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 ...
“Oh,that’s a worry.I didn’t know about the weight sensors.”
It’s a worry to me. I’ve had a kid in the back sleeping and my mind wondering...just to look over my shoulder (while driving) and get a shock through me when I saw the kid. I just don’t have a perfect, one track, memory, and I will drift to other things, at times.
The other thing to note is this deadbeat is putting the kid directly behind the driver, which makes it just that much easier to forget about him.
The weight sensors were added after 100 or so kids got decapitated by air bags. It was either that, or getting rid of air bags, and we’d NEVER want to do that. LOL. The older cars, I think pre-2000 or so, can get cut-off switches installed for free, to disable the passenger-side air bags, for those cases.
Geez, stop borrowing money already.
I got a political science degree going to night school. I already had a career as a federal employee. I went on the GI bill so had no debt to pay off. True, it was pretty useless, but it was discriminant; one couldn’t get promoted without a degree. About the only courses that ever did me any good was the two years of French I took. My job took me to Francophone Africa a few times. I loved history. Still do.
And the liberals who dreamed this up to reward the Commie professors!!
That W is the gift that keeps giving...and now TSA wants to unionize .
Why make government the prime source for student loans?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/05/AR2010030502972.html
Obama Breaks Down Student Loan Overhaul
http://whitehouse.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/03/30/obama-breaks-down-student-loan-overhaul/
He will also talk about the provision’s less controversial expansion of Pell Grants, as well as supporting historically black and minority institutions and caps on student loan repayments.
According to the White House, “New borrowers who assume loans after July 1, 2014, will be able to cap their student loan repayments at 10 percent of their discretionary income and, if they keep up with their payments over time, will have the balance forgiven after 20 years.”
(Excerpt)
So basically, you need to make sure you buy or rent a living space expensive enough to maximize your non-discretionary spending, so you make the absolute minimum student loan payments for 20 years. Then the debt disappears!
Or more acurately, your debt gets paid by other Americans, which is “free money” to you.
And again I say, those of us who pay off our loans and debts sure look like chumps.
These investments complement President Obama’s broader agenda for higher education and will help us reach his goal of America having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/10326-higher-ed.pdf
(with absolutely no thought given to QUALITY)
Public service workers such as teachers, nurses, and those in military service will see any remaining debt forgiven after just 10 years.
You don’t get to calculate your own discretionary income. It’s just a number set by the government based on your faimly size.
And a waitress can pay off a $12,000 loan. Bet she’s got a car loan for more than that. People need to suck it up and pay their debt!
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