Posted on 09/21/2025 6:23:39 AM PDT by CIB-173RDABN
How U.S. Higher Education Became a Wealth Transfer from the Poor and Middle Class to the Elite
The American student loan system has evolved into a mechanism of upward wealth transfer, extracting income and opportunity from working- and middle-class students while enriching elite universities, financial institutions, and loan servicers. By removing bankruptcy protections, allowing unchecked tuition increases, and obscuring the risks and returns of educational debt, policymakers and institutions have created a rigged system — one that fails to serve students, the economy, or the public interest.
These changes were driven by intense lobbying from financial institutions, not evidence of abuse. Colleges pushed for unlimited federal funds with no accountability.
A massive power imbalance exists between young borrowers and wealthy institutions: students often sign lifelong debt contracts without understanding the risks, while schools face no consequences for poor outcomes. Colleges know job market realities — students don’t. The system enables institutional profit while trapping students in debt.
The student loan system is no longer a public service — it is a predatory financial pipeline. It takes the aspirations of the young and transforms them into decades of indebtedness, while elite institutions and investors profit with zero risk. This must change.
Created with research and public data. Share freely and demand reform.
The Federal Government does not belong in the Student Loan business. Sell them to the banks....75 cents on the dollar and cut our losses...
Every single one of their “victims” is a volunteer.
Cantillon Effect.
I read this and I see oprah screeching “you get a car, and you get a car! Everyone gets a car!”
When you see how the laws were changed regarding inability to discharge debt through bankruptcy you see the scam.
You go to college and you go to college! Everyone goes to college.
I have met so many people through my job of screening and hiring people and the presence of a degree has very little affect on the ability of so many to get a job. The people hired based on a degree usually don’t last 6 months. The people I have met over my 40 years of working? Few who have a degree actually work in a field based on their degree.
CPA’s, lawyers and doctors are different.
This post is as deep as a thimble. If you simply drop the bankruptcy exception to discharge applicable to student loan debts, the lender with the federally guaranteed loan applies to the Department of Education, and they use federal revenue to pay the guaranteed balance. You are merely shifting responsibility from the borrower/debtor to the taxpayer. It is at least arguable that the borrower got some personal benefit from the funds that were advanced for their education. The general revenue taxpayer somewhere in the US? Not so much. This debate is about linking the locus of responsibility for repayment with the incidence of the benefit of the education purchased with the loan. That is essentially personal capital, which resides in the borrower.
If the America-hating bass turds want a college participation certificate, they should pay for them themselves. Americans have families to support. We don’t need to support communist freeloaders and killers.
Make the universities take the risk and lend their own money
Restoring antique boats taught me much more about how to make things that work and survive harsh conditions. It was actually a better engineering education than was graduating college. What I gained there studying in a directed reading under Bill Allen was an understanding of the Constitution I would never have acquired on my own as foundational to my first book. Like all things, there were unintended consequences to the pain I went through (including living in my car for a semester) that ended up being worth it both to me and the public money I used. Hence, there are two sides to that coin economically just as there are to the existence of public schools and universities.
It is undeniable that the aggregate value of the latter institutions has declined, if not turned negative. To my mind, the primary reasons for such have been for the unexpressed purpose of concentrating capital and democratic power. It was the late 19th Century discovery of means for psychological conditioning simultaneous with the institution of public education (and the consequent adoption of the "Progressive Amendments" to the Constitution) that did most of that damage to education in principle. Whether that temptation can be reversed remains to be seen. Psychology certainly hasn't made the people happier ever since the profession discovered that dysfunction is very profitable to those who treat it.
Ban compound interest on student loans and college becomes more affordable.
1965.... About the same time a vile OS democrat said “We’ll have those n*66*rs voting democrat for 200 years.” He should have added. “We’ll have those indoctrinated commie students voting democrat for 200 years.”
Imagine if public schools actually were in the business in teaching and actually taught finances and investing. Colleges would be empty or affordable.
Federal Pell Grant recipients may be eligible for up to $20,000 in debt relief, and other federal student loan borrowers may be eligible for up to $10,000 in debt relief. Forgiveness, cancellation, or discharge of your loan means that you are no longer required to repay some or all of your loan. Find out more using the links below...The terms forgiveness, cancellation, and discharge mean nearly the same thing, but they’re used in different ways. If you’re no longer required to make payments on your loans due to your job, this is generally called forgiveness or cancellation. If you’re no longer required to make payments on your loans due to other circumstances, such as a total and permanent disability or the closure of the school where you received your loans, this is generally called discharge.
If you are employed by a government or not-for-profit organization, you may be able to receive loan forgiveness under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program...If you teach full-time for five complete and consecutive academic years in a low-income elementary school, secondary school, or educational service agency, you may be eligible for forgiveness of up to $17,500 on your Direct Loan or FFEL Program loans.PSLF forgives the remaining balance on your Direct Loans after you have made 120 qualifying monthly payments under a qualifying repayment plan while working full-time for a qualifying employer.
If you are employed by a U.S. federal, state, local, or tribal government or not-for-profit organization, you might be eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. Keep reading to see whether you might qualify
If your school closes while you’re enrolled or soon after you withdraw, you may be eligible for discharge of your federal student loan.
You may be eligible to have all or a portion of your Perkins Loan canceled (based on your employment or volunteer service) or discharged (under certain conditions). This includes Perkins Loan Teacher Cancellation.
If you’re totally and permanently disabled, you may qualify for a discharge of your federal student loans and/or Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant service obligation.
Federal student loans will be discharged due to the death of the borrower or of the student on whose behalf a PLUS loan was taken out.
In some cases, you can have your federal student loan discharged after declaring bankruptcy. However, discharge in bankruptcy is not an automatic process.
You may be eligible for discharge of your federal student loans based on borrower defense to repayment if you took out the loans to attend a school and the school did something or failed to do something related to your loan or to the educational services that the loan was intended to pay for. The specific requirements to qualify for a borrower defense to repayment discharge vary depending on when you received your loan.
You might be eligible for a discharge of your federal student loan if your school falsely certified your eligibility to receive a loan.
If you withdrew from school and the school didn’t make a required return of loan funds to the loan servicer, you might be eligible for a discharge of the portion of your federal student loan(s) that the school failed to return.
Forgery Discharge Available for Direct Loans, as well as FFEL Program loans and Federal Perkins Loans held by the U.S. Department of Education.
Eligibility for Parent Borrowers As with loans made to students, a parent PLUS loan can be discharged if you die,
https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service says.
Qualifying for PSLF
To qualify for PSLF, you must
be employed by a U.S. federal, state, local, or tribal government or not-for-profit organization (federal service includes U.S. military service);
work full-time for that agency or organization;
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