NeoZine

When Brian left the old man’s office, he remembered only two words: “Laid off…”

Long nights studying, meals skipped, evenings stolen: they owned him! He even moved his young family across the country. They promised him the “Fast Track.”

“…Clear your cubical…” the old man said somewhere in the conversation.

What happened just now?

He glided into his cubical and plopped-down: he was more alone than he ever knew before. He hoped nobody would try to talk with him.

Oh fool, his mind whispered, fool…The company would take care of them, he promised his wife.

How could he tell her?

It's confusing at first, but it's quite simple: you're a number on someone's spreadsheet.

The Life-Trap

How would you feel if someone stole $80,000 from you–and it was all borrowed money? It happened to Brian. It’s happening now, today, to hundreds of thousands across America. It will keep happening too: it’s set up that way.

The abuse of students by financial institutions is so widespread, Congress had to pass the Student Loan Sunshine Act to curtail it:

The controversy centers on the cozy relationships between private lenders and school officials, whereby colleges steer new students to preferred lenders who then reward the compliant staff with gifts and other compensation. For example, in 2005 JP Morgan apparently paid $70,000 for a harbor cruise in New York City for over 200 financial aid officers. R.P. Murphey

Didn't expect 30-years in prison.

But the Sunshine Act is far from informing students of what awaits them in college. It is a cold, well-oiled machine. It’s called the Education System, and it is a system without a heart. It is designed by nameless education engineers tucked away in some building in Washington. They mean well, but ask Brian and countless thousands–millions?–of kids who charged into deep college loans and see what they say.

Brian was railroaded like many high school students are today. They said he was “gifted” and flattered him with visions of monumental success, if only he would sign a lifelong contract for massive school loans. He followed all the rules. He earned his degree, he did what he was told.

But they said little about the cold and heartless money machine that grinds people’s hopes into bankruptcy. Capitalism doesn’t care about people. Capitalism cares about business systems, not the people working in the system.

When money gets tight, a spreadsheet somewhere triggers business systems to start spitting people out on the street. Apologies are useless and often nobody bothers.

Radio Shack laid off 5,000 workers by email. The instructions told them to clean out their desks by the end of the day:

“The work force reduction notification is currently in progress,” the notice stated. “Unfortunately your position is one that has been eliminated.” [format type=cite]NY Times[/format]

Who do you talk to when it’s just bulk email? Who looks you in the eye while your livelihood is terminated? More businesses would follow Radio Shack’s lead if they could get away with it. When the news went public, Radio Shack shares increased!

At any price the business system must survive, but people are disposable. It works that way.

Nobody told Brian about this beast called “The System”. Maybe he heard rumors, but a young kid in high school doesn’t know what to think about such rumors. Mostly Brian just trusted his teachers, and they all pushed him into it.

Broken promises

In 2005 Congress passed a bill making it impossible for students to declare bankruptcy and find relief from crushing student loans. The loans are so easy to get, young kids easily amass $100,000 or more in debts before graduation, and the colleges eat it up. Promises are made by nameless bureaucrats, and the kids don’t realize the bureaucrat was a nobody. They don’t realize the college needs the money, and they need recruits, and promises are meaningless.

That’s the education system.

The Bible calls it the Kosmos, and it’s a dead and dying place. It’s the last place that deserves any Christian’s allegiance:

The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever. 1 John 2:17

In this series we’ll investigate what the Bible says about living in such a place, and what Christians can do about it.