Student Loan Debt and Personal Responsibility.

We see a fair amount of discussion in the news as of late concerning federal student loan debt. Justifiably, loans taken out for college educations are a monstrous portion of the outstanding debt presently owed by Americans. I can see why many politicians claim that they’ll work to erase lingering college loans for voters. It sounds enticing to say that college debt can be magically deleted with the wave of Uncle Sam’s hand. Let’s look at the numbers as of 2018:

• Total federal student loan borrowers: 43 Million People
• Total outstanding federal student loan debt: $1.4 Trillion
• Average amount currently owed by a federal student loan borrower: $47,671
• Borrowers actively repaying their loan: 18.6 Million (43%)
• Total number of federal student loan borrowers in some form of default: 11.3 Million (26%)

Let those numbers gestate in your brain for a moment so that you can fully understand their sheer size. The current amount owed in federal student loans is $1,400,000,000,000.00. Wrap your head around that number. It’s a number so large that the human mind can’t fully visualize it. Of the total US population, presently 327 Million citizens, 13% of them possess forty-seven thousand dollars of student loan debt each.

As you can see, the federal student loan debt crisis is frightening. This doesn’t even consider the number of private student loans, nor loans taken against personal lines of credit. It’s a gargantuan figure, not one to soon be erased. And you know what?

It’s your own fault.

I can’t muster even an ounce of pity for someone with student loan debt.

Taking out a loan for college is a personal choice. Just like buying a car, or mortgaging a house, or picking a dog at the local animal shelter – getting a student loan is your responsibility. You made that decision to borrow an average of forty-seven thousand dollars. You have neglected to repay that loan. You have chosen to default on the credit extended to you, an amount fully funded by your fellow Americans’ tax dollars.

I can’t state this any more plainly. Your student loan debt is your personal responsibility to repay.

When I hear a politician promise to erase the student loan debt of voters, what I really hear them saying is “I want to buy your vote.” Such promises are cheap, hollow, and desperately short-sighted. Carry this process to its logical conclusion. What happens if someone’s federal student loan debt is erased? Well, that debt doesn’t just disappear; the borrower’s responsibility to repay their loan has simply been forgiven. The money they borrowed is still outstanding to the US Treasury. If the buyer doesn’t repay it, then the federal government takes a loss on the loan.

Can you imagine what would happen if the Federal Government took a $1.4 Trillion loss? That’s $1.4 Trillion flushed down the drain, with no hope of that money ever being collected. It’s a loan fully funded by federal tax dollars that’s simply pissed away, never to be seen again.

What would happen if you simply failed to repay your auto loan? How about your mortgage? You know precisely what would happen. Your automobile would be repossessed, and your home would be foreclosed upon by your lender. Debt doesn’t just go away. Monies owed are always owed, up to the point that they have been paid in full and satisfied. If a politician promises to erase student debt, then they’re completely ignoring the damage that would do to our country. It’s gross negligence of the highest caliber.

The federal student loan crisis is the next fiscal bubble waiting to pop. Consider what the mortgage crisis did to our economy in 2008-2009. The massive amount of mortgage lending debt, coupled with the reckless gambling undertaken by the financial sector, sent our economy into a tailspin the likes of which we’ve never seen before. Ultimately, the US Treasury spent $439 Billion salvaging the banking and auto industries from certain collapse. Thankfully, the treasury’s efforts to assist the economy eventually resulted in a net profit of $3 Billion. Do you understand how scary the federal student loan crisis is in comparison to the 2008 financial crisis? The erasure of merely half of the outstanding federal student loan debt, with no hope of it ever being repaid, would make the 2008 economic downturn look like a field trip to Disneyland. The student loan bubble will eventually pop, and we’re collectively in for a rude awakening when it does. It's just a matter of time.

Beyond the numbers, the repayment of federal student loan debt is a reflection of individual accountability. When you sign a promissory note to repay a student loan, you’re wagering your personal reputation against your ability to securely repay the American People. If your obligation to repay what you promised is eliminated, then what good is your reputation? Your word would be worthless. Anything you further promised would be as feckless as the lies spoken by politicians to buy your vote. Your name, your reputation; they mean something in this world. You not only owe it to your fellow Americans to repay your debt to them, but you also owe it to yourself to be an honorable human being. At the end of the day, all you have is your good name. Consider the millions of Americans that have repaid their student loan debt. They worked tirelessly to satisfy their loans and followed through on their promises. How do you think those people would feel if the borrowers whom neglected to repay their debt got a proverbial 'Get Out of Jail Free' card? The subsequent discord that would erupt would not be repairable, I suspect. Even worse, what of the politicians that promise to forgive student loan debt -- will they be repaying all of the trustworthy individuals that previously satisfied their loans? What's to be said of the decent American? Not a lot, apparently.

You have to ask yourself the follow question.

Do you want to be remembered as a patriot… or as a phony?

The Liberal Bias on College Campuses is Very Real.

Don’t think professors with a liberal bias have an agenda to push on college campuses? Think again.

I’ve been attending a course this fall semester entitled The Human Experience. It involves reading various short stories from a variety of authors, then discussing them with classmates via an online forum. There’s also a personal essay to write which serves as the final paper. Sounds simple, right?

The professor of this course has spent the past few weeks giving me terrible grades because my answers aren’t "correct". Mind you, these discussion questions have been completely opinion based. Because my answers haven’t been the ones you’d typically get out of a modern fascist liberal with Trump Derangement Syndrome, she’s labeled me a racist problem student.

I’m a Chancellor’s List student with a 4.0 GPA… and I have an 81 [C] average for the course. It just doesn’t add up. On top of that, I’ve been receiving harassing emails from the professor with various links to websites “proving me wrong”. That’s just absurd.

Over the course of this past weekend, I turned in an assignment that discussed the importance of race in regards to poverty, drug abuse, and education. How this has anything to do with short stories is beyond me, but just go with it for a moment. This assignment was subjective; and yet, my opinion was backed by evidence and empirical data. I didn’t write about my feelings, I wrote the truth. My document satisfied all of the criteria set forth in the professor’s syllabus in terms of style, grammar, and length. For those of you that know me well enough, I’m certain that you’re aware that I know how to write correctly (not tooting my own horn, of course). That should at least earn me a B or higher, right? Wrong.

I got an F on the assignment. Why? Because my response was clearly racist, capitalistic, and I don’t understand the “ethnic experience as it pertains to continued white oppression and the disadvantage that all minorities face world-wide.”

Here in exists the irony. How would the professor know what race I am? I don’t use any sort of photo in my online discussion posts and I’ve never met the professor face-to-face. I have never stated my race publicly in any of my college discussions. This has all been purposefully done as a means to prevent people from making judgments about my character based solely upon the color of my skin. In an academic setting (or any other setting for that matter), a person’s race should not matter. I’m about as far from a racist as you can get.

In response to the professor’s poor assessment of my latest assignment, I asked her two simple questions via email:

1. What sort of opinions do I need to express publicly to earn an A in her course?
2. What kind of political ideology is the right one?

No response was received.

It gets better, though. Earlier this afternoon, the professor surprisingly called me on the telephone. She used foul language, called me a racist yet again, and said that I would never get a decent grade on anything I ever submitted to her. She was "sick of racist people" like me and refused to "tolerate my attempts to degrade her safe space for all students." 

Yeah… all students except those she disagrees with politically.

When I asked her how she knew what race I was, she said that she'd looked me up on the internet and seen that I am a "ginger fuck". That's right... my professor stalked me on the internet.

I stated that the phone call was being recorded and she immediately hung up. Shocking!

I’ve already withdrawn from the course and registered for another one, so it doesn’t affect me academically at all. And yet, this incident just goes to show that our college campuses have become anything but bastions of free-thought, knowledge, and respect. Many college professors have a clear, politically driven bias to enforce. They’re the de facto thought police of our youth, seeking to warp students’ minds at a highly crucial point in their lives. I’m quite thankful that I am an adult student, unable to be corrupted by such nonsense.

For those of you reading this with children, be careful with their future. Give them the tools they need to be free, independent thinkers. Instill in them a sense of confidence and righteousness. I want all people across this globe to have access to an education… but college in the United States is looking more and more like anything but a place of learning.

That is, unless you’re a rabid communist with a love for identity politics.

You Can Find Me at the End of the (Reading) Rainbow.

What a long, strange trip it has been.

When I left you in 2016, I had ceased daily publication to Jared Unzipped. Having completed my original challenge of writing one article every day for an entire year, my goal was fulfilled. In fact, I continued on with my task long after I’d completed it; I published something new daily for over a year and a half! I finally reached a point where I felt satisfied with my body of work. One day, I simply decided enough was enough. Having proven to myself that I could complete such an arduous challenge, I abruptly stopped. Writing was in my blood, that much I knew for certain.

Leap ahead to today. As I begin to write this article, I’m sitting behind a desk at the Gibsonville Public Library. Not as a patron, but as a library assistant. A few weeks ago, I began working here. Much to my enjoyment, the position has been wonderful so far. My fellow library staff members have been nothing but welcoming and kind. It’s genuinely a dream job for me, having always desired to be a librarian since a young age (amongst other dream jobs: comic book artist, archaeologist, paleontologist). I didn’t accept this position solely for monetary gain, though. My at-home business as a collectibles dealer shall continue, largely running on auto-pilot.

I begin classes at the University of North Carolina – Greensboro in the fall in an effort to complete a Masters of Library Science degree. It’s about time I reached a major career milestone in my life and became a librarian.

As you can imagine, this position at the public library is a valuable learning experience for me. From my youth, I have spent a large amount of time in libraries, both public and within academic settings. I worked as a volunteer library assistant all throughout my middle and high school years. That was seventeen years ago, though. Times have changed. Libraries have stepped into the twenty-first century. That’s where I have room to grow and learn. My understanding of how libraries function is a bit… antiquated. Card catalogues have left their dusty old storage shelves behind and become completely digitized. Books have taken a backseat to more immediate forms of media. The internet dominates every aspect of social interaction. Children simply don’t read as many books as they used to. And yet, that’s not to say that they have stopped learning. The method by which the majority of people absorb information has merely changed. Libraries still fulfill a necessary role within the community.

A public library provides for the common good.

Classes will begin in August for me. I hope to have the course regimen completed within a few years time. I have no plans to leave this library any time soon. The experience I aim to gain here shall surely last me a lifetime. I am already comfortable with using a digital catalogue to transact items with patrons. Thankfully, I’ve also found my first real niche opportunity to contribute to the library itself. I’ve begun analyzing the history section and looking for worthwhile additions to add to our book collection. This is a small, but growing library. I hope to expand my knowledge just as this library expands its collection.

For those of you wondering, history is the 900’s within the Dewey Decimal System. See, you learned something today after all!

I’d like to write about my experience as a library staffer, as well as my upcoming classes. This looks to be a memorable period in my life, one that I wish to permanently record and share with others. Look for new articles periodically about random library-related topics. What authors are popular? James Patterson, or whoever is ghost-writing for him these days. What are kids reading these days? It’s all about Big Nate. What do most people use the library for anymore? Duh, the internet. What’s the best part about working in a library? Helping people learn new information. What’s the worst part about working in a library? More people don’t come by. What’s the most surprising aspect so far? Libraries have taken over the role of video rental stores.

Thanks for sticking with me and I look forward to answering your questions about my progress!

Why College Athletes Shouldn't Be Paid.

Quite often, I see fans of college sports commenting about student-athletes and the need to provide compensation to them. Essentially, they believe that college athletes should be paid like professional athletes. By all accounts, this seems to be the most popular sentiment among the college sports viewing audience. A continuous yearly survey from Harris Interactive shows that 45% of all Americans watch college sports, chiefly men's basketball and football. The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) pulls in nearly $800,000,000 in revenue annually.

I say they're dead wrong. College athletes don't deserve a penny.

But whoa, Jared! These kids play their hearts out. They take bumps and bruises. Plus, they earn the NCAA millions upon millions of dollars. Why shouldn't they get a little piece of the action?

I'll tell you why...

BECAUSE THEY'RE IN COLLEGE TO LEARN AND EARN A HIGHER EDUCATION, YOU OBTUSE FOOL!

When you go to college, the goal is to broaden your mind, take in knowledge and become a smarter, more mature human being. You're not going to college to bounce a ball or throw a piece of leather. Sure, you might participate in a collegiate sport while in attendance at an institution of higher learning; I've got no problem with that. Sports are fun! Personally, I really enjoy baseball and hockey. But, that's not the reason why you're in college. Sports are merely an extracurricular activity, like playing on a chess team or participating in a book club. You don't go to college to become a professional athlete -- there's no class or degree for that.

Here's the other, and perhaps much larger, dilemma. If you decide to pay one set of college athletes, then you legally have to pay all of them. No matter what sport they play or their gender, all student athletes would be required to receive compensation. Whether the men's basketball team or the women's volleyball team, if you pay one, then you have to pay them all -- no exceptions. How does that work? It's simple. If the NCAA and colleges decided to pay their athletes, then those athletes would have to be classified as employees under the institutions they play for. By law, that places them under the jurisdiction of the Equal Pay Act of 1963. This requires that all employed persons be treated equally and fairly by their employers, no matter their gender or position in life. Title IX also enters in the picture, declaring that...

"No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance."

Essentially, if you have a collegiate sports program, both men and women (and, by proxy, all people whom fall at various points on the gender spectrum) must have equal access and be invited to participate. Even if it's a private college or university that doesn't receive federal assistance, they're still bound to the law under the Equal Pay Act. Though, the reach of Title IX could even be argued in court if a student uses federal aid to attend a private institution... but that's a whole other discussion.

There's just no way around this issue -- Equal Play, Equal Pay.

To put it simply -- all college students get to participate in sports programs. If those students are to be paid, then all sports programs and their players shall receive remuneration.

Therein exists the problem for the NCAA and colleges -- they're fully aware of this issue that I've just described. As much as they might want to pay their college football and men's basketball players, they also know that they'd be forced to pay the men's golf team, the women's lacrosse team, the fencing team, equestrian team, and so on. College football and basketball teams earn the NCAA and colleges millions. On the other hand, college water polo teams (one of many examples) don't earn squat.

But I'm not done yet...

If student athletes were to be classified as employees and receive compensation, there's another law that would drastically change the realm of college sports -- the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. By law, no employer may discriminate in employment against a qualified individual with a disability. Thereby, all students with a disability would have just as much right to play a sport as anyone else and receive the same pay. If a paraplegic wanted to play men's basketball in a wheelchair (and I've seen some awesome guys and gals who play basketball in a wheelchair), the NCAA would have no choice to but to accept that individual and accommodate their disability. What if a blind girl wanted to be on the women's field hockey team? Sign her up! How about a guy with Down's syndrome who wanted to be on the football team? By golly, get that man a helmet and let him play! Personally, I believe there's no reason why any student, no matter their gender or disability, shouldn't already be playing any college sport they choose!

In the end, all of this highlights a much deeper cultural problem with college (and professional) sports. Sports are taken way too seriously. The NCAA rakes in endless piles of cash as a titanic profit machine, fully leveraged on the backs of students -- many whom wouldn't even make it to college based upon their poor scholastic ability.

These are just games being played, folks. One team wins, another loses. Numbers go on a board. Balls are hit. Pucks are slapped. Weights are lifted. That's it. Nothing of real importance is born from a game being played. It's just for fun... but it seems everyone has forgotten that part of the game.

Full disclosure -- I do not watch college sports of any kind, so I have no dog in this fight.