Let’s All Weep 4 Student-Loan Whiners

Here’s a news flash: “Nobody at Work Wants to Hear About Your Student-Loan Payments.” That’s the WSJ headline as “debt-free co-workers say they made sacrifices & smart choices & they have little patience for sob stories.”

Amen. Do you have a couple hours to hear my story of how I WORKED MY WAY through college, then, law school with glamorous jobs like paper boy, gardener, janitor, paint line & punch press factory worker, truck driver, law intern & giggolo (Ed: ZZZ. Are you still listening?). Got another hour on how my kids likewise worked part-time while attending college while Dad’s checkbook & a couple of grants got THEM degrees without debt? In contrast, the WSJ piece warns: “Millions of Americans’ federal student-loan payments resume next months, as a pandemic pause on collections ends. Many of these borrowers suddenly feel like they’re taking pay cuts. Some say they’ll have to reduce entertainment spending or delay major purchases such as homes & cars.”

“'Good,' comes the retort from unsympathetic colleagues who paid back their loans, joined the military to earn debt relief or attended second-choice colleges because they were cheaper.” Then, like myself, there’s the Smith Barney “They earned it” option. As SB spokesman John Houseman, “America’s Favorite Old Fart” per Bill Murray in “Scrooged,” would undoubtedly say if still alive, “Get another job!”

Davd Soul