A young American woman with more high ideals than sense opted to attend a trendy, “leading” university, and now, having graduated, finds that she owes $200,000 in student loan repayments — $891 per month, which she says she “can’t afford.” So, she has set up her own website to beg the general public to “help her out.”
The story was broken Sunday morning on Fox News. I missed the woman’s name, the name of the university, and the name of her website. I wouldn’t list that last anyway even if I did know it — I won’t be a party to such a shakedown of the general public for a young person’s foolish mistakes. But the names aren’t important. What is, is the fact that in this “entitlement society” we’ve allowed to “grow like Topsy” in this country, there are people who have already contributed their hard-earned dollars, on line, to help this feckless person escape the consequences of her own bad judgment.
Didn’t she and, presumably, her parents, check into costs of that university before she opted to attend it? Did they have a sudden financial reverse that made it more difficult to handle the payments? Did they assume that “federal grants” were available for their daughter, then discover after the fact that they weren’t? And if any or all of these things happened, is it the responsibility of the rest of us to bail her out?
I think not.
Now, I know what you’re going to say. “Well, the federal government bailed out these banks, and the auto companies, and … and …” True. And that’s one of the big reasons that we’re in the horrendous financial mess we’re in now. Under our free-enterprise system, people should have the right to rise as high as their talents and energy can take them. They should also know that, in life, there are times when they’ll fail; when they’ll find they’ve made a foolish mistake that leaves them in a financial bind; and that, this default position of expecting to be bailed out by others — in this case, the general public — has built us a road to national destruction, down which we’re rushing, pell-mell.
Let me tell you a little story to illustrate the point I’m trying to make. Many years ago, a son was born to a couple somewhere in the Midwest. The father went to a local savings and loan company soon after the baby’s birth, and opened a savings account there, in the names of himself and his new son. From that time on, as the baby grew into a toddler, a little boy, a gawky teenager, and finally a high school graduate, the father saved his pennies that he received in change each day, and when he had enough to make up $10 or so, he would roll them up in those paper rolls, take them to the savings and loan and deposit them.
When the young man joined the Army shortly after high school. the father continued saving his pennies and placing them in the son’s account. The son sent some money home to be added to it — sporadically, as he was as irresponsible as the average 18- or 19-year-old.
One evening the young GI and a buddy happened upon a store in the town near their Army post, where a fast-talking salesman managed to sell the young GI a set of encyclopedias — at so much a month, to be mailed to an address he was given. The encyclopedias were to be shipped to the young man’s home, to await his return after his enlistment.
The GI paid the first two or three monthly installments. Then, when he was complaining to another buddy one day about having to do it, the “friend” told him that, as the GI was still under 21, he couldn’t legally be held to the contract, so he didn’t have to pay any more money. Like a damn fool, the young GI believed his friend, and stopped making his payments.
Dunning notices arrived each month for some time, reminding the young GI of his obligation. He ignored them. Then one day he received a letter from home that came like a thunderclap: The company had notified his parents that if the balance of the price of the encyclopedias was not paid at once, legal action would be initiated.
The young man’s father took care of the balance, mailing it off soon after. He gave the young man a stern lecture, via letter. The young man was suitably chastened — sadder but wiser.
I imagine you’re saying, “Lucky for that knucklehead that his dad could afford to bail him out!” But that’s not how it was, folks. Yes, the father sent the money to the encyclopedia publisher. But guess where the money came from? If you said, “the boy’s account that the dad had been building for him for years,” you win the $64 prize. The father taught the son two lessons: Saving money, steadily and regularly, over the years, is always a wise move. And if you commit yourself to a financial obligation, you don’t expect somebody else to bail you out. You “man up,” as the saying is nowadays, and find a way to do it yourself.
President Harry Truman was a liberal Democrat, who made no apologies about that. But that doesn’t mean he believed in “bailouts.” When he and a friend opened a haberdashery in the early 1920s, and a couple of years later the store failed due to a severe, nationwide economic recession, Truman and his partner were left with a load of unpaid bills, and no money to settle them up.
Today, two partners in the same situation probably would simply file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and walk away from the obligation. But Harry Truman wasn’t raised that way. He contacted all his creditors, told them the situation, and said that, while it might take him a while, he would pay back all his debts. And, over a period of a number of years, he finally managed to retire all that he owed.
So, it seems to me that the young woman who just had to attend a “leading” university, then found out later that she couldn’t repay what her student loans cost, should find a way to do it, on her own. Take down your Cyberspace tin cup, girlie. “Man up.” Women can do it too, you know.
And, by the way: In case you were wondering, yes, that wise father who paid off his son’s debt with the son’s own savings, was my dad. And the green, foolish young GI was me. It was the first big lesson about life as an adult that I learned. Many more were to follow. But I never again bit off more than I could chew when it came to money. I saved my money, and I paid my own way. And if you say you “can’t” save anything, well, maybe you’re not trying hard enough.
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