It’s not really about the money for me, I don’t have any money. It’s more about the education I sought and did not get. My first day of college was 9/11, after which the atmosphere of the small New York liberal arts college that sold me the Sallie Mae loan suddenly degenerated to something other than educational. A political disagreement with a professor led him to deny me credit, which led the college to reduce my scholarship, which led to the early demise of my academic life. Ten years of marginal living and a few sporadic payments later, I hold a threatening default collection letter from NYSHESC, and I still have difficulty believing that I owe them anything, since the education I was paying for was not made available to me after my freshman year. Add to this the frustration of going through endless deferment processes at the advice of Sallie’s outsourced Indonesian phone operators, only to have my many applications lost, ignored, and denied. Add to this the endless midnight robo-calls, and that I already suffer from lifelong bouts with insomnia. Add to this that I have not given up, and have attended school several times since, always being required to take out more loans, and each time receiving little or nothing of value from these paradoxical government-accredited/corporate-money-ruled educational institutions. This is the making of an occupier. I attend full-time at the school of life now, working in my local community, volunteering and working on organic farms, learning life-skills from people who never went to college. My life is good, I’m not complaining. I just don’t see any validity in a contract I signed at the age of 18, before I had any way of knowing what would then happen to my country, or how far I would have to wander beyond the university system before I found my real education. I wonder how much they’ve profited from SLABS-trading of my loan over the last ten years? I wonder if NYSHESC will try to repossess my shovel and work gloves? Perhaps I can pay them in beets?

Options Sallie Mae has given me in order to pay my loan:

1. Borrow from friends and family - $60,000 + 18 percent interest by the way.

2. Take out another private loan and use it to pay the current private loan.

3. Fill out a bunch of applications for credit cards, and pay the loan with those. (My credit score is below 500 due to Sallie Mae - so I either can’t get a credit card / or can get me one with an interest rate of 35 percent or higher)

4. Intentionally hurt myself or fill out a false accident claim so I can cash in on a settlement. (This is an honest to god suggestion from a Sallie Mae employee.)

5. Don’t pay my rent or buy groceries for the month. But pay my phone so Sallie Mae can continue to call me ten times a day.

6. Sell my car, all my personal possessions, and clothing so I can bring my account current and at least get just a small fraction the interest out of the way.

7. Quit college now and take up two or three jobs. Yes, Sallie Mae asked me to do the right thing and give up.

8. Ask neighbors, people I don’t know around me, if they would be willing to pitch in and help me out. Other wise Sallie Mae would call them and do it for me.

9. Garnish my wages. My wages are student loans.

10. Call me ten times a day. As if in between hours I’m some how going to magically have sixty thousand dollars.

11. Got to love the forbearance fee. In all honesty I’m still paying considering my interest is compounding during the times the forbearance is in “effect.”

Al lord, seriously? I get it. Who doesn’t want a nice yacht, a mansion and their own personal golf course. But what is that going to mean ten years from now when you need a doctor, and there aren’t any because you pissed on all of them? What about science breakthroughs? Your yacht isn’t going to build itself. How are you going to purchase the latest high tech car or gadget when America’s engineers are all stuck working retail? Pilots. Whose going to fly you in your private jet to your favorite vacation spots around the world? YOU? There are only a small handful of people like you out there right now, Al Lord. You could do so many great things with your money and your choosing not to. The American people don’t want to be filthy rich, they just want their shot. America possesses a vast range of diverse and talented people that could change the world as we know it. Al Lord, your not one of them. Its a travesty that some one that has nothing to offer gets to make the decisions.

I am in my 60s and finally paying off my student loans, but it took decades. I’ve had thoughts of loan collectors deducting payments from my social security checks when I retire or standing over my grave with an I.O.U.

In the late 60s I went to the University of Illinois to get a B.A. and tuition, fees and housing were affordable. I was also active in the vibrant political movements of the 60s and 70s and learned about the unfair nature of the economic system in which we live and work.

Politicians and predatory lenders like Sallie Mae have gradually dismantled the state land-grant system of colleges put in place when Lincoln was President. They also have chipped away at free or low-cost state systems like CUNY in New York or SUNY in California.

When I went graduate school in the 80s at Northeastern Illinois University, costs were dramatically higher. Ironically, I was enrolled in a Social Science Program with a major in Womens’ Studies but could not afford the expenses. I was a single parent with two daughters and, even with student loans, I could not pay rent, child care at the college, and other costs. Physically, I could not work part-time, attend classes and raise two children by myself. 1%ism already existed in higher education.

I left graduate school to get a full-time job. I had Dystonia which affects my speech. Many employers openly discriminated against me and I took out forbearances on my student loans which accelerated the amount of interest. The only treatment for Dystonia is bo-tox injections in the vocal cords by a skilled Neurologist or ENT Doctor. I had neither medical insurance or a job and getting a job was made more difficult by not having medical treatment for my voice.

I finally got a job and have nearly paid off the student loans, but the money I’ve paid in interest alone could have been used in a more socially beneficial way such as sending my daughters or other young people to college.

Other industrialized countries have both free, universal education and health care. The 99% and our children in this countyry deserve the same. Join the Occupy Movement and the Single Payer Movement.