I did my best to avoid accumulating a lot of student loan debt: I went to community college for my general ed, transferred to an in-state public university that offered the most grant money for myself, and majored in a field with relatively solid career opportunities (international political economics). However, coming from a middle class family, I couldn’t qualify for much financial grants. My parents also could not afford to contribute to my college expenses, though my mom did get a parent plus loan (which I am the one paying for). If I didn’t take out these loans, I would never been able to attend university. My parents were extremely against me getting a part time job in college (tho i did anyway for the first 2 years), and I could not afford a car to commute to jobs once transferring to a university. The worst part is that I paid full tuition for 1.5 years when classes were online, and it’s insane universities aren’t getting sued for this.
Since I’m paying for both my parents’ loans and my own, I’m looking at a monthly student loan repayment of about $700. I graduated in 2022 and secured a job in January 2023, so I barely have any savings to put towards these loans. I got laid off in June, and unemployment only pays me about $200 a month. I’m still living with my parents and spent 4 hours a day commuting to and from work when I had my last job. Gas is $6 where I live, accounting for well over $300 a month + over $400 for toll roads (fucking California). I still have hospital bill of $2k to pay (insurance wouldn’t cover it) on top of all of this.
Sales tax is astronomical, gas and utilities are exorbitant, rent continues to skyrocket (with yearly increases in my area being in the hundreds), and everything at the damn grocery store is at least $4 (typically over $5). Then there’s car insurance, car registration, income taxes, and so much more shit to pay for. Employees don’t get any tax write offs, which sucks because work commutes should at least be a write off. To get a shared apartment near my work, it will cost me about $1400 a month MINIMUM. I just secured a new job that will pay me $20k more, yet my take home monthly salary is only $900 more than my last job. The cost of living the past 2 years has skyrocketed by an abnormal amount. What do our politicians do about it? Nothing. Nothing at all. Meanwhile, almost all of them took out PPP loans of $200k just for 2 years and got them forgiven. And let’s be real here, most PPP loans taken out were not for actual business expenditures but rather personal luxuries.
The only good news is that student loan repayments will most certainly plummet GDP for 2+ consecutive quarters. A recession can finally be called, and maybe our dumb ass politicians will actually focus on our damn economy before it leads to a depression. I’m tired of our corrupt country and non-communal citizens.