Recently I was trapped in a Doctor’s office for the semi-monthly make-your arm-hurt, feel-like-you-got-the-flu shot that prevents yellow-jackets from killing me. On the monitor was the CBS Morning Show (or whatever silly name they have – only watch that tripe when forced to wait 30 minutes for the shot to either kill me or not) and the wailing and gnashing of teeth over student debt was akin to the lamentations if a gorilla had smashed its way into a day-care center and rent the children limb-from-limb.

I just smiled at the “more free stuff is needed” editorial that was passing as a news piece. I am perhaps less sympathetic than most to the issue of college loan debt. Mainly because I’ve managed to obtain my education via good grades and hard work. I had a couple of scholarships due to academic excellence (yeah, me… it didn’t take.) I also worked full-time ++ during my entire education. I worked overnights, weekends, summers, and in one case got the degree in question because my union and employer agreed that my being educated was a plus to everyone. I worked over 40 hours each of those weeks during my sophomore through advanced degree work years. And went to school full-time, or close to it.

I worked hard. I didn’t get to go out much with friends or dates. But when I grabbed the sheepskin at the end of each run, I had money in the bank, a car that was paid for, and some nice toys. I also had $0.00 in student loans – never took one out.

When I got married, one of our first financial goals was to pay off my wife’s student loans. That was accomplished in under two years. We didn’t want to owe anyone anything.

This morning’s piece bemoaned the lack of financial counseling “unaware 18 year olds” are given about assuming all that debt. Uh, yeah. I guess if you’re too stupid to know that borrowing $100,000 and studying Art History is a combination that says “Barrista”, perhaps you deserve your fate.

One woman was truly upset that she had to get a job in TEXAS (I know, I know) and work selling engineering products to pay off her debt. She had to give up her dream job of registering voters in Colorado.

Sorry, had to end the paragraph and go to the stairwell to scream. Doing it where others can hear me is upsetting – or so I’ve been told in those meetings with Human Resources.

The second woman was “the oldest student at the college” and she had taken out tens of thousands of dollars in loans to pursue her advanced degree in social work. SHE WILL DIE WITH UNPAID STUDENT LOANS!1!1!!! Oh, the horror.

I think we’ll likely see a plot to forgive all of these loans come to fruition. That’s awesome. I worked my behind off to get through school, and now I can pay off loans for people not smart enough to know that a masters degree in Lesbian Origami is likely to be a not-for-profit labor of love.

The rules for student loans are the same as they are for car loans, dishwasher loans, and loans so you can upholster your garage and launch a band: you have to pay it back. The only difference is you can’t give back an education, but they’ll be over at 4 pm to pick up the refrigerator you didn’t pay for last month.

Spare me the whining: pay your debts.

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