America 1979

Chapter 3 Student Loans
Whenever they see the words American gangsters, many people immediately think of the movie "The Godfather", the Mafia, and Sicily.

Those who know a little more may come out of movies such as "The Irishman" and "Once Upon a Time in America", and know Jimmy Hoffa, or the well-known ruthless Al Capone.

In fact, the concept of American gangsters conveyed to ordinary audiences by Hollywood movies is actually very limited, and most of them are just gangsters in the concept of the media and Italian directors.

Historically, the largest gang in the United States is the Irish community. Although this group has no great ambitions, most of them hang out on the streets and operate in fixed areas.The Jewish community and the Mexican community can compete with the Mafia.

Part of the background of the American drama "Breaking Bad" is very restored, and the products in Mexico and Colombia are extremely competitive, which makes the Mafia quit the industry and turn the source of income into the gaming industry.

The Mafia is so famous for two reasons:

First, the southern Italian immigrants who can breed Italian communities are concentrated in the northeastern United States, that is, six New England states, the Great Lakes, three New York states, two Virginia states and other places (Connecticut is repeated twice, but It’s enough for everyone to understand), except for the West Coast and the Gulf of Mexico, the major cities in the United States are concentrated in this area, and they are born with the temperament of being on the news. In addition, the mafia (mafia) of the first and [-] generations are blood for blood , Desperate people who risk their lives for their lives, and media people who like the whole big news naturally love to write stories about the mafia.

The second is that Italians have produced a lot of great directors and actors, such as director Martin Scorsese, whose works include: Shutter Island, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Irishman, Gangs of New York, etc.;

Another example is Francis Ford Coppola, Quentin Tarantino, Sofia Coppola, Bernardo Bertolucci and other international directors.

Among the well-known actors, those of Italian descent are: Ernest Bergning, Nicolas Cage, Sylvester Stallone, Madonna, Lady Gaga, Monica Anna Maria Bellucci, Little Plum Leon Nado DiCaprio, Captain America actor Chris Evans.

Although some actors do not admit that they are Italian immigrants, they do have Italian ancestry and are regarded as their own by Italian directors.

With so many Italian-born directors and actors, a sufficient number of films were born that told the story of the mafia.

The influence of classic film and television dramas is far greater than historical facts. After generations of audiences, the Mafia has naturally become synonymous with Italian societies and even American societies.

But in fact, in New York, the Italian community is not exactly equal to the Mafia.

For example, in the community where the Conti family is located, the immigrants mainly come from Naples and other places in southern Italy. The gang members should be called camorra, which is Camorra.

The biggest difference between this club and mafia is that it doesn't care about bloodlines, and it was the first to introduce the fashionable concept of partners.Partners are usually held by powerful community members who are not pure-blooded Italians, and play a role in attracting talents, granting franchises, and expanding the scale of business.

That is to say, it operates more like a multinational corporation.

Therefore, comorra pays more attention to efficiency and cares more about profits.

To ask them to borrow usurious loans, Bill thinks it is better to take advantage of student loans honestly.

At least the bank that puts out college loans doesn't put the horse's head under the borrower's bed in the middle of the night.

"No, no, it takes four years to go to school. I'm afraid I have to come once a year to find someone to borrow money from my godfather. If we don't pay the interest, we will be in big trouble." Bill quickly tried to persuade his uncles and grandparents.

He thought for a long time, and came up with a word: "Unsustainable, yes, the four-year tuition fee cannot be funded by an unsustainable source of funds like a one-time loan shark."

"Then what can we do?" The second uncle who was the driver waved his right hand made into chicken feet, "We are not rich, how can we take out so much money all at once, and don't borrow money from our own people? Don't you think Go find those bastards at the bank?"

Bill also imitated his second uncle and picked up his right hand, "Actually, I have a very good solution. There is a person who appreciates my sister very much and plans to sponsor her to go to college."

He waved his chicken paws at the elders, then glanced back at his sister Dorothy, gave her a wink of the right eye, and was about to talk nonsense.

Although Dorothy didn't know what the illiterate brother was doing, she had a tacit understanding and didn't question it immediately.

"It's like this. Mr. George Jackson, the principal of Dorothy's high school, admires Dorothy's hard-working Italian girl, so he is going to sponsor her to go to college. Of course, the amount of sponsorship is not much, it is only enough to cover the state university. Tuition fees. So I figured, if Dorothy only went to state college, we wouldn’t need to go to the moneylender introduced by the godfather. After all, it’s among us Italians, and there’s a lot of interest.”

After Bill finished speaking, he subconsciously rubbed his index finger and thumb with his right hand.

What he said sounded like the truth. The four middle-aged and elderly people with no savings looked at each other, spoke Italian, and nodded.

The uncle is a serious security guard in a shopping mall, the second uncle is a driver, and drives a cart for a certain logistics company, the uncle is a delivery worker in a supermarket, and my grandfather has spent half his life washing cars in a car wash shop without saving much money.

Such a family naturally does not have the habit of saving money for the education of their offspring. It would be fatal for these three small families to spend a thousand dollars in cash.

The principal that Bill talked about was naturally not kind enough to pay a student tens of thousands of dollars in college tuition.

A normal American man usually has three economic crises. The first is the tuition loan used when going to college, the second is the mortgage, and the third is the child support paid to the child and the evil ex-wife after divorce.

In fact, if you successfully get a high-paying job after graduating from university, then the tuition loan is still a good deal, because compared with the interest rate of more than ten percent on credit cards, the interest rate of tuition loan is 5.00% for undergraduates and [-]% for masters. Not high at all.

There is a very simple example. The marketing account claimed that the 40-year-old leader of Aoguanhai bought a car and a house in Chicago before repaying his student loan. The reason for repaying his student loan so late is purely Because of the low interest rates on student loans.

"I can spend sixty dollars a week." The second uncle who spoke Italian for a long time said suddenly.

"Sophia and I can spend about forty dollars a week!" Uncle also expressed his opinion.

Sophia is my aunt's name and the most used Italian female name. It is no exaggeration to say that half of Italian women have the name Sophia.

The uncle also waved his right hand, "Then let's have 140 dollars, [-] dollars a week, should be enough for food and drink."

"Yes." The second uncle also agreed, "Plus Bill himself has a salary, so giving some to my sister will be enough for her to go to college."

They roughly settled on the source of living expenses for Dorothy to go to college.

This kind of support is already the limit that this illiterate family can give, because the weekly expenditure of tens of dollars means that the family basically has no additional entertainment activities. It is conceivable that in the next few years, even new clothes may can not afford.

"Thank you...we are a family..." Bill and his sister hurriedly hugged each elder one by one, and kissed each other with kisses.

PS: Ask for favorites, recommend tickets, and ask for monthly tickets.

(End of this chapter)