But if you are poor enough that you need to help support your family, you are poor enough to get financial aid, so you aren’t paying for yourself entirely. I highly recommend the TRIO program, for example.

I’m definitely not arguing the idea that there’s good debt, and that college debt can fit under it. I’m just saying these things need a careful consideration of all options and facts. It’s a quick step from “Well, I have to go into debt to go to college” to “Well, it’s a good school, who cares how much I’m borrowing,” to “I’ll borrow $250k to get liberal arts degree with no job prospects. I have to follow my dreams!”

Problem is people who are poor typically do have to help their families. They need to work to pay the bills. Thus cutting into your savings of $7/hr. If you are paying for food, gas, utilities and even rent, then where’s the money going?

And Frugal Urbanite has a point. It’s a nice idea that kids don’t have to work to pay for things in life. And there is more to life than money and the restrictions of hours worked is important to note.

How about ‘because we shouldn’t expect 16 year olds to give up their formative years and skip out on all experiences not related to their job’? There are other things to life besides just making money/avoiding debt.

I fully support the idea of working as a teen and starting to save up for college, but I dunno about everyone else, but I’d rather my kids were also able to study extra hard for their AP exams, played sports, joined academic clubs, volunteered, did church related activities and occasionally were allowed to spend their money on teen-aged fun in addition to earning some change for college. It’s not easy to do all that when you’re working ‘full-time’ (28 hours for minors in NY) because of the restrictions on the hours during the day you could work and saving every penny.

If your parents can’t afford to take care of your most basic needs (food, shelter, clothing) without you working until you are 18 (in 2009, that is, not necessarily in a hypothetical past), there should be plenty of government programs to get them there without you having to work for it.

$7 hour X 20 hours a week X 52 weeks a year x 2 years x 12 percent taken out for taxes x 2 percent interest =

$13,040 saved up after two years.

That’s getting you maybe a year and a half these days.

(Incidentally, I would have saved more money from my HS job if my dad hadn’t insisted that I had to have a car. He thought a car was something everyone should have, I would have preferred to do without and save the difference.)

If you want to start talking about meeting people, there’s my wife, who didn’t get to start school until she was 23 because she was supporting her disabled mother. If you really want to avoid debt, that’s another option.

If you work 20 hours a week from your 16th birthday on, you will have enough money when you turn 18 to afford two years of the full cost of attendance at a state school. You can save up for the last two years while you go to the first two years. If you work more during the summers, get any sort of raises, or get any sort of financial aid at all, you are even better off.

Let’s get this straight: I’m not saying this is what everyone should do. Trying to go to college without debt is hard, will force sacrifices and isn’t for everyone. But I do think it’s important to acknowledge that it can be done.

Would you like to talk to my mom and uncle and aunts? Working from age 12 and putting food on the table? Damn them for not saving for college and instead paying for rent, food, medical, etc.

I guess their parents should have been able to support them better. Or maybe they should have gone on welfare.

Working at age 16 and saving it all up is easy if you parents are rich. I know, I did it. I saved my money for a car and living expenses. So did my DH.

Our parents were not so fortunate. They were busy working to support their families and paying for college and taking out some loans.

So if you are already middle class great. If you aren’t? Then what?

Of course, any system that depends on the responsibility of 16-year-olds is a doomed system.