Tamara L. Siuda, unplugged
I need to learn how to give my photo posts some commentary in Blot. I would’ve labeled my June 9 entry about how absurd the entire student loan system in the USA is, and the absolute failure of UX design in that website. No one who put that site together realized there would be users whose information would spit out gigantic terrifying numbers, and either thought “maybe we should add something to keep them from a heart attack” or “maybe we should move up the part that explains you’re not expected to pay that if you can’t” when it comes to a number that would, as in my case, require your salary to be more than most CEOs make after years of employment in fields we didn’t spend that much to work in?
In any case, no, I will not make $626,700 this year, and thus the student loan highwaymen will not be reaping from me. Instead I will make what I make and they get 8% of it, which is all this website needs to say. For perspective: my debt total is AVERAGE for someone with a doctorate who had some financial assistance but was at least partially responsible for their own costs. There are people whose exit interview screens have considerably larger numbers than this one.
That’s the part that keeps me up at night. It should also keep the oligarchs who run the country I live in up at night, but I suspect since they never have to take out loans, this system is working exactly as intended.