Posted on 04/09/2015 2:10:09 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
On Wednesday, National Public Radio had a spot about how some states are reviewing laws on their books that let them yank driver's or professional licenses from those who default on their student loans.
To set the story up, the NPR reporter focused on the plight of Clementine Lindley, who recalls how after graduating she had to "decide whether to pay rent, buy food or make her student loan payments" because her debt was so massive.
How did Lindley rack up so much debt? NPR doesn't say, but a little sleuthing shows that Lindley got her Bachelor's degree in "Liberal Studies" from the private Seattle University and then went on to get a Master's in "Peace and Conflict Resolution" from University of Ulster in Northern Ireland. And now she's executive director of a non-profit in Montana.
There's nothing wrong with pursuing such degrees or careers. But Lindley clearly dug a financial hole for herself by choosing to combine expensive colleges with degrees that aren't exactly in high demand.
The fact that NPR left this pertinent information out of the story is emblematic of how the student loan story is being told by the press and by officials in Washington.
President Obama, for example, keeps talking about student debt as though it were a terrible burden that fell out of the sky rather than the result of free choices made by the students themselves. And he's taken repeated steps to make it easier for students to pay as little as possible on their loans, first by federalizing the loan program and then by offering easier repayment plans.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
Student load debt will never be forgiven. So much effort has been expended to flood the educational system with money to make tuitions skyrocket and create a generation of debt-slaves.
This issue is custom made to bash Republicans - as Lie-a-watha so eloquently states, we would rather give our billionaire buddies tax breaks than help our children. The campaign ads write themselves - why would the Democrats ever throw away such an easily controllable voting block?
Besides, if student loan debt were forgiven many of these young people would be able to buy homes and start families. Next thing you know they would be concerned with their own tax burdens and their children’s futures. (In other words they’d become conservatives!)
Excellent suggestion!
Excellent suggestion!
Undergraduates with a worthless bachelor's degree, who will never have a useful living out of it, should not be wholly responsible for this scheme of gross deception that overestimates their intellectual value and keeps them out of their employment level for yet another two to four years beyond high school.
IMHO
The plural of "anecdote" is not "data".
The first of my five daughters is going to college in September. The plan is no loans. We'll see.
But the reality is that the loans needed to pay the tuition, room, and board (collectively) of all students enrolling this Fall exceed their (collective) earning power, and it's not just, not even mainly, degrees in African-American studies or basket weaving that's the problem.
Stupid question.
After all, which party do you think they will support???
REEEEALY.
She should have taken an accounting or economics course as an elective while in college and learned how to balance her income and expenses. Better yet she should have majored in something that pays a liveable wage and is in demand.
Now her options appear to get a second job or cut some of her living expenses. That failing, it’s move back in with her parents and reorganize her financial plan for the future.
Many parents of the boomer generation, myself included, have experienced this phenomena as our children fail to acquire the wealth and opportunities we had at their age.
If they’re bankrupt, they should be treated like any other bankrupt person. Certain government employee groups, by the way, get breaks that others don’t get.
Remember one of Obama’s early moves was to have the Federal Government take over the student loan program from the banks. He has been tinkering with it around the edges since the takeover.
I now hear the progressive media, politicians and academics talking more about the student debt burden and the “unfairness” of saddling our youth with this debt. Over the next year the drumbeat will get louder and there will be demands Congress do something.
The parties will nominate their candidates in 2016. Then President Obama will declare Congress isn’t doing its job and sign and executive order canceling all debt. The press will applaud and the Democrat candidate (Clinton or Warren) will say it was the right thing to do.
The ball will now be in the court of the Republican Congress and the GOP presidential candidate. Do you allow the press and the Democrats to call you mean spirited and hateful if you speak against this unconstitutional debt forgiveness? Do you allow the president to essentially obligate the taxpayer to pay the balance of these loans without a vote of Congress? Or will you listen to Karl Rove tell you the party can’t risk losing the youth vote in the upcoming election?
Stay tuned for the show.
The ONLY reason this would ever be considered. I noted years ago that in due time Democrats will seriously propose this. I predict that as Hillary will be the nominee, she will fail to connect with the young the way Obama did. Hillary will be a dud to the Millennials. Therefore, Hillary will propose a waving of the magic wand and eliminating this debt. Oh sure, there will be some ridiculous smoke and mirrors plan that goes with it, but it will absolve all their debt, to be paid be taxpayers, i.e., Republicans.
Just like we need to be responsible for our own countrymen.
Consider this: They went to school, worked hard, and then graduated. Next they found out that there were NO JOBS! They are not responsible for that. We are, because we have not tended our politics well.
We all have to band together to pull this Nation out of one big bad fast nose dive.
Yeah, that was kind of illogical. What I think I meant to say was "Undergraduates going for a worthless . . ." etc. They usually have some kind of major. Going for a degree in science or engineering would likely be a little more valuable, and sensible in terms of paying off a loan.
What people are forgetting is that the taxpayers have already paid the bank industry the costs of borrowing while the student is attending school as well as for some time after.
It's the "schools" who have the money to use, with no penalty for selling trash degrees to incompetents.
Besides, if there are no negative consequences, there's no such thing as a bad decision.
Do you think we can cover the tab on that?
That decision had the effect of significantly lowering the interest rate charged, because it lowered the risk of default.
Degrees on social studies/gender studies/conflict resolution, and there are no jobs?
Knock me over with a feather.
Without pictures, it's hard to predict what price she would fetch.
I must be kind of Old Fashioned.
You sign on the dotted line, you pay the Bill.
I have lived my Life following a few simple guidelines.
1. Nobody owes you a living.
2. You make your Bed, you lie in it.
3. You help people who CAN’T help themselves, not People who WON’T help themselves.
Yeah, I’m a real Meanie...
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