I sold women's shoes in a local mall shoestore on weekends; I worked for Sears running a call center in Melrose Park Monday - Friday from 3pm - 9pm, I installed TV and communications antenna's and pre-wired new homes as they were being built for phone, cable, satellite, alarm and central vacuum systems with a friend as our own business.
I graduated in three years and had $7,500 in debt which I paid off my first year out of college. In addition to the full-time job I found upon graduation, I continued with the tv, communications, satellite, pre-wiring homes and installing alarms and central vacuum' systems business with my friend for several more years to keep making extra money. I'm very proud of the fact that I made my own way and did it on my own. That's something no one can ever take away from me.
I bought my first home at 23 years of age as a "fixer upper" and moved into it with my bride the same year. By the time we sold it 5 years later, it was the nicest house on the block, rehabbed from the inside out using our own labor and our own money. We made a very nice profit on the home when we sold it and moved into our current home with the profits.
The desire to succeed combined with hard work is a powerful motivator. Something which today's "millenials" lack. They want everything handed to them, and that's not the way the world works.
Wrong. When I went to Tulane in the late 70s it was 5K a year and the job market was wide open. I earned 700 a week painting houses. Now Tulane is 40k a year and with illegals painting houses is now minimum wage job. Blaming the younger generation has been a weak argument since Socrates.
I also worked my way through college at a local state university, from 85-90. Tuition was $1800 per year for me, and minimum wage was approx $3.50. I worked 15hrs/week min wage during school, and worked construction for $10/hr every summer, 40hrs per week.
My son is now going to the same university. Tuition is $14,000 per year, and minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. Like I did, he lives at home and commutes to save money.
So it took me approx 514 hours of work at minimum wage to pay my yearly tuition. It would take my son approx 1931 hours to pay his. 3.75X more. He’s young, energetic and ambitious, but he can’t work 56 hours a week during school and 150 during the summer and still do well in school.
Millenials are deserving of their fair share of criticism, but we can’t ignore the math. The federal government has greatly distorted the market by pumping money into education. And don’t even get me started on the price of textbooks these days...