I see one flagged comment, and that starts with an insult. There are other comments disagreeing visible (and not even grey), so what are you on about?

so signals. If you're talented enough you don't need signals, you just provide value.

So for many people, acquiring signals is a complete waste of time and money.

I've not only always shared an apartment since college, I've shared rooms.

Millennial, two STEM degrees, live in a 2nd-tier city, and likely a decade more before I can afford a down payment.

So uhhhh....checkmate?

>the inequity would be if free parking was provided to workers who drove to work but no similar subsidy was provided to those who took public transit.

Really? Does it work the other way too? My employer will reimburse a small amount of public transit costs, but the people that drive get no similar benefit.

Do they get free storage for their cars during the workday?

Yes, if employers pay for transit passes that counts as a taxable benefit too.

we have to do something about the interest rates though, there are tons of programs to help cap your payment...but you're just kicking the can down the road as your balance goes up.

Would you be ok with instituting a law that mortgage and medical debts can no longer be discharged through bankruptcy?

I bet people get really irresponsible when they realize they don't have to pay these debts, they just have to take a massive hit to their credit score....or maybe, most people don't become irresponsible, the people that really need the help get it, and a couple take advantage of the system.

No, that's not what I'm advocating for at all, nor would I bring back debtor's prison, or any of the other relics of The Bad Old Days. Just advocating against trying to tell people that it's totally OK to declare bankruptcy in the event that it makes more financial sense for them. It should be reserved for completely untenable situations, and unless you had a reasonable expectation that it would work out, there should be a at least some personal shame involved for having made such poor decisions, such that they don't make the same mistakes again. We shouldn't try to normalize it.

You're spending other people's money. Treat it with respect.

> there should be a at least some personal shame involved for having made such poor decisions

What about the shame of the lender for making poor lending decisions?

> We shouldn't try to normalize it.

Why not? The only reasons you've given is "because it makes for a nicer society" but I don't actually see how it does. All you're doing is taking one of the few tools the individual has to mitigate financial problems away from them because you want to moralise their failure.

It's not like declaring bankruptcy is a walk in the park. It's a total pain and really negatively impacts your ability to do a lot of stuff. It is already a last resort for individuals and they shouldn't be stigmatised for taking it.

> You're spending other people's money. Treat it with respect.

No you're spending your own money, gained through a business transaction in which the lender has accounted for the risk of non-repayment.

I actually think it makes for a potentially nicer society if lenders are incentivised to have a stake in the successful outcome of their clients. If the client is culturally conditioned to try and pay their loan even after the point it makes no sense to, then the lenders will put more and more onerous terms and rates on loans because they know the person will never give up. Lenders will have to make sure it's a good deal for their clients, not just themselves.

I mean, is this surprising? Despite the original purpose of college, today the majority of people only go to college because they want a decent job.

If your best shot of getting a decent job requires you to first get a 40k piece of paper, many people will do this and they will put in the minimum amount of work to get what they want. I mean, it's efficient after all isn't it? Why work more for the same result?

I managed to get about 70% of my entire undergrad (tuition, books, and living expenses) covered by academic scholarships.

Even with working every summer, every Christmas break, and through 3 of the 4 years while at school, I still had to miss many classes to pick up extra shifts at work (thankfully only a handful of courses are strict about attendance, so my GPA only suffered by about ~0.3). And I still came out with the "average student loan debt" of about 22k.

Unfortunately, despite how "smart" I am. I was too retarded to see what a mistake the life sciences were and I'm still working on that debt.

College is a scam if you're at least decently intelligent. It's an 80k stamp.

you can't be compassionate if your compassion only extends to the point that it starts to have any negative effect on your life.

Then you're just a dick that wants to pretend you are a better person than you are.

The author is as compassionate as many of the Republicans in Congress. They care! They really do, just not enough to vote in anyway that would make a difference to the things they proclaim to care about.

I really appreciate the author sharing something so personal, but his entire family is less than human.

> you can't be compassionate if your compassion only extends to the point that it starts to have any negative effect on your life.

How much of your income do you donate?

Most medical operations have an army of people supporting physicians.

I used to work at a medical lab and there were transcriptionists, billing dept, a dept. for quality assurance of every report a doctor wrote, customer service, etc. Hospitals have all of that plus nurses (RNs, CNAs, etc.), physician assistants, and probably many others.

Part of the problem is how much paperwork/procedures/diagnostic reporting is legally mandated to be done by doctors. The other part is...money. Businesses want to/need to squeeze as much money out of the doctors and that requires seeing as many patients as possible.