Sink or swim

[Days]

That's how my Republican parents raised us. We knew, once we turned 18, we were on our own. I actually had to walk away from a 3/4 scholarship to a big ten university because I ran out of money to live on. I didn't dare ask my parents for the food and travel money I was short to continue my sophomore year, even though my mid term grades were two B's and two A's. I knew damn well, I was on my own.

That's not going to happen to my kid. He's just started his freshman year of high school but we talk about college all the time. I beg my kid to stay home and live with his parents. One way or another, I intend to pay for his college; all of it. He's not going to need to go in debt the way his bro needed to go into debt. The wife and I are going to do this by forming a living trust with my wife's inheritance. We will get none of it to live on, we will go on living poor, we will go on living in the suburbs without a car. We walk, we drive bikes, we endure the weather, we are old but we will keep doing that. We have our son's back. If he does end up needing a loan to finish his education, I want a federal government that thinks my gifted, straight A student, deserves a loan. As God is my witness, and my my prayers are heard, no one is going to tell my son that he is on his own.


[video=youtube;i5knEXDsrL4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=i5knEXDsrL4#![/video]

 

[Lukey]

That's great! And then when he get a good job and makes some money you progressives can bleed him dry for more free cheese for the lay abouts...

 

[Cicero]

As a private tutor I can tell you that it's a sad truth that most students given a free ride in college by their parents screw up big time for at least the first two years because they have no personal financial stake in the process. Perhaps your youngest son, out of all these others, will be the rare exception. It's possible, but it's also betting against the odds.

It might be a good idea to put some moderate financial burdens on the youngster in order to motivate him on a deeply personal level to keep that ol' nose to the grindstone. I will finish by pointing out that the parents who believed that their child would be the exception to the above, were almost uniformly wrong when all was said and done. But parents who will not listen to the advice of the very professionals that they are paying is one of the great ironies of not only the private tutoring business but of many other professions as well.

 

[RickWA]

Days, I agree with you 100% - and my children will face no such "off the cliff" burden as they start out. The State, however, has no approriate input into my relationship with my children (or my God). My children - the eldest of whom is a high school senior - will have my aid, but they will have skin in the game as well...to include some accountability, some financial kick-in, and some lofty expectations from dad.

 

[NightSwimmer]

It's not that difficult to bend over backward to help your own flesh and blood. That's not even a political position - that's tribalism in it's purest form.

The political question is: What will become of my children if the wife and I should both be killed in an automobile accident? That question forces you to step outside of the clan and consider the greater society.

 

[LeRoy_Was_Here]

It might be a good idea to put some moderate financial burdens on the youngster in order to motivate him on a deeply personal level to keep that ol' nose to the grindstone.

LeRoy: And by the same token, by the same reasoning, it might be a good idea to make sure your children are going hungry most of the time, so that they realize life is a bitch, a daily struggle for existence.

 

[LeRoy_Was_Here]

The State, however, has no approriate input into my relationship with my children (or my God).

LeRoy: I see. So if you're beating your children on a daily basis, causing severe physical injuries, raping your daughter, or maybe burning your son's penis because you caught him masturbating, why, that's none of the state's gosh-darned business, eh?

 

[RickWA]

While I appreciate the lefty sensibility of governing down to the lowest common denominator and the presumptive projection of incapacity upon others, I generally reject it. In the context of our discussion about college aid and parental support, the state has no business. Lefty interjection of altogether unrelated nightmare scenarios are uninteresting. ;-)

 

[Cicero]

Now you see only a fanatic would take what I wrote and translate it as meaning that Days should do to his youngest son what his parents did to him. It's not all that difficult to grow to maturity as a thinker. But it does require effort. Some degree of financial burden is not equivalent to tossing the kid to the fiscal wolves. Now you know.

 

[LeRoy_Was_Here]

While I appreciate the lefty sensibility of governing down to the lowest common denominator and the presumptive projection of incapacity upon others, I generally reject it. In the context of our discussion about college aid and parental support, the state has no business. Lefty interjection of altogether unrelated nightmare scenarios are uninteresting. ;-)

LeRoy: Was THAT your defense of your earlier assertion that "The State, however, has no appropriate input into my relationship with my children"?? REALLY???

 

[RickWA]

In effect, you've argued that only through coerced appropriation of other people's money (by the almighty state, of course) do we avert "tribalism".

BTW: In truth, "tribalism" si defined by a "tribe" taking care of the "tribe", not just a family's flesh and blood. But...tomato/tomahto. It's always about the collective supplanting proper local and familial roles. Respect the state!

 

[Cicero]

We now have some new Dem slogans. "Support the State!" "You belong to the government!"

This political season is turning out to be entertaining as hell.

 

[RickWA]

What were we talking about, Leroy? You are an educator of some sort are you not? Context of discussion matters - at least among the ostensibly sophisticated.

BTW: The fact is that the state has NO appropriate input into my relationship with my children (frankly because I don't abuse them). Look, I understand that you lefties are starved for non-lefty interaction as conservatives have left this place...but let's make efforts to speak on topic and in context. Or, instead you can go all "you didn't build that" in here and completely showcase hypocrisy. That too would be instructive.

 

[LeRoy_Was_Here]

We now have some new Dem slogans. "Support the State!" "You belong to the government!"

This political season is turning out to be entertaining as hell.

LeRoy: No, the slogan that Bill Clinton CLEARLY enunciated last night was "We're All In This Together".

YOUR slogan is "You're On Your Own!" Or maybe "Every Man For Himself!"

 

[LeRoy_Was_Here]

What were we talking about, Leroy? You are an educator of some sort are you not? Context of discussion matters - at least among the ostensibly sophisticated.

BTW: The fact is that the state has NO appropriate input into my relationship with my children (frankly because I don't abuse them). Look, I understand that you lefties are starved for non-lefty interaction as conservatives have left this place...but let's make efforts to speak on topic and in context. Or, instead you can go all "you didn't build that" in here and completely showcase hypocrisy. That too would be instructive.

LeRoy: Well, it so happens that I disagree with you, Rick. Vehemently. I am glad to hear that you don't abuse your children, and absent contradictory evidence, I'll take your word on that. But the FACT is that many parents DO abuse their children. Or are you claiming that you have NEVER heard of such cases??? And for you to claim that the state has no RIGHT to intervene in such cases.....well....is just MONSTROUS, in my opinion. So if some couple decided they should make some weird religious SACRIFICE of their first-born son, you'd be perfectly OK with that?!?!???

 

[LeRoy_Was_Here]

LeRoy: And, as a P.S. to my last post, as an educator, I have SEEN cases of rather severe child abuse by a parent. Or by a step-parent, which is rather more common. So, really, DON'T try to tell me, oh, that would NEVER happen!! I am actually required....by LAW, you know....to report suspected cases of child abuse to the authorities. I have done so in the past, and will continue to do so in the future, even though it apparently 'violates' your religion.

 

[JuliefromOhio]

well, Days, you had the misfortune to be born in a family who couldn't send you to college.

I was lucky. my dad, the sole breadwinner, worked a union job in a glass factory so could easily pay for my college education.

now Willard Romney was lucky, daddy gave him stocks to use to fund his college and living expenses. that's why it's easy for Romney to give guidance to the young by suggesting, "ask your parents for the money." LOL

 

[RickWA]

Garden variety lefty statism wrappped in protecting us from fellow family members. Does abuse occur? yes, but it isn't the rule. None of this has bearing on the discussion of supporting kids' college costs. Why so cataclysmic today, Leroy?

No straw men today - too busy for nonsense. I didn't "try to tell you" that something wuldn't happen. feel free to continue arguing with yourself if you like. Thanks.

 

[RickWA]

You're inventing what other people said again. That's a bad habit.

 

[Cicero]

Obama was lucky too. His college education was guaranteed by the well-connected radicals who arranged to insert him into Ivy League college despite his dismal performance in high school. One learns loads of interesting things when actually bothering to vett a fellow before putting him into the presidency. Our leftwingers should give it a try with their own candidates sometime.