I Am Counterculture

Culture? Everybody uses this word, but so few have any clue what it means or how it works. Counterculture is a new word born from hipsters and technologists that means an intentional counter-movement to balance the mainstream thought process. It's all a bunch of horseshit. That is, until somebody loses their fucking mind and decides to live in a vehicle.

Listen, something is really wrong with the job market and living expenses. "The Rent Is Too Damn High" is a political party. It's headed by a crazy person, but the sentiment is damn straight. You know what else is too damn high? The price of rent. The price of food. The price of gas. The amount the lower-incomes pay in taxes. The cost of health insurance. The cost of car insurance. And the price of homes.

The list goes on, but one thing is for sure -- we're all fucking screwed.

Not all of us, of course. Those who are insulated from nature and the markets are doing great -- they have no clue that the world is melting down around them. For those who are trying this thing called "independence" and "starting out," the world looks very, very different.

Here's the thing. I just overdrew my bank accounts to buy food and gas. Yes, food and gas. I'm a working professional, living in an RV, making over $30/hour, and I just overdrew my accounts on food, gas, and living expenses. Why?

The reason is that I'm paying too goddamned much in rent, utilities, and living expenses. I can barely even afford to fix my cars. And that's a problem.

I talked to a friend recently who chided me for having student debt -- I told her that I still have undergrad debt and my graduate student debt came directly from buying myself out of my old life and spending 11 months looking for a new job.

So, while I'm sitting here feeling like a retard for racking up $32 in bank over-draw fees, I'm realizing that there's something even more massively wrong with our system than I initially realized.

I am working at a job that pays a great wage, with great benefits, and with great potential for growth. But with student debt, as a college graduate, my wages are garnished so much, there is an absolute minimum that I can afford to make before I am actually doing worse than someone without a degree at all...

Here's the thing: Getting an education is great, but it doesn't pay anymore. The amounts that we think of good wages are no longer good wages. And if a worker has student debt, they have to consider their student debt in their calculation of their success.

Right now, I'm working a half time job that pays more than my first full-time post-bachelor job. That means I am worth fully 100% more today than the day I graduated from my undergrad. And it's not enough. It's not that I'm doing something wrong or different.

The problem is not my income, my wages, or my choices -- the problem is the amounts that are deducted from my paychecks. In prior posts, I explored how much I lose to taxes and such, but it's worse than I ever thought.

I lose 25% of my paychecks to taxes, medicare, medicaid, and all those other mandatory paycheck deductions. I lose another 6% to medical insurance costs. That means that I start my month with 69% of my gross paycheck.

Of that 69%, I spend 35% on other mandatory expenditures, including rent, cell phone, utilities, and heating (spring, winter, and fall only). That means that I am left with 34% of my paycheck after taxes (yielding net income), and living expenses (yielding what I am calling "real income"). Of that 34%, student loans have to come out of it, vehicle repairs, food, gas, fun, and all other expenses that make life go-round.

What I've found is that I now have a fundamental choice: Pay student loans, or pay rent. Did you notice how the choice is "OR," not "AND"? I can pay rent OR student loans.

Congratulations to me -- my education has bankrupted me. Bankrupted. Bankrupted is when your expenses are greater than your income. Mine, though minimal, are now officially greater than my income.

And here's what I'm going to do about it: Fuck society. I'm going to fuck society. I'm going to leave the markets, leave the grid, and hit the road. I'm going to keep working to pay off this awful debt, but I will be doing it as a street-dweller.

Yep. The education bubble is upon us. And I am the new counterculture. It's normal to have student debt, you say? Well, it's also normal to go to prison once or twice in a lifetime, but I'm not going to do that.

Counterculture is a negative, distruptive reaction to the mainstream thought process. I will not live with this debt. I will pay it off and I will do it with grace. I am leaving the system. I am going off market and off grid. The counterculture to student debt and the academic institution have begun.