Have you ever felt guilty of something?
Have you ever owed anyone something? How does that make you feel? What if you lived in a society where debt is necessary a good thing?
Imagine you’re a graduated senior going on to your first year of college and the only way you could afford it is by borrowing money from the government. What would you do in a situation that involves you taking out outrageous amounts of money just to be able to get an education?
If you didn’t know, according to Nietzsche, guilt can come from debt. Debt is one of the biggest problems in America. Over the past decade it has been shown that as of 2012, the outstanding educational debts have exceeded 1 trillion. ONE TRILLION DOLLARS?! That’s huge. It is important to know that student debt is often not optional because most students go to college to achieve their goals of getting a career.
The one thing that amazes me, is that debt can make you feel guilty. In Germany, “debt” and “guilt” have the same definition. It’s like the Germans knew that most of their guilt comes from owing someone money. The definition of guilt here in America according to Dictionary.com is the fact or state of having committed an offense, crime, violation or wrong. Notice how in the definition is says “Violation” or “Crime”. Usually owing the government and not paying it back, in time, is a violation of the contract between the student and the university, which is then considered a crime. How do crimes make you feel? GUILTY. Do you see the resemblance I made there? It is crazy to me how guilt can come from debt.
As for my understanding though, how does the government expect for students to be able to repay back thousands of dollars 6 months after obtaining your bachelor’s? It’s pretty impossible to just payback 50 thousand dollars after being broke for 4 years trying to finish your undergrad. It is outrageous that the government is jailing citizens who couldn’t afford to pay of their debt. It is very difficult to obtain a job right after college and be able to start paying off loans. If anything, the government should be blaming these universities for not being able to provide the accurate resources to be able to obtain a job straight out of college.
The government should be cutting students some slack because we are the future of America, and the government making it a crime for us not being able to pay back our student loan is ridiculous. It’s like they want us to feel guilty…
