America’s cash cows

I once told a coworker I didn’t have money to buy something and she said ‘come on you have money.’ I smirked and kept doing my work. As I tried to focus on the laptop screen in front of me, I couldn’t get that comment out of my head. Where the heck did my money go? One of the perks of being an older millenial is that you’ll never not worry about money. So I kept running this though my mind. Maybe I do have money, I thought. But all the money I earned from my full-time job and side hustles went towards paying rent, car, phone, and student loans.

I started to feel guilty about being broke. My mind was still racing and about 15-20 had passed. I sat there feeling ashamed and envying my coworker. wtf did I do wrong? Besides not knowing what I wanted in college and indebting myself to get a degree that would give me some guidance. Dumbest plan in the history of dumb plans. What was wrong with not knowing? Nothing, but then again I was made to feel ashamed for not having a plan. Not planning on a long term career that would give me stability.

Thousands of people in the same situation and the number keeps increasing. When I thought about being an adult the part about working to pay taxes and still not having money escaped me. ‘You shouldn’t have taken out loans if you didn’t have the money’, ‘It’s your fault for not understanding interest rates’,’Why did you go to a private university?’ and the list goes on. Well I could have avoided taking loans, so the comments are valid. It’s also valid that someone would want to pursue an education. This is the land of opportunity, right? Despite all the chaos, pain and suffering around us right now, people risk their lives to get to the U.S. because elthey know they’ll have more opportunities here. Some come alone and others (like my parents) bring their little spawns.

Debt enslavement as soon as the child turns 18. It’s not a coincidence that as soon as many of us turned 18, pre-approved credit card offers came in the mail. It is not a coincidence that the same people who tell the working class and poor that they’re not good enough because they’re a burden to society and are not contributing their fair share, are the people handing over the student loans, housing loans, payday loans, etc. It’s not a coincidence that post high school graduates are not required to complete internships/work experience in the field they want to study in college. Wouldn’t it be great if graduates got first hand experience to determine if they really like doing the work? It would be to too good to be true. A poll by BestColleges showed that 61% of graduates would get a different major if they could.

The 1% tell us that we don’t work hard enough, but since basic math always come to the rescue, we know that 1% out of 100% cannot be doing all the work in this country. We are the majority putting in hours, not taking our time off work, missing out on important events, putting off doctor’s appointment, dealing with abusive bosses, clients, coworkers. Still, we’re getting poorer. We’re working ourself go exhaustion to make the 1% more money. To allow them to continue living in their comfortable houses and distorted reality.

Survey Finds Most College Grads Would Change Their Major. Reece Johnson. February 27,2002. BestColleges.com