Normally, if you can’t afford something, you shouldn’t buy it, and before the credit card, you couldn’t. Let’s say you receive a paycheck of $100, and you go on a shopping spree worth $150—which, if you think about it, is not hard to do—obviously, you have spent way more than what you have.
This might sound too simple. We’re reaching our 20s, or in our 20s, and in college. We’re smarter than this. But then, if we know better, why do we still make these mistakes? I’ll be the first one here to admit that I have made choices in the past to spend more than I make. Not always, and I’m getting better at it, but these damn businesses now-a-days and their nifty marketing tactics are too loud to ignore. Still, that is not to say that, in this case, blame should be placed on anyone but myself.
That being said, I’m here to tell you to take responsibility for yourself and your choices in life. This idea may seem shallow at first, until you read on and realize that this is not a joke and should be taken very seriously, especially as we enter into the next presidential election.
It’s no secret the majority of us are able to attend Northern thanks to loans—and if you’re like me, that’s both personal and federal for the last few years. Before transferring up here, I paid off general education requirements at a community college for two years, and if I could do it again, I wouldn’t do it differently. So when it came to weighing my options for attending a university, the cheaper-tuition costs offered at Northern was part of my deciding factor. In fact, NMU is one of the cheapest universities in Michigan.
Everyone’s future and their desired degree requirements vary, so my story is simply my own, but the bottom line that I’m working to produce here that applies to everyone is that no one is forcing anyone to choose a specific degree, let alone attend college to begin with. So the debt that we hold is our own responsibility, individually—at least, that’s how it should be.
Which is why—if we take student loan debt for the scope of the argument—I’ll get down and dirty to say that electing Bernie Sanders in 2020 will be a dangerous option for America that has the potential to damage our economy. Anyone who’s taken a basic course in economics would know that the idea is less about the money and more about decision-making. The money is just an incentive.
According to Forbes, student loan debt in 2020 is now at $1.56 trillion. We now have a democratic candidate (a democratic socialist, to be more specific and ridiculous) who has a plan to come in and hit the reset button, as if it’s that simple anyway. He is also the only candidate on the left pushing to this extreme.
Sanders’ stance on student loan debt is a problem both morally and economically; where there is more government in control, there is less freedom, which is what makes this country the United States of America (and this is a topic for another day, but eliminating federal student loan debt completely is just the beginning of the government winning America’s trust. Wait until we let them control health care and our right to carry.)
The reason there exists such a divide right now is because you have two sides fighting for what they believe is best for setting up the future generation in this country. One is personal connection, believing in the importance of holding individuals accountable for their own actions and the idea of a free market, and then you have the other side holding everyone accountable for one person’s actions and mistakes. Imagine tuition going up next year because 250 people this semester received on-campus violations and maybe didn’t pay them. Your record might be clear, but that doesn’t matter, because we’re all in this together, right? Well, that’s the same idea when it comes to an increase in taxes toward paying off student loans.
Student loan debt is just a small example given here to provide you with the reality that we will face with a 80-year-old democratic candidate such as Sanders in the role of commander-in-chief.
I can only hope that when we have kids we’ll teach them that because their choices have the potential to harm others, they are to be held accountable. Perhaps this will make more sense when you take a psychology course and learn about positive and negative reinforcement. Yes, these things we
learn here exist beyond school.
The current generation sets the bar for the future generation. What example do we give to them by showing we need the government to bail us out of the very debt we got ourselves in? When you run into a problem, you work to solve it, not get rid of it, and if you disagree, I hope you run into an awakening before too long. Some of you haven’t been told “life’s just not fair,” and it really shows.
We’ll teach them that their choices do impact other people which is why they need to be individually held accountable. That’s how you learn, grow and discover why it’s important to make better decisions, especially financially.
Elect Sanders, and we won’t “feel the Bern;” America will, and it will not stand.