There is also a step 2.a:
Students use loans in the exact same manner as a credit card, using them to pay rent, buy coffee at Starbucks, etc.
One of the most perplexing things about student loans is that there is absolutely no requirement they be used for tuition, books, lab fees, etc. In fact, students seem to be encouraged to also use them for ‘living expenses’.
A co-worker’s wife has maxed out the Stafford loan program, and is using private lenders now (the private lenders know they are implicitly backed by the government, so they have no lending standards other than fogging a mirror). He got upset when his wife couldn’t get enrolled in a summer class...he had no idea how he would pay his bills without 3 months worth of loans.
He’s a liberal of course...and when I suggest the folly of his trajectory, he looks at me like I just sodomized a disney character.
“he looks at me like I just sodomized a disney character.”
You did what?