I just got back from watching the Inside Job, a documentary about the 2008 financial collapse, with Kevin and William. It was an excellent movie, and it is interesting that Kevin and I had the same thought coming out of the movie... Which is that it does a great job of showing us a problem, and goes as far as saying that we have done squat to actually attempt to fix this problem so that it will not happen again, but it doesn't give us any clues on what to do about it. An old adage is "Don't come to me with problems, come to me with solutions" and I think that is particularly important here.
Kevin and I both immediately after the movie discussed how the movie tells us all about the problems of the financial collapse, but it doesn't mention a way we can make it so that it won't happen again. Is this because we CAN'T do anything about it? Maybe we are not powerful enough, us being the lower/middle class. Maybe even the lower 90% of the population.
The only thought I can muster in my tired state, is that a cause of all of this is spending money that you don't have. One word... Credit! Americans, and as time goes on more and more people around the world, spend obscene amounts of money that they don't actually have! We take out loans, and max out credit cards, and always say "I'll pay it off over time", but the problem is that we keep doing it so that 'over time' quickly turns into 'for the rest of time'!
On a slightly side note, thats one of my major beefs with college tuition prices! They keep raising the cost of college, forcing prospective students to either not go to college or to go then get out of an institution with huge amounts of debt! We 'hit the ground running' after college by landing in a gigantic pothole. Really!? I'm in the process now of trying to postpone aspects of life so that I can try to pay my way out of my school debt before I am forced to fall into the eventual 'housing debt'. I do not believe that this can be the best way to live! We should have kids going to college, graduating with either no debt or small, manageable amounts of debt, lets say under 8,000 dollars! That at least forces kids to think about it, while also being a nice amount that can be paid off relatively quickly. Nope, instead we are graduating with upwards of 20, 30, 40 THOUSAND dollars in debt, OR MORE! Thats more then some of our PARENTS make in a YEAR! This is insain! It's a double edge sword. You go to college to get a good job, but a big reason why you need the good job is to pay off debt from actually Going to College!!!
So again, more problems. Solutions... anyone? Should we just not go to college? No that wouldn't help anything. Should be regulate college tuition prices so that they are manageable, and possibly create a better system for grants then the one we have so that it is easier and more widespread of an option for prospective students? Now I think we are on to something!
Anyways, this is just the tip of the iceberg on this subject.
Mood: Tired but a little irked
