Posted on 09/09/2012 6:47:49 AM PDT by Uncle Chip
At a protest last year at New York University, students called attention to their mounting debt by wearing T-shirts with the amount they owed scribbled across the front — $90,000, $75,000, $20,000.
“I couldn’t believe the accumulated wealth they represent — for our industry,” the consultant, Jerry Ashton, wrote in a column for a trade publication, InsideARM.com. “It was lip-smacking.”
Though Mr. Ashton says his column was meant to be ironic, it nonetheless highlighted undeniable truths: many borrowers are struggling to pay off their student loans, and the debt collection industry is cashing in.
As the number of people taking out government-backed student loans has exploded, so has the number who have fallen at least 12 months behind in making payments — about 5.9 million people nationwide, up about a third in the last five years.
In all, nearly one in every six borrowers with a loan balance is in default. The amount of defaulted loans — $76 billion — is greater than the yearly tuition bill for all students at public two- and four-year colleges and universities, according to a survey of state education officials.
To get the money back, the Department of Education last fiscal year paid more than $1.4 billion to collection agencies and other groups to hunt down defaulters.
Hiding from the government is not easy.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
People stupid enough to borrow $90,000 in student loans deserve what they get.....especially those who do it earn worthless liberal arts degrees!!!
This was all calculated and expected, I assure you. The Obama regime WANTS debt slaves. They want people to owe them. They might give them a pass to appease them, a surreptitious vote buying scheme, but in the end, they’ll owe that money whether through taxes, direct payments, or even estate seizures after they’re dead and buried.
I’m thankful that I paid off my student loans 5 years ago. That’s one very large chain off my shoulders.
Debt collectors across the board are much better off than they were four years ago.
I had a series of part time jobs while in school and graduated with some money in the bank...
Debt collection is one industry which deserves close and rigorous regulation. They’re scumbags.
One company based in California calls and sends me letters trying to recover debts I do not owe to San Antonio hospitals in which I have never received treatment. NEVER!
Complaints to the Attorney General of Texas were simply forwarded to the Attorney General of California who simply forwarded the complaint to the scumbags who answered with a truly BS reply. They basically claimed I was covering for someone within my household who did owe the debt. Scumbags!
After several months of not hearing from them, thinking my demand they cease contacting me and remove me from their database, they started up again!
Scumbags!
“Big Education” makes “Big Oil” look like choir boys by comparison.
Oh come on, don’t be so harsh on those who take out a $50,000 loan to pay for their basket weaving PHD.
Have a heart. /s
Whatta liar. You don't go into repo unless you're a conscience-less blood sucker. I once talked to a used car dealer who wanted my comment about a psychological profile that showed he "lacked empathy." I just told him he was in the right line of work.
Worthless? WORTHLESS???? So tell us,exactly how much do *you* know about medieval art history?
400 % inflation since 1980?
In all fairness, someone has to teach kids about history. Do you only want died to the wool liberals getting history degrees and teaching kids (and don’t give me “Well I’ll just teach them the truth at home”).
Nor will you be able to leave the sinking ship, like your Rat masters will, in the end.
Yes it does.
Professors constantly demand more pay at the same time they stir student anger at rising costs all the while writing the very wildly overpriced textbooks they deem to be required for their courses.
Meanwhile K thru 12th grade teachers focus like a laser on credentials that require a steady diet of college courses, all the while they further dumb down the students to lead them into the feedback loop.
We’re all very proud of my niece for dropping out of college and going to work, not because she couldn’t handle the work but because she realized that she was being led into slavery.
A liberal arts graduate I’ve heard of spent over $ 3 trillion llast year. That may be worthless, but it sure costs a lot.
I just remember student after student begging BO during the 2008 campaign for him to forgive their debt once he was elected.
Worthless degrees in gender studies, minority studies and human sexuality. No wonder those idiots can’t find a job.
I changed degrees three times. Each time I did, I made sure it was into a field that had multiple jobs available. WTF where these idiot losers thinking? That they would get jobs to teach worthless people like themselves?
And I paid off my student loan in full about 3 and a half years ago. When I called to find the balance on a certain day so I could pay online, the customer service rep was stuttering. Apparently, he wasn’t getting too many calls to pay off loans, only how to defer them or to find out how much trouble they would get in for nonpayment.
One waitress I spoke with had taken classes at Phoenix University online. She took a few classes, decided it wasn’t for her and dropped out. Problem was that she is still on the hook for I think about $12,000 or so in tuition. She was already geting hounded for repayment and had no way to do so. She was 18 and her credit is already ruined. She was painted a pretty picture and being a semi-child, she took the bait. Where is the counterbalance to these people pushing student loans?
Get a police whistle.
Keep it near your phone.
I think you’re right. And that’s probably why he nationalized student loans with the federal government - no private middlemen. If you borrow for school, it’s all government money.
These loans are mainly for undergraduate degrees, associate and baccalaureate. Doctoral degrees are tuition free to those who get fellowships. In most cases, anyone getting a doctoral degree without getting a fellowship is foolish. (Obviously there are some exceptions to that rule.)
Or political science degrees.
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