Breaking Cat News by Georgia Dunn for September 10, 2022

Yeesh. How timely is this? I just started looking around for a house (first time trying this) and the Woman is so completely right about A) the amount of financial information you have to disclose all of a sudden and B) how weird and wrong it feels.

Student loans (in their current form) would be . . . maybe a good idea . . . if you were guaranteed a high paying job after graduation. (Giving you some hope of paying them off someday.) There used to be several good paying jobs that only required “a bachelors degree” of any kind. Unfortunately, I haven’t heard of many (any) lately.

And in better news, there’s Sir Fig!

I’m glad I went to college at a time when tuition was affordable. Even though my dad died during the first quarter of my sophomore year, I could still draw his Social Security. That plus a part time job and the fact that I lived within easy driving distance from my university meant I didn’t need to take out any loans.

Yeeeeeesh, I feel this. My degree is in oil painting. Anyone want a portrait?

Are we seeing Elvis’s nictitating membrane?

Drawing cats? She’s definitely doomed.

OK guys, here’s what you do. First, the five of you form a limited partnership, specifying percentage ownership. After that each of you shares in mortgage and other expenses according to your percentage ownership. Next, Sign leases for each apartment according to their fair market value. Next, take the leases to the bank to get approval for a mortgage. Then make an offer to buy the place. Separate being renters from being owners.

It’s not often opposition stations can work together. And, apparently, sometimes self referential humour is the Dunn thing.

But she draws cats very well! I mean, I can’t do it.

Elvis isn’t wrong.

We’re lucky we didn’t need a mortgage to get our house. Our old house was bought with cash, so we were able to buy ours with cash.

Fortunately, the internet has a seemingly unlimited appetite for cat drawings.

When I went to Nursing School back in 1960 tuition for a 3 year course was a total of 550 dollars. I took my state boards right after school was completed and, Bingo! I was an R N. While in school the students got our clinical experience by staffing the hospital wards. In that way we literally worked our way through school. I love the way Elvis says “ turn 18 and get a 50 K loan to draw cats” . How lucky the readers of this comic are that Georgia is drawing cats!

Just another reason for me to avoid college. What would I even major in? The only thing I’m actually good at is being a library page and I doubt there’s a degree for that. :P

So Sir Figaro is tallying everything up and doing all the math?

Might be OT or political?

Tuition at my community college in Tampa is $90 a credit hour and about $300/hour for out of state/international students. Actually this is one of the lower tuitions levels in FL. At the 4 year University level my daughter’s tuition at FSU-Tallahassee campus is $213/hour while out of state tuition is $710/hour. It is not cheap anymore. It was about a third of these amounts when I was an FSU student in the ’80s. FYI: grad school tuition is about $400/hour in state and a bit over $1000/hour out of state so getting that RA with tuition (and out of state fee) waiver is key for all post graduate students! For out of state students; if you have grandparents or non-custodial parents in FL, you can declare in state domicile with them and get in state tuition at state community colleges, state colleges and universities, it just takes some paper work. Man, going to school is pricey nowadays! Do not get me started on the book/used book scams (changing editions every other year with minor changes to sell new copies while only giving pennies on the dollar to buy back old books but resell them at other schools for full used value….) which many a university use to rip off students to boot!!!!!!

I know a guy who has a “degree” in house painting, doesn’t owe a nickel for tuition and makes $90K.

As someone who works in higher education, I have observed first hand that college is not for everyone; or, in some cases, not always for someone just out of high school (I personally wasn’t ready and my parents knew that – I went back and got a degree in my 30s). Unfortunately the rhetoric is that the only way you can succeed is with a degree. The cost is staggering, especially when you factor in that most 18 year-olds are being picking a degree/career without really knowing what it entails, let alone what they want to do in life.

Meanwhile, Back on the Nile

Previously

Ko-San: Welcome to our origami class. I would like to start by showing how to make a few simple designs. First, a graceful swan.

Maat-Tilda: I remember a few years ago someone around here left origami cats made of papyrus around everywhere. It was during the Yuletide Season.

Enter Lupinium and Friend

Lupinium: Hello everyone, have you met Taiso-San, the Royal Health Instructor?

Sophititi: How do you do?

Taiso-San: Very well. Do I have the pleasure of meeting Sophititi-San?

Sophititi: The pleasure is mine, Taiso-San.

Enter Thomios, Carrying a Tray

Thomios: Anyone care for refreshments. Treats prepared my Itame-San and me.

All: Thank you.

Lupinium: Taiso-San is helping me master the Triple Aerial Flip. Want to see?

Taiso-San: I believe that move is best practiced…

CRASH! THWUMP!

Taiso-San: …Outside.

Lupinium: Sorry about that, Thomios. I didn’t mean to break your tray.

Thomios: I know. But that tray was given to me by my Uncle Floof.

Sophititi: Oh, dear. It looks like its story is over.

Ko-San: Maybe not. Do you have any gold available?

Adobe Style: There are rooms full of it at the Great Pyramid. One is just in front of the No Longer Hidden Library.

Maat-Tilda: I think Kara can take us.

Adobe Style: And Iron Glove can work the gold.

Sophitit: Alright. Let’s continue this story!

I’m glad I was a moderately talented athlete coming out of high school, so sports covered my tuition. I also worked summers and got a little help from my parents, and I went to a small, relatively inexpensive college, so I graduated with my degree owing nothing. Which is good, because I then got a job in a field completely unrelated to my degree. In fact, no degree is even necessary, but college was more about the connections than the classes anyways.

At first I thought panel 1 said “Modern France,” and totally believed it related to the matter at hand somehow. At least they are no longer discussing selling kidneys, but Elvis’ point about the flaws of this system are well-made.

When I was getting ready to graduate high school, one of my aunts and uncles offered me a considerable sum for college as long as I studied to become a teacher or a nurse. Neither held any appeal for me, so I went to work right out of school. I fell into the insurance industry and have worked in various aspects of it my whole adult life. I am now in my new career of insurance sales (at the age of 67, no less). It’s a lot of relearning and learning, but I am loving it.

Oh yes, Elvis you have said it puuurrrfectly

So does President Biden save the day?

I don’t think the cartoon Woman has ever been known to draw cats, whether in college, as a career, or as a hobby. So, to me this is big: the first time the Woman has been revealed to have this in common with Georgia Dunn. (If I’m wrong, please make less of a big deal about it than 3 of you did yesterday when I accidentally typed an “m” instead of an “n.” I even noticed the error as soon as I posted but decided it wasn’t worth the trouble to fix.)

Yeeeaaaaah, that sounds all about right. Honestly, the way we humans practice “finances” these days is frankly atrocious.

Me says if there no guarantee of job after “education” (especially higher “education”) then it useless to waste time and money on it.

University loans are an industry.

Related to the topic at hand – I recommend a book entitled Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work. The author (Matthew B. Crawford) points out that the “college for all” approach is flawed, in that A) college isn’t for everyone and that B) there is a distinct shortage of skilled trade workers, whose jobs are generally well-paid.

It was a NYT bestseller when it came out; it’s about 12 years old, but still timely.

Parents that allow their child to enter college to get a worthless degree and enter into megadebt are not good parents. And societies that allow Universities to continues to charge ridiculous prices for worthless degrees are predatory.

And that’s where “39” originated.

Reality usually has a fair to normal chance of not only catching up to the lag time involved in comic production, but passing it like it was standing still is a rarity!

Prescience is a great quality to have as a cartoonist. Do you think your all-knowing kitties were sending you vibes?

OT:

Where did Elvis get his training in People Finance?

Yay! I found a way to delete my comment! Think real hard before you (me!) hit Send or Comment…

Please write about ME winning the lottery! (Doesn’t have to be huge, $50,000 will do!).

It gets worse, Elvis. Much worse.

Burt does it again! “Fret-to-income Ratio” is perfect. I remember that feeling when I was fresh out of grad school and working in a copy shop…

I just noticed that the good luck, kid quote is a continuation of the woman’s speech bubble. I loved the idea of Elvis having said that, lol.