Rural America's “brain drain”: How student debt is emptying small towns
It seems like even when we have enormous wealth as a whole, we&#x27;ve decided that it&#x27;s an aberration to be free of enormous obligations when starting life. I doubt it was any sort of evil machination, but it sure has been handy for already pretty-well-off people.<p>The person who starts life off in massive debt, or who knows they&#x27;ll be homeless if they don&#x27;t somehow come up with a pile of hundred-dollar-bills every month, or (as is often the case) both, is somebody who:<p>* doesn&#x27;t write for leisure<p>* doesn&#x27;t organize politically<p>* doesn&#x27;t innovate except on things they get paid to research<p>* and (perhaps most importantly) doesn&#x27;t start a competing company.<p>These are on average, of course. A few people will still manage to do those things (especially if they come from wealth) but on the whole such activity is reduced. God help you if you have a kid and want to, say, run for office. How do you plan to pay for childcare?<p>Meanwhile, they are a person who will work on the things incumbent holders of power (owners of large businesses) want them to work on, for the sake of enriching 1) those owners, 2) landlords, 3) People who bought houses decades ago.<p>The system of entirely manufactured housing shortages and crushing student debt is pretty handy for keeping your population doing just what you want it to do.<p>I think a lot of people would actually be better off starting life with nothing and living somewhere cheap rather than starting with -$50,000+ and a huge rent bill every month. After all, we have the internet. But too many people don&#x27;t discover this until it&#x27;s too late, and they are shackled with a lifetime of obligations.<p>I was lucky to graduate without student debt largely thanks to my parents. My wife was not. I have been far, far more free in my choices in life, including the choice to live somewhere cheap, than her.