| Students Worried About Shouldering Country's Debt |
| Tuesday, 30 September 2008 17:03 |
On the Eastern Kentucky University campus Tuesday students told WTVQ 36 News they are worried about the impact the country's economic and credit crisis will have on the debt their generation will have to deal with. "I really, really, really worry," said Kara Lairson, a senior from Richmond. "Every day I hear about the stock market going down and going down and nothing's being done to solve it." "I'm just incredibly afraid of the future in general and I shouldn't be at 21," said Lairson. A few blocks off campus, EKU graduate Don McNay was back in his 2nd Street office Tuesday morning after staying up late into the night to watch activity on the European markets. McNay, a business columnist and expert in the structured settlement industry, said he opposes the $700 billion rescue package. The plan was rejected by the U.S. House Monday, sending the stock market into its biggest tailspin in history. "I'd really prefer to just keep the 700 billion dollars so that my children and grandchildren aren't going to be broke someday," said McNay. "I haven't bought into the whole concept yet." McNay said the plan is not well thought out or researched. He said the Bush administration does not have a good track record on the issue, raising skepticism that the bailout will work, long term. McNay claims it would be better to do things from the "bottom up" to raise the confidence of individual investors. For beginners, McNay suggests giving banks total FDIC insurance coverage. McNay said college students need to put the financial problems on their radar screens and become politically interested. He suggests urges students to study the two candidates and decide which one's vision is best for handling the money situation. Whether the economic crisis will spike widespread interest in the presidential race on college campuses is up for debate among students. "Unfortunately many college students don't seem like they're willing to take the time out of their day to get to know the issues, said Brad Harn, an EKU political science major from Flemingsburg. "Absolutely, we're engaged, "said Renae Bishop, an EKU junior from Richmond. "We need to be out there voting and advocating for our rights and what's going to happen to our future because other wise we're going to be stuck with everybody else's debt we had no say so in." "I don't think the average college student even knows what's going on, much less reads the news or pays attention to what's going on and it's really sad because this is our future," claimed Lairson. "Facebook and beer is not everything we think about," said Benjie Stanger, an EKU junior from Hamilton, Ohio. "It's not what all college kids think about ... the future is what we really think about, jobs, financial stability." |
