Letter to the editor:
I’m an average Caucasian retiree who grew up in the midwest, was raised by blue-collar parents, each of whom worked 40+ hour jobs to support our family and encouraged all the kids to pursue higher education after high school. But that was as far as it went. They encouraged us but were unable to contribute financially. So I attended both college and graduate school exclusively on my own dime. During college, I worked 2.5 hours every evening, M-F, cleaning cages and feeding dogs and cats and an occasional goat or hog at a local animal shelter. When offered, I also picked up extra pay when the weekend guy couldn’t work. In graduate school, I worked 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, monitoring dynamic compaction for a local engineering firm. The only financial benefits I realized came from hours worked. And there were no vacations from work during the summer months. And no handouts.
