Conservatives hating on young people for being young

[phantom power]

Today's post from Amanda Marcotte is made entirely of win:

If you want closed case evidence on how conservatism is mostly about sadism and mean-spiritedness, look no further than how general wingnuttery views young people. Student debt and high unemployment are major problems for the Millennials. You would think that conservatives could muster sympathy in this case, because a) the people suffering could be their own kids and grandkids and b) these are people who are working hard, studying hard, and still getting screwed. But no. Instead you get folks like the evil monster Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, saying this about the student debt crisis:

"I have very little tolerance for people who tell me that they graduate with $200,000 of debt or even $80,000 of debt because there's no reason for that," Foxx continued. "We live in an opportunity society and people are forgetting that. I remind folks all the time that the Declaration of Independence says 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' You don't sit on your butt and have it dumped in your lap."

I decided to figure out how doable her "just work your way through school, and you won't have debt" solution is. If you're lucky enough to get in-state tuitiion at UT Austin, which is one of the better and more affordable options for a quality education, tuition and housing for two semesters will run you about $18,800. That's not counting books, food, or general cost-of-living expenses. You have to do school full-time to maximize the cost-effectiveness, since the amount of money you pay per credit hour if you don't goes up susbstantially in direct and indirect ways. If you can somehow manage to do that and are lucky enough to get a full-time minimum wage job in this economy, then you'll make about $15,000 a year. So even if you work 80 hours a week (remember, there's only 168 hours in a week, 49 of which must be spent sleeping), you won't make enough to pay for two semesters worth of school. And that doesn't even take into account cost of living expenses over the summer. It's literally impossible for someone to pull off the Virginia Foxx Plan For College, even if you're superhuman in your energy levels.

...

Here are the most popular majors, in order, according to the Princeton Review: business, psychology, nursing, biology, education, English, economics, communications, political science, and computer science. It seems that kids are mostly picking majors that will lead to the kind of professional careers that they're told they should want. This commenter betrays himself with his ignorance, sure, but also with the phrase "hipster lifestyle". This is all about hating the young for being young, wanting them to suffer because they still have hard bodies and high libidos while your aging body makes it increasingly hard to ignore that death is coming for all of us. It's basically asshole behavior, believing that you had a right to be young, but no one else does now that you aren't anymore

http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/conservatives-hating-on-young-people-for-being-young

[richmwill]

1. You're surprised they hate young people? I'm not...

This is the group that hates the fact that women are allowed to vote because women overwhelmingly vote Democrat, remember.

[phantom power]

2. No, that bit didn't surprise me.

What did strike me was her demonstration of how impossible it is to "work your way through college." When I was in college, that was still a possibility, at least if you went to a state school with in-state tuition, etc. Even then, it was getting harder all the time. But things have changed a lot since I was a student, and not for the better.

What's happening now is completely unsustainable.

[felix_numinous]

3. It is disturbing

is that the GOP doesn't seem to NEED young voters, women or millions of other minority groups-- because the whole democratic process is just a JOKE to them.

They'd rather have a dictatorship theocracy police state. Dissing potential voters doesn't compute any other way.

[mrmpa]

4. "Ah, youth is wasted on the wrong people."

a quote from "It's A Wonderful Life"