Posted on 10/27/2018 4:44:26 PM PDT by Simon Green
Chad Haag considered living in a cave to escape his student debt. He had a friend doing it. But after some plotting, he settled on what he considered a less risky plan. This year, he relocated to a jungle in India. "I've put America behind me," Haag, 29, said.
He now lives in a concrete house in the village of Uchakkada for $50 a month. His backyard is filled with coconut trees and chickens. "I saw four elephants just yesterday," he said, adding that he hopes to never set foot in a Walmart again.
His debt is currently on its way to default. But more than 9,000 miles away from Colorado, Haag said, his student loans don't feel real anymore.
"It's kind of like, if a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, does it really exist?" he said.
The philosophy major concedes that his student loan balance of around $20,000 isn't as large as the burden shouldered by many other borrowers, but he said his difficultly finding a college-level job in the U.S. has made that debt oppressive nonetheless. "If you're not making a living wage," Haag said, "$20,000 in debt is devastating."
He struggled to come up with the $300 a month he owed. The first work he found after he graduated from the University of Northern Colorado in 2011 — when the recession's effects were still palpable — was on-again, off-again hours at a factory, unloading trucks and constructing toy rockets on an assembly line. He then went back to school to pursue a master's degree in comparative literature at the University of Colorado Boulder. After that, he tried to make it as an adjunct professor, but still he could barely scrape a living together with the one class a semester he was assigned.
Haag had some hope restored when he landed full-time work as a medical courier in Denver, delivering urine and blood samples to hospitals. However, he was disappointed to find that he brought home just $1,700 a month. He had little money left over after he paid his student loan bill. He couldn't afford an apartment in the city, where rents have been rising sharply. He lived with his mother and rarely went out with friends.
"I couldn't make the math work in America," Haag said. Milestones that seemed like pipe dreams back home, like starting a family, and owning a house, are now on his horizon. This year he married an Indian citizen, a professor at a local college. He now has a five-year spousal visa, and plans to renew it when the time comes.
Adjusting to a new country, he admitted, has not been entirely easy. "Some toilets here are holes in the ground you squat over," Haag said. Recently, he ate spoiled goat meat at a local restaurant and landed in the emergency room.
Still, he said, "I have a higher standard of living in a Third World country than I would in America, because of my student loans."
As long as they vote for politicians who encouraged them to become "educated" and are now promising to forgive their debt, it's all good. BTW, the reason his wife married him is because SHE wants to immigrate to the West, and hopes that having an American husband and half-American children will give her an edge.
Elephants might be interesting the first dozen times you see them, but they can't take the place of an American emergency room when you have appendicitis at 3:00 AM.
Universities are seats of higher learning, not vocational schools. People can attend in order to enrich themselves in addition to learning something that enables them to find a well paying job. The point I am trying to make is that the student is fully responsible for doing coursework appropriately for a career, not the university.
Maybe there were children who wouldn’t listen to advice. I wish all of my life’s problems had come to me when I was 18 and knew everything.
but he said his difficultly finding a college-level job in the U.S. has made that debt oppressive nonetheless
_____________________________
this is the money-quote.
a college level job. What the heck is that?
You work and you make your way.
Your character determines the jobs you obtain.
$200/semester at UMass, 1965. Ahhh.
You are correct.
But many people have been caught in the trap of believing a university degree is a guarantee of a high paying job.
Uh huh, but the solution is a bit more terminal. Squish, squish.
Schools lie to the students? No — students lie to themselves. They want to get out of the house for sex, drugs and rock and roll. They want their own apartment, big screen tv, cell phone, etc. and they look for the easiest major. Too bad, so sad.
Hardly very practical, and viable for employment = wasted money unless it actually helped him be productive for good.
he brought home just $1,700 a month. He had little money left over after he paid his student loan bill. He couldn't afford an apartment in the city, where rents have been rising sharply. He lived with his mother and rarely went out with friends.
So if not paying rent, which he should, he had 1,400 left after paying his student loan. Yet he says,
"Some toilets here are holes in the ground you squat over," "I have a higher standard of living in a Third World country than I would in America, because of my student loans."
He could get a studio in plenty of cities for 800 or less a month (security depo may be an issue), spend 100 a month on food (learn to cook), and 100 more for transportation and other things (9.99 jeans at Walmart, 14.99 sneakers, etc. ), and still have 400 left over after making his student loan payment.
And if he got a job for the government, or a secular non-profit, and make all he payments for 10 years (120), then all the rest of his loan would be forgiven. and
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.