I was hoping some of my relatives would "see the light" but each day and each story gets dumber and dumber.

I could probably give each of these people $50k and in a month there would be nothing but a bunch of receipts for clothing, wheels, and sushi.

I don't dwell on it....just thought I share. It is funny until we are the idiots who bails them out..... then I guess they probably laugh at how dumb we are...ahahha...

 

Please list all the other countries you have lived in since you made such an insightful statement.

IMHO, if you don't have a BS or higher degree or if you don't have entreprenurial skills then you are plain screwed in USA. The days when you got a H.S. degree and worked for GM(or another labor company) for 35 years and retired with a pension plan are long gone. The easy answer to that is to say - "get a college eduction". well if you are poor- the chances of you affording college eduction in USA is slim to none(unless you are top 1-2% academically). Some of us(those with higher incomes) might say - well that's Darwin working. However understand that your income will be paying for healthcare/welfare for the poor. So in reality you are paying more taxes to take care of the poor.

If you live in California - you are paying more than 50% in taxes(state and fed income tax, property taxes on car/homes, sales tax, county taxes) yet the chances of you getting a social security check if you are under 30 is slim to none. Even if you were going to get that $850 check - how far will that go for you in 2041. So you are paying close to Canadian taxes yet you don't have "free" healthcare or a pension.

If you think I am a socialist- you are wrong. I am firm believer in making it with your own hard work. However, it's easy for me to say and do that. My parents always expected me to get the highest degree possible, they would have paid for college if I had asked. I went to medical school with a hispanic girl from south texas. Her brothers and father were mad at her for going to college and going into debt for college. They were even more upset when she went to medical school. They kept asking her to quit school and work so that she could help out the family. I was truely baffled by their absurd logic. But I could see how poor immigrants with no college eduction(she was first in her extended family to go to college) could think that way. We all come from different backgrounds, different levels of eduction, different family support systems - so its difficult to truely understand another person's choices. Sure its easy to "judge" another person. I don't understand alot of other people choices but I try to.

 

Similar, my wife's parents refused to take her to visit any college and discouraged her as much as they could to going to college. They wanted her to be a secretary.

Luckily a neighbor took her and even paid for most of her college.

If she hadn't gone to college, she would probably be a bank teller like her oldest sister (great person, but unfort lives in a trailer), or a cosmetic girl at a dept store like another sister (her house was recently listed for sheriff sale, but her in-laws bailed them out).

She is the first person to ever go to college in her family. Hopefully they have figured out that college was a pretty good move.

 

He's right, though. Pharmacists make a ton of money since demand is quite high. My best friend's girlfriend was here this past week - she had offers of $200 an hour right out of school (that's $416K a year). She turned them down to stay closer to home and to teach and work as a pharmacist.

Furthermore, in small towns, you can make significantly more than the $90K-$100K the poster mentioned. I was golfing in a small town in Louisiana yesterday. My golfing partners are accountants - they said that the local pharmacist makes $400K per year.

 

around here I think the normal "CVS" or "Walmart" pharmacist make about $100k....

 

Americans feel entitled. We also want it right now. Mix those two with a credit card and you have a recipe for disaster.

 

Maximizing the use of federal subsidized and non-subsidized stafford loans is the smartest thing you can do during college. I was employed through college and they reimbursed half of my schooling. I took out 15K in stafford loans and bought stock and invested it. After 3 years I made 20K on top of the loans I took in college and was able to pay the loans back. I used that extra cash I made to buy a huge house that I made 120K on in a year. I still have "some" student loans that I am paying back at 2.8% interest rate and I deduct the interest come tax time anyways.

 

that seems a little high..... Maybe the pharmacist owns the establishment or something.

 

Try getting someone to move to a small town filled with mostly old people, no high-end vehicle dealerships, lots of rednecks, and very humid weather. You have to pay the big bucks to do it.

You may be right that the pharmacist has a stake in the pharmacy, but that's still "pay", right?

Also don't forget that the other girl was offered OVER $400K out of college. It's high, but they're out there. $100K is not unreasonable for a newly graduated pharmacist.

My brother-in-law is finishing up his anesthetist schooling. He won't make less than $120K and could make as much as $250K out of school (since he has a full nursing degree and a lot of experience already in general health care). Really, in those kinds of jobs, $100K is reasonable and expected.

 

- my wife's a pharmacist(well she is stay at home mom now) - she gets offers all the time for $85-110k. She has 8+ years of experience. So I doubt a recent grad would get $400k. Seems absurd.