LonesomeYogurt wrote:manas wrote:Q: All this talk about ordaining has me thinking about my own debts also. I have a question. In Australia, we are not required to pay back our 'student loan debt' until we earn over a certain amount of income a year, I think it is around 40 000 a year. The problem is that, I don't earn that much, and if things continue as they have for years, I might never earn that much. (I'm qualified in music only, which isn't exactly conducive to wealth.) So I wonder, one could argue that since they don't expect any repayments unless I earn above a certain amount, then not earning that amount, am I regarded as indebted, or not? (in a way that would prevent me from ordaining in a few years, when my children have grown up)?
I can't imagine that would count as debt, unless of course you plan on making more than $40,000 a year as a monk
Furthermore, even if I suddenly had the money in a lump sum, it would benefit far more beings in a real way, to give the money to an orphanage, or to Oxfam, or maybe to the monastery itself (to build a few huts), rather than to our federal Government who tend to look after big corporations and the rich most of all (via tax breaks, 'upper class welfare', legal tax loopholes, etc) in preference to the poor in our community. The financial system as a whole, seems to be designed
by the super-rich, for the ultimate
benefit of the super-rich. As Pink Floyd sang years ago:
Money, get away
Get a good job with more pay
And your O.K.
Money, it's a gas
Grab that cash with both hands
And make a stash
New car, caviar, four star daydream
Think I'll buy me a football team
Money get back
I'm all right Jack
Keep your hands off my stack
Money, it's a hit
Don't give me that
Do goody good bullshit
I'm in the hi-fidelity
First class traveling set
And I think I need a Lear jet