College. Paying for college. Even with a full fee waiver, that's still lost hours I could spend working. I maintain that without a full college degree, it's near impossible to pay for college anymore, without rich family who set aside a large fund, and without going into deep debt with investors that profit from the suffering of students who haven't any other choice. So basically: no loans, no parents, just a job, and school.
Supposing I got a minimum wage job at QFC or whatever, and tried to support myself through college. Let's say I split a $1200/month apartment with a roommate, and spend oh, maybe $50 on groceries per week, another $50 on monthly public transportation passes. No insurance: if I get a toothache, I'm dead.
Just to give an idea, that's a cost of living of about $5600 a year. A minimum wage job is at $6.75 / hour (for what the last decade or two?). Let's assume that, being a part time student I can't work two part time jobs. They don't hire full time jobs without a degree. So conservative estimate, let's say I can get 20 hours of work a week, at the fast food rate, no tips. Let's say I can avoid my continual problem of getting quickly laid off from such jobs. That means I'd be making $7020 a year.
Leaving $1420 to pay for a year's worth of schooling. 6 units, three semesters, 26 freaking $ a unit, that's $468 just for tuition. Uh oh. But wait! I get a fee waiver! Oh wait, no. I get a letter saying You have been placed on Financial Aid Unit Suspension Status because you have now exceeded 90 attempted units, which is the maximum units allowed... per federal regulations.... In order to be considered for any further financial aid at Las Positas in the future, you must file an Excessive Units Petition, which requires.... Petitions are granted on a case by case basis...financial aid is only provided for courses which meet the requirements as determined by the academic counselor
Okay, so I'm already down to $1000. I didn't factor taxes in either! Assuming about a 25% tax, my $7020 just dropped to $5265 per year. My last $1000, minus $1755 in taxes.
Big Uh oh.
So there you have it. I didn't mention the $50 a month me and my roomie might have to pay for utilities, or the $50 a month for a DSL line, or the $100-200 a semester to pay for books, or the $100 a month if I did need crappy health insurance. Getting kind of hard to imagine, even without school huh? So much for the horn of plenty. I wonder if those workers in Indonesia get to keep the 20 cents they make per day...
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