Featured Anyone else concerned that tariffs might make cars more expensive?

Well, either my family, friends and I are all mentally ill, drug addicts and alcoholics, or

• we've gotten into tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars into debt to get degrees we were promised would be our golden tickets to financial success,
• in a country that housing has more than tripled in the past few decades even when accounting for inflation,
  
• where schools DO NOT teach financial literacy yet society pressures everyone to get into even more debt with high, variable interest rates,
• where investment institutions are happy to take the majority of interest earnings while placing the entire liability on the heads of their clients
• and where no there is zero guarantees that doing this or moving there or whatever "advice" to finding even just a living wage job now will still be a source of a living wage income in a few years.

Or maybe a little of both. I am a little crazy, so that might be my problem.

Resiliency is being able to adapt. But adapting isn't always easy. Someone who lives under a bridge may have reasons why adapting to live under that bridge is a better alternative to them than moving in with someone or moving to another place in the country (or another country).

• We are social creatures. Moving breaks social ties to friends and family. This is something personal to me. I want to have the time and live in the place to take care of my aging mother who, for other reasons, can't move. Yes, I could move. Yes. I could start working more. Perhaps I could also go to school and work at the same time. But then I can't take care of my aging mother. What is the point of moving or working more when it won't provide for what one feels is a priority?
  
• Moving is facing the unknown. We all know the people, jobs and housing in our communities. A distant city may have higher wages and cheaper housing. But moving there could mean moving where one has only heard rumors that housing, wages and such are better.
• Moving is expensive. To research where one could live and work takes time and money form someone who may be strapped for time and money. Then comes the final move. All of this can lead to debt or other losses.
• Moving is not a guarantee. There are times one moves only to find out the grass was not greener on the other side. Then the whole process has to start all over again.

Ideally we'd all view others as part of our community. So-and-so does his work to make my life better, and what I do makes So-and-so's life better. What can I do to be honest and fair?

When people are greedy all they think about is how they can get the most out of others while contributing the least. How can I get everything I can from So-and-so without giving him anything or by giving him as little as necessary?

For the greedy it's all about survival of the fittest. For the altruist it's all about working as a community to make everyone's lives better.

 

No, not all of them. But most that I know that got a degree, sometimes with a lot of debt, have not been able to get into a line of work that their degree matters, and some still are carrying their student debt. The ones that didn't have much of an effect were the couple that got scholarships, although they didn't end up in a line of work that their degree mattered either. I know only a few that actually got a job that they needed the degree that they got and are now raking in the money as a result.

From what I see, you have to know that what degree lines up with work that indeed is lucrative and have a plan of exactly where you're going to work and how much you'll make and how you're going to pay off your student debt and make money, all before even going to college. Otherwise you're wasting money on a degree that means nothing and just incurs more debt.