Posted on 10/27/2018 4:44:26 PM PDT by Simon Green
Chad Haag considered living in a cave to escape his student debt. He had a friend doing it. But after some plotting, he settled on what he considered a less risky plan. This year, he relocated to a jungle in India. "I've put America behind me," Haag, 29, said.
He now lives in a concrete house in the village of Uchakkada for $50 a month. His backyard is filled with coconut trees and chickens. "I saw four elephants just yesterday," he said, adding that he hopes to never set foot in a Walmart again.
His debt is currently on its way to default. But more than 9,000 miles away from Colorado, Haag said, his student loans don't feel real anymore.
"It's kind of like, if a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, does it really exist?" he said.
The philosophy major concedes that his student loan balance of around $20,000 isn't as large as the burden shouldered by many other borrowers, but he said his difficultly finding a college-level job in the U.S. has made that debt oppressive nonetheless. "If you're not making a living wage," Haag said, "$20,000 in debt is devastating."
He struggled to come up with the $300 a month he owed. The first work he found after he graduated from the University of Northern Colorado in 2011 — when the recession's effects were still palpable — was on-again, off-again hours at a factory, unloading trucks and constructing toy rockets on an assembly line. He then went back to school to pursue a master's degree in comparative literature at the University of Colorado Boulder. After that, he tried to make it as an adjunct professor, but still he could barely scrape a living together with the one class a semester he was assigned.
Haag had some hope restored when he landed full-time work as a medical courier in Denver, delivering urine and blood samples to hospitals. However, he was disappointed to find that he brought home just $1,700 a month. He had little money left over after he paid his student loan bill. He couldn't afford an apartment in the city, where rents have been rising sharply. He lived with his mother and rarely went out with friends.
"I couldn't make the math work in America," Haag said. Milestones that seemed like pipe dreams back home, like starting a family, and owning a house, are now on his horizon. This year he married an Indian citizen, a professor at a local college. He now has a five-year spousal visa, and plans to renew it when the time comes.
Adjusting to a new country, he admitted, has not been entirely easy. "Some toilets here are holes in the ground you squat over," Haag said. Recently, he ate spoiled goat meat at a local restaurant and landed in the emergency room.
Still, he said, "I have a higher standard of living in a Third World country than I would in America, because of my student loans."
These folks should not have left. A future president will likely absolve all student loan debt.
Haag had some hope restored when he landed full-time work as a medical courier in Denver, delivering urine and blood samples to hospitals. However, he was disappointed to find that he brought home just $1,700 a month.
...
He could have done that right out of high school and saved up 5 to 6 years without any debt. Let that be a lesson to anybody thinking about a philosophy degree.
> Easy solution: No government loans for any students other than STEM majors who maintain at least a 3.0 average.
Easier solution: no federal government loans for education since they are not permitted under the Constitution anyway.
Thank goodness then for the Trump economy. Between 2007 and 2013 when these folks fled the economy was probably the worst I’ve ever seen. I really hope we never go back to the trajectory we were on, or worse.
As soon as government decided to make college affordable all was lost.
>>Why does it cost as much as a house now?
One reason:
Ohio State employs 88 diversity-related staffers at a cost of $7.3M annually
https://www.thecollegefix.com/ohio-state-employs-88-diversity-related-staffers-at-a-cost-of-7-3m-annually/
> So, they didn’t have parents who could advise them that this was not a good investment?
About half of kids today are in that position yes. Thank the divorce industry and two-earner families. The scope of the problem is unbelievable.
That’s part of it for sure. See my previous for another.
When I went to college in the early 90s I could buy one textbook for $90, two if “badly used” was OK. Tuition at high-end schools was already north of $10k/year.
What a pathetic snowflake. Scared away from the land of his birth because of a $20,000 debt.
Gads, what a poofter weakling.
Good riddance!
>>The scope of the problem is unbelievable.
It’s another debt bubble waiting to pop.
“I've put America behind me,”
“It's kind of like, if a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, does it really exist?”
“I couldn't make the math work in America,”
“Any rational person who learns that people are fleeing the country as a result of their student loan debt will conclude that something has gone horribly awry with this lending system,”
“I lost faith in my country.”
“I wish I could come back to America and not be scared,”
Good point!
Yep, the faculty in these departments is the prior generation trained in those useless fields who also could not find any real jobs, other than teaching the same useless crap to the next generation at absurd costs.
Why does it cost as much as a house now?
Availability of student loans allowed colleges and universities to increase tuition and fees at a gazillion times the rate of inflation.
Whatever you subsidize, you will get more of.
Student loan money is crazy cash for the communist left.
Anything his wife tells him to.
This all happened on Obama’s watch. At the same time that these grads were fleeing there were also people in their 50’s committing suicide left, right, and center.
The Trump economy has fixed a lot of problems and has the potential to fix a lot more. I only pray that the Democrats lose, because if they win the bad economy will be back.
Around here, students could take some courses Jr and Sr year at the Community College and have one year of Cleveland State done when they finish HS. And there's public bus transportation within walking distance that would bring them to Cleveland State, fare included in student fees. They could combine that with very available part time jobs.
You'd think that RTA bus would be filled with students. There's only a handful taking advantage of this very excellent option.
What's my point? I have NO sympathy for those who choose student loans for undergraduate degrees.
I have to disagree with you there. Hillary! paid good money for the Steele dossier. Creative writing pays!
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