The Culture of Debt Amongst Young People

By: Stephen Morgan
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:17:31
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It’s amazing when you consider the above statement and try and get a grasp on the two concepts of Young People and Debt?

Back in my day being at College or University was all about racing around and being passionate about either Politics, Music, Alcohol and whatever else (or in most cases whoever else) you were passionate about.

Nowadays it is more about managing the College or University Loan and trying to find ways of servicing the estimated ?25,000 ($45,000) amount of debt per student.

This is appalling. Youngsters have enough on their plate to start with without struggling to cope with a financial millstone of this size hanging around their neck.

The knock on effect of this is actually harming the way we look at financial management and also the educational prospects of future generations.

Two things are shaping the future workers and leaders of tomorrow’s industry. The amount, cost and financial debt of going to university and how many different credit cards they can lay their hands on to help fund their overall shortfall.

Of course whenever there is a demand for something then there is the corresponding supply of what can be best described as financial temporary first aid. The trouble is that it is First Aid of the worst sort and should actually be only considered as a means of last resort.

The feeding frenzy that is the never ending sales pitch of the Credit Card Companies during “Freshers” week at most Colleges would leave most people sleepless if they had the remotest idea of the long term implications or the damage that this is actually causing.

A recent survey in the UK by one of the leading Banks (hmmnnn…. an unbiased research study obviously) came up with the following findings:

The survey, which questioned sixth formers, students and graduates, showed that sixth formers were more worried about debt than about their studies, with 71% saying they were concerned about making ends meet and 60% admitting to worrying about failing their exams.

It also went on to report that an increasing number of this year's new students are planning to work their way through university to ward off high levels of debt, the survey found, with 87% of freshers hoping to get a part-time job. The report then also stated that:

“Just over half of current students admitted being concerned about the amount of debt they were in, and one in five said they had considered dropping out of university and finding paid work.”

This is appalling. The way things are going it will not be too long before some enterprising Financial Institution will be providing Savings Plans for women the moment they become pregnant! I know in a lot of cases we are there already but saddling youngsters with large amounts of debt when they are mostly still struggling with coming to terms with living their lives on their own just seems madness to me.

With large, unmanageable and financially prohibitive interest rates, some of these Credit Card Companies get what they deserve when they post mounting bad debt provisions.

The trouble is that they then claw it back from the rest of us.

Article source: Expert Articles