I am fairly conservative and often find myself at odds with some of the opinion pieces but tried to read this one with an open mind.
Millennials seem to get blamed for everything lately and for virtually no reason other than the tendency to blame everyone else but ourselves for our problems. I agree, the authors generation did not create the problem. Human greed to maximize profits in any industry is a serious problem and the author just did what they thought was best along with their family, attending a selective prestigious university and earning a degree in a field where they were talented and interested.
I'm not really on board with the idea that "banks got bailouts so we should too". I get the sentiment but there have been boom and bust cycles for many years. I graduated with an IT degree in 2001 after the dotcom meltdown and had no job. To be fair I had zero debt due to a combination of need based/merit based/and family contributions at a state institution less than 2 hours from home but it was still sobering working at a supermarket and taking community college courses to keep myself current.
I have empathy and some sympathy for those who suffered but I still question the wisdom of someone who attends a college with a hefty price tag for a profession that isn't known for having lucrative earnings.
50
Of course I'm happy that Mr Klarman has woken up somewhat and is now donating to Democrat campaigns, however it is very hard for me not to be critical of him for being so late in coming to reason and for coming to it so evidently incompletely. Where's the insight that his wealth is not just due to his own efforts but due the external and prior existence and nature of the US, including its other citizens? Where's the insight that his wealth is not just due to talent and hard work but also laughingly good fortune? Of course, as far as the ignorant and arrogant ultra-rich of the US are concerned he's one of the least bad of them, but he's still a symptom, a victim, of its propensity to produce such people. Poor Mr Klarman. Bad USA.
How blithe to respect "fiscal conservatism" when you have been able to become ultra-rich in a country with a child poverty, teenage pregnancy, homelessness, incarceration, opioid overdose and gun death rate so high? If he did not live in a country so destructive of human capital, how much richer might he have been? Of course to make this so, he'd have had to pay much more in tax, so woe would he be! Pathetic! Rich materially, poor intellectually and morally. Dime a dozen!
Where's the insight that very, very many others need to do what he does not and work in positions "the market" under-pays or the state only pays modestly so he could be such a success? He should be willing to do more to assist them. A President Sanders would be "appalling"? Hmmm.
6
Sometimes we have to learn lessons the hard way about what is a worthwhile amount to spend on our endeavors.
Shame sometimes can be a great teacher. I don't know why so many people are so anti-shame--shame can teach us important things.
8
I'm watching today cspan video, Washington Journal -- the interview and viewer call in--- Steven Pearlstein, Washington Post economics columnist on the 08 Crash. Author of -- "Can American Capitalism Survive?: Why Greed Is Not Good, Opportunity Is Not Equal, and Fairness Won't Make Us Poor"
3
So, folks, the big question is: what kind of country do we want? Do we want someone who is obviously intelligent and talented to be able to pursue a career fitting his or her abilities, without being saddled with crippling debt? Or do we want only the wealthy and privileged to be able to go to college, while the other 99% work in the Amazon warehouse (if they’re lucky)?
I graduated from high school in 1972, and so experienced the earlier recessions. I got some scholarship money, but also had a work-study job at college, and took out loans to finish my education (at a state school, by the way). I paid for graduate school with more loans, and by working as a cashier at the local supermarket. There’s no way I could do that nowadays: my cashier job would barely pay for e-textbook rentals today. This didn’t start with Bush - it started with Ronald Regan and the culture of selfishness and non-governing government.
82
Hmm, maybe my compassion is low today. Please let me know. I worked full-time while going to college. It took me 10 years to get a degree to qualify me for what I had been working at for years. I also hitch-hiked to Alaska for a summer job working 70 hour weeks for months. Well, I was never offered loans for school at all.
THere were the same people then (80s) who decided to borrow money and go to school without working and ended up in the same way. They had a degree that meant little without experience and huge debt. I don't know what to say other than that I was always afraid of debt and none was ever offered to me. I had a credit card for emergencies that had a $200 limit. THat was it.
On other days I'm more compassionate and generous than this.....
34
No one forced the author to attend a high-cost private university; at the time there were many lower-cost, top-quality public universities that turned out journalists who obtained top-tier jobs. (I'm not so sure journalism is such a sought-after, or desirable, career these days.)
No one forced the author's parents to refinance their home.
I worked multiple part-time jobs throughout my four years of public college (B.A.) and seven years of Ivy graduate school (master's degree and doctorate). I had no parental support during this period. I finished this long and stressful educational process with a very low four-figure loan balance, which I paid off in a year. Many of my fellow students had similar experiences, though of course there were some from wealthy families and some who took out loans to pay for their entire educations.
I am no longer a big fan of Hillary Clinton, but please don't blame her for raising your expectations and for the choices you and your family made. We are all responsible for the decisions we make, including those related to financial matters. This is called personal responsibility.
I realize there is a nascent movement for student loan forgiveness; the question of course is who would pay the enormous cost. Most likely the taxpayers, I think.
55
Vote the Banksters out of office this November.
21
Let me get this straight. The author (1) had his parents refinance their home and (2) himself took on $100,000 in high-interest debt to (3) become a journalist. Even if there had been no financial crisis, what part of this makes economic sense?
95
Baby boomers, the sociopathic generation that gave us Trump, income inequality, “greed is good”, Citizens United, the Koch Brothers, trillions in tax cuts for the wealthy, the War on Drugs, Mass Incarceration, Iraq, “welfare reform as we know it” and Climate Change Denial need to step aside. Write down student debt and pass the baton the next generation. For the good of the country. How can any boardmember of a bank that recieved money during the financial crisis and now supports usurious student loan and payday lending programs look at themselves in the mirror. Shameful.
27
Speeches written by advertising copy writers: an ‘extraordinary moment in history’ said Clinton.
Yes, and It required extraordinary, positive, and aggressive action by government that we elect, but we didn’t get it.
Google this: “ Banks got bailed out, we got sold out.” Especially home owners. Many families got the triple punch of home value loss, job loss and high college debt. Our democracy isn’t working.
No problem that won’t yield to human effort, she says? Whose effort? That’s transferring the solutions to individuals away from govt. But we elect our govt to represent our interests, not just those of the top few.
How many millions did Clinton get from her speeches to big banks? And then when she asked for the votes of millions hurt by the Crash, refused to say what she told the big banks. Of course we badly wish she’d been elected---that’s the problem.
Clinton in speeches used the ‘shadow banks’ as an excuse to not restore the regulations her husband had repealed in the 90s. Who let the shadow banks get so big?
Glass Steagall should have been restored and updated for today. It had protected the country from a big 08 type Crash since the 1930s Great Depression. Today, our Democrats are are no FDR. He’s completely out of political fashion.
The Democrats should have done us better. Obama put Wall St bankers on his team to deal with the 08 crisis, such as Geithner, who just wrote a NYT op ed promoting his views for the 10 year anniversary.
18
The fact that the same senators and congressmen who denied the students a relief from the debt, and did not prevent the common man from suffering the loss of his home, and yet bailed out the CEOs, are the ones that kept getting voted back. It tells you more about the stupidity of voters. Don’t blame politicians or the CEOs. Blame he voters who refused to vote out every senator and congressman who refused to convict the CEOs. Voters alone deserve the blame for their own stupidity.
18
To the author: You can stay angry for as long as you like, but it won't change the past. Number one, you're carrying a big chip on your shoulder that is weighing you down.
More useful, perhaps, would be to go back and calmly analyze where wrong assumptions were made, which led to actions that have had distressing outcomes - not because you can change the past, but so that the same kind of overall thinking doesn't come into play again.
And you can make different choices for yourself going forward. Also, you & your parents can (and hopefully already do) vote, carefully - in other words, never just a throw-away vote or a protest vote.
And lest you think I'm just dumping on you, I have been in a situation where the career rug was totally pulled out from under me and a lot of my colleagues, and I had to completely re-tool for an entirely new profession after age 50. It was NOT what I expected, and it was NOT pleasant in any way - but b/c of decisions I'd made about saving money earlier, I had (just) enough money in the bank to squeak through, and I now have a job that is as close offshore-proof (and not replaceable by AI) as possible. But due to that huge career interruption, I'm going to have to work a lot longer than I expected to; I hope to retire by 75. BTW, this is why many baby boomers are still hanging onto their jobs.
28
You could have picked a major that would have allowed you to pay your debt. You could have picked a public school that was more in line with your projected income. You could have worked your way through school instead of having your parents put their only savings into your education. You chose none of these.
Accept the blame and move on. Do not expect society to save you from your bad decisions.
36
Mr. Miller, you are brave and honest to write your very important article because you are telling the truth of what happened to millions of people - those who lost their job and/or houses and are still not whole. And, those who were students in college with looming loans and a bleak job market.
You, your family, and millions of people were working very hard for the "American Dream" of home ownership, good jobs, ability to have/pay for family, vacations. This is not a dream of excesses and Jeff Sessions is a self-righteous fool for what he said.
I am older and my husband and I were never unemployed during our entire careers, worked hard, had a home and raised 4 children and were "comfortable".
During the market crisis our youngest child was in law school with loans and graduated in 2009 - fortunate to find a low paying job using his degree. We saw what was happening.
My husband and I realized with shock that our children, all college educated and two with advanced degrees would never know the financial success and be as free of stress as we were.
I am sad for you, for everyone, who suffered during the recession and continue to be saddled by debt. I am sad that today many young workers have found it difficult to get out from under the burden of the recession.
I am sad that the TARP bailout may have saved the banks from ruin but did not save millions of Americans from foreclosure, unemployment, despair and depression.
And No Bankers Were Jailed ! SAD
28
What a nice and perforce - Mr. Miller's job I suppose not just his basic disposition - gentle piece where elsewhere the rage is raw and verges on the revolutionary.
2
M. H. Miller’s anger is justified. The mess was caused... transparently so. And no one went to jail. William D. Cohan and I, Sandy Lewis, did an OpEd 6.7.09, The Economy Is Still at the Brink, calling for RICO and Use Immunity for those concerned. i saw the mess coming and shared my view. Bear was at $150 and went below $10. One hedge fund made $30 million on the Friday when BSC fell 30 points. I advised that hedge fund, name on request. I had no special information. I read The New York Times.
The next bust is coming... and it may be far worse. Lehman, Bear, Goldman, Morgan, FNMA and Freddy were impaired, and AIG was slammed by use of the CDS in London. All of this was predictable. Secretary Paulson allowed Lehman to collapse. That was avoidable.
In the next bust, see William D. Cohan’s recent OpEd, there will not be a CDS mechanism that will shift the mess from one class to another.
Endless monetization and misuse of central bank credit will open the crevasse through which the system may fall. It’s awful.
There is no free lunch. Trump cuts taxes and drives up the deficit. IKE is sick to his stomach. So am I.
Tipping points come and go, and the GOP congress whistles past the graveyard of previous disasters. Many are buried there.
Many more will be buried in the next mess. No New Deal will be available.
The Thucydides Trap is upon us. The trap we are creating has little to do with Athens and Sparta.
The trap is Marcus Nadler’s nightmare. It’s deadly.
10
This is why this generation gets very little respect.
Whiny malcontents that never seem to overcome their sense of entitlement and projection of blame.
Every generation does good and bad, it’s called life.
Figure it out and prosper or continue complain and fall below the surface.
27
Reminds me of a movie, "Wall Street 2: Money never Sleeps". In that movie, two scene still catches my heart:
1) When Shia Labeouf shouted out that the financial crisis is all but natural, like people get sick or something.
2) When a table of tankers heard that the government is going to bail out them with 700 Billion and they are upset about they have to surrender to accept the terms.
4
Wow,Mr.Miller!
Your professional job description at the end of your powerful piece was an amazement given the story of your article. You were clearly going to succeed and succeed big despite the horrific circumstances of your post-student days.
Some people can't be stopped by anything.
Where to begin .. the economy was a mess in the early 80's with interest rates over 12% and climbing. No one had jobs lined up at graduation -- went to grad school in Europe and worked part time ... student loans.
I will tell you what was different .. we were positive things would change. I charged into my life when I graduated .. buying a small place in Philadelphia (you know the fixer upper) and got going ..so did everyone else. I also picked my major based on liking the subject and making money
Back in the early 80's you could not borrow as much money for school ... so schools were forced to be more reasonable. I remember my economics prof telling us the college was going to get much more expensive as they would have no restriction on what they charged -- he was more than correct.
I do think we should provide subsidized interest rate loans to students going to full time accredited colleges -- I believe mine was 6% for 10 years starting 9 months after graduation from grad school. it was equal to 1/2 my mortgage when it started
16
Mr. Miller’s op-ed “I Came of Age During the 2008 Financial Crisis. I’m Still Angry About It” left me confused. (I will assume M.H. Miller is a man for ease of writing but of course the writer could be a woman).
He says his parents “had the misfortune of refinancing [their house] in January 2008.” I think what he means is his parents increased the size of their mortgage on what turned out to be an inflated value of their house so they could use the money to pay his tuition at NYU.
The fact that the housing crisis happened shortly afterward was not why his parents lost their house. It was because, as he noted, they lost their jobs and couldn’t make the mortgage payments.
Then he tells us he was a senior at NYU “one of the most expensive private institutions” but he “made the conscious decision to take out loans for a college I couldn’t afford in order to become a journalist, a profession with minimal financial returns” and now he is stuck with $100,000 in student loans.
So Mr. Miller wants “the broken economic system” to share the blame for his bad decisions. If he couldn’t afford NYU he could have gone to the much more affordable University of Michigan. The “system “ didn’t force him to take out loans or his parents to increase their mortgage. And he doesn’t explain how he would have paid off his loans even if we didn’t have a recession.
It is wonderful that Mr. Miller is the arts editor for T Magazine. He should not write on financial matters
35
I can understand your need to leave Michigan in order to attend an expensive school, New York University, in one the most expensive cities in the United States. Everyone wants the best education for their child. That is why my wife wanted to study chemistry, won a National Merit Sholarship. So she went to the University of Michigan, a few miles from his home in Detroit. Really makes a great decision! We sent all five our children to in-state colleges.
30
I emphasize with the author. I graduated in 2009 with a masters degree in Publishing from NYU, which was the worst decision of my life and one that I’ll never be able to financially recover from. It’s the reason why I don’t own a home or take vacations or participate in a multitude of other things people who haven’t lived this experience take for granted, including hope for the future.
13
And, this is why I am for tuition free college in the United States. The unfair amount of debt that students incur is outrageous, and colleges just keep getting more and more expensive. Too expensive. Students should not have 100,000 dollars in loans when the graduate, but the average these days is between 60 to 100, 000. It will take too long, and with the interest, too much to pay back.
I did have student loans, but was able to pay them back, but they were far more reasonable than the loans needed to go to college today.
The financial crisis was not the fault of the millenials. Banks and mortage companies caused the 2008 recession, and those are run by men like Jeff Sessions who has the audacity to blame this group of kids for his generation's greed.
11
It's not just that the debt increased but the job opportunities evaporated. Where were the recruiters who used to populate college campuses hiding? Through greed & manipulation a few managed to spoil a generation's ability to prosper. It is the erosion of regulations put in place after that debacle that once again lead us to failure today.
9
Thank you, Mr. Miller. I'm angry too and I graduated from university 20 years before you. Here's what happened: I was working full-time at a computer company in Massachusetts. They had a tuition reimbursement program. I transferred from a community college program to this job and went to a 4-year university at night where I got my Bachelor's degree. The company paid 100% of the tuition and books. At the time I graduated in 1989, however the company was breaking up. I could not find a job in my field. So I enrolled in law school nights. I borrowed for all four years. Three years after law school, I contracted a catastrophic illness, the effects of which left me able to work about 28 hours per week. Now this was fine in the 1990's. But after the dotcom bubble burst our firm laid off half the staff, including me. I was never able to replicate that job. Now, I am subject to age discrimination. My point is that I was never free to shift out of the law and into something else, because of my enormous student loan debt. Yes, I do regret going to law school and borrowing all that money. One becomes a slave to the banks.
I was raised a Kennedy Democrat, but now I vote very progressive.
13
Wondering if people who attended expensive universities loan-free due to the financial sacrifice of their parents feel any obligation to return the financial support when their parents struggle in old age as a result of spending their life savings on tuition rather than IRAs for retirement. I hope so.
21
I went through that hard time. And my daughter graduated college at the peak of the Great Recession. I graduated High School in 1972 and had to bear up under the nasty recession of the years of 74-75. That changed my perception so I always lived below my means and only took very stable jobs. My 457B account is about half of what it should be because of the market drop of 2000 and 2008. And at one time my home was only worth half of what I paid for it. But I never was in jeopardy. My job was steady and my living expensive was affordable because I lived below my means. My daughter lived at home, went local to college, got scholarships, worked and had daddy help to pay for her schooling. She took 5 years for a 4 year degree rather than go into debt. Every generation has to overcome bad times. You are not an exception. Most of us are born on the wrong side of the tracks. You play the hand dealt you as well as you can. If you are smart you always plan on bad times and have means to deal with them. Move to a better paying area. Live cheap and pay off your debts. You can do it. But it is going to take hard work and sacrifice. Complaining about how hard it is will not get you to where you need to be.
24
I’m Still Angry About It.
If you want to live well, get over it.
If not, keep complaining.
22
Fantastic article. Thank you for sharing your story.
I’m a Gen Xer totally spared the pain of the recession. Extreme tuition inflation hadn’t yet occurred, my student loans were already paid for, I had found a viable career path, and was able to buy into multiple properties that I know own free and clear, against all odds. Coming from very little, it hasn’t been easy but there has always been at least the promise of a reasonable work/reward ratio.
I wish we were working to build a society where this modest dream was accessible to the most people possible. But I fear that the author’s experience will become more and more the norm going forwards.
13
Thank you for so eloquently articulating the anger of a generation, Mr. Miller. I must be almost the same age as you, having also graduated in 2009 from an expensive New York university a few blocks from yours—Columbia. I thought I had done my job as a high school student to get into the best possible school, but I was ignorant of what it would actually cost my family. My parents took out a home equity loan to pay for my education: we were not in debt, but we barely survived. The property taxes in our area are the price of buying a new car every year. Even if I were to own the house one day, I wouldn't be able to afford the property tax, which is more than my annual salary.
Yes, I too have a liberal arts degree, but so did many competent people who were hired before the recession hit. More than a third of my graduating class was unemployed. Many people forget that there were absolutely no jobs available for new graduates for YEARS after the recession, except perhaps for unpaid internships or overworked "part-time" 35hr/week positions with no benefits and a minimum-wage salary. Now, they are hiring entry-level workers below us without batting an eyelash, while we still earn an equivalent salary because of the gap in our resumes. I too feel the deep shame of not coming close to my parents' earning potential, of not being able to provide my future children the same privileges I had growing up. And for the record, I have always voted the straight democratic ticket.
20
This intergenerational blame game is really tired, and it doesn't improve things for anyone. Baby boomers are not some ideological monolith. And many of us who voted for Bill Clinton were opposed to some of his Administration's economic ideas at the time.
Nobody sat around plotting to make things more difficult for future generations. Clinton's economic team made arguments that many people found quite convincing at the time, and even if many of us were suspicious of those arguments at the time, we didn't have the benefit of hindsight, nor did we have anything like the 2008 crash to point to as solid evidence in support of our counter arguments.
People try to make the best decisions they can with the information available to them, and when it comes to elections, the range of available choices is constrained by the choice of candidates — and rarely are any of those available choices perfect. And although i am sure it is hard for millennials to imagine, Baby boomers had to make those konds of choices without benefit of the mountains of data that are now available at everybody's fingertips.
19
You seem to forget that Shrub had been in office almost 8 years when the crash hit. His policies, not Clinton's, gave us this debacle. Now Trump and the Republican Congress are doing their best to give us another one. Do they intend to cause a crash? It sure seems like it.
12
This is the first accurate description of today’s millenials thwt I have read. I have watched my nieces, nephews, and past students struggle with student debt, struggle to find jobs that pay even a decent wage, and struggle to pay for a reliable car, much less pay for their daily necessities like gas, water, electricity and so on. Thank you, Mr. Miller.
10
The cost of higher ed is ridiculously high, and not worth the investment for many. Unfortunately, you went to one of the most expensive schools in the nation in the most expensive city in the nation. You kind of went all in by putting your parents in debt. There were many less expensive just as exceptional schools you could have gone to. Perhaps you originally wanted to go to NYU in order to get a job at the NYT's?
17
Is this a joke? This man and his generation was born in the richest nation in the world with vast opportunities (but not a guarantee of a cycle-less, perfectly run economy)
Visit Venezuela, or Brazil, or Greece, or Zimbabwe, or Russia, or China, or Laos, or the Maldives, or Uganda, or Sudan, or Nigeria, or Syria, or Libya, or Iran, or Pakistan, or Bangladesh, or, or or, and then cry me a river.
If Mr Miller would probably respond and say something like "China's Economy has grown x times more, or whatever.
Obfuscating that working 6 days a week, at 10 hours a day, with no freedoms of expression, and limited opportunties is vastly better than Mr. Millers generation of "not my fault"
15
NO to the jerks victim-blaming the author for this decision on a college and that choice about student loans.
YES to the sages blaming the author's generation for failing to vote, especially in 2010, when so much of our current disaster was predetermined.
VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE. Every time. If you don't, you just cast half a vote for catastrophe.
14
Thanks for speaking for my son with similar history, a $100k debt from Columbia, class of 2006
& a professional degree (Architecture) that doesn’t pay commensurate to pay down this debt & live in pricey,
Berkeley, CA, equivalent to NYC.
But I have to take issue with your otherwise excellent column for complaining that Barney Frank did not do enough for the recovery of the middle class. First, he tried mightily & was rebuffed repeatedly. The blame needs to be cast on Geitner, Paulson & Bernake ( their recent Times op-Ed was disgusting; no awareness, guilt or apology for their cowardly irresponsibility). They did not stand up to the Republican Party leadership, McConnell & Boehner, who on Obama’s Inauguration Day vowed to oppose everything Democratic, including fixing (adequately, appropriately), the global fiscal calamity. And the Republicans are still to this day, dismantling Dodd-Frank statutes that tried to mitigate damage from the irresponsible financial industry. Republicans in Congress now, who voted for the tax cut for the rich & corporate, are further eroding the middle class, driving income inequality: killing unions & not increasing wages, deregulating protections of workers, consumers & the environment & above all, ignoring your generation’s albatross, student loan debt. Greed is their credo & they dismiss all of us below the 1% donor class. They think we are stupid & have amnesia. You are not the only one who is angry.
21
The amount of victim blaming in this comments section is sickening. It really unveils the lack of empathy in some. Do others have to suffer just so those of luck and privilege can feel better about themselves? Imposter syndrome, anyone? I suggest looking deep into the mirror to find where these feeling of hostility toward the less fortunate come from.
It's the responsibility of the elders to help the children and young adults come of age and find their place in the world. Instead, starting from teenagers, we've been exploited by the lies and misdirected suggestions of our counselors, greed of universities, the job outlook figure manipulation, etc.
If the hardship of graduating into the recession has provided any positivity, I would say it's given some of us humility and perseverance. I hope all of us can find the strength to continue on to kinder times. No one deserves to be treated like this. As humans sharing this one planet, we can do better.
15
My wife and I have two kids that came of age at the same time as the author. The oldest worked as a hydrogeologist in TX for several years, the younger as a science teacher. The older child says there's no hope for him and his cohorts; the younger says she's doing just fine and will for some time to come.
Beats me. I'm an older boomer and did all the usual stuff, now have SS & Medicare & pension. Yeah, I am an outlier.
Bottom line: you get where you can by working darned hard. Period. And, should you wish to change the political world, another story indeed, you have to get out and VOTE! The world is run by those who show up; so if you can't be bothered to show up, or vote, please do not whine about the outcome.
12
Why not just rethink the whole education system? People can learn online faster and cheaper and do it from home. For much less money too. I love the the old ivy on brick education system but no one can afford it anymore. I don't want to see anyone lose their jobs but the administrative cost of all education is pricing a college education out of reality. Don't you just love it when they tell you to retrain with the cost so high and being without connections you can't get an entry level job.
I've gone thru five recessions since I started working full time in the late seventies. They got worse as time went on, losing retirement and medical benefits and then seeing my 401 k disapear. After the one in the early 2000's I thought I would have die young. Then I got lucky the oil boom came and then went forcing me to retire at 62. I hope you kids are that lucky but i doubt it. In ten years you won't even be able to get a job as a cab driver to survive. Good luck.
7
They’re of course not to blame for 2008, but they will be for the next one if they vote Republican or support Trump.
14
Everybody who replied by saying they did fine 40 or 50 years ago and this generation has no one to blame but themselves is ignorant. We went from as society where people without college degrees frequently bought homes and lived comfortably (like my four grandparents who all lived in what are now extremely unaffordable neighborhoods in Los Angeles) to one where millions live paycheck to paycheck and can't get ahead. This is because of structural changes in the economy, not because of generational differences in behavior.
40
This is yet more evidence of the essential truth of the Great Recession: those who caused it paid no penalty; only the innocent were its victims.
14
Nicely written piece - certainly not the author's fault for being on the wrong end of bad timing. Such is life I suppose - however much it stings. I'm not in banking but in investments and I'm always surprised at the blame on the banks - it smacks me of blaming drug dealers when someone has a drug problem or the liquor store if you're an alcoholic. The banks don't exist in isolation. Yes, did the banks take on too much risk on their balance sheets through too many exotic structures. Absolutely. Were they bailed out? Absolutely. But considering that the global financial system is completely faith based (what do you think gives paper money value?), the alternative would have been much worse. A lot of investors who provided the investment capital to the banks to make loans lost money. Where did all or most of that money go? To us - all of us Americans - who took on mortgages we shouldn't have taken, refinanced and took out more debt because it was cheap to pay for pricey education or cars or whatever. My only point is that banks, the Fed, the "system" doesn't exist in isolation - it is a reflection of the poor choices that we as individuals often make. To the author - I feel your paint but take solace in the fact that as Warren Buffett says, you still won the "lottery" by living in this country where opportunity still exists....best of luck to you.
8
Mr. Miller, I sincerely believe this is one of the most important articles the NYT has published in the last 25 years. Thank you for writing with such candor about your pain. It is shared by many, many millions of your peers -- and by so many of your parents' generation. No one prepared us for that fiscal cataclysm.
In a society obsessed with credit scores (rightly or wrongly), millions of young, accomplished college graduates will be denied their fundamental right to be judged objectively, when applying for a job, when seeking a loan or even a spouse, just because they happened to be born in a certain time & graduated at a moment when much more powerful, much older people drove the global economy off a cliff.
It is profoundly unfair, the harm that has been done to the economic prospects of young people like yourself, or my son, or his siblings. You are quite correct: to blithely pat ourselves on the back when effective remedies -- or even reparations -- are not on the table is beyond hypocritical.
It is extremely short-sighted for any populous, advanced society to cut itself off from the economic momentum a thriving generation of young graduates would normally inject, month after month. Instead, those obscene student loan interest rates (plus penalties, plus fees) are lining just a few pockets. Lining them mightily.
Obama made some limited progress in capping some rates. That was not nearly enough. The kids who were severely traumatized by bankers deserve much more.
11
I can relate 100% percent. I graduated from another NYC school on the same weekend in 2009. Granted Tom Brokaw told us that our future was indeed bleak and he offered a blanket apology on behalf of our elders for the collapsing economy, ongoing wars, climate crisis, etc.
I too have struggled to repay my debt a decade on and owe many, many more times than the amount I borrowed. I consider myself lucky in how my adult life has shaken out, but I am still scared and I am still bitter. The student debt crisis is an unfair burden on millions in this country. The inability to discharge these debts in bankruptcy or how there is no relief in the burdensome interest rates is beyond egregious. Moral finger wagging from Sessions and other charlatans is especially rich in our current political era. When the Democrats take control of one or both houses of Congress this fall, student loan relief and reform should be at the top of their agenda.
19
The U.S. Congress has been controlled by the Republican Party from 1994 to the present, except for 2009-2011, when thank goodness, Obamacare was passed. Therefore, the Great Recession of 2008 is ALL on the GOP. Anyone who voted for a Republican between 1994 and 2008 is to blame and gets NO sympathy from me. You deserve to be living in a carton box under a freeway underpass.
However, the Democratic Party has offered little in terms of an alternative during this time because Democrats today don't really stand for anything at all. Democrats are simply the "we are not Trump" party, and little more. We're about to get a fascist majority on the SCOTUS...and Democrats are unwilling to do ANYTHING.
9
I wanted to pass on what Warren Buffett has to say about student debt and how it relates to this author's situation. Every college bound high school student in America should click this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3sP8Iu8w7o#t=27m15s
1
I wholeheartedly agree with Warren Buffet. Don’t go into debt for a college degree. My children attended in state universities because the cost of private colleges was and remains prohibitively expensive. Plain and simple we couldn’t afford it and they understood. They had some loans but manageable. Sorry about your situation but take some ownership on your choice.
14
So many thoughts. Sorry!
Please don't give up on Ms. Clinton and her sunny predictions. Because, Ms. Miller, what else CAN we do? There have been bad moments in American history--VERY bad moments. The Great Depression still outweighs the catastrophe of 2008--it really does.
And we came back. Years and years of pain--I grant you! but we came back. Both my parents and my in-laws (all now deceased) lived through those years--and "lived" is the operative word. They didn't die--they didn't jump of skyscrapers.
NOT MEANING FOR A MOMENT, MS. MILLER--
. ..to minimize or slight the pain your parents and yourself suffered. No indeed. Which leads to another point:
The big savings and loan debacle broke--when? In 1990? 1991? I don't quite remember. This I DO remember.
And I'm sorry to sound angry or vengeful--
--but at least SOME people paid for that cataract of greedy blunders. The late Mr. Keating (for one) did time. And, if I would fault Mr. Obama and his administration for one thing, that thing would be--
--no one paid for the debacle of 2008. Incredible! The entire economy of the world swirled about in a toilet that had just been flushed and--
--NO ONE WAS RESPONSIBLE?
I expect, Ms. Miller, you were baying for blood. Don't apologize if you were.
I was too.
What more to say? With all my heart, I wish you the best. With all my heart, I wish you PARENTS the best. Oh--one last thing!
Vote for Democrats.
I do.
8
What? That 'dumb Southerner' Sessions, as Trump labeled him, thought up all those S words of insult? “sanctimonious, sensitive, supercilious snowflakes? Did he ever explain his real meaning?
But he's got a better vocabulary for insults than that dumb guy from Queens NY, anyway.
4
Excellent Thank you for writing this
2
This story is so familiar. I graduated in 2009, and although my family didn't lose their house, I graduated into a dead economy. Everyone told me how great my Chinese major was, and how I'd have companies lining up around the corner to hire me, but when the time came... nothing.
I've felt like a failure for years and years. I taught abroad, and when I came home, kept teaching English to adult learners. Anyone who does it will tell you that adult ESL won't pay the bills. I have a degree and a job (sometimes two), but can barely make rent.
How is this the dream? We did everything right, the author and I, and the dream failed us. The promise failed us, and now it's our own fault somehow. It makes me furious to think about everything I would have done- owned a home, had a kid, heck maybe even gone out to dinner sometimes- so I try not to think about it.
But I am angry.
19
I remember sitting in a board room in 2008 trying to decide what to do as the economy was collapsing. I was arguing that a particular employee should be retained because he has been a loyal and hard-working person. Our CEO repeated a line that I often heard in the fall of 2008 -- it's not about fairness, it's just how the market works. I quit that company. I hope corporate America gets a dose of long needed fairness in the next electio.
14
“sanctimonious, sensitive, supercilious snowflakes”
Had anyone insulted my class like that, we'd have thrown him from the stage.
Have students changed so much? Why aren't you in the streets?
13
While I feel for the author, the family went full steam ahead against basic principles of what is 'reasonable' debt.
Many suggest taking on no more debt than their expected first year's salary after graduation. The housing bust was also full of people who clearly couldn't afford the homes they signed up to buy.
Living below your means needs to be drilled into every adult's head in America. I read 'The Millionaire Next Door' when it was first published, and it changed me/saved me from making bad decisions for the last 20+ years.
While it would be nice to drive a fancier car, or own a bigger home, being content with what I have, debt free, is an easier way to live.
18
I know how hard that debt is, but I am tired of hearing that only millenials had to deal with it. I, too, borrowed 5 figures in the 80s, more than my yearly salary when I graduated with a PhD. and spent over a decade paying it back, and scraping at times starting out with a child. I do not regret my education or my job. Yes, it would be nice have not to have had to borrow, but the education was worth it; it is my sustenance, and I'm not making minimal wage in some poor community, and life could be much worse if I didn't have what that education afforded me. As a college professor, not at one of the most expensive and prestigious schools in the country but a PhD from one, I can tell you how much education matters even in a bad economy; it is our hope to turn to a more sustained global economy and a better world. So instead of bemoaning your situation, I wish you'd recognize it isn't as novel as you think it is, and work to join with others who have struggled, who have the privilege of education, and the power to make change.
10
Says the author, "I also made the conscious decision to take out loans for a college I couldn’t afford in order to become a journalist, a profession with minimal financial returns."
So please explain how this is really anyone else's fault? When I was in your shoes the thought of taking on so much staggering debt terrified me. So I went to a nearby state school full-time while also working part-time. I road busses, walked in the snow, went without many things and missed a great deal of parties. I graduated with minimal debt but maximum peace of mind.
Although I never worked at such a prestigious place as the New York Times I did manage to move to New York City eventually. I can tell you that the sacrifices I made during my college years were priceIess - I never lost one night of sleep over owing money to anyone.
17
The victim blaming in the comments is so shameful. We love using social media to pump up our own belief systems while putting others down.
There’s no doubt that the ‘08 financial crisis has left a gaping hole in an entire generation, myself included. I’ll probably carry my student loan debt to my grave. Instead of pointing fingers at one another, why not point them at the banks whose predatory lending practices got us here?
A. He wasn’t blaming Hillary. He was simply saying how wrong she was and how she missed the mark when discussing the financial crisis. Ie., not acknowledging the problem.
B. Student loan debt is now the largest financial burden in the US, ahead of mortgages. So to say something like, “why didn’t he think of how he was gonna pay it off” is thoughtless. Many thought we would be able to graduate & get a job. Why would we think otherwise? That’s not what happened. We were forced to take low-paying jobs (or no job at all because...do you remember the 17% unemployment rate?) making minimum wage with a college education while the financial crisis sorted itself out. There was a hiring freeze in my field for three years after I graduated.
18
@J In order to victim shame, there needs to be a victim. The author is not a victim. Perhaps his parents are, but in that case the perpetrator is not the “system,” the perpetrator is their son.
11
I came of age during the Viet Nam War. Watching my classmates die wasn't a lot of fun either.
38
Compounding the problem for those who graduated into the recession is the mass of working baby boomers who might have retired had their savings/assets not been eviscerated by the downturn.
12
Some comments judge the family harshly for being profligate. The writer and his family only made the mistake of buying into the American dream. The object of the rich, and the banks and think tanks that support them, is to destroy any public investment in housing, healthcare, education, pensions while at the same time making the non rich dependent on the mostly lousy jobs they are willing to offer. Journalism, like many jobs, used to be a working person’s job. How did it come to pass that you either need to be rich or accept a lifetime of indebtedness to do it? Well, it kind of limits the field to those who can afford the admission fees and blocks working folks, who might have other sympathies, from the field doesn’t it? While I may have to do one of those lousy jobs my main job is to understand the society I live in, limit my indebtedness and not buy into a foolish dream.
8
You sound like this has never happened before. My parents graduated into the Great Depression. I graduated into 9% unemployment rate and 10% inflation rate. These things happen
19
You see, it's your fault for listening. Just like it would be your fault for not listening.
There is NOTHING entire generations can do when their elders are determined to undermine them. That's what the baby boomers have done to everyone that has come after.
The baby boomers didn't have to compete when they were growing up from kids to adults - outside of America, most of the planet was in ruins and rebuilding for decades when they were born and growing up. All that mattered was football, green grass, beating commies, low taxes, cheap meat and cheaper products to buy.
While the rest of the world worked, American baby boomers slept. The rest of the world made hay, baby boomers made SUVs and cranked up the nostalgia for when things were "better".
And man their idea of when things were "better" are hilarious. All they want is to be back on top of the pile with no effort, yet they lose their minds if they see a kid try to find a way to do more with less. The minimum wage was turned into a club used to bash anyone that was not born wealthy. Wages have been stagnant my entire "working life". Companies in America know that they can work people to near death every day and then toss out few pennies per year as "raises" while management needs a dump truck to carry out their pay raises.
And now other countries are racing ahead and we're being held back by a generation of leaders that are well past their capacity to understand how the world is changing.
21
I wish I could recommend this a hundred times. The baby boomers are and did exactly as you describe them, worshipping themselves and their mostly luck-based windfall while demonizing as stupid and lazy anyone denied similarly advantageous conditions.
They left future generations with little beyond massive debt, crumbling institutions and infrastructure, garbage advice, and the likes of donald trump, the ultimate emblem of their priorities, values, norms and aspirations, as president.
They did, however, make great strides in the advancement of civil rights, but that was from the activism of blacks themselves and a fairly limited segment of liberal whites. Even in that domain, baby boomers as a whole did very little.
9
It's rough reaching adulthood in rough times one has no control over. Time and time again. Things were pretty grim when I was a few years out of college. Double digit unemployment. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_1980s_recession
6
Yes, Mr. Sessions has called your generation "sanctimonious, sensitive, supercilious snowflakes." Sessions however represents the minority of Americans who have lost their minds. Most of us don't agree.
You overlook something vital, Mr. Miller. Much would have been done for your family had the Republicans not blocked the financial recovery programs that President Obama wanted.
NYU is decadently expensive. Your parents refinanced their home in order to pay for it. Like most of the middle class, they had no other savings. Like most, their financial plans were inadequate and did not account for present circumstances.
You couldn't afford NYU. Moreover, it's not even worth it. You aren't lazy or any of the things that Sessions called you. But your family went over the education cliff like all of the other lemmings.
At most of the leading private and public universities more than 50% of the students come from the top 1-2% of families by income and wealth. These schools have become pay-for-play country clubs. Did you really even want to be there?
The total amount of student debt has exploded. Student debt is special. You can't get out of it with bankruptcy. And this White House would like to make sure you can never get out from under it.
You still aren't thinking clearly. You take what Sessions says at face value, and blame everything on Sec. Clinton's commencement speech. Shame on you. Did you ever read her proposals, which would have done much for you and your family?
11
This article got me to thinking about how youth, if they survived, felt graduating in 1861 and the Civil War. Or 1914, and WWI or , say, 1939 and WWII? Who did they blame then when the shooting wars were finally over with, I wonder? Or did they just chalk it up to life and being in the wrong place at the wrong time in history , and just let it go at that?
11
"The generation that graduated into the recession is not to blame." I'm still angry about it."
The generations that graduated into World War II and Vietnam were not to blame either. The Great Depression and so it goes.
We all do the best we can with the times we are given. We try to plan ahead and secure a future with what information we have at the time. I got a masters degree in a field that was once thriving and no longer is. Pay has plummeted and jobs that were once plentiful are now scarce and insecure. I'm mad too but that's the way it goes. Things change. We try to see the change and act accordingly but we are not entitled to succeed.
13
I've suffered through multiple economic "downturns" and the collapse of my profession. I'm also still angry about it. I am also angry for the others who went onto "practical" jobs such as accounting and engineering, only to see their jobs outsourced or them let go because they're older and cost more. My father lost his job during recessions, but he was never unemployed for more than eight months. Now there are tens of thousands of people who are 55 or older and who have been unemployed or underemployed for years. It's a disgrace.
18
I graduated from college in the early ‘70s when college was extremely affordable. However, even then I did not have the money to attend anything but a “value” school and I commuted because I didn’t have the money to stay in the dorms. I would have liked to have enjoyed the full “college experience” but I graduated without any debt and never looked back. I firmly believe college should be affordable to all — and right now it most certainly isn’t — but I also believe that students and their parents need to be unbendingly realistic about what is doable and what is not when it comes to meshing college and financial resources. Mr. Miller and his parents chose not to have that conversation; that’s on them not anyone else. To blame one’s poor personal decisions on a cast of political characters and a series of financial events is disingenuous to say the least.
18
I graduated college in 2015. Like the author, I went to a fancy private college, where I was lucky not to have to take out loans; throughout school, I interned, networked, and worked hard to land a "good" job. And still I found myself after graduation in a contractor position without health insurance or benefits, making a salary on which I could barely get by, with no guarantee I would be converted to a career-track role. Many of my peers are in the same position -- including one very talented friend who WORKS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES AND CONTINUES TO BE DENIED BENEFITS. The expansion of contract-based hiring is another legacy of the recession -- one of many which continues to prevent my generation from achieving stable employment and financial growth. I consider myself lucky to have graduated in 2015 and not 2008 or 2009, but even so I am very, very grim about my cohort's economic future.
10
In reality the author should be grateful for the way things worked out. His parents pulled money out of an over inflated asset and were able to substantially subsidize his education. It was basically free money and once the housing market corrected it vanished - but not before it helped pay his college expenses from what I understand reading the article. Were it not for his parents ability to access their equity during the bubble doubtless his student loan debt would be far greater. In fact, we seldom heard about the student debt crisis prior to the recession and I wouldn't be surprised if it was bc so many parents were able to pull cash out of their inflated houses during the bubble years. His parents should also be grateful that they were able to take their bubble equity and put it to good use before it vanished into thin air.
9
To describe refinancing as “free money” is about as misinformed a concept as can be. After the value of the home dropped, that money was still owed back. That’s the entire point.
11
Miller says he grew up in suburban Detroit. So he could have attended an excellent state school that is just as good as NYU, the University of Michigan, for a small fraction of what he paid to go to NYU. He chose to attend NYU instead, and now blames Citigroup for loaning him the money to do so and having the temerity to want to be repaid--and with interest to boot!
When does the finger-pointing stop and accepting responsibility start?
28
During a period when the Fed Funds rate was at or near 0%, why did student loans carry interest rates of 5-8%?
And, when interest rates were at historic lows, why were students not to allowed to refinance their debt at more reasonable rates?
13
The answer is that the high interest rates on student loans compensate lenders for the fact that there is no underwriting (assessment of credit risk) for these loans. Let’s face it—college students are terrible credit risks. One can see that by the delinquencies in the student loan category. If these loans were properly underwritten they would be vastly more difficult to obtain. I would favor this.
7
For starters, consider yourself lucky.
We avoided a full-on Great Depression II by bold actions of bipartisan advisors to the Obama administration.
You're also luck in another way you seem to have missed: my adult parents and relatives of their generation went through Great Depression I, and then fought WWII after it. It forever changed all of them, in ways both good (i.e. motivation) and bad (i.e. afraid to spend money). My mother was yanked out of college because her engineer father (my grandfather) could no longer afford it. She never recovered from the shame and embarrassment of that. My dad gave several of his very best years to training in the U.S. and fighting in the mountains of Italy. They both got a late start on their lives.
So, yes, your debt is an issue, but you live on easy street compared with prior generations.
Appreciate it.
24
In these comments I see a lot of reasonable people with empathy for a family that made most of the right decisions and made a few risky ones that blew up on them.
But I also see the appalling cruelty of some Americans in their willingness to judge others and kick them when they're down. Someone on this thread referred to the outcome of the author's decision to attend NYU instead of MSU as "comeuppance." The willingness to point at anyone who has suffered a misfortune and immediately look for reasons why it is his/her fault is mind-boggling. The author didn't spend his student loans on crack. He did not party through school and flunk several semesters. His family did not say "tough beans, you're on your own." They supported him as families should. The author and his family did everything that the finger-wagging little victim-blamers would have insisted was the morally right thing to do if it had turned out okay. That's the key thing: no matter what choice someone makes, someone else can always look back with perfect hindsight and say that OF COURSE they should have chosen differently.
For the record, in civilized countries, if you get into a desirable school program you don't have to ask yourself if you can afford it. When I went to McGill U. in 2001 my tuition was $2600 Canadian a year. My whole graduate degree cost less than one semester's in-state tuition. Civilized countries don't make their young people treat education as the world's most expensive lottery ticket.
31
I graduated in early 2009 during the recession and knew that I could either stay at my job to keep afloat or take out more loans and stay in school (during a major hike in tuition costs). I didn’t have parents who could afford to pay for my college education. I choose to stay at my low paying retail job that surprisingly survived the recession for 6 years. My degree means nothing to employers now and I still have loans and keep getting accepted to only entry level jobs while the folks who could afford staying in school during that time or now are going on to 100k salary jobs straight out of college.
I’m also still mad at what happened in 2008. I feel the cause of the recession, along with new politics of not allowing for free or lower cost college education has been a detriment to my growth, and I’ve been left behind because of all this. Currently 36 years old and trying to catch up.
15
Thank you so much for writing this eloquent piece. I am close to your parents’ age and my family had the good luck to weather the recession, but I am appalled by the deliberate ignorance of policy makers about the high burden of student debt and the lasting effects of the recession. There are those who say the millennials will be the the next Great Generation, and I believe it.
8
Back in 1981 I graduated with a B.A. from Drew University in Madison, NJ. I also graduated into a very large recession. Most of my classmates had gone on to graduate schools; but I did not. I had earned three scholarships to attend college so I did not have a lot of student loan debt. No one cared that I had a college degree. The only thing that the interviewers cared about was how fast I could type and did I know steno. This is not the first group of college graduates who have had to deal with an economic recession. Most people have the attitude that "It didn't happen to me, so who cares." That is the harsh reality of having to deal with a recession. Many people and employers do not care at all.
15
Exactly.
4
I graduated with a nursing degree in 2008. I lived in a city full of hospitals, and NO ONE wanted to hire new grads. The hospital where I volunteered wasn't even hiring internaly, which means CNAs who got nursing degrees lost their jobs as soon as HR found out they passed the NCLEX. A one-star nursing home turned me down due to lack of experience.
I finally found a job 10 months after graduation, 200 miles from home. Many of my classmates looked for more than a year. Several left the state. Some never found a first job.
15
Exactly.
3
The fault lies with the people who conspired to fund mortgages they had no business funding just to make a quick buck on the backs of those who could least afford it. I submit that a single change in the law would put an end to the practice, without creating or beefing up costly regulatory oversight. Specifically, if the law prevented lending institutions from selling off any mortgage they fund for a period of between 2 to 5 years, I suspect the loan vetting process would become as robust as it was back in the day.
8
Like Mr. Miller, the Great Recession has left permanent scars in my personal and professional life. I too came of age during the Recession's height. And I am still angry. In 2008, I graduated with a degree in Political Science and a burning desire to practice law. Saddled with debt, I continued working at a machine shop to pay off school loans and save for law school. Eight years later, I graduated with my law degree and roughly $140k in debt. Along the way, I learned about the systemic causes of the Recession (greed, fraud, lack of regulatory oversight) and curtailed my law practice toward bankruptcy. Because we haven’t learned anything from the Great Recession apart from the fact Main Street serves as Wall St’s piggy bank, I have remained angry.
16
Life is about choices. In this writer’s case the choices of where to go to school and how to pay for it. I may have missed the part where he discusses the actual plan to pay for college. Oh sure, there is talk of a ‘clever combination of of savings and scholarships’. And ‘if all else failed, through one of the easily available high-interest student loans’. Which, I guess, is what happened.
So my question is this: How is Mr. Miller’s six figure student loan debt the fault (responsibility?) of anyone but himself? Not all choices in life work out well. But that doesn’t make someone else or something else responsible.
16
@JB Mr Miller is certainly not responsible for the 2008 crash. Those who are responsible were not made to pay, as they should have been.
Large and powerful interests have set up a situation that is extremely perverse and deeply wrong. Parasites feast on the young, a chorus of reputable folk proclaimed the value of a college education. He believed them. So, he was a sucker. And you despise him: but do you despise the loaners who prey upon us, the hateful legislators who insulate the banks from the consequences of their reckless seduction, the banksters who took our nation down and invited a fascist response? No, you don't. The selectivity of your contempt has little to recommend it.
7
So, in your opinion, the Lehman collapse and its fallout played no role in affecting the life of this family, and others worldwide?
6
Willfully dismissive comment that completely disregards the conditions in which this all happened—that is, it disregards the actual subject of the article in favor of smug, tired finger-pointing and braying about “personal responsibility.” As though the writer should have foreseen the recession, the radical decline of journalism, his parents’ foreclosure, and the system-wide lack of paying opportunities in his generation’s future.
9
Our daughter wanted to go to an expensive, out-of-state school that would have cost $45,000 a year. We told her "no way". She pouted for a couple weeks and got over it. This past spring she graduated, debt free, from a state college. She freely admits (now) that it was a good decision.
Parents need to step up and impose some common sense on their children.
35
Except that in a normal world, a resume with an ivy league or top tier school places job candidates at a competitive advantage.
5
That's great for you and your family. But you miss the bigger picture here, which you turn into an opportunity to brag about how smart you are.
This is what I've come to expect from older privileged Americans at this point: there's not a thing in the world that they think isn't about them. Their experience is, in their mind, the foundation, the beginning of any conversation about anything.
This is why us younger ppl need to vote the baby boomers out of office. They can blame avocado toast and millennial sensitivity for our current problems, but what a pathetic shield for what is obviously their generation's total failure at governance. We don't need boomers to paternalistically "talk sense" into us. We need to put representatives into power that aren't so narcissistically obsessed with themselves, and that can actually understand the problems facing young ppl and others that have been disregarded by paternalistic boomers.
Comments like this one, proclaiming "look how smart I am," and missing the broader picture, are a perfectly telling anecdote for the past generation's lack of vision when it comes to governance. It's a vision of America reduced to the equivalent of bragging about getting the best deal on a color TV.
10
Any economist (and just about anybody who has studied or heard of economics) will tell you the economy is cyclical. In relatively steady, untumultuous times, peaks and troughs will be relatively mild like the surface of a calm pool.
For several decades, the economy has resembled the current waters off the Carolinas: violence, extremes, but by no means chaos: over time, a steady cycle of tremendous waves crashing against the shore, peaks and troughs in perfect proportion to each other.
In economics as in the ocean, the crest and the trough determine their opposites' magnitude.
All our talk of "meritocracy" notwithstanding, the author should indeed reject responsibility for her and her generation's plight. That plight came directly from the former generation's bonanza of high living, reckless, totally credit-driven unfettered consumption. The music stopped with the author and her cohort holding the bag.
If the author and her generation are responsible for any economic conditions, it would be the current boom. Without their suffering, the current bonanza current grads effortlessly received would not have occurred. Early home ownership, fancy cars and Rolexes for the under-thirty crowd are her generation's gift to this one. This is what *we* call 'meritocracy,' but some astute sociologists call the "Matthew Principle."
3
Her? Did you read the article?
Martin, I somehow missed the author's gender; should have said he/him/his. Apologies to all concerned.
2
I lost everything in 2008 and still have never recovered from then. I'm 59 years old and working in a hourly job and getting discriminated against because of of my age!
18
I and my siblings graduated from high school in 1981-85. My parents were middle class and wanted their kids to go to top schools (2 went to Ivy league schools) without incurring student loans. Even then the tuitions were daunting for a middle class family, and no student aid was available because the house was a valuable asset that was then counted in financial aid decisions. So, they remortgaged the house they purchased in the early 60s and that had appreciated a lot. This is what middle class parents do. When I think about 2008 I think there but for the grace of G-d that this didn't happen to my parents - just luck of timing. My father worked into his 70s to pay back the mortgage, he retired and my parents sold the house they could not longer afford to live in on a retirement income because of outrageous real estate taxes and moved to a place they could afford. We should all have empathy for what happened to this young man and his parents. The tuitions today are shameful!
13
I'm obviously not happy that young people went through this -- but I'm glad that this article is here, and is addressing the financial trauma of the Great Recession on younger people. The Depression had lifelong effects on many of the people who lived through it -- many of whom were young and watched their parents struggle to provide for their families.
Incidentally, I'm 62 (Boomer/Generation Jones), and I get angry when people give Millennials and other younger people a hard time. We all grow up in socioeconomic circumstances that involve the world, the country, our communities, our families, and ourselves. We're individuals, sure, but we all share certain experiences with people near our own age. We all need to get off the cases of people who *aren't* near our own age, and hear them out instead.
10
You paid $100,000 dollars for a Journalism degree?
You borrowed to do so?
Life is about investment and return, you made a very bad investment, even if times had been good.
I am far from a capitalist, I think higher education should be provided by the state, along with health care.
You make me question those principles.
Life is about value. In a perfect world, you would have gained your degree and entered a profession of value to society and to your sense of self worth. It would have been unlikely to enrich you further than that, but in that perfect world you would have been able to live a reasonable life and gained value from that sense of self worth.
I have no idea how you felt you would have come close to that perfect world, even without the crash, in the US.
You are a victim of the very sense of entitlement you claim is wrongly placed at the door of your generation.
21
If you don’t think trained journalists are “of value to society,” you’re very much part of the problem. And even you admit—in a better world, the author’s degree would have paid off. Was he meant to be clairvoyant? When all the pundits in the world were not?
7
The job of a commencement speaker is to talk about the future with hope, so quit your bellyaching about Hillary Clinton, admit your financial mistakes, and get on with your life.
9
boo hoo. think about the young people who had to fight in the revolutionary war, the civil war, WWI and II, the korean war, the war in vietnam, wars in afghanistan and iraq and wars i did not mention or people who served so that we would stay at peace for awhile.
count your blessings.
8
Hilliary's speech at your commencement about boundless economic opportunity certainly applied to her. I'm sure that she was paid more money for that speech than your entire student debt.
11
You're mad about student loans that subsidized how many years of living big in one of the most expensive parts of the US, getting a degree in a field you know has twice as many graduates assume pen jobs, in field which your professors stated was assigned "dying industry"
Well, gosh, color me surprised. I went to community college first, then got an engineering degree and went back for a fun degree when I could afford it.
13
Did I miss something? How exactly did coming of age during the financial crisis contribute to the author's current debt? He graduated from NYU only 8 months or so after the 2008 collapse, so presumably the 100K in student loans had already been obtained. It's not clear what job (if any) he found directly after graduation, but he appears to have a rather prestigious position at the NYT 10 years in. How does he think things may have turned out differently for him if the financial crisis had been averted?
21
Thought you were too good for MSU? Comeuppance hurts.
9
I keep thinking of Rick Santelli's CNBC rant on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange at the height of the crisis. In short, his disingenuous exhortation demanded that they blame all those who had taken on bad mortgages--not the banks, nor the investment firms, nor the real estate/insurance instruments that sold the bad mortgages and then bundled them as complex derivatives to sell over and over again across the market until the collapse.
Out of this, along with substantial assistance from the Kochs, the Mercers, the Lehmanns, ad infinitum, ad nauseam, came the Tea Party.
Now, according to the Times, those same banks and businesses are bundling student debt (now at an all time high) as "leveraged loans" (leveraged against what?) and slicing pieces off the bundles to sell to one another.
And the Times endorses Cuomo, a man who never met a corporate contributor he wouldn't get in bed with.
It seems to me the public school teachers in those notoriously red states have the right idea.
National Strike, anyone?
11
This op-ed staggers me. This sad story is somehow Hillary Clinton's fault?
4
Very much so. She and Bill personify the co-optation of the democratic party and liberal politics by Wall Street, and the neutralization over several generations of any political possibility of countering skyrocketing inequality and evisceration of the middle class and security for the vast bulk of the working population. Their coddling of and fawning at banks did more than any other factor to get us into this mess.
3
@Anonymous. Not fault, merely overly optmistic, and perhaps not fully understanding how things have changed.
But then it was a commencement speech.
2
@Anonymous Her obliviousness to the actual conditions people are facing has gifted us Agent Orange. She did not make the world better, she made it worse, through her grotesque incompetence.
8
How about a roundup of this building crisis? — If you haven’t read these very related NYT stories...particularly those here shaming Mr. Miller and his family’s choices ... we can learn from this:
Community colleges will soon be a normal, reputable choice for anyone - no shame:
Story: “Middle-Class Families Increasingly Look to Community Colleges “
https://nyti.ms/2H9Y2IA
A generation has been duped into expensive schools as the “right choice” ... “just take a loan” -
Story: “The Next Financial Calamity Is Coming. Here’s What to Watch.”
https://nyti.ms/2N3ZQZX
Some schools are catching on that the next generation of parents and students just isn’t going to buy what they are selling -
Story: The Most Contrarian College in America
https://nyti.ms/2MotEv4
The government isn’t even pretending to care:
Story: “Student Loan Watchdog Quits, Saying Trump Administration Is Harming Students”
https://nyti.ms/2oce0t0
This is important - even if you rolled your eyes at this story as ridiculous, elitist, and privileged —- save save save, live simply, earn your freedom the slow way - this can scale to any income —- or be used to pay your loans!!!
Story: “How to Retire in Your 30s With $1 Million in the Bank”
https://nyti.ms/2N8ClOn
1
I have always been appalled at how quickly universities like New York University and Columbia University have gone to the mat in order to get loans for their students. There are workshops on the PSLF program all the time. But do these pillars of higher education ever take a pay cut for themselves? Have they ever forgiven a portion of anybody's student loans? These university are in a mercenary business: Make money at all costs so we can pay our employees. That's how most businesses in the USA work. Just because an entity is non-profit, does not mean that it doesn't need to pay its bills nor does it means that it always presents the awful truth to its customers.
5
“Mr. Frank, who is now on the board of Signature Bank, put it plainly: “We did not do enough to help stave off foreclosure for some of the innocent victims of all this.”
Unfortunately the story is worse yet: Programs were quickly put into place to modify mortgages and to make monthly payments. These programs were so hastily and badly organized that most who could use them did not even know about them. If you were persistent enough to re-file voluminous paperwork only a month after doing so because ‘we need to know if the picture has changed.’ Monthly mortgage payments could be accessed but only after an extended back-and-forth. Most who were eligible either know nothing about it or dropped out during a grueling qualification.
3
It is not the schools that are greedy.
Many of those schools started as "land grant" places, in which the state government gave huge assets to schools in order to have schools for their population. Then the Legislatures funded state colleges.
In the middle 70's, I could pay my college room and tuition for an exceptionally fine school, U of Michigan, because I wasn't paying it all. The State of Michigan paid a lot of it.
Rather suddenly, the states stopped paying for their schools. They shifted the burden on to the students.
Students generally have no assets, only hopes and dreams. Mortgaging those hope and dreams runs up huge interest (as here, more than the debt) as well as a huge debt to pay off before economic life ever begins at what was Ground Zero for people like me.
It was Reagan. It was the decision of government to stop paying, and to dump the burden on those least able to pay. It was sold as "fair." Well, you can sell a lot of stupid things if the other side of the story is never told.
The greed was of those who did not want to pay taxes. They did a lot of other greedy things at the same time, such as raiding the Soc Security Trust Fund, and reducing Food Stamps so they did not "waste" money on hungry American kids.
There is a lot to answer for, but it isn't for the students or the schools to answer.
Listen again to what Hillary said. Did she answer for any of it? That's where we should have heard the other side, from Democrats. Did we? Do we even now?
15
For a 100,000 loan at 6% and a 30 year term, that is $600/month. A lot but in NYC manageable and perhaps not shocking the conscience? Maybe I am ignorant but if you make $120k/year that is $10,000/month salary?
I would be interested in what happened to the parents. Left Michigan without jobs, then what?
8
Why does this nation saddle its young people with overwhelming debt in the first place? Why is no real aid available for students? It’s because Wall Street still rules. The banks make too much money from the high interest rates. I can definitely see the U.S. slipping into another recession in the near future, aided by a reckless president and a Congress that blows up the deficit and awards only the rich and powerful with tax breaks.
I am a baby boomer and also very angry at how this country handled the housing crisis. Think about it: none of the white-collar criminals were held accountable and put in jail. As for Jeff Sessions, the man can only demean others instead of offering any help or ideas.
9
I came of age during the early 1980s, when inflation was over 10%, unemployment rate was over 8% in LA, mortgage interest rates were 17%, and car loan rates were nearly 20%. The interest on my first mortgage in 1984 was 14%, for a tiny LA condo in a not so great part of town. This was during the Reagan era, and after implementation of his trickle-down tax cuts and deregulation, which did not work. This was after the fall of the Shah of Iran and beginning of extremist religious rule in Iran, taking of American hostages in Iran, the US boycott of the Olympics hosted in the former Soviet Union. This was also only 9 years after we withdrew troops from Vietnam, and 8 years after the President resigned in disgrace because of the Watergate scandal.
I survived. I survived by attending state universities, not borrowing more than I could afford, saving money until I had an emergency fund to cover six months of living expenses, foregoing expensive non-essentials, and being grateful for a steady albeit not very glamorous management job.
I survived. You will survive, too. Be grateful that you live in a country that is not war-torn. Be empathetic and charitable to those who do not have your advantages, like an education.
I will spare you a crass “womp womp” response, but I think you will have a better adult experience if you spend more time reflecting on what you do have, and less time being resentful for what you do not.
19
Private Colleges and Universities in America are in for a wake up call when the children of the recession generation either forgo college for trades or go the community college to state school course.
3
Maybe if these ‘entitled millennials’ had bothered to show up to vote or voted for a candidate who had a realistic plan to reduce student debt, they might be better if today. Buy, hey, so much easier to believe in ‘pie in the sky’ candidates and to whine on social media.
5
It’s not just M.H. Miller’s generation; it’s the current batch of teens who are not heeding the lessons of the 30-year-olds. I vigorously counsel my high school students to avoid huge debt, especially for low-paying careers. The poor souls still set their hearts on journalism degrees from NYU at $70k/year and vet tech degrees from leafy, 4-year, no-name colleges. I have flat out told kids, “Do not borrow $100,000 to be a vet tech. I’m begging you.” And off they go anyway, because the banks give them the money and the schools take it.
15
The author seems to still have a lot to learn about life.
She admits overpaying for a degree that can't support her. And then immediately blames citigroup for this. And she blames citigroup for selling her loans, just after saying she pays citigroup. So which is it?
The problem is that the author gives no indication that she actually understands the financial world or where its problems lie. She frames it as a bogey man, something that she can blame for her situation. There is nothing inherently bad in packaging and selling loans, just as there is nothing bad in selling food. The problems show up when people start misbehaving.
Towards the end she blames Clinton for the financial crisis, suggesting that people over leveraged because of her. For anyone who makes financial decisions because of what a commencement speaker says: I have a bridge to sell you.
I am not saying that the author is to blame for her situation. The financial mentdown involved a lot of bad decisions by lots of people, most of whom had no idea the economy would collapse. A lot of people ended up worse off, including many people in the financial industry who were laid off or who lost their savings. The author needs to learn that things happen; and that the best thing to do is to change the things in your life that you have control over, rather than blaming everyone else for your problems.
11
It's always cycles. I have a son-in-law back in school blowing money on tuition in the American education scam. I'm afraid that about the time he graduates again, we'll be in another down-turn. It happened to me, in my life. It was boom while I was drawing a slave-labor Army check and bust when when I got out and went home to 12% unemployment.
But Americans don't believe in government, so we get poor governance and a free-for-all, ruthless economy. If your wealthy, though, you ALWAYS win.
5
See the movie "The Big Short" and you will be even angrier about it. The lack of oversight of the financial industry by both parties (but particularly the Republicans - W. had been in office for seven years) is to blame, not Hillary.
5
Tough situation, yes, but the family had no plan other than to refinance its only asset, the house, to pay for a super-expensive private university education??? I don't get it--from either the parents' stand point or the student's. Likewise, in 2015, I met a Georgetown University college sophomore. Her major was education and she planned to be an elementary school teacher. She was borrowing the entire cost of that education, including room and board and travel costs home to New Jersey, where she could have--should have?--gotten a college degree for a fraction of the cost. Presumably she is now doing what she planned, and I sincerely hope the framed degree of her pedigree education makes up for the financial burden she knowingly took on in borrowing every penny of the cost of her private school degree.
11
Things will get better, but only if you take charge of your own life by making good choices for yourself. It isn’t wise to expect others or leaders to do the job fir you. I speak from experience, having come of age in the early 70’s when wages were frozen and there were gas station lines during a huge recession complicated by Watergate paralyzing our federal government.
Add to that I, at 20, married a fellow college student who was soon headed to grad school in another state! So we relocated and I quit school for three years to work full-time at low, frozen wage. We had very little money, the lowest of incomes possible that wasn’t zero, but did not ever ask our parents for help. We luckily had no student loans, which were not at all a thing in those days, despite having gone to a private undergrad college. But we had almost nothing “extra” for five years, not even a TV, besides the very basics and each other. Apartments were tiny, old, but came with basic and old furniture. Yet we were very, very happy! He studied a lot, while I worked and joyfully developed useful hobbies such as sewing for myself and our home. We found friends. One good choice we made was not to have kids until 7 years later. No pets, either, as they mostly were not allowed in apts. And we maintained a savings acct for rainy days.
Things have changed in the world of course, but not a lot really. Have goals and find a way to reach them. Don’t rely on outsiders.
14
I'm a boomer who graduated into a recession too. My future was greatly impacted by the collapse of the American car industry, which I was encouraged at the time to blame on Japan. The American car industry just made bad decisions and their bad decisions brought a lot of suffering into my home.
Now here I am in a Toyota partly the product of America and Japan. And my life is pretty good.
But I had the advantage of only paying $96 per semester for a state college, and student loans were pretty tame back then. What's happening now seems bordering on indentured servitude. Takes even longer to buy back your freedom than it did in the 18th century.
I certainly would never blame a young person now for any of what they're going through. You have my full empathy and my political attention and I hope we can make things better again.
12
I have always wondered how things would have been different, if our taxpayer-funded bailout had required the banks to help the mortgagees. Reduce their principal, their interest rate or SOMETHING that allowed them to stay in their home.
Like many others at the time, the Millers lost their jobs through no fault of their own. It was the banking industry and Wall Street that caused the recession, yet the middle class bore the brunt.
I also squarely blame Bill Clinton for caving to Wall Street and signing on to unnecessary financial deregulation.
8
I came of age in the late 70's when interest rates were 20% and inflation was runaway. My parents couldn't afford college so my husband and I put each other through a state university for the first 8 years we were married. It wasn't easy, especially since we then had four kids & lived on one income for several years. We were married 11 years before we could buy our first house & it wasn't as nice or big as we would have liked.
We achieved our goal of allowing all four of our children to graduate college debt-free. They too went to state colleges at our insistence. They're doing well & so are we, but there were a lot of tough years.
The workplace has fundamentally changed & not in a good way. Companies see shareholders as their primary stakeholders. The days of good health coverage and pension plans are gone. I've never been a fan of unions but am beginning to believe they need to make a comeback to re-balance power.
However, my main point is that we all find ourselves in difficult situations that we can't control. So we need to make the most responsible decisions we can about the things we can control. Attending a college you can't really afford because it has a prestigious name is not a good decision and yet private colleges continue to be filled with kids who can't afford to be there.
The only person you can be angry with is yourself for gambling on the uncertain return on investment of an expensive college education and being wrong.
11
Here is another one you wont print--but you poor baby!! I came of age during the vietnam war and was drafted shortly after i graduated from Northwestern's business school--during business recruitment at NU the first question asked was"what's your draft status? and end of interview if 1A...I was lucky and didnt end up in a situation where I get shot at--but many of my friends did from my small home town and 7 were killed....so dont cry to me about the financial crisis--I understand the pain the crisis cost--i lost lots of money i'd planned to retire on-but no comparison between life and money
22
And yet, here we are, with the current administration relaxing regulations that were put into place after the collapse. The architects of those regulations admit that there were some flaws, and not enough was done to protect the average American in the way that banks were protected. But they were necessary then and they're still necessary.
What baffles the mind is that these banks are flush with profits, they just got part of a $1.5 trillion tax cut and, unbelievably, this administration thinks they need another helping hand.
If you haven't spoken up to your elected officials yet, now is the time.
9
I seems that Miller isn’t the only one saddled with debt. His parents got sucked into the ReFi game just before real estate tanked and lost their nest egg. I wonder how they have made out since. At least Miller is working and paying down loans that his parents may have co-signed.
2
Another story of the rich screwing the poor. Our government encourages and abets this behavior. The meanness and greed is celebrated.
4
I also empathize with Mr. Miller, having graduated college a good number of years ago into a long forgotten but biting recession.
However, I believe the author’s experience speaks at least as much the cost of college becoming “racket”, trapping our college students and their families into ridiculous debt loads, as it does to the painful aftermath of the Great Recession. Why does education cost so much? Why does a whole family have to take on a barely supportable debt - or not supportable if an additional financial hardship pops up - in order to get a child through college?
Even today, when I’d casually observe there’s been no easier time for a fresh college graduate to find a job in several generations, how long will it take for even a well employed graduate to repay six figures of college debt, let alone consider buying a house or going to graduate school? No recession necessary to delay or cancel these life events.
How many families are currently one tuition increase or medical bill away from financial ruin despite the long economic expansion that our politicians are all eager to take credit for, and whose patrons have reaped the vast majority of the benefits?
2
On Black Monday in October 1987, I sat in a finance class at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business and watched my future tank, along with the stock market. Invitations to interview for jobs on Wall Street were rescinded within days. I graduated without a job, and the one I got several months later was the same one I was doing in my pre-MBA days.
While my situation was similar to Mr. Miller's, one big difference is that I never blamed anyone for my debts and I never felt like someone owed me a way out. I struggled for years to pay it off, did not buy a home or a car until my very late thirties.
I took a risk in taking out loans. It did not pay off financially. I don't regret my MBA, though I do advise others to think the decision through carefully. Today, I have a family, a home and two cats. We are comfortable, and I am content. I hope those who are struggling with their debt loads will have patience and take the long view. This, too, shall pass.
13
My feelings, like a commenter below, are mixed.
The high point of this article is its main title. The author's generation should still be angry about the world they inherited. But when the discussion turns to the individual case, it is harder for me to agree with that it is a proxy for an entire generation.
Does the author here realize how atypical $100,000 in college debt is? For 2015 - after a few years' worsening, following the author's graduation - the figure is about 5%. Believe me, I get that everyone the author knows (and most of my friends as well) are in that 5%. But familiarity must not obscure the fact that *this* - the plight of people like the author - is probably not the college debt problem worth solving first.
That distinction is likely held by the millions of college (profit and non-profit) borrowers who never got within sight of NYU and its astounding factory for churning out useless degrees. (I heard so many NYU arts majors quoted during Occupy Wall Street, that I began to wonder if they were a Koch Bros false flag operation.)
The word "useless" above is purposefully incendiary. I'm all for education - and art - for its own sake. But anyone who agrees shouldn't find it hard to understand why universities have responded as they have to this government loan spigot-backed imperative.
Each generation responds to the incentives before it. When your generation obtains universal debt forgiveness, your kids will be just as angry to get the bill.
5
Clearly what we witnessing is a death rattle, last gasp of the old regime that become unsustainable.
How long the country can be ruled by dying bodies.
Since I came here at the end of 70' beginning of 80' I heard all the same names that I hear now.
All of these people are past retirement age, they will never change and they weren't that great to begin with.
Most of them just clinging to the vestiges of their power, paranoid lunatics drivel that's all.
I'm almost 70 yrs old myself so I can't be accuse of ageism, you have to be smart enough to know when to live.
For god sake the country needs fresh young ideas, new voices step aside, let the new generation in.
6
You made the choice to go to a very expensive private university. What on earth was wrong with the University of Michigan?
22
Mr. Miller, I am sorry for your struggles, and even more so for those of your parents. You seem to be well on your way to recovery; your parents not so much.
Dodd-Frank was designed to correct the rapacity of once-trusted financial institutions gone rogue. Other pre-2017 legislation and regulation was targeted at for-profit higher education scams like Trump University to clip their capacity to take students' borrowed money for substandard education that failed abysmally to deliver what it promised.
In response to the pain, America has voted into power charlatans who will only make it much worse. So far in this administration, the GOP's signal achievement has been "tax reform." Ask yourself, how much have YOU benefited? I thought so.
Now ask how your kids and grandchildren will benefit from struggling with the mountains of our generation's national debt with which THEY will have to cope?
I grant that Hillary Clinton offered little in the way of solution during your commencement ceremony, Mr. Miller, but I don't think she was about to cram you, your parents and your generational classmates into a cattle car and drive you gleefully over a cliff.
8
If you don’t believe your generation can overcome a recession, you’ve got serious issues with hyperbolic whining. Generations of young Americans have overcome slavery, flu pandemic, and world wars that were not their fault either. But somehow college debt from NYU will destroy you. Seriously laughable.
11
The young people who died in the flu pandemic didn't overcome it. The virus killed too many of its hosts, ran out of food and housing, and met the expected fate. It wasn't something people overcame. Some survived and some didn't.
And it took more than one generation to overcome enslavement. Trauma is an enduring thing. Emotional numbing can fool you into thinking it's easy to forget. But deep trauma like enslavement or with Holocaust survivors can persist in families for generations. I think the Depression had an effect like that too.
There's no use blaming people for not overcoming trauma fast enough. Blame is not the path to healing.
11
It's the greedy banks that destroyed this country and every one of us has had to pay, one way or the other.
The banks? They were rewarded.
9
We are similar to the writer’s parents, although we made a different choice - we bought a modest second home in 2003 or so in a well known resort area. I remember thinking, when we signed the loan papers, that surely they wouldn’t be giving us this loan if they thought we wouldn’t be able to pay for it.
The loan was a common structure for back then - 5 year fixed followed by a balloon payment. Essentially you had to refinance at 5 years. BUT, in 2008/9 the value of our little cabin had halved. We could not refinance, we had no choice but to “negotiate” with the bank, ING Direct, who pulled every dirty trick known-passing our loan package around to various uninformed people making us restart the negotiation over and over, we had an offer to buy from a couple for one year that was generous, if the bank would allow a short sale. The bank dragged their heals so long the buyers finally, regretfully, backed out. ING once told us if we sent them a check for $10k they would process the short sale. They lied.
Anyway, we lost the cabin, lost any trust in banks or mortgage companies, lost our large down payment.
The similarity is that we made a decision that looks unwise in retrospect - we buy 2nd home, writer’s parents refinance home to pay tuition at expensive college. At the time, it did not seem like a horrible risk or a stupid decision. Our credit is just now recovering. The last 10 years have been a disaster for many Americans, but the rich just keep getting richer.
7
I understand your position and empathize completely. Some of the smartest people I know are in your generation and your situation. As a '50s-'60's person who was on the "hippie" side rather than the "frat boy" side, I apologize for the insensitive jerks in my generation who took over when we made the mistake of thinking we had won the social "wars" of our time and took our eyes off the ball.
9
It is informative to see the personal faces of the shameful $1.6+ Trillion Student Loan Crisis. That number places the Crisis in the magnitude of the $3.5 Trillion Nation Health Expenditures, the $3.2 Trillion off-shore corporate tax avoidance scheme, and even in the shadow of the $21 Trillion national debt. But, personal stories like Mr. Miller's tell us how real people are affected, and often devastated, by the life altering consequences of their student debts...It is easy for those who were educated by a much more affordable system to cast aspersions and recriminations for the decisions made by those seeking a higher education. That is the hypocrisy of the Monday morning quarterback.
1
Thank you for this painful but necessary punch in the gut. We all need to seriously reflect on what you have laid out here in brutally honest prose. You’re 100 percent correct. Most middle-class and lower income individuals and families never recovered from the 2008 economic collapse. And the empty platitudes offered by politicians like Hillary Clinton (and even our beloved President Obama) did little to reverse, much less recognize the extreme financial hardship and misfortune experienced by average hardworking Americans during that time and up to the present day. What is most critical now is where we go from here, especially since our country and all our fates rest in the (small) hands of a raging lunatic. Of course, we must all vote on November 6th. But we also must stay activated and engaged so that once we have a new Congress in place, we can all demand and ensure that every one of our elected officials does their one and only job, which is to serve the interests of the people not the plutocrats.
9
Same thing happened to gen x’ers in the early 90’s. My dad’s parents were hard hit during the Great Depression. Things happen. You keep moving.
15
My dad's parents never recovered from the Depression. My father was homeless as a teenager. There was no therapy back then for that kind of trauma. People kept moving but they were the walking wounded and a lot of them never recovered their human potential at all.
5
Just saying, I have a niece that just graduated with a medical degree in physical therapy. She has $200,000 debt. Just saying.
3
@Mgaudet
my BIL graduated med school 20 yrs ago
250K debt paid it off 2 yrs ago
we all make choices
4
@Mgaudet
Yes, the MD who complained to me that he had a 200K loan to pay off. It's supply and demand, there will always be sick people willing to pay someone to get better. And, the medical field is the most tightly controlled institution in the world. Besides, it takes a 100K to open a decent pizza restaurant, and no one is calling the owner, "doctor."
1
"I'm Still Angry About it." Then get out and vote in the next election since your generation tends to stay home!
8
I definitely sympathize with Mr. Miller and parents and their plight. I remember thinking in 2007: 'how can this ridiculous rate of growth be sustained? It can't go on forever.' And, indeed, it could not.
What I don't understand about this editorial is why he mentions only two politicians (Democrats) by name, seeming to hold only these two responsible for his plight. This is exactly backwards to what is needed to turn this nation toward policies to deal with the issues he and his family face.
Only the Democrats will work to solve the problems of average Americans. The one-note Republican solution is that the benefits of policies which primarily help the rich and corporations will 'trickle down' to everyone--which has been exposed as a false. This former Republican will be voting and supporting Democrats in every race to elect public officials who will work to benefits all Americans. To help Mr. Miller and his family and so many more achieve their American Dream.
2
Everything you said is true. The big banks got bailouts and individuals got nothing. Having said that, have you looked into having your loan refinanced at a lower interest rate?
5
I was at the other end of the spectrum: a 50-something when the company I worked for went out of business in 2009. Since then: a couple jobs that pay half of my former salary, plus a occasional part-time jobs to help make up the difference.
Now a 60-something, I still search for a “real” job. Three college degrees plus forty years of experience seem to be disadvantages.
In 2009, I expected to be entering the peak earning years of my career. Just the opposite.
I don’t mean to whine, just to point out that the Great Recession hurt different generations in different ways.
33
I turned 50 in 2008 as well. All of a sudden I was considered past my “sell by date”. My marriage faltered, we turned in desperation to food banks, yet were too ashamed to tell friends or family. We both have graduate degrees. 2008 dragged on through 2014. We’re finally back on our feet but the halcyon days of the ‘80’s and ‘90’s were a distant memory. I now council clients (I have been a financial advisor for 31 years) to save now, and that good times can fade quickly..
16
I understand the writer's angst. I got out of college in the mid-1970s, the advice to everyone of us was to stay in school--there were no jobs. We muddled through, as you will too, if you have the perseverance.
3
Hold up. How can we blame an 18 year old for making a bad financial decision when we, as a society, place no value on financial education? The average boomer hasn’t saved enough to retire.
Poor financial decisions are a societal trait, not an error of a younger generational.
11
The obvious thing to do is let us play by the same rules. For years banks borrowed from the govt at minimal interest rates. Let us do the same. No interest. Let us declare bankruptcy and wipe the loans from our debt pile. If american airlines could do it, why can't we. I m all for a competitive economy and don't think socialism always works but for crying out loud, We need the same rules
10
@George Well, because for you the powers-that-be think helping you would be a moral hazard, causing a breakdown in society. For corporations, it's just business.
Sad.
2
Our education system failed this generation to become critical thinkers, and smart corporate marketing sold he and his parents (and millions of others) on a pipe dream. Most of the people commenting on this article criticize the decisions of the author and his parents. My criticism is not directed at them, nor the corporations and financial institutions. It's at our education system and politicians who under-fund education. We need to improve our education system to graduate critical thinkers who understand history and are sceptical of grandiose promises of corporations and politicians.
6
Generation upon generation of young Americans and their parent will continue to borrow to pay for college tuition regardless of how costly and how expensive and how detrimental to their future financial well being. The reason is simple: In the American economy, a college degree has become the only way for young Americans to attain middle class status. A college degree has become almost like an insurance policy against minimum wage and low skilled service jobs, no health insurance, no 401K, no homeownership, and no American dream. Such is the reality of what awaiting future young Americans if nothing short of a political revolution in America.
4
I think Mr. Miller's parents did not "refinance" their mortgage. I refinanced a mortgage; that meant replacing the existing amount due by a new mortgage for the same amount with a lower interest rate. Instead, they took out a new, larger mortgage. That was their misfortune.
10
Many wanted to refinance their mortgages at a rate commensurate with a lower rate with no increased principal. A Reagan economist Martin Feldstein proposed a program whereby
Mortgagors would be able to refi at a lower rate with the loan being a recourse loan (mortgagors could not walk away from the loan) This might have kept more people in their homes. I attempted to do this but I was given the runaround. I hung in there but it was a
Burden. Almost nothing was done for the individual homeowner . Even during the depression a moratorium was declared on foreclosures. These kind of policies eventually led to populists like Trump being elected.
3
While I agree that the cost of an education has skyrocketed, you chose to go to an out-of-state college. You lived in Michigan and you went to New York. Why? Unless you has a full ride scholarship, you should of stayed in state, where the cost would of been at least 1/3 the cost. You chose that college and therefore chose the out-of-state cost. Your $100,000 in student loans is your fault. I'm sure one of the in state colleges could of offered the same education with less the cost.
18
No, it’s not his fault. The author is reckless because he chose an out-of state school? Ridiculous. Why aren’t more loans available? His “crime”? He wanted a good education. No other developed nation does this to its students.
5
Scott, a state college does not carry the same weight as an elite private university when you put that name on your resume.
4
@Patricia
You’re right; but a Master’s level graduate degree from an elite school will carry that weight! Both my wife and I received BAs from state schools (paying for tuition with on campus jobs/scholarships) and then took out loans for advanced degrees from Brown!
1
I am the mother of a son just about your age; my husband lost his job at this time and I was constantly threatened with layoff, being in journalism myself. I would not have dreamed of refinancing my house to cover his college education, nor of letting him take out $100,000 in loans.
My husband and I had saved assiduously for our kids' college, and my son ended up going to the UC Berkeley, which we could afford. NYU would have been out of the question. Even then, he took his first semester at a community college, which saved us several thousand dollars. He could have gone to community college for the first two years, for that matter, and still have ended up with a UC Berkeley degree. He worked during school and during summers, paying for his own books, supplies, travel and personal expenses, and took his degree debt-free, as did we.
Frankly, though what has happened to the middle class is desperately unfair and downright dangerous policy for the nation, the author does come off as sniveling and whiny.
20
I started college in autumn of 2007. My mom got sick and lost her job the following year.
My parents didn't lose their home, but in order to keep it, I lost their support. Well, how do you pay $900/mo in rent, $500 per semester in books, $1500 per semester tuition, etc., when you can't find a job?
I'm still angry about it, too. Very, very much so.
8
@Seb Williams
You work while going to school. Not easy but that's what I did.
4
To all those boomers patting themselves on the back for their hard work and thrift, this boomer will tell you that we never had it so good. That education of yours was comparatively cheap. Rent in your college town was cheap. Certainly those houses you bought were incredibly cheap compared to today. My husband and I have made huge profits (untaxed of course) from the run up in value of real estate the last 30 years. We don't think this is because we are smart. We just needed places to live and we got lucky. My two siblings and I attended private colleges in the northeast in the early 70's because Social Security paid my widowed mother $500/month for EACH of us until we were 21. Bad luck that my father died leaving three children to educate, but the government stepped in and helped. My mother, who came of age during the Depression, was kind of the millionaire next door. More good luck: when she died in nineties, we all inherited a few hundred thousand. No federal taxes on this either. Nowadays, the rich get richer and I feel for the new generations. My advice: move to Minneapolis or Cincinnati or St. Louis. There are good jobs there and the houses cost what they did 30 years ago on the coasts. You'll have a good life.
19
Hmmm. I am from California, and upon entering my senior year of high school was told by my parents in no uncertain terms that I was going either to a UC school or a State school, and those were the choices. I went to UC Berkeley. So did my brother. We graduated with almost no debt, as we both worked our way through school. It's true that I'm older than this author and thus the tuition was minimal, but if MH Miller had gone to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor -- an excellent school -- his tuition would have been 14K per year instead of almost 50K per year, and he would not have put himself and his family into perilous debt. I think his point about Clinton is excellent: for me she'll go down in history as a candidate who never once addressed poverty and economic hardship in America. But if you live like a rich person and want to go to a mediocre and very expensive school in a very expensive city, instead of an excellent school for which you can be granted in-state tuition, that is a poor decision. Not my business to judge, but then, you are writing about your private life in a way that seems to invite judgement.
23
This is partly true and NYU is renowned for its high costs, but at the same time its somewhat unlikely that the author was paying 50,000 a year in tuition. Very few private school attendees pay the full cost. In many instances private schools are cost comparative to public ones especially if one is in the middle or lower-middle classes. I attended a small private school in the Twin Cities that was about the same cost as UCLA or UC Berkeley after financial aid (I am originally from CA). The fact is public schools have gotten to be far more expensive which all millennials know but a fact that seems to elude many boomers. This is especially the case at more prestigious public schools like the University of Michigan. Now, community colleges can be a good option to at l least limit the number of years of expenditure but again in CA, the community colleges were so overloaded in the recession that many people I knew literally couldn’t get into the classes that they needed as prerequisites to transfer. So they spent years of their lives trying to get those classes, in some cases attending 3 or 4 different community colleges!
5
Has it occurred to any of you that perhaps the author wasn’t accepted to Michigan?
5
Our older daughter graduated into the recession and struggled for any job she could get. Our younger daughter recently graduated and was bombarded with job offers.
Even though they are separated by only 5 years of age, their outlook on the economy is as different as Boomers and the WW2 generation that survived the Great Depression.
15
Some of us boomers graduated into the recession of 1973-76. By the time jobs opened up we were long term unemployed with limited experience fighting new graduates for entry level jobs. It is interesting what a few years can do to your prospects.
9
I can relate. I am probably about the same age as the author, came out of undergrad with a five-year degree from a Canadian university in 2010. There were *very* few prospects unless I wanted to stay in academia, and moving back to the US was a huge gamble. I worked my butt off at multiple jobs to carve out a career in arts/media and was a creative director by 26 years old. While processing PR I was career-blocked by a “mistake” by CIC and was I was unable to work for two years. Using the time for more education was out of the question, financially. During that time, I did notice that the job market started to open up. The gap in my work experience still fills me with shame and rage. At the end of it, I was competing against younger candidates with more/fresher experience. Without the blip, I also could have paid off my undergrad loans quickly. Timing is everything.
2
I acknowledge the tragedy, in commending Mr. Miller about an excellent article here. I cringe for the NYT which posted a report about the challenge to defeat Republicans now that the economy is "humming" and "booming" (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/15/us/politics/trump-republicans-midterm... ). It's especially embarrassing, given another, contemporaneous article about how evidence for this wonderful economic situation is very distorted (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/14/opinion/columnists/great-recession-ec... ). The good news is that the valid evidence that corresponds with Mr. Miller's experience and view may help get rid of the politicians who've enabled the cruelty by voting them out in November.
4
I'm going to buy my kids cars. Should I buy them Mercedes and blame the auto industry for my debt? Should I realize that they will want cars some day, start saving up now, and be able to afford used Honda's when they are 16?
The end result is that buying a college education is a financial transaction. Buy New York University, buy a state school, buy a Mercedes, buy a Honda...the choice is up to the buyer. The seller is not to blame.
12
Yes, he would have had significantly less debt had he gone in state. But even if he had gone in state, a key point he made but which gets lost in your comment and so many others of like mind is that his parents lost a job because of events beyond their control. There were diminished employment opportunities, also beyond the control of the writer and his family. The decision to refinance a home was, in most scenarios, probably a good one. Especially when applying the money towards an education, a supposedly productive asset. Finally, suppose he had gone in state? His loans would still likely be $35 to $50k. He'd have less of a struggle, but the diminished income prospects would remain the same. Now multiply that millions of times. You focus on his poor decision, but many wealthy and powerful people in business and government made far, far worse decisions negatively affecting millions. What about them? In many cases, in one form or another, they really did get bailed out. Please take a look at the larger picture.
6
@Mike
Yes on top of your points is that a decesion was made that the public no longer had an interest in funding education, gradually changing from a public to private good. From there a bargain made with banks that costs of education could sky rocket. I don’t this would have happened if it remained a public good, even with private schools.
I teach a high school program preparing kids for college, both the skill in how to get there and the ability to finance it. It's still totally possible to graduate without massive debt and get a degree from a name brand college, if you are willing to work, sacrifice, and play the system. First option is scholarships--there really are quite a lot of them out there and if you start looking and planning before arriving at senior year you can fund a lot of your education that way. I sense a collective howl of denial coming, but I know from experience that's inaccurate. Planning ahead, planning strategically by your parents and you, will equal bucks. Parents consider employer offers of in house scholarships when choosing jobs, pick extracurriculars with large scholarships like Boy Scouts (have to be an Eagle Scout) and kids choose the employer with tuition reimbursement and scholarships etc. Create a patchwork of money. It's work, but it's always been work. Live at home and go to junior college for the first two years, or move to a city with an inexpensive cost of living and a good junior college and knock out your first years on the cheap and then transfer to a brand name school. Or move to a state with excellent state schools--California comes to mind--and work for a year while you gain residency. A college degree requires sacrifice. I was first in my family to go and it was hard. I worked and went to school part time so it took six years to get my degree. But I had little debt.
5
Yes. This. Most people not graduating into the worst recession in three generations don't understand how daunting it is to build a career when you have no experience and are competing against people with decades of it. My career was fits and starts for years, and I had to accept jobs for less pay and worse hours to just have enough to live off of. Even colleagues 5 years younger or 5 years older than me didn't get the feeling of staring into the abyss of student loans, looming medical bills and no income. It's deeply affected how I view the world, and somehow it feels like I'm the one getting blamed for suffering through the collateral damage of other people's decisions.
4
While I agree with the author that student loans place young people under a tremendous financial burden early in their careers. I have to wonder if he or his parents thought about the consequences of their actions in terms of refinancing their home to finance his education and his taking out $100,000 in student loans?
Did his parents ever consider investing in mutual funds or other investments early in his life to fund his education? Did they consider the risk of refinancing their mortgage. Did the author consider the long-term implications of taking out those loans? Did he consider going to a less expensive university?
I can see a engineering, doctor, dental or other health care profession student taking out $100,000 in loans. Chances are they will have an income that allows them to pay their loans, have decent housing and even be able to save some money. I don't know if personally, I could justify taking out $100,000 of loans for a job that pays only $60,000 to $80,000 a year.
The issue I have with the article the author doesn't look at the role his parents and his own decisions play in his present financial circumstances.
9
Every generation lives through disruption and the greed and grasping of the moneyed classes. Robber barons. The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Union riots. World War I. World War II. Vietnam. The depression. The recession of the 80s. Teapot Dome. 9/11 and everything that followed. The S&L scandal.
Your generation is not unique. But what happened to you is the fruit of 2 genius political moves made in response to the 60s unrest over Vietnam: (1) an all-volunteer military and (2) making students pay (and pay and pay and pay) for their educations.
Really, the only option left is to stop paying. Everybody. All at once. Stop. Paying. Like the bonus army that marched on D.C. The union members murdered in the Ludlow and Matewan Massacres. The civil rights activist firehosed and beaten and bitten by dogs. The only hope is collective action.
Whine all you want about how you're "blamed" for what was done to you. But until you, the collective you, take some action you're going to be sitting in your individual (rented) living rooms until the day you die trying to service a debt that you wish--oh how you wish--that Bernie had gotten you out of.
But he didn't. He won't. He probably can't. So it's pitchfork time.
3
My parents could not help me with my college. They didn’t even encourage it and I never expected any financial support. I worked and paid my way as it was meant to be. I stayed home until I could pay for a small studio room near UTEP. My parents, no college, were sons and daughters of Great Depression era parents. They were frugal and had disdain for “fancy-pants” things. They’ve seen and experienced HARD.
I wanted fancy but retained being frugal.
Having easy access to money is a BIG problem.
I see it everywhere in our consumer driven culture. New cars, no money down furnitures, $1,000 phones, vacation trips, huge credit card debts. How can they afford 20-30% charges?
I like used, fully paid cars, love taking sack lunch to work, a simple home and I don’t have debt. I let my employer pay for my MBA and other education I need. I live simply and way below my means. I save nearly 1/2 of my paycheck.
I’d be angry too if I was the cause for their financial ruin. But You can do something about it - Go make money and save like you are poor. Get truly angry at your stupidity.
I support regulations to protect consumers... There always will be someone trying to sell me something that I don’t need and those that live way beyond their means. So, good luck.
As you are, you will lose. TV, FB, Google, Apple, and Amazon know your tendencies and know which buttons to push.
Fight wit NO and disconnect before it’s way too late. Choose hard and get to real work.
9
I'll feel bad for you but first do me a favor. Next time you are discussing the false narrative about white generational wealth accumulated by real estate wheeling and dealing and since your article invites commiseration keep this in mind:
I grew up on the near east side of Detroit. By the time my family moved out of our neighborhood (late 1980s) it had essentially become a war zone. I still own the empty lot on which our house once stood. It is currently assessed at $102. (that's USD).
You could have attended a public university in the state of Michigan.
In terms of paying college tuition did you look into the current incarnation of the GI Bill?
I took advantage of it in the 1970s after I served a tour in Vietnam. It worked out just fine. I have moved from the bottom 20% to the top 10% in terms of wealth and salaries.
Your negative experiences falls into a politically acceptable category at the NY Times - the big bad mortgage companies and rising college tuition.
My family's experience with real estate wealth and Detroit? The liberals on the OP-ED pages just shout "Look, white flight!".
Give me a break.
17
The author could have transferred to a less-expensive college, and saved his parents and himself a great deal of trouble. Or he could have chosen to participate in a public service loan forgiveness program. But then, he would not be writing for thr NYT.
11
It would be interesting to see a large enough percentage of student loan borrowers stop paying this egregious debt. The only way to deal with the financial leeches is to cut them off. Time to revolt. Kill the leeches.
2
@Thomas Felch So, tell us. Which leech do you kill? The one left holding the bag? The one who originated the loan? Who deserves to be killed?
1
Sorry to hear that your desire for an expensive education "broke" your parents. Did you consider cheaper state options rather than your "expensive private college?" BTW, why are you now blaming "the system" for your poor judgement?
10
This op-ed simply doesn't ring true to me. This young man and his parents had many options, including choosing a college they could afford without refinancing the family home. My son graduated from college in 2008 with $4000 in school loans. I looked into refinancing my home in 2003 before he started college. I decided against it because it was clearly a bad deal. I was a single mom, never out of work, but not wealthy. My son qualified for some financial aid at a private, highly ranked college. I paid the balance of his college costs from savings and from govt savings bonds given to him by his grandfather. Today, my son and his wife are both physicians. My son was fortunate to be accepted at a govt sponsored MD-PhD program which paid for his graduate work. His wife paid for medical school with $300k in student loans, which they are paying off on schedule. They are much too busy at work to be angry at anyone.
11
I can really relate to this story a lot.
Back in 2008 I graduated with a degree in journalism from a pretty decent University only to watch the whole world collapse and work odd jobs and random writing gigs for the next several years.
It was a big blow to my ego and like the author I've also lived with the shame. For me it wasn't debt it was that my parents paid for the degree. Unlike a lot of other people I was fortunate enough to not to have to take out a loan for college. My parents had saved up for many years. But because of that it makes the guilt even worse. Like they worked so hard and saved that money for nothing. For me to be working at dumb restaurant or bar or checkout line. It's been a huge weight on my chest for years now. I want to find a way to pay them back some day. Every damn wasted dollar. I was a dumb kid.
I went back to school later part time. Slowly over a number of years while working I was able to complete a Computer Science degree. I don't know how. Lol. It was hell. But now life is better.
People actually want to hire me past menial jobs. I guess that the difference though. It was really really hard. I had to learn 'tough math', not just 'coding', so like: Calc, Linear, Stat, Physics, etc. But as mentioned... Life is better now. I took everything I had to get myself out that hell hole the financial crisis created in my life. But now now things are finally changing. Except for the shame. It still lingers on.
282
@Xavier N Amazing how that works. Earn a more difficult degree and you have a better chance and earning a decent living. I was lucky that my parents drilled that into my head before I chose my major.
2
@Xavier N
I applaud you.
@Xavier N
I am a parent, and I am sure your parents do not blame you, and do not expect repayment other than getting to see you living the best life you can which it sounds like you are already doing! Parents suffer when their kids suffer, sometimes even more. I am sure they hated to see you work so hard in college and then have fate keep you down for so long. They must be bursting with pride to see you slog away for years getting that computer science degree. Parents are never prouder of their kids than when they are hard-working, resilient and appreciate what their parents provided them. You are all three. That it bothers you so much that your parents paid for a degree that went nowhere is proof positive that you are an appreciative child any parent would be proud of, and I hope things go well for you from now on. Good luck and congratulations!
9
After my own experience with a student loan, we decided that our children would NOT have to take out loans. My daughter's education was an extended family project. She was the first person on her mother's side of the family to ever graduate from college and she was able to follow her heart into music and develop her beautiful voice, graduating with a degree in music education. She actually had money leftover!
Our son wanted to be a doctor, but found he had an interest in molecular biology. By then we were making decent money and paid his way through to graduation in 2008. He couldn't get a job, couldn't get into graduate school, even the Army wouldn't take him except as an infantryman!
We supported him through the next couple years as he got a community college degree in medical technology. He is doing OK now, financially. And he is debt-free.
We lived in 2 bedroom rentals, tribal housing, etc. and drove beater cars the whole time. We put the money into the kids and it was worth every penny. So now we are putting away money for the grandchildren.
1
Here's a chart from this past spring (3-2-18) which illustrates why many commenters here mentioning personal responsibility are incorrect. https://on.mktw.net/2jeEaZD Maybe my link from another publication won't be allowed.
Source is the BLS. College costs, hospital services and child care are up more than 100% between 1997-2017. Child care is "only" up 125%, while the other two categories are up more than 185%. In that same period, wages are up ~75%, beating overall inflation (55.6%).
When you consider the recent news from Pew that the purchasing power of wages is equivalent to the power of 1974, and other structural inequalities, personal responsibility alone won't solve this problem. Maybe relatively expensive private schools won't either. But to only blame the author and his parents is a small portion of the big picture.
5
The author is so very right and I am surprised that he is one of the few to verbalize this so very well. The story grabs you in the gut, like the myth of the ever ascending economy and real estate boom gutted all but those who created the crisis. I am 69 and my entire college cost including room, board and books was some $12,000. To start our citizens out with outlandish debt is the route to dictatorship or socialism. When the normal citizen can no longer survive, the government will change of necessity if citizens vote. Embolden your readers and classmates to the polls!!
9
I will never understand people who go to the most expensive universities in the country, choose a major that pays little, and then whine about being in debt.
12
Well written. This is so sad! It doesn't happen in other rich countries that respond to their voters rather than lobbies. Unless we get the money out of politics, we will continue to destroy our middle class. I wonder who the 1% will sell their stuff to then.
I am appalled by the blame-the-victim comments in response to M. H. Miller's well-written piece, which I thank him for writing. As a member of an older generation, I fully empathize and believe that the big banks got away with murder.
11
Sounds to me like your parents saw their home suddenly double in value and proceeded to use a refinance like an ATM machine. Like many other Americans did at the time. What did they spend the money on?
3
You're overlooking the most important parts of the 2008 collapse and its aftermath. First we bailed out Wall Street and the banks and only 1 guy went to jail, while most of them kept their jobs, tax rates and bonuses. We put a few "sorta" controls in place and have weakened them ever since. The average American who fronted the money for the bailout lost their jobs and houses and these underlings haven't recovered and nobody really cares. The top 5% got most of the wealth created by the Obama/trump economy and has further benefitted from trumps tax cuts. The top can continue to use this wealth to influence policy. Income inequality continues to grow. In other words, the system works!
8
I wanted to say the author should have picked another university...but then I saw he is employed by the Times. I'm sure that required beating out a lot of people and getting a degree from NYU no doubt helped.
It's a tough call. If getting a degree from a second tier school would result in half the debt but only half the salary (over a lifetime) then you could say an NYU education is a worthy investment. In general I'd not advise getting what is usually a low-paying degree at an expensive school - it is a huge gamble and one not many will win.
4
@Renee Hoewing In my day (60's) NYU *was* a second tier school.
8
2008 was a scrimmage. The big game is near.
5
Mr. Miller,
Here's an idea which I passed on to my youngest daughter whose life, like your life is weighted down with student debt. Contact Mr. Timothy Geither President, Warburg Pincus, who as you surly know was one of the most prominent engineers of the 2008/2009 megabank bail outs.
Given his stalwart public service he received, as a thank you gesture from Chase, a $12bn investment from his good friend Mr. Diamond. Warburg Pincus is using this investment to become a lending lender of the type remembered as your local corner payday loan store. Only Warburg Pincus is much more sophisticated.
Their foremost practice is a sort of junk mail of unsolicited loans. They mail out literally thousands of variable check amounts to people whom they know might be in narrow financial straits. Once cashed the barrower is subjected to the same practices of the old fashion corner payday loan store, high interest rates, accelerating compounded rates when payments are late, lawsuits, their attorney fees and so forth. In the end the borrower is a big-time loser as were so many in 2008.
Just call him and ask that he gives you $100,000, which, likely, you could give right back to him because he could be very well holding your student loan debt. Mr. Geither is characterized as a magnanimous individual, and I am sure he would be eager to help you as he helped himself, gosh I mean, 2008 home owners.
By the way, do you know if Bill and Hillary lost their home in 2008?
5
I agree with the author’s view of what happened and his being angry. Many people share these feelings. Does he mention how few young people voted? There was no excuse for not voting then or in every primary and general election since. ParaphrasIng President Obama, “every election matters.” Now, ask the author how many of his friends voted in 2016, 2017, and 2018?
4
My unemployed neighbor had a similar problem - he bought a brand new F-150 for $75K when I offered him my used Hyundai for $2K - worse yet - he borrowed the money from his parents - who took if from a home equity line of credit - now he can't afford the insurance.
I have about as much sympathy for him as I do this young editor.
10
I'm a Gen Xer. And I'm sick and tired of people from my generation and the Boomer generation piling on the Millenials.
Can we, as a nation, muster some empathy for the situation they are in and stop blaming them for the mess the Boomers handed them and everyone else? And is it too much to ask for the Boomers to take their fat accounts and retire without a peep? It's time to let these young people lead us into the future. The 2016 election, the rise of tech, the complexity of global markets - these have shown us that those over 65 do not have the tools to be leaders in the decades to come. Millenials have the tech savvy, the empathy, and the skepticism about identity politics that we need to get past this terrible moment.
9
Most of the Boomers I know do not have fat retirement accounts and may have to get reverse mortgages to finance their retirements. If they can ever retire. Some are still paying off their children’s college loans.
4
@Liz R
I, and they probably, wish they had thought of that when they embraced unfettered capitalism and American exceptionalism while they were leading the country during the 80s, 90s and 00s. We all wish they had been more responsible fiscally instead of lecturing others about how important it is. Then maybe they could rely on the social safety net that their representatives in congress have been working to gut. Then perhaps bad luck would not have such dire consequences?
@JLC This is magical thinking at best Most Boomers I know work because they have to. There is no fat pension or retirement account. GenX you are turning 54 this year. You have just a few years left to work Are you ready to retire? Perhaps you could step aside to let these young people lead us?
4
Oh, Mr. Miller, I empathize with your situation, and I share your anger. In 2009, my husband and I filed for bankruptcy. His business failed when his clients could no longer obtain loans. A version of the "trickle-down effect." I had an okay job, and he began finding small jobs instead of the big projects his company had always depended on. We hung on.
Since I was an English teacher, I was very familiar with De Maupassant's short story, "The Necklace," in which a foolish woman loses something and spends many harsh years repaying the price of that lost thing. I identified with the foolish woman, but I also saw how my terrible situation was not entirely my fault. I guess those years built character.
I agree with many commenters here who stress the need to vote in November, but I also stress the need to stay angry.
213
@TinyBlueDot: "The Necklace" is a frightening story. Living it must be horrible.
1
I agree with all of this except the part about staying angry. You got to lay it aside or your heart will slowly shrivel up and die. Talking of great stories, Moby Dick comes to mind. You have to find a way to move forward. And I t looks like you have made a great start!
1
@TinyBlueDot The real lesson in “The Necklace” is that the necklace was worth very little, and the woman spent those harsh years repaying more than she owed. We can take that lesson as a nation--student loans should carry only enough interest to repay the cost of administration and, perhaps, the interest rate on US bonds. Not the unholy rates charged by the banks who don’t underwrite, but then buy up, most of them.
The nation is failing its young people.
5
You are right to be angry. I lived in a time when it was possible to pay college tuition at a public university by working part time as a nurse's aid. I know this because I did it--and it infuriates me when people my age brag about "working hard," "avoiding debt," & "saving every cent." This means nothing if the world is out of whack. Which it is. Even more so than when I was young. I hope that you can channel that anger into working for change. I know change is possible because I've seen so much of it. Of course it is naive to say that this means showing up and voting--but it also means showing up and voting.
8
The ultimate issue is where and to what extent to allocate the risk of what was, in retrospect, an admittedly poor financial decision. On an optimist teenager, encouraging parents, or the banks? It's a policy choice we've made politically, not one that should burden productive individuals with guilt. If student loans were dischargeable in bankruptcy as they were many years ago, at least as to private lenders, we would be placing the economic risk on the most sophisticated party to the transaction.
5
At the age of 18 I was mature enough to recognize that attending any private institution let alone "one of the country’s most expensive" was not within the grasp of my family's meager finances. I chose to go to a state school, spent my summers working construction during the day, delivering pizzas at night and picking up what ever work I could on the weekends. I washed dishes and worked as a custodian at night during the school year. As a result I graduated debt free. Frankly I am sick and tired of listening to people who made poor choices call me privileged and lucky while insisting that their debt is my problem.
14
While I sympathize with the position of Mr. Miller and his parents (although he does not mention what has happened to them in the intervening decade), may I suggest instead of grumbling about his debt he use his influential access to media outlets to organize a student debt strike? What would happen if say, 500,000 Americans with student debt whose payments had already met or exceeded the principal owed simply stopped servicing those loans simultaneously? Might it get the attention of the banks? Of the politicians? That is true populist action. Grumbling about Hillary Clinton for a commencement speech she made nearly a decade ago is not.
2
The level to which private universities, and increasingly, public universities, are charging students "premium" tuition is disgraceful. Universities complain about students treating them as if as they are an Apple Store, in which the student is a "customer" who expects to be wowed by a top-notch product and world-class customer service. Well, when you charge someone $50-60k per year for tuition, of course they're going to have those expectations. The education bubble needs to be pierced.
7
Spot on. Not since Nixon AG Ed Meese opined that students were spending the loan money on stereos and sports cars have the young been so speciously scapegoated. And it doesn't end there. Pundits tell Americans all sorts of dubious things about why the country is in economic and political danger, from our failure to join the Moose lodge to the temerity to want our children to have college degrees. I personally point the finger at the those who pulled the lever for GW Bush, and later for Trump. Until the GOP and its super-wealthy patrons are disarmed, this conversation is on hold.
11
The great recession was brutal but the lack of attention to how recessions have affected Americans and particularly middle class Americans since the 1990s needs some attention. Many of us are still recovering at a later stage in life from not having opportunity after graduating in previous recessions.
8
Perhaps this shouldn’t be turned into a partisan issue, but everyone reading should know by now that only one of the two parties ever bothers to make an effort to help the common man.
The other party merely stands on the sidelines and criticizes. More than that, many of that party’s supporters became famously wealthy after the foreclosure wave.
While there can be no doubt that the Democratic Party of today is not the same as that of 40 years ago, they are still the only party that makes an effort to help every day Americans. Without question, the problem is that they can’t get elected without taking money from the “usual suspects.”
It’s incredible to me that the party now in power defuses any criticism with one word “socialist.” Anytime anyone suggest government programs to help the middle and working-class, it is branded “socialism.” The reason is quite simple, Republican supporters want education and opportunity only for themselves. Perhaps they have earned the brand “antisocial?”
I went to school in the late 70s and 80s and was able to borrow money with very affordable loans that were deferred most of the time I was in school. I guess that was socialism.
10
Thank you for an excellent article. The most important resource of a country is its people. It is well known in resource poor countries like Japan or Singapore that their skilled people are the greatest assets. America also understood this over a century ago when we made high school mandatory and supported education with public money. Some people argue that post high school education shouldn't be necessary for living a decent life today. These people are wrong. The establishment of free public education more than a century ago had ushered in the American century by making us the most prosperous country in the world. Today, nearly all countries provide high school level education. If we want to lead in this world, we must invest in making sure that our people have superior skills than elsewhere. We should look into easing the education loan burden for the author's generation and we should invest in free post-high school education for the next generation. The question is do we have the foresight and the fortitude to build the next American century.
4
AMericans of all ages need to support Democrats of all stripes until we gain a majority we can use to accomplish the goals of Hillary and Frank.
So today's young "liberals" (Is he?) - doing what we did when I was in your place - throw votes away on popular but unelectable candidates. (Looking at you Bernie never-give-up Selfishness). Thus ensuring the majority Democrats need to address many of the problems not solved to today's millennial satisfaction stays out of reach.
Hillary and Frank - while not perfect by any means - were better than what you're railing about now.
12
@Mike. The democrats have been in charge for 16 of the last 26 years. While not as agregious as the right, they have hardly been our friends. They have been in the pockets of the wealthy and powerful as well. Until the corrosive effect of unregulated, dark money is counter acted (unfortunately by the same people who benefit from it) we aren't going to get anywhere.
9
Bernie enabled this conversation. Without Bernie, we wouldn’t even be talking about things like the crushing student debt. Wake up.
4
My great grandfather had twelve children who lived to adulthood. He was a North Carolina dirt farmer, but somehow sent the younger of those children to college and one to medical school. When he died, he owed on his farm, and it had to be sold.
His children, in turn, sent their own children to college, and a couple to medical school. And the same with the next generation.
I don't much care how this is accomplished, private, government, whatever, but it has to be done.
I cannot think of many cultures in the history of the world that thought it was all right to start young adults off in life hobbled by debt. What kind of people charge their own children fees to enter adulthood? Someday this will be regarded as positively criminal.
You cannot save for your children's education while paying off your own. The very first duty of every generation is to launch the next generation. The U.S. is divided between those who have the resources and connections to get a head start in life, and those crippled by fees and debts and low wages and lack of "networks" to launch them. A horse race is no race if some of the horses are carrying an extra hundred pounds of weight.
14
Healthcare, education and livable wages paid for by the wealthy 10% would produce a more productive, stable, and equitable society. It's not so hard. There would still be plenty of incentive to succeed, and plenty of wealthy, successful people. Our country needs to grow up.
13
@Billy Bob I disagree - where is the incentive to be healthy, complete the education and work towards or even have goals if the costs are paid by someone else? How many people would study meaningful, useful things when they could study more diverting topics on someone elses dime? How long would the wealth producers be able to sustain this? Would they simply more their wealth out of the country? There needs to be somewhat more equitable arrangements, but playing Robin Hood isn't going to do it.
1
I graduated from a private university in 2010 and immediately signed up with the U.S. Peace Corps - my strategy for coping with the recession. It gave me more than perspective - it changed my entire outlook on what it means to struggle.
When I returned, instead of joining the rat race, I dusted off an old pair of skis and headed West with four boxes and a backpack. I was your stereotypical ski bum - working multiple jobs for the glory of fresh lines on a powder day. But I was also a community health worker and an advocate for victims' of abuse. My understanding of poverty and rural life expanded.
I recognize my generation's anger, but it is difficult for me to share it. I make very little money, and I own even less. But truthfully, I would not trade what I've experienced for anything. I've stood on top of mountains, the first to arrive, drill in hand, to place the day's safety signs. I've witnessed breathtaking remote natural beauty. I think I'm beyond lucky to have seen the world in the way I have, during a time in my life when I had the freedom to do so.
Yes, I still have significant student loans. And from time to time, I've had to reach out to my family for assistance. A privilege I do not take lightly. But I'm not upset about my situation. I feel richer for it.
I just recently moved to an urban area, finally ready to take on the 'real world.' And as I sit in interviews trying to quantify my years of service, I know I made the right decision.
10
There are good reasons why a lot of people never recovered from the depression that masquaraded as a recession. The popular myth is that we are lazy -- whether a millenial or an older worker.
The truth is that the normal routes to recovery now don't work. I'm a older worker; I have no choice because after the recession, I have no resources left. My savings, 401K and home are gone...along with my dreams. After losing my job, I sent out hundreds of resumes and got nowhere because of the rampant ageism that exists.
I retooled and spent an entire year getting certified to work in a different industry. I now work fulltime for a global company where my previous experience "doesn't count" and where I am not paid even a liveable wage. My car is 15 years old. I buy clothes in thrift stores. I pay rent, utilities and food, and have nothing left over. I have benefits but nothing is covered until I meet my deductible so I don't go to the doctor. I'm still in hock for a surgery 3 years ago. I work freelance on weekends.
Why can't I climb out of this hole? I made this same salary 25 years ago and was able to afford a mortgage, facials, trips. Because the cost of housing is through the roof ( I live in fear that my landlord will raise my rent), gas is more expensive, I watch the cost of food increase weekly by dimes and dollars.
What this Republican administration has done to our younger generations and to those of us who can't retire is despicable. They've killed our hope.
27
@Blue Girl. You can take no consulation in the fact that it was largely a bipartisan effort. The right takes/plays us for fools and the left calls us losers and condescends to us. Where's a third party when we need it?
6
@Blue Girl This Republican administration is not responsible for the issues you have been facing. We all need to demand our elected representatives in both parties to support our needs rather than their donors.
5
I graduated from high school in NYS in 1960.
At that time NYS had a scholarship program.
Seniors took a special state exam.
The number of scholarships were allotted to each county based on population.
I won one and used it at a SUNY college.
{Scholarships could only be used at a NYS [ public or private] college.}
Tuition was low enough so the scholarship stipend covered tuition.
Room and board cost about $1000 /year.
I think it was a mistake to end the NYS scholarship program.
Even with inflation one should not today have to go into 100K debt to get a college education.
Although I complained [all students do] about my college when I was an undergrad looking back it was the right decision for me.
One does not have to attend a big name school to have the opportunity for an excellent college education.
10
Dear Mr. Miller,
Sorry, Mr. Miller, but as lifetime Democrat I am saddened by your indebtedness, but do not “blame you. I am horrified, however, by your misguided attempt to place the blame on Hillary Clinton (?!) because she made the mistake of giving an optimistic graduation speech (seriously?). Although you quote Jeff Sessions as representative of those who scorn you, you do not even note that the excessive interest rates charged for your student loans are directly attributable to a Republican Congress and the actions of our so-called president and his education” secretary, Betsy DeVos.
I also notice that you place no blame on NYU and your college advisors, who somehow convinced you that an NYU Education, that you could not afford or even anticipate affording, was “necessary” to achieve your dream.
You also assign no responsibility for your parent’s misguided decision to mortgage their only significant asset to pay for NYU tuition that they should have known that neither they nor you could afford to pay back.
And even now, though claiming to be an adult, you accept no responsibility for choosing your “dream” career over one that might allow you to meet your financial obligations.
I am very sorry that your parents find themselves in such a difficult financial situation, and agree that the rates charged for Federally guaranteed student loans should we way below what they are. But that does not absolve either you or those that advised you from any responsibility.
16
I am an adjunct professor who teaches Sociology. I am curious as to the sociological studies you (don't) cite on entitled millennials that have added to some of the most laughable pseudoscience in recent history. Can you provide links or at least article titles so I may look them up?
9
The problem as I see it is that an institution that historically has been for our nation's elites' leisure and social advancement was opened up to the masses after WWII. People who really have no business attending college were enabled by the nanny state to seek out a higher education when frankly there was no sound economic justification. Then in the 80's Reagan and other wise right thinking leaders began cutting this wasteful subsidization of the middle class. Unfortunately this unpredictably led to profiteering by banks, politicians and other super-predators who shamelessly led these young people and their families into thinking high interest loans would pay off. As it is our banks almost didn't make it through the recession even with this profiteering. In all fairness however if the bankers and politicians had put aside their own self-interest and been honest with the middle class about the limited chances for economic advancement through higher education there would have been hell to pay. Can you imagine what the past few decades would have been like if the working and middle classes had been told that from there on out only the rich would get richer? We could have ended up with the socialist Bernie Sanders as president instead of one of the greatest business leaders of all time who has in just a few years has made America's tax structure fair again. Yes, the past few decades have been bad but it could have been worse, that's what I think.
2
Born in '57, I am a tail end boomer. But I am still young enough to see the millennial generation in action. Overall, they are n More or less screwed up than my generation. But, they deal with an economic reality we never had to. Most of my compatriots skipped through good time, which were helped along by a promiscuous growth of public and private debt.
Basically, the real skaters are the Boomers. Millennials will have to work a lot harder.
9
Your parents' mistake was to allow you to go to NYU. The school is OK but certainly not worth the cost of tuition. Why didn't you just go to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor? That university outranks NYU on several surveys. If you went there, you would have done just as well and you could have paid for that mostly on your own so it didn't have to bankrupt your parents.
21
"All of this seemed practical enough, or at the very least as if it could be worried about later"
That is, in a nutshell, is the cause of the 2008 disaster; we'll worry about that later. From the author's parents, through the people with massive balloon payments on their cheap mortgages, to the boardrooms of AIG, Lehman, et al, everyone believed that they could figure out something later.
"I now owe more than what I started out owing, not unlike my parents "
I have never seen a loan schedule that did not apply some money to the principal, no matter how little. Unless payments were missed or late fees applied, that seems unlikely to me.
I do agree with the author's anger over the debacle, however. The thing that angers me more than anything else is the lack of accountability for those on the top end of the chain. Most of the companies that caused the mess are still in business, most of the executives are either still employed or retired with generous settlements, and the lenders are back to offering down payments of under 1% (see the recent article in the Times on North Las Vegas).
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
6
@mikecody...The top of the Chain is the Higher Education Complex that greedily drove up the price of even a third rate college degree. The Student Loan Complex, including the Federal Government and the Financial Industry, were more than enthusiastic accomplices, but without escalating tuition fees, there would be no $1.6+ Tri$$ion travesty. Thanks Harvard, thanks Berkeley, thanks Podunk U.
3
The problem is intrusion of the U.S. Government in the marketplace: the Government decided to guarantee student loans. The actual recipients of the money (colleges) therefore have no skin in the game - they receive & keep loan money whether or not students can pay back the loans. So, the colleges do what makes sense: they raise tuition, hire more faculty & administrators, build more buildings, etc. The attempt to make a college education more affordable has actually made it more expensive. An example of The Law of Unintended Consequences.
11
Our government is focused on growth, not balance.
Unregulated capital markets like education and real estate have been leveraged to create massive wealth for institutional lenders and commoditizers at the expense of people. Our elected leaders have allowed this, and they’ve been paid by companies to do so.
The same is true for the labor market where companies have systematically supported legislation to dismantle worker protections, Unions and defined benefit pensions.
We can’t control our government, and there is no recourse capable of turning around the abuse of multiple trillion dollar industries other than government. Focusing on growth is a pacifier that staves off mass dissent - but only so long as it continues to grow. Growth under these circumstances really only benefits people in those markets. There is very little room for new entrants, whether that’s jobs (labor), home ownership (real estate lending) or education.
Moreover, real wages are stagnant or under water. Many jobs pay the same as they did 10 years ago, but compounded cost of living increases (alone) over that period are easily a 25% reduction in purchasing power.
So you make less than you did 10 years ago, have restrictive markets, high turnover jobs, no capital market regulation, and an insane cost structure - all of which feed corporate growth at the expense of people.
Where is the ‘New Deal’ of the 21st century? We can’t operate a country based upon a Design that is a series of Band-Aids.
2
I do not think you need to feel bad about your loans. I studied probably one of the most absurd fields in existence and have been paying my debt since I left graduate school 16 years ago. The debt has enabled me to miraculously make a living in this field. I also work in higher ed.
Lets be real. We can blame 'greedy educational sector,' but we should all add ourselves to the list. My college is small, regional, non-selective and expensive. Students have told me that they come for the very beautiful campus, the wonderful and amazing food and the sports, in addition to the small classes and safety. They just love the 'feeling' of the campus.
All that beauty and non-academic enhancement comes with a hefty price tag with large amounts of staff. Speaking of staff, our wellness and counseling services are ever expanding to meet the needs of anxiety fraught students. All of these people must be paid and if we do not have these perks, students will go elsewhere. Since I work in one of the lowest paid fields in higher ed, I'm sure there are copious amounts of staff who earn a lot more than I do. I am fine with this.
Lets not kid ourselves over why higher ed is so expensive. Accountability is expensive and requires lots of staff, administrators and paperwork. Students and parents demand very nice grounds and amenities that also come with significant costs. If it was only faculty and buildings, the cost would not be what it is. It is the market that demands it.
9
@DM. I went to school in the 70s and again in the 80s. I lived in basements and trailers and did without and have done fine ever since. Now a days, you can try to live way cheaper than I did and still come out under crushing debt and maybe get a job that pays only a little more than my first job did with far less buying power. The world has shifted under our feet. The only thing these kids can count on is that they'll likely being paying off a house of debt for decades without owning a house. This is not right.
6
@DM
"If it was only faculty and buildings, the cost would not be what it is. It is the market that demands it."
The market only demands it because everyone thinks it's OK to go deep into debt to pay for it. It's only after the crippling nature of the debt strikes home that they complain. Sadly they blame other people for their hamburger budget rather than themselves for borrowing to satiate their T-bone tastes.
2
This is an interesting generational separation in the early millenials from those born just a few years later. For most of us born in the 80s the defining debacle of our generation was, and still is, 9/11. It was the first time that many of us experienced being used by the boomer generation to enrich their retirement portfolios while the country was saddled with debt and more tax giveaways for the 1%.
It was the first time we saw naked partisanship on the supreme court when Scalia denied a fair review of a contested presidential race. It was the first time we saw the White House engage in flagrant self dealing through Halliburton and Harkken Energy. It was the first time our love for country and compassion for our countrymen was used a weapon to divide our country between those ‘with us’ and those who disagreed.
The recession was no picnic, but the grounds for the eventual dissolution of our world order were laid in the decade before it.
8
@Ben. Huh? Unless you're part of that tiny sliver that volunteered for the military after 9/11 most young people are more concerned about lattes than 9/11. The dissolution of the middle class and those who wanted to get there started in 80s. Since then, both parties have largely lined up with what the corporations and the wealthy wanted and have given it to them. People seem to be able to get used to anything. The disappearing middle class, lowered expectations, lowered health from obesity, a worse environment. The only thing that must surprise the top was how easy it was.
3
We share the same alma mater, but different degrees, I was at the graduate level, where sadly, there was even less support financially than at the undergraduate level.
I am a bit older than you but I share your pain as I often wonder what my masters is actually worth to me.
5
I’m skeptical that the generation that came of age during the financial crisis is being blamed. The only substantiation for that opinion is a quote from Jeff Sessions, who is something other than an expert on that matter. There’s plenty of blame to go around for the crisis, and it spans people of many generations.
Rather than sulk, the best resolution is to elected knowledgeable and responsible leaders that will work to prevent a reoccurrence, not Republicans that care only about lowering taxes and cutting regulations. Vote young people, vote!!
4
I am ashamed at what my generation has done to individuals and the planet. To hear that Mr. Miller has spent the equivalent of $100,000 for a college degree geared towards journalism, a truly noble pursuit, is beyond shocking. While I cannot attempt to rectify any of these insults, I can ask Mr. Miller and his contemporaries to vote for progressive leadership that offers dignity of learning and greater happiness in life. The dogma of conservative ideology which rewards the rich must be stopped and replaced with higher ideals. Mr. Miller and his generation must vote for progressive and liberal causes, where everyone has a chance, not just those born into wealth. Should political leaders come from every profession, most, wholly unsuited for leading others? Should there not be an academic training program that solely is devoted to developing leadership? Should not higher education be allowed develop inventions and patentable drugs whereby the schools can sell this technology to business to offset the costs of learning? It is these and other answers that Mr. Miller’s generation must tackle. And voting for staid, Republican ideology will only get them empty promises and results. It’s time for the new generation to take over...wisely.
3
I work as a software developer in a city of 300,000.
With a bachelor's and master's degrees from a state university and 15 years experience, I make $100K.
And we are importing a lot of software developers from India on H-1B visas.
On the one hand, this type of work is not everyone. One the other hand, we could train a lot more Americans and not need to import workers.
Part of the problem is that we have poverty and bad schools.
And too many Republicans would rather pay for prison than fixing education and getting people educated and working and paying taxes.
17
@Independent. Why train or hire an American when the government will allow you to import someone from India (or anywhere else) have the American train them, fire the American and pay the h1b visa holder less? everybody except the American worker and tax payer is a winner.
4
@Independent Trained Americans are available, don't let them kid you. And for much IT work, a Masters degree isn't needed either.
5
That M.H. Miller owes more than what he borrowed does not feel right.
All Americans need to know these details about student debt.
4
it took me thirty years of working before I made $100,000 in a year, and I have a masters degree. I'm sorry you didn't get a $100,000 salary your first year out of college, but that isn't the issue. It's nothing to be ashamed of that your college cost more than you make in a year, but for a time I worked two jobs and my wife worked three. yes, it was hard.
9
M.H. Miller, I am not getting paid to write this response so it will probably be too brief to really counter point your article but I will try. You indicate that your parents refinanced their mortgage in 2008. Why? You should have said they got a great lower interest rate but also decided to take cash or the equity out of the house and spent it on something. Maybe to pay down the student loan debt but nonetheless your home is not an investment but shelter. Second, you took over $100,000 in student loans to attend a very expensive university where I am sure you would have paid less at Michigan or Michigan State where your parents already paid to subsidize the cost. Again, another choice you made. Lastly, you indicate that the profession doesn't pay that much and yet you chose to make that bet anyway. I apologize for being what many consider now days to be conservative and harsh. You seem like an educated person but you need to study a deeper history and this country's economy compared to anywhere else in the world and not blame President's for your decisions.
11
I'm from your parent's generation who are equally as angry as you. My wife and I saved for our kids' education, only to see 2008 wipe away 60% of the value as worthless paper, forcing us to take loans rather than spend 40 cents on the dollar. I'm angry President Obama decided Lincoln's plea of "charity toward all and malice toward none" for Confederates who hitched their wagon to the wrong cause applied to the thieves on Wall Street and in banks who fleeced not not only America but the world economy. My plea is the anger that destroyed the lives of so many Americans becomes a grass roots action to retire every politician that believes the business of America is business and fleecing anyone in their way. We must never let fear overcome reason.
11
@Keith We need channel this anger to be more effective than the Occupy WallStreet movement.
2
Obama, had the bankers over the ropes, back on their heals, and on their one yard line at forth down. What did he do with this unprecedented, once in a century power? Nothing. He simply worked to restore the identical situation that existed before, only with a few more, "regulations." Forget, "jail," they all got their usual bonuses. His entire economic plan was to restore the status quo only with some window dressing to make it look like they all learned their lesson. Over five million, foreclosures were allowed. These Americans, painted as risk taking speculators getting what they deserved. The lower middle class hunkered down, and the wealthy doubled down on their greed. No one gets a salary increse for any reason. The corporate elite hide their inflated "salaries" in stocks, unavailable to the majority of Americans.
Obama, Obama, Obama. There, I said it.
14
@Prant
The GOP too. He could have pulled an FDR to the cheers of 80% of Americans. Instead, he gave the enemy the ball and cleared the field of defenders.
5
Its not the Presidents job to arrest people or even make the laws under which people are arrested. America voters give him a mostly republican congress for much of his presidency. And they chose to arrest nobody and instead spent 8 years everybody how bad a job he was doing fixing the mess he inherited. Obama? Obama?Obama?......
Here have a snickers.
@Prant. You make excellent points. I've never understood how those crooks were allowed to get away with it and get a bailout with almost no strings attached. I can't imagine Teddy R or FDR or Truman letting them off the hook like that. I'm going to have to believe it was his inexperience.
5
I 'technically' graduated from college (University of Vermont) in 1978. I say technically because I spent from fall 1971 to winter 1977, working full time, working part-time, not going to school, attending the university part-time, attending full time, and finally testing out of a freshman course to graduate. I paid for my college. I took out student loans, worked in work-study federally subsidized jobs, applied for and received Basic Educational Opportunity Grants (never greater than $500), worked every summer, and between semesters, and didn't make it to my graduation as I was working in Idaho to pay off my $5000 school debt. If you didn't gather from my narrative, I was on my own financially for college.
From my 'graduation' I worked three years before I was hired into my first professional position. BTW, interest rates were hovering around 18%, and my field was glutted with graduates.
Yes, school is more expensive today, and I bet jobs pay more than $2.60 and $2.90/hour as well. I worked years before returning to school; to minimize debt upon graduation. That option existed for you as well. I chose to school in-state to save on tuition costs. You?
We are all subject to our choices. I'm glad I worked some intervening years as an undergraduate. It gave me a perspective and pointed me to a field I enjoyed working in for more than 30 years. It took 5 years for a meaningful job, 8 years before my first home at 11-3/8% interest.
6
It shouldn't cost $100K to get a good education in America.
14
I received an LLM (in taxation) from NYU in 1988. That degree cost me about $9,600 (my memory is that it was $400 a credit hour for 24 credits. I went at night, and worked as an attorney during the day. The last time I checked, NYU now charges about $60,000 for that same degree -- or $2,500 a credit hour. My hourly rate as an attorney did NOT go up anywhere close to 6 times what I billed in 1988. And, I could not possibly afford to get that degree today, or go at night and work during the day. There is something very wrong with this whole education picture.
27
I have absolutely no sympathy for this writer. Even though my husband and I had a yearly income of about $150,000.00 at the time that our sons were in college (2006 - 2013), we had our sons live at home and go to a community college. They then transferred to a state school. Both started in the public school's gifted program early in elementary school (one in first grade and the other in second). So, they were bright enough to go to a prestigious college. But, we always wanted to make sure that we could pay our mortgage if one or both of us lost our jobs. We were frugal, but not cheap. We paid for our two sons' college costs, without taking out any loans. They are debt free, as are we.
11
I am one of the hated elderly who managed to pay off 2 homes, not large, as investments in the kids' futures (they'll inherit and avoid a mortgage if they choose). So, how did we do it? We lived within our means, even when we were at the lowest rungs financially. We did not purchase anything on credit. If we couldn't save up and pay for it, then we didn't want it. We use things until they don't work anymore and can't be repaired. We saved for future tuition, we saved for a 2nd home. We set aside money, even when it was very little because it was at least something. Too many young people don't consider what they think they're entitled to have to be "extras," but they are. Choosing to spend $$ on extras constitutes choices with consequences. This old couple has always known the difference between wants and needs. We have the same furniture we bought 25 years ago; one of our cars is 18 years old, the other is 21 years old; eating out is a special occasion, just as it was while we were growing up; and we never look at the fake lives and consumerism on TV, mistake it for real, and feel slighted or victimized because we "don't have it all." We were raised by the great depression generation, which has been a huge advantage. We found the level of living that covered necessities, and we saved every penny that went beyond it. We have never listened to banks for our financial advice, just our common sense.
624
@DMS I was raised by great depression generation parents too and that has been a great advantage for me as well. I can get by on very little. However, I'm also white and inherited a little something from my thrifty parents when they died and I recognize that they had more to give because they too were white and beneficiary of white privilege. My dad went to school (undergrad in liberal arts, law degree, accounting degree, masters in taxation law) all through the GI Bill. He had been lucky to survive WWII. Had he been black, he might have been allowed to pursue a trade with the GI Bill but I doubt not four degrees. My parents also benefited from the red lining of real estate. Their house was worth much more over the years because it was an almost exclusively white suburb, not the black part of town.
So while I acknowledge and admire thriftiness, please consider that if you are white, there have been other things in play favoring your accumulation of two homes and no debt. The system of white supremacy that has been in play on this land mass since at least 1492 has something to do with it too.
328
@DMS You also grew up in very different times, when a single income could support a family, and companies paid good benefits. While what you did was admirable, many other people (my parents, for example) did exactly the same and had the same results. Please recognize that it was not merely your personal superiority, but a better economy surrounding you, that made it all possible.
96
@Sarah D.
"personal superiority"? I assure you, to embrace the lower end of materialism is to go against the judgemental tide of those who only value bigger homes or newer cars or impressive travel stories. Rather than feel superior, as you assume, we often felt scoffed at and "inferior" to family and others who looked down on our frugality, which you seem to be doing also. Frugality fits any economy, and only our determination "made it all possible."
7
From 1970 to 1976, CUNY changed from a merit based scholarship program, to open enrollment with free tuition to anyone who had a high school degree and lived in NYC.
You could attend any college within the CUNY system for free as long as you were a full time student.
Those who attended part time did have to pay tuition, but the per credit charge were reasonable when comparing to today's tuition.
I started college in the CUNY system in 1974.
In 1976, NYC was close to bankruptcy and could no longer support free tuition, but even then, the cost was within reach of most middle class families.
I graduated with a BA and no debt, an impossibility in today's America.
What changed?
Ronald Reagan.
As taxes went down, so did financial support for state and city university systems. This meant that the direct cost of maintaining these systems were driven by the ever escalating cost of tuition.
As these costs began to spiral, a myriad of private loans with higher interest also became part of that food chain.
NY State is attempting to change some imbalances with the Excelsior Scholarship Program, that will now cover the cost of tuition for the first two years.
It helps and maybe this will spread.
One last thought. While a journalism degree from NYU comes with a certain kind of pedigree, it was your choice to not go to in state schools like Michigan or Michigan State, which also have excellent programs and cheaper tuition.
You cannot blame the baby boomers for that.
13
Excellent article. What I want to know is which bureaucrat or agency came up with the bright idea that student debt can never be discharged, even in bankruptcy? Corporations can (and did) write down debt, as can individuals - but not students? That's absurd. Education is a good investment - but not with loans at astronomical rates, and not without the safety net of a discharge when unexpected factors intervene. To make matters worse, predatory lending practices were involved in some student loans. Give the kids a break - now there's an economic stimulus that would be win-win for all of us.
8
@DCTB (Oops, I hit "send" prematurely! I didn't mean to suggest that bankruptcy was the only or best answer to student loan debt, but that it should at least be an option, otherwise the arrangement is punitive. That, or a better solution - would be highly desirable for everyone.)
5
Quit voting Republican folks. And start voting millennials. The stacked deck described by the author would have been avoided with Reaganomics. Take issue with HRC's typically optimistic commencement speech but recognize that the two parties have very different policies.
Easy for me to speak having gone to I.U. when Indiana was still a Blue State in the 70s. But avoid variable rate loans and calculate interest over time when borrowing.
7
There were other generations that graduated from college during recessions.
The Federal Reserve under Arthur Burns induced the 1974 recession to halt inflation.
The Fed under Paul Volcker induced the 1982 recession [unemployment topped 10%] to halt inflation.
Students graduating then faced a dismal job market.
Inducing a recession helps some people and hurts some people.
Who should make the decision as to whom gets hurt.
UNELECTED members of the Federal Reserve?
or
ELECTED members of Congress.
In a small d democratic society ELECTED individuals should make those decisions.
Please do not tell me the members of the Fed have special expertise.
Alan Greenspan was warned as far back as 2000 by fellow Fed Governor, Ned Gramlich, to crack down on sub prime mortgages.
But Greenspan's screwy free market philosophy prevented him from taking any action.
Greenspan endorsed the Bush tax cuts knowing they would cause deficits because Greenspan wanted to cut social programs. He believed the deficits would force these cuts.
I think the article author's criticism is misplaced.
Why do we have leaders who believe the only way to stop inflation is by inducing severe recessions.
There were economists who did not believe the severe Volcker recession was necessary.
Other measures were possible but those measures would have hurt different individuals.
Who should decide who gets hurt and who gets helped.
2
http://www.nytimes.com/1983/06/19/business/business-forum-it-s-all-too-e...
A times op ed by former MIT Dean Lester Thurow about value judgments in economics.
1
I think the line ‘one of the most expensive private institutions’ says it all...
7
@Marty
I think the line "Because of the loans’ disgracefully high interest rates, my family and I have paid more or less the equivalent of my debt itself in the years since I graduated..." says it all.
Yes, his parents signed the papers agreeing to the terms of the loans, but so did the executives of the businesses which were too big to fail, and they received massive taxpayer-funded bailouts. The fact that the author has paid the principle amount of the loan and has not made a dent in the balance indicates the terms of the loan were usurious and unconscionable. People in his position should have the remainder of their loans forgiven after the bank recovers a reasonable cost for the loan, say 5%.
7
I live in a Northern Blue City (Chicago) The Democratic policies of the last 3-4 decades have made ALL taxes sky high. R/E taxes have risen to the point these taxes are higher then my original mortgage payments
How does anyone say Democrats polices have been working?
7
@Longtime Chi
I live here too. Are you saying that your property taxes are higher than a single mortgage payment or that all city taxes combined are higher than 12 mortgage payments?
That would only be true if you property value far exceeds your mortgage. which is great!
City sticker for car, water, garbage fee, property taxes. What am I missing?
Compare this to the Northern suburbs, California or the East Coast.
4
M.H. Miller is right, and he is right to write about this publicly. I hope that more members of his falsely maligned generation will write about their experiences and make their case. The hypocrisy of the critiques and blame of his generation (that come from all directions, as Miller shows so well with examples from Jeff Sessions and Zillow) beggars belief. This country -- by which I mean, of course, generations older than Miller -- betrayed his generation in a radical way. Our sympathy and our hope should lie with the younger people in this country, now more than ever before. Many days, it feels like this is our only chance.
3
Lost amidst all this moaning and groaning is the simple fact that the "need" for anyone and everyone to have a college degree is a scam perpetrated by the higher education-industrial complex. After the war, the GI Bill and (especially) the Baby Boom led to a sea change from this being the preserve of the wealthy, with some driven and brilliant others, to a continuation of high school.
I'm a solid Democrat, but it infuriates me that everyone, Clinton to Sanders, Warren to Cuomo, assume that the problem is the cost, instead of emphasizing vocational schools and community colleges.
Partly, it's a residue of the old belief that a tie and jacket were respectable; overalls meant poverty. To which I can only cite the old joke about the doctor, told the estimate of work by his plumber, said, "I don't charge anywhere near that." "I know. That's why I stopped work as a doctor and became a plumber."
8
Im still angry too. It makes me angrier to read the critical responses here blaming poor financial planning or your choice of schools to attend. Deflecting the larger issue at hand on you, your family, and even somehow your responsibility for your entire generation (?) is just redirecting the conversation away from the continued, real, unchecked and unregulated separation of the haves and have-nots.
8
Quit voting Republican folks. The stacked deck described by the author would have been avoided with Reaganomics.
Easy for me to speak having gone to I.U. when Indiana was still a Blue State in the 70s. But avoid variable rate loans and calculate interest over time when borrowing.
4
Candidate Hillary Clinton in 2008 knew what would happen to the greater economy if people lost their homes en masse - and proposed an HOLC-like program to stave off greater losses. It would have helped a lot. But she lost largely because people only see her as a cynical corporatist. Her opponent never picked up on the HOLC idea never mentioned it. A few years later leaders were focused on enacting furloughs for government employees and staving off deficits.
2
In a lot of ways, my generation, the boomers, have a lot to answer for. We were invested in by the generations before us-- our education was generally very good, at public schools. College was affordable. We got ahead. We felt quite entitled to all this. We then cashed in, so we could afford a 'lifestyle', refused to invest in the next generation, in education, in research and development. We were maybe the last generation to live the American Dream. We allowed wealth to get so concentrated that the wealthy purchased the government. They plundered the seed corn, and then told our children to go scratch for some.
15
Sorry, but the author appears be be doing fine. Ten years after graduation, he is working at the world's greatest newspaper in a field that has shed tens of thousands of jobs in the past decade and just keeps shedding. As for $100,000 in debt, that was a foolish decision, and there are consequences to foolish decisions. Every single one of these student-loan sob stories I've read inevitably involves someone who went to an out-of-state or private school they couldn't afford, or they majored in theater or some other subject that wasn't going to set job recruiters on fire, and now they whine about debt.
If you're smart enough to work for the New York Times, if you were sharp enough to graduate from NYU, then you were smart enough to understand how much debt you and your parents were taking on and what the prospects for repayment on a journalist's salary would be. Blaming the housing bubble is weak sauce. If you have to borrow against your house for anything other than a life-saving medical procedure, whatever it is that you want is beyond your means, and that was as true in 2008 as it was in 1808 or 1908. Had the author gone to a school closer to home, he'd likely still be at NYT, because he is talented, but wouldn't owe so much.
Get a second job--it's fairly easy these days with such low unemployment. Apply every penny to retiring your debt, live frugally for five years or so and you'll be free and clear. It's called facing consequences, aka Real Life.
21
So you are a prestigious editor/writer and the greatest newspaper in the world, and you make less per year than the outstanding college debt of 100k? Um NYT - explain please?
9
Well, you seem to have succeeded admirably in your career, at least...
4
In the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Presidential elections 55%, 59 % and 58 % of America's white majority voted Republican.
In 2016 America's white majority of every socioeconomic educational age and geographic demographic cohort voted Trump. They were aided and abetted by Julian Assange, James Comey, Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin.
Being angry is futle. History and time did not begin nor end in 2008. America was born in revolution and tempered in civil war.
With 5% of humanity America has 25% of world nominal GDP . America spends as much on it's military as the next eight nations combined including 9x Russia and 3x China America is a divided limited power constitutional republic of united states where the people are sovereign. The legislative, executive and judicial branches of our government are all our elected and selected hired help.
The new "robber barons " and "malefactors of great wealth" in the new gilded age need to be busted and locked up and fined for their corrupt criminal fraudulent malign malfesance. And if it was legal then it should not be legal now nor ever again.
3
There are so many great public colleges and universities at a fraction of the price of NYU so, yes, you should take some responsibility for your situation and the loss of your parents' home. And, as a professor who used to teach journalism courses, I never understood the idea of a journalism major -- study what you are going to write about rather than the writing itself. I once looked at a huge selection of J Schools and not required a course in statistics yet journalists write about science, business, economics, and social sciences all of the time. So...be bitter, I guess, if it makes you feel better.
10
Members of every generation must think they have it worse off than anyone in history. Mr. Miller and his parents certainly have some difficulties, and things certainly could have been different. Mr. Miller could have come of age in the 1960's and faced the draft, the carnage in Viet Nam, and the social and political upheaval at home. Or he could have come of age around 1940, and faced the challenges of WW II. Or maybe in the late 1920's and seen a real depression, with a decade of poor prospects, 25% unemployment, and social disruption. Or maybe around 1915 in time for WW I, and then the global influenza pandemic.
Or maybe every year some people suffer unfortunate events that result from a combination of personal choices and things beyond our control. And generational memes are mostly lazy shortcuts to more realistic thinking.
7
The author made some very poor choices and seems to be seeking absolution for them. It’s puzzling that one would borrow so much money to attend a private college for the sake of a profession that one admits is not well-paid, much less ask one’s parents to mortgage their home for that purpose, and then complain you were done wrong. No one forced you to borrow and you knew the interest rates when you signed the papers. As for millenials being blamed for the recession, first I’ve heard of that one. Maybe a more sympathetic reader will start a Go Fund Me for you.
17
@Kim Young
Very well put!
2
They believed the line "pursue your dreams", even if their dreams couldn't pay the bills, much less service six figures in student loans.
7
Absurd. No one is forced to live above his/her means. As a Michigan resident, the author had numerous solid, even esteemed -- and affordable -- state schools from which to choose and to which he/she could've commuted.
Mortgaging a nearly-paid-for (one hopes) house to pay for a swanky college degree is just plain foolhardy. It's not the fault of "society" and no one owes this family a thing.
16
Back then, in various "Comments" to articles, I suggested our government hand out $50,000 to each and every household in America instead of bailing out the banks. But, even after the bailouts, those payouts were still advisable to avoid the decade of pain and misery that would affect you and so many others. It was only common sense to expect a great reckoning from such a disastrous collapse, but apparently, the powers that be do not like wholesale give-aways, even to save their own society! Essentially, they could not be bothered to pay out to all of us then, when it mattered, but the bill is still due and growing larger by the day because they chose to pay it later. Trump's tax cuts are icing on the cake for the wealthy, but just plain stingy to the broad populace of our nation. Sorry to say, but common sense tells me that the worst is yet to come.
5
You are obviously an excellent writer, who got a world-class education, and are making contributions as a journalist at one of the best media outlets in the country. You also incurred a pile of debt, but no more so than a household who bought two luxury cars. Think of the value of that education and experience, the options it affords, the doors it will open, and plow forward. Yes, you are the child of the worst recession we've ever known. It harmed your family and burdened you with loans, but you're up and fighting. You've got what it takes to make a difference. Forge ahead, rock on.
270
@Mary Cosgrove - No doubt you mean well but 100k in school debt is entirely different than owning two lux cars that one can sell off at any time. Almost every school loan recipient of the last 15 years has been duped by our system into thinking it's perfectly normal for a teenager to sign up for 50 to 150k in debt without receiving any physical assets in return. Lambs to the slaughter.
Mr. Miller - Because you were probably not even a legal adult when you and your parents made the decision to load yourselves with 100k in school debt, I believe your shame is unwarranted. Unfortunately, that shifts the blame to your parents - and rightly so. Your story should be a lesson to all parents to help keep their kids from falling into the same trap.
It's also a lesson to the country that something has to be done to change a system that sets so many young Americans up for years of crippling debt.
4
@Mary Cosgrove the pride and recognition of publishing a great contribution in the most iconic newspaper of the World will not pay the rent or healthcare for his parents. Coming from Europe I find it fascinating that so many Americans are convinced that they control and owe everything to themselves. I think that this article is a good demonstration that the systems (educational, financial, food, healthcare, etc.) can be stronger than a single individual no matter his or her strengths, work ethics and courage.
3
I thank the author for bringing up the ungodly interest rates that continue to balloon student loan debt. I write about it endlessly whenever articles like this one arise.
And it always gets passed over. . .
Reducing the interest on these evil loans is the key. My mortgage rate is 3.25%. My sons' student loan interest rates are as high as 8%. They will never get ahead of them even though they pay and pay.
By the way, they both went to state schools.
5
@Chauncey you do not understand the reason that student loan interest rates are higher than for mortgages? Are you serious or just making a joke?
Borrowers for a mortgage first go through a credit qualification process to see if their income and debt will most likely enable them to repay the loan. Students do not. Mortgage loans are secured by the asset itself; the house, so that if the borrower defaults, the lender can sell the asset to recoup some or all of the loan.
And finally, the % of mortgage that is seriously delinquent was 1.2% in 2017. For student loans, the figure was 9.6%.
5
My great grandparents were Southerners who came of age in the aftermath of the Civil War. My parents graduated from high into the Great Depression. I received my draft induction notice on the same day of I graduated from college. I repaid my student loan while serving with an 101st Airborne Division rifle company in Vietnam.
8
I would not refinance my home to pay for a child's education.
It doesn't help them and it wouldn't help me.
Your dream school is equivalent to my dream of owning a Ferrari.
10
@Baba
Exactly. I'd love to go back to university for another degree. I have a paid-off house and could get a home-equity loan tomrorow that would more than pay for a master's degree or PhD. Am I going to do that?
Duh, no.
8
It is hard not to say, yes, college cost are out of control. At the same time, it is also easy to say, Europeans get bigger subsidies and we should make education free.
But there are very good options to college cost. Detroit has colleges and universities where Mr. Miller could have gone and lived at home: no mortgage needed and no crisis and no debt afterwards.
Much of the "free" education in Europe is day schools without the cost of living in dorms away from home. And much is in job training and apprentice programs. But Mr. Miller wanted more. He got it. It proved far more costly than he had anticipated.
On the Banks getting help and he didn't, I agree. The banks got off easy. Those congressional people who insisted on very low priced loans to many who could not afford them deserve a special punishment, perhaps reserved for later since they always exempt themselves from blame when the wheels come off the policy...as happened with the rules which encouraged reckless lending and reckless borrowing.
As to the wages for journalist and the cost of education and the disparity: well, you knew or should have known this when borrowing the money. This is your borrowing more than earning potential justifies. It is your fault mr. Miller; no one but yours. You picked the major, not someone else. You picked the school, no one else. Accept it and admit it, don't blame others for your decisions.
8
@Monty Brown
Also, in Europe and the UK, high school academic standards are far more rigorous than they are here, and admissions policies far more ruthless.
Not just anyone can attend college, free or not. If you don't have the chops you are shunted at a young age into the trades. Which I think is great, but I doubt many American kids and parents would stand for the decision being out of their hands.
6
I couldn't generate much sympathy for the author of this article.
Why choose to go to an expensive, private school when it would involve having to borrow a huge sum of money, given that an equally good, or even better, education can be had at public institutions at much lower cost?
I remember the refinance hype and liar loans scams that preceded the crash and even then, though no big financial expert, thought that generating cash based on bubble-inflated home values was a bad, bad idea.
One of the author's problematic assumptions I can excuse somewhat, it being so common these days, is that the main purpose of education is to get a good job. This assumption serves as a primary excuse for taking on large amounts of debt for education, which in turn has allowed those institutions to keep costs high and, in fact, attract more "customers" than there are jobs that pay at the levels needed to pay off those loans. I doubt we will return to the days when the main point of education was to become educated, since the entire political spectrum now seems to view colleges as jobs-training programs, so this will continue to be an issue that drives the education loan catastrophe that, in turn, has afflicted the prosperity prospects of recent generations.
6
Thank you for your insightful article and I wish you the best for the future, but like many others in this comment section have pointed out, you have to live with the circumstances you find yourself in. I grew up in a household with much more limited financial circumstances and with 5 younger siblings. I decided to attend a public university based solely on affordability and geographic proximity, an expensive more prestigious private university was beyond my wildest dreams. I worked while I was an undergraduate and when I had the opportunity for medical school I helped to finance it with a commitment to military service which ended in more than a decade of armed conflict. I had no option of financial help from parents or grandparents and still ended up after graduation with significant student loan debt which I paid off while raising and educating my own family. Very few of us get to do this easily in a society that chooses to privatize the costs of advanced education, and I see further difficulties ahead as the costs and risks associated with healthcare and retirement become increasingly privatized. We can only address these issues through the political process, hence the importance of journalism like yours.
5
One way to understand this is that you thought you were talking out loans at no risk when, in fact, the fate of the general economy and the availability of meaningful employment over many years are the assumed risks underlying all educational loans. Few eighteen year olds think this through. Parents, and not to blame yours, should understand this. An available hedge against this kind of risk for a good student had always been, rather than the Ivy League or NYU, the excellent state universities, where you can get a first-rate education for a third or less of the cost. The analysis was the same when I went in the 1970s. I did the same as you did but this was when tuition at top schools was around $5000 a year and the annual rate of increase had not yet exploded. The other factor is simply chance. If you were some years older or younger you would presumably be less strapped. At least you are working and are young and weren't wiped out at 55 as many were with little chance of ever recovering.
8
High quality college education was affordable during the 1960s & 1970s because of government subsidy. Republicans have cut funding to the point that college is unaffordable unless you are rich or have a scholarship. Baby Boomers forget the huge benefits government showered on them-schools, highways, R&D expenditures created enormous wealth for our generation and the one before.
9
College is far too expensive and easy loans make them more so as colleges carefully balance willingness and ability to pay against tuition increases.
Word of advice for matriculating students: borrowing 100k for an MBA at a top 20 school: acceptable risk.
Borrowing 100k for a degree from any but the top 20 law schools: bad idea. Borrowing 100k for a philosophy degree from any but a top 20 college: bad idea. Borrowing 60k for an engineering degree at a flagship state university: OK idea.
6
Yet we still hear from centrist Democrats the same tired platitudes about "leveling the playing field" and "increasing opportunity" as if they ever had any idea or intention on how to do those things. It's like Bill Clinton is still President to them.
There's an even greater reckoning coming when automation begins to make huge swaths of the population obsolete and there has been no thought on how to provide for the dislocation. You can be sure the GOP has never considered it, because with them it's sink or swim, but the Democrats, at the behest of their corporate donors, will not address the issue until its too late. I wonder if the new crop of Democratic Socialists will dare mention it?
5
A tough and complex piece. Same for the comments. I think the author's felt guilt and shame should be tempered. If he hadn't gone to NYU or some other college the value of his parents home would still have collapsed. They would still have lost their jobs. Times would still be very hard. Without being too simplistic, life is a struggle, even when things go well.
Blaming the government for the recession has been popular as have comments about punishing the guilty. What is true is when the government underwrites educational debt, tuition goes up; when the government underwrites housing, housing costs go up; when the government underwrites healthcare, healthcare costs go up. Government is made up of ordinary people, to whom we give extraordinary power. They err; they cheat; they pursue self-interest. And they are like the rest of us, no better, no smarter. Our failing as citizens it giving away so much power. Thomas Jefferson spoke of a revolution every twenty years; I used to think he was wrong. We need a government, but what we've got is too much of it.
3
If health care goes up when government underwrites it, how come countries with national health care (underwritten by that government) pay way less for it than we do in the USA. Ditto for educational costs etc. Get your facts straight please.
@Katnath
May have something to do with total population...Norway,Sweden,Denmark,Finland (all with national health care, and more!) have less than 30 million total population; compare that to the 330 million in the US!
When I was college aged, I attended a state school that was heavily subsidized by state tax revenues. These subsidies have disappeared in all but a very small number of local areas. The primary driver of increased tuition is the loss of these local subsidies. The process actually started in the 1980's when Ronald Reagan argued that the primary beneficiary of a college education was the student, so the student should bear the primary responsibility of paying for the education.
The flaw in this logic is that society benefits greatly from education - at least as much as the individual. The perception of mobility that comes from subsidized education - available independent of parental social status - is invaluable.
The bitterness expressed so eloquently in this editorial at the inequity that student debt creates is a direct result of this flawed rationale for impoverishing our youth. America needs to reject the numerous right-wing "moral arguments" that have swayed us so far towards social inequality and immobility. If we don't, the consequences may be dire.
8
Personal financial fault is not incompatible with systemic financial mismanagement.
7
A home is not a surefire investment with automatic profits, especially in areas with low to modest home appreciation. Loans are risky debts.
Before taking on a home loan parents should take stock of their age, retirement savings, remaining years to retirement, and total assets ( including a realistic home value), calculating how much they need for life, possibly a long life with eventual and costly long term care needed .
They should never mortgage their own futures for their children’s education, going into retirement short of needed savings ( which, by the way, is likely to impact their children’s finances as well).
When one of our children tried to tell us it was our “duty as good parents” to pay for an Ivy League college, we were honest. That option would depend on generous scholarships and whatever we could afford beyond that - but never a sum which could derail our future financial needs.
I saw too many of our friends deplete too much of their assets for their children’s education.They are entering retirement with frighteningly low assets.
Although initially angry, our young man buckled down and received a full merit scholarship, not to his first choice school, but he still received a solid education and, eventually, a good. job.
We feel reasonably confident he will not have to provide financial assistance to help meet our basic living expenses as we age. That is no small gift for him.
6
Alan Greenspan is solely responsible for the crisis. Blame him.
He could have cooled the economy long before the housing market meltdown, but he chose instead to keep it blazing hot to make Dubya feel good about himself.
2
@Chris Jones I always flinch when I read "solely." There's plenty of fault for what happened to go around.
1
Certainly an intimate, cogent and important narrative about your family's travails and the unfolding national tragedy, and it conveys a much needed account. Nonetheless, especially in the NYTIME'S newsroom, it is important to balance this with broader perspective of a society that has sold out to the very rich and their financial system which essentially protects and enriches themselves through their dominance of the political system. Their wealth is unquestionably gained by squeezing and tricking and tempting all Americans to give up their assets to have the illusion of security and survival. Whether with mortgage debt, student loans, health care deductibles, low wages, job insecurity, atrophy of public infrastructure, many Americans suffer as your family did or do not even have the opportunity to own a home, have a good job or a kid in college. There is and should be righteous anger about this exploitation.
By not referring to the big picture (some of whose villains are in the Presidents cabinet!), you are minimizing you and your family's opportunity and responsibility to fight back. Like the poisoned citizens of Flint or the flooded residents of North Carolina or the cancer patients who cannot afford the best therapies, the personal stories tug at my heart, but unless we keep in mind how we are living in a society divorced from meeting citizens' needs and focused on financial exploitation we are not going to be able to join together to change matters.
13
@paradocs2Thoughtful comments, well stated.
You know, as I read the essay and comments, I came to understand what the word entitlement really means. It means someone who goes to an expensive private college and bankrupts his family in the process can be angry at everyone else for his predicament and expect to garner sympathy along the way.
My father turned 20 in 1929. He and my mother wanted and planned to marry but could not until he found a job in another city. Then 6 years later or so, my parents lost everything (they didn't have much) to the Great Flood. And then, of course, Hitler came along and they had to uproot themselves so my mother and brother could live with her mother while my father fought in the war. I cannot imagine millennials surviving that .
14
@Deborah
It is usually in error to paint with a broad brush, the author of this piece is not representative of the whole group of millennials. Many of them have fought and some have died in ME wars.
1
@Deborah EXACTLY! I graduated in from a top school in the Seventies, with a bad recession, moved to New York, then at its economic nadir. I had to work as a jobber in the Fashion District to survive, but it would never have occurred to me to "blame" my situation on anyone.
2
Ahead of the ‘08 crash I was learning to fly small planes.
I’d takeoff and look down on new housing developments. One here. Another over there. A new development seemed to pop up with each new flight. Who can afford these places?! Not me.
I had this gut feeling that something’s not right. We know now
how not right it was. Now we’ve recovered? Ridiculous the price of homes in our working class neighborhood. It’s a mystery how the young neighbors next to me will ever pay off their mortgage.
A young family on the other side moved to a more affordable community in part because of student debt.
Nowadays I wonder how long before the gamblers in the financial community and the Oval Office ride our current boom into another bust? Followed by the legislative leaders who will deny any responsibility after undoing protections to keep us safe from economic calamity. (No matter. If the the worst does come again, they’ll be safe, warm, well fed and have good health care.
So did Hoover.)
6
@Mark Denver is a boom town. Travel to Pueblo or Albequrque, where homes are VERY affordable.
1
Mr. Miller's best chance out of this mess is to either buy into a fat job on Wall Street and forget about journalism, or marry a rich partner. His diploma may have produced the social capital to do so.
I hope that he does not and remembers his roots and keeps writing socio-economic commentary such as this.
Also, he may want to attend gritty, urban Wayne State University for a graduate program to continue his education on failed policies of our government. Detroit and Michigan will provide even more material for his awakening awareness.
7
@SJL Starting editors at the Times make very good salaries.
3
I think we need amnesty for some of these student loans. And a policy going forward that students and their parents must attend a financial counseling session with a 3rd party provider who does not benefit from student loans. And that they be required to run the numbers for various scenarios. Parents should not remortgage their house routinely.
Only people who can afford NYU or Harvard or Yale or Princeton should be going there. Does this perpetuate income and aspiration disparity in this country ? To some degree, yes. Does still owing $100,000 despite having repaid $100,000 seem like a better situation ? I do not think so. If you really "belong" at NYU and cannot afford it NYU should give you a generous package of aid- grants, not loans.
I went to state universities exclusively ( check out the hermeneutics ). I have a BA with honors and 2 MA's. The MA's were 30 years apart and enabled me to change fields. I never owed any money and it was a huge blessing and advantage.
People can be forgiven for not understanding- in the past- the spiraling journey to the pit of financial hell that these loans will generally mean. But going forward the writing is on the wall and has been for some time. At least take out federal loans which can be repaid or forgiven if you work in public service, use military benefits or take a calculated gamble if you are going into STEM. But if you know that you are on a liberal arts career path beware. That said this is very well written & affecting.
3
The education system in this country is broken. K-12 public education is underfunded and the buildings are crumbling. Many Colorado schools have gone to four day weeks. The cost of a college education is beyond the pale. Instead of tax cut for the rich we should invest in our youth. After all, they are the future.
7
I was extremely fortunate that for me, the 2008 crisis was a blip on the radar. Something interesting to debate, but besides finding it a buying opportunity in the stock market and a chance to take advantage of insanely low interest rates to refinance, it meant little. I was very lucky to have a secure job. That is why the federal jobs guarantee and universal health coverage are so important. As for college, it should be affordable, not free. When I went to a state university for undergraduate and graduate school, you could literally work your way through school if you wanted. I commend to everyone's attention Roosevelt's Second Bill of Rights. Put it in the constitution, and be done with it.
5
My wife and I wer educated at very good schools for engineering and business in Canada in the 80s and never paid over 2k per year in tuition and never had a cent of debt. Now in the states we are paying 60k a year for my two sons so they don’t have debt. (Those Canadian schools are now about 15k per year)
It is possible to deliver to deliver quality education for low cost if the objective to create a meritocracy. If the objective is to preserve the privilege of the comfortable, you get what we have now.
Young people should be furious they are not getting the same deal the older generation got while lecturing them about wasting money on lattes from their tax subsidized vacation home.
8
@Paul There is no reason why your children couldn't attend Canadian universities. Why not?
2
I'm a Gen X'er and have an exorbitant amount of student loans I'm dealing with because paying for college wasn't even a discussion with my parents. That's kind of how it was for my generation of single moms and latch key kids. We had to figure it out ourselves. I'm not saying that's the way it should be, and that I don't empathize with your situation - but in reality, a lot of parents, especially single-parent households, can't afford to help their kids out at all.
I remember the 90's being a time when the middle class was actually doing well and most of the baby boomers were able to buy their houses during the Clinton years.
Then GW Bush "won" the electoral vote in a way that I saw repeated in this past election and he decimated the economy. Bush and the Republicans wanted to privatize Social Security - can you imagine if they had succeeded in doing that before the recession?
I think millennials really need to start looking to before Barack Obama's presidency and start researching how GW's tenure has brought us to this moment. I know you weren't old enough to remember it but that doesn't mean it didn't happen - and history IS repeating itself. The Republican tax cuts for the top 1% are going to drive us right into another Recession.
I find it curious that Hillary Clinton and Barney Frank are the only two politicians mentioned here, while, Geoge W. Bush, the architect of the Great Recession and Iraq War seems to get a pass time and time again. It's kind of infuriating.
17
After 70 years, I find that these are the things that teach you to live in America with the economic ups and downs. So now you know and you will have children and they will go to college and you will be more inclined to investigate and invest in what will carry them through. That is what life is about. It's called "Live and Learn."
4
Some Millenials are not interested in home ownership because they must move around the country for different job prospects and career changes in their lives. They don't care to be tied to a piece of property. A mortgage is another weight around their necks, as if paying of college loans was not enough of a millstone.
2
Ms Clinton and her neoliberal Democrats were definitely more part of the problem than of the solution.
7
@heinrich zwahlen
Blame games don’t solve the problems. We really need productive solutions more than partisan bickering.
1
"They paid for it with a conventional mortgage that they had the misfortune of refinancing in January 2008."
Translation: My parents had a conventional mortgage that they foolishly refinanced (probably with cash-out) in January 2008.
> At this time, I was a senior at New York University, one of the country’s most expensive private institutions...My parents and I always imagined we’d find a way to pay for my college, through some clever combination of savings and scholarships...
Translation: I went to one of the most expensive private schools in the country even though my middle class parents couldn't afford it and we had no concrete plan for paying for it (short of cash out refinancing the family home mortgage at a time when analysts warning others off of doing so for years & at a time when the real estate bubble clearly peaked & even started bursting half a year earlier)
Summary: I'm angry about all this & am an example of my my generation blames others for their financial struggles since, even though my ridiculously expensive college degree landed me in the entitled classes who work at NYT
15
I came of age in the 1970's. Double digit unemployment and double digit inflation. Variously people blamed LBJ. Nixon and Ford. Then things got worse economically under Carter.
Seriously there is nothing to do but accept the reality and do your best.
I will say that at least we didn't have the racket that now passes for higher education. The costs are obscene and the loans a scam.
4
The anger that you still feel Mr. Miller is the anger that propelled Trump to victory. Not that you voted for him, but millions like you who felt the aftershocks, not only of the Crash of '08, but several decades of dwindling wages, jobs, and wealth, while watching the 1% and the donor class thrive, did vote for him.
The Republicans are responsible for bequeathing us with the "trickle down" economy we still live in, but it has thrived under both Republicans and Democrats. And when the Crash came, who did Obama and the Dems bail out? NOT the average Americans who were wiped out, foreclosed upon, and bankrupted! No, they bailed out the perpetrators of the Crash!
This was the Great Betrayal that still resonates, and was never rectified, and led directly to millions turning away from the Queen of the Status Quo, and towards the Great Charlatan. People already knew that Hilary was in bed with the banksters from Wall St., and while they also knew Trump was a sleazeball, and reality TV character, he seemed like a better bet. Sometimes the devil you DON'T know is preferable to the one you do.
Maddeningly, there are still only two real choices, both bad. But when a patient is on life support, you perform triage. This November we need to perform triage on our dying democracy, and vote for every Democrat on the ballot. But after that we need to harness our anger to launching new parties that represent all Americans.
7
@Kingfish52Hey, Kingfish! Have you looked at who the democrats are putting up for the elections? You must be kidding.
1
@Kingfish52 This "analysis" is simplistic in the extreme. I, too, am still infuriated at the bank bailouts — but I also realize that, if BoA, Chase, Citi, et al., had failed, we would have faced a 1930s-level depression.
@HKGuy: It didn't have to be an either/or decision - bail out the "too big to fail" perpetrators OR average Americans. They could have helped the 99% also but chose to believe that "trickle down" would fix everything. How'd that work out?
The companion piece to the article is right here on the Times. (Look at the graphs!)
"The amount of American student debt — roughly $1.5 trillion — has more than doubled since the financial crisis. It is now the second-largest category of consumer debt outstanding, after mortgages.
Public colleges and universities, hurt by state budget cuts, increased tuition. The drop in house values also made it harder for families to tap into their home equity to pay for tuition. As a result, the financial burden shifted to students, who took on heavier debt loads to pay for school."
The author is not an outlier, as some of the commenters make him out to be, nor was his family unusual in thinking that tapping home equity was a reasonable strategy to pay for an education that would help him get a foothold in an extremely competitive field. And they got clobbered because of bad timing. The change now is that students are taking out even MORE in loans because their parents no longer have equity in houses.
Meanwhile, according to the Economist:
"A recent study found that, in 1999-2013, America’s most prestigious universities admitted more students from the top 1% of households by income than from the bottom 50%. In 1980-2015 university fees in America rose 17 times as fast as median incomes. "
The game is fixed, middle class families are desperate, and we are destroying a generation.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/09/12/business/the-next-recessi...
6
You're still angry about it?
Anybody who has ever had to balance a checkbook is still angry about it.
And you have to know that Mrs. Clinton was talking political-speak. What she meant was "Vote Republican and it'll get a whole lot worse." That seems pretty on the money.
1
@Richard Pels It isn't clear exactly which party's policies were responsible for this. All I know is what I can see and the personal prosperity increase of the families of past presidents makes me concerned about the idea of 'reward' from those who benefited the most from those policies.
2
As a life long Republican who believes in the free market-college tuitions are absurdly out of reach for most of the people in this country. We are shooting ourselves in the foot. It's greed. Capitalism does not serve everyone well. I do understand why so many young people look towards the European model. Healthcare, tuition subsidized. OH no higher taxes. Well you pay one way or the other.
223
@one percenter European nations are every bit as capitalistic as we are. The difference is a much wider social net, and a more managed economy, thanks mostly to owner-worker amity.
3
@one percenter
How is it that health insurance and student loans are not, functionally, taxes? I think the 99% would be far better served with taxation that provides them benefits as opposed to loans and insurance premiums that fatten up the 1%.
And it doesn't matter to me anymore. I'm already through this lousy system.
3
@one percenter If you do not like it here, go live in Europe. you might want to prepare for foreign troops marching into your home town sometime in the future or having bombing raids by the enemy or the armies fighting on your side. it has happened a lot in europe over the years. not so much over in the good old USA.
Both Republicans and Democrats are without integrity, without ideas, and without ethical depth. Elections are arranged by both party's donors to never bring real change, or challenge the wealthy and take back the country for the working person. The Big Lie is that Democrats are ethically superior to their pals across the aisle.
6
This isn't going to get better until the younger generation shows up to vote in force, rips both parties to pieces to be reconstructed in a new fashion and starts to reverse the predatory crony capitalism that has purchased our elected officials for pennies on the dollar.
5
Perhaps those pricey universities should provide a mandatory class on money management.
3
@JP Amen. Perhaps that mandatory class should also be a requirement for high school graduation, and should include a unit exploring the earning potential of careers such as plumbing, HVAC, electrician, nursing, paramedic, firefighter, etc. Such units should include a compare/contrast between the return on investment from an educational cost standpoint between the trades and things like, journalism and, unfortunately and disgracefully, teaching. 17 year old boys and girls should understand clearly what going to that fancy school will mean over a lifetime.
6
@sherry Fowler Exactly, and who has been running our colleges and universities that are fleecing our children for two generations? Leftists. It's a total con, but the left wants to investigate Big Oil, Big Tobacco etc.. How bout they investigate Big Education???
And no one went to jail or was fined.
5
@Raymond Goodman Jr. And if anyone thinks the writer is acting entitled, my goodness! the bankers and Wall Street have him beat on that point!
4
What you are really saying Mr. Miller is, you've discovered life isn't fair.
Every generation has its tales of whoa, Sir. My parents came of age during the 1920 Great Depression and live most of their lives under white tyranny a.k.a Jim Crow. Still, my parents were able to make a life for themselves and provide for use kids. You are going to have to buck up; pointing out the obvious - "we've been robbed" - doesn't bring forth nor provide heat, food, shelter, or security.
United States government has always been a corrupt. Present day outrage is only occurring because significant percentage who've benefited from this corruption have been pulled in and down with it. Those folks also claimed once, they weren't responsible for the past either. We've ripped what we've sowed and the is only the beginning. I'd advise you do get a plan.
2
You admit to consciously taking out loans for a school you couldn’t afford to become a journalist with minimal financial earning prospects and still want others to shoulder some blame?
You and your parents made an emotional decision to attend NYU, not a prudent financial one.
They should have been focused on their financial well being first.
If they couldn’t afford NYU, go to Plan B, an affordable option that would not have left you in six figure debt.
8
For all the folks attacking Mr. Miller for choosing NYU rather than a state school, please read more carefully. He was a senior in college when the housing collapse occurred. His parents may well have been financially secure enough to take on the debt for NYU. Mr. Miller says his parents both lost their jobs in the collapse. So they not only lost the value of their home, they lost their incomes.
I don't know why the state college folks missed this (it's in the second paragraph). I'm tempted to snark something about paying more for a better education next time . . . but not sure that will get past the moderator.
3
@617to416
When I took out my modest mortgage in 1997, I planned for the worst-case scenario and borrowed accordingly, even though my salary would've supported a loan three times the size, easily.
That others foolishly chose to borrow to the hilt is not something I can sympathize with. Especially when my tax dollars went to bail out many of them via HARP, etc.
5
@Kosher Dill
Yes, I did the same. I purchased a home that cost just twice my annual income and made sure the mortgage payment was no more than the rent I was paying at the time. But even with that caution if I had lost my job and income, I still would have lost my home. The Millers may have taken more risk than they should have. But all of us take some risk—and therefore all of us are at risk. And that's not necessarily bad. As any investor will tell you, without risk there's also no reward.
Let’s use a thought exercise here. The 2008 crisis never happens. M.H. Miller would still have $100k of debt and a career that can’t really support it. Same story could happen in 2018.
Yes, what happened to his parents and a lot of people was terrible. I am assuming the second mortgage they took out was to finance an NYU degree.
I think the real issue is college costs. It’s gotten stupid. If you can’t afford an expensive school, don’t take on debt. It’s not remotely worth it. Community college, state schools etc. are a better choice than massive debt.
Maybe the NYT should do some investigative journalism on college costs at these elite schools. Why is it so expensive? Why does the government underwrite this debt? Shine a spotlight on some uncomfortable questions. Elite universities sinking blue collar families with government sponsored debt.....
11
@Dave I agree with your main points—and my comment doesn’t really take away from the real issue being sky high college costs. However, a $100K debt paid off over 20 years (and that’s how most of them are set up) at 4% is $605 per month. Wih proper monthly budget management that shouldn’t prevent one from being able to comfortably pay them off working at The NY Times, as a Nurse, even potentially as a school teacher in the right housing markets. With a $605 payment every month you might not drive a new car, maybe your furnishings will be IKEA or used, perhaps you’ll go camping instead of to Hawaii on vacation, or you could give up eating out until the debt is paid off.... heck, you could even get a second job two nights a week when you are young and pay off the loans in 10 years. Yes, it might effect if and when you can buy a home, or have a child—but that’s a fair result of the initial choice. I made all these sacrifices —as did almost all of my college friends, and though our debt burdens were significantly smaller 30 years ago, so were our salaries.
5
@Dave, Well thought out, well said. Excellent.
I have never understood Obama and the Justice Dept. not pursuing criminal investigations and prosecutions of Wall Streeters whose illegal behavior caused or contributed to the devastation that rocked so many people not among the wealthiest Americans.
I recall Obama explaining—rationalizing?—that he did not want to re-live or pursue legal actions for events of the past that we should move past, or words similar to those. Why?
And, now we have the intentional erosion of reasonable and appropriate regulation of banking and the absence of proper and effective federal oversight of banking and financial services in America. In and of itself that is a national scandal.
It is not a lesser, but an important, reason to throw out the Republican collaborators and traitors to America's middle- and working-classes this November. The Republicans in Congress want to return America legislatively to the time before the beginning of the housing and financial crises.
America needs independent, non-compromised public servants devoted to doing what is right for the millions and millions of Americans ignored or abandoned for decades. I have genuine doubts about a Democratic House majority, if not the same in the Senate, putting in the work and devoting themselves to reforming the economic compact in America—a radical revision of taxation would be a great place to start. #VoteNovember2018
7
As I read this piece, I am struck that Mr. Miller blames every poor decision made by either he or his parents on others. He went to an expensive four year college, paid for with a cash out home refinancing. I went to junior college for two years, working full time to pay for it. The phrase of Attorney General Sessions, "sanctimonious, sensitive, supercilious snowflakes" refers to the shutting down of free speech by students on the left, not to economic conditions. And nobody carried around four dollar cups of coffee when I went to college.
Mr. Miller blames everybody but himself.
9
@Ron Wilson
agree, no four dollar cups of coffee, although when I was in college the economy had not yet produced a four dollar cup of coffee, that came later when the economy was all screwed up like today. comparing yesteryear's good old days with today is like comparing apples and oranges.
Very courageous article.
I empathize. We have to weather what comes our way. The storms of your early life may engulf you or you may emerge even stronger. I live in Michigan and graduated from college in 1982. The unemployment rate here was 16.5%: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=Mb5. Nationally it was 10.8%:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNRATE) . During that time mortgage rates topped 18%: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MORTGAGE30US. I didn't realize then how much of an impact all of that would have. I couldn't get a job in my field. Buying a home or even a car was inconceivable. My divorced single mother, who never received a dime of child support or welfare, did everything she could to help but there was little she could do. I slogged through for about 10 years. I went back for my Masters and finally got an entry level job. I hung on through the dot com crash and the great recession. That's three economic crises in my working life. So again I do have empathy. When it comes to finances my personal lesson through all of this is to avoid debt as much as possible. Perhaps you will have a different view of debt and college should you have children. Perhaps not. Only you can determine that. The emotional lesson I'm still learning is that anger cannot serve as the force of life. I encourage you to work through that as best you can. If not it will come back on you in surprising (and unhappy) ways. You will have to trust me on that one!!
6
I'm sorry you've gotten a tiny taste of what half of America has experienced for 40 years. You come from outside of Detroit, ever wonder what happened to all those people who used to be middle class? Imagine for one second pushing a shopping cart or standing beside the exit ramp looking for spare change, that is the reality for much of America.
6
4 year tuition at New York University: $191,000
4 year tuition at University of Michigan: $55,400
If spending $140,000 extra when there is an excellent school in your backyard is not entitled, I don’t know what is.
Congratulations on bankrupting your parents and yourself.
17
Trump won election warning, and complaining "the system is rigged". At the time, he was expecting to lose, and wanted his scapegoat ready-made and set up before the election. Instead, through the unwelcome intervention of the Electoral College idiosyncrasy, we ended up with the worst president so far (Trump is oh-so-fond of superlatives, so I'll grant him that one...) who was, in his "rigged" statement, unintentionally correct. About the wrong system, of course, but for Trump that's a close to truth as he ever gets. "The system" *is* "rigged". Unfortunately, "the system" in question is America's economic system, its 'economy' - and the "rigging" is designed to insure that the wealthy get ever more wealthy, and 'the rest of us' face never-ending struggle. Why do you think your student loans are not dischargable in bankruptcy? Because that would give over-burdened students an even break. Why does every warranty, software license, loan agreement, and financial legal document you will ever see specify "binding arbitration" as the only recourse for the purchaser? Because that leaves all control and power in the hands of the business, not the customer. Why is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau being intentionally gutted by Republicans and Trump? Because it attacked payday loan sharks, predatory lenders, sleazy big banks, and other businesses that prey on consumers. "The system" really *is* rigged - for the rich - and we're all losers because of that.
8
I'm sorry that you and your parents have gone through all this. I am probably your parents' age, and the crash hit me pretty hard, too. But you have no reason to be ashamed about your debt.
Here's what I'm going to do: Vote. Vote for candidates who promise to fight for health care and education for all who need it. Free for those who can't afford it. I'm going to vote for candidates that promise to tax the rich to pay for it. That's right, I said it, raise taxes on the rich.
For almost 40 years, since the coming of ReaganJesus, we've been fed this lie that government is bad, taxes are bad, and people like you are ungrateful leeches. I'm looking forward to your generation of "snowflakes" coming into power. Our government is not some occupying power from another planet. Our government is us, we the people. We can make it according to our values. And I see in your generation a new set of values. I see a drive to - a phrase I hear more and more, lately - "moral leadership"
National voter registration day is 25 September (my birthday!) and I'll be out there registering away. Doing my duty for my country. My spouse and I started out registering young people to vote at the March For Our Lives. It is so inspiring to see young people who want to make a difference - and working to make a difference.
So keep writing. Keep telling the truth. Keep fighting for this American ideal. And vote.
6
Great
pOst. I would like this smart young person to RUN for office, not just vote.
I come from a family and have a circle of friends that includes people who have done very well and people who are struggling, so I hope I can comment from a reasonably objective perspective. That perspective tells me that the major driver of different outcomes is luck. None of my friends who are struggling are stupid or lazy. None of my friends who made out very well are unusually gifted. So what lesson can I take from this?
Demonizing the people who did well is pointless. Most of them played by the rules they were given, and happened to place the right bets. Demonizing your generation is pointless--like previous generations born at the wrong time, you have been flying into a headwind. No, the most useful conclusion is that we need governors on our economic and financial system, the way a boat needs a keel and a rudder. Keels and rudders slow boats down but no one would consider a boat without them useful, or even safe.
Both political parties have caved in to the dogma that we should throw away the keels and rudders, and the GOP is actively trying to burn any designs that contain such features. Until we can debunk this sort of fanatical nonsense, we will have many future generations facing the same pain as yours.
Is there a practical lesson? You complain about the unfair demonization of your generation. But very few of you vote. Get out and vote, or you won't have, and won't deserve, a voice.
6
The short version: Parents and child take out a Mercedes Benz sized loan for a Honda quality education, and get angry that nobody told them, when everyone around them knew.
9
I do not defend the corrupt and maligned financial industry that is motivated by greed. But this is the second article I've read by this author who seeks to place blame on his crippling student debt everywhere but where it belongs -- squarely on his own shoulders.
He should be deeply ashamed for foisting his own financial burden onto the his parents, who were under such duress. Why didn't he choose to transfer to a less expensive college? Why didn't he take a break from school, work for a few years and then return? Why does he defensively mention sanctimonious snowflakes, when he so clearly is one?
I too grew up middle class in the Midwest, attended an elite private university and assumed student debt. I graduated during a time of economic crisis and bleak job prospects as well (1992) -- but I was cognizant of the implications of the loans I took on (which were in my name) because I had read the forms and asked a lot of questions. The loans have been long paid off.
While I want to emphasize once again I do not defend the financial services industry and the destruction it has wrought, this individual -- who is clearly literate and well-educated and possibly even intelligent -- must assume personal responsibility for his choices and stop pointing the finger elsewhere. He was not taken advantage of -- he was pursuing his self-interest with no consideration of the long term implications, like so many of his generation. Boo hoo hoo.
10
With respect to the banks, remember what Gordon Gekko said in the original "Wall Street": "Greed is good!" And then think of the current denizen of the White House, and ask yourself, how much is that person going to help right this wrong?
Take risks ~ if you win you will be happy, if you lose, you will be wise.
3
First, I must tell the author that he should not be ashamed of his tremendous debt. His obscene debt is a consequence of the sick and hideous way college tuition is paid for nowadays . The banks, the government and the universities are all to blame -- but you should be exculpated of all guilt.
Years ago, after a student went to college he could express his political or social aspirations to do good. Now, upon graduation his life is governed by one overriding priority: Paying back his loans. So instead of embarking on something which might advance the public interest, he must become a submissive corporate slave.
This reminds me why I am disgusted when I hear people wonder why so many young people are becoming socialistic or, in some other way, fervently or downright hard left.
Isn't the reason obvious? It is the insidious pauperization of the working and middle class ever since Ronald Reagan ascended to the throne.
This country needs a president who will grab the steering wheel of the economy and make a very, hard, sharp left turn.
667
@David Gottfried - We can sympathize with Miller’s situation and still acknowledge, as he does, that he made is own bed. He shouldn’t feel ashamed, but he needs to own this. He and his parents borrowed a large chunk of money to buy something they couldn’t afford and they could see pretty clearly even then it would be hard to pay back. So let’s not have this nonsense that everyone BUT the borrower is to blame. That line of thinking leads to belief that yanking the steering wheel will improve things instead of what it actually does: cause a worse crash.
2
@David Gottfried Yes. Well said: "It is the insidious pauperization of the working and middle class ever since Ronald Reagan ascended to the throne." At last, someone puts his finger on it. This is where it all began: the egregiously misnamed "Reagan Revolution" which was actually a counter revolution to undo the New Deal. And it undo it did, or at least got the ball rolling by redoing the tax code to redistribute wealth upwards. And upwards. And upwards. Until we reached the enormous inequality we have today -- the fundamentally different America we have today.
4
@David Gottfried We could use a little socialism right about now, given the extreme concentration of wealth. Whenever someone huffs about the young and socialism, I ask them what they think we should do about the problem of wealth concentration. Most of them don't know that its a problem, despite our recent economic past-- this is the power of propaganda, to make what is plain to see all around you invisivible.
1
Bad times, recessions and student loans are not new, or unique to 2008. I graduated 1972 and dove head first into a recession. Had to drop out of a promising graduate school and got a job in a machine shop building car carriers at minimal wage on the second shift. By 1980, I had a mortgage at 15% working two jobs. The secure world has always required tenacity and savvy. My credit score is 813 and no wolf is at my door.
5
I was surprised when I learned at some point in the story that the author was a journalism major in that the piece rambles on and presents conflicting, ill-matched themes So I will assess the piece as one would a wine. First, there is the strong
flavor of guilt attributable to the author choosing to attend expensive NYU to obtain a journalism degree—a job which pays poorly, if one can find a job as a journalist at all, thus compelling his parents
to “refinance” their home to access 16 years of equity, just in time to lose their jobs in the economic meltdown and default on the new mortgage note. There is a competing strain of self-pity for the author having taken on
so much personal student-loan debt to attend NYU (which his parents seemed to have cut-signed to some degree), the principal balance of which is little diminished 10 years later owing to his relative penury as a journalist. To a lesser degree, there is a hint of complaint about some perception the Baby Boomers see the author’s generation as suffering from laziness and self-entitlement. Every generation tends to see the next generation in those terms—so nothing new there.
These flavors are overlaid with a heavy why-did-this-happen-to-me and life-isn’t-fair aroma of decaying promises the author feels the U.S.A. made to him about the beautiful life to come after attending NYU. I’m sure a few of the Army draftees who died at Hamburger Hill with their new, unperfected, jamming M-16s also thought life was unfair.
4
Some advice, simply do not ever let Republicans or Democrats who act like them ever have total power in your life time and you should be ok. Do a little historical search and you will find Republicans and financial crisis linked.
1
What was really galling was that the government bailed out all these financial criminals, and within six months or a year they were using our taxpayer money to give themselves enormous, multi-million dollar bonuses. Meanwhile, none of us were bailed out.
It's not too late to throw them in prison.
6
This cannot be real. The Nobel Prize winner and the Harvard professor cannot be so incompetent. It must be some kind of a computer glitch that created the entire mess.
Here are his alleged words: “Anyway, on one side you have Dean Baker, who has long argued that the burst housing bubble was the main factor in both the slump and the slow recovery, with financial disruption a minor and transitory factor — a view I mostly agree with.”
Actually, it was the housing bubble that created the colossal problem. Everything else was forced and unavoidable. Once the money had been stolen and changed the pockets it was just the matter of time before the sobering truth was revealed.
It’s exactly the same with the ongoing stock bubble. The money has been already stolen and we are just waiting on it to burst so the losses could be accounted for.
The pension retirement funds were foolishly buying the overvalued corporate stocks making the hedge fund managers and the previous owners extremely wealthy.
The very moment the federal budgets are balanced or the foreigners decide not to invest any longer in extremely expensive US market or into the dollar, those stocks will nosedive in another “completely unpredictable financial meltdown” and the Social Security funds and the retiree pensions will be significantly wiped out…
It is impossible to create the wealth without the hard work. No hedge fund manager can create the trillions dollars overnight.
Don’t be fooled like Pinocchio AGAIN…
4
Ok, so let me get this straight. You chose to attend an expensive school—mortgaging your parents house to do so ; you knowingly followed I guess your “passion” and trained for a career of limited prospects itself and, now, you believe that the country/citizens somehow owe you or are responsible for the decisions which you made. Ok, up front, cards on the table, I don’t think so.
That said, it is interesting to me that the type of education one is getting I.e. journalist or painter as opposed to electrical engineer or physician—- which all have sizable difference in market place worth was never considered by the lending institutions when extending you credit—(I mean, after all, the value of you house is considered for a house loan, etc. ) in that sense, I am sympathetic to your plight. Unfortunately, liberal political policies encourage lending for “college”, regardless of value and such policy seems ridiculous even if it might be politically incorrect but nevertheless true to suggest your journalistic “passion” has less value than, say, someone else’s engineering “passion”.
Also, recent articles in the Atlantic Magazine discusses how expensive higher education is in the United States. Which is true. Maybe you could encourage your editorial colleagues to focus on that subject a bit.
4
In the NYCHA projects where I gre up, you made it into CUNY for free, or you didn’t get to go to a college. Next, you got into a community college and tried to make it from there. Next, you went into the military, hoped you came out alive and more matured, and went on from there.
The rich kids went to private colleges, the rest of us mugs hit the public schools. They didn’t want us, and, frankly, we didn’t want them.
2
Meanwhile the next crisis is being locked and loaded with the creation of over one trillion dollars in debt through the new tax codes and the transfer of more wealth to the wealthiest.
Having the Republicans running the country really is like having the kids who sat in back of the classroom throwing spitballs being able to decide who they wanted to teach them and which comic books should be in the curriculum. Or to borrow the cliche; the inmates running the asylum.
I am waiting to hear some of my family who voted for Trump and fund raised on FB admit that they made a huge mistake... or even a minor one (would do). That would be a sign that the country is ready to right the ship, or at least start pumping out the bilges...
6
Millennial whiners should realize what a loan is and not incur more debt than they can handle for a career that won't offer the payback on the loan. It's called smart planning. Did you work two jobs while going to school, share an apt with 3 others, ride a bike to work to save money? Eat out less than once a month? I did. Sorry but I just don't feel your pain.
7
MH Miller:
Do not apologize or feel shame at your education! It got you to the NYTimes. (Had you gone to my Alma mater, UT-Knoxville, you might have less debt but you’d be working at the Amazon warehouse if you were lucky.)
This was a policy decision, not an inevitable outcome. The GOP wanted to bail out banks but not your parents, because “financial austerity” was deemed goood medicine for the little people. Obama, Reid and Pelosi did not have the votes to force a different agenda—and then in 2010, they lost congress altogether. (You might read Bob Woodward’s other book, The Price of Politics, for details. )
Speaking of votes—your demographic did not turn out for the critical 2010 midterm election, allowing the GOP to gerrymander the electoral maps in most states and made it almost impossible to elect anybody but republicans. The GOP in my state have a supermajority and they still think the little folks haven’t suffered enough—and they demonize immigrants to cover for their own bad policies as they defund education, make getting health insurance harder, and generally make life hard for the not-rich.
This will continue if the young continue to ignore politics. Political change is slow, hard work but showing up is critical.
714
@MaryC
This is an excellent comment. Young people especially don't vote or don't vote their interest. Perhaps the Obama Adm. should have prioritized economic recovery more than they did, but not one Republican in Congress was willing to help.
BTW, I'm sure not all UTenn. graduates are working in warehouses. Had Miller gone to one of Michigan's excellent public universities, his family would have saved thousands. Of course, 20-20 hindsight is always sharper.
3
@MaryC Thank you for saying what's been on my mind, and explaining what actually happened. I hope that people take the mid-terms more seriously from now on.
@MaryC This is just more victim blaming. I am just two years younger than the author. I, too, am tired of being blamed. Young people voted at the same rate in 2010 as they have at any other time in recent generations. From the Vietnam era through today, young people have not been reliable voters. I do agree that we need to get out to the polls - personally, I have not missed a single primary or general election since I became eligible to vote - but stop pretending young people today are any different than young people in generations past.
The availability of student loans seems to have tracked with the skyrocketing cost of a college education. Or did I get that backwards? Many college students and their parents believe the bill of goods they are sold that going into debt for college is a good idea. Critical thinking needs to start well before college.
1
In the 1960's and 70's, in each city in Louisiana there was a charity hospital staffed by resident physicians. There were also free followup medical clinics. College tuition at Louisiana State Univ. was $160 a semester. Medical school tuition was $800/ year and the medical school in Shreveport provided 2 bedroom apartments for $67/month. Like many of my classmates, a person could attend medical school for about $3000/year. With opportunity, there were thousands of aspiring "premed" students at Louisiana State University and competition was fierce. In medical school, our instructors such as Dr. David DeSha , conveyed by example integrity and compassion. Each of us felt grateful and responsible for making the most of our opportunity. Today, when I think of my medical school classmates and consider their contributions to society, I see extraordinary talent as well as that same compassion and integrity. When higher education is affordable and admission is driven more by a student's talent and hard work than it is by parental wealth, everyone benefits.
3
Mr.Miller is justifiably angry that he graduated into such a tough economic time.I am afraid he is not the last to experience this angst.Every year students are graduating with more debt than they can handle into a job market that is tentative at best. there are jobs but they are low paying and cannot support payments of hefty debt.Years ago college tuition was not so expensive and we got really fine educations.Banks loaned money to students and rates were reasonable-the Banks did not fail.We obviously have our priorities all wrong when we offer gold plated educations to students who will be offered jobs with no benefits and no security.The youth have a right to believe that our society does not believe in their future.
3
Why did you choose to go to an expensive private school when you could have gotten a good education at a state college?
5
The writer is an editor at the NYT. Would he have gotten the job if he did not go to prestigious NYU? Does he take responsibility for going to a very expensive school in a field that was being destroyed by the Internet? (Explains the low salary). These were not caused by the recession. What is disturbing is the fact that the writer seems not to know history. The Dems and Obama tried their best for middle class relief. Barney Frank tried. But Mitch (who wanted to make Obama a one term President) and the cruel band of Republicans blocked any efforts to help the middle class (i.e. stimulus or extended unemployment benefits). They are still at it today. Luck is a big factor in success in life. During the Great Depression, there were millions who were similarly affected in the same way. They elected FDR which broke up trusts and corporations and restored order for 50 years until the Republicans and their rich donors rebuilt it. You know what needs to be done. Do you have the will. Remember, back then the S.Ct. blocked most of FDR's plans until he threatened to add enough liberal justices until he got his way. Time to play hardball again.
3
Well done. Thank you.
So, it was all Hillary's fault? This reader was prepared to sympathize with the writer's situation (though he is an editor at the NYT) but particularly with that of his parents, who sacrificed so much for opportunities which could only be made possible through the very expensive higher education of their precious offspring. Higher education, though, isn't all about cashing in once the degree is in hand, it's also about understanding at least the broadest strokes of the human condition. What's described here however is the souring of a privileged individual who hasn't exactly found the waves parting upon his arrival, and whose me first attitude, sad to say, seems hardly worthy at all of his selfless parents.
5
Why wasn'r community college good enough for you? Why could't you have transferred to a four year school after 2 years with an associates degree? Why did you not think that $100,000 in debit would be too much? Your early choices are confounding and have put you into an avoidable situation
6
Odd that you mention Frank and Clinton, but not the incompetent architect of your situation: "W" Bush. Consider yourself lucky however. A good number of your fellow Americans wound up dead or disabled for no reason at all because of his blood lust for Iraq.
5
@David Henry Bravo! It's like history never happened because it was before their time.
1
You took on unaffordable financial burdens and risks to pursue a poor payoff career at an expensive school.
The banks are not responsible for you to do basic math. You are. You failed to do that. You started to take personal responsibility for your actions in this article, then chose to scapegoat.
I played by all the rules and came through the Great Recession ok. Nonetheless, I am being burdened by the cost of bailing out people such as yourself.
Who is more unfairly affected here?
6
Some of the blame is on the banks for lending money they knew was unlikely to be repaid but didn’t care because they were selling same to debt buyers and rating agencies that did not realize that they were being hoodwinked. Those borrowing the money had no idea how they were going to repay it; they could have been more risk averse but it is not shocking that they would overextend. The Fed (Alan Greenspan are you listening?) made enormous mistakes as they are supposedly the all knowing wizard who could have helped stop this from becoming a disaster by tightening credit and warning markets that home prices just cannot rise at the 1992-2006 pace forever. Fannie and Freddie were utilizing the Fed balance sheet to throw gas on this fire. Why those agencies are still in business with the broad mandates they have and the US government standing behind their obligations is beyond belief. Barney Frank, you should be ashamed of yourself for supporting Fannie and Freddie in the manner that you did.
The incompetence of Frank, Greenspan, major credit rating agencies and greedy mortgage salesmen (& many others) helped lead to a large group of disenfranchised Americans that resulted in the election of the biggest idiot of them all, our current ‘president’ who fell victim to the same debt issues (mostly back in 1991) that befell many an American family. The difference between the author and Trump is that Trump was able to hire better bankruptcy lawyers.
1
Beautiful piece, M.H. You're not alone in your anger or shame. I hope your parents are OK.
Mr. Miller, you studied journalism, you graduated and you are working in your field (as an editor) at the New York Times - among the most prestigious newspapers in the world. In what universe is that not a success? Bear in mind that many people have similar levels of student debt but have little to nothing to show for it. Maybe a little "glass is half full" thinking would be helpful for you.
9
Wow! It's amazing how many people need to "outdo" this guy's predicament. In the 70s, one suffered from the oil crises? Jeez! If it's true that this guy has paid off his loan (of $100 grand? Nobody in the 70s, or 80s worried about that.) and still owes more than he borrowed, that's a crime. It's usurious, criminal, immoral and sick. Get off his back.
3
You make the best decisions you can with the information at hand. For those of us who graduated in the pit of the recession, hindsight tells us that we had bad information, but it was the only information we had in 2004-2006.
As a state school grad, I don’t have crushing debt. And yet it’s taken me years to get my career back on track. A solid part of my 20s was spent working a mix of part-time service and paraprofessional jobs. Yes, I had supportive parents in that they gave me pep talks after my double shift as a sever. But my middle class “helicopter” parents couldn’t afford and were busy trying to save their own jobs. And thank god for the ACA, it’s the only way I could have insurance during that time.
The only thing that’s helped me get on track is a graduate degree. The only peers whose professional and financial trajectories have finally lined up with our original hopes are those who went back to grad school. Many of my friends haven’t and most likely won’t.
1
I completely share and support your thoughts. And don't think you did wrong in taking a loan. You had dreams and hopes. There is a lot of blame that must go to the colleges too. Education should not be costly. You educate the youth to build a strong nation and not a nation of greed and moneyed interest as is seen from the junk that Harvard alike colleges puts out. What a shame that America has reached this pathetic state.
131
I don’t understand how this story keeps being told without a specific culprit.
There may be various strands about the 2008 story, but what almost crashed the world economy was the Republican party’s self-serving deregulation mania that ended up undermining the banking system. After the crash, the Republicans deliberately prolonged the pain by blocking stimulus spending or help to those hurt (remember the “balanced budget” stunt) in the hope that the slow recovery would lead to tax cuts for the ultra-rich in 2016. They’re now talking about how those tax cuts (now transmuted into stock buybacks) justify putting in power and continuing to support a person they consider to be dangerous to the country. So that according to plan we can have another crash worse than the last.
Can’t we stop doing this?
2
Right message, wrong messenger. An in-state resident facing potential constraints has a no-brainer choice on where to go to school. It is in Ann Arbor. I went there from out of state to save my single mother money (vs Ivies) and graduated a semester early with AP credits to save more money. You need to do what you can yourself, regardless of your age, and if you have not yet learned that, you are confirming the worst suspicions older people have about millennials. Going to a fine but substantially more expensive university in a city with the highest cost of living in the country makes little sense and is the fundamental reason for what happened. Let somebody else write about this problem and we will pay more attention.
7
@madmax159 I think the author made big mistakes, and even though he was only 18 years old, the fact that he let his parents mortgage their house to send him to an extremely expensive college across the country probably haunts him still. It should. If he gained admission to NYU, it's pretty much a given that he could have gotten into Ann Arbor at a fraction of the cost. That said, it is only fair to point out that the author does admit that he carries a lot of guilt for his decisions and their effects on his parents.
Don’t shoot the messenger not unreasonable to go to school in NY to study journalism just as not unreasonable to go to MIT, CalTech, Stanford to study Engineering even if UM a great school. There is so much to learn from this article including easy money for financial firms with bloated interest rates.
1
There's a lot of blaming going on in our press right now. The first question when something bad happens always seems to be "Who/what is to blame?" This is OK if the purpose is to find a solution that will prevent it from happening again. But to just perpetuate anger is somewhat toxic and doesn't really help anyone.
This writer seems to have spent a lot of time, from what his piece says, blaming someone--whether himself or others. That doesn't solve anything. he is where he is, his parents are where they are. I don't think you can say that it is entirely the fault of any one party.
From what I understand, no laws were broken and that is why no one went to jail for the crisis. That seems really wrong. Is there a way we can ensure this doesn't happen again?
On the other hand, is there a way we can live more safely so that if a crisis happens again, we feel safe?
Let's put our energies into getting moral people into positions of power and taking power away from those who only have power on their agenda.
Dude, I'm 56 and the 2008 financial crisis led to me being on food stamps despite currently working full-time - what I make simply doesn't cover the bills now and that's all there is to it. I'm living hand-to-mouth when I was once making over 100K a year. I have no more savings, I have no property, I have no assets, I need $6000 worth of dental work which medicaid won't pay for, ditto eyeglasses, and welcome to my world. I had to move away from the east coast entirely because of skyrocketing cost-of-living. Twice in three years I have been a day away from being evicted because (see above.)
I figure if I can make it to 70 with no major health issues, I won't be on the street. Extreme old age? I have no illusions.
I still listen to music and go for walks and enjoy life, however.
4
Not a single banker went to jail for the malfeasance of the 2008 collapse.
Few if any regulations that might stop the gambling behavior of the people in the derivatives market have been changed, added, or even considered by Congress, that body which has sold is soul to Wall Street.
America the Innovator is sliding downwards in direct proportion to the easy money to be found in the financial "services" industry.
America's ruling elite (the 1% and the corporate sector) have a bigger share of the economy and a smaller share of the tax-based funding of the federal government) than they have historically. They are also sitting on record profits, record piles of cash, and record buy-backs of their own stocks.
America is being surpassed by China and the European Union in innovation, in economic policy, free(er) trade, industrial policy. These countries are making shrewd investments and the public goods of an educated citizenry, child care for families that want to work and need it, healthcare for all, infrastructure for all, and you get the picture.
Here, billionaires get tax cuts and millions live below the poverty line while working in low-wage, part time jobs at McDonald's, Walmart, and the like.
Congress is bought by Wall Street and don't appear to care a whit about their constituents. Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan -- and a whole lot of their colleagues -- apparently have no capacity for guilt or shame.
3
There are a lot of things that need to be addressed by the electorate and the cost of education borne by the individual rather than the business or society is a major one. Here in Scotland we have a 'one degree for free' scheme which the electorate want and have kept - the English have decided to take on a version of the American model which is creating American style problems.
On the other hand, parents and high school students have to be creative and open minded - gap years which establish financial independence while taking courses at local universities or community colleges can give a person a better feel for the major they intend, give them a chance to save some money and learn how to get by on very little. Financial Aid is available to people who have been independent of their parents for 3 years (in my day 2) and saying no to loans can work.
Parents should manage expectations from an early age - i.e. get a scholarship, study abroad or take some time off to work because we can't afford it. Look at the investment to earnings situation. Parents shouldn't behave like children on this subject.
And yes, I did get financial aid in the u.s having been 2 years independent of my parents, I did get one degree for free in Scotland and I paid for one here as well. I paid off my debts (only £6000) in 5 years. In the u.s. I refused loans as I was studying liberal arts and had no interest in being a slave to banks.
1
So let me get this straight.
You made the decision to attend one of the highest priced private universities in the country by taking out a loan you KNEW would be nearly impossible to pay off given your chosen career.
Maybe you should have majored in math.
4
May I ask why you are embarrassed and ashamed for taking out student loans? Would you be so embarrassed for taking out a mortgage that was significantly more than what you make in a year?
1
@Harry He is embararassed because his parents lost their house to finance his fancy education. It's a pretty good reason.
2
Here is an excellent devastating assessment of the financial crisis from a socialist perspective
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/09/15/pers-s15.html
1
Oh boo hoo. My parents grew up during the Depression and I grew up in the 60’s when the promise was full time cradle to grave benefits, pensions etc..
Then, by the time I came of age with a dream of being a network videojournalist. After starting at a small local station to get experience (instead of paying $100,000), I got a chance to work for NBC Nightly News. This was when all the networks were closing their overseas bureau’s and turning to ctalking heads instead of video from the field. Staff members were replaced by ‘permalancers’ like me with no benefits, no pension and no security. The 2008 financial crisis wasn’t the beginning of the massive redistribution of wealth to the top. It’s been going on for a while now.Every generation gets called lazy by the generation before and has been forever.
My point is don’t blame the world for your problems. Try to think of why you took such a large loan out for a job that doesn’t pay anywhere near what you would need to pay back the loan... The 2008 financial crisis wasn’t the beginning of the massive redistribution of wealth to the top. It’s been going on for a while now and whining will get you nowhere...
6
You are correct about the earlier redistribution of wealth, but when you began working for NBC, the job did not require a bachelor's degree ( probably a master's now). There were lots of tough times before 2008, really tough, but your experience is your experience, and you do not need to delegitimize the concerns of the author. Given the technology changes from the past 40 years, I bet your NBC job no longer exists. Is that the author's generation's fault too?
2
I'll weigh in as a single and successful Mom. Married and widowed w/a 2 YO in my 20's.
OK, agreed that a lot of hideous malfeasance on the part of Wall Street and "too big to fail" banks took place and was never adequately addressed or punished. No argument.
But, really, your family's plan was to never have a plan?? Things would just work out? Mortgaging the family house - the only asset - seemed reasonable?! Huh???
I , too, have a journalism degree and loved my job and the perk of having a Chicago Press Club membership. But I also worked 2part-time jobs at the same time.
I had academic scholarships and loans. I worked the entire time I was in college. I switched from my exclusive private college after 2 years to the great state U becuz the writing was on the wall.
I came of age in the late 70's. When interest rates were almost 20%. I was thrilled to buy my first very modest house w/a mtg. interest rate under 10% in the mid-80's.
And I got my MBA and raised a great, now successful kid/adult.
I'm pretty sick of all the " beat down" on boomers. Millenials should stop showing up with their helicopter parents for (adult) job interviews and understand that until they rule the world, meeting w/business clients in tank tops that show off their tattoos is NOT acceptable.
Take responsibility for your bad decisions and bad luck. If you want change, do something your gen. hasn't done: VOTE!!!
293
@Citizen X I support this correct analysis. I sent my daughter to NYU and paid the costs out of my then current income. Had we the need to borrow for those costs, she would have gone to a in-state public university, no question. A college education is a family legacy, but to be realized in the soundest way possible. (After all of the consequences of non-planning of which Mr. Miller complains, I am not surprised that he is the "arts editor" of the NYT's second tier magazine. Fits perfectly to my way of thinking.)
1
@Citizen X, might I direct you to look at this very simple chart: https://www.businessinsider.com/this-chart-shows-college-tuition-growth-...
Contemporary college tuition for private universities is on average 2.5 times more expensive than in the 80's, while public institutions are almost 4 times more expensive.
Meanwhile, the median household income is less than half that corresponding increase (https://www.epi.org/publication/charting-wage-stagnation/).
So roughly speaking, if this was one's only expense, loans would take roughly twice to pay off.
But if one couple's this sobering fact with house price differences (more than twice the price they were in the mid 80's, https://www.census.gov/const/uspricemon.pdf), and a very different economy, you have a recipe for debtors who will be paying off a debt they accrued as extremely young adults for most of their lives.
I'm very happy that you were incredibly successful in light of your extreme difficulties, but that should not remove you from being able to understand the difficulties that young people face now.
4
@Citizen sounds like we are about the same age, and in my experience, back then the concept of “working your way through college” actually meant you could pay a substantial portion of your tuition with wages earned at part time and summer jobs. These days, those wages barely pay for books, such has been the inflation in tuition and the stagnation in wages. Income and wealth inequality have worsened to unprecedented levels since the 1980s due to fiscal and trade policies, much to the detriment of millennials and younger. It is unfair to compare our situation - when college, healthcare and homes were affordable - with what they face today...thanks to us!
3
The people criticizing Mr. Miller for his choice of college need to go back and re-read the second paragraph. Mr. Miller was already a senior at NYU when his parents' financial situation changed. The choice of college was made when the parents thought their financial situation was better than it later turned out to be. With the financial collapse, not only did Miller's parents' home lose enough value for their mortgage to go underwater, both of his parents lost their jobs and incomes. Yes, the Millers took on more risk than ultimately they could handle. But the amount of risk they took on may not have seemed too high three years before the crash. Americans love to praise risk-taking entrepreneurs—but apparently only when they succeed. Risk being what it is, many fail. But usually no one hears about them. If they do speak up, they are told to stop their whining and make better choices next time.
Personally, I think a certain amount of risk-taking is good for our society, and I can't condemn Mr. Miller or his parents for their choices. In normal times, choosing NYU was likely a very good bet. In fact, that Mr. Miller is being published in the New York Times shows it was. He's already achieved a level of success few journalists will see. But what American society needs is what we all need when faced with risk: insurance. In this case, better social insurance—the kind that helps Americans survive the financial shocks inherent in our capitalist economy.
7
I appreciate the sentiment expressed in the article — there are few things more depressing than having a large debt looming over you. On the other, I think that the “disgracefully high interest” rates seem high only in the context of the absurdly low rates that have prevailed in recent years. And if so high relative to current rates, isn’t refinancing — either by traditional lenders but also peer-to-peer sites like Lending Club and Prosper— an option? It’s hard to understand how, after making payments dutifully for a decade as indicated in the article, more is owed than originally, as I believe these are typically 10 or 15 yr notes and interest only loans are not permitted
1
I can sympathize with Mr. Miller’s anger but he and many in his generation must understand their school choice largely contributed to their current situation. And this problem is not confined to those who came of age during the financial crisis. Just like Mr. Miller, some of my acquaintances who graduated from law school in the late 80s were saddled with huge debts because they HAD to attend the top law schools such as Harvard, NYU, Stanford and Yale. Even though they were making a lot of money working at top tier law firms they still struggled with their debt load for many years. If people who choose professions with high earning potential struggle with a $100,000 student loan debt, why would a person like Mr. Miller, who knows in advance his chosen profession will not generally lead to riches, voluntarily saddle themselves with such a burden? Are the bragging rights of having attended an expensive school worth all the trouble?
While attending such schools affords one access to a well-connected network, it alone does not guarantee success, either professionally, financially or personally. I do hope that when Mr. Miller has kids he reminds them of this. Hopefully they will do better.
2
Mrs Clinton and her ilk on both sides of the aisle would have served you better by standing before you and acknowledging the situation in the following fashion (and sorry to NYT censors):
"You are screwed; and it is our fault. We will do our best to compensate you for this crime done by us, your elders, against your future."
This is what they should have done; but of course they did not do any such thing. Deflection and panic were their main expression of the catastrophe that loomed above them then. All the greed; all the avarice of the times leading up to 2008 fell directly upon your young, innocent, shoulders.
And it has crushed you while those who were the cause, those elders among us, did little to avert it. In fact some went about garnering even more for themselves at your expense. The anger you feel is justified, and now that you have come of age it is time for you to start assuming the mantles of Power and figure out a way to redress all that has been done to you and yours.
I only ask that with the wisdom gained from your experience you try hard not to express vengeance. Many were hurt by the forces outside their ability to control; and not all of them were young.
John~
American Net'Zen
2
@John It could be worse - Clinton was planning on 'stapling a green card to the diploma' of every foreign student - lots of luck for an American even getting admitted to a US college if that happened!
1
Stay angry. I'm still pretty pissed off myself. I am a Gen Xer, but got a latish start on my career when pursuing my Ph.D., bought at the peak, lost all the equity in my house during the crash and had to start over. I just can't believe that white collar criminals were not punished for this major robbery of hard working people's money and good will.
4
As someone who is likely of Mr. Miller's parent's generation, I back every word he says here. His parents also are not to blame for what happened to them. They could have done what some commentators below imply - simply tell him to not go to college at all, or to go to an 'inexpensive' university (hah hah) and pay for it himself.
Two things that are unfair and inappropriate about that suggestion:
1) People of my economic class, as a group, do not treasure money, and do not spend a lot of time thinking about it. We just worry about paying bills on time. We do not think about acquisitions, return on investment, the stock market, or schemes to make money out of nothing. All the preceding is for rich people and sad wannabes. We do not for a moment hesitate to go into debt to help our children.
2) We have no shortage of chattering political leaders and experts who assure us each day that tomorrow will be better, that all it takes is hard work and determination. Since as a group we work very hard and have plenty of determination, what could go wrong?
Sadly, there is another class of people happy to profit off our disinterest in their financial schemes, and sadly, there is lots that can go wrong - for us.
3
Mr. Miller and his generation deserve to be angry –they cannot compete in an economy controlled by non-prosecuted kleptocrats who continue to destroy capitalism. Mr. Miller, an editor at the NYT, needs to read the 2017 NYT review of Jesse Eisinger’s book. The NYT review, below, shows how prosecutors are “reined in by their politically appointed bosses.” Political appointees –both Democrats and Republicans –sabotage U.S. Justice Department prosecution against multi-trillion-dollar financial fraud –long before the 2008 “crash” –and into the present day. [Manafort & Cohen are rare exceptions because they were convicted.]
ProPublica’s Eisinger observes that US prosecutors routinely decide against convicting most of America’s biggest financial criminals, essentially encouraging them to keep trillions of dollars of stolen assets. Prosecutors know they will be paid off soon enough–upon leaving government to take money from financial criminals–in the charade of defending them from the “Justice” Department that will not seize all their stolen assets concealed worldwide.
Ergo, DOJ officials may be the pivotal reason for the economic damage that Mr. Miller is angry about. The NYT book review states that for prosecutors, “Conducting the criminal investigation of an executive” would be “jeopardizing a future partnership at a prestigious law firm” that defends fraud collar financial criminals.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/05/books/review/the-chickenshit-club-jes...
4
You went to school for Journalism?! One of two industries in America that demands no degree or expertise at all...(filmmaking is the other ripoff major)...
2
Confused as to why his parents' loss of their home was a greater blow to him than to them.
1
Better to go bankrupt and start off with a clean slate. Let them put you in jail if they have to, but stick them with the bill. They stuck it to you that is for sure. Republicans prey on the most poor and vulnerable in this country. Selling Juls tobacco to middle-schoolers, I hope they rot in hell on November 7th.
3
What really makes me angry is that Obama's Attorney General never ever pursued the real criminals on Wall Street that caused the crash of 2008. Obama instead chose to vacation with them in one of their favorite haunts, Martha's Vineyard. I will never forgive him for being such suck up to the rich who helped put him in the White House. And I voted for him twice since there was no alternative!
11
This happened to your parents' generation, too. The stock market crashed in October 1987, when Gen X was in high school. In fact, they were the first American generation to deal with insanely high college tuition and student loans; their parents sure didn't. Gen X spent high school watching "yuppies" get rich working posh M-F, 9-5 jobs after being aggressively recruited in their senior year of college before even graduating. That era ended with an ugly crash, too. Rug pulled out, just like that!
Then, when they were about your age? September 11th happened and rocked the world economy again. Imagine finally getting a foothold in "real" adulthood and waking up one day to a literal war happening in your country — when you've never even imagined living through an American war, because it's never happened in your lifetime. Everything you knew about war came from watching M.A.S.H..
161
@Alex
Rather misses the point. And provides a false assumption that the environment of years past exists today. It doesn’t. Data inform us that it does not. As for the allusion to MASH, that’s rather disingenuous since it ignores completely the worst foreign policy error in the history of the United States.
@Alex I think you’d better check out what happened to the boomers in the early 1970’s, when I graduated from college (with debt, not as much as today’s grads, but in those years more than enough to buy a home, about twice what a luxury car cost then). And not a decent job to be found, since we were in the late years of the Vietnam War and stagflation ruled. I worked two jobs; then one; and devoted 25% of my paycheck to paying off the loans.
The annual pay from my first real job (which I found a year after graduation--after working two jobs 7 days a week) was 1/2 the amount of my loans. Lots of overtime (which fortunately was paid) and little rest for 5 years, and I was clean of debt.
The moral of this story is: don’t think you’re the only ones. And yes, we need to make college less expensive and loans far cheaper. As a nation.
1
A very well written piece. So well written that I can see the bad decision to attend a school that cost 1/2 as much as the house that the parents (not the child) owned, to a profession that doesn't pay well.
I feel for the parents, but not as much for this child.
Yet, good points are made about changes in our society that protect large financial institutions and do not provide for the welfare of the individuals.
3
Maybe we all just need to get real. The American Dream is no longer realistic for many, if not most, people. A lot of families who used to be middle class are no longer. Either accept it, or start mobilizing.
Americans are an entitled bunch. We can't afford to be that way anymore.
As a fan of This Old House, I've learned that the building trades, which pay very well, as desperate for workers. Plus, they seem like cool, interesting guys to me. Miller's generation may have to make some detours, but it's not the worst thing.
1
@DesertFlowerLV
when you hit your 40's your body will hint that making it to retirement age in the " trades " is gonna hurt !!
I also love TOH
My reaction: take personal accountability for the choices you make, including the cost of your education and your choice of profession. There are many many paths and options you can take to create better return profiles on your life. GI Bill, ROTC, Community and state colleges, etc...
Your parents should not have refinanced their house with no other liquid assets for you to attend NYU and live in New York City as a college student.
4
I dunno... I am under the impression your parents raided the equity in their house. Would that not precisely cause them to be under water when the market turned? And you chose an extremely expensive school to pursue a low earning potential major. Would that not precisely explain your struggles with student debt? Whatever happened to living within one’s means?
15
The lesson I got from the 2008 crisis was that debt is bad. All debt is to be avoided. I have been debt free since 2009.
I have no credit card debts, no student loans,no car loans, no home loans.
DEBT = ALL BAD.
5
Anger is justified, as recent stories looking back on the Great Recession make clear. Millions of hardworking Americans have barely recovered while the rich get extraordinarily richer. Who was penalized for the financial shenanigans that led to the collapse? Who went to jail for their crimes? But don't be blinded by anger. Use that anger's energy to seek out and work for political candidates who truly have your best interests in mind. That's what the rich have done--look how it's worked for them!
7
It is interesting that not one comment here gets to the root cause of the problem. Low interest rates from Govt. for education loans won't solve a thing. The root of the problem is the ever increasing greed among educational institutions. Because they know they control the toll road everyone has to pass through now to get a job, they keep increasing tuition to the maximum levels everyone can afford to pay. Subsidized loans from Govt. are a strong enabler of this trend.
Paying 3% on a $100k loan is the same as paying 10% on a $30k loan. If you reduce the interest rates on student loans, watch the tuition go up till the universities make sure they such the last $ out of the students and their parents. They keep using the same old sorry excuses of it costs more to educate students, state funding is reduced to hoist these increases on public.
Bottomline is one honorable institutions like universities, hospitals have not become greedy, profit driven enterprises and they no longer are in the business of helping society but to maximize their profits and if not profits salaries/bonuses for the insiders in the administration.
207
@Matt The overwhelming majority (95+%) of higher ed institutions are not-for-profit or public. How can they be profit driven?
1
@Matt
State universities lost over 60% of their funding when the states drastically reduced funding. You are pretty incorrect here...the problem is tax cut, tax cut, tax cut. Walmart got so successful by getting profits from huge numbers of buyers each contributing a tiny amount. Taxes do the same...they fund public goods. Your blame is misplaced.
1
@Matt, While univerities aren't guiltless, the main reason higher ed costs more is because the colleges are no longer supported adequately by the states which have cut funding. Hence colleges have to raise tuition to stay afloat.
1
I identify with this.
Fall 2001 was my first year out of college, and I was living in New York. I've never seen an article on this, but things were temporarily very hard in New York after 9/11--I saw middle aged former managers begging for cashier jobs.
I had wanted to go into publishing was hired as an editorial assistant but before I could start, they started laying people off. i'm not in debt from the experience, but the bad year for jobs and economy led me to make certain professional choices that I'm still feeling the effects of almost 20 years later.
6
So what's new here? I "came of age" in the early 70's, and my entire life was shaped by the oil crisis, the resulting recession, and the Great Inflation. What's different now isn't economic crisis, which is a periodic artifact of the business cycle. It's student loans. Not the interest on student loans. It's the ubiquity of debt finance for education. The cost of education has risen at twice the inflation rate for DECADES. Instead of addressing this as a problem, self styled education advocates call for ever more spending. Parents guiltily send their children to the most expensive schools, because they think it guarantees success. They move to expensive communities and pay ridiculously high taxes so their children can go to the "right" schools. And yet, kids graduate into mundane occupations which can never repay the cost of entry. Education is overpriced in America, or maybe we're just not being paid enough. Fix either of those problems and the interest rates won't matter.
17
This article is interesting on my levels. I understand wanting to attend an elite college but I couldn't ask my parents to actually lose their future to pay for mine. Journalism is notoriously low paying, I don't see how the choice of this career didn't factor into how you and your family would pay back such debt. The real estate market was a shock, still is and I think we are in for another one. Why student loans even have interest is beyond me, that Citibank benefited from bailouts and students didn't is crushing. Hillary Clinton gave her speech at graduation is very telling to me, I'm not so sure she would have done much to alleviate the economic disparity we're in. Stronger Together indeed. She isn't very strong in my opinion, I voted for her but was dismayed at her not fighting back. Trump is making this worse on every level. I'm in my 60's and would not want to be growing up in America today. I don't recognize it.
11
If one's parents have to refi their house to pay for their son's education, is it responsible to attend one of the most overpriced schools rather than a good other school?
9
I'm so sorry for your family's situation, but thank you for your candor. There's power in coming forward and challenging the myths that perpetuate the abuse. I'm a prof of economics and my field (not moi) was complicit (and well compensated) in building a false narrative that justified deregulation, while enabling the rise of the current investment banking oligarchy. Campaign finance changes furthered their rise. There are better ways! Iceland imprisoned bankers and protected homeowners. And in the 1930s FDR had this to say as he introduced sane regulations that held for decades...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RP_8bwhNVw
7
"Angry." Presumably that ( assuming banks did not defraud your folks) there were simply poor choices made. Everything you outline seems to be about risk and reward. If you were admitted to NYU, surely you could have attended MSU, or maybe even a state school and commuted to class. Still, as I tell my 29 year old son: "It is your world now. Go out and change it." But, I remind him. My parents never owned a home, never had a credit card or a car. But, they were great teachers of morality and common sense. Mr. Miller, welcome to the real world.
7
The author's frustration is mis-placed. His generation has no responsibility for the slow recovery.
What really does he have to feel frustrated about? He graduated on time, with the amount of debt that he had planned, and here he is now with a great job at the New York Times.
If anything, he should be frustrated that he may now have to support his parents in their declining years. He could be frustrated that NYU would allow him to go $100,000 in debt for a bachelors degree (Shame on NYU!).
I was laid off from a job in the summer between my daughter's sophomore and junior years at an elite liberal arts institution with a multi-billion dollar endowment. Despite the supposed benefits of their vaunted liberal arts education, they thought it reasonable that we pay $40,000 for a year of education when the family income had disappeared. To give them (and us) more time to consider, my daughter dropped out of school and they eventually found their way to a more reasonable package.
In the end, elite institutions, even those with billion dollar endowments, rarely have their students' financial interests at heart. Students, and their parents, need to look out for their own interests. To pay off his $100,000 debt in 10 years, the author needs to allocate about $1200 each month -- cutting back on Starbucks won't get you there.
18-year old high school students need to better assess the financial economics of their decisions. How will we give them the tools to do so?
9
Not to in any way iminish the extent of your experience, but other generations were “born” into untimely misfortunes not of their making. WW ll, Vietnam War, the Great Depression. Being angry may be justified. However it doesn’t change the reality, nor is it really helpful.
3
Would the author have preferred to come of age during the Vietnam generation, or maybe WWII would have been more to his liking? From what I've heard, the '30s were a real hoot, those lucky folks who graduated in 1929 had it made, right from the start.
Our society's education system is broken (especially the way education is paid for), and our fiscal policies favor the rich over everyone else. We could use a strong voice to keep the public's attention focused on these critical issues.
Mr. Miller seems like a talented and articulate journalist. Maybe instead of sharing his personal complaints and anger, and talking about blame, he could use his skills to write articles advocating for positive change?
He is such a good writer, I bet he'd even be able to get his thoughts published in the best newspapers, maybe even the New York Times.
10
@ImagineMoments
good 4 U !
what's your darft # ?
been there
The cure vote for the party that demands responsible regulations and reasonable tuition. Under Trump once again we see deregulation that helps a few at the expense of the many. When you vote republican in its present form you vote for a party the demands a tiny powerless government easily bought, but has a giant military. Remember when they talk small government they really mean a weak meek government that will not contest corporate and billionaire behavior. Notice to deal with the government deficit they never speak of shrinking our ever growing military budget but everything else is on the chopping block.
2
The likes of the Clinton's are clueless when it comes to the trials of ordinary people. They live in a world that is a bubble, but a bubble that will never burst for them.
3
A truly insightful piece of writing that I am certain millions of Americans understand only too well. Mr. Miller, your education, despite its cost, was indeed worthwhile. Never feel guilty about spending money on educating yourself. And the words I would use to describe those who criticize you could not be printed in this comment.
I am a part of the Baby Boom generation and I think the world of Millennials. I hate generalizing, but I feel they possess qualities that every other American generation has lacked, to our society's detriment. They are the most inclusive, least racist generation America has ever produced. Their value system does not believe that greed is good. They have more altruistic motives such as saving the planet from climate change. I recently read that at the annual meeting of the AMA this year, an agenda item of single payer health care was rejected until young physicians protested so vehemently that it was later added.
The Obama administration, knowing the only route to reelection was to embrace the criminal financial titans that caused the Great Recession, indeed failed the masses of people who were victimized by these charlatans.
I am inspired and delighted by the young politicians I see rising in this country who possess ideals to genuinely restore an American dream I enjoyed for part of my life. I hope I live long enough to see my younger brothers and sisters make this country great again!
7
Except for the truly elite colleges and universities (Harvard, Stanford, Yale, etc.), which almost guarantee a job that will allow students to pay off their loans, expensive private institutions for people of limited means are foolish. Good state schools are the alternative. There are a number of "public ivies" that are wonderful substitutes for the high-priced privates: The state universities of Texas, Florida, Michigan, Virginia, NY, and many others come readily to mind. It is even worth moving to one of these states to establish residency, attend college as an in-state student, and save thousands on tuition. Mortgaging your future to attend a fancy private college is not the answer.
8
I find the sweeping generalizations about various generations to be ignorant and ridiculous.
If our government wanted to boost the REAL economy, these student debts could be purchased and forgiven. Or at the very least, the interest rates would be reduced to the same level as banks are offered to borrow money. Please tell me why there should be a profit derived from educating. Sorry, but this is usury - plain and simple.
As part of the "recovery", huge institutions were bailed out. No one responsible for the mess was held accountable. Very few of the millions victims (of investment bank gambling) were helped. Our government helped the rich and failed the people.
Perhaps Mr. Miller could repackage his debt as a derivative or a fancy bond of some sort and sell it to his parents. Then he could purchase an insurance policy that pays out upon it's default. Then his parents would stop paying, the loan would default, he would get paid. It worked for the rich!
9
@Bob Bruce Anderson- Brilliant, particularly the final paragraph but let's not omit the rating agencies which will give an investment grade rating to his debt contigent upon an insurer willing to provide an insurance policy (a/k/a financial guarantee insurance equivalent to what Buffet has described as "financial weapons of mass destruction")
3
I was promised a Bombardier jet in 2007 as a going-away-to-Harvard present, with all the bells and whistles. Imagine my anger when it arrived without the gold-thread seat covers, and less than a full staff. I later found out that my $50,000 Birkin bag had been owned before. Imagine a freshman starting college in hand-me-downs. In 2006 one of my friends went from Ivy League to a 20 million dollar bonus the first year. Today, I'm having to dip into my dividends to keep the jet going. So unfair.
3
This is an outrage, & I commend your courage in explaining it. Blaming those who have to deal with a problem does not solve it. But Miller's clarity is useful in clearing away the disparagement of a generation. I hope there is change that counters the sludge of the past.
3
I have mixed feelings about this article. Mr. Miller is at once both admirable in voicing the economic angst of his generation and guilty of some of the bad choices that determined who survived this financial crisis and who didn’t.
It stings horribly for him and other graduates of the 2007-2009 era that they will forever pay the price for their ill-timed coming of age while not one single bad actor whose corruption caused the crisis was ever convicted. It is wrong for folks like Jeff Sessions to mock them.
However, even though he does touch on the absurdity of such an expensive choice of college (NYU) he does not seem to fully own up to the ramifications of that choice. The cataclysmic mortgaging of a house to pay for one of the most expensive colleges in the country with no other back-up assets was such a reckless choice.
While his parents are not responsible for the housing bubble bursting after they made their ill-fated decision, their choices were pivotal in smashing his financial foundation. Even with this money from their refinance, he still needed student loans. That was the point where they lose my sympathy. Clearly, this was the wrong school for them.
That, despite paying faithfully all these years, his student loans are ballooning due to their ridiculous interest rates is where I give him my full sympathy. The student loan corruption in this country is mind boggling and the feckless GOP blocks every attempt to work out solutions.
425
@Joanna Stasia
Agree that some of these decisions were somewhat risky and imprudent. I also think that there are two separate issues. The authors desire to attend an expensive, elite institution to pursue his objective of a career in journalism which is not know for its generous compensation, and secondly the means of financing it. The author would still have $100,000 of debt today whether or not the financial crisis occurred. One would imagine that he incorporated the reality of assuming this level of debt in his calculations. It’s impact on his post college life, his ability to save for a down payment on a house are all crucial aspects of the cost of higher education on young people today financial crisis or not. I feel bad for his parents who did what most would do, sacrifice for their kids at the expense of their own future. They didn’t plan on both losing their jobs, but that’s what happened, to them and millions others. I’m sorry for them and many others who were hit hard by the crisis and recession. Millions of us graduated in 74-75 into an almost non-existent job market as the first oil crisis, inflation/stagflation hit hard. What separates my reality then with the authors and other young victims of the crisis is the insanely high cost of the education they received. I’m sorry but college is not 10 or 20times better than it was then, but it is 10-20times more expensive. Figure that out and we have a conversation about our priorities.
1
! am a boomer who graduated into the giant 70s recession created by the oil crisis, the recession that effectively ended the post-WW2 expansion of the American economy. The same year, the "baby bust" halved the number of graduate slots in the humanities. The child of parents who saved from my birth for my undergrad education, I only went to a grad school that paid me full tuition and stipends, knowing there were not enough jobs even for those who were given such aid. I did every crummy factory, office, and waitressing gig imaginable to eat. Lucky enough to graduate with no debt and to get a tenure-track job, I spent over 30 years in a rural area at a small state school with no social life and a "salary" less than a well-paid secretary. 2008 took most of my retirement. I do not want to hear accusative victimhood directed at past generations. I want to hear millennials get enough education in history, economics, and ethics so that they can learn self-control, a perspective on their place and responsibility re a larger world, and a focus on steady, long-term effort changing things at the voting booth.
6
There are two distinct themes here: 1) graduating during hard times, and 2) borrowing money for college.
Articles in this paper have shown that graduates during some economic downturns suffer a lifetime of poor earnings and less wealth. I don't see politics overcoming poor national economic decision making. Sad, but true.
But we can do something about government subsidized student loans. If the past 40 years about education shows anything, it's that student loans are a bad idea becoming more rotten every year. They only exist because some families are too naive about finance and the value of a college degree.
Money spent by the government for education should go to scholarships, not loans. No discussion.
Advice for those considering college and who want a degree from a prestigious school, instead of borrowing, please do one of the following:
1) get admitted to Harvard, Princeton, or Yale, or some similarly wealthy private college where education for middle class families is free or nearly free, or
2) go to a less expensive college for two years, get top grades, then transfer and attract scholarships. (Colleges like transfers with good test scores and superior academic records.)
If you can't manage either of those two avenues, a degree from a less prestigious school is just as useful - unless perhaps your college goal is to meet and marry someone from a very wealthy family, in which case, go for it and good luck.
6
I was one of the lucky ones who went to graduate and law school back when graduates got jobs and paid off their student loans in a few years. My family also survived the first years after the recession, despite a massive drop in the value of our home, our major asset, because although my husband’s business temporarily flat-lined and I took a pay cut, I kept my job.
The impact occurred when I lost my job four years ago. I am no millennial, but am at the other end of the spectrum, an older worker who was dumped as my firm contracted to deal with reduced business in my area of practice. All three of us who were jettisoned- at different ranks but in one department- were over 60. One died, one retired and one - I - struggled on. In the job market described in the op-ed, millennials struggle to find good jobs and pay high interest student loans. Yet older workers fight to find any work at all.
I now have 3 jobs, yet still face stereotypes suggesting that I am too old to work, from those who would be relieved if older workers would give up, shut up and die. I am grateful to be earning 1/3 of my former income, because at least now I can hold onto our home and hope to recoup some of its value, a/k/a, our savings.
Our son, a millennial, struggles to survive. We struggle to recover. This is not my parents’ USA.
Hillary was giving a commencement speech. Yes, she was wrong. Find candidates who recognize the reality - progressives and liberal Democrats - and vote for your life.
491
@RCT You say that your son "struggles to survive." Well, my son has multiple disabilities, chronic migraines and high functioning autism. Yet he still works at a store 40 hours a week. He is on my health ins. policy till 26. After he has a 'qualifying event' I can keep him on my policy by paying $585 a month (I called the ins. company to ask) in insurance premiums for another 3 years. That is a cheaper option due to the low deductible of $250 and the prescription plan that pays for his $1,200 monthly medications. One of the (new) medications he is on is not yet being covered by Medicaid or Medicare so there is no point in him working less hours so he can qualify for Medicaid. The new drug is a calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor (CGRP-R) antagonist and was only recently approved by the FDA. Obamacare has narrow networks and very high deductibles. I'm not even sure if prescription coverage is included in the ACA policies. So this is just one more expense I will have to pay to keep my son afloat. $7,000 a year for decent health insurance. That doesn't include the copays, 10% coinsurance, etc. But all doctors take it, I've never had a doctor or medical facility turn down my insurance. I don't understand why Obama did not include in the ACA that people with disabilities should be able to stay on their parent's health insurance policies indefinitely. My son won't be getting a college degree anytime soon and it's not his fault he has these disabilities and migraines.
1
@RCT - you have described our life exactly, except that we haven't yet even been able to get a part time job to replace our main income. We didn't lose the primary income until after the schools took most of our savings, and even now an Ivy league needs based school determined that we could spare 3/4 of our income to pay for tuition and board. We might now get a better deal if we force our son to transfer to a state school, but the savings we have in home value pretty much will make the cost even.
We are resources to be mined, until we play out, and are tossed on the slag heap. This isn't a millennial problem. Even if they get on their feet, they are likely to be tossed off them once they hit 50.
@RCT
I had the great good fortune to have a father who was a college professor; both my brother and I received free tuition at Baptist colleges--though at the time, in the 60s, it probably would have been affordable. My two children were able to go to State schools (VA Tech and Cal Poly) and have always been gainfully employed.
I count my blessings. Hope that my grandchildren get to higher education.
The story here is simple: You attend a school you could not afford, and chose a major that was almost certain to make it difficult to earn a high income. By 2004, it was already obvious that the internet had overthrown the classical revenue model for newspapers.
I do feel sympathy for your parents; their gamble would normally have be somewhat safe, but they got unlucky in how the crisis hit them in multiple ways. You on the other hand, have ended up pretty much where you should have expected based on your choices. The problem is not some set of bizarrely unlucky or unpredictable circumstances, or a system that makes it impossible to succeed.
9
Studies have shown that those college and high school generations that graduate into a recession never fully recover as opposed to those that graduate into a strong economy like today. Like you I graduated into a terrible job market (1980}, and like so many of my peers had to give up on my career choice (field of study) and patch and stitch together a career. Graduates in my field that graduated just a few years later when the economy was much stronger fared much better over their careers. There was just more opportunities that were not there when I graduated, but by then life had moved on for me, and I was no longer as appealing to employers in my field of study. Like you, I am still bitter about it, especially now that I am nearing retirement and looking back. Life is a time not a place, and 1980 was a bad time to enter the job market like 2008-09 was for you. Sadly, if people like me are any indication, you will be bitter for a very, very long time.
10
In disbursing the blame, please include the universities that encourage student indebtedness. The students and parents may not know any better, but they do. A degree in almost every academic subject is not so much an investment as a consumption good. There is nothing wrong in consuming, if you can afford it. But the private universities pass off the consumption good as if it were an investment, as people will consume more.
Common among those professors who actually converse with students one-on-one, is to advise them against pursuing the PhD, precisely for economic reasons. Would that administrators do likewise with high school students. Most students should indeed go to university because education is a public good which should be paid from public funds. But until that happens, if the student and his/her parents can't afford it, don't go.
10
I also live in a Detroit suburb and we went through the Great Recession that hit the automotive industry particularly hard. I feel bad for the author but he made a bad financial decision to attend one of the most expensive private universities in the country ... he could have gone in-state to U. of M or MSU and probably done equally fine and no debt.
Our oldest son graduated from public HS, though accepted to a couple of top 10 universities ( Duke, etc.. ), we could not afford it and he went in state, got some academic scholarships, and we helped pay for it.., now a doctor in residency with only a modest amount of med school ( in state) debt.
My wife and I managed to hang onto our auto jobs and kept funding our 401k during the financial down turn.
Now we are set up for a nice retirement. Our retirement would have needed to be delayed if we had paid for private college.
21
@Engineer
But maybe he wouldn't have landed a job at the New York Times if he hadn't attended NYU? The Times, I presume, has pretty high standards and is likely not an easy place for a young journalist to land a job. Now you can criticize his choice of career . . . but really is it a terrible thing to want to be a journalist? If you ask me, we need more of them today—certainly more good ones. Unfortunately, it's a career that (except at its top echelons) pays poorly. Maybe Mr. Miller should have realized that—that being a journalist in New York was going to require some pretty harsh financial sacrifices. But then, if Mr. Miller were so pragmatic, he may never have become a journalist. If we were all so pragmatic, we'd have no artists or writers or educators. We'd be diminished as a people.
The challenge for America is creating a society where people pursuing their ideals can get along at least reasonably well. Right now America is a society that rewards a certain type of success handsomely. But a lot of life's pursuits it devalues. Idealists, people with just average skills, people who put family and other things besides work first end up struggling to make ends meet. Maybe it's their choice. But shouldn't we strive to make our society a truly great one that fosters a diversity of skills and interests—and allows all people to live without constant financial insecurity? We have huge amounts of wealth. Why not spread it just a bit more evenly?
5
"Because of the loans’ disgracefully high interest rates, my family and I have paid more or less the equivalent of my debt ... "
So you to snark about Clinton? The Democrats, including Clinton, for years have repeatedly proposed refinancing student loans at the (before Trump & Republicans tax-cut for the wealthy) low interest rates. If Republicans had not repeatedly blocked this proposal, your debt might have been paid off by now.
You also are unaware that early in 2008 Clinton warned of a mortgage debt crisis that needed to be addressed immediately. (The media was focused on whether she won the New Hampshire primary because she had teared up a bit when speaking to some NH voters) (I recall this because as a citizen who takes voting seriously I follow substance like many people follow their favorite sitcom plots.)
Why did the Republicans block Democratic attempts to refinance student loans? Because the US treasury is profiting about $60 billion/year on the backs of people paying off the loans, and the Democrats' proposal (deficit neutral as in spite of Republican rhetoric the Democrats are in fact the fiscally responsible party) included paying for the $60 billion with a tax on the wealthy.
If you are going to be an effective reporter commenting on important issues, rather than the guy on the next bar stool, you will need to be better informed re who is working to solve the problems and who is blocking solutions
30
Student loans should have a very low interest rate. Most do not. So graduates like Mr Miller who faithfully make payments end up owing even more than they borrowed. This is wrong and needs to change. The total amount of student debt in this country is a major financial problem.
8
Mr. Miller, thanks for your thoughts. As a father, I find your findings and emotions sobering and helpful in giving direction to my kids.
I would suggest you keep up your writings on this subject on a monthly basis as they come from such a powerful and educated place.
Even the commentary here provides more springboards for more opinion pieces from you. And hard as it may be, I think we all benefit from your hard earned wisdom and that of your family.
9
One of the first things we must do is make all student loans interest-free. We spend way too much on defense. When Republicans are in power, their first goal is to cut taxes for those that don't need tax cuts.
Our goal should to be the most educated country in the world. We need to spend more to provide an affordable education to every one that wants to be successful. With the exception of those that have skills in the trades such as plumbing, electrical work, mechanical work, landscaping, or personal services, a college education is pretty much mandatory for all citizens.
It bothers me when older citizens (I am an aging boomer) blame younger people and tell them that they had it too easy. Most young people work hard and deserve the same chance that we had.
I encourage all citizens, particularly Millenials to vote for the more progressive candidate in all local, state & national elections.
12
I feel your pain and sadly your cohort will always be behind. I had the "good fortune" to graduate from an elite college in 1981. I knew ONE person who had received a job offer. My father was furious at my inability to get gainful employment and blamed me instead of the economy. I thought he was probably right. I finally found a job scooping ice cream for minimum wage.
When you and your cohort was graduating, the New York Times ran articles saying that nothing like it had been seen since 1981. That my cohort had enjoyed far less financial success in their careers, as well as a lack of confidence. I think that assessment is fair and correct. They also said that many of us wound up making more interesting choices. I know I moved to New York with nothing, figuring it couldn't get worse.
Let's get together and finally do something about the unfairness of student loan debt. I'm tired of that same derision you describe.
6
@Cathy
It is so unfair to have to pay back money one borrows! Everything should be free!
2
AS SENIOR BOOMERS, My wife and I have watched aghast at our kids, who were attempting to embark upon their professional careers that were both grossly disrupted by the Great Recession of 2018. Though both highly educated, intelligent and talented, they found themselves working for years at minimum wage jobs. Unfortunately for them, they caught the artistic bug in our neighborhood, since all the families on our block have one kid who's an artist, a musician or both. They're both moving forward toward their professional goals, despite a severe delay that lasted a decade. Now with the system in the US rigged so completely in favor of the 1% at the expense of the 99%, we see yet another, more powerful, disruption that has spread to all age groups, with no end in sight. These are, indeed, the golden years. But not for us as seniors, nor as part of the 99%. The golden years are reserved for the 1%, literally. With no thanks to the GOPpers and Trump-tee Dumb-tee who are the enablers of the 1% on steroids. Steroids may be illegal in athletics, but where the financial markets are concerned, they're part of the game.
7
It's sad to hear stories like those of the author and his family. For the record. A lot went wrong for them and others, but at it's root lies poor judgement by all parties.
- Borrowers who take on a huge debt structures are always on risky ground. It's one thing if it were a life threatening situation, but such was not the case here.
- Lenders that package first time mortgages and refinancing schemes based on schemes like no-documentation, low initial rates, and the like are also on risky business.
Both sides are guilty of bad judgement (at minimum), but the consequences of these actions are not equally shared. Average Americans are devastated while fat-cat executives still get their bonuses.
And that's what gets me angry!
7
One of the most infuriating aspects of huge swaths of student loans is that students CANNOT reduce the interest rate through refinancing not discharge them in bankruptcy. Many have been stuck with 10% loans (or higher) during a time of 0-3% interest rates. My daughter in law (state school, immigrant parents) is exhibit A.
The author is spot on. His parents could not have predicted an economic collapsed and planned for it (as many self-righteous commenters have implied) when the storied economists charged with doing so could not. And his generation is paying the tab. Not the characters who created it and escaped with their "generational" wealth. The broken (and criminally greedy) academic world who filled their own coffers with inflated tuition costs when student loan debt got too easy are fodder for another column.
We can only hope it is a generation that will seize their political power and re-engineer our country's policies towards banks and debt with rates that only a few decades ago was called "usurious" student debt should be dischargeable. I am voting with them.
I, for one, am grateful that the author is a journalist.
16
City University was free tuition when I received a BA. Graduate credits cost $35/credit when I received an MA. Why can't the supposedly great city of New York provide free tuition in its city university? Even at the price I paid, I had student loans. Even then, they caused me trouble. After taking a semester off, my loan became due. I was so disgusted that after I graduated I used every penny earned to pay off the loan. Admittedly, I was able to do that on a basically minimum wage receptionist-type job. M.H. Miller's story is a poignant reminder that the harm done by the 2008 collapse and the aftermath of rescues to the least deserving is not over.
8
That’s life my friend, every generation makes good and bad decisions.
Don’t use it as a crutch, work around it and figure life out.
You don’t have much else of a choice.
5
@Crossing Overhead To which I would add, be careful who you vote for.
You came of age in the financial crisis? I became over the hill by the ripe old age of 45. A female marketing creative director, I already had an expiration date in the form of a target on my back. With the recession, I was one of countless professionals who were aged out of jobs we would have been offered in a different economy.
My colleagues in their late 40s and early 50s are struggling to find white collar jobs in 2018 -- ones that they are much more qualified to perform than those who lack experience and expertise. Instead, HR tosses our resumes to the side in search of the next shiny object. Where's the article on that?
35
@Sarah
Well said Sarah. And don't forget. Those of us in our early to mid 50s graduated into St. Ronnie's "slash and burn" economy. With the exception of the Clinton years none of us have really had it easy over the past 40 years.
2
You have much to be angry about. Those who helped to create the crisis have never been been called to account and Obama made the huge mistake of making some of them a part of his administration and doing nothing. It started decades before that however, and there are many books out there explaining why. The concerning thing is that no one is doing anything about it now either.
9
It would be nice to be able to keep the current economic/political system that we have with only a few tweaks and adjustments so that it could survive into the future without finally collapsing completely (I say "completely" because it did collapse in 2008). For the life of me, I can't see how this sclerotic, class-oriented, and increasingly corrupt economic arrangement will meet the challenges of the 21st century (climate change, food and water shortages, energy, pollution, population growth, mass migrations, etc.). This system cannot even function well when times are relatively good never mind when it inevitably comes under increasing stress. I suppose the worst part of it is the response to the crisis by people who stick their heads in the sand and think that calling the victims "lazy" and "entitled" is going to help (not that they actually want to help anyone or even salvage the system for that matter). I wish I could say that the form of capitalism that we have in America was on the road to a healthy recovery but it seems more like a patient with a terminal disease getting no treatment - not even the palliative kind. As I said, I wish the current system was actually functional and we didn't need to make any wrenching changes in course, but does anyone seriously think that's possible? Realistically? Anyone?
13
@Sisyphus Happy
The current system is only functioning for the wealthy who own stock portfolios. For those earning a salary, it is not working. Corporations reward shareholders at the expense of employees whose wages are stagnant.
We need a labor movement. We need to strengthen unions instead of letting those in power (and SCOTUS) destroy them. We need a minimum wage that allows lower-skilled workers to afford food and housing without taxpayers subsidizing government assistance because they can not make ends meet, no matter how hard they work.
There is an answer. Empower Main Street instead of Wall Street.
14
Even those readers who blame students and/or their parents for taking on excessive debt, should support amending federal bankruptcy laws to permit student loans to be discharged in bankruptcy.
A student bets on his future success by taking out loans for school. If the bet fails, bankruptcy should be an option.
If instead of college he took out a loan and started a restaurant which failed, bankruptcy would be an option.
What’s the difference? Capitalism by nature encourages risk taking.
15
Higher education can be free as other industrialized countries do it. They still innovate and create - things like Ikea are foreign concepts really. Their student centers might not be so nice though.
That said, he is so correct about how the financial industry and its executives came off safe. Other analysts have said it, the government decided to save the lenders instead of the borrowers.
Being an executive in banking is great work if you can get/bear it.
3
I’m afraid to admit this but my generation, same as your parents, failed to pass on the values of our parents to your generation, risk aversion.
Our parents formulation years were a Great Depression and a World War. It directly all sectors from the wealthy to the poor, and it instilled a sense of hard work, low risk mindset to that generation.
The Baby Boomers were spoiled, and we rejected those values. We embraced debt and risk. It was ironic that Mrs Clinton spoke at NYU and you relate it to this article. It was President Clinton, the ultimate Baby Boomer that changed the capital gains treatment on your parents’ house. Which started the ball rolling to the eventual demise of mortgage backed securities.
4
Sounds like the author’s family home was foreclosed upon when the house was worth less than its debt. It makes no sense to blame imposing a capital gains tax on the profits from home sales (which only kicks in after a $500,000 profit) for this family’s financial woes.
I’m not saying I know the right answer here. The family took a gamble and sent their child to one of the country’s most expensive universities. I understand why they did it, as the social and career connections he could make at NYU are intangible benefits. The author took a gamble by becoming a journalist (rather than going into finance or a STEM field) at a point in time where journalism’s financial landscape has changed massively. Should the author and his family be bailed out at the expense of other families who made more financially conservative decisions? Maybe, maybe not - these are hard calls.
I understand the financial pressure the author feels. But I think he is being unduly negative. Nothing in life is free or promised, and people take risks to move up in life. Maybe we should change our social policies to make secondary education at state universities much cheaper, or provide free health care (both policies that make for a more even playing field). But that wouldn’t have solved the author’s problems.
3
Your graduation class has lost a decade. That's a tragedy. The housing boom is reinflating and we may have another great recession soon. That would be the mother of all tragedies for your graduation class. My advice is to do your best and work to elect responsible leaders. The Republicans are a lost cause. The Hillary Clinton Democrats are too beholden to wealthy donors to actually help.
Three or four years after you graduated, a nice young man (the oldest son of a friend of my daughter) entered into a private vocational training program for electric power line repair maintenance and repair. At the time he entered it seemed like a wise decision. Trained power line technicians were in high demand, the starting wage was terrific. When he graduated, he learned that he was just one of a legion of young people who had had enrolled in similar training courses. Those jobs had been filled. He still has not been able to find a power line job and is working retail. He too lives a modest lifestyle and is paying off student debt.
7
I don't get it. NO ONE forced Mr. Miller to attend NYU when he could have attended the University of Michigan or Michigan State University and there received a first-rate education. He and his parents chose to borrow more than they could repay and more than what was financially responsible and sound. He's blaming the world for a decision that he and his parents freely made. Take that advice from a graduate of a public university whose parents said they couldn't afford private college.
25
@Michael I agree 100%. I went to Penn State because there were five kids in the family and state school was the only way to go (we all went to Penn State). And I got a great education and have had a quite successful career. Didn't he do the math ie. the cost of his degree vs. his earnings potential? And hey, private schools in New York are for rich kids - if you can't afford a Mercedes, don't buy a Mercedes...
4
If I recall the culture was very different back then, and there wasn’t so much dialogue about student loans. Remember , enrollment for the class of ‘09 started in 2005. NYU has since changed it recruiting policy. Before it was kind of “Go for your dreams— it will work out!”
Families took on risk in one economic environment, only to have tectonic shifts unmoored them entirely.
8
Yes, even in a more stable financial time, my engineer father and teacher mother said “No” to private schools for me and I attended a great state university instead, Virginia Tech. During summers, I did hard, hot, dirty work in a factory to help pay for my education. Spring breaks in Florida and summer vacations were not on my radar. Today, in middle age, my husband and I are comfortable, though as public employees, we experienced years of pay freezes and lost investments from the downturn. We’ve been through our share of bad luck, too, but we simply found ways through it. I understand that the effects of 2008 were, and still are, largely unfair to the middle class while others profited. The only way to change that is through the voting booth. One bright spot: Many of my students are choosing community college for the first 1-2 years of their education instead of taking on debt.
3
Apparently this highly educated writer is angry because he was loaned money to go to a top class school and his parents took on more debt than they could handle in a refinancing to help pay for his education. The fact they were under water wasn't the cause of his parents losing their home (this has happened to me twice) but that they couldn't keep up the payments on the debt. No one was deceived by Hillary Clinton, Miller or at least his parents appear to have made some foolish decisions and now he's casting around for someone to blame.
15
@John Decisions were made on expectations given by politicians (rarely worth the paper they're written on, but there it is) and with the, perhaps unstated, belief that the costs of the university would be reasonable and relate to the costs when the parents attended them. The huge increase in school administration and infrastructure costs which are not always consistent with the purpose of these institutions has an effect on the financial burden carried by students. How much would NYU have cost the writers' parents back in the day?
@Margo
You're commingling lots of different issues here.
1. Are you seriously suggesting this guy and his parents took the decision on the basis of what some politician told them?
2. When you apply for NYU they tell what the costs are. I know. Are seriously suggesting they guessed they might be about the same as 25 years before?
3. How much NYU cost in the 60's or 70's is irrelevant.
With all due respect it's this kind of woolly thinking that landed this guy's parents in a mess.
Given he appears to living the promised American dream (circa 35 year old living in NYC; art editor of the color magazine of the country's leading newspaper) it's hard to know what he's angry about. NYU doesn't exactly seem to have endowed him with the ability to think logically.
My brother-in-law finished school with nearly $500,000 in debt. But despite this huge debt, he has no concerns because he's now a doctor in Southern California earning nearly $300,000.
Is that an unusual case ? Maybe. But so is the example in the article of someone attending NYU - which is incredibly expensive - and then choosing to be a journalist which does not pay well. On average, a college degree is still worth it. Per US News, "Research has shown college graduates on average make $1 million more in their lifetimes than those without a college education."
The real issue with student debt is not these eye-popping numbers from graduates, but rather the somewhat lower debt carried by non-graduates. Why ? Because if you don't graduate, you don't earn a higher income - but you still carry the debt. Only 54.8% of Americans who start college finish within six years. It shouldn't be surprising that this is not much higher than the percentage of 12th graders who are proficient on the NAEP - called the "nation's report card" - a very good predictor of first year college grades.
In other words, the problem with student debt isn't due to the 2008 financial crisis. Student debt levels were high long before then. Rather, the issue is our inept K-12 education system where we have tripled spending since 1970 (after inflation) and yet a large percentage of students either dropout of high school or matriculate to college but cannot handle the academic workload.
13
We know what happened for Mr. Miller -- he got a prestigious job in his chosen field. But what happened for his parents? Did they find new jobs? Did they manage to overcome foreclosure? While I'm sympathetic to Mr. Miller and his generation over the precarious economy they inherited, I wish he'd done a clearer job of calling out responsibility for the deregulation and casino-banking ethos that dominated the years leading up to it. The big banks didn't work alone. They had a great deal of help from the short-term, win-at-all-costs thinking that came to dominate politics and culture over the preceding 30 years. Unfortunately, the same attitude is still with us and still destructive.
11
I came of age at the last big financial crisis in the early 80's and now approaching retirement age, I'm livid. The first bent my earning potential my entire working life the second took away any opportunity to recover for old age. I worked hard and saved the entire time, most of it without affordable healthcare and a string of krappy 401K programs.
19
@memo laiceps Yup. Same here. Just in time for Reagan to destroy the majority of jobs with pensions and place employees into the fee-ridden casino of 401 Ks. We are not really baby boomers; we are the top edge of Gen X, which almost never gets discussed.
7
@memo laiceps
Same.
2
I find it astounding that a highly educated person could be ANGRY at the people and institutions willing to lend him money so he could exercise his free will and attend a college that was priced beyond his means. Imagine how much angrier he'd have been had those evil moneylenders said "no!" And as for the choice of college behind Mr. Miller's financial woes, NYU (2018 fees: $68,128) has been considered an expensive frill for children of the wealthy for generations. By point of comparison, Mr. Miller's home state school, University of Michigan is higher ranked than NYU, and has an in-state cost of $29,526.
31
Society should define certain careers that are useful and hard to find qualified graduates to fill them and make it affordable for these applicants.
I don’t believe our taxpayers should fund affordable educations for careers that are not hard to fill or are not serving some kind of greater good.
The financial crisis was partly the fault of individuals who made irresponsible fiscal decisions, though we like to blame the banks. The time to plan for college expenses should start when a child is born, not when they are in high school.
3
It's like people have forgotten this happened at all. I am sorry about what you and your family have had to endure. Our government does not work for us. It's works for the wealthy, and for wealth.
19
In addition to previous comments on Dodd Frank and Consumer Protection Agency - I too was born and raised in Michigan and left in 1985. Some of my siblings took advantage of a Michigan program whereby when their child was born the parents could save dollars (untaxed) that could be used for college tuition at the Michigan school of your choice. WE NEED MORE OF THIS TYPE OF PROGRAM. Miller - get involved - vote wisely - fight for programs like this - fight for your future!
5
Gee...
If only students had a way out of debt that is available to corp.. business and other citizens.
Unfortunately, that was taken away with the help of a couple of Democratic votes.
Looking at you Ms. Clinton.
Elizabeth Warren recounts how Hillary Clinton sought out Warren’s advice on the bankruptcy bill in 1999, and persuaded her husband to veto it, one of the last acts he took as an outgoing President. Warren points out that this bill at the time was a not-very-high priority pro-business measure and by implication was not unduly costly for a departing Chief Executive to oppose.
Hillary Clinton was so proud of her role in stopping this bankruptcy legislation that she touted it in her autobiography. Yet in her first act as a newly-elected Senator from New York, she made a 180 degree change and voted in favor of the bill. And Warren makes clear that from her earlier discussions with Clinton that she knew full well what was at stake in terms of the consequences to families.
How does Warren explain that change? She attributes it to the power of lobbying dollars in Washington, particularly from the consumer financial services industry, which has long been a top spender. Warren also highlights that financial firms were now Clinton’s constituents and she therefore was obligated to represent them.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/10/elizabeth-warren-on-how-clinton-...
15
@Dobby's sock
I still wonder what was said in those weekly speeches to Goldman Sachs, etc. for which she was able to bank about $12 million in her personal account in a single year. Those speeches must have been humdingers, as some firms signed up for multiple speeches.
7
RM,
Well, she did tell them to "cut it out guys!"
Or so it has been told.
Granted, she has every right to make money.
It was/is too bad the taint of impropriety and conflict of interest played such a roll.
Poorly thought out. Bad optics and mishandled.
But hey...she did make BANK!
The answer to your problems - VOTE for people and policies that will help fix the situation. Barney Frank worked hard to create and pass Dodd-Frank which among other things would keep the public from bailing out the banks again should failures happen in the future. Republicans have tried to loosen restrictions when DF should be strengthened to protect us consumers. Elizabeth Warren created the Consumer Protection Agency to protect us consumers from predatory lending. She became a vilain to the Republicans and they have worked to loosed these protections. She was so hated she could not even be chosen to lead this good agency she created! Bernie Sanders spoke of free access to college for whoever wants to attend - Hillary was not ready to go to "free" for all. SO WHO YOU YOUNG PEOPLE VOTE FOR IN NOVEMBER WILL SHAPE YOUR FUTURE PROSPECTS!
12
You are by no means responsible for the choices of your parents. However, I am from a different generation. My parent also went bankrupt while I was in school. So I had to pay off my loans. Instead of going into my chosen field I had to go into finance to afford to pay them off.
I also had neurological problems which had quite a stigma. So I often could not drive, or do certain things that many others take for granted. However, I paid off my debts. I worked to build my life. It took 20 years before I could have a career that I chose, rather than one I needed to pay my way.
The world is not built on our tears, it is built on our strength.
13
My son started college a few years before the financial crisis. His father and I had grown up in middle class homes of unlimited educational opportunities, and we raised him with the same expectations. However, when it came to college an unexplainable kind of zeitgeist intuition made its appearance, and we encouraged him to go to a good local state school. Two years in, (still before the crisis) he wanted to transfer to a school that he would have had to borrow money to attend. Somehow we found the strength to pour ice cold water on that idea. For me, it felt like a sword going through my heart---having to say "no" to my son's worthy educational aspirations. Today I thank God for the ice, the sword, and "no."
27
You did have other options, other choices. You didn't have to run up $100,000 in debt (I went to a community college and my state system and didn't have any debt [$15,000] till my professional degree, so I know what I'm talking about). But I'm not really sure how much people can be blamed for believing something when everybody (and I do mean everybody) is telling them that it is true. Where is the line between personal responsibility and social responsibility?
18
Taking on exceedingly high levels of student debt is a personal, family decision. Period, full stop.
11
@Darrin Luksik
Taking on a exceedingly high levels of housing debt is a personal, family decision. Period, full stop.
However, everybody in America and most of the world wound up paying for those housing decisions. The great recession was the result of those decisions. You couldn't escape the consequences. And in the crash that I fear is coming from student debt, you will not escape either.
10
Your generation has been put in an impossible position. You are saddled with debtor's prison student loans, and likely can't afford health care (but who can?). You can't afford a house, or to have children, and the expense of a car is a burden. I applaud the solutions your generation is coming up with. Which is not to trust the government to help you with anything, look for places to live with walkability, cut the cable cord, ride bikes. Now it is time for you to take over the country and I'll be voting for only progressive candidates.
22
@Jay Strickler Vote for "progressive" candidates, and nobody will have any money due to confiscatory tax rates. "The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money." -Margaret Thatcher
1
I feel for those who live under the burden of staggering student loans. My Baby Boomer generation had all kinds of opportunities. I went to a State law school in the 1970s where the tuition was under $500 a semester. I had worked before, and was able to put myself through on savings and some part time work, graduating debt free.
We should adopt policies that allow those who have student loans to have them forgiven at the rate of 20% per year in return for working at public service related jobs that are hard to fill. I believe there are programs like this for medical graduates willing to work in locations where medical care is scarce but sorely needed.
20
@RM
The Babyboomers had those opportunities because their parents paid for them, and that includes paying taxes. Greed is still evil. It still causes harm to one’s self and others, whose who pretend otherwise are just nuts.
2
BRILLIANT.
My daughter graduated in the midst of it. She was working so hard, for free, as an intern on a "sustainable" farm afterward, refusing to give up, that her tremendous health and dedication were making her sick. I drove four hours away to convince her she didn't have to sacrifice her life to the financial crisis.
Know what? She is now a critical care nurse in a major hospital, working ungodly hours with passion and dedication. She recently was given Employee of the Month and Best Patient Advocate awards. She is also devoting all her spare time to UNIONIZING.
56
I had the opposite issue. My father came from a well off family that got wiped out in the Great Depression, then his father died in 1936, the year my father graduated high school. He had to support his widowed mother, who had no employable skills.
As a result of his experience, he avoided all debt, paid cash for everything, worked as much overtime as possible as having liquid cash was his security, and was morbidly thrifty. I grew up to age 11 in a minuscule flat in Newark NJ, and was not permitted to join in any activities, such as Boy Scouts, that involved any outlay of cash. When I was about to enter 7 grade, the junior high school I was to go to had a reputation for extreme violence. At that point, my father finally decided that getting out of town was necessary. He had been saving for a house in the suburbs to be bought for cash, but every time he saved an additional thousand, the prices went up by two thousand. When he finally went to apply for a mortgage, he had trouble getting one because he had no credit history.
When it came to college, the decision boiled down to the cheapest accredited college I could commute to. Which is not what I wanted to do.
If I had to do it over again, I would have skipped college for a year, then joined the Air Force. In addition to gaining some life experience, I would qualify for veterans educational benefits.
Later in life, my father got less tense about money. But all that overtime ruined his health.
16
I went to a good local college back in the fifties where the tuition was around 500 bucks a semester and books cost another $50.
Whenever the bills came in, my father would hold a little ceremony in our dining room and write the checks. Thanks Pop, for everything.
25
@A. Stanton Just to say that 500$ in '55 is in 2017 dollars equal to 4,500$ today's dollar, in 1955 my father bought our home for 4K which is approx 37K in todays dollar. Things were cheaper in '55 for sure. At my first wedding in '75 my father celebrated his LAST mortgage payment more than my nuptials, he told EVERYONE. BTW my wedding in '75 cost 4K which is 19K today. My son was married in '17 and our ante for him was 30K.. things have gotten way out of control for young and old.
6
@A. Stanton
Curious, is A. Stanton your actual name, or is it a tribute to the name on the tombstone in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly?
Both.
When the response to a financial crisis caused by corporate misdeed was to bail out the criminals instead of the victims, we get this. FDR’s response to the Great Depression was money in the hands of the people. Obama’s administration did not do enough in this regard, though he tried and tried, after majorities were lost, the Republicans actively stymied the recovery, indeed, making it worse and prolonged for the people by squealing about deficits instead of helping people survive.
This young man is right on in his assessment. Blame him all you want, call him “entitled’ but he pursued opportunity at a great institution and will fare better in the long run than his peers who attended one of the state institutions from Michigan. For those of you saying he should have stayed local, Michigan was bleeding hundreds of thousands of jobs during the Bush administration. This young man made the right choice, one I would have made (and did).
If the people in this country have any hope to progress toward great stability, financially, they need to elect Democrats. Government money needs to flow directly to the working and middle class and the public good, not corporations. Another wealth class tax cut will push even more people out. Vote in November for a democrat. It will do the country good.
Hillary Clinton was right, and it starts with Voting and taking an active role in local government. If you don’t vote, and don’t participate in democracy, your complaints ring hollow.
27
@Jude Parker Smith, I agree with you for the most part with your thoughtful comment, including the jobs issue in MI.
However, the University of Michigan is one of the finest universities in the world. It is a public ivy. It competes with UC Berkeley, Harvard, Yale, etc. It is one of the crown jewels of public education in this country.
2
I didn't even go to college, I went to welding school and worked at Macy's part time while I attended school in Manhattan. I next worked in an auto body shop for 3 years. After only making $300 a week with no benefits I decided to get a job in construction. I worked my way up to foreman after a dozen years of swinging a hammer. Fortunately the unions were stronger back in the mid 1980's. I was forced into an early retirement at 50 after the financial crisis not due to lack of work, I had gotten a job at the WTC reconstruction, however due to cronyism at that job I was let go. I then took some courses and went into a different field in construction. Fortunately I still have a job making a good income. I also had a retirement account at my last job and I'm maxing out my 401K at my new job. My parents were Italian immigrants who had 3 sons, one of whom went to college and two of us went into construction. I would say that we have all done okay even the two who did construction work. My father had to stop working when he was only 51 due to having two near fatal heart attacks. My mother had to go to work as a seamstress to help support the family. My father got compensation and disability. The house they owned had a rental apartment and they grew their own vegetables in a garden in our yard. They lived very frugally. I sometimes wonder how they managed to keep their home. My mother was a college grad. but could not work in the U.S. as a teacher due to her language difficulties.
11
It's disappointing but not surprising to read so many comments who blame the writer for not living the same life they did. So many of us have really lost our empathy for our fellow Americans who are really struggling and financially crushed.
I graduated from a local university in 1998 and paid my way through with full time food service work while I lived with my parents. I graduated with $1k in credit card debt that I was able to pay off in one year because I was fortunate enough to land a decent job in my field shortly after graduating. (But I had to be super frugal even to manage that small repayment.)
Just for kicks, I looked up current tuition prices. It's tripled. So at that price, I would have graduated with $33k in debt. I don't know how long that would have taken me to pay off. I wouldn't have been able to make a dent in it for years and years though.
Can't we just admit that it's so much harder today for recent graduates? Education funding has been severely cut. Loans have high interest. And you can't declare bankruptcy for education debt anymore.
Starting out with such severe debt limits career choice and delays when you can afford to buy a house or start a family... if ever. I think anger is a perfectly justified emotion in this case.
101
@Leah I have empathy, I went thru the hyper inflation where mortgages were 18%, but sympathy isn't what millenials really want, they want an out, there is none, it happened.
4
@Leah absolutely agree. I was able to work part-time, share an apartment, drive my own car, work summers to pay off my credit card, and graduate with <$2000 of debt to finish my undergraduate degree.
That world has vanished--I'm the first to admit it.
There were families who may have made more prudent choices--congratulations. But no one foresaw the absolute devastation that was just around the corner, and based their decisions on expectations shaped by their immediate past experience. I know we didn't see the crisis coming, got caught out, burned through our retirement savings (for years lived more frugally than I did as a student), and still barely squeaked through still owning our house. And have still not dug ourselves out of the hole, since employment and income have not returned.
The most powerful piece that I remember about the recession was a PBS documentary, 'Close to Home'--about the impact on an upper East side neighborhood. The takeaway was that the recession devastated a group of people who had spent their lives making the "right" choices (like borrowing for education) and were still crushed by its effects. And these were the "smart" ones, whose expectations were shaped by success, and who expected that their world would continue as before-- just as the author and his family did--only to find out that cataclysmic change was in the offing:
https://www.thirteen.org/programs/frontline/frontline-close-to-home/
2
@tekate The banks and financial institutions were able to write down incalculable amounts of debt, received huge infusions of taxpayer monies at 0% interest, the principals of the major firms responsible faced no lawsuits for absolute gross negligence, and their bonuses were restored within a year.
And yet individuals with private debt--student loans in particular--received almost no relief, and continued to pay high interest on student loans, while their servicers were receiving 0% money from the government. Yes, they should have received an"out"--at least a moratorium on interest payments while we--the taxpayers--were subsidizing the banks. Why this country finds it easy to bail out and subsidize corporations, and finds it so hard to help a group so clearly harmed by matters outside their control is beyond me.
A small story--we recently tried to get a second mortgage released on a Habitat house--it was written by Beneficial (one of the bad actors in the crisis). The mortgage was in violation of the Habitat covenants and should not have been approved. Beneficial no longer exists--and the current holder of the note would not negotiate or forgive the loan, preferring instead to take their chances at a tax auction. So now Habitat will have to compete with developers to buy back the house if we want to put it back into the pool of low-cost housing. Yes--within the letter of the law--but in violation of any kind of equitable dealing.
The author chose to go to one of the country’s most expensive universities in one of the country’s most expensive cities. And nowhere in the article do we see if he took some jobs, or thought about a transfer to one of Michigan’s excellent state schools. The only victims here seem to be those targeted by his entitlement, his parents.
17
@LTJ I think you missed some key info in the article. The collapse - which astounded most Americans - came suddenly around the time the author had already finished most of his college education.
So the decisions he and his parents made were prior to this collapse (a collapse only eclipsed by the Great Depression).
16
@DMurphy the point to me was the author chose to go to NYU, his/her parents had very little income/savings when the author went to college to begin with, not a good choice.
Bad choices were made.
1-Colleges and universities received less funding from state legislatures and realized that they could shift this financial burden by raising tuition and by increasing the percentage of out of state students that were enrolled - with the lion's share of this funding coming from federally guaranteed student loans. The institutions also realized that new buildings and housing would attract more students, who would pay more to attend their nicer looking campuses. These tuition & room and board increases made even cable television's percentage of increase rates look tame by comparison.
2-Some students, blinded by what they saw as opportunity, committed to $100k or more in debt to get batchelor's degrees in English, or other disciplines that would require almost a career's worth of earnings just to service the loan principals. Even $30k in debt could become $100k once late fees and the like accrued.
3-However, the job market for many college graduates shrank in the US, leaving thousands of delinquent loans - normally dischargable in bankruptcy. But Congress, at the urging of the banking industry, passed the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, making both federal and private student loans more difficult to discharge in bankruptcy than other types of debt.
So, even prior to the 2008 financial upheaval, the table was set for fiscal failure for many, no matter how hard they worked and planned, unless they were rich.
13
I will never understand why the government raised the interest rates on student loans while they dropped rates on everything else during those years. The whole student loan shenanigans seem suspicious to me.
79
NYU is one the most overpriced universities in the U.S and is ranked among the worst for value. Money Magazine ranked it 198th for value. It ranked the University of Michigan (from the writer's home state) 9th best value in the country. I realize the Univ. of Michigan is more competitive, but I can't help imagine that the writer just made a horrible choice. I am a financial planner, and I see this all the time. People get into too much debt, claim Social Security too early, are under insured, don't save enough, etc. Behind every hard luck story there is often a litany of bad choices.
22
@dvd88 You are victim blaming. We humans are not prescient, nor is every choice we make perfect. NYU, getting a journalism degree at a name school while living in Manhattan sounds like a fabulous opportunity and I'm sure that NYU's clever marketing team makes it seem very appealing and worthwhile indeed. In fact the author is successfully employed at the NYT, one of the greatest newspapers in the world. The fact is that the greed of other people, and other people's even more unsound economic decisions, led to the financial ruin described here. The fact remains that the wealthy came out of the recession just fine while the middle class lost jobs, benefits, and the ability to afford housing. Unfettered greed in those that have already the most resources continues to trample everyone else.
housing is supposed to be about places to live, not luxury investments that drive up prices for all. Benefits in middle class jobs should be there to attract better employees, and keep those employees happier and healthier, not viewed as wasted spending that can be diminished or eliminated to support yet bigger CEO salaries and more $ for shareholders. How long will it take, and how much more human suffering, before the wealthy realize that greed is called a sin for very good reasons.
30
@dvd88 There is not always a "litany of bad choices," I recently read a story from a man whose wife contracted cancer at age 25. They have 2 or 3 children. Most of the time cancer happens in these young people spontaneously for reasons we don't fully understand. I have lost two family members at an early age to cancer. One was 40, the other 50.
7
@dvd88 I agree. NYU wasn’t the only option for an education. Especially at that level of debt versus earning potential. People need to make less emotional decisions and more financially prudent ones. Hope as a financial planner you’re able to help people understand that.
5
I certainly agree that the big banks, and the governmenr bailout, were a disaster, and the way that student loan debt is handled is egregiously unfair. Somewhat like the recent tax cut for the richest Americans, while the middle class disappears and more people sink into dire straits or poverty. That said, the writer mentions more than once that both he and his parents knew that their choice of his university was beyond their means.Altho it may have been commonplace for parents to jeopardize their own financial stability — their very home — to send their son to a school with tuition beyond their resources that is a problem of their own making. 4 simple words: we cannot afford it. There are state schools, community colleges for 2 years and then a better known school, etc etc. I truly feel for their plight now, but some reflection on their own contribution also seems in order.
5
@kathpsyche--but if his parents hadn't lost their jobs the refinancing could have simply been a burden, not the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back.
Another heartfelt commentary that articulates why young people don't trust either major party. The complete capture of government processes by industry has resulted in bailouts of unprofitable businesses by taxpayers who are already overstretched. Once upon a time a university degree was a guarantee of a good job and foot up on the economic ladder. Now it is just another way to extract interest payments on an increasingly challenged middle class. How was it that the most egalitarian country in the world has become one of the most unequal countries in the world? If I was in my 20s I'd be really angry. But then, there really isn't anyone to vote for to represent me. Is there|?
11
I graduated from college in 2009, and yep, this captures my sentiments to a T. Thanks for stating it more eloquently than I could've.
29
One of my grandfathers arrived in America as an optimistic 19-year-old. It was 1928. Not exactly great timing. For the next decade, all of my grandparents struggled through the Great Depression.
But my grandmothers voted for FDR, and once they were citizens, my grandfathers did as well. Their twenties were a lost decade, but they supported a politics that lead them to a middle age of decent, union jobs, and they were able to save for comfortable retirements.
We can have that again. It just takes voting in people who care about regular folks, and then pressuring them constantly, so they can't take the easy way out and leave things as they are. My grandparents knew when rich people were feeding them nonsense. If only Americans today were that savvy. I don't have a lot of hope - Trump was elected, after all - but I think that it's possible to persuade the average Democrat in office. We CAN turn things around. We just have to focus and keep at it.
58
@EB - You don't vote for an employer, and though FDR was a positive, he had a huge world war to feed with goods, and that is what raised wages and opportunities. Labor is now fungible world wide and because the Americans were the most well compensated they must take the big hit now. Democrats are capitalists first, all in for the destruction of unions because Wall St owns the party. Nibbling away, begging for some trickle down, supporting Democrats, is all a fool's errand.
The financial crisis, both in Europe and in the US, has left a path of devastation for the young folks(college graduates)of that time. They lost a decade of wealth building in essence at the very least. While I understand the 740 billion dollar TARP bailout of our banking system and even the wild 15 trillion in loan guarantees and credit swaps to keep Europe afloat, a meager 43 billion would have allowed $50,000 for each of the 861,534 foreclosed during the 2008 time period, giving perhaps 3 years of support that would have kept folks in their homes while re-regulation and fair refinancing had a chance to catch up. In fact, it would have been far cheaper for the US to simply guarantee all of the mortgages in question at the time, which would have given all of those worthless mortgage backed securities a true AAA rating. probably wouldn't have even needed much of a bailout in that case. But it was a time of true crisis. The real lesson is simple - don't take on large student debt for any reason at any time. Trade and technical schools as well as community colleges are gold. Let's face it, a welder belonging to the welding union will have a far more comfortable financial life than most liberal arts majors coming out of 4 year top tier universities. Same with those who repair elevators. Do what you love but do it with eyes wide open. PS - I graduated with a liberal arts degree.
7
Mark,
Swinging a hammer (now a nail gun...) and or welding rig at age 50, after 30yrs. is no easy feat. Hot, dirty, dangerous and it is called back breaking for a reason.
Signed,
former carpenter rehabbing two false knees, a bum shoulder and an iffy back.
I sent my son to college.
4
@Dobby's sock
Point well taken. There are many paths via less expensive trade, technical, and community college routes was my main point. But....you were in fact able to send your son to college; also my point.
@Dobby's sock What you say is true,but suppose you had gotten yourself a two year degree, and gone to teach at a vocational high school or trade school when you reached the age of joint replacements? THAT is what you should have told your son when you sent him to college---make a decent living that I can teach you how to do, then teach others to do it when you can't anymore.
Millennials are being judged by people who were able to work a few jobs over the summer, get a part time job or an on campus work study job during the school year, and use a combination of government grants and scholarships to pay for their education. Excessive private loans and parents mortgaging their house was unheard of. For a long time higher education was a rich man game but after WWII a decision was made to invest in higher education for anyone capable of doing the work and our country enjoyed an economic boom.
Sadly the Boomer generation bought into the greed is good mentality and were no longer willing to subside higher education. Schools passed the cost on to their students knowing that student loans would fill in the gaps. Why not, they're still getting paid even if it takes a student the rest of their lives to pay it back. Unfortunately the author and his parents got caught up in a perfect storm when the recession hit but they didn't create the mess; they just bought into the myth that an expensive education equals success.
We would do ourselves a lot of good if we look at countries like Germany that manage to be wealthy while still creating opportunities for their people. They regulate capitalism so that everyone can live their best life. They make sure their students have a trade or affordable higher education when they enter the real world. We could do that here but we choose not to.
57
@Ami well our parents blamed us for lack of morals and our kids say we ruined their lives. Meh. Do you remember the recession of the early 70s? I graduated from college in 74 and could not find a job and then there was stagflation.. not as big as the great Recession but hard times. Husband and I had one car, college loans equaling 34K today.My husband went to Fordham and had full schoolarship except for living expenses, hence the 34K (plus my loans). Hard times for me back in the 70s..
1
@Ami, yeah, Germany/Europe tests their students from an early age and determines what their natural abilities are. They slot them into appropriate careers. In the USA we tell all students to go to college. Inevitably many flounder and get into maximum debt with nothing to show for it.
2
I truly do feel sorry for people who find themselves in this position. It must be so discouraging.
Our son graduated from a state school in 2008, the same year I lost my job. He had several thousand dollars in debt, but the rest was paid for through our saving all his life and his working.
Living within one's means is unfashionable. Many young people are being forced to live frugally, but others are choosing it. Now our son and daughter-in-law, who own their home, will spend the next several weekends painting painting the outside in order to save the cost of having it done. They are also learning lots by remodeling the inside, one room at a time.
20
It would be so easy to say that I made different choices (low-cost state school) and was able to avoid student debt. But that misses the point entirely. Our country should be a place where we can all work toward a bright future, and where everybody doesn't go off the financial cliff together because the banks weren't regulated properly. People who make expensive college choices should still be able to slowly make headway on their debt. People who sacrifice their own savings for their children's education should be able to recover from that choice. These sorts of things shouldn't be life and death in a country as wealthy as ours. I wouldn't make the same choices the author did, but their choices are not the problem here.
29
@Another Human: That is a lovely thought, but not a realistic idea. Yes, the banks need much more stringent regulation - but that doesn't mean that "People who sacrifice their own savings for their children's education should be able to recover from that choice." Unless one is very wealthy, there are always trade-offs to be made.
My parents could not afford to send all of us to college, so they said they'd pay for books & carfare, and then it was up to us to pick (and pay for) the college if we wanted to go.
They NEVER were in a position to "sacrifice their savings" (which were nil) for their children's education - and they certainly would never have been able to "recover" from that if they'd tried to pay for our tuition (a literal impossibility).
But you know what? We children each picked our college, and we each graduated on our own dime, and we all have had productive lives and good careers. No "bank of mom & dad" and no draining the family coffers - that was a VERY GOOD thing, b/c we children had to think carefully & strategically about what WE were committing OUR time & money to achieve in college.
For me & my siblings, college wasn't fantasy-land; it make us take a very sober "I've gotta finish in 4 years" attitude - and we were more mature for not having our parents smooth the way for us. (BTW, most of us also completed graduate school, on our own dime as well.)
9
@Another Human on what basis do you assert “ should” in saying parents who clearly didn’t manage their resources well ought to be able to recover? As is true of many comments on this story, people have to live within their means. That is really not a difficult concept to grasp, though it may be a bitter pill for those who draw their sense of worth from big name schools and other expenses they cannot afford.
1
@Another Human: I agree with you. People shouldn't have to suffer that type of upheaval because of a single bad choice. It's easy in retrospect for those who didn't fall into the trap the author did to be smugly self-righteous about how they "worked their way through". But why shouldn't education, and healthcare, be considered as fundamental public goods that everyone has a right to have access to?
7
I feel real bad. Wait to the next one. Bigger and better or should I say bitter. Deficits ,pension obligation,debt. Consumer capitalism does not have a chance in the 21 century. The really rich know this. 3rd. Political party and radical change.
7
Oh buddy, you and I both. I graduated in 2008 from Reed College with a degree in Classics. Thanks to my father's tenure at a university in Connecticut, I managed to dodge the student loan trap with which so many of my classmates are still struggling. I watched closely as the classes ahead of me in my field and those tangent to it found work in nonprofits and as paralegals or administrative assistants, pulling in $20/hr plus working nondescript office jobs. Upon my entry to the job market, I stood in line for more than an hour waiting to apply for a dishwashing spot at a popular bar. Again and again my applications bounced, again and again I saw my best efforts, as advised by my school's erstwhile Career Services department, be blown away by laid off applicants desperate for work with years and years of experience. Ultimately I got work in a dying industry (that I love), which continues to undervalue and underpay my experience and competence. The real joke here is that even if I had chased academia, I'd be a teacher or adjunct professor making less than what I do now turning wrenches. What was I supposed to do? Our graduating classes were doomed before we even began. Thanks for nothing, baby boomers. Trump is everything your generation deserves. Keep burning the world out from under your children, clutching your social security and retirement while those are things that exist. We are living in the dystopian future of our childhood, and you deserve it.
36
@Former academic, thank you and Mr. Miller for your righteous anger. As a boomer who agrees 100% with your clear-eyed view of my generation's selfishness, our family also suffered setbacks because our willingness to work became worthless when labor's value diminished. A college-grad with decades of professional experience, I couldn't get an interview for a minimum wage office job when my commissions-only job found ways not to pay. I didn't seek unemployment. I incurred debt to provide for a child.
That child just started college in-state pursuing a practical accounting degree in an aging out industry which promises a college-to-job likelihood. We are not taking out loans. Our savings and ability to save were wiped out by the recession. Instead, we work more, spend less. Once again, our willingness to work enables us to pay our way.
My generation was given so much: freedom, security, education, opportunity. Those hippies-turned-greedy-corporatist doomed us all.
4
During the 1930's FDR's HOLC helped many homeowners stay in their homes.
The federal government should have set a program like that in 2008.
We bailed out the banks; why not help the homeowners.
16
Just FYI for those complaining about the interest rates on student loans: those "golden days" of the 1970's and 1980's that you wish you'd been part of came with 30-year mortgage rates of 12%, and the banks were very picky about giving mortgages. You think it was easy to afford a home then? It certainly was not.
Mr. Miller's parents were caught when the pendulum swung the other way in the 1990's & early 2000's - when refinancing was sooooo easy to do, and the banks were encouraging people to borrow for any & every reason: fix up your home, take a vacation, pay for college, buy a new car, etc. Now the full cost of that "easy-money" is being seen, as described in this article.
15
@L Yes, my wife and I bought our first home, a falling apart fixer upper two family house in S.I.,NY. in early 1987. I did all of the work on it. The mortgage rate was 10%. Our payment was $2,200 a month, a lot of money back then. When the furnace broke I had no money to replace it, I had to borrow money from my family to have it replaced as it was 25 years old and shot. Most of the appliances were in disrepair. The windows leaked when it rained, the basement constantly flooded when it rained. My wife had to use a wet dry vacuum when it rained to try to contain the flood. We almost lost that house when the market crashed in 1987 a mere 6 months after we had bought this monstrosity of a house. Price dropped by a third, got laid off from my job. It was a real struggle. I let a friend live in the basement for a few years to help make the mortgage payments. We never took out a second mortgage. We had a $200,000 mortgage at 10% interest and the closing costs were $10,000. Back then the banks charged "points" on the loan. We also had to put a 20% downpayment on it. Banks would not lend without a downpayment. So I was determined not to lose the house I would have lost a substantial investment on it. I was not given the option to do a no money down loan in 1987. If I would have known the market was going to crash I would have stayed as a renter for a few more years while I saved up a bigger downpayment for a better house. I remember our rent for a small apartment was $300 a month!
3
When I was in college in the late 70s, I worked in a factory during the summer. One day, all the full-time workers went out for lunch at a local tavern to celebrate the retirement of one of our coworkers. (I stayed behind to keep the line moving while they were out.) They came back from lunch a half hour late having had a beer or two while they were gone. They were all promptly fired.
A few years later, having graduated from college, I was working in Manhattan at one of the then-Big Six accounting firms. One day, we went out to lunch to celebrate a coworker's retirement. We went to a fancy Midtown restaurant and, over a period of three or four hours, racked up a bill of several hundred dollars on great food and good wine. When we came back, we submitted an expense report.
At that point I understood that the America for some is not the America for all.
207
@617to416 working on a factory line while potentially impaired by alcohol is a safety issue. Your two examples aren’t on par with each other.
1
@Jojo
I don't know. Those pneumatic screw drivers we used to assemble window frames weren't particularly dangerous—but I sure wouldn't want to face the IRS or the SEC with a drunk accountant.
Frankly, Jeff Session's (and Clinton's) generation succeeded in savaging the American economy, making superb progress in destroying the ability of the earth to sustain humans, and eviscerating the principles that once made America at least partially worthwhile.
I'm sorry, but baby boomers have absolutely no standing to criticize anyone younger than them, for sure.
23
There could not be a more poignant description of the simple facts of our times. You just do not matter. Your parents do not matter. I don't matter. Only the top 1%, and really only the top 0.1%, matter. The usury you are experiencing supports them. Every student debt could have been wiped clean for the amount that went to the tax cut. But its benefits went to those who matter.
If it helps - and it doesn't, really - you're in good company. Not just among the millions of other student debtors, but among all those working too hard for too little to ever afford a home or any pathway up. Their serfdom is part of our fabulous productivity and corporate profitability. Like your usury, it serves a higher purpose: the enrichment of those who matter, not those who produce all the wealth.
All this is not only, or even mostly, the result of the crash ten years ago. The system that produces these conditions was assembled piece by piece, brick by brick, by its beneficiaries. It now includes our political, regulatory, and judicial frameworks as its bulwark.
I hope that electoral politics can reverse things, despite myriad obstacles that have been put in place to suppress democratic expression. If not - how angry are you, exactly?
105
I agree with much of what has been posted here. However, why is no one focusing on the cost of education? Colleges are charging $65,000 plus per year. That’s simply not reasonable
38
@Jim M.--But no one needs to attend those colleges. There are plenty of places to get degrees at a quarter, or less, of that price.
8
@Jim M. Actually, the discount rate at the liberal arts college I teach at is currently 63%. It is cheaper to attend for many of our students than the state university--one of the reasons why 47% of the students in our incoming class are the first in their families to attend college. Not that this is financially sustainable. Most tuition-driven small colleges (those without huge endowments) are facing a very uncertain future, as staff and faculty salaries stagnate and benefits regress. These are rough times all around.
8
@Susan ----There is more to attending college than simply getting a degree. College (if you choose the right one) plugs you into a network of people that will help you find employment in your field for the rest of your life. This is something the rich know very well, and it's why they tend to send their children to the same colleges they attended themselves, no matter what the cost. Do you think the writer would have become an editor at the NYTimes with a community college degree instead of one from NYU?
How many baby boomers are still supporting their children in one way or the other out of frank necessity? These are not lazy adults, but underemployed people with crushing college debt and less than rosy prospects. Who is the economy booming for? Not the young. Family life, marriage? Too expensive, too much economic uncertainty. The young are suffering the most, but their struggles affect us all. How many parents are postponing retirement in order to help their children with debt, or with simple necessities, such as food and housing?
31
@et.al.nyc I am still supporting my son as he has a disability and was not able to go to college, not even a community college. He tried to take a few courses after high school and had great difficulty with the assignments and frankly the instructors weren't much of a help so he gave up. He has multiple disabilities and chronic migraines. We had a college fund set up for him since birth but he couldn't use it. He works at a store as a cashier making $10 an hour for over 6 years. Now I have to set up a trust fund for him because he isn't disabled enough for SSI and the government isn't going to take care of him after me and his mother are gone. Single men who are disabled are not given housing by the government for the most part unless they are severely disabled. He also has no other siblings to help him. My wife had complications during her pregnancy and we couldn't have another child. On the plus side he can drive a car to work and he does go to work everyday. However his employer doesn't provide health insurance. He is still on my policy. The medications he has to take for his chronic migraines also aren't covered under Medicaid. Also he now makes too much money to be on Medicaid because his boss increased his hours to full time but he is still classified as a part time worker. Those medications cost over $1,200 a month without prescription drug coverage. I expect him to make about $17,000 this year working full time. I am very concerned about his future.
8
I was in this class at NYU as a writing major, and I can attest to every word written here. particularly the heartbreak of Clinton’s plutocratic commencement speech and the rapid erasure of entry level positions in my discipline of choice. I had to cobble together a career in retail. My peers went into food service or left entirely for far flung hometowns.
I look back at that moment with tremendous pain, and quietly wonder what would have happened had I had graduated a few years earlier or a few years later. Only now am I returning to the performing arts, after almost a decade.
I had friends with full scholarships go right back to the poverty they promised to leave behind.
A devastatingly small percentage of my graduating class are professional writers to this very day. The experience marked me deeply, and spent years using money or marketability as a metric for the merit of my work. I think of the obliteration of so much human creativity—
I feel like I’m finally starting to shake these maladaptive notions, but I’m only back at square one.
Good luck, class of ‘09. We still need it.
41
@P: Realistically, did you have what it took to have a good career in this field? Common sense has to enter into this at some point, but reading these comments, it seems like first the student pays through the nose for the degree in what the student WANTS to do, and then later the student finds out there aren't enough jobs in that field to survive on.
You write: "A devastatingly small percentage of my graduating class are professional writers to this very day." Yet that exact statement is true of almost every graduating class of writers!
I have a family member who's been a journalist & writer for 20 years, and who received an extremely prestigious journalism award a few years ago, but despite that is *still* job-hopping in the current keep-your-head-above-water journalism marketplace. That should tell you what you're up against.
24
@L As a 63-year-old writer and publisher, I can say that the Internet and the "information should be free" movement have done a huge amount of damage to the publishing industry. So many younger people expect that writers, editors, indexers, translators, graphic artists, illustrators, proofreaders, and everyone else who works on books simply do not need to be paid. While the people who want them all to work for free insist on a comfortable income from their own work.
3
@Frances Grimble Well I am doing my part, I'm paying for 5 newspaper subscriptions, the NY Times, The Financial Times, The WSJ and The Washington Post as well as a local NJ newspaper. I do get the digital editions as I don't want papers piling up around my house. My parents subscribed to one paper when I was a kid.
With respect, we old folks suffered too.
There's nothing wrong with speaking optimistically at a graduation ceremony.
Honestly, I don't know what to say here. We've all suffered. Many of us have suffered serial disasters. People my age, I'm in my late 60's, are likely to wind up homeless unless we've been awfully lucky.
If you voted for Trump, you are to blame. If you voted 3rd party, or didn't vote, you are to blame.
I'm sorry. But you do have some responsibility.
62
Sophia,
Odd that you ignored the Democratic Party et al, that helped propel America into the quagmire of the past 40yrs.
Maybe check that image in the scapegoating mirror kettle.
"I'm sorry. But you do have some responsibility."
2
Thanks for writing this thoughtful and in-depth article, M.H. Miller. You've nailed it: at least two generations were sidelined by the 2008 recession. Likewise, I, as an older Gen X'er (presumably in your parents' age range) and single woman/sole breadwinner in my home of 2, lost all hard-earned equity in my home, which was my primary source of savings, in 2008. My daughter, a millenial like you, has been blinded by the financial burdens of student loans for a college I once could afford to pay for (she was halfway through when the recession hit) as she's struggled into adulthood. I've never fully recovered from 2008. Like millions who lost or were forced out of their homes, I am now a renter and absolutely sickened by the rapid rise in rents as property values reach insane heights in my home state of California -- never before has the reality of the more fortunate preying on the lesser fortunate been driven home (ironically) than now. Like millions of others, I am certain, I pray that my rent doesn't suddenly go up beyond what I can afford. It's a terrible feeling to know that the rich get exponentially richer by salvaging the ruins of those whose lives once felt safe enough in a modest (and increasingly vanishing) middle class lifestyle. We thought we did all the right things. But we didn't count on the continuing, unfettered greed of the fortunate few.
91
Amazing comments but many miss one of the key points: Mr. Miller has already paid back the equivalent of his student loan and owes MORE than he borrowed -- the interest rates are crushing him. In other advanced countries, student loans carry little or no interest in order to make them affordable, not usurious.
And, yes, the policies that punish the working poor and middle class but reward the rich shoulder the lion's share of the blame.
532
@Professor many banks offer student loan refinancing. My boyfriend just refinanced his and cut his interest rate in half. Payment is also lower now of course.
@Jojo
Many federal student loan programs prohibit refinancing. Students are stuck with high rates. In addition, many types of student loans cannot be wiped out by bankruptcy. Elizabeth Warren has been trying to lower the federal rate and predatory practices to no avail.
The interest rate is not the issue; it’s the amortization/term of the loan. If the author stuck to a typical 10 year repayment plan, the loans would be repaid by now regardless of the rate; at any amortization, the balance would be reducing monthly, if slowly. They must have been refinanced into an income based repayment plan where the monthly payment is even smaller than the interest owed. That’s the only way the balances can grow over time. Eventually the principal will be forgiven.
I understand that watching both your parents lose their jobs and enter foreclosure would be traumatic and leave scars. But the author’s current student loan debt balance has nothing to do with the financial crisis.
1
No one should refinance their home just to send a kid to college. That was a terrible decision, with real ramifications. I don't say that to cast blame. What happened to the economy was a separate issue, a tragedy for sure, but M. H. Miller and parents are alive and well, I trust, and maybe M.H. is even able to help the parents just like they helped M.H. now that M.H. is out of school and gainfully employed. I am in my fifties and still have school loans to pay off, M. H.. Chin up and try to smell the roses. They are still blooming somewhere!
18
I am a life long Democrat and Baby Boomer. I contributed to and volunteered for Barack Obama's campaign. I put a big share of the blame on him, for appointing a Treasury secretary like Timothy Geithner and not holding the banks accountable.
I wish I hadn't had to vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016. She belongs to the banks, the corporations, and the rich.
There is no party to help us, unless we can change the Democrats.
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Couldn't have described it better. Thanks for putting into words the similar anguish we experienced, and still experice to this day with the loss of our home through a foreclosure that should have never happened. Yep, it couldn't happen to us, but it did, and we're still paying the price. The extreme stress led to divorce. The loss of our home of twenty-five years meant the dissolution of our family. Our young adult kids had to relocate (there is no going home for holidays and family gatherings or to visit your old bedroom and walk the land where you grew up). It also resulted in the loss of our beloved pets and cherished possessions as we could not afford to house them. Worst of all is living with untold grief and the stigmatization as if we had brought this upon ourselves. My former spouse and I are still in the debtor's prison of poor credit ratings. And though we've moved on, we have not recovered. Indeed, is there such a thing as recovery after the trauma of having been raped by the bank?
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Many of us knew, and stated, loudly, that the burden of education loans on our kids was going to sink them for decades. We yelled, we voted, we got run over.
We knew that the stagnation of an entire generation mired in debt trying to get a better job than failing retail, would cut into the sales of homes; the sales of furniture, mowers, kitchen supplies, pictures, paint, renovation materials. We knew that the probability was that income would not cover rent, transportation and debt, and still support consumption. We yelled, we voted, we got run over.
We knew that eventually the creeping ageism would consume us too, and leave our kids without a fallback. We voted to secure healthcare; we voted to secure people who'd look at the debt and work out better policy. We got Betsy DeVos.
No, the fault does not belong to any one generation. It does belong to one party's continued policy.
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@Cathy
Why does college cost four times what it cost in real terms forty years ago? There is zero justification for the huge increase in cost.
14
@ebmem. There is zero justification but there are also real world reasons: state support for education has dropped from about 27% to about 11% nationawide. Federal laws have added a layer of administration that must be paid for, and the "discount rate" at many private colleges has increased such that the actual price people pay is about 50% or less of the real world price.
@Cathy But hey, at least we got policies that are hostile to immigrants, laugh at black people getting shot, and sound good to ignorant people. So, at least there's that, right?
I don’t think Mr. Miller is complaining about too much debt. I think that the complaint is having to graduate into a severely under-performing economy and not having the means to pay it back. This crash was entirely preventable, just as the next crash will be. Between 1940 and 2008, there were no seismic economic crashes, because policies were in place to prevent extreme speculation and over leveraging by the banks. Our government is now owned by the banks and they are busy getting our elected officials to whittle away at the policies put in place after the last crash to prevent another catasrophe. After the last crash austerity politics were forced upon us and Mr. Miler and his generation are casualties of those policies. We need to ask ourselves if as a country, we are okay with severe economic crashes followed by austerity economics as the new normal.
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I have seen charts that show how student loan debt is smothering families. It is loan sharking by the big banks.
Almost all students have to do volunteer or internship work during their academic lives. This work can be calculated on a base pay category that can be registered with the IRS to make it apply to school loans. Indeed, paying jobs are becoming less a reality for many. Volunteer work that is done by people should accrue tax breaks. On top of that, the debt burden has shifted from banks to students. We must find honest ways to to help students and make banks less greed incentivized. The trickle down theory of economics does not work. It was a fraud. Banks should give it up to build more wholesome economies.
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@limbic love
The overwhelming majority of student debt was never loaned by banks. The taxpayer is on the hook for the debt if the borrowers default.
The Obama administration created the illusion that for profit colleges are the primary predators, but their defaulting students owe $10,000 and the NYU graduates owe $100,000. Why doesn't NYU have to reimburse students if the for profits are required to do so?
2
@ebmem--the default rate at NYU and other private NFP universities is a fraction of the default rate at for- profit colleges.
For a while I’ve been wondering about this phenomenon. How the Great Recession has affected this particular generation and younger. Watching their families struggle, growing up with the anxiety of school shootings, capped off by the ugly forces unleashed by Agent Orange. Do these sound like Republicans in the making? What does the GOP have to offer them? Security, inspiration, high ideals? Practical, helpful economic policies? Nuthin’. And to top it off they get called snowflakes.
Trump, George W Bush and their boomer cohort grew up with peace and prosperity. Their elders strived to create a world where their children wouldn’t have to face political horrors and material deprivations. Well, W returned the favor by tearing up the geopolitical order of a troubled overseas region, leading to a horrific death count. Trump, incomprehensibly, despises the liberal world order and Pax Americana that helped make his charmed life possible. As for boomers at the Wall Street helm in 2008, no doubt they were oblivious to the government polices that ensured stable markets and low housing/education costs back in the day, when they were young and carefree and their parents played it safe.
Now look at the world these reckless idiots have handed down to the two youngest generations. Millennials and Gen Z have every right to give ‘em the middle finger.
24
@Helen C:
I'm a baby boomer, and our times were not all peaceful and prosperous. Viet Nam was the background of our childhood, and it took the older brothers of some of our friends. We were Cold War kids who expected to die young in a nuclear war. I graduated from college and into a Reagan recession in 1981. Things eventually got better for me, and then worse, in part by my own making, and in part because I never anticipated the Great Recession. Many of are still on uncertain footing after the financial crisis and its aftershocks. The US economy may be humming along, but not for all of us. I guess you never read about the increase in boomer suicide rates after 2008.
I've watched my Millennial friends struggle, and I don't think they or their generation are "entitled" or "lazy." Neither should you condemn Baby Boomers for the financial crisis. If you're looking for folks to blame, look to the cabal of bankers who caused this mess and the politicians who continue to enable them.
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@Camp Fire
Best comment.
In this world, bad things can and do happen. Nazi tanks rolls through peaceful villages, pastoral tribes are wiped out by conquistadors and disease, a huge volcano erupts in your back yard.
Yes, you have some serious problems. Your decisions may or may not have been so great. But you're still living in a peaceful and relatively prosperous country, and have a long life ahead of you to try to get into a better situation.
25
Okay, you have had some challenges. Be glad you didn't come of age in 1941, 1959 or during the Vietnam War.
What do you want to have happen? Do you have ideas to be discussed?
37
I think this generation wanted to not be screwed by the Baby Boomers. That’s what they wanted. What did you want? Probably sticking their generation with massive debt so you could continue to gobble up all the wealth.
2
No one blames millennials or misses the recession. You should talk to someone who can help you work thru your anger.
36
Clinton’s words may have rung hollow, but it is republican obstructionist policy in the obama years and the republican foxes running the hen house that caused the first collapse and will cause the next global financial debacle, respectively.
Yet, people will still go vote for trump
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First of all you're not to blame nor are your parents. Secondly, I know of a few students who made loans and bought cars with those loans. That doesn't mean every student did that but I know some people who did. The favorite car was the Mustang so....
So, you want to do something about this mess. Everyone needs to stop voting for Republicans. I've been alive for 68 years and it seems to me that every single time the Republicans have the administration and the house there is surge in $$$$ for military because there will most definitely be a conflict. There will be a tax cut for the wealthy and companies. Finally there will be a recession when they are voted out of office.
It takes time to clean up the messes Republicans make. The economy is flying high now because of the work done in the Obama era. Watch the cracks start appearing in the Trump era. Stop putting Republicans into office so that they can repeatedly ream us.
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@Susannah Allanic
When Carter left office, inflation was in double digits, as was unemployment. New terms were coined, stagflation and the misery index [the sum of inflation plus unemployment].
When Reagan left office, employment was up and inflation was gone. During his entire administration, Democrats had a majority in the House and they also had a majority in the Senate for most of Reagan's administration. He cut income taxes, but raised Social Security taxes and Medicare taxes exclusively on high income workers.
Clinton left the country in recession after cutting spending on national defense, which left us vulnerable to the second attack on the Twin Towers.
Bush left the country in recession, which ended six ,months into Obama's administration. After the end of the recession, Obama managed to get unemployment to peak three years later at 10%, back to the Carter levels, despite having spent $3 trillion in deficit spending. And Democrats reelected him.
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@ebmem Your data is off. Unemployment peaks right after the end of recessions. The 2009 recession was no exception. https://anta.expocoaching.co/unemployment-chart/
Like Mr. Miller, I also grew up in the Detroit area, the difference being that I lived south of 6 Mile and in Hamtramck, not the suburbs. I left Detroit at 18, and never looked back.
My parent were immigrants who lost everything in WW II and spent 4 years in refugee camps before coming to the US. My father had a PhD but worked as a blue-collar union worker – it paid the bills. Your parents lost their house, mine lost their house, everything they owned, families, language, friends, and education. I did not learn English till I was 5. I came of age during the Vietnam War, when getting drafted and shipped out was the reality.
I also went to a private university, except mine was MIT. I graduated with a degree in engineering, followed by a PhD from MIT, and law school – all fields that can support the debt I took on. Yes, I did take on a monumental debt, which when converted to today’s dollars was $135,000. For my 50th birthday I paid the remaining debt off.
No, life was not easy for me. I worked while in school, was in ROTC, got scholarships, fellowships, and loans. My decisions were all grounded in practicality – could I afford it, if not, it did not happen. Life was win – lose, no participation trophies. I did not count on miracles happening. Mr. Miller, you and your parents made some very bad decisions. They were your decisions, not society’s. Choices have a cost, you are learning how expensive bad choices can be.
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@Marko
People make choices based, in part, on the expectations they have due to past experience. They take out loans to pay for education, for example, because it has been a good deal - the better job available because of the education enables debt repayment. Due to changes made during the GW Bush administration, those expectations were upended. The recession caused by Bush administration policies made good jobs evaporate. Instead of offering permanent jobs with benefits, companies turned to contract workers, who got no benefits and no job security. Student loans were exempted from changes in the bankruptcy laws. Now student loans are “nondischargable”, meaning one cannot get relief through bankruptcy. Juicy change for banks, right? People took out loans against their homes because houses had been good collateral for many years. The behavior of the banks (again, facilitated by the Bush administration roll back of regulations) torpedoed that dynamic and saddled people with debts higher than the value of their homes. My point is, the choices the writer and his family made were not bad choices. They were rendered bad decisions midstream by the foolish, bank friendly policies pushed by the Bush administration.
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@Marko As difficult as it was for you, it is more difficult today for young people, not all of whom can be an engineer/PhD/lawyer. Your father's union job that paid the bills no longer exists for most people, and college now costs 4x what it did when you attended. Society HAS made bad decisions, shifting wealth from people who work to people who own. It's been doing so relentlessly for the past 50 years, and that is the root of the problem.
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@MarkoWhy should everyone be in engineering or law? It is only because of journalists like the writer above we live in a democratic society. Who do you think is going to questions the institutions if there are no properly trained journalists? In fact the writer did not make bad decisions he made a noble decision to ask questions and if society does not value journalists anymore then society is seeing the repercussions of this with an ever more ill informed public.
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I'm a boomer, and I'll pit my frugality against any of the pious commenters castigating this young man for his, and his parents', decisions. I was a fairly brutal saver, drove old cars, paid off the house early, no vacations, etc. Look at me, I'm so righteous. I sent my offspring to ridiculously expensive colleges, though, and paid cash for all of it, because I had it. But I could have been Mr. Miller's parents just as easily, and I sympathize with them, and him. I know how lucky I have been. If his parents hadn't both lost their jobs, if their house hadn't lost value, they might have been ok, and those things weren't their fault.
And even though I came through the 2008 recession relatively unscathed, I too am still very angry about it. In fact, even though I am a passionate advocate about a number of things, NOTHING makes me as red-hot angry as thinking about how the big-money fatcats have ripped off mainstreet Americans. I can make my blood pressure go up by just visualizing Jamie Dimon's testimony before the Senate in 2012. Grrrr.
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@Madeline Conant
I wish I could recommend your comment a hundred times. So nice to hear another successful boomer who hasn't lost the capacity for empathy. America needs more of you.
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@Madeline Conant -- very well said.
Thank God we have now a President who's gonna tell those Wall Street fat-catz to buzz the heck off, protect the Little Guy, and drain the dang swamp!
Oh, wait --
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@Madeline Conant: Please watch that blood pressure. We need people like you, who think beyond themselves.
3
If you are angry about the financial crisis of 2008, just think about what happened to all the abandoned pets left behind to die. The innocent always pay for the crimes of the guilty. The crash fills me with rage every day. Ten years later, I'm still picking abandoned cats off the street, and now the mortgage foreclosures are tax foreclosures. My only feeling for this country is passionate loathing.
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@Stephanie Wood
no offense Steph but those cats are pretty darn tough to survive 10 yrs. on the street ...perhaps they did not need to be rescued
BTW ....off topic to the max !
1
Excellent essay. Thank you for writing it. Your college education shows.
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@kj
The education shows, but at what cost?
What is disappointing about the comments I have read so far is the failure to pin the blame for many of the policies that have had such a negative impact.
This is the "New Normal" promoted by the neo-conservatives and Financial elites, enabled by the REPUBLICAN fraudulent "majority". The Democrats have their problems, but it is the Republican-Reptilian agenda of tax cuts for the donor base and austerity for the rest of us that is causing much of the misery.
I myself was a victim of that this week; I had a Quadruple bypass three and a half weeks ago (Following the VA Protocol, "if you have a medical emergency, dial 911" and my Rehabilitation orientation scheduled for Thursday afternoon was canceled because the VA (Underfunded and understaffed, thank you very much Republicans) had not yet had their chance to "consult".
Just hanging in limbo here until Monday at least.
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@Karl
Wishing you a quick and successful recovery Karl.
Re: "underfunded and understaffed": Yes, and this is what people call "big government" and "government bloat."
@Karl
The Republicans increased funding for the VA. It may not be enough, but it is better than when the Democrats were in charge. There is a waiting list for primary care physicians at the VA, but the ER physicians are caring for patients while they are awaiting assignment of a PCP.
It does have a bureaucratic process, but to pretend that the rescheduling of orientation is somehow the fault of Republicans is pure silliness.
The financial world is a hostile place and it does not exist for the benefit of investors or borrowers. The industry is set up to make you feel good, while transferring key elements of the risk away from the financial institution that sponsors the whole affair. They give it to you in the big print, and take it away from you in the fine print. So borrowing is an extremely dicey business that leaves you exposed to all sorts of harm and the more you can get away without it, the better. Just a little thought to keep in mind.
13
I’m a Boomer, and in the early to mid 2000’s was living In the NY area having moved there in the mid 90’s. While not overly knowledgeable of complex financial issues both my husband and I couldn’t believe how quickly the value of our house was escalating; we read articles about the possible impending doom associated with credit default swaps, and watched neighbors finance an expensive lifestyle borrowing on the equity in their homes. It was all there for anyone paying attention, and we remember thinking that we are in the middle of a huge bubble. We were fortunate to be able to retire in 06 selling our home at a profit, but those just a few years behind us in our generation who were still working and would be for several more years lost both the values of their homes and their 401k’s that they had saved and worked for for a lifetime. The Great Recession hit all generations to some degree, substantially harder if it coincided with poor financial decisions. Our Depression era parents inculcated in us the mantra of never living beyond your means and debt should always be avoided or held to a minimum. We have been grateful for that viewpoint.
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@Lm Which is why we sold our first house in 2000 for a $100,000 profit (after putting in about $70,000 in repairs done by myself). We also had to pay a capital gains tax of $10,000 when we got rid of it. When we bought our next house we made sure to buy something extremely affordable, put down 2/3rds for a downpayment and paid off the house with a 15 year fixed rate mortgage. We are now debt free. I also have 2 cars that are over 10 years old, I gave my son my 20 old SUV so he cold get to work in inclement weather, it's a 4 wheel drive "tank" that goes through deep snow. His other car is a compact which is 12 years old. That car will probably last another 5 - 7 years as it's a Japanese car and very well made. The insurance is cheap, he has a clean driving record and we dropped the collision insurance on them. I personally drive a pickup truck but I take a bus to commute to the city. My wife uses whichever car my son isn't using. She can no longer work due to health problems.
1
@Lm I'm a boomer too. But I was born in 1958, the back end of the baby boom. The earlier part of this generation did do well. Those born after the mid 50s didn't. I never lived beyond my means. However, things beyond my control forced me to change my field of work and start over at the age of 40. It took me 10 years to get back to earning a decent salary. I graduated from a state college and had no debt. But if I'd gone on for a graduate degree I would have had plenty of debt and no sure way to pay it back because, in the 80s and onward, pay stagnated.
I don't know why Americans decided, after being somewhat progressive with the social safety net and other programs not to be. What I do know is that every time people born after 1954 or so became eligible or came of age another program that might have helped was eliminated or more hurdles were placed in our way. Housing, even rental housing, became very expensive. Companies stopped investing in their employees. As job applicants we were treated like insects.
My depression era parents were able to save money. My friends were not. I did by doing nothing: no vacations, no treats like going to Broadway shows, hardly ever eating out, and living under my means. I've owned every car I've ever bought. But it didn't protect me from losing jobs or getting to the age of 60 and experiencing the rampant ageism in our economy.
After reading a number of these comments, I realize what disturbed me about this op-ed. The writer tries, but without much success, to separate his personal situation - which does seem steeped in bad choices - with a perfectly valid critique of the great failure of the government bailouts: the heartless insanity of handing our taxpayer dollars to giant, wealthy institutions that were in fact the creators of the great recession, while doing nothing for the vast numbers of ordinary Americans who suffered the long-term consequences of massive economic dislocation - a situation that still affects our country today. So, I'm resisting the tendency to criticize the author for using his imperfect personal situation as the single example to support the emotional narrative of his piece. My sympathy for his story is limited, but the tale he tells is true and needs to be spoken again and again.
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@dhc My take as well. Individuals did make some bad decisions, not always due to narcissism, that they need to own. But those whose responsibility it is to promote the general welfare as well as corporations that received govt bailouts also failed.
It's sad, or maybe mean, that so many criticize the author for taking on $100,000 in student loans, hardly an extraordinary amount these days.
We have told the younger generation to get the best education and then made it impossible for all but the rich to pay for it.
Education in enlightened countries is public. I took my last degree from a German university. Even as a foreigner, tuition was zero.
I took my first degree in 1974 from a school similar to NYU: provided excellent education and, for the time, hardly cheap at $4000 a year. Today it and NYU charge for tuition and housing nearly twenty times as much. In 1977 a GS-11 (high starting level for a professional in government) earned more than $16,000, i.e., gross income that would cover all four years. Today, it's around $60,000, not enough for one year.
As tuitions soured, what were modest student loans became enormous. What is worse, they were not on particularly good terms. Interest rates were much higher than home equity and mortgage rates, which led parents to refinance as the authors parents did.
The country is a mean country that is not interested in investing in education, health care for all or physical plant infrastructure. Now, under Trump, it is not interested in investing in global infrastructure for peace or to combat global warming.
Commonly older people lament how things have gotten worse. Some things are better. But compare the NATO countries of 1968 and today to see that the US has gone astray.
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@JR
"We have told the younger generation to get the best education and then made it impossible for all but the rich to pay for it."
Part of the problem is that Mr. Miller's parents went into hock to send him to NYU, one of the most expensive, but certainly not one of the "best" schools in the country, unless we are discussing the attractiveness and stylishness of the students, or the unique privilege to have Greenwich Village as your campus.
Michigan has plenty of less expensive state schools, including the University of Michigan, a school that frankly has a better academic reputation than NYU does.
18
@JR..."It's sad, or maybe mean, that so many criticize the author for taking on $100,000 in student loans, hardly an extraordinary amount these days."....Tuition at New York University is ~ $47,000 per year; tuition at the University of Michigan is ~ $14, per year. For a four year education the difference is $133,000 more for New York University. Maybe the author should have been a math major.
11
It is a lot. Just ask the borrower.
It wasn’t a good choice.
2
Thank you for your courage in laying out your story. This is one of the best pieces I have read in these pages.
I have college students even younger than you whose young lives were blighted and scarred by the recession: housing foreclosures, moves to substandard housing (say a summer shack owned by a relative), parents depending on money neighbors put in the mailbox to pay for food and the electric bill, lost jobs, lost savings, lost security. It never goes away: it will be like the scars of the Great Depression. And what political party in the last decade hasn't thrown us under the bus? You tell me. The Democrats had the executive and both houses in 2008 and could have given us Medicare for All or single payer or insisted the bail out include the middle and working class--at minimum. What did any of them do? Nothing. Everyone should be furious. We all need help now and not half measures or pennies or bread crumbs or maybe a $145 tax credit if we jump through 10,000 hoops.
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@Roger Reynolds My son has multiple disabilities but he makes too much money to qualify for Medicaid. I'm sorry but a young man with multiple disabilities who can't go to college due to those disabilities should qualify for Medicare and still be able to work his job for his tiny salary. My son did nothing to cause his disabilities. We never qualified for SSI because I made too much money. Now my son is penalized for making too much money and I don't even want him on Medicaid as the doctors who take it are limited. My son has to see a neurologist who doesn't take Medicaid, I don't think he takes Obamacare insurance either. My son is still on my insurance policy. Let's face it, doctors limit how many Medicare patients they take, the reimbursement rate is lower than private insurance. When I tell them I have BCBS PPO you can tell by their tone of voice that they are thrilled to get me or my family as a patient. Doctors don't want to be reimbursed $20 or $30 for a consultation or whatever it is that Medicare pays them. Medicaid pays them even less.
2
We sent our three children to state schools. We told them we would pay the full tuition and if they wanted to go to a private college, they would have to incur the debt. We paid for a semester in Florence for our son which led to a career in art. All three graduated debt- free because we were crystal clear about the limits of what we could spend. My son own his own advertising agency and my daughter has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. They thank us for graduating debt-free.
I do not understand the sense of entitlement that leads parents and young people to assume everything will magically work out in the end when they sign up for astronomical tuition, knowing huge debts will be incurred.
It is absolutely true that other than for the wealthy, there has been no real recovery a decade after the Great Recession, but people should not buy into the myth that paying over $50,000 a year in tuition will lead to a happily-ever-after. There are many paths to success and parents should not be afraid to tell their children that they can not go to the school of their dreams but they can go to the best school the parents can afford. That's life and you can not always get what you want but sometimes you get what you need.
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Mr. Miller – I, too, grew up in a suburb of Detroit; Sterling Heights. My parents bought their house in 1984 on a conventional mortgage when interest rates were higher than 10%. They still live there. When I graduated from high school in 1993, I had the grades and ACT score to attend Michigan State University, where most of my friends went. But, I stayed home and went to “12 Mile High” for 2 years before transferring 62 credits to Oakland University and commuting from home until I graduated. (For other readers, "12 Mile High" is what many students from the Detroit area call the community college in Macomb County, Michigan. The main campus is located on 12 Mile Road, hence the nickname. The nickname is meant to be a rub on the school, as though it's just an extension of high school.) My tuition, at the time, was $44 per credit hour. I also worked 30+ hours a week throughout college and drove a beater to get to class. Like you, I was badly impacted by the financial crisis. It was like I was standing at the intersection of really bad accident when it happened. I lost at least $40,000 on my house and in my 401K. But, today, I'm 100% debt free. And it was because I wasn’t too proud to attend 12 Mile High. On top of that, I've already put up the money for my nieces to attend 12 Mile High when they're old enough to go. I'm glad to hear Hillary Clinton came to your graduation ceremony. I'm sure that was special. I only remember my parents coming to mine.
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@Mark
I too went to a commuter school in the Detroit area and worked at or close to full time( midnights for 2 years) while attending school. It was not what I hoped for and I really wouldn't wish it on any student. Being debt free out of school allowed me to do as I pleased afterward. As an adult I support making public colleges free so that others wouldn't have to do as I did.
22
@Mark - You could have just spent two years in the library, sent away for a fake diploma, and saved a bunch more money.
I graduated from college in 1980, the year Americans elected Ronald Reagan. I am part of the first generation (the back end of the baby boom) to start the downward trend in living standards. I was probably one of the last who went to a state college while it was affordable. Now even state colleges are expensive.
Most of us, no matter what our degree was in, had a difficult time finding a job in our fields. A good many never made it in and that was in what we now call STEM fields. Others, like myself, got in and had to leave and retrain for new fields. Now we're in our late 50s and early 60s and if we lost our jobs, we can't find new ones.
What Mr. Miller is writing about today is more of the same. I heard the same statements made about latter day baby boomers that I hear about Millennials. We were unlucky enough to graduate into a world that is not working for us when it comes to jobs, housing, medical care, etc. Our "bad" decision was being born at the wrong time. We didn't force corporations to downsize, to demand extraordinary and improbable mixtures of skills, to pay entry level wages for jobs that require 5-10 years of experience.
I'm angry that almost 40 years after I graduated from college the same problems have been exacerbated by economic policies that steal from working Americans. There's no reason for this but greed.
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@hen3ry--Our son graduated from a state school in 2008 and his education was completely affordable. We began saving when the pregnancy test came back positive. We had the number of children we could afford. And we always lived well within our means--our house was paid for by the time he reached high school. We saved money.
3
@hen3ry
When you graduated from college, inflation was in double digits and so was unemployment.
Eight years later, the economy had low inflation and low unemployment.
Too many people are duped by the “we’ll lower your taxes” mantra spouted by Republicans everywhere to dupe dopes into voting for them. Once in power, these very same Republicans create the policies that have decimated the middle class. Started with Reagan and has and will continue until voters wise up.
1
While I'm sympathetic, in general, to anyone who has had to grow up in this economy, I find it a little difficult to countenance his attitude. He took out $100,000 in loans, and now is furious that he owes someone $100,000? All while planning to enter a profession that he knows is underpaid?
Moreover, the fact he casually drops the fact that he makes less than 100k a year (and my understanding of the industry he's in) suggests to me that he makes something close to it. That's well over what the average American household makes. In fact, it's much more than the median household income for Manhattan.
So, yeah, I'm sympathetic. But not all that sympathetic.
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@Jack Daw
Great comment. I went to NYU as well, but I had an employer pay the full tuition, as I would never would have spent the $ that tuition was as I could have gotten a similar education at a CUNY school for pennies on the dollar but an NYU diploma looks cooler on my wall (as do the sweatshirts).
People tire of graduates com0laining that they have to pay back the money they borrowed to attend fancy schools. I’m sure the author could have attended U of MI - also a great school for a lot less money.
The real blame lies on the universities and govt policies that allow them to charge outrageous tuition to lavishly pay staff (see NYU staff benefits to democrat hacks) and build admittedly beautiful buildings with super amenities
10
@Jack Daw. And not only that but the author would have been able to go to a great school at a fraction of the cost because he qualified for in state tuition at UMich.
7
Economists have estimated that the stimulus program that Obama and the Democrats put in place was woefully inadequate and thus caused a much slower recovery of the economy than could have and should have been. It was passed with NO republican votes. Republicans argued that a stimulus program would add too much debt.
An estimate loss of GDP due to the crash from 2008-2018= $7.6 trillion
The stimulus to help everyone was $831 billion
But there is always money for tax cuts for the wealthy.
The Trump tax cut is estimated to cost $7 trillion
Bush tax cuts cost $3.5 trillion
Total tax cuts=$10 trillion on the credit card, but they could not be bothered to bail after out working folks after bankers crashed the economy causing millions to lose jobs and homes.
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@Mark Obama raised taxes. It didn't help. Income inequality grew.
The stimulus went to favored cronies like Solyndra at half a billion per pop, and to extended unemployment, which the states had to pay back, and to bailing out the post retirement health insurance of GM unions. For the few "shovel ready" infrastructure projects, the projects were not new, incremental projects. They simply allowed the states to squander their own funds when federal funds were substituted, so the $0.8 trillion was not stimulative, nor was the additional $9.2 trillion the Democrats added to the national debt by refusing to pass budgets and instead relying on continuing resolutions.
1
@Mark
ebmem Obama raising taxes helped calm the debt dogs. What he didn't do and could not do, because of republican resistance , was create a big enough stimulus package. In the post crash environment, I would rather have the states 'squander' funds on whatever, than give it away to the wealthy in the form of tax cuts who will put it in offshore accounts or to companies who will buy back there own stock and artificially inflate the value of the market.
The government should be the spender of last resort in an economic crisis. Paraphrasing, Keynes said that the government should pay people to dig holes and fill them up. Trickle up, not trickle down.
2
@ebmem
The Solyndra story is an interesting one. Check out Wikipedia and you'll see the cost of the government stimulus package was paid back in full by 2014. Also note that Solyndra had a superior product that was undercut by Chinese price fixing and dumping.
If you don't want to sound like a Republican hack don't use their tired and false talking points.
Reading this article I was stopped cold when the author reveals that he chose to attend one of the most expensive private universities in the country - a personal choice that neither he nor his parents could afford.
There were many other just-as-good choices - living at home for a couple of years while attending community college, attending a state university, working for a few years while living at home - that would have been more in line with the financial resources of this family.
You chose to buy a Rolls Royce with debt, when a Hyundai would have gotten you to the same place. And now you are angry!
Boo hoo. This story is not one of the macro "financial crisis". It is a story of how individuals make poor consumer choices, risking all to buy consumer goods they cannot afford.
I have no pity when individuals make choices like this because there were so many good options along the way. Your parents' foreclosure and your student debt are not society's fault - they are yours and your parents'.
45
@Space needle
Do you seriously believe that leaving NYU once the global financial system teetered on the verge of collapse -- after starting college at a time when NYU appeared to be a perfectly reasonable, affordable choice -- would have gotten M.H. Miller to the same place, a position as an editor with the New York Times?
The article states Mr. Miller was only two months away from graduation in March 2009. If he had known in 2004-2005 what was likely to happen in four years, he could have made some serious money without ever opening a book, or going to the office for that matter. Instead, he, like his parents, chose to work for it.
An education is not a consumer good. Consumer goods depreciate rapidly. And vastly less wealthy countries provide students with a college education tuition-free.
14
@Space needle
Yes he should have just gone into banking and he would have been bailed out!
11
@Sonja
His parents refinanced their home taking out cash to pay for his college. They didn't get into trouble until two months before he graduated, so his student debt was already borrowed before his parents lost their jobs and there home.
Investing his borrowed $100,000 plus the $200,000 his parents chipped in was not a good investment if the income he is earning ten years later is $100,000.
The problem in the US is that colleges are charging too much for the value they are delivering. The presidents of European colleges are not being paid seven figure salaries. Law professors are not being paid $350,000 to teach 90 hours per year of classes.
If Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders want free tuition, they first need to figure out how to deliver a college education for $15,000 per year the way the Europeans do. Wage controls for professors and administrators would be a good starting point.
Every generation has its challenges -
From one who graduated 40 years earlier just one question:
What’s your number?
15
133
And drafted.
12
@Paul
So glad you are home, Paul!
@hs Are you talking about Vietnam?
I hope you realize that this was devastating for your parents, not you. You are at the beginning of a career and have a job many would envy. You may wish that you made more or that you had taken on less debt. I imagine that many felt the same in 2007. The crash disrupted lives in all generations. I do not blame you for how it changed my life when it hit about ten years into my career. I do not nor do I know of others who blame the class of ‘09 or the millennial generation. The system you critique is flawed and rightly criticized. You are not the system and if you lived for and according to a flawed system that would have been a mistake- even if you did not see the flaws at the time.
(Sorry if this is a repetitive post, I don’t think my original post went through)
12
I am surprised to see the ugly unsympathetic responses to ths piece. I shouldn’t be. This is the America that gave us Trump, and that includes many people who voted against him, since that meanspirited selfish attitudes are not limited to one party.
37
@Donald
Maybe I've lived too long in Canada, where people are generally nicer to each other, but I increasingly find American attitudes to their fellow citizens repulsive. As you say, a lot of the comments here are ugly and lacking in empathy. Sure, maybe Mr. Miller and his family made some choices that turned out not to be the best financially. But I made many of the same choices myself—expensive private university, degree in English, lots of student debt. I do think his generation faces more difficult financial challenges than mine did. Housing, healthcare, education, transportation, parental and child care—all are far more expensive than they were 35 years ago when I graduated—and wages have stagnated. Having made many of the same choices Mr. Miller made, I am now relatively well off and financially secure. But faced with today's economy maybe I wouldn't be so successful.
The real problem is that Americans are increasingly dependent for financial security on an ample, steady, and growing income (or two incomes in most families)—and yet, incomes have gotten far more tenuous as job security has weakened. Worse, the safety net—whether provided by the government or by our local community or family—has evaporated. We are increasingly on our own and utterly dependent on an income linked to a job that we can't rely on to be there for us. Rather than accusing each other of being irresponsible, maybe we should do something to fix the problem?
101
@Donald
Do you know why the remarks are so venomous? Do the people commenting envy him? I quite honestly don't know.
6
@Donald - Indeed!!
Trade schools. That is all I need to say.
9
@Mark Duhe Worked for me. I make more than $100k. I also am debt free. I also managed to save for retirement. Were there bumps along the road, you better believe it. It's just great working outdoors in all kinds of inclement weather, snow, rain, sleet, heat. I have seen men fall to their deaths, I have seen men get seriously hurt on the job sites.
1
@Sam C. respect to a real worker. I've not worked outside, but I've had friends, overweight and unhealthy, die at home after leaving their cubicles where they sat for 20 years.
"And so housing reports, sociological studies and the news media have blamed grim statistics, like the shrunken class of American homeowners, on an “entitled” millennial lifestyle..." Yes, there are a few idiotic reports out there and I would submit they are propaganda hit pieces developed by wealth-funded "think tanks." Most people I know don't blame the millennials; I have two millennial children myself and I know first hand what a raw deal they are getting. This article and those counter, blaming articles are of the same stripe - the intent is to divide the generations, adding chaos to an already divided nation. It isn't millennials fault they are prey to the 1%'ers nor is it boomer's fault that those 1% exist. Our system has create this; we won't fix the structural issues until we stop pointing fingers at one another.
13
@SuZett Our capitalism simply does not work. It’s been tried abundantly now and the proof is in the pudding.
4
@heinrich zwahlen
Capitalism works just fine. What we are seeing in the cost of a college education has nothing to do with capitalism. It is a reflection of crony socialism, where the government decided to provide favorable tax treatment to NYU [federal, state and local] and further flooded the university with cash in the form of Pell grants, research grants, student loans to their students. The government subsidies encouraged the university to inflate their prices and to overpay their insiders
“I grew up in a suburb of Detroit, in a house near a dead end, which my parents bought in 1992. They paid for it with a conventional mortgage that they had the misfortune of refinancing in January 2008… In the brief interim between their refinancing and the global economic meltdown, the value of the house plummeted, so my parents owed more on their mortgage than what the property was worth.”
Sir, please could you clarify this for your readers?
If your parents bought their home in 1992, long before the housing bubble and when the housing market was very undervalued, how could they be under the water after refinancing in 2008?
Did they refinance their home based on the extremely high housing prices from 2008, pulled the cash out and spent it on financing your extremely expensive private college?
Usually the middle-class members send their kids to the state universities offering very good education at very affordable prices, not to the extravagant and overpriced private universities.
Isn’t that the valuable lesson worth sharing with your readers in order to protect them from making the identical mistake?
That’s how the NYT could protect the dozens thousands middle class families from those calamities…
I can guarantee you that neither Tesla nor Einstein attended any private university in the USA…
15
@Kenan Porobic
Tesla and Einstein did not have to consider private universities at all. The life of a university student in the U.S. today is something different from what it has ever been since the middle classes started pursuing higher education, in Europe or the Americas.
6
@Kenan Porobic Detroit values cratered and were never really much, to begin with. As an overwhelming minority city, which has been underserved by the lending community, Detroit borrowers leapt for Sub Prime loans. The values went up briefly, then lost up to 80% of the appraised value. It happened rather quickly. It sounds like they took cash out and then lost jobs.
9
@Almighty Dollar
Detroit's suburbs are generally white and for most suburbs home values didn't crater. Grosse Pointe remains among the wealthiest suburbs in America.
This is why I wince when I hear millenials described as lazy or some such...no, they are merely playing the hand they were dealt.
Let's not talk about economic inequality, the new robber barons, the republicans ridiculous tax policies or the awful "gig" economy that bakes insecurity into the mix.
Kind of glad to be nearing the end of my work life. I do not envy today's young people trying to gain a foothold.
11
My two children attended high-priced Ivy League colleges from 1999 to 2007. During this 77-month period I lost my job three times and was unemployed for a total of 46 months, more than half the time. Their tuition, living expenses and the like were all paid for. How? My spouse and I were college graduates of private universities and knew the cost of higher education. From the month the children were born, we saved money to pay for their education. We invested in mutual funds, which grew over the 21-year period, as planned.
My children both earned graduate degrees from private universities and took out loans to do so. My spouse and I attended a state university for graduate degrees so that we would not have that burden.
I do not feel sympathy for parents who wake up when their child is 17 and realize there is no money in the college fund. They had time to plan like we did.
In 2008, I lost my job again in the fall-out from the financial crisis. Yes, I am bitter that I have not found employment and at age 60 will never find a job. I lived within my means and we made it work for our family.
Let your children benefit from your experience.
31
Mr. Miller should thank the generations who came and suffered before him and who put into place the social safety nets that mitigated the harm he could have felt.
NYU is one of the most expensive schools in the country. I went to City University. For free.
I rented until I was 37 years old and only bought my first house after I left New York, with a 9.5% mortgage, by the way.
My house lost half its value in 2008. I LOVED IT! Because my property taxes were also cut in half!
I will grant that, given I was in the labor market 35 years by the time 2008 rolled around, I was fortunate. I was able to gorge myself on cheap, top quality stocks. Worth a million bucks today. Did the same thing in 1991, 1987, 1982 and (on a much smaller scale) 1974.
I accepted responsibility for myself. I lived happily but cheaply. Never earned more than 65K annually in my life. Lived through the oil embargoes, the Reagan nuclear winter, the crash of 87, the S&L collapse, the Dot com bust, 9/11 recession and the Great Recession of 2008.
And I never blamed Hillary Clinton for any of it.
Go ahead, kid, vote for Bernie Sanders or Jill Stein. It's your future in danger, not mine.
41
My house lost its value, and my property taxes were increased $1800 to about $13,000. I don't even have a driveway. Welcome to New Jersey.
11
@Paul - Are you voting for Donald Trump??
3
@Stephanie Wood
That is what you get for sending people like Booker to the Senate and Murphy to the governors office
1
My kids prepared for college just as the financial crisis clawed down the throats of middle America. Community college gave two-year degrees, then off to the military. (I could not burn retirement savings to pay for my kids' college).
The GI bill paid full tuition, undergrad, at top-rated private universities --- and then the GI bill covered graduate degrees in engineering. Fortunately, STEM degrees bolstered employment.
Additionally, I learned that top employers offered perks, and strong compensation, for STEM degrees combined with military service.
8
This was an outstanding piece by an excellent writer. Thanks, Mr. Miller.
Reminded me of a quite different piece in terms of style and content, but somehow in keeping too.
https://africasacountry.com/2015/05/the-old-is-dying-and-the-young-ones-...
4
Our family went through that same crash and crises with two kids in Jr. and Sr. High School, also with the burden of unemployment. Despite putting myself through college and graduate school and trying to do all the "right" things, my middle class American Dream was dead. Like your parents, the great recession wiped out my savings, forced bankruptcy, entailed a long and protracted foreclosure process, and contributed greatly to the break-up of my 30 year marriage.
Meanwhile, the government bailouts went to the banks to "cover their losses," (which then in 2009 gave out the largest bonuses in Wall Street history). Ten years later and little has changed. We have new tax-cuts for the wealthy (who insist they deserve them), corporate CEO's bemoaning the travails of being labeled a "villain," while receiving compensation in the tens and hundreds of millions annually, and a congress intent on removing "burdensome regulations" on businesses and banks. I too share the disgust and anger of the author.
Fortunately, there is a new "American Dream," that involves, living more simply, healthily, and with acquiring far less baggage than my parents generation or my own. It also means a continuing distrust of institutions such as banks, churches, corporations, and governments. My kids and their friends focus on collaboration, community, and caring for the less fortunate. Perhaps that is the silver lining from this debacle that us middle aged, former middle class parents will always share.
34
I lost my husband, lost my job, lost almost our entire life savings, lost any hope of finding an equivalent job in my field (higher education) had to move 5 times in 5 years to stay employed at all, all while watching my health insurance and housing costs continue to climb. No one from Washington has offered to bail me out. It doesn't feel like a "recovery" from where I'm sitting.
308
This piece struck me as validation for a lot of rage I feel about the events of ten years ago, despite my relative good fortune. But for the mercy of timing, I would also have been in the boat that sunk beneath the author's parents. My children were in high school and expected that NYU or other similarly expensive schools were accessible if they could just qualify for admission. They did. Nevertheless, the older one went to the state university and the younger one applied for scholarships with a competitiveness that paid for a "better" school and also taught her something. About what I'm not sure, but none of us is in that kind of debt.
12
@gloria: Your children, by NOT attending NYU or somewhere similar, saved themselves a ton of money and aggravation.
The smart thing is NOT to go into debt for college.
13
Thanks for sharing what you and your family have gone through since 2008. The anger throughout the country is entirely reasonable, even though the political choices since have been terrible and counterproductive.
I must say that you are in a better situation than many of your generation. A lot of college graduates with massive debt are still working in minimum wage jobs or underemployed.
23
I agree with much of what you say, but find it hard to swallow that you didn't think twice about attending NYU under these circumstances.
30
@lrw777 Exactly. The author grew up in Detroit. The highly regarded University of Michigan is close by, and his parents helped pay for it over the years via their Michigan taxes. Was NYU worth the price tag?
10
Poor Mr. Miller. I came up age during the late 60s, when the nation was ripping itself apart. My parents came of age during the Great Depression and a World War. I guess we were just more fortunate.
36
@John D
The nation may have been tearing itself apart in the '60's but it was likely the best decade to be starting a career.
11
@caljn
Sure, if your career was combat infantry. Could be a short career, though.
1
@John D Actually you were more fortunate. Infinitely more fortunate. More fortunate in so many ways, because there were so many of you, that you were never even forced to look at how privileged you were. Think Marie Antoinette.
I am Gen X and I am painfully aware of how much easier I had it coming up than Millennials did. Including, by the way, rent that you could afford on a McJob wage. I literally don't know how they survive now. And the relative privilege of the 60's generation was nonetheless blindingly obvious then. It is doubly so now.
And don't even compare yourself to the Great Depression generation. There is no basis for comparison. The Great Depression generation saw what runaway capitalism and political extremism could do, and spent the rest of their lives making sure it didn't happen again. You inherited that world and promptly set about dismantling it.
You broke their world (and so, to a lesser extent, did we) before they even came along. And now you call them snowflakes and insult them.
14
Many middle class homeowners became the target of the big bank crisis. The security for financial institutions was this groups ability to stay solvent. Ten years later we recognize just how disingenuous such housing assessments had been and how Wallstreet and Big Banks managed to escape their certain demise and place much of the burden of their chicanery on those whose mistakenly believed in owning a piece of the American pie.
3
Dear M.H.,
I understand and appreciate your point and the undue blame placed upon Millennials.
All I can say and advise is to get over it and on with it.
15
I'm a bit conflicted about this column.
Mr. Miller is an editor at arguably the leading newspaper of record. He's from Michigan, which is home to one of the best public universities. If Mr. Miller lived in Missouri for 12 months he would be eligible for low in-state tuition at the highly regarded University of Missouri Journalism School.
He knew he wanted to be a journalist but selected a costly private school that offers a journalism track as part of its liberal arts program. There's a more prestigious J-school at Columbia University that would have given him a bigger bang for his borrowed big bucks.
Also, if Miller was committed to journalism, more a craft than a career that demands credentials, he should have considered a liberal arts degree and working in a small media market TV or newspaper to gain practical experience.
When my wife and I had our daughter we joined California's 529 college savings program that allows tax-free set-aside accounts for college costs. Miller says "My parents and I always imagined we’d find a way to pay for my college, through some clever combination of savings and scholarships...". Imagined?
I'm sympathetic to Millennials but it was folks in my generation who lost pensions, savings, homes -- not at the start of their lives but in retirement with few good options.
Resenting Hillary's optimistic speech instead of owning his choices and appreciating his success at The NYT captures why so many find Millennials a bit much.
148
@Yuri Asian Really???? Your response is to bash the messenger for telling the truth??? And by the way, he is lamenting choices and the consequences for his parents - but let's be clear - the push to go to the best school you could get into was not only for the education and the contacts and connections you could make.
It was a lie. One that universities are loathe to correct.
And unless you were really paying attention, certain professions (the ones lambasted by Trump in particular, demanded higher education and are paid lower and lower wages. Benefits are now a thing of the past in many corporations - and few pay for education.
Wake up! Opportunity now, is NOT what it was when you were coming up. Blame the right people.
8
@Yuri Asian
U of MO is no longer a great school after the incidents with teachers trying to stop freedom of student press
@Joanne
I'm sorry but my comment hardly comes within a mile of bashing.
I can't think of anything more absurd, frankly, than to be an editor at The New York Times -- a pinnacle of journalism as a profession -- and
be angry about the 2008 financial crisis that busted his parents so he had to take an expensive student loan to attend his idea of a prestige college that charges exorbitant tuition?
If Mr. Miller had taken his loan from NY state or the feds, he could explore any number of loan forgiveness programs, something Citigroup as a private lender doesn't offer.
But I'm sure Mr. Miller is aware of several online lenders that refinance student loans at substantially lower interest rates.
Very presumptuous on your part to speculate about my job opportunities graduating from Berkeley (having worked all four years to pay my tuition and expenses -- no parents with a home to mortgage).
As a person of color I don't take anything for granted, particularly genuine hardships encountered by those struggling to attain a quality education.
A degree from the University of Michigan, considered one of the best colleges in the nation, ranking much higher than NYU, would have erased more than half of Mr. Miller's loan debt.
I'm not bashing the messenger because it's not a message. It's a lament.
From a journalism student who now is an editor at The New York Times, a career pinnacle. Really?
The most basic question should be of anyone right now, is do you want a vibrant economy or not? A vibrant economy means entrepreneurs, small business, large business, and yes those evil corporations, are willing to spend their precious capital to invest and expand. Thats what creates jobs, wealth, and prosperity. Do you really think the answer is thousands of new regulations, more and bigger government, and higher and higher taxes to pay for it all?
We tried that. Obama levied thousands of new regulations, higher taxes, bigger government, and the result was putrid 2% growth, burger flipping jobs, and 9 Trillion in added debt.
What do we have now? 4% growth, larger corporate investment, higher productivity, and higher wages. Trump has given that to us. He lived and breathed business. Want to take advice from a bartender, or a socialist who suggests how things "should be", but never really work out in real life? When will you folks ever learn?
8
"He lived and breathed business." Is that why he went bankrupt so many times? And no, bankruptcy is not just a normal part of doing business. No American banks would ever loan him money again.
40
@Sports Medicine
Let's see, the Great Depression, the Great Recession, the S&L debacle, the dot.com bust, the Enron, WorldCom, PG&E bankruptcies, etc. caused by burdensome regulation? Nope, not a one. If you want fast unhindered growth, please see Bernie Madoff. On the other hand, if you want a level playing field and a fair competitive economy that best serve businesses, employees and consumers, then you must have RULES; and see they are enforced.
Yet, congress passed a law last year where financial services can advise their customers on investments not under the "burden" of the best interest of the client, but rather can make suggestions based on what is more profitable for themselves. When caught selling their ratings on investment instruments, Moody and Standard & Poor argued that their financial certifications should be viewed as merely "personal opinions like a movie review" and not to be judged on actual accounting practices and financial health. This administration and congress gleefully guts the consumer protection agency - no matter how egregious and outrageous the fraud (Trump University anyone?).
You like this new fast economy? Just wait six more years and you can love it just as much as the big run-up in the roaring '20's. It makes for a great time until the bill comes due. Banks, Wall-Street investors, Corporations will do what ever it takes to make a buck - no matter who it hurts or the cost to the community. In the end, all of us will pay dearly.
27
@Eric
The S&L debacle [Bill and Hillary were partners in the corrupt Whitewater land development and 15 of their co-conspirators went to jail, but none would admit Billary was involved. John McCain was one of the Keating Five.] was the result of violation of regulations and laws, which the regulatory agencies were oblivious to until the damage was done.
Bernie Madoff violated the law. He was investigated several time by the SEC. The SEC did not do what a college recruit accounting graduate would do and take a sample of the money Madoff contended he was managing and verifying that the funds existed. There were regulations in place to prevent his unlawful actions, but the SEC was incompetent to enforce them.
The same thing is true of Enron and WorldCom. They broke the rules.
I lost my job and it derailed my career. I won’t forgive the Republicans who launched that crisis. It had very real consequences that affected my entire life.
166
Get over it. Those of us who graduated 10 years before you got slammed by the 2000 dot-bomb recession, and then - just when we were starting to get back on our feet economically - got slammed again by the 2008 recession.
I lost jobs during both events, and it took me a couple of years in both instances to find a decent-paying job to start building up a nest egg again. It will take me several more years to return to a former level of financial stability.
And all the while, I had student loans to pay. In amounts similar to you - 30 year loans that I'll be paying for the foreseeable future. I figured out how to make it work. You should too. Quit whining and looking for a politician to release you from the obligations you made. Its not the taxpayer's job to pay for your old student loans because you agreed to something you shouldn't have. Its your responsibility, just like it has been mine for the last 20 years and will continue to be until they are paid off.
41
@DS: I'd like to add that most (younger) people don't seem to think of doing what I and many of my contemporaries did when we owed $$$ on our student loans, namely: We worked a full-time job AND we worked one or two part-time jobs (evenings/weekends) to make ends meet.
My parents did not put me through NYU; *I* put myself through NYU via scholarships, jobs, and student loans. (And going to NYU was my own choice.) I was responsible for every penny of my student loans (which I paid off in full over many years). I worked a full-time job PLUS 2 part-time jobs in order to keep myself afloat. If you're in your 20's or 30's, this is quite do-able, in terms of having enough energy.
13
@DS
Or we could take the 10% yearly bumps that the taxpayers (our taxes) give to certain gov't groups and put that towards loan forgiveness and making SS and Pensions whole! Just sayin.
I grew up in the country where I could not get into top Unis because I am a Jew, where my family members were sent to prison for their ethnicity, where my family of 3 shared a 3-room apartment with another family of 3, where I was drafted and sent to fight a useless war. I do not feel resentful. I worked hard.
16
Same old story, woe is me, I'm buried under debt I can't afford with a nonsense degree in a field that doesn't pay. Girl up. Work harder, work another job, register to vote, urge your legislators to help find a solution. The writer and her parents made poor financial decisions compounded by more bad financial decisions. You want the rest of taxpaying America to bail you out: Where are we supposed to get the money from? My retirement savings? My home equity? Or do you want ME to flip pancakes or drive a limo on weekends to help you subsidize your fantasies? Good luck with that.
27
@J; The author of this article is a male, so he doesn't need to 'girl up', thanks.
7
Tired of being blamed for the irresponsible behavior of others? Of being blamed for your own student debt? or for your family's financial instability?
The single most important thing you can do about it is VOTE. Every election. And only for candidates who support the middle class.
When millenials show up, and vote for candidates who support the middle class, amazing things happen. We get Obama in 2008. We get changes in healthcare, education, regulation on banks, and funding for higher education.
When millenials dont show up, or fall for the latest Fox News slander of progressive policies, we get Trump.
A michigander of all people should realize this.
See you on November 6. But if I dont, dont come crying to me. Look in the mirror.
33
@AJ
Trump has done more for the middle class in two years than Obama did in eight. [Obama did damage to the middle class during his eight years, so it's a fairly low bar for Trump.]
1
College loans are a burden. 2008 burst dreams and broke people of every generation. For you it took away parents to lean on financially and perhaps job opportunities to pay the loans. But you must realize that your parents were devastated, not you. I don’t know why you feel blamed as I have not encountered anyone who blames you or generically those of the class of ‘08 or the millennial generation. I agree with much of your critique of the system. The system is flawed, but you did not make the system- the system is not about you. You have a job, one I imagine some envy, and you are at the beginning of your career. You may want to make more and wish that you had taken on less debt. I imagine many felt much the same before 2008. Imagine if this were to have happened when you were ten years from retirement, or just when you finished paying off those loans, or after you bought a house, or when your child were about to graduate or about start college, or now. Would it be easier now?
13
One of the best summations from the generation who have had the most to fear and confront post crisis. Sorry to read some of the divisive comments from other readers. Hindsight 20/20. Always better Paths in retrospect.
A sincere and thoughtful critique such as Mr. Miller's should not be the case for yet more reasons to diverge from each other in pursuit of just solutions to yet another obvious inequity .... divide and conquer will always be the tool of oppressors and fools.
Maybe trying a crowd-sourced solution to problems like this- by zeroing in on distinct problems, kick starting ideas that lead to coalescing around practical and just solutions available - USE the tech - not be used by it. I bet we can best the fool/oppressors who have gamed you and me for too long already .
Paradigm shift in power politics in Real Time = fully vetted, crowd-sourced legislation ?
re: thegovlab.org at NYU ( Mr. Miller ! ! ) ...et al.
9
Thank you for writing this. Nearly every politician has earned the shame of propping up the country’s present wellness with the debt owed by the youth. Reverse opportunity. Where’s a 35 year old candidate? How long until the baby boomers step off stage?
9
@Gerald: It's not clear to me why the baby boomers should get out of anyone's way. They are citizens and have worked as long & hard as anyone else. What's your fascination with youth? Do you think Mark Zuckerberg would make a great president??
4
Here's another way of looking at it:
Mr. Miller was privileged enough to get into NYU, a school that kids around the country would jump at the opportunity to attend. He was exposed to world-class professors and was able to live in the biggest and most diverse city in the country. He made his choices and got to live his dream. It has clearly served him well as he works as an editor at the most prestigious publication in the country.
You paid a price to achieve your dream. Did you think it would come cheap and not involve sacrifice? Stop blaming others for your own choices.
Also, the last time I checked all generations were devastated by the crisis. Maybe you should use your education and write about the retirees who lost their savings, instead of this "selfie" of an editorial.
138
So many miss-diagnose the 2008 housing collapse, placing all blame on private sector when clearly big government was a larger part of the problem. Barney Frank was rolling the dice gambling with all our lives.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2010/10/15/the-truth-abou...
Obama clearly miss-diagnosed the root cause, which along with all his other failed economic policies extended the financial pain for years. So sad that most here are blinded by their failed "progressive" ideology that they can't see the truth. That makes another collapse far more likely to occur again.
8
@jaco
The onset of the collapse, according to essentially all economist and social thinkers predated the Obama administration. Furthermore it is also clear that a Republican Congress dug in hard firmly to prevent financial recovery.
Those arguing otherwise are accountable for at minimum, describing how current banking practices and Administration initiatives will maintain economic gains subsequent to the Obama efforts.
15
@jaco
Did Barney Frank cause the collapse in Iceland? In Greece?
Did London and Sydney real estate prices fall thanks to Barney? How did he manage all that?
Does an investment banker need to be "forced" by big government to do something for which he will be paid in bonuses so large that he and his family will be set for life? Thought not.
3
How ironic HRC spoke at your graduation when the Clintons have had their pockets liberally lined with Wall Street cash for years. Bill Clinton removed the Glass-Steagall safeguards, and though perhaps this was not solely responsible for the 2008 Wall Street crash, it did not help, either. Many in his cabinet later enriched themselves due to financial deregulation. The Clintons are a member of an elite class who look out for themselves and their kind, certainly not us. Bernie Sanders sort of gets it, as does Elizabeth Warren, but the odds of them obtaining the presidency are slim. Another comment stated we should look out for ourselves because the government is not going to. Very true.
18
@JDL
Elizabeth Warren thinks tuition should be free but professors should be paid $385,000 to teach one class per semester so they have time to consult for insurance companies.
2
@ebmem
where do I sign ?
The only way to decrease the price of any good or service is to decrease demand. As long as we keep insisting our kids get a college degree instead of a skilled trade, this will continue ti happen.
America is overdue for its next recession.
7
@Mark Duhe
There are limits to work in the trades and there are already decreasing opportunities for those with backgrounds in computer science and coding. It is as equally probably that those with very narrow skill sets and difficulty assimilating new information and practices will struggle in the economic future. What remedy does the poster suggest for younger generations facing a workplace that may be predominantly driven by autonomous technologies?
9
@Rebecca
The 1950 model that one would go to college for four years and then work at a single job for the next 40 years has been dead for decades. The new model is that one reinvents themselves every five to ten years.
Computer science and coding is back where it was in the 1960's. No college degree required, constant retraining and refreshing of languages and architectures.
Get specific skills training and look forward to a lifetime of learning and adapting. Continually take free on-line classes offered by Harvard and MIT and don't worry about credentials.