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There are millions of idiots out there who are internet famous. Wow. You can literally look at a wall fod 3 minutes and go viral on wah to becoming internet famous. Now that's funny.
I’m about at this point myself, only because of how work culture is. As an auto mechanic, it feels like these companies are just trying to wealth extract from us blue collar workers.
Great piece. It’s also worth adding that the military specifically targets lower income non-white young adults with tuition specific advertising as opposed to targeting whites with things like “patriotism” or “belonging”. Not entirely on topic, but still points at clear disparity that the gov has been all too willing to support
@@CamJamesyep. As somebody who is an Air Force vet. I want to hear this take. I didn’t have any student debt because when I graduated high school I didn’t attend college because I was burned out with school and I know I would be wasting my time and somebody’s money. During my time in the military I met quite a few people who joined just to have their student loans taken care of and for school. All this stuff is a dirty game and you’re breaking it down very nicely. Keep doing your thing bruh and if there’s a part 2. I’m tuning in.
@@joannaalexander1006 I left about 8 years ago. Make sure to take care of yourself. I left way worse than when I got in and even though I’m covered and got a degree life got really hard
I don’t understand the mentality of “I had it hard, so you have to have it hard.” Like dang, good people go through hard times and hope other people don’t have to go through the same, but some people just evil like that.
Remember when parents always wanted to make sure their kids had it a little easier than them? It seems like that has flipped and now boomers are robbing the youth for their comfortable twilight years.
I don't understand the mentality of taking out a loan and expecting it to be forgiven even if that means strangers are the ones who have to pay it off for you 🤷♂️
It isn't always about that though. I'm not in that position but I'd imagine my response would be more like 'where's mine?'. It sucks to work hard and then get told basically that you did it for nothing. If I did everything the way I was supposed to, then yeah it's going to sting. That's not evil, that's just a sense of injustice and maybe some folks don't express it the right way.
I graduated college in 2007. Before 2005, tuition was cheap enough were grants covered it (out of state tuition to boot). Most of the debt came from the last 2 years of education, given the steep increase in tuition and room and board. The only reason I was able to pay off the 60k was because the interest rates were capped at 1%. I also lived out of my car for 6 months and then I lived with a friend who purchased a house and offered me a good price. Keep in mind I graduated with a finance degree and got a job 8 months before I graduated. Starting pay was 40k in 2007. Paid off my loans in 2011. For those who are charged batshit crazy tuition with INSANE rates, I think it’s incredibly unfair. You need a freaking degree to low level work, which is crazy. Or a lot of experience before graduating. Who can afford to take an unpaid internship (which was literally labeled as a scam when I was attending college)! It’s just crazy now
As someone who never needed student loans thanks to my parents saving up for 20 years, i felt that. Also, it is unconscionable the amount of debt we're satling young people with. It's an absolute disgrace to the richest nation in the world.
My husband and I sacrificed to pay for our kids college so that they would not have loan debt. I am all for loan forgiveness. They need to run me a check for my sacrifice though.😂
these disparities start soooo early too... public k-12 edu shouldn't be tied to home values within the district. period. thx Cam - another great vid - take good care of yourself.
In San Francisco kids don’t necessarily go to the nearest schools. It’s a lottery system. So, if you live in a part of town with institutionalized racism you have just as much a chance to attend the best schools in the city as the kids that live next door. This is a controversial policy.
@@mcritz46vl ...that's kinda cool. least it's somethin. how do they address transportation tho?...like, even if they bus kids, there's a value in that added time taken from the day (esp in poor households where kids do work), right? there were "magnet" programs in the early 90's when i was in school, & took the bus across town an hour each way. safety of public transit is also an issue (let me tell ya bout all the fights i was in, lol).
@@Krazie-Ivan had the same question, we used to have some type of open enrollment to go to the good school district, just from the luck of getting in early before moving towns when 2008 hit. Eventually we moved schools tho just cause we literally could not afford gas. @mcritz46vl do they have some type of city coordinated way of providing transport for the low income kids?
@@no_special_person @Krazie-Ivan The public transit is free in the city for anyone under 21. But, yes, if you need to take your kids from door-to-door for whatever reason then you’ll have spent a lot of time on the bus/subway.
I just assumed you were a talented speaker, but it turned out you're an academically gifted talented speaker. I'm glad that you're getting to use your full skill set to help people now.
@@CamJames Would it have been free to go to college in Florida or would you just have avoided the out-of-state tax? Does Florida have a free in-state college tuition?
@@relaxlibrary4249 FL has a merit based in state scholarship, but florida colleges hate letting in FL local students. Im FL local and I applied to 6 florida public schools as a transfer with a 3.1 college GPA, associate's degree, and 1200 SAT and was completely ghosted by 4 of those. Also living in orlando sucks
As a peasant poor white kid who wanted to go to college but simply couldn't/can't afford to, this hits too hard. And I'm not even the demographic being systemically shut out. 😭
@@mmfood3004 I'm sure a lot of people would disagree, but I believe it is more about income than race nowadays. Yes, historically it was racially biased heavily but it has evolved into more of a cash caste system. Poor doesn't have a color.
@@aracnadei13 I'm not sure I completely agree with you as there is clearly still a lot of racial bias. What I meant was that being poor is also a demographic that is being systemically shut out. I agree that poverty doesn't have a colour though.
This aspect of American society is so messed up. Because we’re told a myth about America being the land of opportunity - and we fail to live up to that ideal all. the. time.
As an adopted kid from a white middle class family - the whole application/scholarship process sucked. I had no struggles, and my parents made enough to help, but not enough to carry me through, which I couldn’t be more thankful for. Being straddled between not being “Hispanic-y”enough and not being “white-traditionally”, enough made the whole process impossible.
I wish they didn’t PUSH College as the only tool in the tool box… you need skilled labor, mechanics, plumbers, …etc apprenticeships….. it’s a money making system not education….. I’m 52 HS and vocational school…. Education I was taught to always have a book in my HAND They put you in debt before life your begins
lol. you cant be humanizing people who actually do productive / beneficial things for society. only those who dont produce anything of value are allowed to have any quality of life in eurocentric culture anymore. when are we ever going to get out of the monarchist mindset that makes us feel perpetually indebted to europe despite europe beign the cause of all the human species problems of the past 1000 years?
I grew up pretty privileged, attending private school. I still remember when I first realized the inequity in public schooling in my state. I had a friend attending public school in a wealthy area doing literal scientific papers working in a lab (inside the school) with advanced scientific equipment and taking all the AP courses he wanted. Meanwhile, another one of my friends attending public school in the city had frequent “purple freezes” where the school would essentially go on lockdown to make sure kids were in class. Even though both of these schools are in the same state, about 10 miles apart, the educational opportunities and quality were vastly different. My state handles school funding based on taxes in the county, and until that’s changed there will forever be a vast gap in opportunities provided. Unfortunately, the people with the money and time to make policy go their way aren’t particularly keen on the concept.
As much as I regret not having a degree at my ripe old age of 31, I feel like I dodged a bullet when I dropped out after a year with how exploitative universities can be. Too many schools in this country only care about bringing in fresh blood to rip off and the entire student loan industry exists simply to exploit people. I'd imagine black communities are really great targets for this industry since black communities usually are a lot poorer than white communities and less money means more loans. The number of people in bed with this exploitative business is absolutely ridiculous.
Yes this is a topic I am trying to discuss with anyone who wants to listen. I grew up in an upper middle class family and but had experiences in the low income as a teen mom. The programs are so hard to navigate, you need patience to wade through the bs. I went to college right after high school and i’m still not done with college. Thank you Bachelors in Chemistry 🙃🙃 3:48 I spent two years living in orlando and I get it. You do what u gotta do
I grew up upper middle class and then my mental health took a toll. Just now getting to college as a middle aged person. It threw me into low income for California but middle class anywhere else.
it felt like such a trap living there. the most nothing city lol. def need patience, and being middle class doesn't help as much as people think it does.
reminds me of being in the financial aid office twice a week every week because there was a missing part of the form, or they lost it, or there was an error, or it was filed wrong, and i had to fill the entire thing out every time because they "don't hand that out" two years of that and fafsa was late every time. months late.
Like many in my neighborhood in south chicago, I grew up with a single mom who came to the US from Mexico. She received her GED a few years ago herself and went to school in her home country so i couldnt really rely on her to help me with enrolling in advanced classes, exam prep, and overall navigating my education. Even less so, considering she was almost always at work and not a nice person lol. Even before I knew what radicalization was, I think elementary school played a major role in radicalizing me. I saw first hand how our school was underfunded. Our teachers were very vocal about their grievances in schools and we would even protest with them at times. I very vividly remember the 2012 Chicago Teacher Union strike, it’s a core memory at this point. They were overall supportive of our interests in social justice and introduced us to social issues outside of our little Latino neighborhood. We read books like Howard Zinn, Kindred, and Uprising (Octavia E. Butler is the GOAT!!). After elementary, I went to my neighborhood high school and graduated in the cursed year of 2020 (boooo). That year really showed me how much of an uphill battle I had to deal with given what appeared to be only a minor setback. I was in my high schools debate and math team and was a full IB student. I did good on the SAT (like 1450 i think) and had a decent selection of colleges to go to. However, by my last months in school, I had burnt out once again and the abrupt lockdown left me with a lot of anxiety and isolation. I went to community college out of convenience (would recommend), but the transition was rough and I didnt know what to do (choose a major to make money or do what i am passionate about?) so I dropped my classes and didnt know that would further screw me over in the years to come. Eventually, I decided to study what I loved and chose Chemistry as my major :). BUT I lost my financial aid due to the dropped classes and I would have to pay out of pocket for a few semesters since returning a year later. I worked full-time at my shitty minimum wage job to pay for it, only taking time away from focusing on being a full time student as well. I was going through cycles of burnout and kept dropping classes. My graduation date just kept being further and further away, it really tanked my self esteem. I am now 22, saved up to see a mental health professional (cuz for some reason Medicaid doesn’t pay for some health services) and got diagnosed with ADHD. After many financial aid appeals, I got back my full pell grant and I have been able to make the most of the resources and programs at many institutions. More importantly, I have welcomed some amazing people in my life who love me as much as i love them. Welp, currently i am at my 4-year university. I wish I could say something hopeful to conlude but I dont know when I’ll get my degree or if my financial aid will suddenly stop supporting my college education due to the late graduation date. It’s a constant worry, simmering in the back of my mind. But I will say that having community has made it even possible to see myself as a capable person to go to college and challenge myself academically for the sake of education. My teachers and peers have uplifted me even when I felt like I was not worthy of their attention. If you are in this position in life, just know that there is always someone out there rooting for u!!! ❤
As a low income student who was smart, but not top 1% of the class smart, I was pushed to go to college by my family. Pushed towards student loans because no one had money for me because I could just “pay it back later.” Now I have debt for something I wasn’t 100% sure about as a literal child. The system isn’t fair for low income students at all, pushed to get a degree at high colleges just to try to get a chance at life. Only for it all to be against us because of greed.
Being against student loan forgiveness because you've paid yours off is like denying the development of a cancer treatment because your family member already died of cancer. It's selfish and incredibly short-sighted.
I think we should also recognize that people that paid their loans are still impacted by lower savings/investments than they would have otherwise. I agree that it's crazy to be against forgiveness but I don't think it's unfair to argue that people who paid their loans should be included in whatever compensation package gets passed.
I live in Germany and I’m so glad that I will never have to go through this ordeal. With my high school graduation around the corner I couldn’t even believe the thought of getting into this mountain of debt. I’m aware that I am extremely lucky to have parents that were able to put money away for this chapter of my life, but knowing that that amount of money will probably get me through comfortably is incredibly reassuring. 300 Euros per semester, that will be my tuition (or rather, admin fee), it sounds insanely weird when compared to any college in the US.
I went from a 2,100 student, ~85% white school to 1 of 20 white students at a *predominantly* black and Native American high school. so even if I'm white, even if I grew up comfortably in the lower-middle/middle class compared to my classmates, I still experienced the disparity in funding and teachers/resources firsthand. And it always troubled me that this was the school the city's minority students HAD to go to in their area code, whereas I had been expelled and sent there. It just bothered me in words I didn't have at the time, when I put on my backpack in the morning, that the automatic, default mode for a school in a black and native area was "shitty" and had constant water leaks and much older laptops than the mostly white school I had been attending earlier.
To be fair that’s why working in the service industry, ie bartending or serving is the only viable way to get thru school with tips you can make close to or more then 100k depending how much you work and hate yourself. People who think they’ll pay their way thru school working a retail job or barista job are kidding themselves, it’s why after I finished community college I went straight into working into restaurants, at 23 I make more then older friends with GOOD degrees, as they have mass amounts of debt, I have none, it’s not for everyone, working 12-16 hours a day, constantly being on your feet, routinely hittin 30k+ steps a day while constantly doing physical labor, but it’s worth it if you live in a state where minimum wage is high (I live in California) it’s an option, dare I say the only option, the gig economy is here and it’s shows how American capitalism is crippling into a mix of Technological Feudalism as well as Christian Fascism (if you live in one of those unfortunate red states like Florida) there’s no real solution, it’s why I long term strongly see myself leaving America, ironically as I myself am first generation 😂.
@@CamJames yes over the past couple summers my schedule was one espresso/wine bar from 6:30 am to 4 pm then my restaurant job from 5:30- to let’s say 2:30, it definitely is crippling but again the money is there.
we never left feudalism because there's never been a point in human history where the majority of well off people actually had to abide by rules plus werent the only ones making and enforcing rules. idk why anyone calls this democracy. when you can only convince yourself thats ok to do if you only consider well off people to be human beings like the "founding fathers" did. eurocentric culture in general simply does not believe people born without wealth should ever be able to have it or do anything besides get tortured for the entertainment and egos of the well off.
I have.... too many degrees, but I really dislike academia and its entire system. I'm just good at school, so while my career floundered I kept studying. It has worked out, but entirely by luck and timing, to get into a good career right as I finished (checks notes) 22nd grade. (Shout out to a fellow test whiz, only-Black-kid-in-class, and so forth)
I was also a GT negro, but ultimately left during the pandemic. I’m in community college now, and it’s basically the same info without the prestige 🤷🏾♂️
I think there is a distinct difference in quality of education at the "bigger more prestigious schools" BUT only for the last two years when course work is finally focused on your degree. For those interested in college, I'm a big proponent of 2 years community college + 2 years at a college known for the program of your career path. That way people can see if college is the route that works for them without the higher financial risk of "big" colleges. This also allows for people to switch majors if they realize within the first few semesters that the core classes for their chosen degree are completely against their taste, skill set, etc. again without the larger financial obligations. I was definitely jealous of the reduced debt of the community college transfers in my classes during my last two years lol
It still blows my mind that my scholarship was funded by the state's lotto program. My folks decision to leave me with a 529 is the reason I'm not drowning in debt today. Yeah, I hit the university's retention rate poorly. I still actively debate the financials of completion.
As a white person who grew up in South Africa in the final years and early post years of Apartheid, I have experienced the extreme opposite and heavily institutionalised racism. While it is impossible to truly understand the living perspective of other races it is through learning and hearing the stories of people from all walks, backgrounds, cultures and experiences of life where some level of understanding and compassion can begin to alter the way things are for the future of out global civilisation. Having met Nelson Mandela briefly in the street while walking to university one day (the presidential residence was en route), what he said struck me "We need young people to have the experience of being together to truly change things". While you may want to give a trigger warning to "uncomfortable" facts... it is probably better that those who need to hear the facts be confronted with them. As a non-American, I got a little lost in the acronyms, to be honest, but still learned a lot. Thank you.
hyperbole. i've had pretty great jobs for most of my adult life but none of them have the uncapped ceiling of internet fame lol (and i got kicked out of my startup which would've offered the same thing, long story)
I never really had to deal with stuff like loans, but I know my older sister did with a government loan so that she could pursue medicine partially overseas, and she broke every bone in her body to make sure she had the grades to have that loan forgiven. That's another consequence with these loans honestly, it's the intense pressure to find the means to get that loan out of your hair if you have the possibility to. While I don't need any loans as far as I know to pursue my masters, you can bet I'm gonna work for each cent I can to make at least some of that money back. The idea of my parents dropping all that money and they won't see much of it would haunt me to hell and back.
Thank you for covering these statistics on how college debt and inequality messes up most of us (especially black students and non-white folk). I was privileged enough to be in a position to pay off my loans, but I want student loan forgiveness for everyone. University costs* are ballooning out of control and many jobs expect you to have a college degree now; many have debts that they're still paying out 20+ years later. You can't win *at least in the US
I was kicked out of two houses not long after I graduated high school. I started working at a factory 60 - 70s a week making 10 an hour and almost found myself in the despair of working at a sweatshop basically. Obama approved the trade act which directly funded my associates degree with a housing stipend. This allowed me to afford my bachelor's with grants and public loans. I was told I was worthless throughout public school and barely made it through. Education programs have a direct impact on people's lives.
As long as student loans cannot be discharged in bankruptcy the cost of college will go up to consume all available lendable money and the pool of lendable money will expand to meet any tuition price. Without risk of discharge to constrain the lenders and colleges the problem will only get worse.
Just gonna drop this here: imagine the folks who wouldn’t have to count on social security if they could instead pay that money into a retirement account instead.
attending school during lockdown was absolute chaos and exacerbated my existing struggles with school as a neurodivergent person, so i was too burnt out to even consider jumping into college like i was expected to. now that money is getting tighter and tighter, i am SO glad i didn't go to college.
Man, i really lucked out with my debt. Only have a low five figure loan that i could have paid in full years ago, but thanks to low fixed interest rates it's actually better if i invest that money and just pay minimum payment on the debt.
Cam whispering "juicy" over and over into a microphone in front of what appears to be a highschool entrance was not what I expected from this video lmao
The student debt discussion has the dumbest dichotomy. “Cancel it” or “you took it you pay it” no, remove the predatory lending practices and the bad faith companies that trick borrowers then lower the interest rates to a reasonable level for a debt you have to die to get out of. FYI I went to college and grad school on a full bright futures scholarship.
Keep these videos coming man. Sometimes they're a hard watch, and I don't always agree with every point made, but you've introduced some new facts/points that have shifted a number of my views along the way.
I was still here til you threw out the hurtful stereotypes of hiking trails and rock songs. Ok, mostly the hiking. I’ll go ham on some trail mix, though…. 😂 keep up the great work, bro, and great video!!
Cam, I love your videos. Do you think you'll cover anything on the GI bill? As a former pell grant recipient (I dropped out lol) and now a new-ish US vet, I remember everyone explaining why they joined up. Most answered with a resounding, "I can't afford school. I need that GI bill." If it wasn't the sole reason for people joining it wouldn't be so terrible, but you see a lot of people from all walks of life putting their bodies and minds at risk just to have a shot at higher education.
I have no doubt it'll come up, perhaps in the next installment. there's always a substantial military component to most topics i cover, but of course i need to be careful and thorough with how i approach them.
@@CamJames I'm looking forward to it! It's interesting thinking about how the DoD determines the cost to screen, train, and provide necessities to servicemembers compared to the value they provide (as well as how much servicemembers value their contributions) and how it all stacks up to getting a GI bill. This is kind of an afterthought and I don't have a lot of data on it at the moment, but I do know that the population of white servicemembers/veterans is decreasing as black, hispanic, asian, indigenous, and pacific islander populations are increasing - yet VA disability approval has been significantly lower for black veterans than all other races.
Im white and from the UK, ive been watching yoru videos since your subs where in the 20ks, your work is great and very insightful. Beneficial to us all, no matter what race, gender or political alignment to hear breakdowns that are this well researched. Keep it up, cant wait for you to get that UA-cam gold!!!!
As a single parent in the 75-125K group as well, I am not in any position to drop 50K on school for my kid and FAFSA is no help at all. Besides predatory loans, there are little options available.
Also the college culture in the USA is so strange as a Canadian. The senior year/college comedy/drama is an entire film genre. All the tours, branding, and events Americans have for college selection seems so strange. In Canada you kind of just do research grade 11/12 and maybe one or 2 campus tours and that's it lol. It's like vocational school/trades/apprenticeship etc was never an option for the main characters.
Oof. I am in the “go fuck yourself” boat. Through the combination of my parents helping pay, scholarships having to pay and working and paying a bit myself I graduated without any loans. Also lived at home and commuted to a nearby college that was pretty cheap so my tuition probably ended up being less than $50k for a 4 year degree. Still helping pay off loans because my partner has some though.
“Where was I? Oh yeah…white people!” 😂 As a white viewer with a daughter going into her sophomore year of college this hits. I just logged into her financial aid a few days ago with a pit in my stomach to see what we’re facing this year. She gets the Pell grant, thank goodness but lost a lot of funding that was only for her first year so now we’re wondering what the hell to do. It’s our state university so at least she has in state tuition. But her best friend may drop out because she can’t afford to return and neither her or my daughter face discrimination or racism- I can’t even imagine how hard it is with that added on top 😳
the solutions at the end needs to include mindset overhaul and our approach to this problem - we can't keep doing the same thing over and over yet looking for a different result.. 1) stop majoring in dead end majors like liberal arts- every college have that major and it leads to kob earning slightly above minimum wage - why the hell anyone would go across the country to major in that? Put batchelor in psychology on that list too.. and there's a whole lot more.. The universities won't change if we are there eating up these dead end majors..
Let me tell you how messed up the private student loan companies are. I took out a $12,500 loan back in 2012. That loan ballooned to $22k by the time I could afford to start paying on it. It had a variable interest rate that consistently stayed at around 8-10%. Do you know when I finally got a job that paid me enough where I could start throwing $1800/month instead of the $225/month the interest rate jumped from 11% to 14.5% within a 6 month period. I ended up getting laid off from that job and got a severance package of 6 months. I took a 1/3 of that money and finally paid off that student loan and found another job. If I would have kept on paying them $1800/month I would have paid them an extra $2500 in interest alone. Don't even get me started on their policies of forbearance. You gotta pay them $50-$100 to go into forbearance while they still collect interest and it only lasts for 2-3 months. Fuck Navient and fuck SallyMae
Ah, Timber Creek In Avalon Park 😲!? Wow. They’ve since rerouted half of the community to East River High School… which subsequently messed up real estate in the entire lower Waterford area. People literally avoid renting & buying once they realize their kids won't be able to attend Timber Creek MS/HS. Education, real estate, bait & switch rezoning…. maybe it's worth a “deep dive$” topic? 🤔
Your content resonates so well, I get psyched for every upload. Im sorry it was a necessity to go public but shit, your work is a real gift to many including myself. I hope you get to reap all the rewards that come your way 🤘
Yes accolades! 👏🏽 I definitely feel this! I went to an out of state PWI and along with all of my degrees are the loans to go with them smh. Luckily they weren’t private but they weren’t much better. Great topic!
This is a great video that just highlights the disparities. It's disgusting, and I hope by commenting it helps get the message out. I can't really say any more because this makes me furious, and I don't want to make a giant effort post that is going to be read by maybe 2 others.
Graduated in 2018 and pretty much had same position as you except just my mom. I had been accepted into the UC I wanted, and even a scholarship in NY but that's out of state tuition canceled it out. On top of that my EFC was $32,000. My mom has to work two good jobs to survive out here in CA, but we don't have $160,000 for tuition tf...
I got lucky, My family put my needs above theres, I managed my own intelligence on my own since my k-12 district had most of its funding rerouted to the main political center north in Chicago, I studied for months for the SAT and ACT, Got plenty from Fafsa, And happened to go to college the year where my score got 4 years of paid tuition and housing. The year before and after were just tuition. I left with 10k in debt and a degree thanks to all of those pains and blessings. White people aren't a cohesive group, Those with the power will use any difference to put others down. Race, education, and financials are the big ones. Shits rough out here. Good luck all
I’m among those who were privileged enough to leave college with no debt at all (art school too, no less, so I’m doubly privileged that way) but I ABSOLUTELY advocate for widespread student loan forgiveness. I got mine, and I want you to get yours too. I know how unrealistic it is for a bill like student loan forgiveness to pass, but I can keep advocating and pushing for it. The expectations put on students has increased every single year-top colleges are getting more and more stringent with their acceptances, with percentage rates dropping drastically for the past four years, all while raising their prices at pretty much the same rate. Students are asked to meet increasingly impossible demands for extracurricular and leadership experience. Just the essay alone has many families spending hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on tutoring and revising. And that’s not even getting into how the students who need the most tutoring can rarely access it. Meanwhile, top performing students from underprivileged minorities are struggling to even access local and state public colleges. Some minorities, like Asians, aren’t even categorized specifically enough to show the struggles going on! This wasn’t mentioned in the video, but while East Asian and Indian students are consistent high achievers and often enter competitive colleges alongside white students, many southeast Asian American, Hmong American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander students consistently *under* perform, doing about as poorly as black American students in metrics such as personal finance, school funding, and educational opportunity. And on TOP of all that, even once these students graduate, minority students STILL struggle to pay off debt because of the wage gap (wasn’t the statistic like, for every dollar a white man earns, a black man only earns like 80 cents? Don’t quote me, I don’t remember the exact stat). This system was designed to keep people of color down, especially black Americans, Latino Americans, Native Americans, and other “undesirable” minorities. And that’s not even getting into the ways in which other factors can make this even harder like being queer, having a disability, being neurodivergent, losing a parent early on, or whatever else is going on in a person’s life to make things difficult… Life is hard, there isn’t a day that goes by when I’m not thankful for what I’ve got, and the way I express my thanks is by being educated on how to help those with fewer opportunities than me. You can probably tell that i am deeply passionate about education and educational disparity haha
I'm all for student loan forgiveness, even though I'm not eligible. It's hard out here for a lot of people. We should be finding ways to ease the burden to create a more productive America. 🤷🏾♂
I get wanting to leave your hometown, I got accepted into Purdue but man the tuition cost was insane. Just ended up going to UF (Bright Futures is goated!) and still racked up student debt. My brother who is 2 years younger than me got a Pell Grant even though our FAFSA was the exact same, still irks me to this day. 100% agree that FAFSA needs to be revised. As a first generation college grad this video was very eye opening… great video as always.
I was pressured into going into STEM, only to find out after graduation that bio majors actually make LESS than the average college graduate. So I have a degree that I spent tens of thousands of dollars on that I don't use because I make the same amount working freight receiving at a local store as I would in a typical job that requires my degree. 🙃
As a man who also attended public schools through the 80s & 90s, I’m glad you’re forming a platform that addresses the challenges of being black & poor. I too, was in gifted and talented classes throughout school. I was told to attend a local community college. I worked after high school & only went back to college at the age of 30. I graduated from Clemson University with a degree in Sociology and Public Policy. I worked with nonprofits, now with the economy in the toilet, I struggle to make ends meet with a massive debt burden. Thank you brother and keep up the good work. I have great researching skills and would love to work with you.
The uncountable assets thing is an inarguable point, and I'm glad to have that under my belt when talking with online racists, thank you. Watching this, though, it's made me realise HOW fucked America is - they've drawn their socioeconomic lines directly where racial divides are, so the socioeconomic issues people of every colour face in every country look exactly like racial issues in America. It's crazy to me. This video also reinforced my idea that lines of credit should have a very hard cap, and things like student loans and mortgages should not be allowed to exist. If EVERYONE can get student loans to the tune of six figures just like that, then there's no financial advantage between the buyers for the product (higher ed placements). Everyone is forced to take the loans because everyone can, and the universities can charge insane prices for it. End student loans, and bring back price competitivity. The only people the loans are helping are the universities, and the bankers. "The decisions I made before I could drink should not follow me into my fifties" - hard disagree. Debt forgiveness should not be a thing unless it was fraudulent. High interest rates aren't fraud. I said "end student loans", not "forgive".
@@CamJames You gotta understand my position. I came from nothing and broke into the middle class by my own efforts without school in an industry everyone says you need higher ed for. I _know_ the lies being told to these kids. I hate the machine more than you could know. Just 'cause roulette is rigged doesn't mean I think the gamblers are entitled to "mercy". They shouldn't have gotten into it, their parents should have taught them better, and fought for their country to be a better place for their kids, but they didn't... So the kids grow up believing the lies sold to them by the education and student loan systems - that it's required. They read the job adverts that say it's required and believe that too. They deserve sympathy, sure. Not mercy. Thank you for your time.
I have a master's from Georgia Tech and now that the tech industry is falling apart, I make more money from music and my degree is basically just a wall decoration... and they keep calling about donations. 😂
Being a bit older, my college was paid for via my inheritance from my grandmother. But it wasn't a huge amount of money back then. I'm stunned at tuition these days. But one thing for sure, I am all for whatever student loan forgiveness the Biden admin has managed ($144 billion is not chump change). It's easy to find anecdotal stories all over the internet of how people had their lives immediately changed by it. If my taxes go towards helping them finally start getting ahead, I'm 100% for this. But man, that stat about the difference white vs black wealth is a gut punch. However, it sadly makes sense when you look at how historically blacks were barred from buying homes with redlining and all that. A house is, for better or worse, how most people accumulate wealth in their lives, so black folks have literally had untold billions of wealth denied over the decades. I'm not a fragile white person when I watch these videos...but they do make me furious about what this country has done to people who don't look like me.
College degrees aren't the only way to success as they always sleep on those who have degrees/ certificates in skilled trades etc that allow them to make a extremely comfortable living for yourself and your family.
As always, great content, great research! It's wild you made this video because i recently had a debate with a college level educator who feels everyone (but primarily disenfranchised Black Americans) should go to college. My argument is piggy backing off a comment you made in this video that i think you should expand on, when you stated that in 2012 you got the degree that you were told was your only way of escaping working at McDonald's. Those were powerful words. Our generation was told that the only path to real success was to get a college degree. Ok, so boom. We did that. Now, here we are with these degrees, and now jobs want you to have a master's degree to get an entry-level job at a call center for $14/hr (absolutely nothing is wrong with this kind of job, it just doesn't require a degree to perform it). The market is oversaturated with degreed candidates fighting for an ever shrinking pool of jobs with wages that don't justify the time or money spent on education to get them. Honestly, college is hella expensive. Like criminally expensive 🍵. Early education should put more of an emphasis on people obtaining skilled trades because honestly a lot of those jobs pay more and are more stable with better benefits (like pensions/retirements) and unions. Trades afford people the opportunity to start making an income sooner without college debt. A lot of those training programs can be paid for with state funding that is easier to obtain than college grants. College is great for people who actually want to go, but as a country we need to stop acting like thats the only path to success, especially when it cripples people in debt with no guarantee whatsoever of a financial payoff.
we back baybeee, happy juneteenth weekend.
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HERE IT IS YALL.
What dat Outro Beat?
“becoming Internet, famous was not optional. It was literally my only way out.” JESUS. Help us.
like, literally. nothing else made sense.
There are millions of idiots out there who are internet famous. Wow. You can literally look at a wall fod 3 minutes and go viral on wah to becoming internet famous. Now that's funny.
@RonKraftwerk and what does any of that have to do with me?
Exploit your talents
I’m about at this point myself, only because of how work culture is. As an auto mechanic, it feels like these companies are just trying to wealth extract from us blue collar workers.
Great piece.
It’s also worth adding that the military specifically targets lower income non-white young adults with tuition specific advertising as opposed to targeting whites with things like “patriotism” or “belonging”. Not entirely on topic, but still points at clear disparity that the gov has been all too willing to support
there's infinity angles to this topic, absolutely. the military is a whole other beast
I agree, and I’m currently in the Army and the only reason why I joined was for the G.I bill and free healthcare
@@CamJamesyep. As somebody who is an Air Force vet. I want to hear this take. I didn’t have any student debt because when I graduated high school I didn’t attend college because I was burned out with school and I know I would be wasting my time and somebody’s money. During my time in the military I met quite a few people who joined just to have their student loans taken care of and for school. All this stuff is a dirty game and you’re breaking it down very nicely. Keep doing your thing bruh and if there’s a part 2. I’m tuning in.
@@joannaalexander1006 I left about 8 years ago. Make sure to take care of yourself. I left way worse than when I got in and even though I’m covered and got a degree life got really hard
I don’t understand the mentality of “I had it hard, so you have to have it hard.”
Like dang, good people go through hard times and hope other people don’t have to go through the same, but some people just evil like that.
Remember when parents always wanted to make sure their kids had it a little easier than them? It seems like that has flipped and now boomers are robbing the youth for their comfortable twilight years.
some people believe that the only way to build character and grow as an adult is to have it hard. But this shouldn't be the case at all
Seriously- I will never understand that. I paid for my masters and my parents paid for my undergrad and I want every child/adult to have that…
I don't understand the mentality of taking out a loan and expecting it to be forgiven even if that means strangers are the ones who have to pay it off for you 🤷♂️
It isn't always about that though. I'm not in that position but I'd imagine my response would be more like 'where's mine?'. It sucks to work hard and then get told basically that you did it for nothing. If I did everything the way I was supposed to, then yeah it's going to sting. That's not evil, that's just a sense of injustice and maybe some folks don't express it the right way.
I graduated college in 2007. Before 2005, tuition was cheap enough were grants covered it (out of state tuition to boot). Most of the debt came from the last 2 years of education, given the steep increase in tuition and room and board. The only reason I was able to pay off the 60k was because the interest rates were capped at 1%. I also lived out of my car for 6 months and then I lived with a friend who purchased a house and offered me a good price. Keep in mind I graduated with a finance degree and got a job 8 months before I graduated. Starting pay was 40k in 2007. Paid off my loans in 2011.
For those who are charged batshit crazy tuition with INSANE rates, I think it’s incredibly unfair. You need a freaking degree to low level work, which is crazy. Or a lot of experience before graduating. Who can afford to take an unpaid internship (which was literally labeled as a scam when I was attending college)! It’s just crazy now
Edit:
I think the biggest change would be to drop interest rates. They shouldn’t be higher than 2%. Otherwise, what’s the point!
As someone who never needed student loans thanks to my parents saving up for 20 years, i felt that. Also, it is unconscionable the amount of debt we're satling young people with. It's an absolute disgrace to the richest nation in the world.
My husband and I sacrificed to pay for our kids college so that they would not have loan debt. I am all for loan forgiveness. They need to run me a check for my sacrifice though.😂
these disparities start soooo early too... public k-12 edu shouldn't be tied to home values within the district. period.
thx Cam - another great vid - take good care of yourself.
excellent point, it starts very early
In San Francisco kids don’t necessarily go to the nearest schools. It’s a lottery system. So, if you live in a part of town with institutionalized racism you have just as much a chance to attend the best schools in the city as the kids that live next door. This is a controversial policy.
@@mcritz46vl ...that's kinda cool. least it's somethin.
how do they address transportation tho?...like, even if they bus kids, there's a value in that added time taken from the day (esp in poor households where kids do work), right?
there were "magnet" programs in the early 90's when i was in school, & took the bus across town an hour each way. safety of public transit is also an issue (let me tell ya bout all the fights i was in, lol).
@@Krazie-Ivan had the same question, we used to have some type of open enrollment to go to the good school district, just from the luck of getting in early before moving towns when 2008 hit.
Eventually we moved schools tho just cause we literally could not afford gas.
@mcritz46vl do they have some type of city coordinated way of providing transport for the low income kids?
@@no_special_person @Krazie-Ivan The public transit is free in the city for anyone under 21. But, yes, if you need to take your kids from door-to-door for whatever reason then you’ll have spent a lot of time on the bus/subway.
I just assumed you were a talented speaker, but it turned out you're an academically gifted talented speaker. I'm glad that you're getting to use your full skill set to help people now.
“I had to escape Orlando” say no more.
you feel me
@@CamJames Would it have been free to go to college in Florida or would you just have avoided the out-of-state tax? Does Florida have a free in-state college tuition?
@@relaxlibrary4249 FL has a merit based in state scholarship, but florida colleges hate letting in FL local students. Im FL local and I applied to 6 florida public schools as a transfer with a 3.1 college GPA, associate's degree, and 1200 SAT and was completely ghosted by 4 of those. Also living in orlando sucks
As a peasant poor white kid who wanted to go to college but simply couldn't/can't afford to, this hits too hard. And I'm not even the demographic being systemically shut out. 😭
Collateral damage of redlining
@@mrbarnzzbingo, they didn’t care about anyone poor white folks but the the poor white folks love claiming they are supremist…. Yea ok bud lol
Are they not trying to shut poor people out too? I'm not American so I might be off the mark here.
@@mmfood3004 I'm sure a lot of people would disagree, but I believe it is more about income than race nowadays. Yes, historically it was racially biased heavily but it has evolved into more of a cash caste system. Poor doesn't have a color.
@@aracnadei13 I'm not sure I completely agree with you as there is clearly still a lot of racial bias. What I meant was that being poor is also a demographic that is being systemically shut out. I agree that poverty doesn't have a colour though.
This aspect of American society is so messed up. Because we’re told a myth about America being the land of opportunity - and we fail to live up to that ideal all. the. time.
the Pell Grant was a life saver for me, there would have been no way I'd have been able to get through college without it
I got my loans forgiven. It’s changing my life. I want everyone’s student loans forgiven.
can relate to that desire for sure.
That's awesome, I'm really happy for you!! 😊
Mine were forgiven too after Covid, it does feel great 🎉 Congratulations 🎊
I paid off my loans and that has no effect on my desires to have everyone’s loans forgiven and provide free or greatly reduced cost public university.
they absolutely could do it too, but than we wouldn't be desperate for shitty jobs and might fuck around and start mass unionizing
As an adopted kid from a white middle class family - the whole application/scholarship process sucked. I had no struggles, and my parents made enough to help, but not enough to carry me through, which I couldn’t be more thankful for. Being straddled between not being “Hispanic-y”enough and not being “white-traditionally”, enough made the whole process impossible.
it definitely forces you to pick a side, i appreciate that perspective! it sucked for me too
I wish they didn’t PUSH College as the only tool in the tool box… you need skilled labor, mechanics, plumbers, …etc apprenticeships….. it’s a money making system not education….. I’m 52 HS and vocational school…. Education I was taught to always have a book in my HAND
They put you in debt before life your begins
lol. you cant be humanizing people who actually do productive / beneficial things for society. only those who dont produce anything of value are allowed to have any quality of life in eurocentric culture anymore. when are we ever going to get out of the monarchist mindset that makes us feel perpetually indebted to europe despite europe beign the cause of all the human species problems of the past 1000 years?
I grew up pretty privileged, attending private school. I still remember when I first realized the inequity in public schooling in my state. I had a friend attending public school in a wealthy area doing literal scientific papers working in a lab (inside the school) with advanced scientific equipment and taking all the AP courses he wanted. Meanwhile, another one of my friends attending public school in the city had frequent “purple freezes” where the school would essentially go on lockdown to make sure kids were in class. Even though both of these schools are in the same state, about 10 miles apart, the educational opportunities and quality were vastly different. My state handles school funding based on taxes in the county, and until that’s changed there will forever be a vast gap in opportunities provided. Unfortunately, the people with the money and time to make policy go their way aren’t particularly keen on the concept.
I stopped watching another midway saw ur notifications 😂😂
that's huge, i appreciate you 🫶🏾
As much as I regret not having a degree at my ripe old age of 31, I feel like I dodged a bullet when I dropped out after a year with how exploitative universities can be. Too many schools in this country only care about bringing in fresh blood to rip off and the entire student loan industry exists simply to exploit people.
I'd imagine black communities are really great targets for this industry since black communities usually are a lot poorer than white communities and less money means more loans. The number of people in bed with this exploitative business is absolutely ridiculous.
you'd be right. we simply don't have a lot of resources and this is the way we're told we can reach the next level.
Yes this is a topic I am trying to discuss with anyone who wants to listen.
I grew up in an upper middle class family and but had experiences in the low income as a teen mom. The programs are so hard to navigate, you need patience to wade through the bs.
I went to college right after high school and i’m still not done with college. Thank you Bachelors in Chemistry
🙃🙃
3:48 I spent two years living in orlando and I get it. You do what u gotta do
I grew up upper middle class and then my mental health took a toll. Just now getting to college as a middle aged person. It threw me into low income for California but middle class anywhere else.
it felt like such a trap living there. the most nothing city lol. def need patience, and being middle class doesn't help as much as people think it does.
reminds me of being in the financial aid office twice a week every week because there was a missing part of the form, or they lost it, or there was an error, or it was filed wrong, and i had to fill the entire thing out every time because they "don't hand that out"
two years of that and fafsa was late every time. months late.
Like many in my neighborhood in south chicago, I grew up with a single mom who came to the US from Mexico. She received her GED a few years ago herself and went to school in her home country so i couldnt really rely on her to help me with enrolling in advanced classes, exam prep, and overall navigating my education. Even less so, considering she was almost always at work and not a nice person lol.
Even before I knew what radicalization was, I think elementary school played a major role in radicalizing me. I saw first hand how our school was underfunded. Our teachers were very vocal about their grievances in schools and we would even protest with them at times. I very vividly remember the 2012 Chicago Teacher Union strike, it’s a core memory at this point. They were overall supportive of our interests in social justice and introduced us to social issues outside of our little Latino neighborhood. We read books like Howard Zinn, Kindred, and Uprising (Octavia E. Butler is the GOAT!!).
After elementary, I went to my neighborhood high school and graduated in the cursed year of 2020 (boooo). That year really showed me how much of an uphill battle I had to deal with given what appeared to be only a minor setback.
I was in my high schools debate and math team and was a full IB student. I did good on the SAT (like 1450 i think) and had a decent selection of colleges to go to. However, by my last months in school, I had burnt out once again and the abrupt lockdown left me with a lot of anxiety and isolation.
I went to community college out of convenience (would recommend), but the transition was rough and I didnt know what to do (choose a major to make money or do what i am passionate about?) so I dropped my classes and didnt know that would further screw me over in the years to come.
Eventually, I decided to study what I loved and chose Chemistry as my major :). BUT
I lost my financial aid due to the dropped classes and I would have to pay out of pocket for a few semesters since returning a year later.
I worked full-time at my shitty minimum wage job to pay for it, only taking time away from focusing on being a full time student as well. I was going through cycles of burnout and kept dropping classes. My graduation date just kept being further and further away, it really tanked my self esteem.
I am now 22, saved up to see a mental health professional (cuz for some reason Medicaid doesn’t pay for some health services) and got diagnosed with ADHD. After many financial aid appeals, I got back my full pell grant and I have been able to make the most of the resources and programs at many institutions. More importantly, I have welcomed some amazing people in my life who love me as much as i love them.
Welp, currently i am at my 4-year university. I wish I could say something hopeful to conlude but I dont know when I’ll get my degree or if my financial aid will suddenly stop supporting my college education due to the late graduation date. It’s a constant worry, simmering in the back of my mind.
But I will say that having community has made it even possible to see myself as a capable person to go to college and challenge myself academically for the sake of education. My teachers and peers have uplifted me even when I felt like I was not worthy of their attention. If you are in this position in life, just know that there is always someone out there rooting for u!!! ❤
Keep pushing!
This was a smooth episode. These things need to be known, discriminatory social structures aren't dead until their effects are gone.
As a low income student who was smart, but not top 1% of the class smart, I was pushed to go to college by my family. Pushed towards student loans because no one had money for me because I could just “pay it back later.” Now I have debt for something I wasn’t 100% sure about as a literal child. The system isn’t fair for low income students at all, pushed to get a degree at high colleges just to try to get a chance at life. Only for it all to be against us because of greed.
Being against student loan forgiveness because you've paid yours off is like denying the development of a cancer treatment because your family member already died of cancer. It's selfish and incredibly short-sighted.
there's an awful lot of people in that camp too.
It is not the same thing 😂
I think we should also recognize that people that paid their loans are still impacted by lower savings/investments than they would have otherwise. I agree that it's crazy to be against forgiveness but I don't think it's unfair to argue that people who paid their loans should be included in whatever compensation package gets passed.
I heard the military pays for college, as do plenty of other basic jobs.
College isn’t forced though. That’s a choice. Cancer isn’t a choice.
I live in Germany and I’m so glad that I will never have to go through this ordeal. With my high school graduation around the corner I couldn’t even believe the thought of getting into this mountain of debt. I’m aware that I am extremely lucky to have parents that were able to put money away for this chapter of my life, but knowing that that amount of money will probably get me through comfortably is incredibly reassuring.
300 Euros per semester, that will be my tuition (or rather, admin fee), it sounds insanely weird when compared to any college in the US.
jesus. that's amazing
Incredible. 300 euros wouldn't even cover books here 😭
Look at this cinematography! This dude is putting in the work, man. Content is top shelf too. Can't wait to see you on top Cam
Absolutely underrated youtuber!! ✌️🇺🇲
you think so? preciate that fam
you are needed bro 💯
I went from a 2,100 student, ~85% white school to 1 of 20 white students at a *predominantly* black and Native American high school. so even if I'm white, even if I grew up comfortably in the lower-middle/middle class compared to my classmates, I still experienced the disparity in funding and teachers/resources firsthand.
And it always troubled me that this was the school the city's minority students HAD to go to in their area code, whereas I had been expelled and sent there. It just bothered me in words I didn't have at the time, when I put on my backpack in the morning, that the automatic, default mode for a school in a black and native area was "shitty" and had constant water leaks and much older laptops than the mostly white school I had been attending earlier.
the differences are shocking. i taught at many schools as a sub and the minority-heavy districts felt like a poverty tour.
To be fair that’s why working in the service industry, ie bartending or serving is the only viable way to get thru school with tips you can make close to or more then 100k depending how much you work and hate yourself. People who think they’ll pay their way thru school working a retail job or barista job are kidding themselves, it’s why after I finished community college I went straight into working into restaurants, at 23 I make more then older friends with GOOD degrees, as they have mass amounts of debt, I have none, it’s not for everyone, working 12-16 hours a day, constantly being on your feet, routinely hittin 30k+ steps a day while constantly doing physical labor, but it’s worth it if you live in a state where minimum wage is high (I live in California) it’s an option, dare I say the only option, the gig economy is here and it’s shows how American capitalism is crippling into a mix of Technological Feudalism as well as Christian Fascism (if you live in one of those unfortunate red states like Florida) there’s no real solution, it’s why I long term strongly see myself leaving America, ironically as I myself am first generation 😂.
whew. "depending how much you work and hate yourself" is a helluva sentence to just slide in there
@@CamJames yes over the past couple summers my schedule was one espresso/wine bar from 6:30 am to 4 pm then my restaurant job from 5:30- to let’s say 2:30, it definitely is crippling but again the money is there.
Crazy hours!!! Take care of yourself.
we never left feudalism because there's never been a point in human history where the majority of well off people actually had to abide by rules plus werent the only ones making and enforcing rules. idk why anyone calls this democracy. when you can only convince yourself thats ok to do if you only consider well off people to be human beings like the "founding fathers" did. eurocentric culture in general simply does not believe people born without wealth should ever be able to have it or do anything besides get tortured for the entertainment and egos of the well off.
@@michelletucker2842 will do, I don’t do that anymore, but still something close to it, gotta pay the bills somehow haha
I have.... too many degrees, but I really dislike academia and its entire system. I'm just good at school, so while my career floundered I kept studying. It has worked out, but entirely by luck and timing, to get into a good career right as I finished (checks notes) 22nd grade.
(Shout out to a fellow test whiz, only-Black-kid-in-class, and so forth)
I was also a GT negro, but ultimately left during the pandemic. I’m in community college now, and it’s basically the same info without the prestige 🤷🏾♂️
basically. primary thing you gain from big colleges is big connections
I think there is a distinct difference in quality of education at the "bigger more prestigious schools" BUT only for the last two years when course work is finally focused on your degree. For those interested in college, I'm a big proponent of 2 years community college + 2 years at a college known for the program of your career path. That way people can see if college is the route that works for them without the higher financial risk of "big" colleges. This also allows for people to switch majors if they realize within the first few semesters that the core classes for their chosen degree are completely against their taste, skill set, etc. again without the larger financial obligations.
I was definitely jealous of the reduced debt of the community college transfers in my classes during my last two years lol
It still blows my mind that my scholarship was funded by the state's lotto program. My folks decision to leave me with a 529 is the reason I'm not drowning in debt today. Yeah, I hit the university's retention rate poorly. I still actively debate the financials of completion.
As a white person who grew up in South Africa in the final years and early post years of Apartheid, I have experienced the extreme opposite and heavily institutionalised racism. While it is impossible to truly understand the living perspective of other races it is through learning and hearing the stories of people from all walks, backgrounds, cultures and experiences of life where some level of understanding and compassion can begin to alter the way things are for the future of out global civilisation. Having met Nelson Mandela briefly in the street while walking to university one day (the presidential residence was en route), what he said struck me "We need young people to have the experience of being together to truly change things".
While you may want to give a trigger warning to "uncomfortable" facts... it is probably better that those who need to hear the facts be confronted with them. As a non-American, I got a little lost in the acronyms, to be honest, but still learned a lot. Thank you.
Another great one Cam. I don’t always agree with all your points but I always respect it. Keep doing your thing
Internet famous was not your only way out but I'm glad you figured it out..
hyperbole. i've had pretty great jobs for most of my adult life but none of them have the uncapped ceiling of internet fame lol (and i got kicked out of my startup which would've offered the same thing, long story)
I never really had to deal with stuff like loans, but I know my older sister did with a government loan so that she could pursue medicine partially overseas, and she broke every bone in her body to make sure she had the grades to have that loan forgiven. That's another consequence with these loans honestly, it's the intense pressure to find the means to get that loan out of your hair if you have the possibility to. While I don't need any loans as far as I know to pursue my masters, you can bet I'm gonna work for each cent I can to make at least some of that money back. The idea of my parents dropping all that money and they won't see much of it would haunt me to hell and back.
Man, you're better than me. I didn't even bother stepping foot on the grad stage after graduating from university because I was so fed up.
Thank you for covering these statistics on how college debt and inequality messes up most of us (especially black students and non-white folk). I was privileged enough to be in a position to pay off my loans, but I want student loan forgiveness for everyone. University costs* are ballooning out of control and many jobs expect you to have a college degree now; many have debts that they're still paying out 20+ years later. You can't win
*at least in the US
I feel you on the SAT. I had one professor who gave me an A- and ruined my 4.00 GPA. We had some words after I graduated
I live in Puerto Rico and attended upr college, I'm so lucky to have a decent college education and no student loan debts.
All these projects are great stuff man. Bravo. You gotta hit the healthcare industry next man, that is the most absurd can of worms
I was kicked out of two houses not long after I graduated high school. I started working at a factory 60 - 70s a week making 10 an hour and almost found myself in the despair of working at a sweatshop basically. Obama approved the trade act which directly funded my associates degree with a housing stipend. This allowed me to afford my bachelor's with grants and public loans. I was told I was worthless throughout public school and barely made it through. Education programs have a direct impact on people's lives.
they absolutely do. love this perspective!
Oh my gosh you’re from Orlando!! I’m watching this on my trip to Orlando. Sending you love Cam!
i appreciate that! lol yeah that was high school
As long as student loans cannot be discharged in bankruptcy the cost of college will go up to consume all available lendable money and the pool of lendable money will expand to meet any tuition price. Without risk of discharge to constrain the lenders and colleges the problem will only get worse.
simple mathematics.
It's crazy how many people I know don't know what compound interest is but take out huge ass loans
Just gonna drop this here: imagine the folks who wouldn’t have to count on social security if they could instead pay that money into a retirement account instead.
Great video, great writing, great execution.
22:37 I appreciate this 🤣🤣
attending school during lockdown was absolute chaos and exacerbated my existing struggles with school as a neurodivergent person, so i was too burnt out to even consider jumping into college like i was expected to. now that money is getting tighter and tighter, i am SO glad i didn't go to college.
Man, i really lucked out with my debt. Only have a low five figure loan that i could have paid in full years ago, but thanks to low fixed interest rates it's actually better if i invest that money and just pay minimum payment on the debt.
you def did luck out, it's ugly out here
Cam whispering "juicy" over and over into a microphone in front of what appears to be a highschool entrance was not what I expected from this video lmao
it would get a lot worse if i told you what type of school that actually is, i didn't even think about that lol
@@CamJames😂
The student debt discussion has the dumbest dichotomy. “Cancel it” or “you took it you pay it” no, remove the predatory lending practices and the bad faith companies that trick borrowers then lower the interest rates to a reasonable level for a debt you have to die to get out of. FYI I went to college and grad school on a full bright futures scholarship.
LFG Cam! Get after it!- smoky
I dont live in the US but I find how fucked some stuff in the US facinating and sad. hope it changes
your intros are very captivating
thank you for real, worth the effort
Keep these videos coming man. Sometimes they're a hard watch, and I don't always agree with every point made, but you've introduced some new facts/points that have shifted a number of my views along the way.
I was still here til you threw out the hurtful stereotypes of hiking trails and rock songs. Ok, mostly the hiking. I’ll go ham on some trail mix, though…. 😂 keep up the great work, bro, and great video!!
those were the most benign stereotypes i could think of 😂
@@CamJames I hope you know some of us CAN handle the heat of bell peppers, thank you. Benign not necessary 🧐
Cam, I love your videos. Do you think you'll cover anything on the GI bill? As a former pell grant recipient (I dropped out lol) and now a new-ish US vet, I remember everyone explaining why they joined up. Most answered with a resounding, "I can't afford school. I need that GI bill." If it wasn't the sole reason for people joining it wouldn't be so terrible, but you see a lot of people from all walks of life putting their bodies and minds at risk just to have a shot at higher education.
I have no doubt it'll come up, perhaps in the next installment. there's always a substantial military component to most topics i cover, but of course i need to be careful and thorough with how i approach them.
@@CamJames I'm looking forward to it! It's interesting thinking about how the DoD determines the cost to screen, train, and provide necessities to servicemembers compared to the value they provide (as well as how much servicemembers value their contributions) and how it all stacks up to getting a GI bill. This is kind of an afterthought and I don't have a lot of data on it at the moment, but I do know that the population of white servicemembers/veterans is decreasing as black, hispanic, asian, indigenous, and pacific islander populations are increasing - yet VA disability approval has been significantly lower for black veterans than all other races.
Im white and from the UK, ive been watching yoru videos since your subs where in the 20ks, your work is great and very insightful. Beneficial to us all, no matter what race, gender or political alignment to hear breakdowns that are this well researched. Keep it up, cant wait for you to get that UA-cam gold!!!!
As a single parent in the 75-125K group as well, I am not in any position to drop 50K on school for my kid and FAFSA is no help at all. Besides predatory loans, there are little options available.
Also the college culture in the USA is so strange as a Canadian. The senior year/college comedy/drama is an entire film genre. All the tours, branding, and events Americans have for college selection seems so strange. In Canada you kind of just do research grade 11/12 and maybe one or 2 campus tours and that's it lol. It's like vocational school/trades/apprenticeship etc was never an option for the main characters.
i agree completely. everything is so dramatic here
for the algorithm. Great video, thanks!
thank you Chelsea, i really appreciate the support. i'm tired but very encouraged.
Back again with the coldest mic flip in the game. Aye
Oof. I am in the “go fuck yourself” boat. Through the combination of my parents helping pay, scholarships having to pay and working and paying a bit myself I graduated without any loans. Also lived at home and commuted to a nearby college that was pretty cheap so my tuition probably ended up being less than $50k for a 4 year degree. Still helping pay off loans because my partner has some though.
Rock transitions aren't required but much appreciated.
haha i actually look forward to working some in there
“Where was I? Oh yeah…white people!” 😂 As a white viewer with a daughter going into her sophomore year of college this hits. I just logged into her financial aid a few days ago with a pit in my stomach to see what we’re facing this year. She gets the Pell grant, thank goodness but lost a lot of funding that was only for her first year so now we’re wondering what the hell to do. It’s our state university so at least she has in state tuition. But her best friend may drop out because she can’t afford to return and neither her or my daughter face discrimination or racism- I can’t even imagine how hard it is with that added on top 😳
Thank you for this! Love the allyship demonstrated here. You are what society needs❤
the solutions at the end needs to include mindset overhaul and our approach to this problem - we can't keep doing the same thing over and over yet looking for a different result..
1) stop majoring in dead end majors like liberal arts- every college have that major and it leads to kob earning slightly above minimum wage - why the hell anyone would go across the country to major in that? Put batchelor in psychology on that list too.. and there's a whole lot more..
The universities won't change if we are there eating up these dead end majors..
Let me tell you how messed up the private student loan companies are. I took out a $12,500 loan back in 2012. That loan ballooned to $22k by the time I could afford to start paying on it. It had a variable interest rate that consistently stayed at around 8-10%. Do you know when I finally got a job that paid me enough where I could start throwing $1800/month instead of the $225/month the interest rate jumped from 11% to 14.5% within a 6 month period. I ended up getting laid off from that job and got a severance package of 6 months. I took a 1/3 of that money and finally paid off that student loan and found another job. If I would have kept on paying them $1800/month I would have paid them an extra $2500 in interest alone.
Don't even get me started on their policies of forbearance. You gotta pay them $50-$100 to go into forbearance while they still collect interest and it only lasts for 2-3 months.
Fuck Navient and fuck SallyMae
Ah, Timber Creek In Avalon Park 😲!? Wow. They’ve since rerouted half of the community to East River High School… which subsequently messed up real estate in the entire lower Waterford area. People literally avoid renting & buying once they realize their kids won't be able to attend Timber Creek MS/HS.
Education, real estate, bait & switch rezoning…. maybe it's worth a “deep dive$” topic? 🤔
the very same. didn't know any of that about rezoning, that's unfortunate
Love this one. Keeps getting better.
thank you for watching!
Your content resonates so well, I get psyched for every upload. Im sorry it was a necessity to go public but shit, your work is a real gift to many including myself. I hope you get to reap all the rewards that come your way 🤘
thank you for being here, that's all i can say. I'm doing my best and those of you who watch are helping me more than you know
Yes accolades! 👏🏽 I definitely feel this! I went to an out of state PWI and along with all of my degrees are the loans to go with them smh. Luckily they weren’t private but they weren’t much better. Great topic!
'preciate you watching! very lucky they weren't private but all loans are bad news.
Rock music and hiking trail lololol
This is a great video that just highlights the disparities. It's disgusting, and I hope by commenting it helps get the message out. I can't really say any more because this makes me furious, and I don't want to make a giant effort post that is going to be read by maybe 2 others.
i definitely feel you, and i appreciate the support ☀️
Another great video. Shared this asap.
thanks for sharing!
Would a Canadian Cam start his videos with "Eh"?
Graduated in 2018 and pretty much had same position as you except just my mom. I had been accepted into the UC I wanted, and even a scholarship in NY but that's out of state tuition canceled it out. On top of that my EFC was $32,000. My mom has to work two good jobs to survive out here in CA, but we don't have $160,000 for tuition tf...
I got lucky,
My family put my needs above theres,
I managed my own intelligence on my own since my k-12 district had most of its funding rerouted to the main political center north in Chicago,
I studied for months for the SAT and ACT,
Got plenty from Fafsa,
And happened to go to college the year where my score got 4 years of paid tuition and housing. The year before and after were just tuition.
I left with 10k in debt and a degree thanks to all of those pains and blessings.
White people aren't a cohesive group,
Those with the power will use any difference to put others down.
Race, education, and financials are the big ones.
Shits rough out here. Good luck all
I’m among those who were privileged enough to leave college with no debt at all (art school too, no less, so I’m doubly privileged that way) but I ABSOLUTELY advocate for widespread student loan forgiveness. I got mine, and I want you to get yours too. I know how unrealistic it is for a bill like student loan forgiveness to pass, but I can keep advocating and pushing for it. The expectations put on students has increased every single year-top colleges are getting more and more stringent with their acceptances, with percentage rates dropping drastically for the past four years, all while raising their prices at pretty much the same rate. Students are asked to meet increasingly impossible demands for extracurricular and leadership experience. Just the essay alone has many families spending hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on tutoring and revising. And that’s not even getting into how the students who need the most tutoring can rarely access it. Meanwhile, top performing students from underprivileged minorities are struggling to even access local and state public colleges. Some minorities, like Asians, aren’t even categorized specifically enough to show the struggles going on! This wasn’t mentioned in the video, but while East Asian and Indian students are consistent high achievers and often enter competitive colleges alongside white students, many southeast Asian American, Hmong American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander students consistently *under* perform, doing about as poorly as black American students in metrics such as personal finance, school funding, and educational opportunity. And on TOP of all that, even once these students graduate, minority students STILL struggle to pay off debt because of the wage gap (wasn’t the statistic like, for every dollar a white man earns, a black man only earns like 80 cents? Don’t quote me, I don’t remember the exact stat). This system was designed to keep people of color down, especially black Americans, Latino Americans, Native Americans, and other “undesirable” minorities. And that’s not even getting into the ways in which other factors can make this even harder like being queer, having a disability, being neurodivergent, losing a parent early on, or whatever else is going on in a person’s life to make things difficult… Life is hard, there isn’t a day that goes by when I’m not thankful for what I’ve got, and the way I express my thanks is by being educated on how to help those with fewer opportunities than me.
You can probably tell that i am deeply passionate about education and educational disparity haha
Dude gets a Like for the “JUICCAAAAYYY” alone
Juicayyy
I'm all for student loan forgiveness, even though I'm not eligible. It's hard out here for a lot of people. We should be finding ways to ease the burden to create a more productive America. 🤷🏾♂
I get wanting to leave your hometown, I got accepted into Purdue but man the tuition cost was insane. Just ended up going to UF (Bright Futures is goated!) and still racked up student debt. My brother who is 2 years younger than me got a Pell Grant even though our FAFSA was the exact same, still irks me to this day. 100% agree that FAFSA needs to be revised. As a first generation college grad this video was very eye opening… great video as always.
I was pressured into going into STEM, only to find out after graduation that bio majors actually make LESS than the average college graduate. So I have a degree that I spent tens of thousands of dollars on that I don't use because I make the same amount working freight receiving at a local store as I would in a typical job that requires my degree. 🙃
As a man who also attended public schools through the 80s & 90s, I’m glad you’re forming a platform that addresses the challenges of being black & poor.
I too, was in gifted and talented classes throughout school. I was told to attend a local community college. I worked after high school & only went back to college at the age of 30.
I graduated from Clemson University with a degree in Sociology and Public Policy. I worked with nonprofits, now with the economy in the toilet, I struggle to make ends meet with a massive debt burden.
Thank you brother and keep up the good work. I have great researching skills and would love to work with you.
thank you for watching and acknowledging the work. hit me at the contact email in my bio, i may be looking for more research assistance in future
Never had student loans but I see how it scammed my peers. Free my young people from these financial shackles
1:59 damn I feel like the same
"Juicaaay" 🤣
makes me laugh too tbh lol
If we want to hold young adults responsible for their early financial decisions, then maybe we should, I dunno, provide some financial education.
that would be really nice lol
Thank you for being so based Cam
And they told me trade school was for failures. 😎
The uncountable assets thing is an inarguable point, and I'm glad to have that under my belt when talking with online racists, thank you.
Watching this, though, it's made me realise HOW fucked America is - they've drawn their socioeconomic lines directly where racial divides are, so the socioeconomic issues people of every colour face in every country look exactly like racial issues in America. It's crazy to me.
This video also reinforced my idea that lines of credit should have a very hard cap, and things like student loans and mortgages should not be allowed to exist. If EVERYONE can get student loans to the tune of six figures just like that, then there's no financial advantage between the buyers for the product (higher ed placements). Everyone is forced to take the loans because everyone can, and the universities can charge insane prices for it.
End student loans, and bring back price competitivity. The only people the loans are helping are the universities, and the bankers.
"The decisions I made before I could drink should not follow me into my fifties" - hard disagree. Debt forgiveness should not be a thing unless it was fraudulent. High interest rates aren't fraud.
I said "end student loans", not "forgive".
y'all's lack of mercy towards literal children staring down a multi-billion dollar machine is wild
@@CamJames You gotta understand my position. I came from nothing and broke into the middle class by my own efforts without school in an industry everyone says you need higher ed for. I _know_ the lies being told to these kids. I hate the machine more than you could know.
Just 'cause roulette is rigged doesn't mean I think the gamblers are entitled to "mercy". They shouldn't have gotten into it, their parents should have taught them better, and fought for their country to be a better place for their kids, but they didn't... So the kids grow up believing the lies sold to them by the education and student loan systems - that it's required. They read the job adverts that say it's required and believe that too.
They deserve sympathy, sure. Not mercy.
Thank you for your time.
I'm only 3 minutes in, and this man is flexing on us....go head with your big test scores, Cam. We see you! LOL
ancient history but i had to bring it up once lol
I have a master's from Georgia Tech and now that the tech industry is falling apart, I make more money from music and my degree is basically just a wall decoration... and they keep calling about donations. 😂
nonstop lol, and it ain't happening
Being a bit older, my college was paid for via my inheritance from my grandmother. But it wasn't a huge amount of money back then. I'm stunned at tuition these days. But one thing for sure, I am all for whatever student loan forgiveness the Biden admin has managed ($144 billion is not chump change). It's easy to find anecdotal stories all over the internet of how people had their lives immediately changed by it. If my taxes go towards helping them finally start getting ahead, I'm 100% for this.
But man, that stat about the difference white vs black wealth is a gut punch. However, it sadly makes sense when you look at how historically blacks were barred from buying homes with redlining and all that. A house is, for better or worse, how most people accumulate wealth in their lives, so black folks have literally had untold billions of wealth denied over the decades.
I'm not a fragile white person when I watch these videos...but they do make me furious about what this country has done to people who don't look like me.
College degrees aren't the only way to success as they always sleep on those who have degrees/ certificates in skilled trades etc that allow them to make a extremely comfortable living for yourself and your family.
Banger after banger. I predict 200k subs before end of year
would be nice, thanks for the support!
Had to buy you a coffee bruh, felt like i was stealing 😂😂😂Appreciate you bro 🙏🏽 💯
man thank you. y'all make the work worth it frfr
As always, great content, great research!
It's wild you made this video because i recently had a debate with a college level educator who feels everyone (but primarily disenfranchised Black Americans) should go to college. My argument is piggy backing off a comment you made in this video that i think you should expand on, when you stated that in 2012 you got the degree that you were told was your only way of escaping working at McDonald's.
Those were powerful words.
Our generation was told that the only path to real success was to get a college degree. Ok, so boom. We did that. Now, here we are with these degrees, and now jobs want you to have a master's degree to get an entry-level job at a call center for $14/hr (absolutely nothing is wrong with this kind of job, it just doesn't require a degree to perform it). The market is oversaturated with degreed candidates fighting for an ever shrinking pool of jobs with wages that don't justify the time or money spent on education to get them.
Honestly, college is hella expensive. Like criminally expensive 🍵. Early education should put more of an emphasis on people obtaining skilled trades because honestly a lot of those jobs pay more and are more stable with better benefits (like pensions/retirements) and unions. Trades afford people the opportunity to start making an income sooner without college debt. A lot of those training programs can be paid for with state funding that is easier to obtain than college grants.
College is great for people who actually want to go, but as a country we need to stop acting like thats the only path to success, especially when it cripples people in debt with no guarantee whatsoever of a financial payoff.
😂 I hear you on Calculus. Failed it twice, as an engineering major. SMH. Then switched to Economics. 😂😂😂😂
that subject is the worst, right after Physics
✨The 666th Like! Felt that when you said becoming internet famous is the only option🙌✨