Dunkin' Donuts Worker's Death Reveals The True Cost Of Our Low-Wage, Part-Time Economy

originally posted by: Tangerine

originally posted by: kdyam

originally posted by: Tangerine

originally posted by: kdyam

originally posted by: Tangerine
a reply to: Tangerine

I'm replying to my own post to point out that it's obvious that some people don't "get" the point of the news story. I don't think it's because they're stupid but, rather, because their brains are wired differently. No amount of explanation/education/social influence will likely change this.

I agree! You prove your own case in point with your posts quite successfully. You seem to be unable to read between the lines of the sensationalism in the media.. or lack the common sense to break down the matter and its implications.

Some people just don't get it... this lady obviously didn't.

You hook a plow to horse and they will pull it until they are dead.. Hook a plow to a human and they will pull it until they no longer want to... then they will find something more accommodating to their needs to perform....

A human with the mentality of a horse... while not uncommon... will never learn how to change their lives and just keep pulling..

The only reason a horse would pull a plow until dead is because a horse can't remove the plow. I can't wait to hear your ideas about how this woman could have gotten herself out of her situation. Because neither of us know her circumstances prior to her finding herself with four part-time jobs and sleeping in her car, start there.

Horses have been getting out or traces and harnesses since they were domesticated... its the training that keeps them in .... and their low intelligence.

So if this lady had one job that she worked at for 100 hours a week and died on her way to work in a car accident did her job kill her then too? Or was it the accident she was involved in that killed her?

It's like being in a hair splitting contest with a blind man.

Thank you for proving my point. You don't get it. You never will.

I do get it... I have worked multiple jobs and went to school full time in the past.. getting very little and sometimes no sleep.

What I haven't done is fall asleep in my car with a gas can spewing fumes in the back and died of asphyxiation... that is what this is all about. She didn't die because she had four jobs.. she died from asphyxiation and people like you are getting up in arms about her having four jobs... missing the point of her death entirely... this is media sensationalism at it's finest and sheep like you buy it hook line and sinker. WAKE UP!! Her jobs didn't kill her, a stupid and most likely uneducated decision did.

originally posted by: kdyam

originally posted by: Tangerine

originally posted by: kdyam

originally posted by: Tangerine

originally posted by: kdyam

originally posted by: Tangerine
a reply to: Tangerine

I'm replying to my own post to point out that it's obvious that some people don't "get" the point of the news story. I don't think it's because they're stupid but, rather, because their brains are wired differently. No amount of explanation/education/social influence will likely change this.

I agree! You prove your own case in point with your posts quite successfully. You seem to be unable to read between the lines of the sensationalism in the media.. or lack the common sense to break down the matter and its implications.

Some people just don't get it... this lady obviously didn't.

You hook a plow to horse and they will pull it until they are dead.. Hook a plow to a human and they will pull it until they no longer want to... then they will find something more accommodating to their needs to perform....

A human with the mentality of a horse... while not uncommon... will never learn how to change their lives and just keep pulling..

The only reason a horse would pull a plow until dead is because a horse can't remove the plow. I can't wait to hear your ideas about how this woman could have gotten herself out of her situation. Because neither of us know her circumstances prior to her finding herself with four part-time jobs and sleeping in her car, start there.

Horses have been getting out or traces and harnesses since they were domesticated... its the training that keeps them in .... and their low intelligence.

So if this lady had one job that she worked at for 100 hours a week and died on her way to work in a car accident did her job kill her then too? Or was it the accident she was involved in that killed her?

It's like being in a hair splitting contest with a blind man.

Thank you for proving my point. You don't get it. You never will.

I do get it... I have worked multiple jobs and went to school full time in the past.. getting very little and sometimes no sleep.

What I haven't done is fall asleep in my car with a gas can spewing fumes in the back and died of asphyxiation... that is what this is all about. She didn't die because she had four jobs.. she died from asphyxiation and people like you are getting up in arms about her having four jobs... missing the point of her death entirely... this is media sensationalism at it's finest and sheep like you buy it hook line and sinker. WAKE UP!! Her jobs didn't kill her, a stupid and most likely uneducated decision did.

I don't dispute that keeping a can full of gasoline inside the car rather than in the trunk was a bad decision (however, a spill in the trunk would produce fumes that would likely leak into the inside of the car eventually). I doubt that anyone posting here would dispute that.

Many of us are responding to the fact that someone with four jobs is sleeping in a car. We're assuming that she doesn't have a better, safer place to live because she can't afford to have one. Would you dispute the logic of that assumption? We're also assuming that she was working four part-time jobs because she couldn't find one job that paid enough to even keep her alive to live in that car. Would you dispute the logic of that assumption?

Do you agree that someone working four part-time jobs should be entitled to have a safe, decent place to live?

Do you agree that everyone, working or not, should be entitled to have a safe, decent place to live?

Someone in this thread asked for solutions to the problem being discussed. The problem is that the needed solutions are never going to happen.

There is no way that businesses are going to allow the government to reign in their ability to turn a profit by making a subpar product at bottom barrel wages in foreign countries instead of actually selling a good product. As long as we continue to allow companies to have their base of operations in this country for the tax benefits while having 95% of their manufacturing outside the country, this problem will forever continue, as the business will tell the 5% of workers in this country that their jobs can always be shipped somewhere else.

Someone needs to have enough backbone to do the following things:

1. Close business tax loopholes. That is directed at ALL businesses. I get sick of business owners who basically live on the income of their business while claiming that they themselves earn very little. I mean really, when a guy goes out and purchases a $50000 car and slaps a decal on the side of it and writes it off as a business expense while using it PRIMARILY for shuttling the kids to and from soccer practice, that is not a legitimate use of a business write off, but it happens all the time. Things like this need to be stopped.

2. Stop lowering the business tax rate. It's been proven repeatedly that trickle down economics doesn't work. The money never comes down from the top of the stack. The growing gap between the rich and the poor is a perfect testament to this. Make business owners actually pay what they owe and stop trying to portray letting them keep more as a good thing for those they employ.

3. Every working person should have to report an income. This goes along with number 1 to some degree, as it will force people to claim what they make as their own, and stop living off the income of the business.

4. Raise the import and export tariffs. If you make it more difficult and costly to bring those low wage made products into the country, it will reduce the incentive to export the job in the first place. Once you make it less effective to hold the loss of a job by way of exportation of that job over an employees head, you will force the wage scale to increase, as the worker will have at least some leverage to decline working for below poverty level wages. A business can only go so long without employees, and as such may be more willing to pay a livable wage to US workers.

5. Impose a flat or consumption tax. If we ever have any hope of everyone paying their fair share, this is the first thing that has to happen.

New around here and just putting in my two cents.

originally posted by: bullseyelqcs
Someone in this thread asked for solutions to the problem being discussed. The problem is that the needed solutions are never going to happen.

There is no way that businesses are going to allow the government to reign in their ability to turn a profit by making a subpar product at bottom barrel wages in foreign countries instead of actually selling a good product. As long as we continue to allow companies to have their base of operations in this country for the tax benefits while having 95% of their manufacturing outside the country, this problem will forever continue, as the business will tell the 5% of workers in this country that their jobs can always be shipped somewhere else.

Someone needs to have enough backbone to do the following things:

1. Close business tax loopholes. That is directed at ALL businesses. I get sick of business owners who basically live on the income of their business while claiming that they themselves earn very little. I mean really, when a guy goes out and purchases a $50000 car and slaps a decal on the side of it and writes it off as a business expense while using it PRIMARILY for shuttling the kids to and from soccer practice, that is not a legitimate use of a business write off, but it happens all the time. Things like this need to be stopped.

2. Stop lowering the business tax rate. It's been proven repeatedly that trickle down economics doesn't work. The money never comes down from the top of the stack. The growing gap between the rich and the poor is a perfect testament to this. Make business owners actually pay what they owe and stop trying to portray letting them keep more as a good thing for those they employ.

3. Every working person should have to report an income. This goes along with number 1 to some degree, as it will force people to claim what they make as their own, and stop living off the income of the business.

4. Raise the import and export tariffs. If you make it more difficult and costly to bring those low wage made products into the country, it will reduce the incentive to export the job in the first place. Once you make it less effective to hold the loss of a job by way of exportation of that job over an employees head, you will force the wage scale to increase, as the worker will have at least some leverage to decline working for below poverty level wages. A business can only go so long without employees, and as such may be more willing to pay a livable wage to US workers.

5. Impose a flat or consumption tax. If we ever have any hope of everyone paying their fair share, this is the first thing that has to happen.

New around here and just putting in my two cents.

You may well be right that the solutions will never happen. However, you have done a good job of suggesting solutions and that is the first step.

and to think that one time you could work one job for 30 years and retire.

back to work tomorrow for me

a reply to: GogoVicMorrow

if you dont go all the way through pretty much to graduate school and find job placement.. you are s.o.l.

If you get a degree in something useless...

I just graduated with an associates degree last Decemeber and found a job in my field immediately (with an awesome starting wage, too). Any STEM field is where you will find the high-paying jobs that are also in demand.

originally posted by: LewsTherinThelamon
a reply to: GogoVicMorrow

if you dont go all the way through pretty much to graduate school and find job placement.. you are s.o.l.

If you get a degree in something useless...

I just graduated with an associates degree last Decemeber and found a job in my field immediately (with an awesome starting wage, too). Any STEM field is where you will find the high-paying jobs that are also in demand.

I suppose that geography plays a part in that as well. I work at a lawn care company with a couple guys who both graduated from a pretty good engineering and medical school in the area. One has a degree in chemical engineering, which you would think would make him more valuable to the company in a pesticide and herbicide manufacturing or research capacity than spraying the lawns, but alas he is making the same thing as me, and I never finished college because money became too tight. The other guy was a pre-med student who ran into the same problem I did. Families like to eat and have roofs over their heads, and you cant do that and pay for medical school classes all at the same time anymore.

Just mho.

originally posted by: kdyam

originally posted by: Tangerine

originally posted by: kdyam

originally posted by: Tangerine

originally posted by: kdyam

originally posted by: Tangerine
a reply to: Tangerine

I'm replying to my own post to point out that it's obvious that some people don't "get" the point of the news story. I don't think it's because they're stupid but, rather, because their brains are wired differently. No amount of explanation/education/social influence will likely change this.

I agree! You prove your own case in point with your posts quite successfully. You seem to be unable to read between the lines of the sensationalism in the media.. or lack the common sense to break down the matter and its implications.

Some people just don't get it... this lady obviously didn't.

You hook a plow to horse and they will pull it until they are dead.. Hook a plow to a human and they will pull it until they no longer want to... then they will find something more accommodating to their needs to perform....

A human with the mentality of a horse... while not uncommon... will never learn how to change their lives and just keep pulling..

The only reason a horse would pull a plow until dead is because a horse can't remove the plow. I can't wait to hear your ideas about how this woman could have gotten herself out of her situation. Because neither of us know her circumstances prior to her finding herself with four part-time jobs and sleeping in her car, start there.

Horses have been getting out or traces and harnesses since they were domesticated... its the training that keeps them in .... and their low intelligence.

So if this lady had one job that she worked at for 100 hours a week and died on her way to work in a car accident did her job kill her then too? Or was it the accident she was involved in that killed her?

It's like being in a hair splitting contest with a blind man.

Thank you for proving my point. You don't get it. You never will.

I do get it... I have worked multiple jobs and went to school full time in the past.. getting very little and sometimes no sleep.

What I haven't done is fall asleep in my car with a gas can spewing fumes in the back and died of asphyxiation... that is what this is all about. She didn't die because she had four jobs.. she died from asphyxiation and people like you are getting up in arms about her having four jobs... missing the point of her death entirely... this is media sensationalism at it's finest and sheep like you buy it hook line and sinker. WAKE UP!! Her jobs didn't kill her, a stupid and most likely uneducated decision did.

I understand your point, but think it needs to be refocused a little.

If the story in question had a minor change to it, I seriously doubt you would feel the same way about it. If she hadn't died from asphyxiation and had instead fallen asleep on the way from one job to the next, it would be the same referendum on low wage jobs as it right now, but we wouldn't be discussing her status as educated or uneducated.

I'm happy that you managed not to succumb to your lack of sleep and overworked status to be with us today to carry on this discussion....but it is more a result of you being lucky than how educated you may or may not have been at the time. EVERYONE finds themselves tired behind the wheel at one time or another. The difference between those that live and those that die is pretty indiscriminant.

originally posted by: Tangerine

originally posted by: kdyam

originally posted by: Tangerine

originally posted by: kdyam

originally posted by: Tangerine
a reply to: Tangerine

I'm replying to my own post to point out that it's obvious that some people don't "get" the point of the news story. I don't think it's because they're stupid but, rather, because their brains are wired differently. No amount of explanation/education/social influence will likely change this.

I agree! You prove your own case in point with your posts quite successfully. You seem to be unable to read between the lines of the sensationalism in the media.. or lack the common sense to break down the matter and its implications.

Some people just don't get it... this lady obviously didn't.

You hook a plow to horse and they will pull it until they are dead.. Hook a plow to a human and they will pull it until they no longer want to... then they will find something more accommodating to their needs to perform....

A human with the mentality of a horse... while not uncommon... will never learn how to change their lives and just keep pulling..

The only reason a horse would pull a plow until dead is because a horse can't remove the plow. I can't wait to hear your ideas about how this woman could have gotten herself out of her situation. Because neither of us know her circumstances prior to her finding herself with four part-time jobs and sleeping in her car, start there.

Horses have been getting out or traces and harnesses since they were domesticated... its the training that keeps them in .... and their low intelligence.

So if this lady had one job that she worked at for 100 hours a week and died on her way to work in a car accident did her job kill her then too? Or was it the accident she was involved in that killed her?

It's like being in a hair splitting contest with a blind man.

Thank you for proving my point. You don't get it. You never will.

Really, a good deal of solid discussion on this thread in spite of a weak emotional hook. Its really emotional.

Just a tragic accident.

I keep seeing the generic point that if she only was paid a living wage.... So I ask what job do you consider a job that should have a living wage associated with it? Should flipping burgers at Burger King pay enough to support a family of four? Should it even fully support one person to live independently, I'm 54 and I didn't even see that type of job until I was in my 30s, much less a starter type job.

There are many who seem to just work harder to get ahead and not smarter, working harder never progresses you. I make a hell of a lot more than my neighbor who owns and operates a Quiznos, and he pays what he can afford. Everyone says corporate is driving this, but most corporate jobs are well above minimum wage. At Boeing the average is about 80k or better per year, as example. So most minimum wage jobs are paid by private businesses and not corporate. My neighbor would need to close his doors if he had to pay more.

The problem is, as beezzer has pointed out, is there are less good wage jobs and more poor wage jobs in America than in the past. Sales and service will always pay poorly, so we need the jobs that requires some skill to return back to our soil.

In 2014 production based jobs is less than 15% while service/sales based jobs are over 40% of the total. Just 20 years ago production and service/sales based jobs were about 30% plus each of the total.

originally posted by: LewsTherinThelamon
a reply to: GogoVicMorrow

if you dont go all the way through pretty much to graduate school and find job placement.. you are s.o.l.

If you get a degree in something useless...

I just graduated with an associates degree last Decemeber and found a job in my field immediately (with an awesome starting wage, too). Any STEM field is where you will find the high-paying jobs that are also in demand.

Then you won the job lottery. I also have a degree in a STEM field, multiple degrees actually. It doesn't mean I can find a job.

originally posted by: Aazadan
Then you won the job lottery. I also have a degree in a STEM field, multiple degrees actually. It doesn't mean I can find a job.

What is your degree in? The problem with most STEM field based jobs is they start at the masters degree level with at least one successful internship.

Got to be cheaper education and maybe a slight raise in the minimum wage... that way the trickle dwn effects where it's most needed first?? reply to: beezzer

originally posted by: Xtrozero

originally posted by: Aazadan
Then you won the job lottery. I also have a degree in a STEM field, multiple degrees actually. It doesn't mean I can find a job.

What is your degree in? The problem with most STEM field based jobs is they start at the masters degree level with at least one successful internship.

Bachelors in Computer Science, three Associates, in Simulation/Game Design, Web Programming, and Computer Graphics. Working on a second Bachelors in Simulation/Game Engineering because of the lack of jobs, and it's the degree I originally wanted anyways.

The current plan is to start my own game software company when I'm done with this one (2 more years), I have no faith in the job market to provide me with a job. I would do it now but there's a few things left to learn... some of which I do on my own some of which I get from class. But the bottom line is that making games on your own requires a lot of cross discipline (psychology, art, programming, network management, and some other stuff) and that education takes time.

The technology side of STEM which is what I'm in doesn't really require a masters but it does require experience, experience is pretty much the only thing that matters actually. Companies want to see that you've shipped titles or atleast have completed some. I graduated previously without getting any experience, just the degree but since then I've learned to spend all my spare time creating games to have something of a portfolio.

The gaming field itself has far more people trying to get jobs than there are available but that's not even my complaint because I hopefully have a solution to that with my own company in the future. The complaint is that locally my skills have no value. There just aren't companies in the area for me to work at while going to school it's a choice between working a job like flipping burgers at McDonalds and having to rely on public assistance or abandoning any future by giving up the remainder of my education and moving to where the chance at a job is 0.5% rather than 0%.

originally posted by: eManym
a reply to: Dingo80
What I meant by my post was, why don't these workers learn a skill that pays higher wages rather than working several jobs at the same level?

. Because even having that skill doesn't guarantee them a job in that field! I know many engineers who now work these types of jobs and they have bachelors and masters degrees but they can't find anything in their field because there are too many people looking for work!

She could have been working four jobs to school. You never know. I know when I was in school I had 3 jobs and if I had time I would have had four! I hated having three jobs but the bills weren't going to pay themselves.

Also not everyone can afford college to "better" themselves as you out it. Don't say there are loans because again not everyone can get them. I know from experience.

originally posted by: Xtrozero
I keep seeing the generic point that if she only was paid a living wage.... So I ask what job do you consider a job that should have a living wage associated with it? Should flipping burgers at Burger King pay enough to support a family of four? Should it even fully support one person to live independently, I'm 54 and I didn't even see that type of job until I was in my 30s, much less a starter type job.

There are many who seem to just work harder to get ahead and not smarter, working harder never progresses you. I make a hell of a lot more than my neighbor who owns and operates a Quiznos, and he pays what he can afford. Everyone says corporate is driving this, but most corporate jobs are well above minimum wage. At Boeing the average is about 80k or better per year, as example. So most minimum wage jobs are paid by private businesses and not corporate. My neighbor would need to close his doors if he had to pay more.

The problem is, as beezzer has pointed out, is there are less good wage jobs and more poor wage jobs in America than in the past. Sales and service will always pay poorly, so we need the jobs that requires some skill to return back to our soil.

In 2014 production based jobs is less than 15% while service/sales based jobs are over 40% of the total. Just 20 years ago production and service/sales based jobs were about 30% plus each of the total.

Everyone who works should be paid a living wage period. That is a wage that will be sufficient to provide that worker with adequate food, shelter, and medical care.

I question whether most corporate jobs are more than minimum wage. Burger King, which you mentioned, is corporate. Those fast food restaurants are corporate. Most of the service industry is corporate. Look at the big employers in your city that pay minimum wage. Most are corporate.

originally posted by: Tangerine
I keep seeing the generic point that if she only was paid a living wage.... So I ask what job do you consider a job that should have a living wage associated with it? Should flipping burgers at Burger King pay enough to support a family of four? Should it even fully support one person to live independently, I'm 54 and I didn't even see that type of job until I was in my 30s, much less a starter type job.

Anyone who is working should be able to afford food, shelter, and medical coverage without needing outside assistance. If we as a society aren't willing to pay enough for a job for that person to afford the very basics of life, is that a job that we as a society really need to have done?

There are many who seem to just work harder to get ahead and not smarter, working harder never progresses you. I make a hell of a lot more than my neighbor who owns and operates a Quiznos, and he pays what he can afford. Everyone says corporate is driving this, but most corporate jobs are well above minimum wage. At Boeing the average is about 80k or better per year, as example. So most minimum wage jobs are paid by private businesses and not corporate. My neighbor would need to close his doors if he had to pay more.

This isn't true. It's accurate to say that if one specific business has to pay more that it will be forced to close but when every business pays more the employees have more to spend, especially those on the bottom of the income ladder who spend the vast majority of their income rather than save it. This increased spending throughout the economy ends up bringing additional income to the business owner that has to pay more. Everyone ends up with more in the end.

Basically what we're seeing here is a real life application of a classic game theory problem. If all businesses agreed to pay X, they could all afford to pay X. However one business realizes people will still work at X-1 pay, then someone else pays X-2, and so on. In the end all of these little reductions mean that enough money isn't flowing through the system anymore for anyone to pay X in the first place. On top of that you have the employees who agree to work for X, but then a new person competes for the same job and offers X-1 to get it. Someone else later comes along and offers X-2. This happens when there aren't enough jobs to go around, demand for the jobs goes up while supply goes down so people take worse and worse deals in order to have that job.

This is why we need to step in with minimum wage laws. If we had enough jobs for everyone to be able to work supply/demand could take care of these issues.

The problem is, as beezzer has pointed out, is there are less good wage jobs and more poor wage jobs in America than in the past. Sales and service will always pay poorly, so we need the jobs that requires some skill to return back to our soil.

This is why I'm in favor of telling corporations that they must provide 1 job in the US for every $x in revenue they generate here. If a company brings in $1 billion from the American market I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that they're providing us with X-thousand jobs in exchange.

However, by definition someone is going to be earning lets say the bottom 10% of wages. It will be 10% of the population even. As a society it's our job to ensure those wages are livable. In the past even a fast food job could pay for a small house, a car, or a family, and while that happened the economy did better than ever. Today that's not the case.

originally posted by: Aazadan
The gaming field itself has far more people trying to get jobs than there are available but that's not even my complaint because I hopefully have a solution to that with my own company in the future. The complaint is that locally my skills have no value. There just aren't companies in the area for me to work at while going to school it's a choice between working a job like flipping burgers at McDonalds and having to rely on public assistance or abandoning any future by giving up the remainder of my education and moving to where the chance at a job is 0.5% rather than 0%.

Tough career field.. Its one of those like writing, music etc that just skill and knowledge isn't always enough. Many times you need talent too... It is also one where you might as well understand that you will need to move to the job. When I retired from the military people asked me where was I going to live, and I told them where the job takes me.

I ended up in the NW near Portland, never been here before I got hired to work here...hehe. I would look for an internship, anywhere...they pay normally ok and will open the boor for you.

originally posted by: Tangerine
Everyone who works should be paid a living wage period. That is a wage that will be sufficient to provide that worker with adequate food, shelter, and medical care.

America is about the only country that expects everyone to be able to live independently of each other, why is that? Independent living takes time to build the skills needed to earn that extra money needed. No one thinks about synergy when two or more work together for a common goal. I think two people can do what you are talking about if they pool their resources and work together, but add in more not working, or one person trying to make a living on a startup job, or add a family into the mix on minimum wage and it is not enough.

I question whether most corporate jobs are more than minimum wage. Burger King, which you mentioned, is corporate. Those fast food restaurants are corporate. Most of the service industry is corporate. Look at the big employers in your city that pay minimum wage. Most are corporate.

Burger King is a franchise and the one you see in your area, some person owns it, needs to make a living with it, needs to shoulder all the responsibility to make it successful.

Please name some of these big employers and you will find that it is most likely a franchise owned by some person trying to make a living too.

originally posted by: Xtrozero
Tough career field.. Its one of those like writing, music etc that just skill and knowledge isn't always enough. Many times you need talent too... It is also one where you might as well understand that you will need to move to the job. When I retired from the military people asked me where was I going to live, and I told them where the job takes me.

I ended up in the NW near Portland, never been here before I got hired to work here...hehe. I would look for an internship, anywhere...they pay normally ok and will open the boor for you.

Yep, I understand that however my skills are transferable to other areas. For instance I know AutoCAD, Maya, and 3dsMax so I can do things like 3d modeling which is most applicable for me in rapid prototyping or other 3d printing related industries. I have at this point 18 years of programming experience (started on my own back in grade school), can design/build/maintain/use databases, web design/development, and so on.

I don't expect to get a gaming job just anywhere there are very specific areas of the country that you need to live in order for that to happen, that's just a reality of where the industry is and it's true of any tech job. But something lesser I can do while in school like building/maintaining websites for local business, doing MySQL/Excel database work, building AutoCAD models from blueprints for a construction agency, motion capture or keyframe based animation for marketing companies, video editing such as in After Effects for a TV studio, even secretary work where I can leverage my 100+ WPM typing speed.

These jobs don't exist, my options for work are a choice between saying "Would you like fries with that?" or "What toppings would you like on your pizza?" and I find that to be a damn shame that the skilled labor market just doesn't exist. Maybe in other areas it's different, I'm in southern Ohio which is among the poorest areas in the nation. Alas, it's where the schools are that don't require me to get buried in student loan debt.

On the subject of internships I'm in the process of starting to apply for summer internships now, they'll all involve a good deal of travel but that's fine with me. There are no local internship opportunities during the school year.