© 2008 by Michael Swickard, Ph.D.
On this college graduation weekend there is one thing not obvious as we watch the graduates walk across the stage waving to mama. Many have irresponsible debts that their earning potential will not support comfortably.
They do not seem to be worried about the mountain of debt into which they have gotten themselves. We might call this “Irresponsible consumerism” or “Dysfunctional consumerism.”
I would not want to cast a disapproving eye at what another person buys, tattoos aside. It is not the purchase of momentary items that bothers me as much as going into debt for those things using resources that should be used to secure an education.
A college education is expensive, though lack of a college education is even more expensive in the long run. What concerns me is that the notion that anyone can go to college has changed since college costs have skyrocketed in just one decade. While getting my Ph.D. in the 1990s, I paid less than $600 a semester for tuition and fees. Now that figure at New Mexico State University is close to $2,500 and going up. A four-year degree then involved less than $5,000, whereas now it is closer to $25,000, in part because many students take five years to graduate.
When I went to college right out of high school in 1968, I worked my way through college and graduated with no debts. That allowed me quite a bit of flexibility in taking my first job, which was not financially lucrative but extended my education in very practical ways.
Today’s graduates carry into their professional lives student loans and other debts in the tens of thousands of dollars. Talk about having a heavy rock around your neck while swimming.
Expensive tastes are one culprit
This is partly due to personal property. Both college and high school students have much more personal property than I had at their age. Our family had one car – which I was not privileged to use – no dishwasher other than us kids, no microwave, one television, one phone and one stereo.
When I went to college out of high school, I realized I could have a car or go to college, but not both. So I was on foot for the first three years. It was not my first choice; rather, it was my only choice. I owned a typewriter, wristwatch, clock radio, guitar and my clothes, which had a somewhat thrift-store aura, and some books. Not so with today’s students.
These kids have expensive tastes for cars, cell phones, sunglasses, designer clothes, iPods, video-game systems and extensive music and movie collections. They have acquired these possessions with student loans and consumer credit rather than earnings and savings.
In one news report I heard that the average college graduate has at least $30,000 in student loans on top of maxed-out credit cards and other consumer loans. How sad.
Those who drop out of college without a degree are in even worse shape. And it starts in high school with families using so much of their disposable income for these things so that college plans are threatened.
The bottom line is that the resources used for non-essentials could not be used for essential expenses. Hence, resources are borrowed – borrowing the income of years to come. This is done without a real understanding of the long-term consequences.
Very few people are saying to parents and students that they need to look anew at their consumer appetites. There is the old saying, “Those who laugh when they borrow will cry when they pay back.” Some think the government will bail out the students as they are other people who make bad financial choices. But I think not. There is the realization that bankruptcy laws have been changed so that these irresponsible consumer purchases are not dischargeable.
Not all degrees are equal
Finally, not all degrees are equal in the ability to generate income, since the world reinforces the choice of degree disproportionately. In fact, colleges pay their professors disproportionately: engineering professors make three times as much as history professors.
If your heart is set on, say, journalism, I would not dream of changing it, nay, I cannot change it. I remember a joke from when I was in journalism: “What is the difference between a 16-inch pizza and a journalism graduate? A 16-inch pizza can feed a family of four.”
The society pushes this irresponsible consumerism on our students with more and more “must-have” stuff, along with credit cards. Maybe that is the way to learn, but it is an ever-so-hard lesson. I know that most young people will listen to the warning and shrug, “whatever.”
At least pray for them. They will need it in the coming years. We should also talk to them because some might eventually see the truth. Save those who will be saved.
Swickard is a weekly columnist for this site. You can reach him at michael@swickard.com.