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Fat, Drunk and Stupid
Nov. 20th, 2008 01:56 pmI went to lunch at Champps today. For those of you not in the know, it's a mid-range sports bar / restaurant. I had a Ruben and an iced tea and the bill was $12, as a price point.
In the men's room at Champps, I hear a guy in the stall say (approximate quote) "I'm trying to work with all the people I owe money to, but I've got $100,000 in student loans. What can I do to make this right?" I should mention that he was speaking quite loudly - no cupping of the ears required. My immediate thought was "why are you having private discussions on a cell phone?"
After I left, I have to admit my first thought was "if you're in debt to multiple people to the tune of over $100K, maybe you should brown-bag your lunches." Especially if you're getting collection calls on a cell phone. My second thought, "maybe he works here," is slightly more charitable. Although then the question is "how exactly did you plan to pay off that $100K of student loans?"
This is tied into another topic discussed here recently, bailing out the Big Three US automakers. As reported just about everywhere, all three of the Big Three CEOs flew to Washington on separate private jets. On the one hand, selling the jets would free up only a few minutes' worth of cash.
On the other hand, what where they thinking? It seems that many of our problems as individuals and as a nation are at root a failure to think ahead. For example, this lengthy (but very good) article suggests that the Wall Street collapse was due to sheer stupidity by Wall Street types. Much though I think we should "save" General Motors, it's hard to argue that they weren't as proactive as they could be. Ditto our foreign oil crunch. I could go on, but I think you get the picture.
There are days that I think we've wasted the last few years. As Dean Wormer said, "Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son."
I think we're discovering he's right.
In the men's room at Champps, I hear a guy in the stall say (approximate quote) "I'm trying to work with all the people I owe money to, but I've got $100,000 in student loans. What can I do to make this right?" I should mention that he was speaking quite loudly - no cupping of the ears required. My immediate thought was "why are you having private discussions on a cell phone?"
After I left, I have to admit my first thought was "if you're in debt to multiple people to the tune of over $100K, maybe you should brown-bag your lunches." Especially if you're getting collection calls on a cell phone. My second thought, "maybe he works here," is slightly more charitable. Although then the question is "how exactly did you plan to pay off that $100K of student loans?"
This is tied into another topic discussed here recently, bailing out the Big Three US automakers. As reported just about everywhere, all three of the Big Three CEOs flew to Washington on separate private jets. On the one hand, selling the jets would free up only a few minutes' worth of cash.
On the other hand, what where they thinking? It seems that many of our problems as individuals and as a nation are at root a failure to think ahead. For example, this lengthy (but very good) article suggests that the Wall Street collapse was due to sheer stupidity by Wall Street types. Much though I think we should "save" General Motors, it's hard to argue that they weren't as proactive as they could be. Ditto our foreign oil crunch. I could go on, but I think you get the picture.
There are days that I think we've wasted the last few years. As Dean Wormer said, "Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son."
I think we're discovering he's right.
