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."
A bargain,the head football coach makes the same.
A philosophy major? What a waste.
Anybody who takes out a loan knows that the money needs to be paid back.
Anybody not smart enough to understand that should not be in college.
The schools lie to the students and say of course this degree will get you a job paying more than enough to pay back the loan. But it’s statistically impossible for that to be true, some large percentage of students is not going to be able to convert the degrees given into paying jobs.
These students have a very solid argument that they have been defrauded.
Exactly. And it goes downhill from here. And it’s bad enough already.
People voluntarily part with that money in tickets and TV rights, and it doesn’t affect tuition.
He brought home $1,700 per month. After he paid his student loan payment of $300, he had little left over.
You understand that entire post is a steaming pile, don’t you?
I think that was his second mistake. The first was the philosophy degree.
Perhaps to qualify for funding for worthless degrees....it ought to be mandated that your minor has to be air conditioning repair, plumbing, or masonary arts. Once you graduate and discover zero value to French literature, you still have a chance in life.
As a philosophy major he should be seeking the truth. And the truth is that a philosophy degree will generally get you a job that does not pay very well.
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.
The truth should now have been obvious to him.
He then went back to school to pursue a master's degree in comparative literature at the University of Colorado Boulder.
But as you succinctly put it, he doubled down on stupid by following a philosophy degree up with a master’s in creative writing.
And he has still not found the truth.
Medical career fields, even one year programs, are suffering low staffing all over the country.
That’s a great great story. Thanks.
Excellent deductions.
the Bookie of Virtue.
Why?
Because I honor my commitments. Which is more than I can say for this generation of pissants.
Be glad we are rid of this intentional loser. We will breath a little cleaner air, have less trash, and his place will be filled by someone else who is worthy of being an American, probably someone from India who likes real toilets and no elephants in the room.
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