artsy-fartsy vs. college-students' debt
I read this editorial this morning and while I read "Geo-Greening By Example", I thought to myself... damn straight! the old man should ride in a bullet-proof, hybrid Escape!
For those of you who loved seeing or hearing about The Gates in NYC, turns out this art form is going to be a growing trend!
I REALLY still want to see this show...
While watching CBS Sunday Morning, I got to hear about this review [stupid] that was talking about this exhibition. So, Who wants to kill two birds with one stone and see the First Ladies exhibit and hit "Ashes and Snow" with me? "Ashes and Snow" leaves it's current location - Hudson River Park's Pier 54 @ W 13th St - on June 6... and although tix are $12, with student IDs it is a delightfully small $6.
Personally, I have yet to do the 'normal' thing and take a trip. 2-3 days with family & friends at their places of residence don't count, nor do they get me air miles or even to a place of tropical climate [i.e. MIA]. However, this does not mean I am ungrateful, and I do believe that this debt does bite some people in the ass and others, not.
Lastly, this article was interesting. I had missed her first piece on this subject, but :
I had no idea I would touch off such a storm when I wrote that college students, who are racking up student loan debt that could take them two or three decades to pay off, can't afford to take spring break vacations.
Reader responses fell into two camps. In the far more financially responsible and conservative camp were those who agreed that being young isn't an excuse to spend unwisely.
Then there was the camp that argued college students should throw financial caution to the wind because they're only young once.
Here's a sampling of what folks in the "don't spend what you don't have" corner had to say (some writers asked that I not use their names):
• "Far too many people feel like they 'need' to indulge themselves," wrote a Scotch Plains, N.J., mother of two college students who have not taken spring break vacations. "I guess it helps that I never went on lavish vacations myself. My children knew I was saving for more important things -- like their educations."
• Karla Weigold of Minneapolis said: " 'I want what I want when I want it' is the perfect phrase and description for too many spending habits these days."
• "While in college I went on spring break once or twice, and of course I couldn't afford it," wrote a captain in the Marine Corps. "I was one of those who piled on the credit card debt and student loans while holding down two jobs. And I paid for all the 'fun' I had over the next five years as my wife and I struggled to pay off our credit cards."
Now here's a sample of the comments from the "you're only young once" crowd:
• From a college student who has amassed "a reasonable amount of debt" from trips: "My parents are always behind me in my decisions to go abroad. This includes for leisure [and] academic purposes. They never had the opportunity to venture off to these locations, and they see it as an advantage for me to have the privilege of expanding my horizon."
• David W. Pearlman, a certified financial planner from Lauderhill, Fla., wrote: "I would ordinarily agree with paying off debt before going on vacation, but in this instance, I must take exception to your article. The four years after a young person graduates high school and is in college are a very special time. While nobody should spend money frivolously, when will [college students] have this type of fun again?"
• "Let's say that a college student went on a different vacation every year, at a rate of return of just one memory a day complemented by one cultural experience a year. . . . He would end up with something you can't put a dollar sign in front of. Sure, he might not have the down payment for a house, but at least he's interesting when you meet him at a party."
• "I graduated from college with $25,000 in loan debt. I am now completing law school. I will end up with almost $150,000 in debt by the time I finish. I spent one summer traveling abroad during law school and will spend another month doing so after I take the bar exam and before I start my job. These trips will cost me close to $10,000 -- none of which I have in cash to spend. Isn't the point of debt to smooth your consumption over your life? I have the time to vacation now but not the money. Later in life I expect to have the money but not the time. Financial wisdom is critical in life, but so is living life and remembering that income is earned to live."
I wanted to bang my head on my desk after reading that last e-mail.
"Running up a credit card and spending what one does not have will surely be a hard habit to break," pointed out Diane Street of Dover, Del. "These young adults don't learn responsibility in one day or in one year. It is an ongoing process."
That's right. It's a process that should start long before you go off to college.
And this notion that reckless piling on of consumer debt is excusable because you're young and need to experience life is ludicrous.
Besides, as Teri Siber of Canton, Ohio, pointed out, "Your life doesn't end when you are no longer in college."
People who fell into the "you're only young once" camp act as if nary a single post-college adult has ever taken a vacation once they left school.
But I guess I can't argue with one Michigan college student who maintained that young people have a right to make their own mistakes. She wrote: "I'd just like to remind you that college students are also adults. If we don't know how to handle our finances (our business) then it's our own fault and in the end we'll suffer."
She's right (sigh). Young people do have the right to be as simple as they want to be.
Article by: Michelle Singletary
Published in: The Washington Post, Sunday, March 27, 2005; Page F01
For those of you who loved seeing or hearing about The Gates in NYC, turns out this art form is going to be a growing trend!
I REALLY still want to see this show...
While watching CBS Sunday Morning, I got to hear about this review [stupid] that was talking about this exhibition. So, Who wants to kill two birds with one stone and see the First Ladies exhibit and hit "Ashes and Snow" with me? "Ashes and Snow" leaves it's current location - Hudson River Park's Pier 54 @ W 13th St - on June 6... and although tix are $12, with student IDs it is a delightfully small $6.
Personally, I have yet to do the 'normal' thing and take a trip. 2-3 days with family & friends at their places of residence don't count, nor do they get me air miles or even to a place of tropical climate [i.e. MIA]. However, this does not mean I am ungrateful, and I do believe that this debt does bite some people in the ass and others, not.
Lastly, this article was interesting. I had missed her first piece on this subject, but :
I had no idea I would touch off such a storm when I wrote that college students, who are racking up student loan debt that could take them two or three decades to pay off, can't afford to take spring break vacations.
Reader responses fell into two camps. In the far more financially responsible and conservative camp were those who agreed that being young isn't an excuse to spend unwisely.
Then there was the camp that argued college students should throw financial caution to the wind because they're only young once.
Here's a sampling of what folks in the "don't spend what you don't have" corner had to say (some writers asked that I not use their names):
• "Far too many people feel like they 'need' to indulge themselves," wrote a Scotch Plains, N.J., mother of two college students who have not taken spring break vacations. "I guess it helps that I never went on lavish vacations myself. My children knew I was saving for more important things -- like their educations."
• Karla Weigold of Minneapolis said: " 'I want what I want when I want it' is the perfect phrase and description for too many spending habits these days."
• "While in college I went on spring break once or twice, and of course I couldn't afford it," wrote a captain in the Marine Corps. "I was one of those who piled on the credit card debt and student loans while holding down two jobs. And I paid for all the 'fun' I had over the next five years as my wife and I struggled to pay off our credit cards."
Now here's a sample of the comments from the "you're only young once" crowd:
• From a college student who has amassed "a reasonable amount of debt" from trips: "My parents are always behind me in my decisions to go abroad. This includes for leisure [and] academic purposes. They never had the opportunity to venture off to these locations, and they see it as an advantage for me to have the privilege of expanding my horizon."
• David W. Pearlman, a certified financial planner from Lauderhill, Fla., wrote: "I would ordinarily agree with paying off debt before going on vacation, but in this instance, I must take exception to your article. The four years after a young person graduates high school and is in college are a very special time. While nobody should spend money frivolously, when will [college students] have this type of fun again?"
• "Let's say that a college student went on a different vacation every year, at a rate of return of just one memory a day complemented by one cultural experience a year. . . . He would end up with something you can't put a dollar sign in front of. Sure, he might not have the down payment for a house, but at least he's interesting when you meet him at a party."
• "I graduated from college with $25,000 in loan debt. I am now completing law school. I will end up with almost $150,000 in debt by the time I finish. I spent one summer traveling abroad during law school and will spend another month doing so after I take the bar exam and before I start my job. These trips will cost me close to $10,000 -- none of which I have in cash to spend. Isn't the point of debt to smooth your consumption over your life? I have the time to vacation now but not the money. Later in life I expect to have the money but not the time. Financial wisdom is critical in life, but so is living life and remembering that income is earned to live."
I wanted to bang my head on my desk after reading that last e-mail.
"Running up a credit card and spending what one does not have will surely be a hard habit to break," pointed out Diane Street of Dover, Del. "These young adults don't learn responsibility in one day or in one year. It is an ongoing process."
That's right. It's a process that should start long before you go off to college.
And this notion that reckless piling on of consumer debt is excusable because you're young and need to experience life is ludicrous.
Besides, as Teri Siber of Canton, Ohio, pointed out, "Your life doesn't end when you are no longer in college."
People who fell into the "you're only young once" camp act as if nary a single post-college adult has ever taken a vacation once they left school.
But I guess I can't argue with one Michigan college student who maintained that young people have a right to make their own mistakes. She wrote: "I'd just like to remind you that college students are also adults. If we don't know how to handle our finances (our business) then it's our own fault and in the end we'll suffer."
She's right (sigh). Young people do have the right to be as simple as they want to be.
Article by: Michelle Singletary
Published in: The Washington Post, Sunday, March 27, 2005; Page F01