This isn’t a post about design, but it’s quite relevant anyway.
My generation—I don’t care what you want to call us, but I’m talking about my peers who have graduated college in the last decade or so—is having a hard time.
Compared to the rates demanded by a healthy economy, we can’t afford houses. We aren’t starting businesses. We don’t buy a lot of nice cars. Beyond buying gadgets, we really don’t contribute much buying to the economy. And you know it, it’s because of these damn student loans…balances 20%, 10% my own are enough to choke the economic participation of my peers.
We take full responsibility for what we did. We wanted to go to college, to get better jobs and make our families proud, and we were willing to take on these loans to meet those goals. I take full responsibility for seeking a career my state schools couldn’t prepare me for, and seeking out a school that was one of the best in my desired field. I assumed the risks that I knew about, and I thought long and hard about those risks.
But then I found myself about to graduate, and I wanted to start my own business. I didn’t want or expect that at 20, let alone 17. I didn’t prepare for that eventuality. Doesn’t matter now; I’m pulling very flimsy rabbits out of very scary hats to try to make this happen, and time’s almost out.
I’m all for better educating high schoolers and young adults about the long-term implications of loans. But no education can expect everyone to prepare for every potential outcome of their lives. You just can’t. Shit happens. Things change.
So many are pointing their fingers, laying blame for how we got here. The students. The parents. The last five presidents. Congress. The banks. The school administrations. The school athletic departments.
You know what? It doesn’t matter anymore how we got here. We’re here. Shit’s going to hit the fan as my peers’ economic contribution continues to drop and drop until we finally, after we’re all over the hill, show up on radar. Ten, twenty years is too long for the American economy to wait. Unless the reality of the situation is faced, we as a nation end the blame game, and loans are forgiven in whole or in part for all or nearly all students; interest rates are slashed for existing as well as new loans; tax credits are significantly increased for debtholders; or a combination of any or all of these actions are taken, the decline of the American economy over the next half-century is inevitable.
Hopefully you have more hope for that than I do. In the meantime I’ll keep trying to pick myself up by my bootstraps with my hands tied behind my back.