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smooth · 12-07-2005, 11:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pan6467

My father started out with absolutely nothing and became very wealthy.

Doesn't know crap about finances, doesn't care.

He worked hard was given governmental help in the form of apprenticship programs, school grants and loans that didn't bankrupt him or truly hurt him when he graduated, didn't graduate into a high paying job.

But his drive to be the best in what he did was unsurpassed. Whether it was project engineer and weekend surveys, to excavting waste dumps and putting evironmentally new ones in their place, to doing the groundwork and working for some of the greatest golf course designers in America. Every job my dad took moved him upward, until he owned his own company. His drive to be the best allowed companies to track him down and make HUGE offers, some he took, some he didn't because they meant moving or being away from the family.

He got government help, worked his ass off, repaid the government in sums he could afford and maintained a steady climb upward.

I maintain that is nearly impossible today the loans are a stranglehold, the ability to advance through government sponsored programs is gone, and it is harder to move up as companies downsize, plus pay less.

I get my drive from my father, I WILL BE the preeminent authority on compulsive gambling recovery, but I won't be doing it for money. I'll be doing it for myself and to better others. The money will come, if I am good enough at what I do, just as it did for my father, provided the conomy can support it. And very simply because I'll be my own boss, through family loans and friends who believe in me, and fundraisers. I don't plan to take a government penny on anything I start because I don't want the government telling me how I can help others.

But that makes me lucky because I have the oppurtunity, some people, a vast majority, don't have rich families and won't be able to work for themselves and will die owing on their student loans, because their jobs didn't pay enough. Not because they didn't work hard enough or didn't try to save enough.

Plus, our economy is built on debt, if people spent within their means the country would go bankrupt within 6 months, IMHO.

Pan, until this last ratge increase, the student loan interest rate was at a 20 year low. Some of the requirements and limits for loans have changed, but they are obtainable and still tenable. In fact, I borrowed $20,000 at 3.5% and purchased some fairly liquid 12 month CDs at 4% to give my wife and myself a (free) security blanket in case of an emergency. I also shopped around and found a loan consolidation program that reduces our rates by 1% after 36 months of consecutive payments.

Anyway, government programs are being stripped, but they aren't dead...yet. Tuition is skyrocketing, so we have to take out more loans or earn larger grants, but for the most part I think education is still available for a particular class of people and will continue to be.