Top 3 things that give your life meaning.

[ApatheticNoMore]

He never touched those assets again for the rest of his life. He died 25 years later and they were valued at roughly $700,000. Thanks to the US tax code my sister and I paid $0 tax on that capital gain. Multiply that out over the top 0.1%'s various death capital gains resets and now you might start to figure out who you need to be angry at. And it ain't Ultralight.

So you want us to be angry at you? That is a heck of an inheritance.

[Yppej]

With his family connections Al Gore could have gotten out of going to Vietnam, but he went because if he didn't someone else from his small town in Tennessee would have been drafted to go instead. He is honorable.

There are many dishonorable people not just UL. For instance, I see able-bodied panhandlers in my city although there is a labor shortage in the area. They like to mooch off others.

[Ultralight]

Murdered by the Vietnam people.

I don't think it is considered murder during war. In war the opposing countries' soldiers kill each other. Those are not considered murders, they are considered casualties.

And "the Vietnam people" are called Vietnamese.

It would certainly be your right to be a objector.

Is that dishonorable?

Seriously I try not to focus on the injustices of the world.

Why?

I hate it when people act like animals are disposable.

Then talk to your best friend Jeppy about that.

I have people that will take ours if we both die.

I wish my parents would think about this issue. I worry for their dogs.

You could comfortably pay 500/month. Doing the math this would come closer to paying off your debt. But again it’s a individual decision.

What?

[Ultralight]

With his family connections Al Gore could have gotten out of going to Vietnam, but he went because if he didn't someone else from his small town in Tennessee would have been drafted to go instead. He is honorable.

So you are saying Gore literally saved someone else from being drafted by volunteering for the military? What is the name of the man Gore saved?

Do you even know how conscription worked during the Vietnam Era?

There are many dishonorable people not just UL. For instance, I see able-bodied panhandlers in my city although there is a labor shortage in the area. They like to mooch off others.

There are lots of internet bullies who have creepy obsessions with people, not just Yppej.

[jp1]

So you want us to be angry at you? That is a heck of an inheritance.

Yeah. If someone is going to be angry at ultralight for taking advantage of the student loan forgiveness program they should be angry at me and my sister for getting a $75k tax break just for being born to the right parent.

[LDAHL]

And honestly, there are all sorts of things in life that just aren't fair. Thinking more about my father, he retired in 1992 with approximately $200,000 in assets invested in the stock market. He never touched those assets again for the rest of his life. He died 25 years later and they were valued at roughly $700,000. Thanks to the US tax code my sister and I paid $0 tax on that capital gain. Multiply that out over the top 0.1%'s various death capital gains resets and now you might start to figure out who you need to be angry at. And it ain't Ultralight.

If you find the step-up in basis on inherited securities to be ethically problematic, you can always send the Treasury Department a check.

[LDAHL]

It's just another way of keeping poor people down. I got my 4 year credential almost 30 years ago. In the entire time since then I have had precisely zero potential employer express any interest in it beyond the fact that I have it. No interest in what I studied. No interest in how good or poor my grades were. No interest in what institution it came from, beyond the fact that said institution used to have a kick-ass football program. But that degree has helped me obtain a steadily rising resume of "4 year degree required" jobs that did not utilize any particular aspect of the education I got from that institution.

I suppose at minimum it establishes the holder showed up for classes and was able to please professors to the extent that they granted him a degree. I would suspect there are more efficient ways to document a person’s ability to show up and perform basic tasks, however.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I suppose at minimum it establishes the holder showed up for classes and was able to please professors to the extent that they granted him a degree. I would suspect there are more efficient ways to document a person’s ability to show up and perform basic tasks, however.

and the job market in it's infinite wisdom (ha), is not much interested in those other ways, however efficient they may be. And are they really efficient? I mean the degree thing is as lazy as you can get for an employer, it's pre-screening based on a check box (actual screening is the interview process etc.). If you are making an argument it's not efficient for the job seeker to get education that is many cases ends up not even applying to the work they actually end up doing, well ok but that probably doesn't matter. It is as low effort as possible for the companies looking for employees and that's what matters. So job seekers live in the real world and act accordingly, chase after the degree or even advanced degrees etc.

Seeing employers as basically "lazy" (or seeking the least effort possible) when seeking an employee is probably a pretty accurate and useful way to view the job market (such might be human nature but truthfully they are busy and finding an ideal employee isn't their main task either). Not that it provides the magic solution if caught in non-fruitful job hunting, nah there often is no such thing, just keep keeping on but ...

[catherine]

I feel there is such a stigma against people who are not college educated. I remember when my high-school drop-out son became a teaching golf pro and followed the sun all year working hard from sunup to sundown teaching the college-educated folk how to play golf.

I ran into one of his elementary-school friends in the supermarket during that time and she asked me how he was doing. I told her, with pride, that he was a PGA teaching pro teaching golf in Vermont, Florida, and Arizona, and she went "Meh. I guess it's better than working at McDonalds." He subsequently wound up getting a job at Rutgers so he could get tuition remission and go to Rutgers Law School, and he worked at his job during the day and went to school nights and weekends, and graduated with a law degree with no debt.

I have another son with no debt who decided not to go to college at all. He serves tables so he can live out his passion as a singer/songwriter. But he is so self-conscious when people ask him what he does, and he is sure his lack of college degree is why he has been "between girlfriends" for a while now. Yet, today, his boss sent him a review on the restaurant he works in where the reviewer gave the restaurant 5 stars and called out my son's service specifically as being a reason for the high rating.

I LOVE an MLK quote that speaks to the honor in any work, and I've taught this to my kids:

"Whatever your life’s work is, do it well. Even if it does not fall in the category of one of the so-called big professions, do it well. As one college president said, 'A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.' If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, like Shakespeare wrote poetry, like Beethoven composed music; sweep streets so well that all the hosts of Heaven and earth will have to pause and say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper, who swept his job well.'”

This feels off-topic, but it speaks to the issues around education supporting (or not supporting) a life well lived.

[razz]

There sure is a lot of snarkiness in this thread. Why can't people simply be grateful for the benefits each of us has received that the rest of the world is striving to obtain? I have been really poor and hungry at times, and, struggling with challenges but was glad to be alive and overcoming them, albeit gradually. Now I am more secure and comfortable but have the same sense of gratitude. Just don't understand the snarkiness.