Posted on 10/20/2011 8:31:28 AM PDT by Michael Barnes
Giving validation to Occupy Wall Street protests over the increasing burdens of student debt, a new report indicates that the total amount of outstanding student loans this year will exceed $1 trillion for the first time.
In addition, the amount of student loans taken out last year was greater than $100 billion, another new record, according to USA Today, citing the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/66347.html
I’ve never taken out a student loan, so I’m not too clear on how this all works. This seems like it’s just another version of the sub-prime mortgage mess. When these loans are taken out, does anybody look to see how they’re going to get paid back? If someone wants to borrow $200-300K to earn a degree in some obscure field of study, will they still get the loan when everyone knows that they’ll never earn a salary sufficient to pay it back?
Or the worthless degrees they offer?
Four-year degrees should really be limited to:
-engineering
-math
-sciences
-SOME business disciplines (but general business can easily fit in 2 yrs)
-lead-ups to higher degrees (MBA, medicine, masters and doctorates programs in the above areas)
Most other professions, many of them valid, could easily have their educational requirements fit into a 2 year program, but, that wouldn’t line the coffers of universities.
Exactly. Weirdly though, I had the opposite happen. I challenged one teacher constantly. Like full out saying “you’re wrong”. She actually liked me and made every effort possible to get me the best possible grade. Most likely it was one of those liberal things were everyone wins. But it kinda shocked me b/c I honestly stood toe to toe with her on about everything.
Sounds about right. I would also add that,if the time spent in school was more about school and less bout studying liberal arts,keggers,getting stoned,protesting,and hooking up online,then maybe when these little idiots get out of school,they would have the skill to work someplace other than Starbuck’s and could pay their tuition back.....or,perhaps they could (GASP!!!) just work their way through school...God forbid!
I don’t like this student loan business anymore than anyone else here.
But, I am remembering that there is a provision in these gov backed loans that if they work for the feds, they get their loans forgiven? Not sure on the details, but it is a break.
Now, what is Ozero going to do?
Give these idiots jobs in his new brown shirts???
Maybe???
These are the very people he aims his “hope and change” at.
My student loans are long paid off, I’m ten years out of school. A large part of that was the fact that my parents did help me out with school, but they expected me to have skin in the game, I had to work and borrow. But they also helped me pick a school where I could get a good education and leave without a crushing debt.
Hubby did it himself, and we are still paying his loans. But whenever we got the dispursment check, it was alway a chunk more than education expenses. So, instead of spending that money, it went right back towards the balance of the loans. I doubt many of these kids spent a whole $100 K on their education, but spent a chunk of it on whatever they wanted and now they are whining away.
Occupy wall street IS the new brownshirts.
Obama is funding it.
This is what something like 94% of the OWS crowd are asking for, according to a survey, and I’m sure he’s going to do it. Don’t forget that the US took over all the underwriting of student loans after Bambi got into the WH, thereby getting everything in line for this.
And it will be portrayed as the forgiveness of a couple of thousand dollars in tuition loans taken out by a state college student...ignoring things like the $130,000 dollars in student loans taken out by that whining pill of an upper middle class Skidmore English major who is evidently a big cheese in the OWS movement.
Nobody had to incur that type of debt to get a college degree. Only the people who feel everything should be given to them, because they’re special. They’re not poor, generally, and oddly enough, in many cases, they seem to come from families where their parents have actually worked for a living (although I notice that some of them are from academic or government employee families).
change bankruptcy law.
but only for subtantive degrees. nothing for fluff degrees.
They want their loans forgiven?? How ‘bout they do like lots of us have done and serve their country? Best decision I ever made. Helped me eliminate 60K in student loan debt. Hell, even the Peace Corps offers loan forgiveness. But any of these options would actually require some sacrifice on their part, sacrifice that I doubt they are mature enough withstand...
“They made themselves slaves to the Federal Government, not us.”
I guess I have a little more compassion for these kids than most FReepers. Eighteen-year-olds mimic the behavior of their parents and society. And what idea have they basted in since birth? “There are certain things you’re entitled to, whether you can pay for them or not.”
1) Losers go to state colleges. You must get a private Ivy degree to have any chance at decent life. Don’t worry about the cost; borrow the money. Everybody’s in debt.
2) A three-bedroom tract home is for losers. They don’t even build them anymore. Your new home must have at minimum, five bedrooms, a three-car garage, and a media room. It doesn’t matter that you have no hope of ever paying off a million-dollar mortgage. Nobody pays off their mortgage.
3) Cars are forty thousand dollars. Never mind that you don’t have forty thousand dollars; losers drive beaters and you’re no loser. You’re entitled to a nice car. And nobody buys a car outright, anyway.
These protesting college kids are just dancing to the tune we called. Nobody has to pay for anything. Ever.
Or maybe you could have just used the all inclusive liberal talking point -
>>Why are they not protesting the high cost of the colleges??
I saw one of those people holding little hand-written signs. He is an adjunct professor at some Uni and while employed, was whining about his students not having a chance and having to take on all this debt.
I wanted to ask him if he was in favor of a 80% pay cut so his students wouldn’t need so much debt.
Unions are already battling on line offerings to keep the price of education high and rising.
IF the occupy movement were real they’d target regents offices and their unions.
A real liberal response would be “The poor darlings aren’t responsible and we should erase their debts.” Which is not what I’m not saying. Maybe I was unclear.
I’m saying, “Sorry. Hard lesson, but you have to pay this money back. Don’t make the same mistake again. Don’t buy a house or car you can’t afford. And to you and your kids coming up — don’t borrow eighty grand to go to college.”
Sounds like you think talk of “society” equals “liberal.” But society exists and we’re all part of it. Society does in fact shape all of us. So it’s perfectly legitimate to inquire —how did American society thinking on debt change? How did we get to this point? What is the rationale that led us here? And how do we best change it back?
How is that liberal?
Those little schools that started popping up over the past forty years will disappear. Just in New England I can think of a bunch of junior colleges that expanded to four years and built up their campuses. The pool of money will drain and they will go under, not being able to pay off their debts. You will need to look at schools with great endowments and little debt. They will live on.
So you think all education should be public? That is what I garner from you comment about how schools should structure their coursework.
Personally I could not care less and I have two kids in college now. And one is getting a five year MFA. She will never move out of the house!!
My point is that it is a free market. I will bet dollars to donuts that in the next few years you will start to see a race to the downside when it comes to college prices.
Um...not at all.
I’m not sure where you got that.
I was just stating an opinion. Nothing more.
Stopping ALL taxpayer supported loans need to happen. It is the only way for quality education to return. To be effective, it must happen all at once, not transitioned.
The marketplace should price the cost of college.
One certainty is that such course studies such as Feminist Studies, Climate Science, and the Evils of Capitalism would surely end.
Probably 90% of college students are wasting their time and wasting our hard earn tax dollars on an absolutely useless education.
50 plus years of government intervention has successfully morphed our educational institutions into a Socialist indoctrination system. It must end if our Republic is to survive.
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