One man found out the hard way that you should be careful what you share on Facebook when he was taken down over text by his 22-year old niece. It all started with the uncle sharing a Facebook post made by a user named “Jimmy Rat” with a picture of an armed forces recruiting station. In the post, Jimmy Rat sarcastically explained that this was where Millennials could apply for their free college, along with the possibility of an international trip to Iraq or Afghanistan. He closed it out by mocking people further with “Oh, you don’t like ‘free stuff’ anymore?”
After seeing that her uncle had shared this post, the niece pointed out that the vast majority of those who want a change in the cost of higher education simply want it to be affordable, not free, which is exactly what the previous generations had. She also mentioned that it was a ridiculous argument to tell people to risk their lives just to get affordable education.
Her uncle didn’t seem to read much of what his niece said, because he completely ignored the point about people wanting affordable education and told her that free education isn’t free. He then brought up a hypothetical scenario where after getting a degree through a free education, she ends up paying 65 percent in taxes to the government.
The niece explained again that what she wanted was affordable higher education, and to drive home her point, she listed the differences in the annual tuition for Yale and the minimum wage in 1970 and 2014. She then calculated how many hours per day it would take to pay for tuition at the minimum wages and annual tuition for those years. In 1970, it would have taken 4.72 hours of work per day. In 2014, it would have taken 17.31 hours of work per day.
She also adjusted the annual tuition for Yale and the minimum wage in 1970 for inflation. The annual tuition went up from $2,500 to $15,253.61, while the minimum wage went up from $1.45 to $8.85. The actual annual tuition for Yale in 2014 is $45,800 compared to a minimum wage of just $7.25, showing that tuition costs have gone up far more than wages.
She continued by pointing out that it was the previous generation that allowed schools to raise tuition rates, and that the same thing happens with textbook companies, which are able to re-release essentially the same book every year for $200.
The uncle again didn’t seem to bother reading much of what his niece had written, instead derisively referring to her as “little girl” and blaming politicians, specifically the Democrats, for creating all the problems. He told her that if she worked hard enough to get her higher education, she could pay for someone else’s free education, and ended his post by saying “life sucks and then you die.”
His niece fired back by calling him “little man” and then explaining that while politicians run the show, his generation voted them into office and did nothing while they created these terrible systems. Instead of trying to fix anything, his generation just makes condescending remarks about how Millennials are lazy and want everything handed to them. She went on to explain that one of the main reasons Bernie Sanders is so popular is that he is the first politician to actually fight back against corporate America.
After that post, the uncle didn’t respond further on Facebook, although he called his niece’s mother, likely to complain. His niece, on the other hand, demonstrated perfectly how to deal with rude, ignorant comments on social media in her well-written responses.