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The Imminent Student-Loan Disaster We’re Not Talking About
James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | August 7, 2024 | Preston Cooper

Posted on 08/11/2024 6:35:44 AM PDT by karpov

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To: bgill
Not my responsibility. Our responsibility was to pay our tuition at the beginning of each semester. Our responsibility was to save in order to send our kids to college and pay their tuition at the beginning of each semester. I made sure to get the maximum 21 hours each semester and summers to graduate in 3 years at age 20 instead of dragging it out longer meaning more $$$$. That was before kids could get college credit in HS which ours did. And we all had part time jobs and still had time for all the extra activities. Today’s students whine about 6-9 hours. Set the phone down, get off your butts and get to class! No wonder the work force is in the dumpster.

Its not your responsibility but it is your (and all of our) problem. College tuition rose exponentially faster than inflation. At the same time, a lot of the jobs were outsourced or filled with H1bs. So people going to college in the last 20-30 years have been squeezed at both ends. Higher costs and lower salaries or indeed no salary at all. Well something's gotta give. They don't have money trees in their backyard to hand over extra cash.

the system is broken. Colleges jacked their rates up due to getting fat and happy by hiring ever more admins knowing they could get away with it. At the same time, trade deals pushed by large corporations and ever more H1Bs also pushed for by large corporations means job training programs were axed, young Americans were not hired in favor of cheap foreign labor and there you go. Yes, there are younger people who are lazy and/or stupid and who took ridiculous majors, are lazy, are entitled etc. BUT conditions are a million times worse for younger people today than they were 50 years ago. For some reason, Boomers seem determined not to admit that in the face of all evidence showing it.

21 posted on 08/11/2024 7:38:07 AM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: karpov

Is this deal retroactive? My wife and I paid off our student loans back in the Eighties. We sure would like to get a check from Uncle Joey, we might be able to afford to go to the grocery store.


22 posted on 08/11/2024 7:38:33 AM PDT by kawhill (kawhill)
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To: FLT-bird

Saying “no you MUST repay” is not going to raise much cash. They simply don’t have it.


Perhaps for some. But plenty DO have it and are more than happy not to pay.

Also, forgiveness sets a very bad precedent.


23 posted on 08/11/2024 7:39:36 AM PDT by rbg81
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To: ClearCase_guy

Yep. Putting the colleges on the hook for the education costs would bring ridiculous unemployable majors to a screeching halt. It would also cause a lot of admins to get chitcanned right away. It would also end DEI almost immediately. They would have every incentive to produce students who could actually generate economic value.


24 posted on 08/11/2024 7:40:05 AM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: karpov

A copy of this Department of Education garnishment notice must be provided by the debtor to each employer.

The employer must withhold 10% of pay in the same fashion as with income withholding taxation.


25 posted on 08/11/2024 7:41:45 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: FLT-bird

Then they should not have gotten that “education” in the first place and gone out and got a job instead.


26 posted on 08/11/2024 7:42:18 AM PDT by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: FLT-bird

Colleges jacked their rates up due to getting fat and happy by hiring ever more admins knowing they could get away with it.


And many of these positions are due to mandates by the Federal government.


27 posted on 08/11/2024 7:42:49 AM PDT by rbg81
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To: FLT-bird

Colleges should have to be co-signers.


28 posted on 08/11/2024 7:44:51 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: cgbg

[...half of the student loans went for degrees that had very low pay potential.]

Also, much of the money is spent on things unrelated to education such as living expenses, car notes, and cell/internet bills. Did these “students” even have passing grades or finish a degree? Mostly we have been paying kids to party and experience the “college” lifestyle.


29 posted on 08/11/2024 7:49:45 AM PDT by Farmerbob
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To: karpov

Some policy proposals from my profile page:

FEDERAL STUDENT LOAN REFORM

All new money federal student loans would have to be co-signed by the school and doubly secured by value by the school’s real estate and exchange traded stocks.

No new money Parent Plus loans would be issued.

The total amount of federal/bankruptcy exempt money borrowed by a student would not be allowed to exceed:
1. $5000 in the first year of college,
2. $10000 in the second year of college,
3. $15000 in the third year of college in a program normally expected to take over two years to complete,
4. $20000 in the fourth year, when the student is on track to get a first undergraduate degree on time,
5. $40000 more for a first masters or physician assistant degree,
prorated by credit hours taken to the number needed for graduation,
6. $90000 more for a first degree suited for the independent practice of law,
prorated by credit hours taken to the number needed for graduation,
7. $150000 more for a first degree suited for the independent practice of medicine or dentistry with painkiller prescribing privileges, prorated by credit hours taken,
8. $5000 for other accredited education.

All such borrowing shall be under regulations meant to assure value for money to be set by the Secretary of Education.

NOTE: These amounts won’t pay for top schools, but top schools now have massive endowments. These top schools need to admit top students regardless of student ability to self-pay in order to maintain the reputations that enable further endowment receipt.

FEDERAL TEACHER EDUCATION SUPPORT

To increase the supply of possible teachers and to cut college student costs, the federal government would pay for students to take courses in classroom management, educational law, English as a Second Language instruction, child psychology and classroom internships so a large percentage of college graduates would be classroom ready.


30 posted on 08/11/2024 7:50:32 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: rbg81

I think we disagree about the financial state of many of them. These are the people who can’t afford houses and who are struggling to keep up with inflation in many cases.


31 posted on 08/11/2024 7:56:56 AM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: karpov

Students might sue their schools if they got a defective education or one not worth its cost.

Otherwise, they should pay up, on time.


32 posted on 08/11/2024 7:57:03 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: karpov
Just remember two little details.

1) No matter what, the banks get their end from Uncle Sugar.

2) No matter what, the "schools" keep the money.

33 posted on 08/11/2024 7:57:51 AM PDT by Salman (It's not a slippery slope if it was part of the program all along. )
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To: ClearCase_guy
6) College was a mistake for many. It’s a bad path that younger people should know to avoid at this point, with some exceptions.

If one does not pursue a degree that will ensure a good wage upon graduaion you are wasting your time and money in college.

34 posted on 08/11/2024 8:01:02 AM PDT by cpdiii (cane cutter, deckhand, oilfield roughneck, drilling fluid tech, geologist, pilot, pharmacist ,MAGA)
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To: FLT-bird

People can recover from bankruptcies by creating a strong payment history. No one in their right mind would loan money to people who don’t think they should be coerced into paying them back.


35 posted on 08/11/2024 8:01:31 AM PDT by DeplorablePaul
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To: Rurudyne
Then they should not have gotten that “education” in the first place and gone out and got a job instead.

True!

and the government should not have provided guaranteed student loans to everybody regardless of major....but they did.

and universities should not have piled more and more and more costs onto students with big fat professors' salaries, dropping a lot of the teaching requirements for profs, hiring an army of administrators, etc....but they did.

and government should not have allowed corporations to successfully lobby for giveaway trade deals that outsourced American jobs overseas and should not have agreed to dramatically liberalize the granting of work visas to foreigners.....but they did.

so now we are where we are. We have millions of young people who were told to take on massive debt as the price of getting good jobs that would allow them to pay back those debts but the jobs did not materialize. They now do not have the money to pay back that debt. You can't squeeze blood out of a stone and even if you could squeeze the money or at least a lot of it out of some of them, that would cripple them financially for life which means they in turn would not buy homes and furnish them which comes back to bite us all in the azz that way.

What we've been doing blindly throwing money at students and universities is unsustainable.

36 posted on 08/11/2024 8:03:59 AM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: rbg81
And many of these positions are due to mandates by the Federal government.

Absolutely true. A whole lot of it is due to race hustling and compliance costs for various mandates that came from it....plus a whole lot of useless government studies. All that crap needs to be pruned back with a chainsaw.

37 posted on 08/11/2024 8:05:40 AM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: FLT-bird

“people who can’t afford houses”

We agree to buy this $400,000 house for the payment of $300,000, with the seller to be given a recorded assignable option to buy it back anytime during the years 2045 and 2055 for the amount of $400,000 less the costs of repairs needed place it in good marketable condition.

The buyers shall have the right to buy that option within the years 2024 to 2029 for $100,000 plus $10,000 for each full year elapsed since the date of closing.

The seller agrees to pay a commission of 3% to his real estate broker on the $300,000 purchase price during closing. The real estate broker agrees to accept that payment as payment in full by the seller.


38 posted on 08/11/2024 8:08:11 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: ClearCase_guy

Banks are in the banking business. Colleges are in the teaching business. The government should not be in either one...banking or education.


39 posted on 08/11/2024 8:11:23 AM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: karpov

Student loans are merely PART of America’s debt problem.

National debt $35 trillion (doesn’t included unfunded federal pensions or unfunded Social Security and Medicare benefits)
State and local government debt $3 trillion (likewise doesn’t include unfunded pensions)
Corporate debt $3 trillion
Mortgage debt $14 trillion
Consumer debt $18 trillion

To some extent, we owe this debt to ourselves; e.g., some of these bonds and mortgage-backed securities are held in our pensions, insurance reserves, banks, etc. But, increasingly, we are a debtor nation. We owe a lot of this big, giant, enormous debt to foreigners.

The joke will be on them when we go bankrupt, won’t it!

Because of unfunded liabilities and the rise of consumer debt, we are in a far deeper hole than we were coming out of WWII. It cannot therefore be argued that we saw our way out of that debt, so we’ll be able to see our way out of this debt.

Besides, we had eight years of President Eisenhower, a very capable leader

Ronald Reagan and, then, Newt Gingrich and Bill Clinton (”triangulating”) turned our country around during the ‘80s and ‘90s, through a combination of tax and welfare reform.

But, we’ve been headed down since then. I’m not saying it’s not possible to extricate ourselves from this mess, but it will be difficult, and I’m not confident that the American people are up to it.


40 posted on 08/11/2024 8:15:15 AM PDT by Redmen4ever
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