this post was submitted on 26 May 2024
772 points (95.8% liked)

Comic Strips

12936 readers
2956 users here now

Comic Strips is a community for those who love comic stories.

The rules are simple:

Web of links

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 89 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (6 children)

This is pretty specific to millenials in the USA...

In Australia for citizens, the government subsidises around 75-80% of the cost of university, loans are through the government and are interest-free (just indexed for inflation once per year), and payments are based on income - no payment required at all if you're earning less than AU$51k/year, and payment rates vary between 1% of your income at $51k/year to 10% of income for $151k/year or higher.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 6 months ago

Yeah, here nearly all education is completely free and they even pay you (not a lot but still). You can also take a loan from the government with very low interest and until recently literally zero interest.

Some people even take the loan and put the money in a savings account and make a profit.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

This is pretty specific to millenials in the USA

UK too at the very least, though I'm sure there are other places this applies, too (yes, uni used to be free here, but the cost has been steadily increasing, as has the necessity of a student loan to attend).

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

More specifically, millennials in the US that decided to go to a big name school instead of a local community college.

[–] BackOnMyBS 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Community colleges only offer up to associate's degrees. If you happen to live in a state where they got bumped up to colleges that offer bachelor's, then maybe, but those tend to have limited 4-year degrees and aren't going to really help anyone land lucrative jobs. A person with a 4-year degree from Orange County College will likely get passed up for a person with a degree from State University.

Master's and doctorate's are only given at universities and their tuitions are typically at least 3 times more per credit. Those include nurse educators, therapists, social workers, public school teaching managers, public administrators, non-profit managers, professors, historians, sociologists, community organizers, ... basically any type of specialized public servant and social scientist that makes okay middle-class income is going to be in significant student debt while also coming out of school later. Lots of these don't even get to start making the okay income until several years of experience in the field. Also, just because a teacher has a master's degree doesn't mean there's a public school manager position available, and when there is, it's going to be a competitive hiring process where many will apply but only one gets hired.

That means that many people don't achieve these positions until their 30s. By that time, they've likely been paying very little into their student debt, possibly allowing interest to accrue and increase the amount owed. Once they make enough to actually start decreasing the principle, they're also getting a home loan and start raising children, which is even more expenditure. Being a lower- to middle- class millennial and younger with a goal of tertiary education is practically an unaware commitment to being a debt slave.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

My country's economy is so far down the drain hole we didn't even have loans until last month, the banks were only loaning to the government because it paid better

But hey at least we have public universities

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Which country do you live in?

[–] Shardikprime 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

I want to say Argentina as real house/department mortgages are being offered from 90k USD up to 250k USD, some rare cases have no limits on the amount. Those weren't available since 2017/2018 and now, because of the new government lowering of interest rates to the central bank, banks have to work like banks, loaning to people to earn on those interests instead of having the central bank work for them printing money like in the previous government

Curiously the same happened in Venezuela last month as well. Now banks are loaning for vehicles and house renovations, about 2k USD to 10k USD, Venezuela's case is more about USD being from years now the de facto currency by the people's decision. Banks save the government now want to start keeping customers/people as there is nothing much tying venezuelans to a dying currency such as the Bolivar.

The differences in amounts are staggering tho

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Yep, we were headed straight to become the next Venezuela. Only time will tell if we really avoided it or not, things seem to be looking up but we've been fucked over multiple times before

[–] Shardikprime -1 points 6 months ago

I ride the same boat as you my friend. Let's hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Yeah I'm Canadian and I paid off my student loans a couple of years after finishing Uni. I did live at home for school though which kept my costs down.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

I lived at home too. That's pretty common in Australia.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 6 months ago

I knew about student loans for the first time until I checked on YNAB subreddit (a spending managing app/website, in short) and seeing many users had a Student Loan category lol.