Young Money – Beating “The Man” by Spending Less • Hacker News Board

Re: Young Money – Beating “The Man” by Spending Less

#41

Post by dbecker » Tue, Feb 05, 2013, 6:54 PM UTC

firefoxman1 wrote: post #38

rscale wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A person who owned a few dozen slaves and a huge plantation was incredibly rich, high in the top 0.1% of the wealth distribution. Given the choice of being rich during the age of slavery, or being rich today, I'd prefer today.

Right, that's why "You really think you have it worse than somebody born into slavery?" is a ridiculous statement. Would being a slave in the past be any worse than being a slave today?

Would being a slave in the past be any worse than being a slave today?

Historically, slaves could be (and were) raped or killed by their "owner." When you talk about "slaves" today, are you talking about someone with a low wage? That's not slavery.

Unfortunately, there is still slavery in the 21st century, but that has nothing to do with the people discussed in this article.

Re: Young Money – Beating “The Man” by Spending Less

#42

Post by dbecker » Tue, Feb 05, 2013, 8:31 PM UTC

msandford wrote: post #35

msandford wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least if you died during WWII you were done. Now you can volunteer to rack up $200k+ in debt that will take you 10-20 (or more) years to pay off. It's not slavery in that it never ends but many students end up being very nearly indentured servants for a long time. Which is worse, death or debt "slavery?"

What's the criteria for downvoting? I don't get it.

I hadn't downvoted you (yet), but you seem to be suggesting an equivalence between:

i) Dying while fighting in trench warfare

ii) Paying back money loaned to you for your education (presumably, while living in a comparably safe and climate controlled apartment)

It's fine to say things people disagree with, but this is just non-sense.

If I'd been a soldier soldier deployed in battle, or if I'd lost a family member in battle, I would find your comment one of the more offensive things I've ever seen on HN.

Re: Young Money – Beating “The Man” by Spending Less

#43

Post by msandford » Tue, Feb 05, 2013, 8:41 PM UTC

dbecker wrote: post #42

msandford wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the criteria for downvoting? I don't get it.

I hadn't downvoted you (yet), but you seem to be suggesting an equivalence between: i) Dying while fighting in trench warfare ii) Paying back money loaned to you for your education (presumably, while living in a comparably safe and climate controlled apartment) It's fine to say things people disagree with, but this is just non-sense. If I'd been a soldier soldier deployed in battle, or if I'd lost a family member in…

WWII wasn't trench warfare, that was WWI.

I guess what I meant was "at least it was over quick" meaning that you died and that was the end of it. I'm not saying that paying back a loan is definitely equivalent to dying, but there are plenty of people killing themselves over debt that they cannot escape.

The problem in my mind is not that it was loaned to people to pursue their education (that's good!) but that it was loaned to them with no regard for their ability to pay it back. $200k for a finance degree or engineering or something like that with a reasonable chance of paying it off is good. But $200k loaned to someone to get a bachelors in sociology is not a good bet since they have little prospect of paying it off. And no recourse once they find out how stupid they've been.

In WWII people made tremendous sacrifices for the good of the country and quite possibly freedom world-wide. That's incredibly noble. The leaders who had to make tough choices did so knowing that they would be sending many people to their deaths and (hopefully) took that responsibility seriously.

I doubt many private university presidents really truly care how many lives they're ruining by allowing totally egregious interest rates.

EDIT: debt driven suicide on google pulls a lot of hits: http://www.google.com/search?q=debt+driven+suicide&oq=de...

EDIT2: Thanks for at least telling me why you think I'm an insensitive clod. I appreciate it.

Re: Young Money – Beating “The Man” by Spending Less

#44

Post by johngalt » Tue, Feb 05, 2013, 8:44 PM UTC

oberheitz wrote: post #7

"Life is hard, and it’s most certainly unfair… perhaps more so for our generation than any previous." Uhm, have you ever heard of World War II? I'm pretty sure the MacBook-toting hipsters you describe have a slightly easier life than those people had to serve in Vietnam or World War II.

Take the children of the great depression. Born in poverty then conscripted into the military for ww2. Those still alive raise their children in the shadow of imminent nuclear annihilation. Then have their children conscripted for Vietnam.

Oh and if they managed to avoid ww2 they get to spent a few years in Korea.

Re: Young Money – Beating “The Man” by Spending Less

#45

Post by jzwinck » Tue, Feb 05, 2013, 11:27 PM UTC

jpsierens wrote: post #24

I wanted to input that I as a student am basically the opposite of what this article is talking about. I'm from West-Europe so maybe that's a huge factor. I spend less than €100 a month. I live with my parents, and currently doing a Masters in the best uni of my country, which costs around €550 for a year. I take the train to class everyday which is about 1 hour, but a train subscription costs me €80 for 3 months. A…

Western europeans don't all have it this good. For example in London the train fare for an hour journey each way might be more like 700 pounds per quarter (roughly 15 times your own). There are some student discounts but they don't nearly make up that difference.