I thought what you wrote was a great response. 
Busdriver, we’ve used 0% interest offers (actually 3% or 4%, usually) as well on occasion, when we’ve needed access to extra cash that we didn’t have at the time. It’s a nice option to have, but it takes discipline to keep an eye on the expiration dates (usually 12 to 18 months now), and to pay it down before the 0% runs out before the exorbitantly high interest rate kicks in. Allocating the extra amounts to pay that down really eats into our budget, so we try not to do that.
We could let privates do whatever they want but fund State Us as we used to lower the tuition to 4 figures or free. It can’t be that hard. Isn’t that what was used to be a couple of decades ago?
European schools limit the number of students that get into university and many have a high school leaving test that determines whether a student can attend. Much lower percentage of students attend college in many European countries. Give the system we have here with so many private colleges, it seems unlikely that free college could ever happen.
Agree with Igloo that the most practical way to make college affordable is to increase stat support for Stat Universities and continue and expand the community college support.
Good jobs could be created by investing in our crumbling infrastructure. In my state the transportation fund is also empty, but there is no political will. To raise taxes eve a minimal amount to fund it.
"People are less tempted to spend what they never see, and it’s a smart decision in the long-term. "
This is key. This is where NG went wrong. When he received that advance, he should have immediately put $x aside knowing taxes were due, and $x for savings of some sort.
This sounds silly, but my mother has come to the realization in therapy that if she sees a certain amount in her bank account she thinks she has it to spend. So for example, I pay her health insurance. It would be more convenient for ME to write her one big check at the beginning of the year and let it be chipped away at, but she’ll mentally think that $ is there for whatever. So now I give her a check every month that arrives just in time to cover the health insurance. That keeps that money from being “misused.” She’s also learning for her, if she has extra money, if she pulls it out in cash in $100 bills she won’t spend it the way she would if it were in $20s which are easy to break. The little she loses by not having that $ in the bank or invested is well worth it because that’s her way of disciplining herself to save for a rainy day. I applaud that she has found these insights about herself even though it’s taken time to do so. It gets to the concept of how do you work best with your own habits to get into a good place. I suspect NG has the same trait of “if it’s there, I can spend it” which is why he didn’t pay the taxes on the advance nor did he set up some kind of automatic set-aside for the kids’ college.
This is puzzling me. Weren’t we supposed to do that right after financial crisis? New “new deal”, shovel ready? Fixng the infrastructure and keep people employed? Didn’t they do it?
My reading was that he needed all the advance for living expenses. I can believe that.
PG:
In my experience, if I’m financially responsible for someone incapable of paying their bills, it is a whole lot easier, and much less stressful, to just make all the insurance payments myself, if I’m allowed to do so. I pay property taxes as well after going through some unopened mail and finding a notice about upcoming seizure of assets for auction because of unpaid taxes… This is just not worth fussing over to me, with those so ill they will never change fwiw
I think there is a huge difference between making bad decisions and being incapable of paying bills because of mental illness. Musica’s point was interesting to me. I am rethinking the article.
Some people can’t be “fixed” and it is only possible to mitigate the damage. Probably this is off -topic.
“This is puzzling me. Weren’t we supposed to do that right after financial crisis? New “new deal”, shovel ready? Fixng the infrastructure and keep people employed? Didn’t they do it?”
Yes, there was infrastructure spending in the fiscal stimulus bill but also other spending and the stimulus wasn’t as large as it should have been.
My town got money and put in much needed sidewalks (there were signs) and the city near me spent money on revitalizing a neighborhood’s streets, sidewalks, street lights, etc which boosted its profile as the newest trendy neighborhood to go out to eat and shop. Lots of new restaurants and stores opened after it was revitalized.
Here’s a good article explaining the effect of the 2009 stimulus.
Agree, alh - there is a particular reason (irrelevant to this thread) why I don’t pay directly.
Is NG someone who has the ability to be financially responsible? How could we even know? It is impossible to teach some people these skills. imho. Musica made me wonder about him. Now I’m back to the original article. I was pretty impressed he gave up the credit cards. That’s huge, whether or not he understands all the long term ramifications.
imho 
However, voters apparently have other budget priorities, like cutting taxes and building more prisons to house the additional prisoners from “tough on crime” laws. Also, like private employers, state governments have historically promised pension benefits that they did not fund, so they now have to make up the pension liabilities.
The growth of college costs as all colleges have increased services is also a factor. Most students and parents in the US would not prefer a college that just offers the academics and minimum possible record keeping (transcripts, diplomas) but nothing else.
^ Never let it be said that “we” have our priorities straight.
Here is a list of states and the % of budget cuts to higher Ed between 2008-2014. Interesting.
Only 3 states increased funding (Alaska, Wyoming and NDak) but I suspect that since the oil bust and state revenue has fallen off a cliff - these states will be seeing large cuts in higher Ed spending.
Even with the downturn in Europe and austerity budgets proliferating the EU increased university spending by 30% iirc. This is a major reason so many in the UK are opposed to leaving the EU. Their uni’s will take a big hit with the loss of funding - especially research dollars.
@alh,
@Galber is doing many things that people would do themselves if they got into financial trouble.
He got a financial advisor.
He hasn’t used used a credit cards in 5 years.
He drives an old car inherited from his dad.
He is not adding to his tax woes.
He works 7 days a week.
He has done many things correctly over the last 5 years.
Speculating…
We don’t know what his wife is doing or what she is capable of doing.
My guess is because of the financial crisis, his credit rating and his tax situation, he hasn’t been able to increase his mortgage debt.
It is possible that a hard money lender loaned him more money on a second or third mortgage during the last 7 years, but I think this is a low probability.
This could be found out at his city or county hall.
Gabler may be financially responsible over the last 5 years.
The operative word being “may.” There are so many holes in his narrative that none of us know the real story. May you never have to attempt to straighten up the finances of a person with bipolar disorder(as I have). Only half of what they tell you is really true. After reading this piece twice and listening to his interview I’m sure that NG really thinks that his predicament is due to outside forces that he can’t control. But none of what he says demonstrates that to me.
A thousand likes…
but for the purposes of the thread we probably just have to take him at his word.
When we read these stories, I guess we all see what we are used to seeing in our daily lives. The majority of people I know in bad financial circumstances have been really unlucky rather than really bad decision makers or ill.
What holes? Where is your evidence, @musicamusica?
I used the word may because I am not 100 percent sure. I haven’t checked to see the loans on his house. This is public information.
Yes @alh , that’s correct and that’s what makes this so contentious. I just can’t worm out the bad luck angle in his series of bad financial turns. Though if he indeed is struggling with a condition that clouds the truth of his situation, that is bad luck in itself. And if that is what’s really going on here then I have nothing but compassion for him and his family. Strangely enough that’s easier for me to understand.
"Though if he indeed is struggling with a condition that clouds the truth of his situation, that is bad luck in itself. "
^^right!!!
and even though he put himself out there, I’m not going to speculate anymore. For me, it’s not about him, the individual, but just general situations people find themselves in and how his article maybe illustrates some kinds of stories. We project. We have no idea what is going on.
@ucbalumnus Not sure about this. The gov seems to be able to go against voters when they see fit.
I know people who are bipolar. I am almost 60.
Do you know if NG or his wife are bipolar? I would be more sympathetic if he or she was. I wouldn’t be less sympathetic.