Re: school loans(devil contract)

It's now been a little over 20 years since I finally paid off the particualr version of after-high-school loan that I signed up for in the late 70's. It's now been about 20 years since finally paying off that particular "debt", and during these years I've contemplated that experience quite a bit. There is a distinct impression I have of the people behind this particualr money system, especially behind the collection end of the system working on behalf of the loan sharks who patrol the higher-education waters of this world. Their collection tatics are patterned very closely to the same that have been employed by the IRS the past 70 years; tenacious!

It's not that I have a problem with the principle of a person making good on their debts. Its not that I want to promote the idea that it's okay to take money from somebody and then welch on repayment. It's the idea that there is and has been in this country the continuum of young people -just out of high school, who, at a time when most of them have not yet had ample opportunity to figure out much about what is really going on in the world, are tossed into it - the cauldron called adult-hood, where there are industries of vultures circling with the agenda to further draw these young, confused people into significant obligations that young people generally do not know how to recognize, do not undertand, and do not appreciate the full impact and consequences of.... THATS what I have a problem with.

Back then, in Pennyslvania the loan sharks went by the catchy calling card name of PHEAA - pennsylvania higher education assistance agency..... almost gives you a false BUT warm, fuzzy feeling just saying that name, doesn't it? Year one was spent acting out my version of giving it a go "the old college try" at the branch campus of a traditional 4-year college. Then I did a relatively smart thing, something I was otherwise not at all good at back in those days; I dropped out, reassessed the situation, and then decided to go to a 2-year trade-school. Two years later I then officially entered into the rat race in the fall of 1981 by way of my first-ever real job as a corporate employee. IE> not like the various part time summertime jobs that our culture has traditionally made available to college kids. It was not long after going to work that the repayment program triggered into action. The money coming in from the first job was a few bucks an hour above minimum wage and turned out to be barely enough to keep a roof over my head. This was in part due to my own mis-management of finances that included as a priority the desire to maintain a steady flow of recreational stimulants - mainly alcohol, into said head. By the mid 80's I was still struggling to learn how to be responsible for myself, my life, my job, my obligations - financial and otherwise. For several months I'd stopped making payments to the school-loan collectors, and they did not just come a calling, they came a calling by leaning on me in various ways with quite a bit of force or "motivation", if you will. Compared to other financial obligations that I had fallen behind on here and there, these school-loan collectors were far more aggressive in their collection efforts. Best thing I can now say about that experience is that by 87' I managed to get the loan paid off and no longer have that particular fear helping to guide my life.