RE: [pf] the future for young folk

At 11:58 29/1/2001 -0800, Diane F. wrote:
>A comment about young people and their jobs in the U.S., ...
>About money for people who go to college ... Working at a university, I
have come to the opinion that people do best at college when they earn some
portion of their tuition. ...
>
>I then took a graduate course called "American Community Colleges," which
had as one of its central themes that institutions of higher education are
basically whatever we want them to be. ... Indeed, I have come to see
colleges not as being here for the *students* but as here for the community
in which it is located.  It serves as both ... employment ... and a place
to sidetrack enough young people into "low-end," volunteer or no jobs while
they study.  Otherwise, our unemployment numbers would be much more
frightening than they are now. ...
>
>In other words, colleges have an element of pork-barrel politics about them.
>

· About money and the necessaries, for youth. Two points.

(1) Young folk start out with their families, and years later are on their
own. This transition is often sudden, but doesn't have to be.
· One of the intermediate stages is when the young adult is living at home.
This can occur /after/ complete independence, for a number of reasons
including being fired or unwilling to continue with a paying job, and
breaking up with a partner. It could just be personal preference, as it
seems to be with our two.
· The financial arrangements can vary greatly. I only yesterday realised
that we here have it one way round, but it could be inverted. We supply the
roof, the bed, and basic food (my menu plus a little). That part's
guaranteed, but my wife currently adds about NZ$50 per week of "allowance".
This lets our children earn the money they use for travel (Ruth should be
touching-down in Switzerland about now; she paid for it herself by teaching
English to Asian immigrants). But we could do what a friend did: charge
rent-and-board, and supply the money for travel (or whatever; perhaps
registering a company, or paying off a fair-sized debt).

(2) Another dimension with quite a lot of variation is education costs. The
simple assumption is that whatever the student wants is paid-for by some
combination of parents and loans. But it could be fitted into the above
"living-at-home" financial arrangements. Being academics, my wife and I
tend to look very favourably at paying for course fees and books when e.g.
Ruth took courses at Okanagan University College in Kelowna British
Columbia a few years ago (she stayed with one of my sisters there). But
even that has a limit; we turned down as too expensive (actually, persuaded
her not to go ahead with) a course in Switzerland/Schweiz where she could
have learnt the Swiss-German her hosts use.
· But a different family could pay $4-5000 a year for the person's living
expenses (cheap "flatting": 3 to 5 people renting the same house), perhaps
aiming to encourage the move to independence, but leaving the young person
to find the money for study or training.

· I guess my main point is that there are a lot of options, and one should
be flexible, in considering financial arrangements with young relatives.

David.
(David MacClement) davd@ihug.co.nz 
http://www.geocities.com/davdd.geo/index.html#top
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