Can of Worms

A few days ago I posted an article from a global publication to FB about the increasing destructive nature of student loan debt with my opinion tacked on.  That opened up a rather impassioned dialogue but common to the passion was the fact that students generally do not use discernment in the use of student loan money.  Then yesterday in another newspaper I was reading was a political cartoon of a college student in cap & gown reaching for his diploma but trailing from beneath the gown was a ball and chain of student loan debt.  This week I have watched from the Senate floor debate on the issues of student loan debt and the increasing of loan rates coming up in the near term and what the government, we the taxpayers, can do to alleviate the terrible debacle student loans have created. So I have pondered ... read on!

I grew up in a family deeply affected by alcoholism so I will backboard my comments to that horrific remembrance.  I was angry for decades with the liquid substance of alcohol as the culprit as the core reason for the memories that still linger.  But then a few years ago I had one of those aha moments when it hit me clearly that the alcohol itself was less the issue subordinated by the fact of a choice on the part of my father and the millions of others to ingest that poison.  Choices have consequences if they are bad choices and I believe alcoholism is a process of really bad choices.  Yes there is clinical realities but it begins with poor choice.  

So the parallel to me as the son of an alcoholic to the ball and chain reality of student loan debt is that it is still about choice meaning the student at some point must reside at the decision gate of will I get loan money or not and then how will I best utilize those monies once in my possession and then, oh by the way, how will I build that into my economy to repay the monies loaned over time.  From that point onward, the choices take legs of execution and thus consequence for decades potentially.  The problem with money that comes too easily available, like alcohol, is that a dependency either clinically or from the luxury ride it can provide in the short term always comes to a pay day.  It is that pay day where we now reside as a nation.

As a professor and seeing hundreds of students from freshmen to seniors sit before me with multiple thousands of dollars in student loan debt and credit card debt piled on top, my heart hurts but then many times that hurt melts away quickly when I realize how the monies are being expended in unnecessary, frivolous, living beyond one's means lifestyle such as cars, jewelry, tattoos, etc, etc; it is then I get very angry at all the hoopla splashed across news ink, computer blogs and TV cameras. I realize there are legitimate examples of needs and needs met via student loan debt and thus there is a need for such a program. But when I see that lack of drive to really seek to get a college degree with zero loans meaning working for a living, going to school a little longer but earning the funds to pay for the tuition and books; I get really tight in my belly at the waste and yes, I said waste and this waste goes on, plus interest, for a lifetime.

Here is generally what I witness in my years now of university teaching ... students that work, that intern, that drive to complete their degree with no debt are better and more mature in their academic endeavor. As well, I see employers more seeking their services upon graduation for they have shown maturity and having actually accomplished something through sacrifice.  I think sacrifice is my operative word today for not enough students truly understand what that means; to sacrifice something now for something better in the future!

I will tell you for one person, me, I fully grasp that issue of sacrifice for I certainly did and am appreciative of the DNA I got from my mother of how important that verb really is.  Yes, you may not get to wear the clothes others do or drive cars as others do or have as many dates or restaurant meals but that which is not spent for vain reasons is money retained for higher purpose reasons. So yes, I fully know about sacrifice and yearn for my students to seek that noble ground. But then I must also realize many, perhaps most, of my students have never seen the living example within their homes of parents have to sacrifice which I saw daily in my mother.  I wish I could thank her now for the example she gave in being selfless instead of selfish!

So I have opened a much needed opened can of worms.  So let me summarize! Student loan debt is a choice which can be good or not good. Not good means bad choice and bad choice means consequence into marriage, children and even grandchildren. Choose well!  Learn the value of sacrificing now for something better in the future and entering a marriage and a career debt free is the greatest gift you can give a husband or wife and your children!

If I have hurt your feelings today; perhaps they needed a good hurting!  The only thing I hate more than pain is debt.  Debt is the worst form of cancer for whoever owns your debt owns your future.