What an irritating article.
Of course, you could go into the military to help pay for college (as I did), but I'm sure THAT option would not be preferred by most of the readers of the Village Voice.
And what ever happened to living within your means? My wife and I could have bought a house twice as expensive as the one we live in, but we bought a small ranch instead of piling into unneccesary deep debt.
Not living within one's means is the problem: now beginning with the choice to attend a college or university well outside your (and your family's) ability to pay (taking your scholarship aid into account). For those with ordinary middle or lower middle class means, 40 years ago, college meant two years living at home and going to the local community college, then transfering to the best public school one could get into in one's home state. That's still the route sensible people take.
Increasingly, however, there is huge pressure to attend a residential college/university for all four years and, especially in the eastern US, to attend a private college or university. (Admittedly, the eastern state universities don't have the prestige of some of those in the midwest or far west (or Virginia and North Carolina) that rank among the top 50 research universities nationwide, but still....)
While there is an argument to be made for paying the cost (even by borrowing) of elite colleges and universities -- mostly because of the contacts you can make and the opportunities they provide -- I have always thought that below that top tier of some 50 universities and 50 odd national liberal arts colleges, it made little sense to go to a private college or university rather than a public university. While I think that the many many smaller private colleges are run by sincere people who are doing the best they know how, I honestly believe that they do their students a disservice when they are priced at or just below the level of the top tier institutions without being able to provde the benefits.
Dig it. I'm 54, in a three bedroom condo, no debt. No mortgage, no car payments. Only "current charges" on the credit cards. If I get laid off, I'll sell the condo, join the exodus south and out, cash my 401k and go fishin' for the rest of my life. I have 0.00 sympathy for folks who run up huge debts and start sobbing about how hard their lives are.
On the contrary, probably the one Voice article that I can dig. I am this guy, other than not being a namby-pamby silk-slipper-wearing latte-sipping liberal puss with a marginally useful existence working for the Village Voice.
Well OK I am not this guy. But his financial situation, I dig. Did borrow heavily for the college education, the grad school education, the house, the vehicle; will be creditor-owned for the rest of my life. And it ain't easy waiting for that next raise that will, this time for certain, get me over the hump with the credit cards.
My generation has a different spin on these things, I reckon. I'd wager that most of us do grasp the fact that if we party now we'll pay later, but maybe we don't bank on "later" actually coming around. The writer's comments about our transiency in life are dead-on: it's as though many of us don't expect to stick around this life long. I myself don't reckon I'll be here much past forty, the way I smoke. We better do what we got to do today, which includes placing the correct priority on financial integrity... Which may not be a high priority...
Bottom line is, you can't take it with you. What's more important: squatting on top yer bill-stuffed mattress, or spending money on good drink and good friends to make you and other people happy? I don't buy much for myself personally but I do have the reputation for being a generous spender when it comes to other folks...
Congrats. With that attitude, you're well on your way to financial independance and a much lower level of stress in your later years. Granted, there are things that could come your way that you cannot control, but you are handling the things you can control in an exemplary way.