a day and having conversations about nothing.  You can’t truly be a hipster and work even a 9-5 job.  If you have significant debt and a job with the potential of paying it chances are you work harder than that, or at least you should.  But you don’t 1) because you are hipster 2) you think you’re better than them because you have a job…which you feel entitled not to go to.  But you’ll cash that check.

Now for the harder question.  Am I a hipster? Worse yet, am I the worst KIND of hipster? I like being served over-priced coffee by someone with an attitude.  I don’t care if Dunkin Donuts serves better, cheaper coffee by someone who understands what service means and doesn’t think they are too good for their job.  I would never be caught dead ordering the same beer in my ‘fridge out in public (by that I mean Center City).  But that’s not the worst of it.

The worst of it is this – the only reason my student loans are somewhat manageable is that my boyfriend pays for everything.  I don’t mean like when we go out.  I mean everything.  Rent.  Utilities. Cable. Phone. Internet. Groceries.  I have a credit card for miscellaneous purchases that he pays in my purse.  And here’s the worst of it.  After Alpha Man’s vampire crack I tried to retort – but I don’t know what he does exactly.  So sad.

My name is Icarus. I am 30 years old. Last week I met a 20 year-old older than me. Only two years into school was he. Yet he had borrowed more than me.

We were at a concert but he could not hear. The debt reached up to his very ears. A twenty year-old older than me. For I had much less debt than he.

A girl approached him. He could have been laid, but instead he talked about his financial aid. Aid if it can be called that. She turned to me and together we enjoyed the majesty of the concert.

He could not stay for the encore. For he had books over which to pour. Lest he remain poor. Every month new loans reminding him what was at stake. A twenty year-old older than me. For I had borrowed less than he.

Sadly I was able to take no joy in this. For on that day many years from now when he takes the podium to accept an award for excellence in his chosen field he will hear muted notes from the concert he missed all around him. And he will think of the girl. And his student debt unpaid. And the fact that the podium is in an empty room and the award one he gave himself. Then he will return to the temp agency, having never found a job utilizing his degree.

A twenty year-old. Older than me. For I have lighter chains than he.