synapse collapse

Some interesting thoughts from Taylor:

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(Footnote: I know I’ve gone on and on about this before, but it’s such a disappointment that the new stimulus bill doesn’t include assistance for students who jumped through the hoops of higher education and are now rewarded with hundreds of dollars in monthly loan repayments. Does the stimulus containt money for improving the energy efficiency of grade schools?  Sure does, and the schools surely need it.  Money for partial assistance like work study programs during a new student’s tenure?  That, too.  Money to free up the new full-time young professionals who would be starting those tax-paying and stimulating small businesses?  Sorry.  In fact, the average undergraduate education now costs around $6,500 a year and is continually increasing in price; congratulations on your degree, here’s a job market flooded with experienced candidates and frozen credit markets, now please get to work and hand back half of your new income.)

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Just thought I’d throw out an amen to that. I didn’t realistically expect debt forgiveness as part of the bailout, but the point made here is true. I must be average, too, because my college debt costs me right around $6,500 per year, for the past five and the next 15 years (or thereabouts). I make more due to the degree, but I didn’t for several years. Those several years were also the years I was most inspired to start my own business, yet weighed down and unable to do so. I’m not trying to whine about this, and in the next few years I’d like to take a real stab at breaking out on my own, but I’ve known others who might have built job-creating business in their first year or two out of college were it not for the immediate need for more substantial income.