Posted on 07/01/2013 5:26:01 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Unless Congress acts, interest rates for government subsidized student loans will double to 6.8% from 3.4% on July 1. In May, House Republicans passed a bill that would index rates on new loans to the rate on 10-year Treasurys (currently about 2.6%), plus 2.5 percentage points, with an 8.5% cap. But with little Democratic support in the Senate, that bill is dead in the water.
Most Democrats want to lock the current 3.4% rate in place for two more years while Congress debates a "fairer" solution. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren has even proposed letting students borrow directly from the government at the same ultra-low rate that banks currently get on short-term loans from the Federal Reserve—0.75%. She calls the Republican proposal "immoral."
In the student-loan world, there's immorality to spare—not in the still historically low interest rates, but in the principal of the thing. Student debt, which recently surpassed the trillion-dollar level in the U.S., is now a major burden on graduates, a burden that is often not offset by increased earnings from a college degree in say, race and gender issues, rather than engineering.
According to an extensive 2012 analysis by the Associated Press of college graduates 25 and younger, 50% are either unemployed or in jobs that don't require a college degree. Then there are the large numbers who don't graduate at all. According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, more than 40% of full-time students at four-year institutions fail to graduate within six years. The National Center for Education Statistics reports that almost 75% of community-college students fail to graduate within three years. Those students don't have degrees, but they often still have debt.
Why do students have so much debt?
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
What’s immoral are the outrageous prices charged by these so called institutions of higher learning.
Ping to read later
That. Also,the fact that for 95%, or better, everything learned in our post-secondary institutions could be taught out in the workforce with better results.
The original purpose of community colleges was to provide free or very cheap local access to work-place courses or an Associate's Degree that completed two years of college with no debt. It's incomprehensible that they have become institutions that contribute to student debt.
It's time for states to take back some of their power and not accredit community colleges that don't keep it cheap and simple.
While that may be true, the work place doesn’t want to spend the time and money separating those who can be educated sheep from those who can’t be educated goats.
It’s incomprehensible that they have become institutions that contribute to student debt....ANYTHING the gubmint puts it’s finger into, spirals out of control, hurting the people it was meant to help.
I think I heard Wilkow say it best: College is where you go to learn it from people who don’t know how to do it.
The common thread here is that the consumer of the product/service is several steps removed from the payor for the product/service. The reason that more people drive Toyota Corollas than drive Mercedes S600s is that most people pay for their own cars. (A passing grade in Economics 101 should be a requirement for running for Congress!)
Wilkow never went to engineering school
Yes. Thank you.
Designed by Dems to create a huge dependent constituency whom they could jerk around at will for decades.
Obama is holding on to a Loan Forgiveness proposal for the day his poll numbers really crater.
I so want the higher-education bubble to burst.
In either case, I'm not going for anything more than my BS until reasonable prices may be had.
My daughter is a sophomore at the local community college. Debt to date? Nada. Then again, she has no idea what she wants to do and I will be damned if she takes on debt to be the best barista at Starbucks.
My son on the other hand has known what he wanted to do since he was 11. He has already planned everything he needs to do by the age of 25 in order to be successful in his field. This includes the school, program, financing loans, earnings potential in his field, industry connections, best place in the country to work, internships. It borders on obsession.
But the scariest part? He has NHL executives already knocking on his door and requesting connecting with him on LinkedIn. Not bad for 17.
I think the workplace is actually contributing: their X+ years of experience in the field
(usually 2, sometimes as much as 5) for entry-level jobs is rather sickening. It indicates that they want people who are cookie-cutter made
for that position and unwilling to train them in any case.
Absolutely true. Even more outrageous to me is the practice of colleges raising tuition and fee rates with the express purpose of providing grants to the “needy”. So what happens is that students and their middle class families who do not qualify as needy end up taking out loans to pay for college costs and end up paying interest at least partially on loans from which they did not directly benefit. Meanwhile, the college promotes itself as being exceedingly generous with their provision of need based grants and scholarships.
I am always shocked by the number of people I meet in their 40’s who are still making student loan payments. At the current rates of student indebtedness, I expect that many of today's crop of students will not have paid off their student loans into well into their 50’s or beyond.
The more debt students are able to take on the more the colleges and universities can raise their tuition. The colleges and universities then spend lavishly on facilities and amenities to entice prospective customers and their loans.
-——I will be damned if she takes on debt to be the best barista at Starbucks.———
McDonalds Essay
Go to work for McDonalds and consider it as going to school. Rather than come up with a bunch of bucks for tuition, Get a job at MD and pay extreme attention to what is taking place. Get paid for your efforts in the process. Set a limit. Go one year or maybe a year and a half. Be dedicated to the task the same as if you were paying thousands of dollars at a college.
The concept involves looking at McDonalds as an industrial microcosm . Mc Donalds is very much like a factory with hundreds of employees except smaller. MD also has a retail arm in addition to the manufacturing arm. To grasp how things are done in the manufacturing and business world, MD is small enough to observe all the operations that can be studied in detail and the study extrapolated to the world. MD is chosen because it is truly a global company and one if not the very best successful business to be studied.
The big question, the goal of the going to MD as school, is to discover in detail what is MD? Why does it exist?
As a study aid, a laptop computer would be beneficial. The computer can be used to keep notes and to make and record lists. Homework is making notes and expanding the lists, making entries into the big list of things learned and things to be explored further
Most McDonalds employees don’t flip burgers, they are in sales. At McDonalds if you apply your self and study what is happening you can develop a good understanding of sales and customer service. The front line, the people on the counter, have an opportunity to meet and greet a wide cross section of customers, of people. The very act of asking” how can I help you” engages the customer in a business transaction. The customers can be observed and then studied in the abstract. Make a list. What kinds of customers, what do they want, what do they need, how does MD meet their wants and needs, what wants and needs are not met, should every want and need be met? da
If you clean up, study the various chemicals and cleaners. Read the MSDS documents and learn a lot about OSHA, chemicals and government regulation. Learn what they do and why they do it. Learn why someone made and effort to obtain each of the specific cleaning products. Understand the process and how it relates to government regulations. Learn why MD wants the task not only performed but the reason for doing it. Learn if there is an external requirement such as a local or federal regulation. Learn about the regulation and why it exists. Learn if MD made the rule and how the rule makes the product better.
Somewhere there are posters. The posters are mandated by the government and outline the various employment laws. The posters are the basis for the interaction of business and government. They might seem overly complex and quite boring but they are a major part of the lesson. Study the posters and develop a total understanding of what they mean. Learn how the government and business interact and why.
Hang out with the manager and study and learn the flow of goods. Learn the basics of purchasing. study the inventory flow and learn how inventory management keeps the company rolling.
A typical Mc Donalds store is a mega industry on a micro scale They obtain raw materials hire labor and manufacture a product to very tight specifications. The process is typical of all manufacturing, only the product, the manufacturing equipment and size are different.
The principles of how raw materials are obtained, moved around, stored, and used apply to all business and manufacturing. A thorough understanding of the various tasks and processes involved will be useful elsewhere. The lessons can be expanded to a basic understanding of product quality and quality control The business and all the jobs there are absolutely dependent on the quality of the product.
Tight specifications, what are the specifications, where did they come from, why have the specifications, how are they met, who enforces the specifications and assures consistent quality? These are all valuable lessons to be learned in the micro factory. The answers can be learned by paying attention and carefully watching what is actually happening throughout the place..
The subject of raw materials is very important area of study. One of the lists or perhaps several of the lists would be of various raw materials or raw material categories. . Just what and how many raw materials is required to keep the place running? A list describing the material, where it comes from and exactly how the material is used can provide extremely valuable insights.
Then there is the matter of human resources. A one year study of the flow of people in and out and retained could result in a master’s degree paper on proper use and abuse of labor resources.
The concept of a crew, a team. (not yet expanded)
Then there is cash. A study of cash management could provide a detailed insight into cash, banking and the importance of plastic payments to a small business.
The MD school you choose might be near home or across town but it is merely one of many. A whole nother different course of study is what happens at and to MD outside the local operation? How does your store relate to a regional and national and global network of stores.
Back to the big question. Why does your school exist? Why do we have Md’s. The answer to that question applies to each and every business and manufacturing operation in the country. The answer is to make the owners a profit. Each and every item on all the various lists that will be developed in the school process is there to assure a profit.
Proving that statement is the goal of the school and learning the reasons is the way the proof is obtained
It is all there for free. as a matter of fact one can get paid while at this school. All it takes is a proper frame of mind and a desire. Everything there is something to be learned
An interviewer will be blown out of her shoes when the lessons set out and learned are recounted in extreme detail.
“Why do students have so much debt?”
Because they’ve been sold a pig in a poke..
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