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When bills pile up, young people turn to strangers on Venmo

latimes.com

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Re: When bills pile up, young people turn to strangers on Venmo

#51

Post by DiffEq »

rangeofmotion wrote: post #41

What I don't understand is why people don't band together and simply refuse, collectively, to pay bills that are well known in the culture to be unreasonable. In particular, student loans. But also a few other things. My god, I know so many people who are struggling that it seems like everyone is struggling. I know people making six figures who are worried about losing their homes. In fact, I've known so many people…

Perhaps it could start with, yeah I don't need that unreasonable brand new car with a 72 month payment plan, or I can take these college courses for 1/10 the cost at a community college rather than a more unreasonable expensive school, or I don't need that unreasonable 5500 square foot McMansion in that fancy neighborhood, or I don't need that unreasonable 10th pair of jeans, that unreasonable new iphone, etc. People bury themselves with debt - and not because they can't do math, but because they DON'T. Instead they make impulsive, emotional decisions. Hardly anything good ever comes from them. Unreasonable bills usually come from unreasonable decisions (Medical bills being an obvious exception).

Re: When bills pile up, young people turn to strangers on Venmo

#52

Post by [deleted] »

rangeofmotion wrote: post #41

What I don't understand is why people don't band together and simply refuse, collectively, to pay bills that are well known in the culture to be unreasonable. In particular, student loans. But also a few other things. My god, I know so many people who are struggling that it seems like everyone is struggling. I know people making six figures who are worried about losing their homes. In fact, I've known so many people…

[deleted]

Re: When bills pile up, young people turn to strangers on Venmo

#53

Post by AlwaysRock »

rangeofmotion wrote: post #41

What I don't understand is why people don't band together and simply refuse, collectively, to pay bills that are well known in the culture to be unreasonable. In particular, student loans. But also a few other things. My god, I know so many people who are struggling that it seems like everyone is struggling. I know people making six figures who are worried about losing their homes. In fact, I've known so many people…

Student loans are not unreasonable. Rising education costs are unreasonable. But anyone who took on student loans did so willingly.

Re: When bills pile up, young people turn to strangers on Venmo

#54

Post by shanemhansen »

hosh wrote: post #3
ryanmercer wrote: post #2

Their title is... ehhhh, I initially thought "oh a bunch of kids with heavy student loan debt for their liberal arts degrees are finding out adulating is hard" but in reality it is: (paraphrasing) my step-father was arrested for a DUI, can't prove citizenship, and my mom needs money to drive to another state to visit him in custody (/) This isn't novel, I've been hit up dozens of times on the street outside of shows,…

The larger themes are: 1. Community has always supported people in times of need, more so than government services. 2. The Internet had created distance amount community members 3. Use of the Internet for funds like this (or for Gofundme, etc.) is bringing that back, though with strangers 4. Shifting attitudes and values on whether this is acceptable 5. One Millennial is now setting aside funds for direct contributio…

> Community has always supported people in times of need

Sure, if you are the right gender, race, and religion.

Re: When bills pile up, young people turn to strangers on Venmo

#55

Post by benj111 »

rangeofmotion wrote: post #41

What I don't understand is why people don't band together and simply refuse, collectively, to pay bills that are well known in the culture to be unreasonable. In particular, student loans. But also a few other things. My god, I know so many people who are struggling that it seems like everyone is struggling. I know people making six figures who are worried about losing their homes. In fact, I've known so many people…

"In fact, I've known so many people who have either lost their home, almost lost their home, or are worried about losing their home that it makes up probably a majority of the people I know."

Doesn't seem to match up with

"Did we forget somewhere along the line that a home is just a patch of dirt with four walls and roof thrown on it"

I guess these people aren't struggling to afford a hut on a patch of dirt. I also guess you aren't condemning the majority of people you know as spendthrifts. So how are you reconciling the 2?

Re: When bills pile up, young people turn to strangers on Venmo

#56

Post by kaesar14 »

AlwaysRock wrote: post #53
rangeofmotion wrote: post #41

What I don't understand is why people don't band together and simply refuse, collectively, to pay bills that are well known in the culture to be unreasonable. In particular, student loans. But also a few other things. My god, I know so many people who are struggling that it seems like everyone is struggling. I know people making six figures who are worried about losing their homes. In fact, I've known so many people…

Student loans are not unreasonable. Rising education costs are unreasonable. But anyone who took on student loans did so willingly.

There are many who would argue that the willingness of a 18 year old to shoulder enormous financial responsibility to gain benefits largely denied to them by the way modern American society is constructed is not a real defense of the reasonableness of student loans.

Re: When bills pile up, young people turn to strangers on Venmo

#57

Post by benj111 »

futureastronaut wrote: post #20
sp332 wrote: post #15

"millennial culture is just passing around the same $20 to whoever needs it at the time forever." I see this a lot on my Twitter feed. Recently, a guy with metabolic issues and chronic pain (whose own GoFundMe was "trending" for a while) is setting up a charity livestream for someone else's surgery. https://twitter.com/docsquiddy/status/1148022827917938695

I don't think there's such a thing as "millennial culture."

I'm sure people who fought in WW2 said that about the boomers, who in turn said it about the gen Xers. In 20 years time we'll be reminiscing about emoji and snap chat and hipsters and whatever the kids are doing now.

Re: When bills pile up, young people turn to strangers on Venmo

#58

Post by rangeofmotion »

shados wrote: post #47
rangeofmotion wrote: post #41

What I don't understand is why people don't band together and simply refuse, collectively, to pay bills that are well known in the culture to be unreasonable. In particular, student loans. But also a few other things. My god, I know so many people who are struggling that it seems like everyone is struggling. I know people making six figures who are worried about losing their homes. In fact, I've known so many people…

> In particular, student loans Only if we're also collectively telling people not to take them in the first place. The current culture telling everyone to go to expensive private colleges, then bitching that they're burdened with loans and not pay them, is pretty toxic. Its should be a multi step thing. - Tell people how bad student loans are and how they shouldn't take them if they don't have a plan to pay them back…

I get what you're saying. I agree that college and university should be looked at differently going forward for a lot of people. It's just that there is a problem that exists right this minute, with an entire generation of people who already took the loans, not realizing the outcome they would face. I'm just looking at all the wreckage and sense of instability people have all around me right now, and it seems to make sense that some collective action should take place. Unless we just want to punish people until they are middle aged or older for not being financially savvy when they were 18 years old.

But my point wasn't really to pick out just student loans. Not just due to people being burdened with student loans but a wide variety of other issues... We're more and more seeing people who hope to be able to save their own lives with GoFundMe campaigns because they can't afford to stay alive. We're seeing the idea of owning a home fade for giant swaths of the population. One third of the country is currently "subprime" in the eyes of financial institutions. And my understanding is that percentage is expected go up. The Dollar Store's massive growth is predicated on the forecast of "a permanent underclass in America". I'm seeing, hearing, and reading about so many people having a hard time every single day. And I'm reading about the country readjusting to accommodate the situation as a permanent reality. If the institutions cannot help, then I do think it's probably reasonable for the people to force the issue, given how prevalent we are seeing these problems become.

Re: When bills pile up, young people turn to strangers on Venmo

#59

Post by omegbule »

rangeofmotion wrote: post #41

What I don't understand is why people don't band together and simply refuse, collectively, to pay bills that are well known in the culture to be unreasonable. In particular, student loans. But also a few other things. My god, I know so many people who are struggling that it seems like everyone is struggling. I know people making six figures who are worried about losing their homes. In fact, I've known so many people…

I respect the Irish in this regard when they refused to pay for a water bill that was introduced. They collectively managed to have it reversed as far as I can remember.

Re: When bills pile up, young people turn to strangers on Venmo

#60

Post by eli_gottlieb »

shados wrote: post #47
rangeofmotion wrote: post #41

What I don't understand is why people don't band together and simply refuse, collectively, to pay bills that are well known in the culture to be unreasonable. In particular, student loans. But also a few other things. My god, I know so many people who are struggling that it seems like everyone is struggling. I know people making six figures who are worried about losing their homes. In fact, I've known so many people…

> In particular, student loans Only if we're also collectively telling people not to take them in the first place. The current culture telling everyone to go to expensive private colleges, then bitching that they're burdened with loans and not pay them, is pretty toxic. Its should be a multi step thing. - Tell people how bad student loans are and how they shouldn't take them if they don't have a plan to pay them back…

>The current culture telling everyone to go to expensive private colleges

"Everyone" doesn't go to expensive private colleges. Of those who continue on from high-school at all, 75% attend a publicly owned institution, usually community college.

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