President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

That's pretty much what jesus said - "Love one another, unless your tendencies towards nationalism are threatened by said love. In that case: Feel free to hate as much as necessary."

I'm paraphrasing though.

 

Rich people took out student loans? I thought they just got their kids into Harvard as legacies.

 

The Sermon on the Stone Mountain

 

Actually, her district includes Lookout Mountain. Instead of 1776, she ought to consult the history books about November 24, 1863. Otherwise, she's a Hooker hater.

 

Kancel Kulture

 

Trump 3:16?

 

Ask them to tell you about the Good Samaritan.

 

Who the fuck lives in LA County that these fascists keep getting elected to run the sheriff's department?

 

Now that bribing someone to get a water polo scholarship is no longer an option.

 

I was traveling today and didn't get a chance to share my thoughts on the student loan bailout boondoggle proposal (which I know EVERYONE around here has been waiting with bated breath for). I am sympathetic with those who made the borrow-now-pay-later bet and, for whatever reason, simply can't make it work. But when these proposals are bandied about, so many seem willing to overlook the costs borne by so many others who chose differently.

A couple of folks around here have alluded to this reality -- I think @outofplace was one, but he wasn't the only one -- but college, like pretty much anything worth anything in this vale of tears, is almost always a compromise. There are those people who are fortunate to be able to tell their kids, "Hey, wherever you can get in that you wanna go, have at it!", but there aren't that many of them. For the vast majority of us, you find yourself weighing how important this is relative to how important that is, and the thisses and the thats are myriad. It's not unrealistic to think that a year or so ago, @outofplace and his wife were wrestling with the reality that they simply couldn't let their kid do whatever she wanted. Maybe she really wanted to go to school X, but the only way school X would be feasible was if she (and/or they) took on a whole lotta debt. And, ultimately, when push came to shove the three of them concluded that school Not-X was the wiser choice.

Now the reality is that their daughter will in all likelihood come out fine. You make your friends, you have your experiences, and gradually Not-X becomes the place you'll look back fondly on for the rest of your life (unless you had me as a prof!). Still ... getting to there sucks with a capital X. I've sat around those dinner tables and had those conversations with my kids and studiously tried to not see their looks of deep disappointment. Don't let anybody fool you ... it's hard as hell to go against your better judgement and NOT take on that debt. Even if you find a way around the dilemma ... maybe you work more (e.g., teaching summer school, as several of my teacher friends did when their kids were in college), or maybe you forego vacations for awhile, or maybe you dial back your retirement savings ... whatever, you're still bearing a cost.

I have an enormous amount of sympathy for people who took Uncle Sam at his word and plotted their courses accordingly. I don't have the faintest idea as to how you make them whole, but they ought to have a seat at the table. They certainly merit as much consideration as the Twittery Twitterers I jokingly mentioned earlier.

P.S. Just to be clear, I have no actual knowledge of what @outofplace and his family actually went through or chose. Perhaps they were lucky and their daughter had her heart set on the wise choice to begin with and little to no compromising was necessary. In that case, I'm really glad it worked out that way for them!