mietla: no, I ain't getting no fediddleing gift.
Both my mother and father are highly educated - one a psychologist and the other a medical doc. Had my father lived in the US, he'd have brought home three to four times what he earns here.
My parents fall in under a tax bracket that is severly taxed - the last 5k or so he earns (DKK) he gets virtually *nothing* for. My mother falls into a bracket a bit lower than that, but basically the same pattern.
They may earn on paper twice as much as a pair of carpenters, but they get out only 10% more - and the opportunity to work "black" isn't as prevalent. Also, they have long and demanding educations behidn them.
Had they NOT had to pay these insane taxes, they'd be able to support me, their son, with a *hell* of a lot more than $350 a month.
I'm getting back (and through me, so are they) a *fraction* of what they've PAID. As Toad pointed out, "free" university ain't free.
Before you call me a leech, check the facts. The government here has made sure it's very hard for people with good wages to actually get anything out of it they can put aside to their kids and then proceed to give back to students an amount that's only half the existence minimum. People on welfare have twice the amount of money I do.
I feel I have a right to be pissed about it - for some reason the govt consider students non humans - i.e the normal rules of existence minimum amounts etc do not apply.
I take offense at being called a leech - I take some very serious steps to avoid being a liability to *anyone* - be it financially to a government or emotionally through a relationship. Have just added a new entry under "m" in my kill-9 reminder file.
