How many of you shared this common bond of poverty with Mitt and Ann Romney while you, too, were desperately trying to make it as students at BYU?

Let's focus, for the moment, on the Romneys' self-proclaimed hardships in the poor college student trenches. According to their own account, they acutely felt your financially-strapped poor-Mormon-student pain. Here's their personal, heart-wrenching story of scarcity, scrimping and sacrifice, as only they can tell it:

"'Mitt Romney and Ann: the Students 'Struggling' So Much That They Had to Sell Stock'

"Mitt Romney is going around saying that he made all his money himself, aside from a loan from his dad to buy his first house.

"Journalists who buy that have short memories. I was living in Massachusetts when Romney first ran for the Senate, and remembered this interview with Ann Romney in the 'Boston Globe' (by Jack Thomas, October 20, 1994 . . . .)

"Of her student days with Mitt at BYU, Ann said:

“'They were not easy years. You have to understand, I was raised in a lovely neighborhood, as was Mitt, and at BYU, we moved into a $62-a-month basement apartment with a cement floor and lived there two years as students with no income.

“'It was tiny. And I didn’t have money to carpet the floor. But you can get remnants, samples, so I glued them together, all different colors. It looked awful, but it was carpeting.

“'We were happy, studying hard. Neither one of us had a job, because Mitt had enough of an investment from stock that we could sell off a little at a time.

“'The stock came from Mitt’s father. When he took over American Motors, the stock was worth nothing. But he invested Mitt’s birthday money year to year — it wasn’t much, a few thousand, but he put it into American Motors because he believed in himself. Five years later, stock that had been $6 a share was $96 and Mitt cashed it so we could live and pay for education.

“'Mitt and I walked to class together, shared housekeeping, had a lot of pasta and tuna fish and learned hard lessons.'

“'We had our first child in that tiny apartment. We couldn’t afford a desk, so we used a door propped on sawhorses in our bedroom. It was a big door, so we could study on it together. And we bought a portable crib, took the legs off and put it on the desk while we studied. I had a baby sitter during class time, but otherwise, I’d hold my son on my lap while I studied.

“'The funny thing is that I never expected help. My father had become wealthy through hard work, as did Mitt’s father, but I never expected our parents to take care of us. They’d visit, laugh and say, "We can’t believe you guys are living like this." They’d take us out to dinner, have a good time, then leave.

“'We stayed till Mitt graduated in 1971, and when he was accepted at Harvard Law, we came east. He was also accepted at Harvard Business School as part of a joint program that admits 25 a year, so he was getting degrees from Harvard Law and Business schools at the same time.

“'Remember, we’d been paying $62 a month rent, but here, rents were $400, and for a dump. This is when we took the now-famous loan that Mitt talks about from his father and bought a $42,000 home in Belmont, and you know? The mortgage payment was less than rent. Mitt saw that the Boston market was behind Chicago, LA and New York. We stayed there seven years and sold it for $90,000, so we not only stayed for free, we made money. As I said, Mitt’s very bright.

“'Another son came along 18 months later, although we waited four years to have the third, because Mitt was still in school and we had no income except the stock we were chipping away at. We were living on the edge, not entertaining. No, I did not work. Mitt thought it was important for me to stay home with the children, and I was delighted.

“'Right after Mitt graduated in 1975, we had our third boy and it was about the time Mitt’s first paycheck came along. So, we were married a long time before we had any income, about five years as struggling students.

“'Now, every once in a while, we say if things get rough, we can go back to a $62-a-month apartment and be happy. All we need is each other and a little corner and we’ll be fine.'

"Ann was widely mocked for this at the time. I don’t dissent from the mockery. Her idea of her and Mitt facing 'not easy years,' having 'no income,' 'living on the edge' as 'struggling students,' was that the couple had had to face college with only sale of stock to sustain them.

"By Ann’s own account, the stock amounted to 'a few thousand' dollars when bought, but it had gone up by a factor of sixteen. So let’s conservatively say that they got through five years as students—neither one of them working—only by 'chipping away at' assets of $60,000 in 1969 dollars (about $377,000 today).

"Look. I don’t begrudge Romney’s having had his college tuition and living expenses paid for with family money. Mine were too. My background, though not as fancy as Mitt or Ann Romney’s, was privileged enough. But the guy should just come out and admit it: 'I was a child of privilege and have my parents’ wealth to thank for my education. That said, I worked very very hard in business, and the vast majority of my fortune I earned myself.' . . ."

(Andrew Sabl, "Mitt Romney and Ann: the Students 'Struggling' So Much That They Had to Sell Stock," on "Everyone Is Entitled to His Own Opinion, but Not His Own Facts," at: http://www.samefacts.com/2012/01/income-distribution/mitt-romney-and-ann-the-students-struggling-so-much-that-they-had-to-sell-stock/)
_____


(above continued from now-closed thread: http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,399566)



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/2012 12:01AM by steve benson.

The GAs tell newly married couples to;

1. Get married young.

2. Get an education (well...at least the men).

3. Have children as quickly as possible.

4. Moms should not work outside the home.

5. Don't go into debt.

This all works out fine and dandy if you have Mitt's 'stock' to live on, but for the rest of us, it simply didn't work. It just made us frustrated that we weren't righteous enough to do these 5 things. Sometimes we could do 2 or 3 adequately, but all 5...NEVER!

I worked through BYU, then couldn't stand any more school and poverty. I had to skip grad school after BYU cuz I had two kids, a wife who hated to work outside the home, and I needed to get a dam JOB. I would have needed debt to stay in the game anyway.

Couple year's later I started grad school, then had to drop out to work two jobs. Didn't get back to grad school for 6 more years, then had to do a program I really didn't want just to get it done fast. And I had to borrow 10g then too, my first student loan. Cuz I had 5 kids by then, and DW still wouldn't/couldn't work. Had to buy a two story just to house them all.

I note Ann Romney said she held back 4 years on her third kid, cuz Mitt wanted to finish school before they had more. Holy birth control Batman, at BYU the priesthood leaders constantly drilled us with "it's a sin to hold up your kids for school's sake." But the families that did so, did better in all ways, especially careers and finance.

Romneys...Rich Mo kids...

Maybe Ann had an abortion.

We don't know how tight it was! I almost spit out my cheerios. What are we talking about here! Reminds me of a song I got a dirty mind ....

steve benson Wrote:
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> This is when we took the now-famous loan that Mitt talks about from his father and bought a $42,000 home in Belmont...

I was living in Belmont when Mitt had his $42,000 home there. Back then, there were two "poor" sections of town. I lived in both of them at one time or another. Both sections were on the furthest fringes of town. In one, if I walked half a block, I was in the next town over, which didn't have nearly as nice a school system. The very kind kids at Belmont High used to look at me puzzled when I told them where I lived. They never, ever ventured to those parts of town.

The thing is, those parts of town were hardly ghetto. They were presentable and safe.

I don't recall seeing Mitt nor Ann in those sections of town. Somehow I doubt that their $42,000 bought them a home in Belmont's "ghetto." They were most likely living in one of the middle-class sections of town. Either way, they were hardly suffering. They would have been living a decent lifestyle. There's a reason the Romneys maintain a home in Belmont to this day. It's a nice place to live no matter where you are.

According to the online inflation calculator, $42,000 in 1972 would be equivalent to $223,500 in 2010. Not exactly "student housing."

Should we start an RFM fund to compensate Mitt & Ann for the oppressive financial burden endured during their student days?

If they were married, they got kicked off their parents' health insurance. They weren't working, so they didn't have employer-sponsored health insurance. So...who funded the medical expenses for their first two children?

Daddy's stock, of course...

Personally speaking, back in the 1970s as a bachelor BYU undergrad I lived off-campus with several friends in the "tree streets"--Maple Lane in Provo, to be exact--where I paid $42.00 a month for rent. Not exactly the Taj Mahal.

As a young married guy with a baby, I worked drawing cartoons for the "Daily Universe" campus newspaper--about $160.00 every two weeks--and paid for school with semester-by-semester academic scholarships by keeping my grades at a decent level. My former wife left her BYU secretarial studies and employment behind the on-campus Varsity Theater candy counter to become a mom while I finished my degree.

We started out in a small apartment called the Americanas on 9th East, then moved to a tiny house in the same area which was short on wall outlets and located within earshot of a loud disco called the Star Palace, as well as took up residence in a house basement in Orem.

Mode of transportation was a cheap, lime-green Datsun F-10 that my grandfather bought for me, which I eventually sold off for $500.

Those were the days.

If only I had known the hell the Romneys went through as fellow BYU ungrads, I'd be so much more appreciative.

I wonder if you met my BF's family. He used to deliver one of the GA's newspaper on their street, but the GA's name has slipped my mind right now. BF's father also served in the state legislature and live on Oak. What ward did you go to? or was there a special elite ward for you and your family, lol?

Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/2012 01:04PM by steve benson.

lol...BF is telling me that he was amazed that the Oaks had a leather padded door and when he collected the money he would think, " Wow! These people are rich! They have upholstered doors!"

He also delivered to the Schneiders on Locust Lane, which the wife had purposefully defected from the East Germany. BF says that she used top give him a German candy of sesame seeds and honey (Schintzerdoodle?). He says that she was one of the Germans who escaped in hot air balloon (at least that was the story he was told). To get to her house, there was a gated stone fence and you would walk through her mini grape vineyard to the front door.


Any of this sound familiar to you?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/28/2012 12:02AM by Itzpapalotl.

Makes me want to vomit and I think Mormons have a pretty keep-it-in-the-family mindset. When I die, I'm going the Bill Gates route and give my millions to a worthy charity, not some person that happens to have had the good fortune of descending from my loins.

I thought everyone graduates from college debt-free and has someone give them a 0% interest rate "loan" for their first home.

whereas I paid a full tithe on my $7.00/hour income, which was used to pay rent on the $500/month pile of cinder-blocks we called an apartment, plus utilities, food and clothing for my pregnant wife and I. And all this while going to school full-time and without a $300,000 trove of stock or other help from our struggling parents. If not for the help from my pregnant wife going to work every day, we wouldn't have made it.

Yeah, I really feel for you Mitt. I too survived on cans of tuna during those BYU times.

I lived on campus the first year at Helaman Halls and Deseret Towers. I had a meal ticket. Later I lived in various apartments near campus. My dad made it sure that I barely had enough money to get by - none for dates or fun of any kind. I remember one week I ran out of money and was scared to call my dad to early for more. I had $5 to last me a week, so I bought 20 hamburgers at the local burger spot as they were on sale and stuck them in the freezer. I was starving, but I heard of a pie eating contest at the Wilkenson center, so I entered just to get some food. The prize was a dinner for two, so instead of enjoying my pie, I tried to win, but lost. I chose a banana cream pie as I felt it would be the most filling but unfortunately also the most difficult to eat quickly. My senior year I made extra money for dates and stuff by singing at "Jimba's" restaurant. Mind you the employers in Provo and Orem knew you were a student and in abundance, so they were very cheap. I still made good money there for the time from my tips - about $40 a night. I never had any stock to sell, nor did my parents buy me a house. When I graduated from dental school, there was no trip or celebration - I had to come home and paint my dad's rental house that I never got to rent when I got married a year later.

Hey honey, I'm so glad to know you can understand what the rest of us married students went through.

First of all, we all have daddies who make enough of a contribution to BYU for us to have full-paid scholarships. Well, maybe not, some of our hubbies had to take out student loans, but you know, it's kinda the same thing. Hell in the early 80s we got 9% interest-rate student loans. Woo Hoo! Sure couldn't get a mortgage for anywhere near that rate in those days.

And we were kind of like you in that we got a $493 check, tax-free, in our mailbox on the first of every month. That was a good chunk of money in 1981 when the good ol breeding pens (Wyview Park married student housing) were only $140/mo. for rent. You probably took about that much, or maybe twice or three times or four times or ten times worth, out to pay for that awful basement apartment and the sawhorse and the door. And like us, you probably spent four years in the military, living in a cokaroach-infested shack in Okinawa with two babies in order to get that investment money that was just like the old Vietnam-era G.I. Bill. Oh wait, never mind, the word "military service" wasn't part of your husband's vocabulary. I forget.

But I'm sure you were a lot like us and just that tax-free money every month was still not enough to pay for a family of four, including tuition and books... oops, wait, forget the tuition and books part, I keep forgetting you didn't have to worry about that... but still, you probably worked doing whatever you could to try to make more money, like working nights at the semiconductor factory, although I don't recall any of my co-workers ever saying you worked with them. Yeah, wasn't that hard trying to run a household and take care of kids on the big 4 hours of sleep a day you probably got? It's just so nice to have someone who understands the real BYU married student plight.

And wasn't it so nice how so many BYU grads in the 60s and 70s made it into Harvard graduate school? Ya know, back in the day when BYU had such a great academic reputation. I mean, those people who said that a BYU grad couldn't get into Harvard no matter how many undergraduate degrees with 4.0 GPAs they had, were just talking out of their butts. There were probably plenty of other kids with the last name of Romney who got in. OK, I'm just kidding. I do know that there were kids named Eyering who got in too.

And I'm with you. When it comes to grad school. No one should expect us to live in the ghetto. Good thing my daddy coughed up that loan for us to buy a house--which was really a great investment. Oh wait, I'm getting our stories mixed up. Grad school for my hubby was University of Phoenix--in the early days when it didn't get you anywhere, but hey, it was almost as good as a Harvard grad degree that y'all worked SO hard to get. Every American can do the same thing. They can all go to any college they want to go to and then they can claim that they inherited nothing.

OK, I'm kidding, honey, just humoring you. I know you really, truly, honestly think that you have some understanding of what the pursuit of educaton is like for young adults, especially for young married mormons who were pushed into getting married and popping out babies before they had any education or any clue what they were doing. You've been there. But let me tell you. Shut your trap because everytime you open it to try to explain how you know this, all you do is prove that you and the Mittster HAVE NO CLUE! None. Nada. Zilch. I know maybe it's Elder Romney and his campaign bozos who are telling you this and I do understand that you've never thought for yourself in your life. And you're not expected to. First of all, if you were supposed to think, God would have given you a penis. And not only that, he would have made you a high-up Mormon with a penis. The rest of us have the thinking done for us. But still, please, if you're not going to think, don't speak. Just smile. Talk about MS, that's a good subject for you. But don't go telling me about what life is like for BYU married students because it just makes me want so slap your little blond botoxed face silly.

ROTFLMFAO!

Oh how I wish you could say all this to her in person!

If I saw her in person I'd want to ask her whether those pics of she and Mitty doing their OWN laundry is all their laundry, or just the load with the magic undies in it that the regular hotel maids on the road can't see.

And how f'ing stupid is she that she really thinks people seeing them doing their own laundry is going to make them go, "oh, see, they're just like us!" But you know, there really is something inside me that believes she is REALLY so stupid that she believes those things. Honestly. I don't think the BYU married student story is just some embellishment for PR purposes. I think she ACTUALLY believes their experience made them just like everyone else. I think in her puny little mormon woman mind she's so confused wondering why people can't see it. Morons!

It would have been honest, eloquent, & admirable, if she had just said that they had it much easier than most during their young married life, & was extremely thankful & lucky she didn't have to work.

But no. She had to come off like a condescending, clueless, idiotic, nonsensical dilettante & philistine. Yes, she may have money & come from a 'good' family, but she is still a philistine.

Tristan-Powerslave Wrote:
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> It would have been honest, eloquent, & admirable, if she had just said that they had it much easier than most during their young married life, & was extremely thankful & lucky she didn't have to work.

People understand humility. They understand gratitude. What they donn't understand is asshat cluelessness.

I think this is why they come off plastic and phony. They are the type of Mormons who KNOW they are better than others. I knew some bishops that were truly concerned with the well being of their members. But too many, just looked down on the poor as not living a righteous life to get the blessings (money) from god.

I know Mittens served a mission in France. Maybe Africa would have taught him some humility.

If Mitt had no money, it's because his dad wouldn't give it to him.

Meanwhile, Ann's father was a business owner and Mayor of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, one of the wealthiest communities in the US.

I don't buy this story for a minute. When your dad ran American Motor Company and the State of Michigan, he can afford to put you through BYU. Ann's father had more than enough money to keep the comfortable. If they suffered, it's because they were playing peasant like Marie Antoinette.

you cant imagine how much stories like this (Romneys) really piss me off.

I had a substantial savings account that I accumulated during High school by working like a slave doing farm labor. WOrkign so hard that my grades were seriously compromised so I could nt get admitted at BYU. It was "My"mission fund for "my" mission. Easily 20 K in todays money. It was enough that I could have easily bought a nice used corvette, a huge temptation for a young man who liked cars. I was so brainwashed that I would n't think of touching the sacred funds for any worldly purpose. Not a cent of it was from my parents.


After my mission, somehow all the money was gone.
and it doesnt take a lot of calculating to know that I also subsidized my brother's mission at nearly the same time who started with far less in his savings. Far from being a stock nest egg or any kind of support, My "leg up" to start my adult life ended up being an amputation, one that went entirely to the LDS INC quest for new members. Thanks MOM and DAd!

My parents heard BS stories like Romney's and believed them, and expected that Kind of BS to work for me. so they didnot have to put out any funds!

Even though a mission has to be financed with cash, an education at BYU can be financed with Faith and paying tithing. All I had to do was try really hard, pray a lot,have faith & pay tithing, and I'd get through BYU , just as so many BS Romney type stories indicated, because the Lord would have to bless me for serving a MORmON mission.

..... Then there is reality. NO body is really making it through the money sucking black hole of BYU by working a BS student job and trying really hard. Do the math! the numbers dont work. There arent enough hours in the day to work even if a person could stay awake for all of them.

then BYU would call up and ask for even more money for the excellence in the 80's program. Now the Romney's expect sympathy from someone like me over the *hardships* they faced?
these are the phoniest ppl on the face of the earth, ppl who are true MORmONS and only a true MORmON would believe them.

oh the struggles of the poor poor MORmON elite !


which one of your parent's spare homes did you move into when you got married ?

WHich degree did your parents let you complete before you had to serve an LDS mission ?

what (previously non existent) administrative job did the LDs church (INC) offer to you after your mission? ( with out you even asking for it, the great depression? -not an issue for a true MORmON insider!) ?

(how many whiny ass letters did you write home asking to leave your LDS mission..... to prove your superior diligence and devotion!!! ?

WHAT A POS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! )



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIkVNWHT-IA

Well done Steve

Our society's worship of economic royalists and the cult of Ayn Rand lead too many people to ignore the details of how disconnected and incompetent almost all our politicians are.

I don't hate rich people

I just ask that they have a clue. The Romneys don't have a clue.

$42,000 home in Belmont--- a forty-two thousand dollar home was a very nice home. In 1975 one could buy for 50,000.00 a 3,000 sq. foot house on the edges of Birmingham, Michigan - brand spanking new and builders model.