Chef Bankruptcy: $142,000 Student Debt, $10 an Hour Cooking Job
A man who owes $142,000 in student debt is on disability. He gets $1,200 a month. The debt is getting larger: interest payments.
He initially got a cooking job. He was paid $10 an hour. That’s what $142,000 got him.
What did he major in? Culinary arts? That’s a fancy phrase for cooking.
He lives in a van and is helped by the Salvation Army. Meanwhile, the debt gets larger.
Stories like this are everywhere. People think they are doing themselves a favor by taking on student debt. Then they find themselves trapped for life.
This man can probably get out of the debt. He is in poverty. He is homeless. A judge may listen. In cases where the person’s situation is beyond hope, judges can grant bankruptcy protection.
He attended an expensive private school. Why anyone pays this much money when he could apprentice is beyond me.
Forbes ran an article on the worst paying jobs in America.
The lowest-paid workers, fast food cooks, earn $9 an hour, for an average annual salary of $18,720. More than a half million people in the U.S. hold this position, and another 2.8 million are in a food preparation and serving job, the second worst-paying occupation.
If you attend culinary school, you think you will be a high-paid chef. Where is the evidence? What is the average starting wage of the graduates? Find out before you attend. And don’t borrow money to attend.
For the horrifying details, go here.
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Published on August 13, 2012. The original is here.
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