This is the Sunday edition of Culture Study — the newsletter from Anne Helen Petersen, which you can read about here. If you like it and want more like it in your inbox, consider subscribing.
There are a lot of things I do not miss about the Evangelical faith I grew up with (the homophobia, the racism, the sexism, the Christian Nationalism just to name a few). But I do still consider myself a person of faith and the whole talk about it not being fair to forgive student debt when others had to pay theirs off really deeply reminds me of a parable in the Bible.
Jesus tells a story about a man who hires workers to tend to his fields. He hires a few in the morning, a few in the afternoon and a few a couple of hours before the end of the work day. At the end of the day he pays them all the same amount. It's also implied it's a nice amount of money. The workers who've been there all day complain that it isn't fair that those who worked just a couple of hours got paid the same as them. And the owner of the field says basically "Don't I have the right to do what I wish with my money? Or are you mad because I'm being generous?"
This story is where the concept of the last shall be first and the first shall be last comes from. Again not a perfect metaphor but I remember my mother referencing this story a lot when I was growing up. It was always in reference to fairness. That we should be generous in how we give to others and it doesn't matter if they "deserve" it or not. And I do feel that this concept still influences me today. I haven't paid off my school loans yet but even if I had I can't imagine not supporting forgiving everyone else's. And not just because of the all economic reasons it makes sense to. But because it's the right thing to do and it doesn't matter if I "miss" out on it. I want others to experience the freedom that comes from being out of debt just as much as I want it for me. Maybe that makes me a goody two shoes but oh well!
Yes! I am pro-UBI because it would free us all to do meaningful work without being worried about a paycheck! I would love to make a small income and spend my days researching and writing about and advocating for the issues that are important to me, not what someone else thinks is important.
One of the most meaningful periods of my life was 2017 when I was unemployed and wrote my entire graduate thesis in 4 months. That January I had been let go by my employer while in the hospital for depression (fuck capitalism that cares more about the bottom line than people!) but when I was better I was able to live off of unemployment while finishing my degree. I ended up presenting that work 3 times and wrote a letter to the mayor of my city and she incorporated 2 of my ideas into a published report. (Unfortunately they were never implemented, and that mayor ended up resigning over corruption, but the fact that they were published at all was a good first step.) I got into local grassroots advocacy work.
I ended up starting a new job that April, and while I loved that job and my current position, there was nothing like the passion I had when I was free to research, write, advocate without fear of getting fired.
I worked really hard in that time because I knew it was temporary, but if I could have stayed on a basic income indefinitely, I could have worked less hard and had all of this extra time to spend with family and friends. My grandmother actually broke her pelvis that spring and was in the hospital and me being unemployed gave me the flexibility to be with her much more (every day) than I could have while employed (weekends). Where is my 15 hour work week that Keynes predicted 90 years ago back in 1930? My life would have been amazingly balanced if I only worked 3 hours a day on it, 5 days a week, and had all of this extra time to spend with family and friends, being domestic, and enjoying hobbies!
I just imagine how fulfilled everyone could be on a UBI when they had the freedom to truly pursue their dreams without money getting in the way! Suddenly those art degrees aren't seen as a waste because it's not about whether or not you can make money with it!
A big reason why people have to fret over monetizing their art degrees is how much the big, nasty higher education system has conspired them to cost. Some form of UBI, in the absence of reform in a lot of other arenas, is a recipe for further exploitation. Change needs to be multifaceted - a lot of cause and effects to consider.
Absolutely. There definitely needs to be multi-faceted reform. UBI needs universal health care and some sort of college tuition reform.
Also, I imagine in a world with UBI and the internet, college degrees will be less necessary overall. Why do so many people go to college? Because they need that piece of paper to get them a job so that they can have health care and income. I was so discouraged by how many of my classmates in undergrad and grad school felt this way - they weren't there because they wanted to learn more but because they had to be there to check a box. Save college for people who want more formal and intense learning and training from the experts and let the rest of us go back to learning those skills in a less formal setting.
My major hobby is singing in a community choir. I don't have a degree in music and the likelihood that I'm going to land a solo is slim but that's okay - I still have so much fun singing with others. It's hard to fit into my life but I've pulled it off. I would have so much more time to practice each week (and learn other songs on my own for fun) with a UBI and universal health care.
I’m living the parental version of the job lock in which my kid’s rare disease orphan medication costs almost $500,000 without insurance. I’m staying in my boring government IT job until he turns 26.
Many of us have been radicalized (in a liberatory way) by what you've so starkly and succinctly described here. Hope many more follow. Thank you for this.
My mother-in-law in England has been struggling with various health issues the past few months (she was born with a disability--rheumatoid arthritis) and is now in the hospital. It's frustrating not to be there (not that we could visit anyway due to Covid restrictions and the current lockdown) but I talk with her every day and every day I think how much worse it would all be if she or we had to think about how much this was all going to cost. She's never seen a medical bill despite major treatments for her disability all her life, and the difference that makes in a person's quality of life is indescribable. I'll never forget living in Austria and what it felt like the first time I needed to go to the doctor and didn't have to choose between that and groceries. Not that anyone needs more stories like this but what we find acceptable is just insane.
I love the Kathi Weeks quote: I took the concept of “distance” quite literally and left the country as soon as I finished my M.A. In the years between (loan-funded) undergrad and (full scholarship!) grad school, I lived in NYC with no health insurance and could not afford food and necessary prescriptions at the same time. When a temp role at an area hospital turned into a job with benefits, I was able to get a thyroid tumor treated (among other things).
This was in the late 1980s, and it was horrific. So no, I’m not a millennial. But over the past 30 years, I’ve watched the numbers get bigger and the goal of stability and security get further away for younger members of my family and friends and acquaintances.
I left and rebuilt my life on another continent, in another language, and finally felt free. My cost of living in the 1990s was so low that I paid off my undergrad loans quickly. I have a safety net, funded by a social consensus that corporate and individual tax money is well-spent funding generous unemployment and retraining, and mandating as well as subsidizing health insurance for those who can’t pay the full premium. My chronic illnesses are treated and under control. I am free to change jobs, reduce the amount I work, opt for a freelance career, try something else on for size— without risking the roof over my head or my health. I live debt-free (except for my mortgage). With degrees in art history, and communication and journalism, my life would now look very different if I had stayed in the States.
The long-tentacled capitalist system is not fair. Neither would be a one-off debt forgiveness. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a good and right thing to do. But it is unfair.
Most debating this issue are college educated - how does this proposal play out to those who are not? A huge handout to, statistically, the “smart” higher earners. You mention the agency involved here: just as people should be expected to factor the depreciation inherent to that $60k SUV purchase, so too should they be rational about the real, albeit capitalist-hindered and slow, incremental appreciation of that expensive credential.
I totally get the “job lock”. Hell, I’m living it. But where do we get off-really-expecting guaranteed stability, ultimate flexibility, low/no debt, and the social capital that comes with elite and/or advanced degrees?
It does benefit those with degrees, as I mention above — but also people who didn't finish their degrees, people who were the victims of predatory for-profit colleges (and may have degrees in fields like massage therapy without sufficient job opportunities). And also: there should be so many additional programs that benefit people without college degrees! This is just one spoke on the new wheel, you know?
Another spoke might be if we closed down a couple hundred military bases and stopped killing people all over the globe and instead sent all those people to college for free who see no future BUT the military because higher education costs so much, well....
I get it. And, yes, a lot of people get ripped off. But the student loan forgiveness is a Day One issue. And, to me at least, it sends a strong message of priorities. Worthwhile priorities, I believe. But also kinda devisive, when you consider the population as a whole.
I am with you on this. I really appreciate the post and think it's awesome Universal Basic Income was mentioned, but this is one spoke that will not address how universities and colleges still are charging $60k/year for degrees. Or is there a plan to address those who have loans through banks and for profit institutions? I thought the discussion to eliminate debt would only apply to federal loans?
Above all, I think it will drive the "blue" and "red" electorate further apart. I can only imagine what my family in the rural south will say if my debt disappears after the stroke of a pen.
1) stop making college mandatory for jobs that don't actually require it. It should be illegal to use education as a screening tool for jobs.
My husband never finished his bachelor's degree yet has struggled to find better jobs despite his 25 years of experience in the field because a computer algorithm throws out his resume before a human even gets to look at it. It's ridiculous. He edits Open Street Map as a hobby and has taught himself GIS, but it would be impossible for him to become an analyst because he doesn't have a degree in it or a way to quantify his 5 plus years of informal experience.
2) charge 0% interest on student loans.
If they are practically impossible to discharge during bankruptcy, then there is no risk for the lender, so its highway robbery for them to charge interest. I feel like interest is the biggest problem with the student loan crisis, anyway, especially for older millennials and older who have basically paid back the original amount they owed but now have to pay practically the same amount again due to the interest.
FWIW, I only owe $5K left on my loans. I have been paying them for 11.5 years and am scheduled to be finished at 13 years. They have been hell to deal with and I would be happy to have this headache eliminated for the rest of the country.
What I envision a world with UBI and universal health care would look like is that most nonsense jobs would go away and the people who want to work more for discretionary income can and the rest of Americans can graduate with high school diplomas, live simply, and learn what we want in our free time informally through the tremendous library of free resources online.
I love this thread and hearing other people's thoughts. I teach at a large public research university (getting a PhD) and college is way more than education. It's a socialization process that allows students to meet people they would never ever meet in their own communities, they learn to wake up and go to school or the gym or clean, they learn time management, they learn how to work solo and with others, they learn how to listen and articulate their voices/words/arguments. They learn critical thinking, which is what we need in a citizenry. They learn independence and how to work/live collectively. The connections, social and professional, are extremely important. I am not talking about for their lifetime earnings, but for being in a diverse environment with people from all walks of life.
My story is the marriage story—health insurance story combo. I was laid off in September, right after separating from my husband and buying a house of my own. Now, as I wait out the year before my state allows me to file for divorce, I am still eligible for my husband's employer sponsored plan, and thus not eligible for an ACA subsidy. Nor can I deduct my health insurance premiums as a business expense for my freelance work. My share (for adding a spouse) of his premiums will cost me $700 a month. It is batshit crazy that divorce is my best option for affordable healthcare--and there are millions of us impacted by this "family glitch" in the ACA.
This resonates so hard. I was demoted to a part time hourly position when I got pregnant, but stayed and kept my mouth shut because I needed the health insurance that the wise and compassionate bookkeeper smuggled me onto. I never filed a complaint because I needed the job and the insurance during and after my complicated pregnancy. This was at a university while I was a student- I stayed on for years after just to keep my loans at bay and to have insurance while I dealt with mental health issues and a chronic disease that developed while I was pregnant- eventually leaving without my degree once my spouse found a job where we could afford the insurance for all of us.
How different our lives would be if I could have taken a break to heal and then come back to work when I was ready...
ugh, this is heartbreaking but I get it. I only took 6 weeks of maternity leave when I had my daughter because I had to save the other six weeks of my FMLA for physical therapy during pregnancy and postpartum due to chronic health issues. That six weeks wasn't long enough - I felt so rushed going back to work. I really struggled with postpartum depression and really feel like it would have been less severe if I had at least six extra weeks (but ideally more!) Even if I had those additional 6 weeks, though, I would have struggled financially because they would have been unpaid and I couldn't save any money because I was paying out the wazoo for PT and using all of my paid time off to go.
Even more frustrating is how I gave up breastfeeding and went to exclusively pumping when she was 2.5 weeks old because I felt like we didn't have enough time to figure it out. My lactation consultant told me it could take up to three months to get her to breastfeed properly with my autoimmune issues and I just wanted to have some enjoyable time with my daughter. Ugh, I'm crying typing this because it didn't have to be this way - in any other developed country we would have have the paid time off to figure it out.
"But what if the trajectory of our lives didn’t hinge on health insurance?"
What if, indeed. Health care for everyone is such a no brainer I honestly cannot understand any argument against it.
There are a lot of things I do not miss about the Evangelical faith I grew up with (the homophobia, the racism, the sexism, the Christian Nationalism just to name a few). But I do still consider myself a person of faith and the whole talk about it not being fair to forgive student debt when others had to pay theirs off really deeply reminds me of a parable in the Bible.
Jesus tells a story about a man who hires workers to tend to his fields. He hires a few in the morning, a few in the afternoon and a few a couple of hours before the end of the work day. At the end of the day he pays them all the same amount. It's also implied it's a nice amount of money. The workers who've been there all day complain that it isn't fair that those who worked just a couple of hours got paid the same as them. And the owner of the field says basically "Don't I have the right to do what I wish with my money? Or are you mad because I'm being generous?"
This story is where the concept of the last shall be first and the first shall be last comes from. Again not a perfect metaphor but I remember my mother referencing this story a lot when I was growing up. It was always in reference to fairness. That we should be generous in how we give to others and it doesn't matter if they "deserve" it or not. And I do feel that this concept still influences me today. I haven't paid off my school loans yet but even if I had I can't imagine not supporting forgiving everyone else's. And not just because of the all economic reasons it makes sense to. But because it's the right thing to do and it doesn't matter if I "miss" out on it. I want others to experience the freedom that comes from being out of debt just as much as I want it for me. Maybe that makes me a goody two shoes but oh well!
Yes! I am pro-UBI because it would free us all to do meaningful work without being worried about a paycheck! I would love to make a small income and spend my days researching and writing about and advocating for the issues that are important to me, not what someone else thinks is important.
One of the most meaningful periods of my life was 2017 when I was unemployed and wrote my entire graduate thesis in 4 months. That January I had been let go by my employer while in the hospital for depression (fuck capitalism that cares more about the bottom line than people!) but when I was better I was able to live off of unemployment while finishing my degree. I ended up presenting that work 3 times and wrote a letter to the mayor of my city and she incorporated 2 of my ideas into a published report. (Unfortunately they were never implemented, and that mayor ended up resigning over corruption, but the fact that they were published at all was a good first step.) I got into local grassroots advocacy work.
I ended up starting a new job that April, and while I loved that job and my current position, there was nothing like the passion I had when I was free to research, write, advocate without fear of getting fired.
I worked really hard in that time because I knew it was temporary, but if I could have stayed on a basic income indefinitely, I could have worked less hard and had all of this extra time to spend with family and friends. My grandmother actually broke her pelvis that spring and was in the hospital and me being unemployed gave me the flexibility to be with her much more (every day) than I could have while employed (weekends). Where is my 15 hour work week that Keynes predicted 90 years ago back in 1930? My life would have been amazingly balanced if I only worked 3 hours a day on it, 5 days a week, and had all of this extra time to spend with family and friends, being domestic, and enjoying hobbies!
I just imagine how fulfilled everyone could be on a UBI when they had the freedom to truly pursue their dreams without money getting in the way! Suddenly those art degrees aren't seen as a waste because it's not about whether or not you can make money with it!
A big reason why people have to fret over monetizing their art degrees is how much the big, nasty higher education system has conspired them to cost. Some form of UBI, in the absence of reform in a lot of other arenas, is a recipe for further exploitation. Change needs to be multifaceted - a lot of cause and effects to consider.
Absolutely. There definitely needs to be multi-faceted reform. UBI needs universal health care and some sort of college tuition reform.
Also, I imagine in a world with UBI and the internet, college degrees will be less necessary overall. Why do so many people go to college? Because they need that piece of paper to get them a job so that they can have health care and income. I was so discouraged by how many of my classmates in undergrad and grad school felt this way - they weren't there because they wanted to learn more but because they had to be there to check a box. Save college for people who want more formal and intense learning and training from the experts and let the rest of us go back to learning those skills in a less formal setting.
My major hobby is singing in a community choir. I don't have a degree in music and the likelihood that I'm going to land a solo is slim but that's okay - I still have so much fun singing with others. It's hard to fit into my life but I've pulled it off. I would have so much more time to practice each week (and learn other songs on my own for fun) with a UBI and universal health care.
All for trying to (socially?) engineer and end to the education-credential arms race. So much waste. Such burnout.
I’m living the parental version of the job lock in which my kid’s rare disease orphan medication costs almost $500,000 without insurance. I’m staying in my boring government IT job until he turns 26.
Many of us have been radicalized (in a liberatory way) by what you've so starkly and succinctly described here. Hope many more follow. Thank you for this.
My mother-in-law in England has been struggling with various health issues the past few months (she was born with a disability--rheumatoid arthritis) and is now in the hospital. It's frustrating not to be there (not that we could visit anyway due to Covid restrictions and the current lockdown) but I talk with her every day and every day I think how much worse it would all be if she or we had to think about how much this was all going to cost. She's never seen a medical bill despite major treatments for her disability all her life, and the difference that makes in a person's quality of life is indescribable. I'll never forget living in Austria and what it felt like the first time I needed to go to the doctor and didn't have to choose between that and groceries. Not that anyone needs more stories like this but what we find acceptable is just insane.
I love the Kathi Weeks quote: I took the concept of “distance” quite literally and left the country as soon as I finished my M.A. In the years between (loan-funded) undergrad and (full scholarship!) grad school, I lived in NYC with no health insurance and could not afford food and necessary prescriptions at the same time. When a temp role at an area hospital turned into a job with benefits, I was able to get a thyroid tumor treated (among other things).
This was in the late 1980s, and it was horrific. So no, I’m not a millennial. But over the past 30 years, I’ve watched the numbers get bigger and the goal of stability and security get further away for younger members of my family and friends and acquaintances.
I left and rebuilt my life on another continent, in another language, and finally felt free. My cost of living in the 1990s was so low that I paid off my undergrad loans quickly. I have a safety net, funded by a social consensus that corporate and individual tax money is well-spent funding generous unemployment and retraining, and mandating as well as subsidizing health insurance for those who can’t pay the full premium. My chronic illnesses are treated and under control. I am free to change jobs, reduce the amount I work, opt for a freelance career, try something else on for size— without risking the roof over my head or my health. I live debt-free (except for my mortgage). With degrees in art history, and communication and journalism, my life would now look very different if I had stayed in the States.
The US needs to change. Drastically. Immediately.
The long-tentacled capitalist system is not fair. Neither would be a one-off debt forgiveness. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a good and right thing to do. But it is unfair.
Most debating this issue are college educated - how does this proposal play out to those who are not? A huge handout to, statistically, the “smart” higher earners. You mention the agency involved here: just as people should be expected to factor the depreciation inherent to that $60k SUV purchase, so too should they be rational about the real, albeit capitalist-hindered and slow, incremental appreciation of that expensive credential.
I totally get the “job lock”. Hell, I’m living it. But where do we get off-really-expecting guaranteed stability, ultimate flexibility, low/no debt, and the social capital that comes with elite and/or advanced degrees?
It does benefit those with degrees, as I mention above — but also people who didn't finish their degrees, people who were the victims of predatory for-profit colleges (and may have degrees in fields like massage therapy without sufficient job opportunities). And also: there should be so many additional programs that benefit people without college degrees! This is just one spoke on the new wheel, you know?
Another spoke might be if we closed down a couple hundred military bases and stopped killing people all over the globe and instead sent all those people to college for free who see no future BUT the military because higher education costs so much, well....
I just ... can’t even ... yes. This.
I get it. And, yes, a lot of people get ripped off. But the student loan forgiveness is a Day One issue. And, to me at least, it sends a strong message of priorities. Worthwhile priorities, I believe. But also kinda devisive, when you consider the population as a whole.
I am with you on this. I really appreciate the post and think it's awesome Universal Basic Income was mentioned, but this is one spoke that will not address how universities and colleges still are charging $60k/year for degrees. Or is there a plan to address those who have loans through banks and for profit institutions? I thought the discussion to eliminate debt would only apply to federal loans?
Above all, I think it will drive the "blue" and "red" electorate further apart. I can only imagine what my family in the rural south will say if my debt disappears after the stroke of a pen.
1) stop making college mandatory for jobs that don't actually require it. It should be illegal to use education as a screening tool for jobs.
My husband never finished his bachelor's degree yet has struggled to find better jobs despite his 25 years of experience in the field because a computer algorithm throws out his resume before a human even gets to look at it. It's ridiculous. He edits Open Street Map as a hobby and has taught himself GIS, but it would be impossible for him to become an analyst because he doesn't have a degree in it or a way to quantify his 5 plus years of informal experience.
2) charge 0% interest on student loans.
If they are practically impossible to discharge during bankruptcy, then there is no risk for the lender, so its highway robbery for them to charge interest. I feel like interest is the biggest problem with the student loan crisis, anyway, especially for older millennials and older who have basically paid back the original amount they owed but now have to pay practically the same amount again due to the interest.
FWIW, I only owe $5K left on my loans. I have been paying them for 11.5 years and am scheduled to be finished at 13 years. They have been hell to deal with and I would be happy to have this headache eliminated for the rest of the country.
What I envision a world with UBI and universal health care would look like is that most nonsense jobs would go away and the people who want to work more for discretionary income can and the rest of Americans can graduate with high school diplomas, live simply, and learn what we want in our free time informally through the tremendous library of free resources online.
I love this thread and hearing other people's thoughts. I teach at a large public research university (getting a PhD) and college is way more than education. It's a socialization process that allows students to meet people they would never ever meet in their own communities, they learn to wake up and go to school or the gym or clean, they learn time management, they learn how to work solo and with others, they learn how to listen and articulate their voices/words/arguments. They learn critical thinking, which is what we need in a citizenry. They learn independence and how to work/live collectively. The connections, social and professional, are extremely important. I am not talking about for their lifetime earnings, but for being in a diverse environment with people from all walks of life.
I really needed this post. Some new terms in here to help me better think about my own feelings on the subject. Thank you.
My story is the marriage story—health insurance story combo. I was laid off in September, right after separating from my husband and buying a house of my own. Now, as I wait out the year before my state allows me to file for divorce, I am still eligible for my husband's employer sponsored plan, and thus not eligible for an ACA subsidy. Nor can I deduct my health insurance premiums as a business expense for my freelance work. My share (for adding a spouse) of his premiums will cost me $700 a month. It is batshit crazy that divorce is my best option for affordable healthcare--and there are millions of us impacted by this "family glitch" in the ACA.
This resonates so hard. I was demoted to a part time hourly position when I got pregnant, but stayed and kept my mouth shut because I needed the health insurance that the wise and compassionate bookkeeper smuggled me onto. I never filed a complaint because I needed the job and the insurance during and after my complicated pregnancy. This was at a university while I was a student- I stayed on for years after just to keep my loans at bay and to have insurance while I dealt with mental health issues and a chronic disease that developed while I was pregnant- eventually leaving without my degree once my spouse found a job where we could afford the insurance for all of us.
How different our lives would be if I could have taken a break to heal and then come back to work when I was ready...
ugh, this is heartbreaking but I get it. I only took 6 weeks of maternity leave when I had my daughter because I had to save the other six weeks of my FMLA for physical therapy during pregnancy and postpartum due to chronic health issues. That six weeks wasn't long enough - I felt so rushed going back to work. I really struggled with postpartum depression and really feel like it would have been less severe if I had at least six extra weeks (but ideally more!) Even if I had those additional 6 weeks, though, I would have struggled financially because they would have been unpaid and I couldn't save any money because I was paying out the wazoo for PT and using all of my paid time off to go.
Even more frustrating is how I gave up breastfeeding and went to exclusively pumping when she was 2.5 weeks old because I felt like we didn't have enough time to figure it out. My lactation consultant told me it could take up to three months to get her to breastfeed properly with my autoimmune issues and I just wanted to have some enjoyable time with my daughter. Ugh, I'm crying typing this because it didn't have to be this way - in any other developed country we would have have the paid time off to figure it out.
I thought this was excellent. I hope it finds a wide audience.